THE COMMON LIZARD. 



273 



It varies much in its colour and markings. The most common tint of the upper parts is a sandy- 

 brown, with obscure longitudinal bands of a dai-ker brown, and a lateral set of black round spots, each 

 marked with a yellowish-white dot or line in the centre. There is often, according to Bell, more or less 

 of green on the sides. Some are of a rich brown colour, others of a green hue of a dullish tint, and it is 

 this wJich has led to the belief that a species called the Green Lizard occurs in England. The female 

 lays her eggs, to the number of twelve or fourteen, in hollows in the sand, which she excavates for the 

 purpose, and having covered them carefully with sand, she leaves them to be hatched by solar heat. 



SAND LIZARD. 



SUB-GENUS ZOOTOCA. THE COMMON OR VIVIPAROUS LIZARD.* 



Tuis Lizard has the temples covered with adpressed scales, and the scales of the back are 

 long and hexagonal, but there are no teeth on the palate. Hence it differs from the Sand Lizard, 

 and has been placed in a sub-genus Zootoca, and as it brings forth its young alive and not within the 

 egg, it is termed the Viviparous Lizard. It is an agile and pretty Lizard, frequenting heaths and 

 banks in England and even in Scotland. It is one of the few reptiles found in Ireland. It is con- 

 fined to the latitude of England on the Continent. Bell says : " It comes out of its hiding-place during 

 the warm part of the day, from the early spring till autumn has far advanced, basking in the sun, 

 and turning its head with a sudden motion the instant that an insect comes within its view, and 

 darting like lightning upon its prey, it seizes it with its little sharp teeth, and speedily swallows it. 



* Lacerta (Zootoca) vivipara. See note on next page. 



