Lacerta. 
REPTILES. SAURIA. 
151 
Length about 6 inches. Head triangular, depressed, with large scales, 
one on each side, forming eye-brows. Snout rounded. Jaws equal, teeth 
recurved. Toes slender. A row of tubercles along the inside of each 
thigh. Throat with a double collar of large scales. The scales of the 
belly quadrangular, and placed in transverse bands. Tail twice the length 
of the body. Belly yellowish. Colours vary with the condition of the 
cuticle which is frequently renewed. Before casting, the colours are 
brownish black; after they change, dark green and yellow tints prevail. 
This species becomes torpid during winter, and pairs after reviviscence. 
Eggs placed at the bottom of a wall facing the south, where they are hatched 
by the heat of the sun. It is sometimes ovoviviparous. In 1803 I kept a 
female of this species for two months, until it died in September, after giving 
birth to four young ones, perfectly formed, and measuring an inch and a half 
in length. Food consists of worms and insects, which it never seizes but 
when by motion they exhibit signs of life. Easily tamed. Irritated when 
touched on the jaw or throat. Tail brittle, and frequently broken off, but 
readily reproduced. 
Ray mentions the following varieties ; 
“ 1. Terrestris vulgaris ventre nigro maculato. 2. Terrestris anguiformis in 
ericetis. 3. Parvus terrestris fuscus opido rarus. 4. Lacertus terrestris lutetis 
squamosus Anglicus, Plot. Hist. Staff. 252. 5. Lacertus aquaticus fuscus niger,^' 
The history of these varieties is still involved in obscurity. 
Mr Sheppard, in the seventh volume of the Linn. Trans, p. 49., seems to 
have exalted the varieties of this animal into distinct species, chiefly from 
characters depending on the colours of its different parts. In so obscure a 
department of the British Fauna, it is possible that our opinion may not be ' 
well founded. The descriptions which he has given, here subjoined, will en- 
able the student to decide for himself. 
“ 1. L. agilis. Scaly or Swift Lizard — Head, upper part, light brown, 
with a few black spots. Back, ground colour light brown ; a line of irregu- 
lar black spots along the middle ; next to this, a stripe, spotted alternately 
with black and white ; then succeeds a broad dark brown one, with a line of 
black, and white spots in it : all these lines extend from the head to the end 
of the tail. Belly, in some, of a dull white ; in others, a bright yellow. 
Tail, on the under part, dirty -white, beautifully mottled with black spots ; 
the latter, however, in some specimens, are wanting. Legs, light brown 
above, spotted with white on the sides, and beneath of the same colour as the 
belly. Feet, both fore and hind, have five toes on each, furnished with nails. 
Length 6| inches. 
“ 2. li. csdura. Swelled-tailed Lizard — Head, upper part, dark brown, 
with a few black spots ; under part, dull white, mottled with black. Back, 
on the muddle, a black list, on each side of that a broad brown one, with a 
line of black spots in it ; then a narrow stripe of alternate yellow and brown 
spots ; beneath this, a broad, brownish-black stripe, with a line of yeUow 
spots in it : these lines all end about half an inch beyond the hind legs. 
Sides finely mottled with black and white. Belly of a beautiful orange (in 
some yellow, in others dirty-white), spotted with black. Tail bulging out a 
little below the base (where the lines doAvn the back terminate), which gives 
it the appearance of having been cut off and set on again : this is of a light 
ash-colour, with a few long black marks at the end, and a large red mark on 
the under part at the base ; the latter, however, varies according to the co- 
lour of the belly. Legs light brown above, black and white on the sides, and 
beneath, red, yellow or dull white (according to the belly), variegated with 
black spots. Feet have all five toes, with nails. Length 4^ inches. — This 
species I have at different times found in vast abundance ; yet, not having 
seen it described in any of the books I have access to, I have ventured to 
call it a new species, under the name, expressive of its conformation, of 
ffidura or Swelled-tail.” 
