Reptiles. 2707 



neighbouring county of Worcester, have fallen under my inspection within the last 

 seven years, and I have heard of several others. It is most singular that all of these 

 were of the above species ; and I cannot ascertain that a single specimen of the com- 

 mon species, Thalassidroma pelagica, has ever occurred near here. Is it not possible, 

 and even probable, that many of the recorded instances of petrels occurring far inland 

 may be referred to this species? — Robert F. Tomes; Welford, Stratford-on-Avon, 

 December 20, 1849. 



Occurrence of the Hawks-bill Turtle (Chelonia imbricata) off the Yorkshire Coast. 

 — During my absence from Redcar last summer three of our fishermen, on their 

 passage from that place to Hartlepool, found a large specimen of the hawks-bill 

 turtle of Bell, floating dead upon the sea. — T. S. Rudd; Redcar, January 4, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis) at Heme Bay. — Can any of the 

 correspondents of the ' Zoologist' give me information regarding the haunts, time of 

 appearance and other particulars of the green lizard {Lacerta viridis, Linn.), which I 

 am told by very competent authority has been found to be quite frequent and 

 even abundant at, or in the neighbourhood of, Heme Bay. I may add that there can 

 be no doubt about the species, and that it is certainly not merely the smaller green li- 

 zard of Poole (L. agilis, Linn.), but identical with the species long known to inhabit 

 Guernsey, as my friend Professor Bell has received a specimen from Heme Bay, but 

 not in time to notice the discovery in the second edition of his ' British Reptiles,' 

 lately published. Mr. Bell supposed L. viridis must be only naturalized in its Kent- 

 ish locality, but the difference of climate and latitude between Guernsey and Heme 

 Bay is not so great but that we may conceive it very possible this beautiful reptile 

 may be really indigenous to both places. It was only till very recently that the 

 nativity of the edible frog (Rana esculenta, L.) was fully ascertained in England, 

 although rumour had placed it long since in our indigenous lists. If I am not mis- 

 taken, the L. viridis of Guernsey has been said to have been captured in this country, 

 in which case we have now a similar confirmation of the fact, as in the instance of the 

 Rana esculenta. — William Arnold Bromfield ; Eastmount, Ryde, Isle of Wight, 

 December 22, 1849. 



[This is a fact of unusual interest. I shall be much obliged for further informa- 

 tion and a drawing, if any correspondent can supply these desiderata. — E. Newman]. 



On the Green Lizard. — I hope the editor of the 'Zoologist' will have the kind- 

 ness, as soon as possible, to gratify the curiosity which he has roused by his short no- 

 tice on this subject, in the notices to correspondents on the wrapper of the number for 

 January. We must, before we assent to the discovery of a " new British Reptile," 

 learn how far it has been traced in the neighbourhood in which it has been discovered. 

 I have several times had reasons for suspecting the green lizard might be British, in- 

 dependently of the passage in White's ' Natural History of Selborne,' and the stories 

 of large lizards, met with elsewhere. Seven or eight years ago a schoolfellow of mine 

 at Eton, a native of Guernsey, assured me he had seen lizards in Devonshire precisely 

 similar to the green lizards of his own island, which latter, if I remember right, he 

 had often caught and kept in confinement. Nearly two years since, a learned profes- 



