single species of each. These are the Common
Lizard, well known to us all, and the Sand
Lizard, known only to some of us who happen
to live upon the southern coast. The species
of lizard so extremely common in this country,
has not been found in countries farther south,
and is, in fact, peculiar to our latitude. We,
therefore, may love him as a sympathetic
friend. The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) is
found as far north as the country of Linnæus,
and as far south as the northern part of France;
in England, however, it seems to be rare, and
has been detected only in Dorsetshire—chiefly
near Poole, or in some other southern counties.
It frequents sandy heaths, and is of a
brown sandy colour, marked and dotted; but,
there is a green variety, said to be found
among the verdure of marshy places. It is
larger than our common lizard, averaging
seven inches long, is very timid, and when
made a prisoner, pines and dies. Its female
lays eggs, like a turtle, in the sand, covers
them over, and leaves them to be hatched by
the summer sun. This kind of lizard, therefore,
is oviparous. The eggs of our common
lizard are hatched also by the sun; for,
reptiles having no heat of their own, cannot
provide that which is necessary to the
development of an embryo; but, in this case, the
sun hatches them within the parent's body.
The female of this lizard stretches herself out
upon a sunny bank, and lets the bright rays
fall upon her body while she lies inactive. At
this period, she will not move for anything
less than a real cause of alarm. She is not
sunning herself lazily, however, but fulfilling
an ordinance of God. The eggs break as the
young lizards—three to six—are born. This
lizard is, therefore, ovo-viviparous. The little
ones begin at once to run about, and soon dart
after insects, their proper food; but, they
accompany the mother with some instinct of
affection for a little time. These lizards are
very various in size and colour; difference in
these respects does not denote difference in
kind. The little scales which cover them are
arranged in a peculiar manner on the head,
under the neck, &c.; and some differences of
arrangement, in such respects, are characteristic.
The best distinction between the only
two species of lizard known in this country
has been pointed out by Mr. Bell. In the
hind legs, under each thigh, there is a row of
openings, each opening upon a single scale.
In sand lizards, the opening is obviously
smaller than the scale; in our common
lizards, the opening is so comparatively large,
that the scale seems to be the mere edge of
a tube around it.

These are our lizards, then, our Saurian
reptiles; and they do not merit any hate.
Suffer an introduction now to English Snakes.

The first snake, the Blindworm, is not a
snake, nor yet a worm. It is a half-way
animal—between a lizard and a snake. The
lizards shade off so insensibly into the
snakes, even the boa preserving rudimentary
hind legs, that some naturalists counsel their
union into a single class of squamate, or
scaled reptiles. By a milder process of
arrangement, all those animals which dwell
upon the frontier ground between Lizards or
Saurians, and Ophidians or Snakes, are to be
called Saurophidian. The blindworm, then,
is Saurophidian; it is quite as much a
lizard as a snake. Snakes have the bones of
their head all moveable, so that their jaws
can be dilated, until, like carpet-bags, they
swallow anything. The lizard has its jaws
fixed; so has the blindworm. Snakes have
a long tongue, split for some distance, and
made double-forked; the blindworm's tongue
has nothing but a little notch upon the tip.
It has a smooth round muzzle, with which
it can easily wind its way under dry soil to
hybernate; or else it takes a winter nap in
any large heap of dead leaves. It comes out
early in the spring; for, it can bear more
cold than reptiles generally like, and it is
found all over Europe, from Sweden to the
South of Italy. It feeds upon worms, slugs,
and insects. Like the snakes, it gets a new
coat as it grows, and takes the old one off,
by hooking it to some fixed point, and crawling
from it; so that the cast skin is dragged
backwards, and turned inside out. The
slow-worm is of a dark grey colour, silvery,
and about a foot long on the average. It is
ovo-viviparous. It is extremely gentle; very
rarely thinks of biting those who handle it,
and, when it does bite, inflicts no wound with
its little teeth. Of course it has no fangs,
and is not poisonous. Shrinking with fear
when taken, it contracts its body, and so
stiffens it, that it will break if we strike or
bend it. Therefore it bears the name
Linnæus gave it—Anguis fragilis.

We have found nothing yet, to shudder at,
among our reptiles. " O! but," you say
perhaps, " that was not a real snake." Well, here
is our real snake, Natrix torquata—our
common Ringed Snake; he is very common.
He may be three or four feet long, and
brownish-grey above, with a green tinge,
yellow marks upon the neck, and rows of
black spots down the back and sides,
alternating, like London lamp-posts, with each
other. You will find him anywhere in
England, almost anywhere in Europe, below
the latitude of Scotland. You will find him
most frequently in a moist place, or near
water, for he is rather proud of himself as a
swimmer. He has a handsome coat, and gets
a new one, two, three, four or five times in a
season, if his growth require it. When the
new coat is quite hard and fit for use under
the old, he strips his old one off among the
thorn-bushes. He and his lady hybernate.
The lady leaves her sixteen or twenty
eggs, all glued together, for the sun to
vivify. The snake's tongue, as we have
said, is forked, the jaws dilatable; he prefers
frogs for his dinner, but is satisfied with
mice, or little birds, or lizards. He swallows