﻿420 3. IGUANIDJE 



"Mention has been made before of the reaction of these 

 lizards toward various animals. When attacked, the lizard 

 puffs itself out into an almost flat shape, tucks the head 

 down, exposing the horns, and waits for the enemy. The 

 habit of charging on an enemy, which has been mentioned, 

 may be more common than is suspected j although the writer 

 has observed it only once. Specimens seldom attempt to 

 bite the collector. 



"Bryant discovered that the California species of horned 

 lizards are very subject to a form of hypnotism. The writer 

 has confirmed this on the Texas form, also. Bryant's 

 method is to stroke the animal between the eyes. After 

 three or four gentle strokes, the lizard closes its eyes and 

 becomes very quiet, even losing some of the reflexes. The 

 writer has discovered that if the region over the pineal eye 

 is simply touched a few times with the tip of the finger, that 

 the hypnotic effect can be induced. He has further found 

 that if after a time, when the animal begins to show signs of 

 awakening, if gentle passes are made in the air over the 

 region of the pineal eye, the animal will return to the hyp- 

 notic condition. So far, he has not been able to find a defi- 

 nite explanation of this, but it would seem to suggest that 

 the pineal eye in these animals may be more or less func- 

 tional." 



Mr. Albert M. Reese writes that a female of this species, 

 during the night of June 7 to 8, "laid three eggs, whose 

 yellowish-white, leathery shells measured 1 mm. x 1 6 mm. 

 in size. 



"On the evening of June 1 1 the animal was found dead 

 in its cage; it had probably been dead for some hours. On 

 opening the body it was found to contain 34 eggs, similar 

 to the three that had been laid four days before." 



