1903] Blue-Tailed Lizard. 239 



NOTE ON THE BLUE-TAILED LIZARD. 



Several s mmers past, beginning with the summer of 1897, 

 I have observed a very pretty little lizard on an island of Stony 

 Lake in Peterboro' County, Ontario. As true lizards are not com 

 mon in Ontario (though newts and salamanders, which are popu- 

 larly called " lizards," are fairly common) and as this is the only 

 Canadian lizard I have ever seen, I have been the more interested 

 in it. 



At noon on a bright, warm day in August, 1899, with the aid 

 of a little boy, I secured a specimen in the shallow water on the 

 flat rocky shore, made a sketch of it, and then let it go. I am 

 loth to kill animals, even rare ones, or rather especially rare ones; 

 for I regard such animals as the very ones to be most encouraged 

 in the locality. This proved to be the Blue-tailed Lizard, Eumeces 

 fasciatus, one of the skinks. It was very nearly four inches long, 

 black, with five yellow stripes along the back, the middle one 

 being forked at (he head ; and it had nn irridescent blue-green 

 tail. One summer I found one dead on the shore. Last year as 

 I was clearing the shore of drift-wood, I saw one come out of an 

 old stump. It was within arm's length of me, and we remained 

 looking at each other for some time before I made an unsuccess- 

 ful effort to catch it. I have at other times caught glimpses of 

 them as they darted under a rock or log ; and this summer my 

 sister saw one under the corner of the house. 



In all cases the animal was seen in the middle of the day ; it 

 must therefore be, to some extent at least, diurnal. It is no 

 wonder that the lizards are rare and consequently little observed 

 in Canada; for, being at once cold-blooded (or rather poikilotherm) 

 and terrestrial, they like a warm climate, and are found in abund- 

 ance only in tropical climes. Of the other reptiles we have, for 

 the same reason, no alligators or crocodiles and but comparatively 

 few species of snakes and turtles. 



As Professor Macoun knows of no previous record of this 

 lizard in Canada, I have thought it worth while to make this note 

 ot it. 



Cephas Guillet. 



Nov., 1902. 



