460 4. ANGUID.^ 



clambering up into a thicket of buckwheat. Though we 

 found no nest of the birds, their actions showed plainly that 

 there was a nest or young somewhere in the vicinity, and 

 that they had decided fears as to the intentions of the lizard. 



"Another time a cactus wren was shot, falling into a 

 dense sumach bush. By the time the collector had reached 

 it an alligator lizard had made its appearance and grasped 

 the bird in its jaws and was making oflF with it among the 

 tangle of stems and dead leaves. It took quite a lot of per- 

 suasion, too, to induce the lizard to unclamp its jaws. These 

 circumstances give us evidence of possible predatory habits 

 of feeding on birds and mammals. Yet these cannot be 

 every day occurrences. 



"We have known of a pair of alligator lizards which 

 lived under a beehive, coming out mornings and evenings to 

 feed on the bees. In this case, as far as our observations 

 went, the drone bees were selected by the lizards almost, but 

 not quite, exclusively, in preference to the worker bees. 



"This lizard is seldom seen abroad in the bright sun- 

 shine. It seems to be crepuscular in habit, and is active all 

 winter, unless it be very frosty. The brush-belt of our 

 mountains and foothills is the preferred habitat of this 

 species, though it occurs down along the arroyos toward the 

 coast. 



"We have known of the regular occurrence of the alli- 

 gator lizard in certain Pasadena and Glcndora gardens, 

 where unmolested. At the latter place one climbed up the 

 ivy covering on the north side of a two-story house and en- 

 tered an open garret window. 



"In spite of its forbidding aspect the alligator lizard 

 is absolutely harmless and will prove interesting on close 

 acquaintance. It is the easiest of our lizards to keep caged, 

 for if one remembers to feed it conscientiously with drone 



