The Zoologist— May, 1869. 1665 



entirely lifeless until the increased temperature of spring arouses them 

 from their sleep, and the cravings of appetite remind them that months 

 have been passed without food. During the winter that is even now 

 scarcely passed away, snakes, blind-worms and vipers have revived 

 and come abroad in January and February, influenced no doubt by 

 the unusually high temperature of those two months. Like the wood- 

 pigeon, the viper has increased in number with the destruction of 

 birds of prey, and in some parts of Scotland has become a dangerous 

 nuisance ; for although the bite is rarely fatal, except to the animals 

 on which the viper feeds, its effect is always injurious, producing pain, 

 fever, vomiting, and swelling of the bitten part. 



Edward Newman. 

 (To be continued.) 



PS. — Lacerta agilis sometimes Oviparous. — I see in the ' Zoologist ' 

 you attach but little importance to the fact that Lacerta agilis is 

 stated to be ovo-viviparous (S.S. 1627). It may be interesting to you 

 to know that Mr. George Verrall, of Lewes, had some in captivity— 

 I think it was in 1867 — and that he particularly drew my attention 

 to the fact, that the females produced eggs, and I certainly saw some 

 at his house : the young, at the time I examined the eggs, were 

 evidently about to be extruded, as the movements of the little crea- 

 tures were plainly visible through the investing membrane ; it there- 

 fore appears that the eggs are not always matured in the ovary of the 

 female before extrusion.— J. Jemier Weir; 6, Haddo Villas, Black- 

 heath, S.E., April 5, 1869. 



[Two other communications from naturalists in Surrey and Kent 

 respectively are precisely to the same effect as Mr. Weir's : but not 

 having been printed at the time, and one of the observers (the late 

 J. D. Salmon) being no more, I believed it best to pass them without 

 notice until the receipt of Mr. Weir's note : in all three instances the 

 writers refer to Lacerta agilis and not L. Stirpium. It remains to be 

 seen whether L. Stirpium is sometimes vaviparous or ovo-viviparous. 

 In any case the employment of this physiological character as either 

 generic or specific must henceforth he dhaca^on&A.— Edward Newmari.'[ 



SECOND SEBIES — VOL. IV. 2 A 



