34 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



mens were decidedly arboreal; an adult male shaken out of a tree in Hocking 

 County promptly ran up another. Specimens are very quick and it requires 

 considerable agility and often much perseverance to catch them. They resist 

 capture by biting, and while their teeth are short, their jaws are so strong that 

 they pinch hard and are apt to break the skin. 



Holbrook (1842, II, 119) in writing about this large skink says, 



He chooses his residence in deep forests, and is commonly found about hollow 

 trees, often at a height of thirty or forty feet from the ground; sometimes taking up 

 his abode in a last year's nest of a woodpecker, out of which he thrusts his bright red 

 head in a threatening manner to those who disturb his home. He never makes his 

 habitat on or near the ground, and, in fact seldom descends from his elevation unless 

 in search of food or water. 



Swifts were in evidence in every Ohio locality in which large-headed skinks 

 were collected. It is probable that the habitats of the present species and the 

 blue-tailed skink may overlap, and especially in such artificial places as saw- 

 dust piles. However, they were clearly differentiated in the case of the rela- 

 tively few specimens of both species which were collected within the range of 

 laticeps in the state. Fasciatus appears to be essentially terrestrial, to prefer 

 a moist environment and to be at home in the ravines in southern Ohio. 

 Laticeps, on the other hand, is largely arboreal (particularly adults), prefers 

 dry cliffs, sunny hillsides and hilltops and lives in general above the habitat 

 of fasciatus. 



It is probable that the food consists largely of insects although specimens 

 are large and powerful enough to overcome young rodents as well. Captives 

 ate a wide variety of insects and lapped egg with their tongues. 



Noble and Mason (1933) have found that females brood their eggs as do 

 the females of the blue-tailed skink. Two females which they had in captivity 

 laid 6 eggs each and another laid 7; the incubation period was 39, 48 and 56 

 days in the case of these three clutches. When laid the eggs were 15 and 18.5 

 mm. X 9 mm. and were distinctly larger than the eggs of blue-tailed skinks which 

 were laid at the same time. At the time of hatching, however, the eggs of the 

 two species were nearly the same size but the young laticeps were nearly 3 mm. 

 longer from snout to vent than the young fasciatus. Although they supplied 

 the same food to juveniles of both species the young laticeps grew much more 

 rapidly than the young fasciatus. 



Carphophis amoena helenae (Kennicott) 

 Worm Snake 



Description. — A small snake attaining a length of a foot or slightly more. 

 Largest adult Ohio specimen ( ? ), 12% inches in length; smallest juvenile 

 (possibly recently hatched) , 4 inches. Head small, flattened and without a 

 constriction at the neck. Eye small. One nasal; the nostril in the anterior 

 half. Loreal long and narrow; no preocular. Internasals and prefrontals sep- 

 arate or fused.* Body subcylindrical and moderately stout. Tail short and 

 tapering to a stout sharp tip. 



* See paragraph headed "Affinities" on page 35. 



