REPTILES 

 AND BATRACHIANS 



Staffordshire is not rich either in the number of species of its 

 reptiles, as compared with more southern counties, or in the individual 

 abundance of such forms which do occur within the county boundaries. 

 Thus Staffordshire possesses two lizards the common lizard and the 

 blindworm, and two snakes the harmless grass snake and the viper. 

 Neither the sand lizard (Lacerta agi'/is, Linn.) nor the smooth snake 

 (Coronella austriaca, Laur.) are found in Staffordshire, although both 

 have been reported, on one occasion each, as met with by individuals 

 quite incapable of identifying these species at a glance, and no specimen 

 of either has hitherto been obtained in Staffordshire. 



Staffordshire can claim one species of frog, one toad and three 

 newts in her list of batrachians. In the neighbouring county of 

 Chester however the second British species of toad is met with 

 the pretty active natterjack toad (Bufo calamita^ Laur.), and from thence 

 many years ago specimens were introduced into Staffordshire by the 

 late Mr. Edwin Brown, and turned out by Sir Oswald Mosley in his 

 grounds at Rolleston. This colony still survived ten years after its 

 introduction, so that it is just possible that descendants may still exist 

 and be claimed as indigenous by some observer ignorant of their history. 

 In a somewhat similar manner I was myself the means of unintentionally 

 introducing the natterjack into Leicestershire, having presented a series 

 of living specimens of various ages to the Leicester Museum, which I 

 had collected in Lancashire. Some of these were turned out in the 

 museum grounds by the curator, Mr. Montagu Browne, F.G.S., F.Z.S., 

 as recorded in his Vertebrate Animals of Leicestershire and Rut/and, p. 182. 

 It is scarcely probable that in this case any would long survive. 



It may be well to mention perhaps that the natterjack toad may 

 readily be recognized by the yellow line down the middle of the back 

 and by its active movements. It can also withstand heat far better than 

 the common toad. 



REPTILES 



LACERTILIA Cannock Chase. In Staffordshire however it 



never appears in such numbers as it does in 



i. Common, Scaly, or Viviparous L.zard. the Charnwood Forest district of Leicester- 

 Lacerta vtvifara, Jacqum. shire> where j haye more frequently met with 



Not uncommon in the wilder, heathy parts it than in any other part of the midlands 

 of the county, especially in the north and on known to me. 



I 137 18 



