Classification of Lizards. 171 



claws, or play its part generally in many ways which commend themselves to an observant mind. 

 We are sorry the list is so long, but as an " artist " remarked to us on one occasion, " a Lizard take 

 a deal of doing to put him right — he do indeed." 



The classification of Lizards must, it is plain, be restricted, in the first place, to the two forms — 

 Golden Spangled and Silver Spangled, and until very recently no more extended arrangement 

 than that included in this general division was to be found in any schedule. This is not the 

 place to enter into a lengthened discussion of the principles which ought to determine the basis 

 on which exhibition schedules should be formed, either from a general or special point of view. 

 The subject has been well ventilated from time to time in such serials as are devoted to the 

 interests of home pets generally, more exhaustively, perhaps, in the columns of the Live 

 Stock Journal than in any other, and has narrowed itself within very prescribed limits 

 embracing the whole of the ground. Briefly, the matter resolves itself into the one question, 

 Shall the basis be provision for perfection only and nothing beyond .' What may be the 

 subtle distinctions between absolute and approximate perfection we will not stay to consider, 

 but the idea implies degrees of perfection ; and it is sufficient for our purpose to say that this 

 most common-sense and most reasonable idea was not until late years recognised in dealing 

 with the Lizard, a hard-and-fast line which, though supposed to be drawn with the most rigid 

 severity, was, practically, constantly disregarded, separating the absurdly narrow and frequently 

 spurious area of perfection (?) from the broader field of approximate excellence beyond, containing 

 much genuine honest worth. This ridiculous barrier was the cap. The cap was the whole 

 Lizard, and the whole Lizard was cap, to exhibit which in its perfect (.') form was the fertile 

 cause of more nefarious manipulation, however ingenious and artistic, than arose out of any other 

 demand of a very exacting code. Breeders might go into ecstacies over their beautiful spangle with 

 its "moons" and "circling" and other vital properties, and glory in their rich bronzy colour and 

 every other item in the inventory of the Lizard wardrobe, giving to each its carefully-measured 

 value, and also to the cap its value, which, by the way, we find in an old scale to have been 

 estimated at less than one-eighth of the whole, and in a more modern one at less than one-fifth, 

 every maximum except that of the cap being subject to a subtractive process clearly implying the 

 idea of graduated excellence ; but on a blemish being found in this part, which mysteriously 

 equalled its whole, the entire bird was supposed to vanish, for the cap was the bird. This we 

 submit is an entirely different case to disqualification on account of the presence of white feathers. 

 Certain material is permitted, with which, and with no other, the bird is to be built up, and the 

 importation of foreign or deleterious matter is simply an infringement of the primary contract. 

 Use the given material to the best advantage, working to the plan as closely as possible, and let 

 the premiums be awarded to the most successful results according to their degrees of merit, not 

 absolutely disqualifying from competition a mass of substantial and highly-finished work on the 

 ground that some other portion over which the builder has not unreserved control has not been 

 executed with undeviating accuracy. 



To Mr. Richard Hawman, of Middlesborough, belongs all the credit of having put a stop to 

 this anomalous state of things, by boldly introducing into the schedules of the Middlesborough 

 Ornithological Society, of which he was President, classes framed for the express purpose of 

 recognising the claims of birds with faulty caps, which, be it remembered, are often of unusual 

 excellence, and infinitely more valuable than many specimens which make their way into the 

 prize-list by virtue of their cap alone. Like many other reforms, this was thought to be very 

 revolutionary, and offering prizes for imperfection could be nothing short of the beginning of the 

 end of the ancient family of Lizards. But it turned out to be nothing of the kind, each succeeding 



