COMMON LIZAED. 23 



found in vast numbers everywhere in the county 

 of Down. The observer who records its appear- 

 ance in such plenty on the above occasion 

 remarks, as a singular circumstance, that they 

 never occurred there before, except a single 

 individual at a time, and those at long intervals.* 

 Lord Clermont observes that it is never found in 

 low countries, but frequents mountain districts 

 in the greater part of North and Central Europe, 

 and is common in Switzerland, Germany, Poland, 

 and France, as well as in Scotland, England, 

 and Ireland. In Italy it is only found in the 

 Alpine regions of the north, and it also inhabits 

 the hilly parts of Belgium and Eussia.f 



This lizard differs in a most important point 

 from the other species to be mentioned, and on 

 this account has been placed by naturalists in a 

 new genus called Zootoca, from the Greek word 

 zooS) ' life/ and tokos, ' offspring/ on account 

 of its young bursting through the very thin 

 membrane-like covering of the egg at the time 

 of birth, and are, therefore, ovo- viviparous ; 

 in which feature this lizard resembles the Viper. 

 The young, as soon as they are born, have the 

 free use of their limbs, and run about in com- 

 pany with their parent, soon commencing the 



* The Zoologist, p. 7172. 



t Clerinont's " Quad, and Kept. Eur.," p. 184.. 



