Part 12

The Fallow fawns are born in May or June in a close retreat far in among the bracken. Though mostly there is only one at a birth, there are frequently two, and rarely three. The fawn is capable of taking care of itself when only a few hours old. As illustrating this point, we may quote an incident narrated by Mr. John Watson, who has written intimately of the wild life of Westmorland. He says: "Once we came suddenly upon a pretty little soft-eyed creature, evidently only a few hours old. It squatted closely as we stood over it, but when aware that it was observed, feigned death in the most amusing manner, only with the softest and most wide-open eyes imaginable. As we stooped towards it, with half a dozen bounds it cleared the brake, and as a rapid stream stopped its further progress, jumped in, and, after swimming about twenty yards, came quickly ashore. It then trotted back to its bed among the fern; and yet it is probable that this fawn had not previously used its legs, and had certainly never seen water."

The name Fallow is the Anglo-Saxon _fealewe_, and indicates the gilvous colour of the lighter race. Gray in 1843 separated the species from the Linnean genus _Cervus_ under its species name of _Dama_. The modern effort to get back to original species names under the rules of priority has caused this Deer to be dubbed _Dama dama_ in the newest catalogues. We have preferred to retain the Linnean _Cervus dama_, but our readers can say _Dama dama_ if they like it better.

*Roe Deer* (_Capreolus capraea_, Gray).

A third species of Deer, the Roe, is now to be found only in our northern mountain woods. It is the smallest and prettiest of our native species, and appears to have been formerly the most widely distributed of the three (though never an Irish species), but to have been driven further and further north by the advance of population and cultivation in the south. Even so, quiet ramblers in the thicker woods and plantations of the New Forest have a slender prospect of seeing it. About the beginning of the nineteenth century, Lord Portarlington introduced Roe to the woods of Milton Abbas, in Dorset, where they prospered and increased. In the year 1876, or thereabouts, it is said that some of these made their way across country for twenty-five miles and settled in the New Forest. There are very few of them, and this fact combined with their cleverly elusive movements in the dense coverts they affect, makes the chance of seeing them very remote, more particularly as the Roe is nocturnal in its habits.

The Roe stands only about two and a quarter feet at the shoulders. Its colour in summer is bright red-brown, the coat short and smooth; but in winter it becomes long and brittle, and the colour changes to a warm grey. The tail is so short as to be scarcely visible among the surrounding hairs which, as well as the under parts and the inner sides of the thighs, are white. The ears are relatively larger than those of the other species, covered with long hairs and whitish inside. It has a white chin and a white spot on each side of the dark muzzle. A mature buck weighs from forty to fifty pounds. There are no signs of horns in first year fawns; in the second year they make their appearance as simple unbranched prongs. The third year the horns are forked, a short tine pointing forwards; those of the fourth year have an additional tine directed backwards, and this marks the full complication of their structure. In later years they have the same general design, but, of course, are each year larger; at their maximum they are only eight or nine inches long, and are nearly upright. Small and primitive though these horns are, they are very effective weapons, and there have been occasions when they were used with fatal effect against human victims. They have no canine teeth.

Roe Deer never congregate in large herds, but form small family groups. In spring the hind retires deep into the covert, where her two (sometimes three) spotted fawns are born; and when they are about a fortnight old, she brings them out into the more open parts. Charles St. John, who, in the first half of the nineteenth century, had full opportunity for a close study of the natural history of the Highlands, has much to say of Roe Deer and their habits. He remarks that, "The greatest drawback to preserving Roe to any great extent is, that they are so shy and nocturnal in their habits that they seldom show themselves in the daytime. I sometimes see a Roe passing like a shadow through the trees, or standing gazing at me from a distance in some sequestered glade; but, generally speaking, they are no ornament about a place, their presence being only known by the mischief they do to the young plantations and to the crops. A keeper in Kincardineshire this year told me that he had often, early in the morning, counted above twenty Roe in a single turnip-field. As for the sport afforded by shooting them, I never killed one without regretting it, and wishing that I could bring the poor animal to life again. I do not think that Roe are sufficiently appreciated as venison, yet they are excellent eating when killed in proper season, between October and February, and of proper age. In summer the meat is not worth cooking, being dry and sometimes rank."

