THE SIX- LINED LIZARD. 77 



and fifty-three species have been described from other 

 countries, chiefly from the tropics. 



I also took to-day a male of the six-lined lizard, 

 Cnemidophorus sex-lineaius L. I had seen them on 

 several previous occasions, but their movements were 

 so rapid that I had been unable to capture one. Its 

 habits here are the same as among the sand dunes at 

 the foot of Lake Michigan, where it occurs plenti- 

 fully. Here, as there, they are always seen in sandy 

 localities, scampering swiftly from one clump of 

 bunch grass to another ; so swiftly, in fact, that a 

 great deal of maneuvering is necessary to capture one 

 with a butterfly net. The specimen taken to-day is 

 dusky brown in color, with three yellow streaks on 

 each side, the interspaces being jet black. The throat 

 is silvery white, and the abdomen a deep, shining 

 blue. I have never seen it climb trees, as does the 

 common blue-tailed lizard, Eumeces fasciatus L., 

 though Holbrook states that "it will take to trees 

 when pursued." He also adds that "it feeds on in- 

 sects and generally seeks its food toward the close of 

 the day, when it may be seen in corn fields far from 

 its usual retreats ; and, not infrequently, I have met 

 male and female in company."* 



This afternoon, while excavating in the shell 

 mound, a large cabbage palmetto, which had been un- 

 dermined by the negroes who are carting away shells, 

 fell into the excavation and missed me about ten feet. 



* Loc. cit., p. (55. 



