352 Coe and Kunkel— California Limbless Lizard. 
The lizard lies buried in the sand with only the anterior portion 
of the head projecting. In this position it may apparently lie for 
days without moving unless it is disturbed or its attention attracted 
by some noise or the sight of some moving object. When the tem- 
perature falls to 60° F. or below, the head is drawn into the sand, 
unless the sun is shining brightly, and in the laboratory nearly all 
the lizards collect together, as if for mutual warmth, as far from the 
surface of the sand as possible. 
As soon as the room becomes warmer, however, the animals sep- 
arate and as a rule bring their heads again to the surface of the sand 
so that their nostrils, eyes, and pineal organ are fully exposed. 
Sometimes an inch or two of the body is exposed, and at other times 
one or several of the lizards are seen crawling about on the surface 
of the sand. 
The sight of a small moving object quickly attracts their attention, 
although usually no effort is made to approach it. The lizard simply 
waits until the insect larva or other small object reaches its immedi- 
ate vicinity, when it raises its head an inch or more above the sand 
and crawls out of its burrow until its head is directly above the 
object. It then arches its neck sharply and with its jaws widely 
opened thrusts its head down quickly into the sand, thus holding its 
prey firmly pressed against the surface of the sand. 
The struggles of the prey to escape force it farther into the mouth 
of the lizard and in the course of a minute or two it 1s completely 
engulfed. It is held for some time in the lizard’s mouth before being 
swallowed. More or less sand is swallowed at the same time, and 
this accounts for its presence in both the stomach and the rectum of 
many of the lizards examined. 
An examination of the stomach contents of a number of individ- 
uals killed soon after collecting at Pacific Grove revealed the pres- 
ence of remains of both adult and larve of small beetles, larvae and 
pup of other insects, and spiders. Van Denburgh ('97) likewise 
records the stomach contents as consisting of insect larvae up to more 
than an inch in length, as well as small ground beetles (/Zelops and 
Platydema). 
In many cases the lizards, although their eyes were fully exposed, 
apparently failed to detect the presence of an insect capable of bemg 
used as food until the insect actually touched the body. The eyes 
are very small, so that it seems probable that the animal relies quite 
as much on the sense of smell and other faculties as on the eyes in 
the detection of its prey. Furthermore, the presence in the stomach 
