REPTILES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 127 



legs would permit. This cover was often the collector, 

 and the little lizards either hid under his shoes, or 

 climbed his legs, sometimes even reaching his shoulders. 

 They showed no desire to enter the numerous holes in 

 the ground about them, or to escape by burrowing. 

 Put into a glass bottle they become very light colored 

 in a few minutes, but began to turn dark again imme- 

 diately after sundown. Young specimens were numer- 

 ous and remained dark longer than adults. Many 

 fragments of cast skins were found, but never a whole 

 skin in one place. The stomachs of several individuals 

 contained the wings of some small dipterous insect, the 

 elytra of a little brown beetle, and some small white 

 bodies which resembled spider's eggs. 



Several specimens were taken alive to the Leland 

 Stanford Junior University and kept for some months 

 in a large glass jar in which some fine sand and pieces 

 of wood and bark had been placed. At first,^ they ven- 

 tured out from their retreat only at dusk unless dis- 

 turbed, but after a few days they seemed to become 

 more restless, and, urged perhaps by hunger, showed 

 themselves many times each day. At night, when they 

 were always more active, they often climbed to the top 

 of a piece of yucca stem placed upright in the middle 

 of their cage. No desire to burrow was observed. All 

 declined to show any interest in the small beetles and 

 flies, both dead and living, which were placed in the 

 jar, and they finally became greatly emaciated. 



Mojave was visited again in the fall of the following 

 year. The specimens were all caught alive and put into 

 a large glass bottle, but were soon killed by the heat, 

 although care was taken to keep them in the shade as 

 much as possible. Count was kept as the lizards were 

 put in the bottle and showed later that several more 



