Lizards 155 



curiously carved like this that the idea naturally occurred 

 of using them for cabinet-work. They might at least have 

 supplied a hint for a design. Besides the wrens, many 

 other birds visit the wood-pile — sparrows are perpetually 

 coming, and on the retired side towards the meadow the 

 robins build their nests. On the ridge where some of the 

 sticks project the swallows often perch and twitter — gene- 

 rally a pair seem to come together. 



It takes skill as well as mere strength even to do so 

 simple a thing as to split the rough logs lying here on the 

 ground. They are not like those Abraham Lincoln began 

 life working at — even-grained wood, quickly divided — but 

 tough and full of knots strangely twisted ; so that it needs 

 judgment to put the wedges in the right place. 



Near the wood-pile is a well and a stone trough for 

 thirsty horses to drink from, and as the water, carelessly 

 pumped in by the carters' lads, frequently overflows, the 

 ground just there is usually moist. If one of the loose 

 oak logs that lie here with the grass growing up round it 

 is rolled over, occasionally a lizard may be found under it. 

 This lizard is slender, and not more than three or four 

 inches in length, general colour a yellowish green. Where 

 one is found a second is commonly close by. They are 

 elegantly shaped, and quick in their motions, speedily 

 making oif. They may now and then be discovered under 

 large stones, if there is a crevice, in the meadows. They 

 do not in the least resemble the ordinary ' land-lizard,' 

 which is a much coarser-looking and larger creature, and 

 is not an inhabitant of this locality : at all events it is 

 rare enough to have escaped me here, though I have often 

 observed it in districts where the soil is light and sandy 

 and where there is a good deal of heath-land. The land- 

 lizards will stroll indoors if the door be left open. These 



