13. PHRYNOSOMA 419 



moulting. Bryant, speaking of the California species, says 

 that blood ejecting is just as liable to occur between moults 

 as during moult. Bryant sectioned the eyelids of a blood- 

 ejecting specimen, but could find nothing except that the 

 lids were rather swollen and vascular. Several writers have 

 suggested that the blood ejecting is due to the weakening of 

 a portion of the cornea by some parasite, — perhaps one of 

 the mites which so commonly infest these lizards. The 

 writer has recorded elsewhere (Science, Vol. XL, 784-85) a 

 very careful examination which he made of several blood- 

 squirting specimens. He found no parasites of any kind, 

 and expressed the belief that the blood ejecting, in this spe- 

 cies at least, is intimately connected with moulting. Since 

 this study was published, the writer has found seven more 

 blood-ejecting specimens and all were moulting. 



"In feeding, small insects are clearly preferred; but, 

 sometimes, a venturesome individual will swallow a large 

 grasshopper or even a snail. The writer once watched one 

 of these animals eating a large brown May beetle. The 

 beetle lumbered before the eyes of the lizard. The reptile 

 slowly turned his head a little to one side and watched the 

 insect, then raised himself high on his legs and snatched at 

 the insect with his tongue, whipping it against his lips, but 

 not bringing it into his mouth. The lizard hastily jumped 

 back and puffed himself out in the usual warning attitude of 

 these animals. The beetle began to crawl away. The liz- 

 ard returned to the attack, carefully stalking his prey for a 

 yard or so, then rushing on it, seized it in his mouth without 

 using his sticky tongue. After turning it about against the 

 ground, the lizard finally gulped the insect down. The 

 writer expected to see the lizard use its front feet, as the 

 common toad does when handling a large mouthful, but, 

 although the front feet were waved alternately in the air, 

 they were not used. 



