TEXAN HERPETOLOGY 



REPTILIA. 

 Crotaphytus collaris Say. Ring-necked Lizard. 



This handsome lizard is more or less common in suitable localities through- 

 out the county but shows a decided preference for limestone districts. None 

 were found on the dark sandstone beyond Clear Creek but a few frequent 

 boulders near Granite Mountain. The food of this species consists largely of 

 crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and other insects. It also preys on other lizards, 

 especially the species of Holbrookia and the smaller Scelopori. Blossoms of 

 plants were found in the stomachs of several of my specimens. 



Young examples were tolerably common during the early part of July and I 

 could detect no difference between their habits and those of the adults. Each 

 specimen selects some particular boulder or flat rock as a basking place, and 

 gives it up only when driven off by a larger and more powerful member of its 

 species. Large males are wicked fighters, true "bullies" of the lizard tribe. 

 The natives consider this lizard as poisonous as a rattlesnake. Local names, 

 "moimtain boomer" and "bull lizard." Specimens were collected in the follow- 

 ing localities: Granite Mountain, Burnet (road leading past Post Moun- 

 tain), Honey Creek, Clear Creek, Llano road (seven miles out from Burnet), 

 Lion Mountain and near Mormon Mills. The largest and finest examples 

 were obtained near Lion Mountain. Here they were found basking on large 

 flat rocks lying along the roadside. As soon as we would drive near a speci- 

 men, it would raise the fore part of the body to the fully length of the fore- 

 limbs and remain in this pose uijtil one of us attempted to leave the wagon. 

 Then it would scamper off to a hiding place under another rock and when 

 found would be coiled up snake fashion in a small hollow. 



In a large series of these lizards from Burnet County only about 40 per 

 cent have the single row of interorbitals of typical collaris while the remaining 

 60 per cent are about equally divided between those with a double row and 

 those in which the two rows are fused. Several of the older examples with 

 double rows have unusually broad heads and are undoubtedly intermediates 

 between the typical subspecies and the variety baileyi of Trans-Pecos Texas 

 and the Proplateau of New Mexico and Arizona. 



The eggs of this species range from four to twelve in number and are de- 

 posited in the ground at a depth of two or three inches. My friend J. D. 

 Mitchell, found C. collaris breeding in Llano County during the month of 

 August. 



Holbrookia texana Troschel. Texas Spotted Lizard. 



This is one of the most abundant of the Burnet County Lizards. In some 

 sections of the State, these handsome little saurians are confined principally to 

 the rocky banks of certain streams but here they occur indiscriminately. I 

 found them on the mountain sides living among rocks, on the steep cliffs of the 

 canyon at Mormon Mills, among brush along roadsides, and even on the sandy 

 flats where they were burrowing under the roots of shrubs and trees. On the 

 sandstone blufJs beyond Clear Creek I captured several examples of a dark, 



