LIZARDS— BLIND WORM 1 6 1 



Although the sand - lizard is found alike in plains, hilly districts, and 

 mountains, it seems to prefer low-lying ground, but avoids damp places; and 

 it is also absent from dense forests, marshy meadows with tall grass, and peaty 

 moors, as well as bare, stony hillsides, and cliffs — in fact, all hard ground. 

 The sunny slopes, with scattered stone-heaps, or the rugged country roads, are as 

 much its home as the skirts of the forest, the open woods, the upper part of 

 river-valleys, sandy and sunny heaths, and forest-glades. Moreover, among its 

 haunts may be mentioned sand-hills covered with sheep's-bit, fleabane and other 

 sand-plants, the walls of vineyards and other enclosures, hedges, and dunes over- 

 grown with sand-grass. 



The sand-lizard is by no means fond of climbing, its limbs being mainly 

 adapted for running on flat ground, and slipping through dry grass and herbage, 

 and among hedges, bushes, and stones. If by chance it gets into the water, it 

 swims well, in a serpentine way, but does not keep long afloat. When pursued, it 

 can move quickly, but if caught, or in immediate danger, turns to defend itself, 

 either opening its mouth threateningly, or actually biting, sometimes with so 

 firm a grip as to remain hanging to its assailant. The males fight with exceptional 

 courage against their greatest enemy, the viper, although they generally have to 

 succumb. 



During its winter-sleep the sand-lizard hides in holes in the ground, and 

 hollows beneath stumps of trees. According to the locality, and the mildness 

 or otherwise of the weather, it awakes from its winter-sleep between the middle of 

 March and the middle of April. In June or July it lays from five to fourteen 

 eggs, which are about \ inch long and § inch broad. The young appear eight 

 weeks later, in August or September, and live at first on aphides, flies, and other 

 small insects. 



So far as its haunts are concerned, the blindworm (Anquis 

 fragilis) is intermediate between the viviparous and the sand- 

 lizard. It ranges over a greater area than any other European lizard, occurring. not 

 only in Europe but in Algeria and Palestine. So far as is known at present, it 

 ranges west to the Atlantic, east to Tehran, south to the Sahara, and north 

 nearly to the Arctic Circle. It lives on rich vegetable soil as well as on poor slopes, 

 on heavy moorland, and on light sandy ground : it is found alike in open fertile 

 valleys, on mountain-ridges and bushy hillsides, on grassy meadows, on dry land, 

 and near water, above and beneath the moss-covered ground of the woodlands, 

 on the ioad ways of sandy, light fir- woods, on waste lands, and in the gardens of 

 outlying villages, or even in cemeteries. But it prefers grass-grown and bushy 

 or wooded spots, where holes, roots, large stones, and possibly ant-heaps afford 

 shelter, as it generally hides when the weather is very hot or windy. Disliking 

 excessive dryness, it is fond of warm, humid air, and also — though not in so great a 

 degree as the viviparous lizard — of damp haunts and hiding-places, but avoids 

 arid slopes and hillsides that have no shade. In the summer it appears early in 

 the morning and towards evening, and when heat is followed by rain goes about 

 during the day. The actual active life of the blindworm commences between the 

 10th and 15th April, and ceases in the first half of October During the winter 



VOL. I. II 



