SKINKS 
Although these lizards are not usually eaten by man, it is said that Genghis 
Khan, marching through Central Asia, fed his warriors on skink meat to 
make them fiercer. Yet the skink itself is a most unwarlike animal. 
Some burrow in the sand and have little or no use for their rudimen¬ 
tary legs. Most skinks dwell in the desert although a number of species 
spend their lives in the vicinity of grass and trees. 
A few snake-like skinks, although they have small legs, do not bother 
to use them when in a hurry, but fold them up and glide away on their 
bodies. In some species, one pair of limbs is so degenerated as to be useless; 
in others, neither pair is of practical aid. Some species are completely limb¬ 
less. So great is the variation, that even among a single species there exist 
differences in the number of toes. Except for the snake-like species, most 
skinks have short legs on which they can travel swiftly when need be. 
Most of them are alike in appearance and, especially in the limbless 
skinks, the head, body and tail are not clearly marked off as in other lizards. 
They have large, rounded, rather smooth scales which overlap. Unlike 
most other lizards, they have bony plates under the scales. The eyes are well 
developed and have round pupils, while the movable eyelids are augmented 
by a third, transparent, windowlike lid. This feature of the skink’s eyelids, 
together with its round, tubelike body and smooth skin, adapts it to a 
subterranean life. 
There are wide divergences in the size of these creatures. The largest 
one, the giant skink, grows to a length of two feet. This comparatively 
huge member of the family, living in New Guinea, Java and the Moluccas, 
according to de Rooij not only eats insects but also small birds and mice. 
FIVE-LINED SKINK 
The five-lined skink indiscriminately feeds on insects of all sorts, in¬ 
cluding wasps and yellow-jackets. Its smooth, glistening, hard skin is a 
protective armor against the stings of its victims. 
The skink has been observed by Mcllhenny to deliberately approach 
a wasp’s nest, seize it in its jaws, and shake it by thrashing about with 
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