LIZARDS. 439 



will be seen that the animal, being comparatively slow of foot, cannot ordinarily seek 

 safety in flight, and having no organs of defence, it, on being attacked, breaks off a 

 portion of its tail, which, still alive and twisting about by reflex action, attracts the 

 attention of the enemy, and the lizard, unencumbered and unnoticed, glides into some 

 crevice, and is safe. The muscles of the tail are so arranged that they, by contrac- 

 tion, close over the place of amputation, and bleeding is prevented. From the thus 

 blunted appendage a new rudiment soon appears, which, in a short time, replaces the 

 lost part. It is stated, however, that the new growth differs from the original in hav- 

 ing the vertebras represented by an unsegmented cartilaginous rod. 



The ground-lizard is, above, of a dark, shining, brown color, well harmonizing with 

 the shades of soil, dead wood, and roots on which it abides. Along each side, run- 

 ning from the eye above the insertion of the legs, is a black line, below which the 

 coloring lightens, the free skin of the throat being pink, shading into yellow along 

 the abdomen, and passing into a beautiful blue further back. Its more restricted 

 habitat is in the thick forests of oak and hickory of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, 

 and the gulf states. 



The genus JEumeces is very abundantly distributed over the warmer portions of 

 the globe, the United States alone having over a dozen species, and is characterized 

 by having the scales thin, smooth, and polished ; the tail fusiform and smooth ; the 

 nostrils piercing a single plate ; palatine teeth absent, the limbs well develoj)ed, and 

 each provided with five toes. Some species have the lower lids transparent. 



Eumeces fasciatus, the blue-tailed skink, is the best known of the genus. Not 

 only is it abundantly found over a large area throughout the more central, southern 

 and eastern portions of our country, but it is a wanderer, coming to light not infre- 

 quently in remote situations. In coloring it is, above, of a deep, glossy green, orna- 

 mented with fine, narrow, yellow, longitudinal lines passing, on the tail, into a beautiful 

 ultramarine, a shade which is also adopted by the lines. Below, the animal is of 

 polished, pearly white. The total length is between eight and nine inches. 



The blue-tail is a lizard which secretes itself between the loose bark of some tree, 

 and there lies in wait for small Coleoptera and grubs. Though it is a good climber, 

 it does not habitually ascend trees, but may wander unrestrictedly through the dark 

 interior galleries of those monarchs of past ages which are occasionally met with in 

 the midst of wild southern forests. During early morning, or dark days, when par- 

 tially chilled, the animal, though at other times so active, is indifferent and helpless, 

 often two or three individuals being found together, buried in the rotten wood at the 

 base of a stump, or in a hollow below some prostrate log. 



A near relative, the Bermuda skink, U. longirostris, is the only living repre- 

 sentative of the order in this isolated group, though it is possible that at some early 

 date there existed larger species, like those of the Galapagos. Captain John Smith, 

 in speaking of these islands in 1624, says, " Lizards there were many and very large, 

 but- now none, and it is said they were destroyed by the Cat." A still earlier writer, 

 however. Rev. Lewis Hughes, in 1614, says, " Here is no kind of beast but hogges 

 and cattes and they but in one or two places which we thought to come at first by 

 means of shippe-wracke. The hogges were manie, but are now brought to a small 

 number." 



In enjoying the sunshine, and in making a quick retreat, on being disturbed, as well 

 as in several other peculiarities of habit, the Bermuda skink resembles its better known 

 brothers of the continent. 



