In northeastern Kansas I have collected or observed this skink in several dozen localities, and searched unsuccessfully in numerous other localities. Absence of this skink, in some situations and its presence and relative abundance in others, provided a basis for appraising the environmental factors that are of critical importance. River valleys, of the Kaw and Wakarusa and their tributaries, with deep alluvial soil, alternate with flat or rolling upland some two hundred feet higher in elevation, and having shallow, rocky soil. Where the uplands slope to the valley floors, there are steep hillsides, usually with extensive limestone outcrops along their upper slopes. The alluvial plains formerly supported hardwood forests, while the hill slopes and uplands were largely prairie. At the present time the bottomland forest has been almost completely destroyed, as it grew on the most fertile and potentially productive soil, and has been replaced by cultivated crops. There are still trees along streambanks, and in occasional woodlots, but I have failed to find any skinks in such situations. I doubt that they ever have been numerous in the bottomland woods; lack of rocks for shelter, and periodic flooding are unfavorable factors. In the Kaw flood of June and July, 1951, for instance, the entire valley was inundated, and in smaller tributary valleys such as that of the Wakarusa, flooding is frequent at the season when skinks are incubating their eggs. The uplands, formerly prairie, now are used partly for cultivated crops and partly for pasture. The soil is poor and rocky, and now heavily eroded. The pastures mostly have a weedy type of vegetation indicative of overgrazing. Five-lined skinks are absent from most of this upland.