REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS OP TEXAS 27 



men obtained near Dallas, but afterward lost the 

 type. Three specimens of a skink collected in the 

 lowlands between the Brazos river and Tehuacana 

 creek, from three to five miles east of Waco, fit 

 Cope's description in every detail. The species is 

 evidently rare and of rather peculiar habits. The 

 under surface of the head, in one of my specimens, 

 was bright orange red in color. When alarmed, this 

 lizard retreats into burrows under the roots of small 

 trees and prickly-pear plants. 



69. EUMECES TETRAGRAMMUS Baird. Texas Skink. 



Western Texas, east to Cooke and Denton Coun- 

 ties, southeast to Refugio and Cameron Counties. 

 No records for the Panhandle or the plains. Appar- 

 ently rare and of local distribution. In the majority 

 of cases, only one or two specimens have been col- 

 lected in the same locality. A black form occurs in 

 the lower Rio Grande valley and in the granite 

 country. 



70. EUMECES BREVILINBATUS Cope. Short-lined Skink. 



West-Central Texas, south to Bexar County and 

 west into the trans-Pecos Counties. At the present 

 time we have records from only a very few localities 

 as follows: Burnet and Morgan Canyon, Burnet 

 County (Strecker), Fort Concho, Tom Green County, 

 (Cope), Helotes, Bexar County (Cope), Paisano, 

 Brewster County (Bailey) and Boerne, Kendall 

 County (Garni). The specimens from the last men- 

 tioned locality were identified by me. The short-lined 

 skink is not uncommon in the granite country but it 

 is a difficult matter to capture even a small per cent 

 of the specimens one sees on account of its swift 

 movements and wonderful ability to take advantage 

 of every possible concealment. 



71. EUMECES ANTHRACINUS Baird. Black Skink. 



This handsome little species ranges from Penn- 

 sylvania southwestward into Northwestern Texas, 



