lg. tat 1St !ts st. lre in­ ra­ Jd· be la­ md Iso of ted Volume 9 AUGUST 15, 1950 Number 8 Wll of the rds ISC, THOSE ELUSIVE COLONIES OF LIZARDS the -------·* ~on * * * * * * * * * * p az By Kenneth D. Carlander and I.'IS. THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF ' Robert B. Moorman ~er. I owa State College 1en· CONSERVATION Although few people see them, Jeir lizards are found in several parts int· B y Earl L. Shaub of the state. They usually live in lfO· Volumes have been written from colonies, and several may be found at one place and none in neighbor­ cer· the scientific angle on the needs of ing localities. the conserving our natural resources. We have five species of lizards Jald We should also see these needs in Iowa. Three of them are skinks, the from a spiritual viewpoint. The fact that we draw our very life one of them is a racerunner, and ~Je from these resources carries with the last is a legless lizard, the glass it some tremendous moral obli­ snak e. pro· gations. The skinks are smooth scaled the One of the greatest of these is lizards, with flat round scales, or our duty to wisely use, conserve overlapping and more or less equal row. and restore the natural resources in size over the entire body. On r's from which we live, so that future the undersurface of the scales are generations may enjoy the same bony plates which give the skinks abundance that we have. This is a a firm armor. Two of the Iowa sacred obligation, stressed in the species are striped. The five-lined scriptures as well as in the ex­ or blue-tailed skink (Eumeces ,orne periences of the human race. Do­ fasciatus) has a light line down minion over the earth with its the middle of the back and two .hree plants and animals, fish and fowl, light lines on each side. The line Wolf is a big responsibility that should on the back extends forward and s for be met wholeheartedly and with for ks on the top of the head. >lace solemnity and dignity. The black-banded or northern entY The first of these resources, of prairie skink (Eumeces septentri­ n as course, is the soil. The scriptures onalis) has three wide brownish­ jver. refer to man as a handful of clay gray stripes on the back separated Jtber into which the Creator has blown by two narrow black stripes. On cans. his warm breath. Though this may each side, there are three black and be taken as an allegory in scrip­ stripes separated by two narrow ards; tural language it is in reality a bluish-white stripes. Young skinks 1dant great truth. Most of the elements of both species have deep blue tails in our bodies came from the soil and are very different from the into which the processes of crea­ adults. The body of a young skink tion have blown the warm bre:tth is black with narrow white stripes, of sunshine, air and water. five in the five-line and seven in the Good health, then, and even life black-banded skink. The blue col­ ~rs. itself depends on good soil. In fact, The black-band ed skink is one of five lizards found In the state. They are secretive, oration of the tail is lost when the ~rton. everything we have or hope to seldom seen in t he open, and most of the t ime live un der rocks, logs or in burrows. skinks are about two inches long Everett Speaker Phot o. r the have-our food, the wool and cot­ (not counting the tail). Adult ssion. ton in our clothes, the materials in males, which are usually larger )' and our houses, all the commodities in than the females, may be three lange our commerce-came from the soil. inches long plus a four-inch tail. :ape. " Our standard of living, therefore, PETE, THE SCIENTIFIC CATFISH Older male five-lined skinks may {!low· and even civilization depends on lose the striped pattern. ••JOY• the fertility of the earth. By A. George Morris disbelief that I had known Pete the In the southwest corner of the Nations of the past flourished Catfish for seventeen years. They state is found a larger species, the as long as their soil was good and When one's word is doubted lifted their eyebrows higher when Sonoran skink ( Eumeces obso­ , best decayed when their soil was de­ about a friendship of seventeen I added an estimate that P ete had letus). The body of this skink may 1)1~1"· II 4f(l pleted. Palestine, large stretches years' duration, then it's time to been swimming in Missouri waters be