290 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



however, is not the case. It is readily found when once one knows where to 

 look for it: about the rafters of old buildings, in the wall crevices of the 

 ruins of the many long-disused sugar factories, and in hollow trees. While 

 hunting insects, its eggs are often found in crannies of bark, sticking to the wood 

 and to each other in pairs. These eggs are found in the same places and are 

 just the same size and are laid in the same way as those of Ptychozoon in the 

 East Indies. Gosse (Nat. Sojouru in Jamaica, 1851, p. 184-185) discusses the 

 egg laying, but there seems no reason to suppose that the period of incubation is 

 the same as in Ptychozoon, where the eggs, as Annandale has shown, last over 

 from one season and do not hatch till the next year. Good specimens are almost 

 impossible to get. The skin of the neck and back is as delicate as damp tissue 

 paper and tears as easily, while the tail is very frequently dropped. Fourteen 

 specimens from near Kingston are before me. Mr. Wight's specimen is from 

 near Port Autonio. The Museum has Jamaican specimens with no special data ; 

 also two from Cayman Brae, and three from Grand Cayman. Prom these two 

 islands they were first made known in Garman's report on Maynard's collections. 

 It would be curious if this lizard had not been found on this outlying dependency 

 of Jamaica, when we think of the constant communication between the islands 

 and the long-known frequency with which geckos are accidentally carried about. 

 The type of Aristelliger lar Cope from Jeremie, Hayti, is nearly 14 inches long. 

 This is five inches longer than any of our specimens of A. praesignis, and almost 

 the s.ame amount larger than the one which Boulenger had measured for the 

 Catalogue. Series of embryos of this species were prepared for the Zoological 

 Department of Harvard University and for the Embryological Department of its 

 Medical School. 



Known from Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. 



Sphaerodactylus richardsonii Gray. 



Gray, Cat. Lizards Brit. Mus., 1845, p. 168. 

 Gosse, Nat. Sojourn in Jamaica, 1851, p. 254. 



The Museum of the Jamaica Institute before its destruction contained two 

 specimens of this rather rare gecko. A specimen in the British Museum came 

 from Montego Bay. The only other example there, the type, is without definite 

 locality. I have three examples, all taken about Kingston. As with the other 

 members of this family, this lizard is probably widely spread over the island, 

 though its shy habits and apparent scarceness make it a little known member of 

 the fauna. It seems to haunt the crevices in old rock walls, though I was in- 

 formed that an individual had been seen under the thatching of the roof of an old 

 house. This species does not lose its tail easily. It grows to a length of nearly 

 four inches. Gosse during his long stay on the island met with only a single 

 example ; this was near Montego Bay. Perhaps this specimen is the one now in 

 the British Museum, though Boulenger gives no data concerning it. 



It is peculiar to the island. 



