92 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



his possession who displayed not only vigilance and care for her 

 eggs, but considerable wiliness in secreting them. The spot 

 where she had laid them being discovered, she being there, 

 hastily retreated, but presently returned and scratched the peat 

 over them till hidden by a little mound ; then continued day after 

 day to visit the spot and bask on the mound ; but as if conscious 

 of being watched, would never do anything to betray the place 

 while any one was near. 



THE COMMON LIZARD (Lacerta vivipard). 



It is generally conceded that the specific name Agilis, given to 

 the sand lizard, is a rather unfair inference that it is the more 

 active of the two. Nimble it undoubtedly is; but in alertness, 

 swiftness, and agility, the little Vivipara can scarcely find a rival. 

 Supple as if they were boneless, if you do succeed in catching one, 

 to retain it in your hand without risk of injury is almost impossible. 

 Secure, as one thinks, in the tightly closed hand, it finds escape 

 where least expected. If its head be thumb wards, it will turn in 

 some marvellous fashion and make instantaneous exit at the 

 fourth finger, or between the fingers, however close together. As 

 well try to manage and restrain a stream of quicksilver. And the 

 Viviparas are more shy of being touched than the sand lizards, 

 which will remain in the hand in seeming enjoyment as long as 

 you please to keep them there. One of my five Viviparas, more 

 elusive than the rest, and much disliking to be handled, would 

 watch me through the glass, and if she saw me coming would 

 disappear among the moss, when to find her was impossible, 

 unless spray by spray were taken out; so swiftly did she flit 

 among it, without disturbing a feather. Sometimes you might 

 discern one bright eye on the look out for the enemy ; eye and 

 owner vanishing utterly at a hand ever so cautiously approaching. 

 I half suspected sometimes as much frolic as fear in this game 

 of hide-and-seek. Her bird-like look and her manner of eyeing 

 one with her head on one side gained for her the name of 

 " Birdie." Many physiological features in both lizards, especially 

 in the smaller species, disclose their relationship to birds. 



It is unnecessary to describe the various sloughings in detail, 

 as for the most part they occurred in the same manner as in agilis, 

 the head shields and tail cuticle seldom coming off with the body 

 part, which was generally entire, and beginning at the straight 

 collar. In two of the viviparous lizards that died in July the 

 sloughing had begun, but they had not strength to work off the 

 old cuticle, having ceased to feed for some weeks. Birdie changed 

 four times during the summer; the first change, June 24-26, 



