Identifier: lifehistoryofbri00leig (find matches)
Title: The life-history of British lizards and their local distribution in the British Isles
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Leighton, Gerald Rowley, 1868-
Subjects: Lizards -- Great Britain
Publisher: Edinburgh, etc., George A. Morton
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

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epted theory that the river Mersey,within geologically recent times, used to empty itselfinto the sea considerably to the west of its presentmouth; so that at one time the Wallasey coast-linewas north of the river. The spread of the suburbanresidential districts round Liverpool, the growth ofseaside resorts, such as Hoylake and West Kirby,and the formation of golf links all along the coasthave destroyed a large portion of these sandhills;but there are considerable stretches in both countieswhere the lizard may still exist. The sand lizardis not known in Cumberland or Westmoreland, and,although many miles of the North Wales coast, fromthe mouth of the Dee westward, are, or were, similarin character to the Cheshire shores, I know of norecord of the sand lizard from the Principality. Theevidence therefore shows that L. agilis, generally con-sidered to be only an inhabitant of some of thesouthern counties, occurs in the north, on a strip ofsandhills bordering the Irish Sea, from the mouth
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IS s < <: o THE SAND LIZARD, LACERTA AGILIS 61 of the Eibble to the outskirts of Liverpool, and, unlessByerleys and Gregsons specimens were incorrectlylocalised, on the Cheshire shore from West Kirby toNew Brighton. Description.—A glance at the photographs of thisspecies will convey the correct impression that thesand hzard is larger and of heavier build than theviviparous species. Associated with this is the factthat L. agilis, in spite of its specific name, is less agilethan the smaller common form. It possesses granularnodes over the eye, and teeth upon the palate bone,the latter an important distinction between the twolizards. A comparison of the scales on the body willreveal that in the sand lizard these are more numerousacross from one side of the back to the other, and alsothat the individual scales are smaller and evidentlykeeled. On the dorsal aspect these scales are morerounded or irregular than in L. vivipara, where wesaw they were hexagonal and elongated. In colour

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