The female deposits from five to twelve—usually about eight—eggs which have white shells of the consistency of parchment. These are covered with sand or leaves, and left for the sun to incubate. They are laid in July, and the young are hatched in the same month or early in August. The young Sand Lizards are grey-brown above and whitish below.
Like the Common Lizard, the Sand Lizard is very apt to lose its tail by voluntary amputation; and short-tailed specimens are sometimes found which are to be explained by supposing that the original tail has been shed and another grown.
Characters that distinguish the Sand Lizard from the common species will also be found in the general covering of scales—which are strongly keeled—and in the ten to eighteen on the thigh that are perforated, which are triangular, larger and flatter than the corresponding scales in the Common Lizard. If we have an opportunity for examining the mouth, too, we shall find that in addition to the teeth on the jaws there is a row of them—vomerine teeth—on the hinder part of the palate. These are not present in the Common Lizard. Both species spend the winter in a dormant state underground.
Outside England, the Sand Lizard is a native of Central and Northern Europe, its range extending to the North of Russia and Siberia; but it is a lizard of the lower lands, whilst the Common Lizard on the Continent is more plentiful in mountain districts.
There are two species of Lizards that are natives of the Channel Islands, and strangely one and not the other of these is usually included in lists of British animals because the islands are politically British. But the fauna and flora of the Channel Islands belong to those of the nearest mainland—France—and therefore should not be included among British species unless they occur also in England, Wales, Scotland, or Ireland. The two species referred to are the Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis), with tail equal to three-fourths of its entire length, and the Wall Lizard (Lacerta muralis) of variable brown coloration and a tail one and a half times the length of the head and body. The Green Lizard may sometimes be seen in this country as an escape from captivity, being a favourite subject with the keepers of vivaria.
Slow-worm (Anguis fragilis, Linn.).
The average person cannot understand why the naturalist should be so "pig-headed" as to regard the Slow-worm, Blind-worm or Deaf-adder as a lizard when it is so obviously a snake, and has no legs such as a properly constructed lizard should have. If the naturalist were given to argument of the tu quoque order he might retort by asking why the average man persists in styling a swift-gliding reptile a Slow-worm, or one with brilliant eyes a Blind-worm? But the probability is that he will quote Longfellow and tell the inquirer that "things are not [always] what they seem"—that under the close and polished, uniform scaly covering there are vestiges of limbs that have been discarded in the long evolutionary history of the species; that it has eyelids like other lizards, that the two sides of the lower jaw have a bony union in front, and that it has a notched not forked tongue—characters that do not agree with the structure of any snake. But all this will fall upon deaf ears, and the average man will go on slaughtering Slow-worms at sight, and believing that he has done a brave and meritorious thing.
The Slow-worm attains a maximum length of seventeen or eighteen inches, but the average "large" example is about a foot long. Its head is quite small and short, not so broad as the body just behind it. The tail, which is much longer than the head and body, and longer in the male than in the female, tapers gradually, and is very slender before ending in the short sharp point at the tip. In many examples this graceful tapering of the tail is not evident, because at some time it has been broken short, and the effort to renew it, whilst it gives a sort of finish, never appears to be a success. There is usually a ragged end to the old part, and the narrower new part appears to have been rather clumsily stuck inside the fringe of old scales. Many specimens are in this condition, for the Slow-worm is much more ready to part with its tail than either of our other lizards. The scales on the upper and under sides are nearly uniform in size and shape, broader than in the other lizards and rounded on the hind margin which is thinner than the dark-coloured central part of the scale. The scales are quite without keels, polished and plainly overlap their fellows. There is a thin dark line down the centre of the back, and another on the upper part of each side.
The small mouth has the jaws well armed with uniform slightly curved teeth, whose points are all directed backwards. The bright eyes are placed low down, not much above the upper jaw. The head is covered by much larger scales than usual, but in this case the head regions are not so clearly mapped out as in the other species, owing to the thin edges of the scales giving no strong outlines. With a live Slow-worm in the hand one gets a clear idea of the smoothness and close attachment of the scaly covering. The feeling conveyed is that there are no scales: that the external coat is continuous and homogeneous; and one marvels at the reptile's power of gliding rapidly through the fingers. Though the Slow-worm may be found on the edge of the wood, or on the heath, sunning itself early in the spring, and apparently a lifeless casting in bronze, on the slightest alarm it dives into the vegetable soil and speedily disappears. In its basking attitude Slow-worm may be an appropriate name; but when it begins to move we are astounded that it has been able to keep so ridiculous a name.