BRITISH REPTILES 
influence in the matter goes, in some instances I have 
been successful in persuading a few to spare it ; but 
only some, not all, for the prejudices of tradition are 
not easily put aside. 
The handsome sand-lizard, Lacerta agilis, comes 
next ; this is larger than the common heath-lizard, 
which is below on our list. Its general colour is a 
sandy brown, clouded with a darker brown, having 
rows of black spots with a white dot in the centre ; 
but in this species, as in those others we have de- 
scribed, the colour varies greatly, according to season 
and locality. Some are so green in tone that they 
have been taken for the green Jersey lizard, which 
has never been found in England ; it is not indigenous, 
at least This is also local to some extent ; but dry 
heaths and grass-covered banks, bordering the sandy 
tracts, are not the only places to look for it, for we 
have seen it basking close to the edge of a salt marsh 
beside the tide, in the sweltering marsh-harvest times 
of past years. 
The green, or Jersey lizard has been imported 
and turned loose in suitable localities by a gentleman 
living near Dorking. But the creatures have not 
prospered they gradually dwindled away. Solitary 
specimens have been seen and killed, not captured. 
From this circumstance the report spread that the 
