42 REPTILIA. 



granulated, but without tubercles above; small scales beneath; 

 its naturally long tail, which is encircled with plaits as usual, 

 is easily broken, and the new one that succeeds is sometimes 

 considerably enlarged, resembling a small radish. It is from 

 these accidental monstrosities that it has received the name of 

 G. rapicauda.^l) 

 In the fourth division of the Geckos, or 



PTy0DACTYLIj(2) 



The ends of the toes only are dilated into plates, the under sur- 

 face of which is striated so as to resemble a fan. The middle of the 

 plate is split and the nail placed in the fissure. Each toe has a 

 strongly hooked nail. 



The toes of some are free, and their tail round. 



Lac. gecko, Hasselq. ; Gecko lobatus, Geoff. Rept. Egyp. Ill, 

 5; Stellio Hasselquistii, Schn. Smooth; reddish-grey dotted with 

 brown; the scales and tubercles very small; common in houses 

 on the south and east of the Mediterranean. At Cairo it is 

 called the Moic burs (Jsiihev of leprosy), on account of its com- 

 municating that disease by poisoning (as they say) the salted 

 provisions and other aliments with its feet, in crawling over 

 them. In passing over the skin it occasions a redness, but this 

 is perhaps solely owing to the fineness of its nails. Its cry 

 somewhat resembles that of a Frog. 

 In others, each side of the tail is edged with a membrane, and the 

 feet are semi-palmate; they are probably aquatic, and are the Uro- 

 PLATEs of Dumeril. 



Stellio fimbriatus, Schn.; Le Gecko frange; Tete plate, Lac, or 

 Famo-Cantrata oi Madagascar, Brug.; Lacep. I,xxx; Daud. IV, 

 lii. The membrane on the sides of the tail extending along the 

 flanks where it is slashed and fringed. Found in Madagascar 

 upon trees, where it leaps from branch to branch. The natives, 

 though without any reason, hold it in great fear. (3) 



Lac. caudiverberu, L.; Gecko du Perou, Feuillee, I, 319. No 

 fringe on the sides of the body, it being confined to those of the 

 tail on which there is also a vertical membranous crest. Feuillee 

 found it in a spring in the Cordilleras. It is blackish and 

 more than a foot long. 



(1) The G. squalidus, Herm. if not the same as the loevis, belongs to this divi- 

 sion. The Gecko de Surinam, Daud. is only a younger and better coloured speci- 

 men of the laevis. 



(2) From vlvov, fiin. 



(3) According to Brugl^re's description, the Sarroubd ol' Madagascar has all the 

 characters of the Famo-cantrata, except the fringe and a deficiency of the thumb 

 in the fore feet. M. Fitzinger has taken it for his genus Sarruba. 



