The Zoologist — September, 1869. 1835 



dinner. Frequently I used to cheat the toads by moving a small 

 twig before them : they would seize it directly, imagining it to be a 

 worm, and would regard it with stupid astonishment when they dis- 

 covered their mistake, I never had the good fortune to see my friends 

 take beetles or other small prey ; but these, the gardener told me, 

 were never seized with the mouth, but were caught with unerring aim 



upon the points of the long tongue." 



Edwauu Newman. 



Lacerla agilis oviparous.— On the 30ih of May, 1865, I captured a fine pregnant 

 female of Lacerla agilis. Wishing to learn something of its habits I carried it home 

 in a chip-box, and placed it in a fern-case which was well stocked with ferns : for the 

 first two days it was very shy and refused all food, but on the third, on my offering it a 

 living fly on the point of a long needle, I was pleased to find that hunger had over- 

 come its natural timidity. Making a sudden dart at ils victim, it seized it by the 

 most accessible part and held it until it had ceased struggling. It then rubbed off the 

 legs and wings against the ground, and after seizing it again by the head, swallowed 

 it whole: this was repeated with eiuht common house-flies. It then commenced 

 drinking water from a shell, lapping like a dog, and seemed to enjoy this much : 

 when the shell was empty it licked the moisture from the fern fronds. When captured 

 it was six inches long, light sandy brown in colour with darker markings. In a few 

 days the skin assumed a dry shrivelled appearance and commenced separating at the 

 mouth, from which it was gradually forced back by the creature pressing against the 

 stipes of the ferns, the skin being turned inside out during the operation. From the 

 vent to the extremity of the tail it cuuie off in separate scales. After the change the 

 colours were much darker, nearly as dark as the peat mould. On the 2-2nd of June 

 she dropped seven eggs on the surface of the mnuld in the sunshine, which were in 

 colour invisible-green above, lighter beneath, round, compressed, and five lines over. 

 The egg-coverings were thin transparent membranes, and through them the young 

 lizards could be seen curled up with their tails across their necks, and surrounded by 

 a milky-looking fluid. The next morning these emerged, and after drying themselves 

 in the sun, commenced running about in seanh of food. For the first two days they 

 were of a uniform invisible-green above, a lighter green beneath; but on the third day 

 they became freckled on the back with numerous lighter-coloured spots, which became 

 more distinct as they grew older. There was not, so far as I cuuld see, the least 

 sympathy between the parent lizard and her young; in fact, she did not take the 

 slightest notice of ihein from (he time they were born until their death, which hap- 

 pened at the end of August, during their first change of skin. The parent became very 

 tame, and would take live food from the fingers or lie curled up in the hand, appa- 

 rently enjoying the warmth. On the 2yth of September she ceased feeding, and re- 

 mained in a torpid state up to the beginning of March, 1866. During the winter she 

 lay on the surface of the mould covered over with a few leaves, the eyes being closed 

 and the tail laid over the neck. On very cold days the body was quite rigid and to 

 all appearance dead, but the warmth of the hand would restore animation for a short 

 lime: she commenced feediug again in March, but only lived to the end of tliat mouth. 



