Still another important function of the female is to dampen the nest burrow to prevent desiccation of the eggs. Even in dry weather, females taken from nests almost invariably voided water in relatively large quantities. They drink dew or other available water, and may void the contents of the bladder to moisten the nest cavity, as on numerous occasions, when nests were exposed by raising flat rocks covering them, part of the chamber was seen to be recently watered, and distinctly moister than the surrounding soil. Noble and Mason (_op. cit._:16-19) found that brooding females, in the laboratory, would vigorously defend their eggs against small enemies, including mice and lizards and the smaller kinds of snakes that were tested. The female watched alertly as the intruder approached, and attempted to bite it if it came too near or touched an egg. The females failed to defend their nests against persons and against a large blacksnake; when confronted with such a threat, the female would run from her nest cavity to hide. Cagle (1940:228) stated that the brooding females found by him stayed in the nests even when the logs in which they were situated were chopped open with an ax, and that the skinks would attempt to bite when touched with the finger. In the present study, females whose nests were exposed never made any active attempt to defend them. Many darted away and hid as soon as they were exposed. In other instances, especially when the nest cavity was only partly exposed, from one side, the female cowered back against the inner wall, opening her mouth in threat if closely approached. If further molested she might then attempt to escape. In brooding females a tendency to sluggishness, and an affinity for the eggs delayed the usually speedy escape reactions. The temperature of the female was ordinarily lower than it would have been in the open or on the underside of a flat rock, and this also tended to slow her reactions. Gravid females when exposed in nest cavities that still contain no eggs are similarly sluggish and reluctant to leave differing little or none in behavior from those that have laid their clutches. Usually the female was found with her body encircling the eggs, holding them together in a compact cluster in the center of the nest cavity. The eggs rest in contact with the loose soil on the floor of the cavity, with each other, and with the female's body in the case of the outer ones of the cluster. Normal brooding habits proved to be difficult to follow because the females were easily disturbed. In many instances those that had excavated nest burrows, but had not yet laid, deserted the nests after the disturbance involved in raising the sheltering rock. Females that had already laid before discovery of their nests were somewhat less inclined to desert, but many did so.