Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/182

170 the differences in these respects between this lizard and the blue-tailed skink, the only other saurian found in New Jersey, is very marked; the latter, as we shall see, although having less suggestive manners, has, I believe, a greater degree of intelligence.



I have spoken of the rapid and complete submission of the pine-tree lizard when captured. While rowing from point to point along the rocky shores of Lake Hopatcong, Morris County, N. J., early in May, 1887, I chanced to see a beautiful "blue-tailed" skink, an old male that was now of a uniform rich brown color, and with a brilliantly red head. My one thought was to capture it—but how? I was in a profoundly cranky boat, and the water at this point was very deep. I tried a cold douche, and the bewildered skink, leaping into the lake, was caught as it clumsily swam toward shore. I placed it in a Wardian case. May 20th, and immediately it burrowed in the thick mat of sphagnum at the bottom, and for a week seldom if ever made its appearance. I could only determine that it was alive by searching for it, and invariably was bitten. It then showed a disposition to come from its inter-sphagnian retreat, but remained wholly suspicious of every sound or object that approached. Concealing myself, I watched it carefully, and found that the shutting of a door, the crowing of a cock near the window, and loud conversation in an adjoining room, always frightened it; while the singing of a canary, and of robins in a tree near by, were not noticed. A quickly passing shadow was particularly feared. Did it associate this with the birds of prey that are the skink's most dangerous enemies? Having disappeared, it never returned by the same burrow, but, cautiously peeping from a hole in an opposite corner of the case, studied the outlook for a long time before reappearing. It showed no disposition to be sociable until June 10th, when it seemed suddenly to gain confidence, but only to a slight degree. June 19th it ate for the first time, and then became somewhat tamer, but still was essentially wild, and seemed perhaps the more so because of the contrast with the pair of lizards that were all the while its companions. July 29th it was transferred to a roomy fernery belonging to a friend, where it found a close resemblance to its lake-side home in all essential features, and immediately it became more active; and now, nearly four months after capture, has become comparatively tame.

The skink, as we have seen, is exceedingly shy, irritable, and resents the slightest interference by biting savagely, but of course is entirely harmless. Nearly every prominent feature of the lizard