﻿8. CALLISAURUS 163 



side and pushing with the hind feet while the front feet 

 remain pressed close to the side. Sometimes when closely 

 pursued they enter holes. 



"Of eight stomachs examined not one contained plant 

 remains, the contents being insects, small pebbles, part of a 

 shed lizard skin, and parasitic nematode worms. Perhaps, 

 like some of the geckos, these lizards eat their own shed 

 integument. The insects represented included eight Orthop- 

 tera, eight ants, and several small Coleoptera. Some of the 

 giasshoppers and crickets were of large size (40 mm. long) 

 and had been swallowed entire. These lizards sometimes 

 spring a foot or more to seize a tempting bait; and I saw 

 one, probably by mistake, leap over the edge of an eight- 

 foot wash-bank while jumping for a grasshopper in a bush. 

 At Blythe Junction a gridiron-tailed lizard was seen regu- 

 larly at a certain doorstep picking up dead crane-flies and 

 other night-flying insects thrown there by the housewife. 

 The lizard apparently became so absorbed in picking up, 

 snaking and swallowing the gauzy-winged flies that it many 

 times permitted the observers to touch it lightly upon the 

 back. 



"After sundown the gridiron-tail buries itself in sand, 

 and when alarmed as by an approaching team or pedestrian 

 will start up suddenly and dash away. 



"Some of the females taken in July contained eggs. 

 Two eggs, 1 8 by 9 millimeters in the two diameters, were 

 taken from one lizard ; these had coriaceous coverings and 

 were apparently ready to be laid." 



