BRITISH REPTILES 113 
golden brown of various shades all this depends 
on season dotted over with dark spots. Some of 
these I have seen were like gold bronze. One of my 
young friends, who, I fear, gives me credit for knowing 
far more than I do, raps at the door at all times, day 
and night, up to ten o'clock p.m., to show me his 
captures, and also to ask me to tell him what they 
are. One day he brought a fine heath-lizard, telling 
me in the most matter-of-fact manner that he was 
going to tame it. The boy did tame it, and at 
his earnest request I went to see his nimble little pet ; 
he had it on his hand out of doors as well as when 
at home. I have often seen and admired it since. 
It caught its own food with wonderful quickness, 
indoors and out, to the admiration of all who saw 
it, but the back of the boy's hand was the little 
creature's favourite resting place. It was killed by 
accident, the almost universal fate of unusual pets. 
The young of the common heath-lizard are pro- 
duced alive ; so are the young of the slow- worm. 
The sand-lizard lays its eggs in the sand, where 
the sun's rays hatch them out. This is one of the 
mysteries that make useless all conjecture why crea- 
tures so closely allied should produce their young in 
different ways. Take, for instance, the first two 
reptiles described in this article, the viper and the 
I 
