Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . equents the old cottonwood trees along the streams. Tobring one down out of a tree where its head and bodykeep bobbing up and down at the intruder, does not lack inthe element of sport. The zebra lizard, Callissaurus dra-conoides, is another fine species of which we secured a goodseries on the sunbaked sands of the Virgin River Basin. Itmeasures about eight inches in length, is pearl grey above,and blue and orange between black bars on the under partsof the abdomen and tail. Excepting the prairie rattler, Crotalus confluentus,snakes wxre not common. The fii-st rattl
Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . equents the old cottonwood trees along the streams. Tobring one down out of a tree where its head and bodykeep bobbing up and down at the intruder, does not lack inthe element of sport. The zebra lizard, Callissaurus dra-conoides, is another fine species of which we secured a goodseries on the sunbaked sands of the Virgin River Basin. Itmeasures about eight inches in length, is pearl grey above,and blue and orange between black bars on the under partsof the abdomen and tail. Excepting the prairie rattler, Crotalus confluentus,snakes wxre not common. The fii-st rattler, encountered onMay 16, startled us by its loud buzzing as we climbed a drywash below the Belle\Tie Ridge. It was a vicious beast andwe shot it. Thereafter we saw rattlers frequently, on somedays two and three. One of their favorite haunts was alongSouth Ash Creek, where the stream enters a formidable can-yon. Mr. Doll reported one four feet long, but their aver-age length is below three feet. They always gave us warn- 36. THE RARE HAWKMOTH, SPHINX DOLLlNatural size ing and with ordi-nary precaution wedid not think of themas dangerous. Thedeep - rooted enmityof the farmers to-wards all snakesprobably accountedfor the scarcity of theharmless of them broughtus a gopher snake, Pityophis catenife?\ killed in the of its greatly distended body we removed two adultgophers and five young. We hoped this would convince thefarmer of the fallacy of killing so beneficial a species. Toads began breeding early in May, their nightly cho-rus, coming from an overflow on the ranch, continuing intoJune. Quite common proved the western spade-foot, hammondi, but like its eastern kin, ScapMopusholhroolxi, it is very secretive and could be found only at nightby the aid of a lantern. The call is a loud June, after the breeding season, it disappears entirely.
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