A List and Some Notes on the Lizards 



and Snakes Represented in the 



Pomona College Museum 



Raymond B. Cowles 



The purpose of this article is to give a general idea as to the distribution of 

 snakes and lizards from the desert regions of Southern California, with a few observa- 

 tions on their habits. It is also an enumeration of the snakes and lizards which may 

 be met with in the region about Claremont. 



The list has been compiled from specimens in the Pomona College Museum only, 

 and the writer is well aware that not all the specimens from the Claremont and 

 desert regions are represented. No effort is made to give the limits of the range of 

 the specimens nor to give any conclusions as final. In those cases where a list is 

 given of the places from which specimens were taken, it is merely to show that 

 the range is at least of that extent. 



Testudo agassizi (Cooper). 



One of these desert tortoise was taken at Ludlow, California, towards the last of 

 April, 1920. It was found out in the open at the base of an alluvial fan, and made 

 no effort to escape capture. It is being kept alive with a view to study its habits so 

 far as possible under artificial conditions. 



Dipsnsaiirus diirsalis (Baird and Girard). 



Taken from fifteen miles east of Blythe Junction, .'\pril 2, 1920, in the sand hills. 

 A second specimen was taken 45 miles west of Blvthe, in a sand wash, on April 4, 

 1920. 



The main habitat of this lizard seems to be the sand hills or sandy country, and 

 it takes refuge in the holes of rats when menaced. 



During August of 1919 they were seen in pairs and seemed to be breeding. 

 Observations seemed to show that a given pair occupied the same territory and 

 rarely traveled far from it. They were seen most on the hottest days, feeding on 

 the leaves of some of the low desert shrubs. Upon being frightned they would drop 

 from the branches and run rapidly, with the entire body raised from the ground, to the 

 nearest burrow, where they would remain for half an hour or more before reappearing. 

 On cloudy days, even though the temperature remained above 100° F. they were 

 seldom seen and appeared to be very sluggish, sometimes allowing one to approach 

 to within a few feet of them before running. 



Their food seemed to be almost exclusively plants, and they preferred the leaves 

 of an alfalfa plant which happened to be growing near their chosen range. During 

 an entire summer, June 25 until September 25, they were seen eating insects only 

 once. The specimen eating the insect escaped and it is not know what insect it might 

 be, though from a distance it appeared to be one of the ."^crididae. 



