Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/39

SAND AND GREEN LIZARDS eight or more eggs are laid during July, a depression being made by the female into which she can deposit her treasures. If the district frequented is not sandy, then the eggs are deposited under leaves, or other suitable cover. Insects constitute the food. The male is green in colour, with a tinge of the same on the yellow under parts. There is a series of black dots on the sides, each with an eye-spot of whitish. There are black spots on the under parts. The female is brown or grey above, with large spots of dark brown, each having a centre spot of white. The cream-coloured under parts of the female may, or may not, be specked with black. The young are not black as in Lacerta vivipara but are grey-brown above, with white spots having black edges. Their under parts are whitish. The average length of the adult Sand Lizard is about 7½inches. The female is a little larger. The Smooth Snake is the mortal enemy of this species, and both, as has been stated, are found inhabiting the same territory.

Green Lizard.—Lacerta viridis (Fig. 7). If, as is accepted in some quarters, the Channel Isles can rightly be included as a province coming within the survey of British wild life, two other species of Lizards have to be included in our reptile fauna in the persons of the Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis), and Wall Lizard (Lacerta muralis). As neither of these, however, occur on the mainland, except as occasional escapes, it is not necessary to do more than briefly refer to them. The Green Lizard is, with the exception of the Slow Worm, the largest species 23