Sunshine, lollipops and .. skinks

With the sunshine, the skinks come out to soak it up, and to play.  Cute little critters that don't do any harm to anyone.

I can't for the life of me work out why this particular skink has a brown tail.
It could be (a) that it's a regrowth - skinks lose their tails very readily. or (b) it's brown to make birds assume it's a worm; or (c) he or she wants to make babies.