REPTILES. 



357 



Family SCINCID-ffi. 



Anguls fragilis, L. Slow Worm or Blind Worm. 



Common and very generally distributed in all suitable situations, pre- 

 ferring the drier ground and warmer exposures. Common in some 

 parts of the north-east, rarer in the north after the boundary with 

 Dee is passed ; common again westward, where we have met with it 

 by the base of Ben Alder, and once or twice on the Moor of Eannoch. 

 Common on south exposure of Drummond Hill (D. Dewar), 

 Eestennet Moss, Forfar (Don), etc., etc. Not uncommon, but 

 apparently more local, or less frequently observed, in the more agri- 

 cultural portions, such as the haughs of the valleys, or the Vale of 

 Strathmore, but often found there also near the remains of moss- hags 

 or peat-bogs. I am not aware of its distribution along the debris of 

 the coast cliffs, nor among the sand-dunes of the east of the area — at 

 least not from actual returns. I suspect they are not partial to 

 sandy situations. 



— I solely referred to the Slow Worm. The text also thiLS makes it appear that both 

 species '* swarm " in Harris and Leiois. Again, I only alluded to the Slow Worm, which 

 does ** swarm " (in my own words) in Harris and Lewis. I was, again, not aware of the 

 occurrence of Lacerta vivipara at all in these parts. I think it well to make this plain 

 now, though I did not before draw attention to the error, so far as my information went, 

 because though an error as regards my meaning, I find that Mr. M 'Naught Campbell, 

 of the Kelvingrove Industrial Museum, relates immediately after {loc. cit., p. 189) 

 that Lacerta vivipara does occur near the summit of the Crag, though they are reckoned 

 *' less common than the Slow Worm." As regards Harris and Lewis, I have no further 

 information to the present time, and I never met with Lacerta vivipara in the Outer 

 Hebrides. It may prove incorrect to deny its existence there, as it seems not to be 

 unknown in Ireland, whereas the Slow Worm is absent from the latter country, and 

 from the outer Hebrides, anywhere south of the Sound of Harris, though swarming on 

 the southern slopes of the hills which face the Sound on the north, i.e. in Harris. 



