COLLECTION OF REPTILES. /J.OI 



which become dull after death. The lacerta 

 agil'iSy found on our walls in France, is the most 

 common ; it feeds on worms and small insects, 

 shaking them rapidly before it devours them. 

 The female lays from eight to ten eggs, which 

 are hatched eleven or twelve days afterwards. 

 But the most beautiful amongst the lizards of 

 Europe, is the lacerta viridis, or green lizard, 

 commonly found in Spain and the south of 

 France; its length is more than one foot; its 

 body is regularly striated, and speckled with 

 black on a fine glossy green ground. There 

 exists still a sort of confusion in the systematical 

 arrangement of the lizards, which are very nu- 

 merous, and the species of which are so nearly- 

 allied, that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain 

 them. It would be desirable that a monograph 

 on this family were written; for the completing 

 of which, the collection now in the Museum 

 might afford no inconsiderable help. 



The fourth genus is that of the stellio, of which 

 there are thirteen species in the Museum. They 

 are distinguished by rings formed of erected and 

 sharp scales on their tail. The stellion of the 

 Levant (lacerta stellio), so common in Egypt, fur- 

 nishes, according to Belon, the matter used for a 

 cosmetic, known under the name of cord/lea, or 

 stercus lacerti. The mahometans kill this animal 



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