Captain Burney's Account of the Lizard of Siam. 101 



or eight inches in length, and one and a half in breadth ; its 

 back is in square compartments, each of a different colour, as 

 red, green, yellow, violet ; its head is large, and enamelled with 

 white and a dark brown. This animal, so beautiful to the eye, 

 is very dangerous to touch ; they kill it wherever they find it. 

 Its claws are so piercing that it sticks them into glass. It 

 walks along boards with its back downwards, to which it even 

 fastens its eggs, which are flat on one side, and as large as the 

 end of the thumb. Its ordure has this singular quality, that if 

 any of it gets into one's food, it entirely takes away the voice, 

 which lasts near a month. If any of its urine falls on the hand 

 or skin of any person, it causes black spots, which can never 

 be got out. When it bites it never lets go its hold, and its 

 claws never come away without taking out the piece. It be- 

 gins its cry by chirping, which 'continues increasing, and after- 

 wards diminishes in the same proportion." 



Remark by Captain Bumey. — The Tuk-ke is certainly not 

 beautiful to the eye, and the Siamese children kill it more for 

 its loathsome appearance. We did not observe its claws stick 

 into glass. This evil quality of its ordure or urine was not con- 

 firmed at Bangkok. The commencement of its cry much re- 

 sembles the cackle of a hen, and it is followed by a clear and 

 distinct sound of tuk-ke, heard at a distance of several hundred 

 yards at night. The animal is considered very harmless, unless 

 it fall on the hair, from which it cannot be extracted without 

 difficulty. Almost every house at Bangkok is full of these 

 animals, whose presence is rather encouraged, as they destroy 

 rats. Mr Hunter at Bangkok heard a great noise at night in 

 his bed-room, and discovered it to proceed from a tuk-ke hav- 

 ing a rat as large as itself in its mouth, which animal it was 

 gradually swallowing. 



The tuk-ke is common at Rangoon, Taury, and Mergin, and 

 I believe in Java. Whenever a Siamese hears the tuk-ke^s cry, 

 he strikes the floor, or wherever he is sitting, three times with 

 his middle finger. 



Tachard, in his Seconde Voyage au Royaume de Siam, Ed. 

 Paris, 1689, p. 276, &c. gives an anatomical description of a 

 tuk-ke, with two plates. 



