THREE COMMON REPTILES 



and hold. How active and quick these baby 

 lizards are I only realised when I tried to get 

 a photograph of Jimmy and her nine little ones. 

 I arranged some stones and a piece of broken 

 stick in a sunshiny spot, where I thought they 

 might be persuaded to lie and bask in the heat! 

 I little knew what a task I had set myself! 

 Two or three would allow themselves to be 

 gently pushed into position, where they gradu- 

 ally flattened themselves out and began to 

 absorb the warmth, then mother Jimmy would 

 be quietly placed near them, whereupon two 

 out of the three youngsters promptly scuttled 

 off. To cut a long story short, after trying for 

 over an hour and a half I had to give up the 

 attempt to get all nine before the camera, and 

 merely take a picture of the old one and five 

 babies. As fast as more were added to the 

 group others ran away, and when the youngsters 

 stopped for a moment it was the old lizard that 

 got restless. 



Little slowworms are also darker than the 

 old ones, being coal black beneath, but some- 

 what silvery on the top. The slowworm is 

 oviparous, that is to say lays eggs, but these 

 eggs hatch at once, the little lizard breaking 

 through the skinny covering and going off at 



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