5o8 



THE NATURE BOOK 



sand, and lea\-es them to hatch out by 

 heat. I have no experience of young 

 Sand Lizards. The British Museum cata- 

 logue describes them as " greyish brown 

 above, with longitudinal series of white, 

 black-edged ocelli ; no light vertebral 

 streak ; lower surfaces whitish, immacu- 



A WALL LIZARD SHOWING FIGHT. 



This picture is included in order to show certain distinctive features of Lizards— 

 the "gular fold " beneath the chin, the collar, the enormous gape of the mouth, 

 and the lash of the tail, which sometimes results in dislocation of a portion of it. 



late." A half-grown Sand Lizard, which 

 I captured in July, 1908, near Hindhead, 

 was bronze- green all over. Much of his 

 lustre faded before he retired to hibernate, 

 but he was never anything but green, and 

 I look forward to his reappearance in 

 1909 with some curiosity. 



The main differences between the Sand 

 Lizard, who is mainly confined to heath 

 land in the South of England, but occurs 

 sporadically near Southport, and the Com- 

 mon Lizard, who, besides being plentiful 

 in Great Britain, has been bold enough 

 to defy St. Patrick by a re-invasion of 

 Ireland, are those of shape and size. 

 I mav perhaps leave my photographs to against the ground, so as to present the 



beneath, with an abundant spotting of 

 black. 



The specific distinctions in scaling are 

 somewhat obscure, but it may be useful to 

 the field naturalist to know that in the 

 Common Lizard there are twenty-six to 

 thirty-se\'en scales across the middle of 



the body (excluding 

 the ventral plates), 

 and that in the Sand 

 Lizard there are thirty- 

 four to fifty-two. 



If the reader hap- 

 pens to secure in the 

 heath country of \\'ilt- 

 shire, Dorsetshire, 

 Hampshire, West 

 Sussex, or Surrey, or 

 in the neighbourhood 

 of Southport, a stout 

 lizard some eight 

 inches long with well- 

 defined rows of white 

 spots, a somewhat 

 blunt nose, and (super- 

 ficially) a brown, black, 

 and white, here and 

 there green, colora- 

 tion, he has probably 

 got a Sand Lizard. 

 Should he, however, secure a slim lizard 

 some six inches long, with a pointed 

 nose, no white spots, an orange or yellow 

 belly, and (superficially) a red-brown and 

 black coloration, with a dark hne down 

 the centre of the back, and two dark 

 lateral bands, he has probably got a 

 Common Lizard. 



The habits of the two species appear to 

 be very similar. Both have a prolonged 

 hibernation, the Sand Lizard, as one 

 would expect, being the last to emerge, 

 and the first to retire. Both are carnivor- 

 ous. Both slough their skins. Both are 

 sun lovers, and will flatten their bodies 



suggest these differences, but I would 

 call the reader's attention to the longi- 

 tudinal rows of white spots on the Sand 

 Lizard's flanks, which I have never yet 

 enc(nintered in the Common Lizard, and 

 to the fact that the Common Lizard is 

 orange or yellow beneath in the sum- 

 mer, while the male Sand Lizard tends 

 at tlie same time to ha\'e a green wash 

 on liis sides, and to be green-yellow 



greatest possible surface to the sunshine. 



"For now the noonday quiet holds the hills: 

 The Grasshopper is silent in the grass ; 

 The Lizard with his shadow on the stone, 

 Rests like a shadow " 



This is the best time to catch him ; with 

 a thin rod and a running noose, even as 

 the Greek youth, immortalised as Apollo 

 Sauroctonos, caught him two thousand 

 years ago. Douglas English. 



