﻿14. GERRHONOTUS 459 



Rancho, and on Los Coronados (North, South and East) 

 *nd San Martin islands. 



Habits. — Dr. and Mrs. Grinnell give the following notes 

 on its habits: 



"The alligator lizard is the species which inspires more 

 horror in the unsophisticated mind than all the rest of our 

 lizards put together. It has a truly 'wicked look', such as 

 one sees in the alligators of children's picture books. The 

 large head, bulging at the angles of the jaws, the glittering, 

 yellowish-irised eyes, and swiftly-darting tongue constitute 

 a truly forbidding front. But this ferocious appearance is 

 not backed up by any real weapons. There is no poison 

 whatever, the darting black tongue is soft and delicate as an 

 insect's antenna (possibly for a similar purpose) ; and the 

 teeth, though sharp, are very small. If thoroughly roused 

 an alligator lizard will bite vigorously enough to draw blood, 

 leaving a wound much like that resulting from an encounter 

 with the rough edges of saw-grass. 



"This large lizard is of generally slow movement, haunt- 

 ing shady thickets. A fact of interest in this respect is that 

 the brown-footed woodrat and the alligator lizard seem to 

 have precisely similar tastes as to chosen environment. We 

 have repeatedly found a lizard apparently perfectly at home 

 in the huge stick pile which the woodrat constructs for a 

 home. The reason for this may be found in that succulent 

 mole-crickets and other insects also gravitate toward the 

 wood-rats' nests. 



"Although the food of Jhe alligator lizard seems to con- 

 sist largely of insects we have seen it often in the spring 

 months climbing slowly and clumsily in the upper foliage 

 of scrub oaks and similar stiff-twigged shrubs. 



"Once a pair of wren-tits attracted our attention by an 

 anxious repetition of their curious alarm-notes. Upon in- 

 vestigation we found the cause to be a large alligator lizard 



