( 203 ) 
'The Great Spotted Lizard, with a forked Tail. 
T H E Figure here given fhews its natural Bignefs. It was 
brought from ’Jamaica , together with its Eggs and young 
Ones, fome breaking out from the Eggs, and others beginning to at¬ 
tain the Colour of the old One. The Eggs are firft White, of the 
Shape and Size expreffed in the Figure ; they grow Brown before the 
Young are perfect in them, which Young are feen wrapped up like 
young Birds, with the Yolk hanging to their Navels. I found one 
Egg with the young One breaking from it backwards, as expreffed in 
the Figure : The Young come forth of a brown Colour, but when a 
little grown they are Greenifh. 
The Tongue is forked as in other Lizards; the Top of the Head is 
covered with broad Scales, of a whitifh Alh-Colour ; the Sides of the 
Head, the Neck, Sides of the Body, Legs and Feet, are all of an Afh- 
Colour, or Greyifh ; the Eyes are Black; the Mouth is flit beyond 
the Eyes; the under Chap is Reddifh; the Ears are open Holes. It 
hath on each Shoulder two black Spots; in the Middle of the Back it 
hath a green Mark its whole Length, broadefl cn the Bump, and 
ending in a Point between the Shoulders. The Sides are fpotted with 
oval Spots of Blue, as are the outer Sides of the hinder Legs; the Belly, 
and Part of the under Side of the Tail, are checquered with Squares 
of a fine Blue, parted with a darker Blue or Black. The Tail, fo far 
as it is iingle, is Blue on its upper Side, but the Parts of both Tails, 
from the joining to their Ends, are of a brownifh Afh-Colour. The 
Feet have each of them five Toes, with finall Nails or Claws. I be¬ 
lieve it is not either natural or monftrous in this Animal to have two 
Tails, but that a new Tail fucceeds the old One when it chances to be 
trod on, or to receive any other Injury, by which the old Tail mortifies 
or dries up ; for in the Subjedf before us, the upper Tail, which I fuppofe 
to be the old and dried Tail, was fhoved up out of its Place, and the 
siew Tail kept its lineal Dire&ion with the Body of the Animal. 
This Lizard is very well figur’d (with a fingle Tail,) in Sir Hans Sloane's Natural Hiftory of 
Jamaica , Vol. II. P. 333. Tab. 273, Fig. 3. Lacertus major cinereus maculalus. Sir Hans fays, 
it is very common about old Walls. Since I made my Drawing of the above defcribed, I law 
A Lizard of this very Species three times as big as my Subject, which had alio a forked Tail, but 
the Parting was farther from the Body in the thin Part of the Tail. This lad is in the Collection 
fc>f my Friend Mr. Peter Colinfon. Dr. Cromwell Mortimer , Secretary of the Royal Society , obliged 
me with the above defcribed, together with its Eggs and young Ones. 
The 
