The Zoologist— April, 1869. 1623 



Lacerta Stirpium, Dum. et Bib., vol. v., p. 196 ; Jeityns, Brit. Vert., 

 p. 291 ; Clermont, Quadrupeds and Reptiles of Europe, p. 182. 



The palate teeth are seven or eight on each side ; the tongue is 

 extensile and bifid at the extremity ; the nostrils are placed near the 

 outer or inferior margin of the nasal plate, and nearly half-way between 

 the anterior and posterior margin ; the nose is blunt. The fore legs 

 scarcely reach to the eyes when stretched forward ; the hind legs 

 when stretched forward reach about half-way to the insertion of the 

 fore legs : there are five toes on each foot, all of them furnished with 

 nails ; on the fore feet the third and fourth toes are longest and 

 nearly equal in length ; the first is generally the shortest, the second 

 and fifth are scarcely longer, and nearly equal ; on the hind feet the 

 fourth toe is the longest, the third next, then the second, then the 

 fifth, and the first is the shortest. The body is stout, and the tail is 

 comparatively short, and tapers from the base. The colour of the 

 male is brown, inclining to a more or less vivid green on the sides ; 

 the female is brown, without the green tint : in both sexes there is an 

 indication of three slightly darker stripes, and in each of these are 

 longitudinal series of black spots ; these spots are of different shapes 

 and sizes ; in the lateral darker stripes is a series of somewhat ocellated 

 black spots. Linneus, Professor Bell, and others, describe these 

 spots as having white centres; but although the centres are manifestly 

 paler, I never met with a specimen in which they could be called 

 white. The belly is nearly white, sometimes more or less spotted 

 with black. 



Ecdysis takes place piecemeal, and I think only once in the year : 

 during the process the animal looks very ragged. 



It feeds on living insects, which it seizes with great rapidity, 

 watching for flies settling in the sunshine. It is capable of long 

 abstinence; some specimens'taken by my late friend, Thomas Ingall, 

 lived for a long time in confinement without being once .seen to eat, 

 yet they lost nothing in bulk : whether from timidity or not I am 

 unable to say, but they resolutely refused food ; exhibited a morose 

 and irritable disjiosition ; and were finally consigned to a bottle of 

 spirits in as good condition as when they were caught. 



" The female," says Professor Bell, " 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 the solar heat." 