almost five inches long and the ,er of China and Greece are glarmg do something drastic- even though tail seven inches. The Sonoran 1r- for about five years before we be­ examples of what happens to once the friend is a channel catfish. came pals at the Chesapeake State skink is not striped, but each scale prosperous countries that fail to Such is what I decided when Fish Hatchery, near Mt. Vernon. on the back and sides is outlined in conserve and restore the ground fellow members of the Missouri "How did I know all that?" they dark brown or black. The young (Continued on page 64) Conservation Commission showed (Continued on pa~e 63) (Continued on page 62J Page 58 IOWA CONSERVATIONIST - Iowa Conservationist BLACKBIRDS Published Monthly By The IOWA CONSERVATION COMMISSION B.} Roberts ~\lann 914 Grand Avenue Des Memes, Iowa F u n •' I P r t•,t•n c Di.,lr ic l o f Cool. ( nunt"', Illinui' (No Rights Reserved! WM S BEARDSLEY Governor of Iowa Typical of fall evenings are the BRUCE F STILES. Director flocks of blackbirds that gather in JAMES R HARLAN, Editor the rna rsh('S, in the fields, in groves LOIS RECKNOR Asso 1atc Ed1tor of tunhe1, or along tr·ee-lined su­ MEMBERS OF THE COMM ISSION burban str eels. Occas10nally m E R~ d daytime on,, will see a flock of E ·.M. .::_ _ 1q ARTHUR C GINC~ERICH . Wellman thousands perhaps hundreds of F. L POYNEER. .. .... Ccd"lr Rap1ds thousands flying in a narrow I D REYNOLDS . n.'lslon C A. DINGES ........ ..... ... Emmetsburq column that may extend as far as ~ fR:O DA VI:: r-· ~--··n-c ') t' ·n one can see and continue for an CIRCULATION THIS ISSUE 60.000 hom or more Sometimes such flocks are of one .... - on1c::t: ol ut:" M n( 1 vo kind of blackbird; sometimes they 1'147 und r lh A t I Mru are mixtures of l\'.·o or more kinds. :. bscnpt There a 1 e several species very dif­ 3 years for S 1.00 ferent m appearance in spring. ~ubscr •• t€1 rr mtss.on 914 Gran ,.. In the fall, when moulting, it IS Momcs Jowa. Snnd c-a h h c-k difficult to tell the males of some rder species from the females, or even one species from another, unless WALLEYE REPRODUCTION Big, whit e, puffy clouds tha t look l.ike balls of cotton rr.ean fair weat her H ther st a y one knows them welL In 1950 the Spirit Lake hatchery scattered , but when they gather 1.1 a mass over one spot , c<lenpc.- look out J im Sherm.ln Phot o. Unmistakable in spring, and had 84 5 per cent hatch on walleyes one of the first birds to arrive, is Shoo lat~ and produced 51,368 000 fry The .. the male red-winged blackbird. lie Clear Lal{e hatchcn had a 77 2 FAIR WEATHER OR NO COME RAN S W has a red patch, fringed with yel­ per cent hatch on walleyes and pro- • I 0 R N 0 low below, on each shoulder. They WI duced 32,244.000 fry. The Spirit ~o on\!, l'XCept these dry ice ex- nest neat water. usually among Lake hatchery produced 1,690,000 perts, can do much about the undersides of thetr lea\'es, look cattails, rushes and willows around northern pike fr} for ram wrthin 21 hours. weather, but if a camper or pic- marshes and ponds. Another marsh A study of the natural walleye nicker has some idea of v.hat it "Heavy dew on the grass pre- dweller, rather rare here now, is spawn over a p('rlod of five years wlll be like on the morrow, he can sages fa1r v. eather, lack of it is the spectacular yellow-headed revealed a fertility of 2 5 per cent prepare for the worst or best likely to mean ram blackbird. It is larger than the u to 42 per cent Para~nlism of the "Red at night, sailor's delight red-winged blackbird and the male Ill! eggs was noted during 1916, 1947 Luis M. H enderson. noted artist red in the morning, sallors has a brilliant yellow head, throat and 1948. Circumstantial evidence and outdoorsman, has an interest- take warning! The same rule ap­ nd che::>t, with a white wing-patch. torr pointed to the organism Hyalella 1 ~g chapter on weather signs in plies to rainbows in re\·erse. A Equally unmistakable because the and I scud, or freshwater shrimp 1 The hiS new book, "The Outdoor Guide." rainbO\\' in the morning bodes no male has wh1te patches on wings mg parasit1sm probably is not 1mpor-' These sJgns are not infallible, but good. but a rainbow 111 the evening and rump, with a buff patch on f I tant in the over-all ferl1lity of the they arc not based on superstition portends a fa1r tomorrow.