68 



The Irish Naturalist. 



April, 



NOTES ON THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF LAMBAY. 



BY THE HON. CECIL BARING. 



The statement, reprinted in the January number of this 

 Journal {supra, p. 12) from Mr. Boulenger's Reptiles and 

 Batrachians, that " Green Lizards let loose on Lambay 

 have maintained themselves and multiplied," goes perhaps 

 a little further than the facts warrant. The lizards in 

 question, in common \\ith some other kindred creatures 

 which have been allowed to try their luck on Lambay 

 have certamly maintained themselves, and a great delight 

 they are to the e^^e, as they flash from one hiding place to 

 another on a w^arm day ; but although eggs have been 

 found, there has been as yet no ocular evidence of repro- 

 duction, and it is too soon to speak with certainty of their 

 multiplication. 



In the three years 1907-8-9 some 2,200 reptiles and 

 amphibians were turned out on Lambay, and since 1909 

 smaller additions have been made year by year. Mr. C. 

 R. \"\^alter, of \A'est Bromwich, has given me valuable 

 assistance in procuring them. Most of the batrachians, 

 owing to lack of shelter and of suitable breeding places 

 and to the voracity of the bird population, have failed to 

 hold their own. Two kinds of lizards, on the other hand, 

 the Green Lizard and the Wall Lizard, have found the 

 surroundings congenial and have evidently survived several 

 successive winters, although, as already said, there is 

 no certainty that they have bred. The only reptile actually 

 known to have produced young on the island so far is the 

 so-called Glass-snake or Scheltopusik {Ophisaurus apus), 

 of which some six or seven ha\'e been put out at different 

 times. Tortoises, both American and European, hibernate 

 successfully, but they are apt to come out too soon and 

 thus to fall victims to cold and weakness in the early spring. 

 A marked specimen of the Moorish Tortoise, which must 

 have been on the island at least five years, was found 

 roaming about Lambay Head last summer. There is no 

 evidence of their breeding. Have tortoises, I wonder, 

 been known to do so in a wild state in the British Isles ? 



