AIA Animal Life 
mixture of browns and bronzes, with elusive touches of red and blue. In the armpit 
was a large blue spot with a wide black margin. 
This variety is abundant in the neighbourhood of Rome, and generally throughout 
South Italy. It shades off imto other varieties. Some I saw had the green back 
and the brown sides, but hardly any trace of the darker markings. In others 
the green could only be seen in certain lights. The next photograph (No. 3) might 
pass for another of the same variety, if not the same specimen, as the preceding 
ones. It represents, however, a typical specimen of a kind I found basking in 
large numbers on the volcanic dust of a scorched hillside near Naples. In the 
arrangement of its markings it resembles the green variety; but it is a study in 
browns. The only touch of bright colour it shares with its green relative is the 
blue “eye” in the armpit. 
Totally distinct from any yet described was the specimen shown in the last two 
photographs. This individual was black, as though made of jet, picked out over 
the back and sides with small spots of orange yellow. The last row of spots, on 
either side of its plam black ventral surface, were a bright blue. In the young the 
eround-colour is a rusty black, and the yellow spots are larger, duller, and closer 
together. But in the 
adult the contrasts 
are startling. 
I found this type 
only in one place— 
the ruins of a house 
and its garden in 
Rome. Ofall the wall- 
lizards I encountered 
this was the most 
active by far. Its 
agility was wonder- 
ful, and it seemed 
more arboreal in its 
habits than any other, 
and also far more 
wary. In the spot 
where I found it, it was numerous; but I had the utmost difficulty in procuring specimens. 
The last type I shall mention is also distinct, and of marked individuality. <A 
photograph of it appeared on page 574 of “The Living Animals of the World,” to 
which I would refer my readers. A mere glance at its outline is enough to see that 
it is of an altogether lighter and more attenuated build than those depicted above. It 
is coloured in tints of bronze-brown above and yellow beneath, and in activity is a 
good second to the black variety. It belongs to north Italy. The specimen shown in 
photograph 6 came from Como. 
No matter how much the wall-lizards differ in colour, they are all alike in one 
thing. They are about the most restless little creatures alive. Even when they come 
out for no more important business than to bask in the sun they are always on the 
move. If you frighten them, and they rush for shelter, you may be sure that they 
will come out into the open again almost immediately. For such active creatures they 
are, on this account, by no means hard to catch. 
There is something bird-like in the way they watch you. Grab at them, and they 
skip Just out of reach, no more alarmed than a London sparrow. Stand quite still, and 
they will come-and investigate, perhaps even run over your feet. 
BRONZE VARIETY, WITH BLUE SPOT IN ARMPIT. (NAPLES.) 
