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and soon becoming so tame that it may be trained to work in harness 

 pulling a toy wagon , or to eat insects from one's hand. When gently 

 rubbed it puffs itself out, but when in fear it becomes flattened to the 

 ground. Phrynosoma chiefly enjoys a dust heap, where with tail and 

 feet flirting the warm calcareous powder over its body, or with alter- 

 nate sawing motions of its sides, it quickly buries all of itself save the 

 head, and sometimes even this part, in the dirt. While built after an 

 awkward pattern for a lizard, and generally moving slowly, yet it can, 

 when alarmed, run rapidly. It is very clever at »playing possum«, 

 and aided by its protective coloring, often escapes from an enemy. 



The food 0Î Phrynosoma always consists of live animals: spiders, 

 flies, and especially ants. In Texas the agricultural ant {Pogonomyrmex 

 harhatus] furnishes almost exclusively the diet of the horned frog. If 

 however a quantity of ants are placed with the latter in a vivarium, 

 they soon find thin places on the apparently tough , horney armor of 

 their enemies and by stinging they drive the horned frogs crazy, and 

 frequently to death. While having an abundant supply of water in 

 the vivarium. I have never seen these lizards drink, although they 

 are said to lap up drops of dew when in natural environment. The 

 molting (3), and the curious habit of ejecting blood from the eyes(l 1,12) 

 are phenomena often observed. The statement of Böttger that a 

 voice is absent in PÄrywosoma must be modified, for under certain con- 

 ditions of excitement it utters a sharp squeak. 



Coition. 

 A male and female kept in confinement were seen in the act of 

 '•^ coition on the 5th, and again on the 7th, of July, 1895. The act lasts 

 for several hours. The male clasps the female over the shoulders by 

 his fore feet, and around the body just in front of the thighs by the 

 hind feed and legs which are there held fast by the series of clasping 

 glands on the inner face of his thighs. The female, half raised on 

 her fore legs, her hind legs being spread wide apart and flat on the 

 ground, remains passive. The male is greatly excited, quivering in 

 every part of his body. At the beginning he moves his tail slowly 

 from side to side in the same way that characterizes an individual 

 Î when intently watching a fly which it is about to catch. During the 

 \ injection of sperm the male holds his tail half erect, with slow for- 

 ward and backward movements of the body, the female remaining un- 

 moved. After coition , the back of the pelvic region of the^female is 

 covered with seminal fluid and as she moves slowly away sh^ throws 

 sand over herself. 



