its body. As the young wasps drop out they are devoured. Adult wasps, 
having learned from experience that discretion is the better part of valor 
in dealing with skinks, flee without a fight. Their only defense is to build 
their nests in localities not inhabited by their enemy. A five-lined skink 
has been known to raid as many as twenty wasps’ and twelve yellow-jackets’ 
nests within two weeks. 
This species is found in the eastern United States and is especially 
prolific in the southeast. It makes its home in hollow pine trees and be¬ 
neath the loosened bark of fallen trees. It is a hard creature to capture, for 
it always has a prepared hiding place to which it flees when in danger. 
It acquires its name from the five yellow stripes which adorn its black 
body in youth. Added brightness is lent to the young skink by the rich 
blue of its tail, which has won the reptile the additional name of blue¬ 
tailed skink. As the lizard advances in age, however, the stripes become 
obscure and vanish, the body becomes brownish in color, the head a 
glowing red. At this stage, it is popularly called red-headed lizard or 
scorpion” and is mistakenly considered poisonous. 
Males grow to a length of ten inches, females to seven. The females 
never completely lose the five characteristic stripes and their heads are 
never as red as the males’. The head of the male, swollen at the temples, 
gives it a terrifying appearance. 
The difference in coloration between the young five-lined skink and 
the adult is so great, that for a time they were thought to be two different 
species. 
AUSTRALIAN STUMP-TAILED 
SKINK 
This skink, inhabiting Austialia, has a tail so blunt that it seems to have 
a head at both ends of its body. 
About a foot long, it is brown in color, spotted or banded with yellow. 
Its rough, overlapping scales and heavy, shapeless body make it resemble 
the dry cone of a pine tree. 
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