[Illustration: _Pl. 89._ _K 141._ *Slow-worm.* Young hatching from newly laid eggs.] 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.).