CHAXXEL ISLAXI) LIZARDS. 313 



range. This continues only so long as the creature is not 

 disturbed or alarmed in any way, for then it cpiickly shows 

 that for all its apparent somnolence, it possesses no small store 

 of coiled-up energy, and is always on the qui vive. 



Early in the morning, when the sun's rays begin to make 

 their presence felt, it displays more activity. It goes 

 prospecting round a little, scraping the ground for a suspected 

 worm or grub, or nosing among the dead leaves in search of a 

 stray beetle or two. Having procured a modest breakfast it 

 finishes by licking the dewdrops and then gets near to its 

 burrow again, where it begins its all-day bask in the sun. 



But the period of its greatest activity, at least during the 

 months of »Iuly and August, is towards evening, just about 

 sunset, while the bank in ^^ hich it lives is still warm with the 

 late sunshine. This is the trysting-time, and the hour at which 

 calls are made. It is also the hour of battle ; challenges are 

 now freely issued, and as promptly accepted, and the duels 

 that are fought, although bloodless, are terrible. Near my 

 home there is an old disused quarry, much overgrown with 

 gorse and bramble ; it faces due south, and is a veritable 

 Dutch oven. The Cireen Lizard is abundant in this spot, 

 and it is here that I have chiefly witnessed these evening- 

 battles. During such encounters the yellow undersides of the 

 combatants gleam as they twist and whirl over one another, 

 and it often happens that tlie antagonists are so engrossed in 

 the fight that they allow themselves to be captured by hand. 

 Sometimes a battle takes a triangular form, Avlien three 

 opponents are engaged in fierce conflict, and not unfrequently 

 a tail 01' two will be left behind to mark the foughten field. 



There are very few indeed of the old males that do not 

 show honorable scars in the Avay of a i-enewed tail. A new 

 tail, although it grows rapidly, never attains the fidl length 

 and graceful taper of the original one, and it remains more or 

 less brown in colour. Sometimes the tail is broken only half- 

 way through, and then healing by " second intention " taking 

 place at the same time as a new tail has started to sprout, 

 results in the lizard becoming douhlc-t ailed. I have had 

 specimens that were even possessed of iliree tails, by a 

 repetition of this accident. 



The ways of a snake in the grass was one of the three 

 things that puzzled a proverbially wise man of old. He 

 would, I think, have been still more greatly puzzled by the 

 ways of Lacerta riridis if he had observed it. These reptiles 

 possess marked mental characteristics ; they love and hate, 

 cherish resentment, exercise memory and keejj account of 



