NATURE STUDIES IN SMALL AREAS 



277 



DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES 



Fig 6 Some unusually fine plants of the famous "Dutchman's Breeches" 

 (Dicentra cucullaria), showing the perfect flowers, the dying ones, and the 

 seed pods at various stages of development. 

 Its root, formed of grain-like little tubers, 

 are plainly seen in the case of the 

 middle plant. 



often retained until the lizard 

 comes to be as much as five 

 inches in length, at which time it 

 gradually assumes the coloration 

 of the adult, as described above. 

 These specimens did not measure 

 over six inches in length that 

 is, the full-grown ones and we 

 do not begin to meet with the 

 much longer ones until we pass 

 into the timbered districts of the 

 Carolinas, where individuals nine 

 inches in length are not un- 

 common. 



It requires great agility on the 

 part of the collector to capture 

 these lizards in nature a light- 

 ning-flash is as nothing compared 

 with the astounding rapidity of 

 their movements. On the trip 

 here described only five were 



seen four adult females and one young, blue-tailed one ; 

 and all were taken without the loss of a single tail or 

 any injury whatever to the specimens. Later on, in the 

 studio, eight negatives were made of them from life, 

 such as are shown in Figure 8. There is no other such 

 achievement on record for this species. All the specimens 

 figured by Ditmars in his "Reptile Book" are from dead 

 specimens, and he says: "This lizard is so difficult to 

 capture that species of other genera, rarer and more 

 restricted in habitat, are ,the most frequently seen in 

 captivity. While collecting in the South in mid-summer, 

 with Red-headed lizards or 'Scorpions' abundant on all 

 sides, the writer succeeded in procuring less than a dozen 

 living examples during two weeks' time, although every 

 device, from a fine snare of copper wire to a baited hook, 

 was tried. They would allow me to approach to within a 

 distance of about ten feet, then scurry for cover. The 

 reptiles invariably bask or hunt for insect prey within a 

 short distance of secure hiding places, such as a bur- 

 row under a fallen tree, or a cavity in the trunk itself. 

 Unlike many species of lizards that run for an indefinite 

 distance when disturbed, then stop and peer back at 

 the object of their fright, the Skink flashes out of sight 

 at the slightest shadow. As it emerges from its burrow, 

 it looks cautiously about to ascertain whether all danger 

 is past, and the movement of a finger will send it back 

 again." 



The specimens described above were found hiding be- 

 neath the more or less loosened bark of logs of dead oak 

 and pine trees lying on the ground, or, in similar situa- 

 tions on dead trees still standing. To make a capture, 

 the bark was promptly torn off with the left hand, while 

 the right' was held in readiness to pounce upon any 

 lizard that might be caught hiding beneath it. In tearing 

 the bark away, we are also likely to find snakes, slugs, 



SLIMY SALAMANDER 



Fig. 7. A wonderfully fine specimen of the Slimy Salamander. Note how prominent the eyes are, and 

 that its tail has about the same length as the rest of its body. 



