This beautiful lizard does not keep well in captivity, although it becomes very tame; it eats meal-worms, snails, earth-worms, and insects, especially butterflies, but it sickens after the first winter even if it has been allowed to hibernate.
In Portugal and Spain L. viridis is represented by a slightly different kind, L. schreiberi, the chief interest of which lies in the fact that it approaches L. ocellata in several respects. The occipital shield is large and is usually broader than the interparietal. The dorsal scales are smaller, and there are eight well-developed rows of ventral scales. Instead of being uniformly green, the upper parts are usually spotted and vermiculated with black; sometimes, especially in the females, the black spots have a white ocellus in the centre. The under parts are yellowish, with or without black spots. The throat is blue. The young look very different. They are olive-brown above with large yellow, or bluish-white, black-edged ocelli on the side of the head and body.
Other forms, perhaps of sub-specific rank, approaching L. ocellata, occur in the Balkan Peninsula, where, for instance in Dalmatia, the typical L. viridis attains its most beautiful development.
Fig. 144.–Lacerta ocellata (the Eyed Lizard). × ⅓.
L. ocellata, the Eyed Lizard, inhabits Spain and Portugal, extending northwards into the South of France and into the Riviera, southwards into Morocco and Algeria; these southern forms (L. pater and L. tangitana) approach L. viridis. The Eyed Lizard is green or dark olive above, with black or yellowish dots, which are sometimes combined into a kind of network pattern. The under parts are uniformly greenish yellow. The sides of the body are adorned with about two dozen blue, black-edged spots or "eyes." The intensity of the blue and the depth of the green ground-colour vary much according to sex, time of the year, and state of health. Males during the breeding season are most beautiful and brilliant. The occipital shield is broad; there are two superposed nasal but no tympanic shields. The supraoculars are separated from the supraciliaries by a series of granules. The collar is well marked, but not the gular fold. The dorsal scales are minute and granular; the ventral shields are arranged in eight or ten longitudinal rows.
The "Eyed Lizard" reaches a considerable size, especially the males, which develop a very strong and thick head, and are much more robust and powerful than the more slender females. Old males reach a length of 2 feet, two-thirds of which length belong to the tail; but the latter varies much, even if it has never been broken and renewed.
The Eyed Lizard keeps extremely well in captivity, and in this respect is unlike the Green Lizard. A case has been recorded of its living thirteen years. This species is very intelligent. Although at first ferociously wild and biting furiously, these lizards soon become tame and take food regularly. One of my own, a half-grown male from Northern Spain, about one foot in length, made its home in a little niche of the greenhouse-wall, whence it emerged regularly to take the offered food from my hand. It soon knew the whole place thoroughly, making use of the creepers whilst scaling up to its retreat, jumping over certain gaps, descending to the ground at certain spots, basking on certain stones, invariably in the same methodical way. In the month of October it retires into the ground on the coolest side of the greenhouse, and although the latter is well warmed, the lizard remains invisible until the next February or March, when on some fine day it is rediscovered basking upon exactly the same stone where it had been seen five months before. The only drawback in connexion with keeping this kind of lizard in company with other creatures is their voraciousness; since large, fully adult specimens attack and eat any other small lizard, slow-worm, or snake they can find. They also take mice. The eggs are often deposited in hollow trees.
L. muralis, the Wall-Lizard, is very common in Southern Europe, Asia Minor, and Northern Africa. Northward it extends into Belgium and into South Germany. In the Iberian Peninsula it ascends up to 5000 or 6000 feet above the level of the sea. This graceful little creature, with an average length of 6 to 8 inches, is easily recognised by the series of granules between the supraocular and supraciliary scales and usually by having only six rows of ventral scales. The great variety in coloration has given rise to the establishment of many races, varieties, and sub-species. In the typical forms the upper parts are brown or greyish, with blackish spots or streaks, sometimes with a bronzy greenish sheen. The under parts are white, yellow, pink, or red, either uniform or, especially in the males, with large black spots. The lateral rows of ventral shields are frequently blue. The colour-varieties are almost endless. One of the most noteworthy is that described as var. coerulea by Eimer; this, confined to the Faraglione Rocks near Cápri, is blackish above, like the rock, and sapphire-blue below. Similarly coloured specimens, var. lilfordi, occur on some of the rocky islets of the Balearic Isles.
The Wall-Lizard deserves its name, since in the Mediterranean countries there is scarcely a wall on which these active lizards do not bask or run up and down, often head downwards, in search of insects. They are oviparous. The hibernation is short and not very deep, since these lizards can sometimes be seen basking on sunny winter days before their regular appearance in the early spring.