﻿14. GERRHONOTUS 445 



even trying to appropriate it to themselves. Sometimes, 

 too, one's chase was interrupted by another lizard seizing 

 the quivering tip of the hunter's tail. The young lizards 

 were very fond of lying in the water, and several delib- 

 erately held their heads under its surface until they were 

 drowned. The last of the family died May 5, 1896, dur- 

 ing a vain endeavor to shed its skin. 



The lizards which I kept in confinement were more or 

 less active throughout the winter, but Mr. James M. Hyde 

 broke up two decaying logs, near Pescadero, Dec. 22, 1893, 

 and found five lizards of this species hibernating with five 

 Sceloforus o. occidentalis and one Plestiodon skiltonianus. 



A pair were found mating April 12, 1909, on Mussel 

 Rock, San Mateo County. 



90. Gerrhonotus palmeri (Stejneger) 

 Mountain Alligator Lizard 



Gerrhonotus scincicauda palmeri Stejneger, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 7, 



1893, p. 196, (type locality, South Fork Kings River, California). 



Gerrhonotus palmeri Van Denburgh, Occas. Papers Cal. Acad. Sci., V, 



1897, p. 113; Van Denburgh, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1898, 

 pp. 64, 65; Meek, Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., Vol. VII, No. 1, 

 1906, p. 12; Richardson, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 48, 191 5, 

 p. 424; Grinnell & Camp, Univ. Calif. Publ. Z00L, Vol. 17, No. 10, 

 1917, p. 168; Stejneger & Barbour, Check List N. Amer. Amph. 

 Rept. 1917, p. 62. 



Gerrhonotus burnettii McLain, Critical Notes, 1899, p. 9 (part). 

 Gerrhonotus multicarinatus palmerii Cope, Report U. S. Nat. Mus. for 



1898, 1900, p. 525. 



Description. — Body long and rather slender, with short 

 limbs and long tail. Head pointed, with flattened top and 

 nearly vertical sides, its temporal regions somewhat swollen. 

 Large rostral plate rounded in upper outline. Behind it, on 

 top of head, follow a pair of small internasals, a pair of 

 small frontonasals, a large azygous prefrontal, a pair of 

 large prefrontals, a long frontal, a pair of frontoparietals, 



