

New York, June 25, 1915. No. 19 



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Published to advance the Science of cold-blooded vertebrates 



NOTES OX THE HABITS OF SCELOPORUS 

 UNDULATUS (LATREILLE). 



This exceedingly common lizard is chiefly found 

 on trees and fences, or very rarely on the ground. 

 They are rather agile and difficult to capture save 

 with a noose. They do not, as a rule, go into holes 

 when hard pressed, though I have seen one hide under 

 the loose bark of a stump. They show a certain 

 amount of color change from lighter to darker and 

 vice-versa. 



Breeding -habits. A $ caught on May 10, 

 1914, at Marlton, N. J., was killed and dissected on 

 June 7th. She had 10 large eggs in her oviducts. My 

 earliest record for young is July 29th ( Nelson Coun- 

 ty, Va.), but I have no other records before Aug. 14. 

 I have never seen any half-grown ones except in the 

 very early summer, so that I think this lizard reaches 

 adult size in one year. 



Food. One of my earliest remembrances of this 

 lizard is seeing a large one run up a pine tree carry- 

 ing in its mouth a cricket as large as its own body. 

 In captivity I have watched them eat butterflies of 

 the genera Pieris and Colias, houseflies and Mayflies. 

 Specimens were hardy in captivity, and excellent 

 feeders, chasing and snapping up the small butter- 

 flies with great agility, and swallowing them with a 

 chewing motion. 



E. R. Dunn, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



