THE LIZARDS 



507 



THE HATCHING OF A SLOW WORM. 



1 The egM immediaiely after deposition. 



2 The e^M smaller, the Slow Worm absorhinS the yolk . 



3 The Slow Worm now plainly visible inside the membranous eSS-covermg. 



1; 5 6 vldous attitudes adopted by the Slow Worm m its struggles to free itself. 

 7'. The head free. 



9 The Slow Worm free except for its attachment to the yolk, which it is still absorbing. 

 1 ?; YounJl'low^Worms about ten days old, showing the characteristic median black line forked near the head. 



(an alternative title) contains the same 

 useful information expressed both in 

 Latin and in scientific Greek. Both 

 vivipara and zootoca are evidently meant 

 to mean " which produces eggs which 

 hatch at birth or immediately after birth." 

 But even if we allow this loose interpre- 

 tation to the epithets, they cannot be 

 brought into hne with fact. The Common 

 Lizard may produce eggs which rupture at 



or immediately after birth, but often, hke 

 the Slow Worm, she produces eggs which 

 do not rupture at birth, and occasionally 

 some hours elapse before the young hzards, 

 which are very dark in colour, escape from 

 their prisons. The Sand Lizard, whose 

 e])ithet cv^ilis is, if we compare her with 

 the Common Lizard, on the luctis a non 

 liicendo principle, lays eggs whose co\'ermg 

 is fairly substantial, conceals them m the 



