THE GROUND LIZARD. 101 



young, called "seed ticks/' are in these southern 

 woods very plentiful and irritating, climbing on to 

 the leaves and branches, from whence they are 

 brushed on to one's clothing. 



In passing through these upland pine woods and 

 hammocks, one often notes a small brown tail wig- 

 gling and just disappearing beneath a bunch of dead 

 leaves or a fallen giant leaf of the cabbage palmetto. 

 Investigation will show the tail to belong to the 

 ground lizard, Oligosoma laterale Say. Above, the 

 body is chestnut brown ; below, silvery white to base 

 of tail, where the white merges into blue. A band 

 of black begins at the snout and runs back along the 

 side to the middle of tail. The total length is usually 

 less than five inches. 



The ground lizard is our smallest saurian. When 

 undisturbed, it is a slow moving, tail-wagging, wrig- 

 gling-onward reptile, but when frightened, it moves 



Fig. 34-Ground Lizard. 



with much celerity and quickly finds a shelter. Hoi- 

 brook has well described its habits as follows : "The 



