drawn upon over periods of days as it is needed, or may be utilized to dampen the soil of the underground shelter and raise the humidity, as incubating females seem to do. GEOGRAPHIC RANGE AND THE DECIDUOUS FOREST HABITAT EUMECES FASCIATUS corresponds in its distribution with the original hardwood forests of eastern North America, as mapped by Braun (1950:cover folder) and the "Oak-Wild Turkey Biome" of Shelford (1945:240). Few species of vertebrate animals have ranges that coincide more closely with this extensive area (exclusive of the northern edge, that part characterized by Braun as the Hemlock-White Pine-Northern Hardwoods). This latter is a mixed forest which actually is transitional between the more typical deciduous forest farther south and the Taiga Biome (or Formation) to the north, which is dominated entirely by conifers. At the northern edge of its range _Eumeces fasciatus_ is much less generally distributed than it is farther south. Although it is well established and even may be locally numerous in South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Michigan, Ontario, northern New York, and Connecticut, the locality records from these states are few, and seemingly represent isolated and widely separated colonies that are able to persist because of favorable combinations of environmental factors not of general occurrence in the surrounding regions. Figure 6 shows the extent of the hardwood forests as mapped by Braun (excluding the transitional Hemlock-White Pine-Northern Hardwoods Association) with specific locality records of _E. fasciatus_ included in all outlying portions of the range. The locality records are those published by Taylor (1936:206-212) supplemented by other marginal records, more recently published, by Hamilton (1947:64) for New York, Breckenridge (1944:97) for Minnesota, Hudson (1942:42) for Nebraska, Smith (1950:185) for Kansas, Brown (1950:116) for Texas, Neill (1948:156) for Georgia, and Neill and Allen (1950:156) for Florida. Along the northern edge of its range, the skink invades the Hemlock-White Pine-Northern Hardwoods Association, in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but does not penetrate far into it anywhere. Correspondence of its northern limits with those of the Oak-Chestnut, Maple-Basswood, Beech-Maple and Oak-Hickory associations is remarkably close, considering the fact that the boundaries of these climax associations are not sharply defined; rather they merge by gradual stages into the northern coniferous forests, with outlying peninsulas and islands where conditions are favorable.