16 Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 
jaws. Although there were several San Francisco Alligator 
Lizards in the cage larger than the Red-backed Alligator Lizard 
which had killed and eaten the mouse, none of them had made 
any attempt to capture it. 
On June 29, 1932, I collected specimens of this lizard along 
a small creek in the digger pine belt north of Redding in Shasta 
County. All that were seen were among dry leaves beneath 
thick bushes of wild grape and poison oak along the banks of 
the stream. The lizards were foraging under the bushes in the 
middle of the afternoon although the temperature was high, 
over 90° F. They were wary and quick in their movements 
and were much more difficult to approach than were the Shasta 
Alligator Lizards which had been collected on the day before. 
After two attempts to noose a large individual had failed, it 
suddenly ran down the bank into the water and hid beneath 
a rock, entirely submerged except for the end of its tail. For 
eight and a half minutes it remained motionless. At the end 
of this time it shifted its position and cautiously thrust its head 
above the surface under a floating leaf. It did not move from 
this new position until it was captured ten minutes after it had 
first entered the water. It seemed unlikely that in this case 
the lizard intelligently or even instinctively sought the water as 
On October 1, 1932, an individual was found in Strawberry 
Canon, Alameda County, stretched in the road sunning itself 
in the late afternoon. Seeing the lizard from a distance I 
approached cautiously, taking care to come from behind it on 
the lower side of the road. As I approached to within a few 
feet it seemed to be watching me and following my movements 
with a slow, almost imperceptible turning of its head. For five 
minutes that it was watched it made no other movements. It 
was poked with the end of a stick and shoved a short distance 
but its body was limp. Convinced that it was in some way 
injured, I reached down to pick it up. As it was being lifted from 
the ground it darted forward across the road and up a vertical 
five-foot bank with such suddenness and speed that it nearly 
oa When caught it struggled vigorously and attempted 
to bite. 
Seldom found more than a few feet from shelter, alligator 
lizards are perhaps too slow to outstrip an enemy when they 
are by chance caught in the open. “Playing possum” until a 
