7. UMA 137 



force its body beneath the surface. The sharp depressed 

 snout is evidently another modification to aid it in getting 

 beneath the sand. Usually the entire body is buried, but 

 occasionally the tip of the tail protrudes. Their peculiar 

 mottled coloration does not render them protectively colored 

 on the white sand, but their peculiar mode of eluding pur- 

 suers renders this unnecessary, and at the same time limits 

 them to areas covered by fine drifting sand. 



"The food of this species consists largely of the leaves 

 of a forget-me-not (Cryptonthe), which is abundant among 

 the sand dunes. The young leaves of the desert willow 

 (Chilopsis) are also eaten. The insect food consists of cater- 

 pillars, ants, bees, etc. One specimen was seen several feet 

 up on an oblique limb of a desert willow, in search of the 

 young leaves which were just budding." 



Mr. Camp found that one female with orange markings 

 "contained three eggs, each nine millimeters in diameter. 

 Another contained one egg eighteen millimeters long." He 

 writes: "The ocellated sand lizard has so far been taken 

 only at a few localities within a circumscribed area on the 

 deserts of the southwest. It is strictly confined to belts of 

 wind-blown sand, and in the vicinity of Blythe Junction 

 was never seen beyond the borders of a narrow zone of sand 

 dunes two miles south of the railroad. Many of these shy 

 lizards were abroad in the hotter part of the day, scurrying 

 over the fine sand, with a cloud of dust in their wake, or 

 foraging beneath squaw-tea bushes on the dunes. Seldom 

 was an individual taken unawares, and it was found difficult 

 in most cases to approach an alert animal close enough for 

 a successful shot with the .32 caliber auxiliary. 



"The speed attained by these heavy lizards on loose sand 

 is not so great as that of Crotaphytus, Cnemidophorus and 

 Callisaurus in the same situations, despite the broadening 

 fringe of scales on the toes. When alarmed they make 