The Roe is a good swimmer, and often crosses rivers, probably in order to get a change of food, though sometimes there is no reason apparent. On this point St. John tells us: "For some unknown reason, as they do it without apparent cause, such as being hard-hunted or driven by want of food, the Roe sometimes take it into their heads to swim across wide pieces of water, and even arms of the sea. I have known Roe caught by boatmen in the Cromarty Firth, swimming strongly across the entrance of the bay, and making good way against the current of the tide, which runs there with great rapidity. Higher up the same firth, too, Roe have been caught when in the act of crossing. When driven by hounds I have seen one cross Loch Ness."

The dentition is the same as that of the Fallow Deer.

LIZARDS AND SLOW-WORM

*Common Lizard* (_Lacerta vivipara_, Wagl.).

There are still two small groups of backboned animals to be described, representing the classes Reptilia and Batrachia. To the average man they are all Reptiles, and he has this justification for so regarding them--that until recently they were so classified by the great naturalists. Modern biologists, however, dealing with structure and organisation rather than with external form, find that this association of the scale-clad Lizards and Serpents with the soft-skinned Frogs, Toads, and Newts cannot be defended, and they have separated them into the two classes named. The reasons for this separation will become manifest in our descriptions of the several species, so that a preliminary dissertation on the subject is not necessary.

Sitting on a sunny, heather-clad hillside it will not be long, probably, before we see the active little Common Lizard peeping at us from under cover or leaping swiftly over the crowded plants. Its movements are so rapid that it is not at all easy to follow them in detail, or even to catch one for closer examination. It can run nimbly enough with a gliding motion, for the body and tail are scarcely lifted from the ground; but the principal mode of progression is to shoot forward horizontally from one tuft of herbage to the next. They run with as much facility over the shoots of heather or heath, and their long, delicate fingers and toes secure them as sure a landing as that of the Squirrel leaping from branch to branch. When we have hit upon a spot where we have seen several Lizards thus active, a good plan is to sit down quietly for a time, and keep our eyes on a patch of sand that is fully exposed to sunshine. In a little while a Lizard, maybe two or three Lizards, will appear from under the heather or other plants and bask in the sun.

So seen, we note that they are about five inches in length, which is only an average size. The maximum attained by males is six inches, and by females seven inches. The females are not merely longer, they are altogether of larger proportions; but the male is the more graceful of the two, his tail tapering gradually from the slender body to the very fine tip. Though the tail is in both sexes equal in length to the head and body, that of the female appears shorter owing to its sudden tapering beyond the thick basal portion.

The colour is some tint of brown, varying considerably in different individuals from yellow-grey to purple-brown, as a ground tint, upon which is laid variable dark spots forming more or less broken longitudinal lines. There is sometimes a blackish line or band following the course of the backbone to a little behind the hips, and a dark band along the sides edged with yellow. On the underside the males are orange or red, spotted with black; the females, orange, yellow, or pale greenish, with or without black spots, or a few small grey dots. They appear to moult, or "slough," in patches, though entire sloughs are found occasionally.

The limbs of the Lizards agree structurally with those of the Mammals, each ending in a well-formed hand or foot with five long and slender digits, each with a curved claw--those of the hand worn short and blunt by their use in scraping the earth.

Their principal food is furnished by the various tribes of insects--flies, beetles, moths, and caterpillars, though spiders are greatly appreciated. Unless they are very small, caterpillars do not appear to be swallowed, but rather chewed and the skin rejected. The name _vivipara_ refers to the fact that the female retains her eggs until they are fully developed and ready to hatch, so that the young are born free from the egg-membrane, or the egg breaks in the act of oviposition or immediately after. They are deposited anywhere: there is neither nest nor concealment, and the mother exhibits no interest or concern in her progeny. These number from six to twelve, and are nearly black. They remain motionless where they were born for several days. They are about an inch long. They start life so well nourished that they take no food for several days, then start hunting for small insects, such as Aphides and other soft-bodied species. The teeth are very small and conical, and unfitted to deal with hard substances; and as the two halves of the lower jaw are firmly connected there can be no distension of the small mouth to accommodate large parcels of food, as happens with the Snakes.

Points to be noted in the external appearance of the Common Lizard, when we have succeeded in capturing one, are the fact that the entire body is clothed with smooth, slightly keeled, and scarcely overlapping scales, small on the upper side, excepting the head, where they are large. On the underside, too, they are larger, especially from the breast to the vent, where they become broad plates, of which there are six rows, the two central rows being much smaller than the lateral ones. A row of larger scales forms a sort of collar across the underside of the neck. The Lizards have not that fixed, ever-open-eyed stare of the Snakes. The Lizard can follow your movements with his eye, and wink at you intelligently, because he is provided with eyelids, which the Snake lacks. He closes his eyes in sleep. When he puts out his tongue to ascertain whether an insect is good for food, you will notice that the broad tip of it is notched into two rounded lobes, instead of being forked into two thread-like points, as in the snakes. The usual attitude of the Common Lizard is with the extended tail and greater part of the body resting on the ground, or other support, whilst the head and foreparts are raised on the arms, and the muzzle turned to one side in an attitude that suggests listening. It has been stated that Lizards are susceptible to musical sounds, and that they may be attracted from their hiding-places by judicious whistling.

