THE BROAD-HEADED PLESTIODON. 



59 



or even three, white dots upon the surface. The back is marked with a series of 

 broad white bands, generally five or six in number, and having a black patch at either 

 extremity of each band. In another variety, the upper parts are silvery gray, splashed 

 with pure white, and variegated with irregular brown spots. But however great may 

 be the variations, they are all confined to the upper surface, the abdomen, flanks, and 

 under surface retaining their beautiful silvery whiteness. The banded variety is the 

 most common. The Officinal Skink is by no means a large reptile, seldom exceeding 

 eight inches in length, and being generally about six or seven inches long. 



PASSING by one or two genera of considerable extent, such as Hinulia and Mocoa, the 

 members of which are mostly found in Australia, though there are species which inhabit 

 China, Java, the Philippines and New Zealand, we come to a reptile very well known by 

 the popular title of the SCORPION LIZARD, and called more scientifically, as well as 

 more correctly, the BROAD-HEADED PLESTIODON. 



BROAD-HEADED PLESTIODON. Plestiodoa laticeps. 



In spite of the rather alarming name which the terrors of the ignorant have caused 

 them to bestow upon it, the Scorpion Lizard is one of the most harmless, as well as 

 one of the most useful little creatures that inhabit the earth. 



It is a native of Northern America, and is spread over a very large tract of country. 

 This curious Lizard is one of the species that delights in trees, and of which we shall 

 see more in a future page. It generally resides in some tree buried in the depths of 

 the forest, and remains at a considerable elevation above the ground, never liking to 

 make its home less than thirty or forty feet above the earth, and often placing itself 

 at a much greater height. 



The domicile in which this reptile most delights is the deserted home of a woodpecker, 

 which has brought up her little family, and forsaken the burrow which had taken such 

 time and trouble to hollow from the decaying wood. Here the Scorpion Lizard takes up 

 its residence, and here it remains snugly concealed unless it is alarmed by an enemy at 

 the gate of its wooden fortress, when it runs nimbly to the entrance, and pokes out its red 

 head with so threatening a gesture, that its intending assailant, thinking it must possess 



