6 
LORQUINIA 
COLLECTING TRIP TO VERDUGO PEAK 
(NEziR GLENDALE, CALIF.) 
The sun shone and the weather was summery on Sunday, Feb- 
ruary 6, 1 91 6, the first warm day after a long period of cold and lain 
of the preceding winter. 
Shortly after daybreak Robert Elwin, R. Lyttle, Paul Ruthling 
and Ledyard Leech met in Glendale, a small town about ten miles 
from the city of Los Angeles. Before the day became very warm, they 
ascended Verdugo Peak, altitude about 4000 feet. On the way back 
they climbed down a side canyon that runs toward the La Canada Val- 
ley, and by way of Verdugo Canyon returned to Glendale. 
In the early morning nothing beside some tree toads and one toad 
was caught. After leaving the peak many wood rat nests were ob- 
served built near the bottom of small canyons. A large rat ran out of 
one of these that was torn open among the brush on the mountain 
side. Down the steep slope the collectors rolled a large stone that was 
under the nest and discovered, where the stone had been, a skink and 
a good sized Footless Lizard. 
At the mouth of the canyon, when they had reached the valley 
floor, they found a group of oak trees far out in the open grape field. 
Among the stones at the foot ot these trees and within about ten feet 
of each other were caught, under the first stone lifted, a young Pacific 
Bull Snake and a Footless Lizard, and among other stones, Brown- 
shouldered Swifts, Fence Lizards and one Alligator Lizard. 
Tree toads were heard singing and some eggs were found in shal- 
low pools in Verdugo Can3 0n. 
The catch of the trip included every species of lizard known to ex- 
ist in the vicinity of Los Angeles except Stejneger's Whip-tailed Liz- 
ard and the Horned Lizard and also included the first snake seen in 
the field by any member of the club this year. The total catch was 
as follows: 
7 Fence Lizards, Sceloporus biseriatus, [more were seen.] 
3 Brown-shouldered Swifts, Vta stansbunana, [more were seen.] 
2 Alligator Lizards, Gerrhonotus scincicauda, [one was very young.] 
2 FootlessLizards, Anniella pulchra, [in earth under stones.] 
1 Skink, Eumeces. 
1 Pacific Bull Snake, Pituophis catenifer, [about twenty inches long.] 
5 Toads, Bafo halophilus. 
6 Tree-toads, Hyla regilla. 
5 Salamanders, Batrachoseps attenuatus, [some large and some small.] 
6 Millipedes, a large species [unidentified.] 
Many scorpions and about five specie of centipedes were set free after exam- 
ination. 
PAUL D. R. RUTHLING. 
