SOME OPINIONS ON THE BITE OF THE “GILA MONSTER” (Heloderma suspectum),. 
By R. W. SHUuFELDT, 
While residing in New Mexico a few years 
ago the writer paid some considerable attention 
to the life-history and structure of that biggest 
of all our lizards, the ‘‘Gila monster,” more 
properly referred to as the Heloderma. For 
a year or two at a time I had them alive in my 
keeping and under my daily observation, and I 
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Fic. 1.—Lerr LATERAL VIEW OF 
once had a large one that possessed a length of 
41.3 cms., and a smaller one of rather more 
than half that size. They have occasionally 
been taken nearly 51 cms., or about twenty 
inches long. To the general reader the colora- 
tion and form of this remarkable lizard is as yet 
but imperfectly known, especially in the far 
eastern sections of our country, where it still 
remains one of the scarcer acquisitions to the 
larger zodlogical gardens. This being the 
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case it is believed that the figures here pre- 
sented will meet with acceptance in many 
quarters. They are faithful reproductions of 
photographs made by the author from living 
specimens once in his own possession. The 
life-size left lateral view of the head is from a 
female, taken as she lay in an hypnotized state 
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THE Heap oF A HELODERMA—LIFE SIZE. 
over a roughish piece of pine bark; the two 
others, shown in the second cut, were photo- 
graphed as they lay basking out in the sun in 
the rear courtyard of my quarters in New 
Mexico. The larger one of these latter two is 
the same from which the figure of the above 
head was taken. Helodermas have a tubercu- 
lated armor of black and orange scales, bril- 
liant and shiny, that vary both in size and form 
for different parts of the body. On the head 
