GECKOTID^. 99 



FAMILY OF GECKOS— GECK077D^. 



Head broad, triangular, more or less depressed ; upper parts granular or 

 tubercular ; belly covered with small, rhombic, imbricate scales. Tongue 

 rather thick and short, its basal portion being attached to the gullet. Eye- 

 lids generally rudimentary, and not connivent ; pupil generally erect. Toes 

 generally with an adhesive apparatus. 



The typical forms of this family may be recognized at first sight : the head is broad and 

 depressed, with large eyes ; the body is of moderate breadth ; the tail thick at the base, 

 tapering, generally somewhat deformed, as it easily breaks off and is as easily renewed. The 

 limbs are stout, of moderate length, with at least four of the toes well developed. 



They are found in almost every part between and near the tropics, frequenting houses, 

 rocks, and trees; and some of the species are so numerous around and within human 

 dwellings, that they are most famihar objects to the inhabitants. All the Indian species, 

 with the exception of Eublepharis, are able to run up and along the surface of a wall or of 

 any other perpendicular object : for this purpose the lower surface of their toes is promled 

 with a series of moveable plates or disks, by the aid of which they adhere to the surface over 

 which they pass. These plates occupy either the whole length of the toes, or only their 

 basal half, or they are most developed towards or at the extremities. All the Indian species, 

 with the exception of a species referred by Blyth to the genus Phelsuma, ai'e also provided 

 with claws ; and in some of the genera which inhabit forests rather than houses, the adhesive 

 disks are less developed than the claws, the latter being of greater use for Avalking up the 

 rough bark of a tree than the former. 



The next important feature iu the organization of the Geckos is the eye. This organ is 

 rather large, surrounded by a cu-cular rudimentary eyelid, except in Eublejjharis, which has 

 two distinct connivent eyelids. The pupil is generally contracted in a vertical direction, 

 shaped like two rhombs placed with the angles towards each other. This structure of the 

 eye is in accordance with their nocturnal habits ; a few species, however, are diui-nal, and 

 have round pupils. The iris is bright-coloured. 



No Gecko has imbricate scales on the back*; the head is finely granular, and generally 

 the back also, but frequently larger or smaller tubercles are intermixed with the granulations 

 in greater or less number. The covering of the tail resembles that of the back ; it is 

 generally verticillated, and breaks off so readily that the slightest touch, or e\en fear, will 

 make some shake off their tails, as if desirous to get rid of such an incumbrance. When the 



* Mr. Jerdon describes a scaled Gecko, Homonota fasciata (Joiu'n. As. Soc. Beng. xxii. p. 468) ; but 

 the descriptions of reptiles given by that gentleman are so obscure (partly because he rarely hit upon the 

 proper generic name, and partly because the few words serving for a description generally contain the most 

 trivial characters), that in this case also we are entirely at a loss to imagine what sort of lizard is the type 

 of this Homonota fasciata. 



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