THE SAND LIZARD. 29 



fc Impressions of the feet of a Labyrinthodon 

 were found by the late Mr. Hugh Strickland 

 in the lower Keuper sandstone of Shrewly 

 Common, Worcestershire ; and bones and teeth 

 have been discovered near Kenilworth, in the 

 Permian sandstones of the geological surveyors, 

 as well as in the upper Keuper beds. Five 

 species of Labyrinthodont reptiles have been 

 found in Great Britain, all of which must have 

 been very unpleasant -looking animals, with 

 fearful jaws, adapted especially for biting. And 

 yet such animals lived on the shores of a sea- 

 bed which now constitutes much of the pleasant 

 vales of Worcestershire and Cheshire, the shores 

 of the New Eed Sandstone sea.* 



Returning from c stewed Iguana' and extinct 

 reptiles to the little Lizard of the present dege- 

 nerate days, we may observe, that though 

 neither formidable in size, repulsive in appear- 

 ance, nor in any sense aggressive or noxious, it 

 has many enemies, some amongst bipeds with 

 feathers, and some amongst bipeds without. It 

 has personal interest in the ' smooth snake ' 

 and its proximity to its own locality ; for that 

 reptile has a great predilection . for a lizard at 

 luncheon, whilst the common snake prefers a 

 frog or a newt. But the most relentless perse- 



* " Old Bones," by the Rev. W. S. Symonds, p. 81. 



