Skinks shift their ranges through various causes, one at least being interference with the surrounding environment. Twenty-six were captured and marked in one small area (Station A, Text-fig. 2) thirty feet in diameter. The vegetation about the area was cut and trimmed by a party of workmen who burned the resulting plant debris within a few yards of the capture site. Not one of the 26 lizards has since been taken, although a few unmarked lizards were captured within the same general area after several months had elapsed. Station A thus suffered frequent human interference, and the few home ranges recorded in this area (Text-fig. 19) area of lizards which changed cover during hibernation with some moves in the following summer. Very small, well-defined home ranges may be maintained by lizards that are undisturbed. Several skinks never captured have been observed inhabiting the same concrete ledge or brick heap throughout the study. One of these lizards, readily recognisable, has been seen basking on one particular ledge on numerous occasions over an eighteen month period, eluding all attempts at capture by escaping down a crevice only a few inches from its basking place. Thus individuals of L. zelandica tend to remain within small areas which are their regular home ranges. These ranges are generally about 15 square yards in extent, being modified in size and shape according to the individual and its position in the area. In the study area the abundant plant cover, the concealment available in the form of numerous crevices under concrete walls and slabs, the plentiful food and wide distribution of basking places, allow the skinks to fulfil all their needs within a small area. The home ranges of two or more individuals may overlap. Groups of lizards congregate in the basking places, tolerating each other and showing no signs of territorial behaviour. The home ranges of adult females and males do not apparently differ in size or shape. The sub-adult lizards may have slightly larger home ranges than the adult skinks. The greatest distances between successive captures were those recorded for juvenile skinks in their first year in the dispersal phase that occurs in the few months preceding their first hibernation. Hibernation The Wellington district is not subjected to severe winter temperatures, the frosts are infrequent and light, and the ground is never frozen. Consequently L. zelandica is not forced to resort to the deep burrowing into the earth typical of some species of hibernating skinks in the higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere (Breckenridge, 1943). The relatively mild local climate does not induce the complete suspension of activity in all members of the skink population, for skinks whose winter refuges are exposed to the sun on warm winter days may emerge to bask. The study area was inspected at least once every fine day during winter when there was any likelihood of skinks coming out to bask, and the pit-traps were left open throughout the winter of 1955. Lizards were not taken in the traps during the winter months, indicating that most lizards remained in hibernation. However, on July 7, 1955, a warm sunny day, a single skink was seen basking on a concrete ledge sheltered from the prevailing cold southerly wind and close to a heap of damp and decomposing vegetation. When caught as it attempted to seek concealment under a stone protruding from the heap of plant debris, the skink was still warm to the touch. This skink may have sought other shelter on release as it was not retaken in subsequent searches of the area. McCann (1955) records L. zelandica as emerging to bask on warm days during the winter months. The marking programme was commenced a few months after the beginning of the 1954 hibernation period, and all the skinks captured in the first few months of the marking programme were in hibernation. A solitary lizard was seen basking on August 18, 1954, after a few days of warm weather, which were followed by several days of cold wet weather. Then on August 30, 1954, many lizards were seen basking, the population remaining active for the rest of the spring and the summer. The activity of the population declined once more in the first two weeks