The Geckos 



Distribution. Key West, Florida; the Bahama Islands; 

 Cuba. 



The family Eublepbaridce: The members of this family 

 are closely allied to the Geckonida, differing from the typical 

 geckos only in superficial characters of the skeleton. There are 

 seven species of the Eublepbarida, these comprising three genera. 

 Most curious about the family is the distribution of the species. 

 One inhabits the Southwestern United States; three are found 

 in Central America, two in Southern Asia and the remaining 

 species in Africa. Concerning this remarkable scattering of 

 members of a small family, Boulenger remarks, in his Catalogue 

 of the Lizards of the British Museum: "This extraordinary 

 distribution seems to indicate that the few representatives of 

 this small family are the remnants of some ancient, more gener- 

 ally dispersed group; it nevertheless remains a matter of won- 

 der how forms, now so widely separated, have retained so great 

 a resemblance, not only in structure, but also in the pattern 

 of colouration." 



A description of the only species occurring in North America 

 proper, is given: 



THE BANDED GECKO 



Eublepbaris variegatus, (Baird) 



Small in size; the form is similar to the other small, North 

 American geckos. 



Colouration. This very pretty creature displays, among 

 different individuals, considerable variation of pattern. The 

 arrangement of the colours may be divided into two phases 

 banded and spotted. With the former, the ground colour is rich 

 yellow, crossed by broad bands of chestnut brown. On the body, 

 these bands terminate on the sides; they completely encircle 

 the tail however, which is thus vividly ringed with the light 

 and dark hues. The head is dark, the eyelids margined in 

 yellow. 



The spotted form is brownish yellow, with small and irreg- 

 ularly scattered, brown blotches. The eye-lids are bordered 

 with yellow; there is a light spot on the snout and a row of yel- 

 lowish spots on the upper jaw. 



Dimensions. Following are the measurements of an adult 

 specimen from Eagle Pass, Texas: 



100 



