THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIZARDS. 685 



I was regretting it, when M. Winssinger, an engineer of Brussels, 

 put me in communication with one of his friends, M. H. Dineur, 

 Director of the Mines of Fillols, near Prades. He sent me an 

 ocellated lizard on the 1st of October, 1891. This lizard died by- 

 being inadvertently smothered, at the end of March in the next 

 year. The autopsy disclosed that it was a female ; it weighed 

 only fifty-six grammes, while the Spanish lizard weighed more 

 than one hundred and thirty grammes, and the one from the 

 Tarn more than ninety grammes. The Spanish lizard was a male. 



It possibly came to pass that the young female disturbed the 

 harmony between the Spanish and the French lizards, for I ob- 

 served that they no longer lived on a footing of complete in- 

 timacy. I observed at first only scoldings between them, but 

 these were succeeded by bitings. In the beginning the quarrels 

 were transient, but they became more and more frequent, and the 

 acts of hostility were graver — the Spanish lizard, presuming on 

 his strength, pursuing his rival, driving him out of corners, biting 

 him, and at last rendering his existence so miserable that I was 

 obliged to separate them. After the tragic death of the lizard of 

 Prades, I hoped there would be a reconciliation, but there was 

 none. The French lizard, indeed, made several attempts to estab- 

 lish peace, but the Spaniard sprang upon him furiously as soon 

 as he perceived him and made him scamper his fastest. 



M. Dineur sent me other consignments of lizards, six in all. 

 One very small one escaped into the field ; another died a little 

 while after its arrival. It was a very fine animal, but it had 

 sharply bitten a workman who picked it up, and the stupid and 

 cruel brute took his revenge upon it by making it bite a bar of 

 red-hot iron. Its mouth was all a sore when I received it, and it 

 survived its horrible burning only a few days. 



Among the four new lizards that were left me was one for- 

 midable one, which, although it lost most of its tail when it was 

 captured, still weighed nearly two hundred grammes. They very 

 soon became familiar, except one, which, while it would eat from 

 the hand, persisted in running away if one tried to pick it up, 

 and bite when it was captured. The Spanish lizard received 

 them hospitably, but if I put the French animal among them he 

 would immediately recognize him and chase him. 



But after some weeks of peaceful living together, the Span- 

 ish lizard began to tyrannize over his new companions too, the 

 largest at first and then the smaller ones. He is a decided teaser 

 and a bad bedfellow. Nothing can be more curious then the tac- 

 tics he employs to cut off their retreat. He turns himself cross- 

 wise, in such a way as to bar their passage. Then, when he has 

 driven them into a corner, he lifts up his paws, swells out his 

 neck, puts down his head, darts his great open mouth at them, 



