MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



young alive, and tends them like a mother. 

 It is an agile, wee thing, that creeps from 

 its hole or nest during the noontide hours, 

 and basks lazily in the sun in search of 

 insects. But let a fly come near it, and 

 quick as lightning it turns its tiny head, darts 

 upon him like fate, and crunches him up 

 between those sharp small teeth with the 

 ferocity of a crocodile. We have sand- 

 lizards, too, a far timider and wilder species ; 

 they bite your hand when caught, and refuse 

 to live in captivity at the bottom of a flower- 

 pot like their viviparous cousins. These 

 pretty wee reptiles are often delicately 

 spotted or banded with green ; they lay 

 a dozen leathery eggs in a hole in the 

 sand, where the sun hatches out the poor 

 abandoned little orphans without the aid of 

 their unnatural mother. Still, they are much 

 daintier in their colouring than the more 

 domestic brown kind ; and, after all, in a lizard 

 I demand beauty rather than advanced moral 

 qualities. I may be wrong ; but such is my 

 1 20 



