[June, 
marshes in the winter months; and the shores of the ocean and 
the bay, though poor in species compared with points either 
northward or southward along the coast, have each their charac- 
teristic forms of life. . 
Pleasant it is, when the clouds have rolled away, and the green 
hills and bay and ocean lie spread out before us in the glorious 
sunshine of a Californian spring morning, to leave the city’s 
wooden sidewalks and ramble away to the ocean shore. On 
such a trip let us now start; let us feast, Barmecide fashion, on the 
good things of nature, bringing together, as those who feast in 
such fashion may, all the delicacies of the season to adorn our 
table. 
In the centre of the peninsula, at some distance from any other 
hill, rises a conical elevation covered with loose sand and sur- 
mounted by a tall cross. Around it lie the cemeteries of the city, 
once far out of town but now becoming gradually surrounded by 
houses. Near the foot of this “ Lone Mountain ” we alight from 
the horse-car and strike out over the sand-hills toward the ocean, 
stopping, however, to pluck the flowers and to rummage among 
the old roots of the blue lupine (Lupinus albifrons) and the low 
bushes of groundsel-tree (Baccharis consanguinea) for the living 
treasures hidden there in the form of lizards and frogs which have 
not yet left their winter retreat. A pretty long-tailed black and 
white lizard (Gerrhonotus multicarinatus Blainv.) is our first prize, 
soon followed by a small tree frog (Hyla regilla). Another 
search brings to light a pair of “ swifts,” not birds but iguanine 
lizards (Sceleporus undulatus Harl.) and two or three more 
tree-frogs. 
Our lizards are cold and sleepy, for the warmth of the sun has 
not yet penetrated to their place of concealment, but after 4 
few minutes in our hands, exposed to the sun’s rays, they became 
more lively, and ran off a short distance. The long slender 
Gerrhonotus, with his tail trailing along the ground, is strikingly 
different from the bluff-bodied conical-tailed Scelepori, with their 
rough-scaled gray backs lined with undulating short stripes of 
black, and displaying the bright blue of the sides of the 
abdomen. 
Don’t touch the Gerrhonotus incautiously when he gets lively, 
for if you catch him anywhere except just around the neck, he 
will surely either bite your finger sufficiently hard to make you 
348 Rambles Round San Francisco. 
