356 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Mr. Hans Gadow says that the Sand-Lizard {Lacerta agiHs, Linn.) " is 

 absent in Ireland and Scotland, while in England it is restricted to the 

 southern half" ; and a similar statement is made by Mr. Boulenger in 

 the Hampshire vokime of the Victoria History of the Comities of 

 England. The reputed Sand-Lizards, frequently reported from 

 northern counties, generally prove, on investigation, to be large 

 examples of the Common Lizard (L. vivipara). This, however, is 

 not the case in Lancashire, and, I believe, in Cheshire, for on the 

 coast sand-hills the true Sand-Lizard was formerly common, and 

 may even yet occur in places where the sandhills are unreclaimed. 

 Lancashire naturalists of the old school knew the Sand-Lizard well, 

 but, as questions of geographical distribution did not greatly interest 

 them, there are few records left beyond the bare fact that the species 

 was common. There are, however, specimens in the Warrington 

 Museum, whose identity Mr. Boulenger has confirmed, which were 

 captured at Southport and Formby, on the Lancashire coast. In 

 Mr. Isaac Byerley's ' Fauna of Liverpool,' published in 1856, the 

 Sand-Lizard is described as occurring " on the sand-hills from West 

 Kirby to New Brighton" (in Cheshire). "At Seaforth, Crosby, and 

 elsewhere" (in Lancashire). Mr. W. D. Koebuck states ('Naturalist,' 

 1884-85, p. 258) that, after examining specimens sent to him from 

 various North of England localities, and finding that they were only 

 "lightly coloured specimens of the Viviparous Lizard," he did not 

 believe in the existence of the true L. agilis so far north, until Mr. G. 

 T. Porritt procured him a couple of specimens from the Southport 

 sand-hills, which he "at once saw were unmistakably referable to that 

 species." He adds: — " Mr. Porritt tells me these Lizards swarm on 

 the sand-hills at Southport, where he has frequently seen them 

 sparkling in the sun with a glistening emerald- green, and sometimes 

 almost golden, brightness." The late Thomas Alcock, in his pamphlet 

 on the ' Natural History of the Coast of Lancashire " (1887), also 

 speaks of the Sand-Lizard at Southport, where he says it was " for- 

 merly plentiful on the isolated group of sand-hills at the north end 

 of the town. Hesketh Park, however, now occupies the best part of 

 this locality." In 1862 and 1865 he captured and received a number 

 of examples from this place. Mr. H. 0. Forbes, in the ' British 

 Association Handbook' for 1896, says, on the authority of Mr. Linnaeus 

 Greening, of Warrington, "Common; Wallasey, Southport, and 

 Formby sand-hills." The Cheshire locality is included on the strength 

 of specimens which were shown to Mr. Greening by the late C. S. 

 Gregson, who stated that he had obtained them at Wallasey. The 

 sand-hills between West Kirby and New Brighton were of the same 



