TIIE GILA MONSTER 
335 
purposes to a larger number of school pupils than 
any other lizard known to the author. 
The colors of this creature vary with age to an 
extent that is apt to be very confusing. Observe 
the programme: 
During the first year the body is black, with 
bright yellow stripes, and the tail is brilliant blue. 
In the second, the tail is slaty gray, and the black 
of the body is less intense. In the third, the body 
becomes brownish, and the stripes are indistinct. 
In the fourth, and thereafter, the body is brown, 
the head vermilion, and the stripes have disap- 
peared. The length of a large specimen is about 
eight inches. 
All the small lizards and skinks are insect- 
eaters, and in captivity thrive best upon meal- 
worms and insects generally. Their quickness of 
movement is almost beyond belief, and even with 
a long-handled net it is very difficult to capture 
one alive and unhurt. 
The Ring-Necked Lizard , 1 which should be 
called the Kangaroo-Lizard, represents a group 
quite different from the skinks, and also nearer 
to the iguanas. It is a creature of the canyons, 
deserts and dry mountains of the Southwest, 
from Texas to southeastern California, and 
northward into Utah and Nevada. It is often 
found on mountains up to 5,000 and even 6,000 
feet. (Merriam.) 
This is a plump-bodied creature, and its colors 
vary to an extent that is apt to create confusion. 
It is either dark green or bluish above, and the 
sides, back and thighs are covered with light 
spots. The under surface is yellowish-white, 
sometimes tinged wth pale green. This lizard 
derives its name from two bands of black which 
stretch across the shoulders between the fore- 
legs. 
The most interesting feature about it appears 
never to have been observed and recorded until 
Mr. Barnum Brown sent several specimens to the 
Zoological Park. When one was liberated in a 
large sanded cage, it rose on its hind-legs, in the 
position of an erect kangaroo, and in that strange 
posture ran rapidly. It held its head well erect, 
carried its fore-legs a la kangaroo, and ran, not by 
hopping, but by taking long steps. In experi- 
menting with the different individuals received 
from Mr. Brown, it was found that under similar 
provocation, all of them ran in the remarkable 
1 Cro-ta-phy'tus col lar' is. 
attitude described, — highly suggestive of a pygmy 
dinosaur. 
The Gila Monster 2 is perhaps the most fa- 
mous lizard of North America, and its first name 
is pronounced He'la. 
It is big, odd-looking and very showy, and 
therefore is dear to the heart of nearly every col- 
lector of reptiles. A large specimen has a total 
length of 20 inches, girth around the middle, 9^ 
inches, and weighs, 43 ounces. When in robust 
health, the body and tail seem stuffed to the 
point of discomfort. Externally the whole of 
the creature appears to be covered with round 
glass beads, jet black and orange yellow in color, 
and laid on in a Navajo pattern. 
This remarkable lizard inhabits the desert 
regions of Arizona and the adjoining state of 
From the Zoological Society Bulletin. 
GILA MONSTER. 
Sonora, Mexico. It is more sluggish in its move- 
ments than a box tortoise, and the very slow and 
clumsy manner in which it partakes of its daily 
meal of raw eggs and chopped meat leads the ob- 
server to pity its helplessness. How it manages 
to secure a sufficient quantity of acceptable food 
on the deserts where it lives is a puzzle. 
Whether the bite of this creature is poisonous 
or not is yet a debated question among natural- 
ists. Several authorities cite the deaths of vari- 
ous small animals bitten by it, but others point to 
other victims which were bitten, but did not die. 
At the United States National Museum, Mr. A. 
Z. Schindler was bitten by a Gila Monster, but 
aside from a very natural degree of irritation 
2 Hel-o-der'ma sus-pec'tum. 
