REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS IN EPPING FOREST
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Rushey Plain, the Long Running and Broadstrood, but it has colonised
even such apparently insignificant open spaces as the edges of roadsides,
the levelled anti-tank ditch near the Wake Arms, and the more open of
the rides. Lizards have even been seen on the island on the A. 11 round-
about at the Robin Hood, an area perhaps fifty feet across (D.S. 1953).
Details of other places where we have found this species will be found
on the maps. Surprisingly for such a common animal, references to it in
literature of the area are very few. Fitter (1949) recorded it from the
Forest in general, but neither Stubbs nor Buxton mentioned it in detail.
[Sand Lizard (Lacerta agilis L.). The record of one caught at South
Woodford (Oldham, 1891) must surely have been due to a mis-
identification. We mention it here as the reference seems to have escaped
the notice of later authors, but we would add that any records of this
lizard, or the Smooth Snake, in Essex should be substantiated by pro-
duction of the specimen, preferably alive.]