798 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1065 



far into the Mexican table land, and west- 

 ward into Arizona; but, clearly, the area of its 

 greatest abundance is the north and south strip 

 of Texas known as the Black and Grand prairies. 

 This strip of country includes the cities of 

 Fort Worth, Dallas, Waco, Austin and San 

 Antonio — in fact all of the large cities of the 

 state except Houston and Galveston; and is 

 preeminently the best part from an agricul- 

 tural standpoint. Within this area, where con- 

 ditions are at all favorable, the Phrynosoma 

 population averages at least thirty to the acre. 

 This is despite the fact that for a number of 

 years these lizards have been captured and 

 sold to visitors from the east. 



The life history has not been well worked 

 out, but the newly hatched young begin to ap- 

 pear by the first of August; so that it is safe 

 to say that the ordinary agricultural opera- 

 tions such as spring and fall plowing, do not 

 interfere with the life cycle. The natural 

 enemies are few and unimportant, being mainly 

 road runners and opossums. 



The stomachs examined included the follow- 

 ing forms : four species of ants ; four species of 

 weevils (very few boll weevils) ; four species 

 of bees (mainly miner bees) ; eight species of 

 beetles; three species of stink bugs; nymphs 

 of grasshoppers and allied Orthoptera; five 

 species of flies; and a few caterpillars, some 

 of which have not yet been identified. The 

 noxious forms found overwhelmingly out- 

 numbered the useful forms. 



Agricultural ants were found in 80 per cent, 

 and stink bugs in 60 per cent, of the stomachs. 

 Neither of these is much subject to the attacks 

 of birds. Obviously this enhances the value of 

 Phrynosoma. Incidentally, there was a re- 

 markable consistency or homogeneity in the 

 contents of the individual stomachs. For ex- 

 ample, in one case, nearly all of the forms 

 present would be Hjonenoptera ; in another, 

 nearly all would be Heteroptera, etc. This 

 could mean that individuals acquire a taste 

 for sour food, or fatty food, etc.; or, what is 

 more likely, that the same individual requires 

 from time to time certain special elements in 

 its food. 



From the data thus far assembled, it can be 



safely affirmed that the horned lizards of Texas 

 are of tremendous importance to agriculture 

 in that region; and may, perhaps, play as im.- 

 portant a part there as does the common toad 

 in the better watered regions of the United 

 States. 



W. M. WiNTON 



The Rice Institute, 

 Houston, Texas 



THE AMEBIC AN ASSOCIATION FOB THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

 SECTION D— MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND 



ENGINEEBING. II 

 The Highways of Hawaii: H. K. Bishop. 



Before the days of county government, the cen- 

 tral government of Honolulu, under the superin- 

 tendent of public works, improved many highways 

 with first-class water-bound macadam, in many in- 

 stances with a telford base. Under the county 

 form of government, the county took charge of the 

 maintenance of the roads already built and the con- 

 struction of all new ones. It is needless to say 

 that this system has proven unsatisfactory and un- 

 productive of good results in general. 



In 1910 and 1911, by legislative action, pro- 

 vision was made by the territory, to raise funds by 

 means of a bond issue and to put the work of road 

 improvement under this issue in the hands of a 

 commission, to be known as the Loan Fund Com- 

 mission. The writer was engaged in September, 

 1911, by the Hawaii Loan Fund Commission to 

 prepare plans and specifications and to superintend 

 the construction of the belt road improvement on 

 the Island of Hawaii. The belt road, which is the 

 main highway of the island, approximately paral- 

 lels the coast line at a greater or less distance en- 

 tirely around the island, a distance of approxi- 

 mately 250 miles. 



In the work of improvement on Hawaii, the gen- 

 eral plan adopted was to use water-bound macadam 

 with a telford base in the wet sections, and bi- 

 tuminous macadam in the dry sections. It was also 

 planned to give the water-bound macadam a sur- 

 face application of bituminous material when the 

 macadam had become sufficiently compacted to 

 make such a treatment successful. 



The greatest need of Hawaii is some form of 

 territorial aid to the counties similar to that 

 adopted by the majority of the states of the 

 Union. Hawaii is also in need of some form of 

 centrally controlled highway department which will 

 insure the standardization of road work and a 



