I/O THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cause the differences in these respects between this lizard and the 

 blue-tailed skink, the only other saurian found in New Jersey, is 

 very marked ; the latter, as we shall see, although having less 

 suggestive manners, has, I believe, a greater degree of intelligence. 



Blue-Tailed Skink (Eumeces fasciaius). 



I have spoken of the rapid and complete submission of the 

 pine-tree lizard when captured. While rowing from point to 

 point along the rocky shores of Lake Hopatcong, Morris County, 

 N. J,, early in May, 1887, 1 chanced to see a beautiful "blue-tailed" 

 skink, an old male that was now of a uniform rich brown color, 

 and with a brilliantly red head. My one thought was to capture 

 it — but how ? I was in a profoundly cranky boat, and the water 

 at this point was very deep. I tried a cold douche, and the be- 

 wildered skink, leaping into the lake, was caught as it clumsily 

 swam toward shore. I placed it in a Wardian case. May 20th, and 

 immediately it burrowed in the thick mat of sphagnum at the bot- 

 tom, and for a week seldom if ever made its appearance. I could 

 only determine that it was alive by searching for it, and inva- 

 riably was bitten. It then showed a disposition to come from its 

 inter-sphagnian retreat, bnt remained wholly suspicious of every 

 sound or object that approached. Concealing myself, I watched 

 it carefully, and found that the shutting of a door, the crowing of 

 a cock near the window, and loud conversation in an adjoining 

 room, always frightened it ; while the singing of a canary, and of 

 robins in a tree near by, were not noticed. A quickly passing 

 shadow was particularly feared. Did it associate this with the 

 birds of prey that are the skink's most dangerous enemies ? Hav- 

 ing disappeared, it never returned by the same burrow, but, cau- 

 tiously peeping from a hole in an opposite corner of the case, 

 studied the outlook for a long time before reai3pearing. It showed 

 no disposition to be sociable until June 10th, when it seemed sud- 

 denly to gain confidence, but only to a slight degree. June 19th 

 it ate for the first time, and then became somewhat tamer, but 

 still was essentially wild, and seemed perhaps the more so because 

 of the contrast with the pair of lizards that were all the while its 

 companions. July 29th it was transferred to a roomy fernery be- 

 longing to a friend, where it found a close resemblance to its lake- 

 side home in all essential features, and immediately it became 

 more active ; and now, nearly four months after capture, has 

 become comparatively tame. 



The skink, as we have seen, is exceedingly shy, irritable, and 

 resents the slightest interference by biting savagely, but of course 

 is entirely harmless. Nearly every prominent feature of the lizard 



