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Zebra-tailed Lizard — Part 2
Dimensions.—Following are the measurements of a specimen taken near Tucson, Arizona:
Distribution.—Inhabits the deserts and sub-arid regions of the southwestern United States. It occurs in southern California and in Arizona generally, New Mexico, southern Nevada, southwest Utah and northern Mexico.
Habits.—Although an abundant lizard, it is difficult to capture. It skims over the desert soil if pursued, and, if deciding to stop for a moment to reconnoitre, will actually slide a few inches from the great momentum of its scampering pace. If near a "pole" cactus or a yucca tree, it darts upward at a bewildering speed. The collector stands about as much chance of catching specimens with his hands alone--possibly assisted by a net--as he would if trying to collect birds in such primitive fashion. The up-to-date collector who is after such specimens, to preserve them, carries a small-bore shot gun and shells loaded with very fine shot.
Distribution.—The Peninsula of Lower California.
Distribution.—Mountain regions near the coast of south-western California.
Dimensions.—-
Distribution.—Abundant in Mexico and extending northward, and commonly, throughout western Texas and New Mexico. As far east as Dallas it becomes rare, but the distribution in the United States is continued eastward to Pensacola, Florida.
Habits.—The Spiny Swift lives most frequently upon the trunks of trees, mostly on fallen timber, over which it runs with an amazing show of speed. Friends of the writer, who have collected the species in Mexico, tell him that it ascends the trunks of trees with a great alacrity until a short distance over one's head, when it dodges from one side of the trunk to the other as the observer is trying to locate the reptile, keeping out of the line of vision in the same fashion as a squirrel. Like many of the swifts, these lizards often burrow in the sand at the bases of the trees, to pass the night. In this habit they resemble the horned lizards (Phrynosoma). The majority of captives, if kept in a cage with a few inches of gravel, burrow just deep enough to cover the back, beginning this operation as the afternoon sun leaves their cage.
Dimensions.—-
Distribution.—The Great Basin and the mountain ranges of the Pacific region from Oregon to San Diego County, California, inclusive of both.
Habits.—Mr. D. D. Streeter informs me that he observed many specimens of this lizard on the ground, in rocky districts. They rushed away with great speed when alarmed, making for the clefts under shelving rocks where they invariably defied capture.
Distribution.—This seems to be a rare swift and confined to southern California.
Dimensions.—-
Distribution.—The Yellow-striped Swift is widely distributed. It occurs all over Texas and extends northward into Nebraska, southward well into Mexico and westward into Utah, Nevada and California.
Distribution.—In the United States this swift seems to be confined to Texas; in that state it occurs as far north as San Antonio. It is common in the eastern portions of Mexico.
Dimensions.—The measurements represent the average-sized specimen:
Distribution.—The typical form occurs abundantly from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts, from about the latitude of southern New Jersey, southward; in the extreme West it ranges as far north as Oregon.
Habits.—It is in the dry and sandy pinelands of the southeastern United States that this sombre little lizard is found in the greatest numbers. The writer has taken many dozens of specimens in the coast regions of South Carolina and Georgia; they show a marked preference for the fallen pines or sections of cut timber, as about such trunks, with their loosening bark, insect life is more numerous than on the living trees. We took the largest numbers of specimens in the saw-mill yards, for the swifts were always abundant on the piles of logs. Few specimens were observed running up the living trees and these were usually lizards that had been frightened from derelict timber and taken to the tree in flight. Their movements upon a large, fallen tree trunk, were very amusing. When approached they would dart to the opposite side of the trunk to that upon which one was approaching. As the collector's body loomed over the trunk the lizard would shift its position until it was directly beneath. If every movement of one's approach were slow and cautious, capture was comparatively simple, for all to be done was to make a rapid grab with the hand on the opposite side of the log from that on which the bulk of the collector's body appeared. But alas! This grab could not be regulated to the nicety as if you were actually looking at your object, and, although the hand approached with lightning-like rapidity, the lizard started away from it at the same rate. The result was, in many cases, that you did grasp the creature, but by the tail. A second later a dark object scurries over the sand in direct line for a tree, and up it darts, while you ruefully examine a wriggling tail from which the original owner has twisted itself free.