418 3. IGUANIDM 



ily. Their favorite haunt seems to be along the edge of the 

 thick vegetation. In such a place, during the feeding hour, 

 they may be seen running rapidly up and down, often pass- 

 ing each other 5 and snatching with their viscid tongues any 

 insects which emerge into the open. The next most likely 

 spot is in the thick vegetation near some ant road. 



"While burrowing deeply in the winter, it appears that 

 the Texas horned lizards do not bury themselves at night, 

 as do most of the desert species. Nor do they do so in rainy 

 weather, or during brief cold snaps. At such times they 

 retire into the burrows of rodents or under flat rocks. It is 

 an interesting fact, that, at such times, horned lizards are 

 very abundant under the cross ties of railroad tracks. Often 

 they burrow through into the area between the two rails. 

 Here they emerge and are literally trapped. The rails are 

 usually too high to be climbed over, and the lizards run up 

 and down frantically ; occasionally one climbs up on a rail 

 just in time to be crushed by a passing train. Many live 

 for the rest of the summer in this uncomfortable pasture. 



"In the area of their greatest abundance, horned lizards 

 first appear from their winter burrows about the middle of 

 April. At this time, they are markedly grouped into two 

 sizes; one the full adult size, averaging about 125 mm. 5 and 

 the other the half -sized, averaging about 50 mm., from the 

 hatching of the previous autumn. From this, it seems clear 

 that these lizards do not reach full size until the end of 

 their first year. Some specimens go through an incomplete 

 moulting at the time of their emergence from hibernation; 

 but the most important moult takes place during the first 

 two weeks of July. It is during this time that the blood 

 ejecting habit is most conspicuous. The extraordinary habit 

 of occasionally squirting blood from the eye when attacked 

 has been observed and recorded by a number of writers. 

 Hay supposed that it was a mode of protection during 



