62 REPTILIA. 



" 27th Mcay, ISS^. — Eight Irish lizards which I have examined, and 

 varying in size from 4|^ to 7 inches, viz. six specimens from the Counties 

 of Down and Antrim, one from Dublin, and one from Cork, and also a 

 Scotch specimen sent to me from Portpatrick by Captain Fayrer, R. N. 

 are identical with Lacevta aijilis of Mr. Jenyns, as described in his Man. 

 Brit. Vert. p. 293. It should however be observed that instead of the 

 two middle rows of abdominal lamella^ bring merely ' a little narrower 

 than the adjoining ones,' they are in all these specimens about one half 

 the breadth only of the row on either side. In some the number of 

 plates in the collar is 8, in others 9 ; and these plates vary much in rela- 

 tive size, being in several specimens somewhat uniform in this respect, 

 and in others the central ones being much the largest." 



When at Clifden, Connemara, on 24th July, 1840, I observed one of 

 these lizards basking in the sun ; and I have seen them doing the same 

 near Ventnor in the Isle of Wight. 



On examining several individuals of this species received from Aber- 

 arder (Scotland) I made the following note, in March, 1846. 



" I find these specimens differing in the collar plates and in the relative 

 size of those in the abdominal rows. 



" Bell's description, (Hist. Brit. Repts. p. 36,) that the collar plates are 

 nearly equal, apjjlies to the most of my specimens, but in one specimen 

 they gradually increase in size to the centre, where is one large scale double 

 the size of that on either side of it, and in form like two of them joined 

 together. In most of these specimens the middle and centre rows are 

 narrower than the intermediate, as Bell describes ; but in the specimen 

 already alluded to the largest scales are in the outer rows. At the same 

 time this individual is certainly not distinct in species from the others, 

 although they differ trivially from each other in the characters alluded to." 



In Sep. 1837, Dr. Ball obtained a black variety of the common lizard, 

 captured in the County of W^icklow, and Mhich he exhibited at the meet- 

 ing of the British Association held at Liverpool in that month. Unfor- 

 tunately this animal escaped from the box in which he had it confined 

 whilst travelling. 



Of the " Green Lizard," noticed by Ray as found in Ireland, I know 

 nothing. All he says of the species is : 



" Lacertus viridis ; the Green Lizard, a colore ita dicitur : vulgari major est. 

 In Italia frequentissimi liabentur. Invcniuntur etiam in Hibernia. An La- 

 certus Hibernicus Mus. Tradescanti." — Ray, Synop. Anim. Quad. p. 264. (1693.) 



Our common lizard being occasionally of a greenish hue, may possibly 

 have led to the mistake, as persons have in several instances told me that 

 they knew a green lizard to be a native, but this always proved to be the 

 common species. Mr. Bell in his British Reptiles suggests that " a 

 green variety of Lacerta agilis, Linn., was probably alluded to : this is 

 more likely than that the true L. viridis was meant ; but the L. ar/ilis, 

 Linn., has not been distinguished as an Irish species." It has but lately 

 been added to the British Fauna, and from specimens obtained in the 

 South of Phigland. 



William Bottomley, Esq., of Belfast has favoured me with the following 

 note : 



" Lizards. In the Lazzaretto in Ancona there were a number of 

 lizards living in the holes in the wall. We amused ourselves with watch- 

 ing them running about in the sunshine, and found that when we sang to 

 them they came out of their holes, and a])peared to lose their alarm." 