On the underside of the thighs will be found a row of small, roundish scales, all perforated, and numbering from seven to thirteen. The perforations are filled with a yellowish or brown substance, which appears as a little cone above the opening. Its purpose has not been settled satisfactorily, but Cope suggests that it may be for giving the Lizard a better hold on slippery surfaces, seeing that the weight of the body rests chiefly upon the thighs. Another point that should be mentioned is the brittleness of the tail. In catching--or attempting to catch--a Lizard, he should be grasped by the shoulders. If the tail be held instead, it will probably come away in the hand, snapping at the base as readily as though it were glass or sealing wax. A sort of tail will grow from the stump if the Lizard lives long enough, but it is always a poor, ungraceful affair.

This species is the Furze Evvet of the New Forest, and the Harriman of Shropshire. In Cheshire it is the Swift. In suitable situations--sandhills, fallows, heaths, and moors--it may be found all over Great Britain, including the Isle of Man, and in most localities it is common. It is the one true reptile that Ireland possesses, and it appears to occur in all parts of the island, though not in any abundance. It appears (like the Natterjack) to have escaped the attentions of St. Patrick when "He gave the snakes and toads a twist and banished them for ever." Its wider distribution includes Northern and Central Europe and Siberia, where it shows a preference for mountainous and high-lying country.

*Sand Lizard* (_Lacerta agilis_, Linn.).

At a glance there is little beyond its superior size to distinguish the Sand Lizard from the Common Lizard; and in consequence the earlier records of its occurrence in certain localities have had to be severely revised. It appears to have been the rule of many recorders, when specimens of the common species that exceeded average proportions were captured, to put them down as Sand Lizards without any critical examination. The truth is that as a British species the Sand Lizard is found only in certain restricted localities in the southern counties of Dorset, Hampshire, and Surrey, and the sandhills by the sea in Lancashire and Cheshire. Its southern habitats agree almost exactly with those of the Smooth Snake, for which it provides a favourite food. It is not found either in Scotland or Ireland.

The adult male of the Sand Lizard is about seven and a half inches long, of which more than half is tail. The female is about half an inch longer, but the additional measure is added to the body, for the tail is less than half of the whole length. The general colouring may be described as a sandy-brown, with broken bands of darker tint. There is, of course, a considerable amount of colour variation, and in the males there is a marked tendency to a green suffusion, which in many cases is so pronounced as to lead to a belief that the examples in question are the non-indigenous Green Lizard (_Lacerta viridis_). It was, no doubt, some markedly green males of the Sand Lizard which Gilbert White saw "on a sunny sandbank, near Farnham, in Surrey," and thought were true Green Lizards. There are rows of dark and white spots along the sides of the back, flank, and tail, which give the appearance of longitudinal stripes. The green of the male is more pronounced during the breeding season (May-June) when it is also evident in the usual black-dotted yellow of the underside. The black spots along his sides have white centres. The under parts of the female are cream coloured, and the three rows of white-centred spots on the sides are dark brown.

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.

The food of the Slow-worm is governed by the small size of the mouth. It is not an easy matter to study its feeding habits when it is at large, and our knowledge of its food preferences have been derived mainly from Slow-worms in captivity. It will take spiders, small earthworms, and small insects; but always shows a marked preference for the small greyish-white slug (_Limax agrestis_) that is so great a pest to the grower of tender vegetables. This slug the Slow-worm consumes in quantity. Dr. Gerald Leighton, in his book on the "British Lizards," says: "I can vouch for a meal that consisted of seventeen slugs, the Slow-worm being a large male sixteen inches long. But the usual number taken seems to be from four to ten." Its principal feeding time is soon after sunset, when the slugs are most in evidence on the surface and beginning to make their nefarious attacks on the food of man. If the gardener, professional and amateur, could only be taught such facts, the sudden descent of the sharp edge of spade or hoe upon one of his ablest helpers might be stayed. The reptiles and the batrachians are all his friends.