it in a dash for other shelter, which might be another tree trunk nearby. In moving downward or horizontally on a tree trunk or limb, a skink allows its heavy tail to bend downward from its own weight. The tail probably handicaps the lizard's climbing to some extent, and those with short regenerated tails have an advantage. The following extracts from my field notes are selected as typical illustrations of the climbing habit as a response to danger. September 15, 1948. A skink darted across the trail in front of me, to a tree 18 inches in diameter and climbed to a height of five feet where it stopped. Each time that I moved to approach and examine it, the skink was disturbed, and darted jerkily higher up the trunk until it was well out of reach at a height of about ten feet. May 2, 1949. Seeing an adult male skink lying in the open, I attempted to stalk it, but it became alarmed, ran to a shagbark hickory about six inches in diameter, and soon had climbed to a height of 25 feet. June 4, 1949. Juvenile, basking a few inches above ground on trunk of an elm ten inches in diameter, took alarm at my approach, and climbed rapidly out of reach, where it concealed itself in thick foliage. June 22, 1949. Movement two feet above ground on an elm sapling attracted my attention; an adult male and a juvenal skink were clinging to the trunk only a few inches apart, and neither moved as I approached and examined them from a distance of less than three feet. The concealment afforded by numerous short twigs with thick foliage apparently caused them to feel secure. September 21, 1949. A juvenile was noticed climbing eight feet above the ground on a locust trunk. As I approached the skink continued upward to a height of approximately 15 feet above the ground where it disappeared around the trunk and could not be relocated. July 7, 1950. A nearly grown juvenile ran to an elm sapling four inches in diameter, and climbed up out of reach. When the skink reached the main crotch, it turned facing downward alertly. By reaching up with a long stick and poking it on the hindquarters, I succeeded several times in chasing it part way down the trunk, but each time it ran back up to the crotch and returned to the same position. July 26, 1950. A hatchling uncovered beneath a flat rock ran to a nearby oak tree about four inches in diameter and climbed to a height of five feet before it was caught. An adult female seen foraging in the open ran to a dead shrub and climbed one of the stems, inclined at an angle of about 45°. Ascending this stem she was unable to get more than three feet above the ground, and was easily captured. Another adult female seen foraging in the open ran to an oak about three inches in diameter, climbed rapidly to a height a little more than a foot above the ground, and concealed herself under the stem of a poison ivy vine twined about the tree trunk.