(SIZ) 
Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 
GILA MONSTER (Heloderma suspectum). Length: 1% feet. Range: Arizona, New 
Mexico, southern Utah, Nevada, and Sonora in northern Mexico. 
about fifty minutes after being bitten. It is therefore best to give the Gila 
the benefit of the doubt. Ornamented in glaring mottles like an impres¬ 
sionistic bathroom, the Gila can be said even to look venomous. 
It is believed to feed on the eggs of snakes and lizards, which it digs 
out of the sand as they are incubating. It is also supposed to eat ants, but 
it refuses them in captivity. The stubby tail of the lizard serves as a reservoir 
for the storage of fat. When much food is available, the tail fills out, and 
in the lean periods, when the Gila is obliged to go without food, it subsists 
by absorbing the fat in its tail. 
In July and August the Gila lays from six to thirteen smooth, tough- 
shelled eggs, two and three-quarters by one and one-half inches in size. 
The eggs are buried in the sand at a depth of from three to five inches, 
usually near a stream, because incubation which lasts twenty-eight to thirty 
days requires both warmth and moisture. A fresh-laid egg contains a small 
but well-formed embryo. The young are about four inches long and even 
more vividly colored than their elders. 
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