BRITISH REPTILES 
green lizard had recently been discovered to be a 
native of the southern part of England. This is how 
energetic compilers make stock. 
I have seen golden-green lizards, sports or varieties 
of the sand-lizard ; but it must be remembered that 
there are many shades of green. The green lizard 
proper is a large distinct species, and not a native of 
any part of England. 
I have given the scientific titles of the creatures in 
this article in order that there may not be the least 
trouble in identifying them in any scientific collec- 
tion. Recently it has been the fashion to find and 
describe fresh species, so called, and this has created 
confusion ; varieties, or sports of nature, are not 
species, although some very erroneous so-called new 
ones have been formed from them in books. 
Those whose business leads them to pass their 
lives in London and other centres of commercial life 
have, as a rule, little time for studying natural life, if 
they have the wish to do so. To these the magnificent 
collections of natural history now scattered about 
the country, broad-cast we might almost say, must be 
a boon indeed. 
The common lizard, heath-lizard, or nimble lizard, 
Zootoca vivipara.) is very common, as one of its titles 
plainly denotes. Its general tone of colouring is a 
