May,1893.] REFTILES OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 180 



blood from the eyes should be credited, and one of the specimens in the 

 collection brought home (No. 18452) is the offender who gave rise to 

 Dr. O. P. Hay's entertaining article (Proc. IT. S. Nat. Mus., xv, 1892, 

 pp. 375-378) on this subject. It transpired afterwards that this speci- 

 men had been sent me alive for the very reason that it had been eject- 

 ing blood repeatedly when caught. The letter from Mr. Bailey accom- 

 panying the specimen turned up long after Dr. Hay's experience with 

 the animal, and it is to the following effect: 



Kernville, Cal., July 11, 1891. 

 Dear Sir: I caught a horned toad to-day that very much surprised Dr. Fisher 

 aud myself by squirting blood from its eyes. It was on smooth ground and not in 

 brush or weeds. I caught it with my hand aud just got my fingers on its tail as 

 it ran. On taking it in my hand a little jet of blood spurted from one eye a dis- 

 tance of 15 inches and spattered on my shoulder. Turning it over to examine the 

 eye another stream spurted from the other eye. This he did four or five times from 

 both eyes until my hands, clothes, and gun were sprinkled over with fine drops of 

 bright red blood. I put it in a bag and carried it to camp, where, about four hours 

 later, I showed it to Dr. Fisher, when it spurted three more streams from its eyes. 

 One of the same species that I caught July 2 evidently did the same, as I found its 

 head covered with blood when I caught it, but supposed it was injured in the 

 weeds. It seems so strange that I send the horned toad to you alive. 



Vernon Bailey. 



The specimen upon its arrival was handled a great deal, but gave 

 no evidence of its blood-squirting tendencies until the beginning of 

 August, when it resented Dr. Hay's handling it somewhat roughly in 

 the manner related. In order to give the entire history of this animal, 

 I reprint Dr. Hay's account as follows : 



"About the 1st of August it was shedding its outer skin, and the 

 process appeared to be a difficult one, since the skin was dried and 

 adhered closely. One day it occurred to me that it might facilitate 

 matters if I should give the animal a wetting; so, taking it up, I. carried 

 it to a wash-basin of water near by and suddenly tossed the lizard into 

 the water. The first surprise was probably experienced by the Pliry- 

 nosoma, but the next surprise was my own, for on one side of the basin 

 there suddenly appeared a number of spots of red fluid, which resem- 

 bled blood A microscope was soon procured and an 



examination was made, which immediately showed that the matter 

 ejected was really blood. 



"The affair now became very interesting. Just where the blood 

 came from I could not determine with certainty, the whole thing hav- 

 ing happened so suddenly and unexpectedly; yet the appearance 

 seemed to indicate that the blood came from the region about one of 

 the eyes. There appeared to be a considerable quantity of the blood, 

 since on the sides of the vessel and on the wall near it I counted ninety 

 of the little splotches. A consultation was had with Mr. Stejneger 

 the next day with regard to the propriety of dashing the animal into 

 the water again to discover, if j>ossible, where the blood came from. 



