82 COPEIA 



While burrowing deeply in the winter, it appears 

 that the Texas horned lizards do not bury themselves 

 at night, as do most of the desert species. Nor do 

 they do so in rainy weather, or during brief cold 

 snaps. At such times they retire into the burrows 

 of rodents or under flat rocks. It is an interesting 

 fact, that, at such times, horned lizards are very abun- 

 dant under the cross ties of railroad tracks. Often 

 they burrow through into the area between the two 

 rails. Here they emerge and are literally trapped. 

 The rails are usually too high to be climbed over, and 

 the lizards run up and down frantically; occasionally 

 one climbs up on a rail just in time to be crushed by 

 a passing train. Many live for the rest of the summer 

 in this uncomfortable pasture. 



In the area of their greatest abundance, horned 

 lizards first appear from their winter burrows about 

 the middle of April. At this time, they are markedly 

 grouped into two sizes; one the full adult size, aver- 

 aging about 125 mm.; and the other the half sized, 

 averaging about ,50 mm, from the hatching of the 

 previous autumn. From this, it seems clear that these 

 lizards do not reach full size until the end of their 

 first year. Some specimens go through an incomplete 

 moulting at the time of their emergence from hiberna- 

 tion ; but the most important moult takes place during 

 the first two weeks of July. It is during this time 

 that the blood ejecting habit is most conspicuous. 

 The extraordinary habit of occasionally squirting 

 blood from the eye when attacked has been observed 

 and recorded by a number of writers. Hay supposed 

 that it was a mode of protection during 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 eye- 

 lids of a blood ejecting specimen, but could find noth- 

 ing except that the lids were rather swollen and vascu- 

 lar. Several writers have suggested that the blood 

 ejecting is due to the weakening of a portion of the 



