. Denizens of the desert; a book of southwestern mammals, birds, and reptiles, by Edmund C. Jaeger .. . of which is a sexually com-plete animal, male and female, containingthousands of eggs. It reaches maturity in aboutsix weeks, after which period the lower joints,and numerous free eggs, are discharged at eachevacuation and deposited upon the ground,weeds, or grass. The eggs are so small as to be quite invisi-ble to the unaided eye, and being furnishedwith a thick envelope have considerable tenac-ity of life. The hare swallows the eggs, eitherby feeding upon the grass and weeds or bydrinking
. Denizens of the desert; a book of southwestern mammals, birds, and reptiles, by Edmund C. Jaeger .. . of which is a sexually com-plete animal, male and female, containingthousands of eggs. It reaches maturity in aboutsix weeks, after which period the lower joints,and numerous free eggs, are discharged at eachevacuation and deposited upon the ground,weeds, or grass. The eggs are so small as to be quite invisi-ble to the unaided eye, and being furnishedwith a thick envelope have considerable tenac-ity of life. The hare swallows the eggs, eitherby feeding upon the grass and weeds or bydrinking from pools of water into which theyhave been washed. In the stomach the thick 232 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT envelope is digested, the contained embryo isset free, and immediately starts for its pre-destined resting-place. This microscopic em-bryo is furnished with six booklets by means ofwhich it penetrates the walls of the intestineand embeds itself in the muscular tissue. Hereit ceases to move, its booklets fall off, and itslowly develops into a polycephalos [many-headed] vesicle. * • Zoe, vol. CALLISAURUS, THE GRIDIRON-TAILEDLIZARD CALLISAURUS, THE GRIDIRON-TAILEDLIZARD (Callisaurus veniralis) Speeding like greased lightning is hardlya figurative expression when applied to thatactive and agile saurian, the gridiron-tailedlizard. Starting off at full speed, with his blackbanded tail held in air as if afraid to let ittouch the hot earth, he scoots across the sandas if shot from a cannon, None of our desertlizards can move so fast nor can any run so farwithout fatigue. To arouse one of these sand-lappers from his seeming lethargy while atrest, and get him going at full speed in frontof you, is an act always hugely productive ofpleasure. Generally they move in great circles,but when on long, open stretches, where thereis scarcely trace of vegetation behind which tohide, they run a straight course. Then it is thatyou see them racing at their best. Some ob-servers have ventured
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1922
