( 255 ) 



ON THE HERPETOLOGY OF THE GRAND DUCHY 



OF BADEN. 



By G. Norman Douglass. 



(Continued from p. 184.) 



II. — Fam. Scincidte. 



Anguisfragilis, L. — There is considerable fluctuation in the 

 numbers of this species (as with some other reptiles) from year 

 to year, dependent, perhaps, on whether the season has been 

 favourable to the production and growth of the young. But, on 

 the whole, a steady decrease has been perceptible up to the spring 

 of 1889, notably near the capital, where it was formerly common 

 enough both in the town itself and in the immediate vicinity. 



I have always come across it fairly abundantly on the neigh- 

 bouring hills, in the wooded parts, as well as more particularly 

 in the large sandstone quarries, — where it can often be discovered 

 under the same stone with a Coronella Icevis or Tropidonotus 

 natrix, — but never in the actual Rhine woods. Near Baden Baden 

 it may be seen in great numbers, and, in fact, throughout the 

 whole Black Forest region and on the Kaiserstuhl. In the Bava- 

 rian Palatinate it appears no less generally distributed, showing, 

 however, a decided preference for the more hilly districts, though 

 it also occurs in the plain directly opposite Karlsruhe. 



Full- sized individuals are rarely met with, probably owing to 

 the wholesale destruction which this species undergoes. Needless 

 to mention that it is considered highly poisonous by the country 

 people, who further accuse it of a special tendency to be swallowed 

 by the grazing cattle (thereby causing their death), and act 

 accordingly. But, apart from this, and the annual destruction 

 involved in the hay-making, a multitude of more natural perse- 

 cutors take advantage of its insufficient means of self-defence 

 and tardy movements, which seem to suggest blindness. Hence 

 the obscure tints which harmonize admirably, in a general 

 way, with the surroundings.* But within this restricted sphere 



* I may refer to a curious instance of more specialised protective 

 resemblance in a species allied to this, given by J. v. Fischer. Speaking of 

 the Skink, he says : — " The wonderful similarity in the coloration of its head 

 to the surrounding sand [the other parts of the body being described as 

 varying in colour] renders it extremely difficult to distinguish the heads 

 peering out of the sand." 



