LIZARDS. 409 



kevis, is a most abundant, as well as a most interesting, animal, though of repulsive 

 appearance and unfounded had reimtation. It is found everywhere; in the out-build- 

 ings, old mills, and cattle-sheds, making its presence known by a singular croaking 

 noise, which it maintains throughout the night, resembling that produced by drawing 

 a stick over the teeth of a comb. The eye is unprotected by lids, and though tlie 

 ]>upil is large and circular during the night, in the day time it contracts to a small 

 vertical slit, giving the animal anything but a pi-epossessing expressimi, a marked con- 

 trast to the meek countenance of the there abundant Ameit'cis. The skin of the 

 croaking gecko is very soft and fragile, tearing, like wet ])aper, almost on the slightest 

 touch. The conical tubercles of the head and back are more depressed posteriorly, 

 where they are flat and scale-like. The tail is very fragile, tliotigh on being lost it is 

 soon and rapidly replaced. One in captivity had a new appendage grow to the length 

 of an inch and a half in less than three months. The female has a special place, 

 some crevice in a tree, to which she repairs every little while ami deposits an egg, 

 sometimes these are found to the number of eight or nine, firmly glued together, and 

 containing embryos in different stages of development. 



The flying-gecko, Ptychozoon homalocephalum^ is well worthy of notice, being 

 among the lizards what the flying-squirrel is among the rodents. The toes are well 

 s])read apart, armed below with a single series of undiviiled transverse ])lati's, and all 

 but the thumbs arc terminated by claws. The most wonderful developments, however, 

 are the wing-like cxp.'msions of the skin, which appear as horizontal plates, extending 

 from the sides of the head, body, and tail, and continued as flaps on each side of the 

 limbs, and as webs between the toes. These dermal expansions are only used when 

 the animal is leaping; they then act as a parachute, in the same way as the so-called 

 wings of the flying-dragon. When at rest, a series of muscles draw them close to the 

 body, so that they offer no hindrance to the animal's movements. 



The flying-geckos are very beautiful and intei'csting. Cantor observed a jiair 

 Avhich he kei>t for some time in confii:ement. The power of changing the shade of 

 the body was possessed only to a limited degree. The female, after neglectin;:; for 

 some time an egg which she had laid, finally disposed of it by using it as food. The 

 male was also equally economical, always devouring his exuviated skin. 



The Xantus geck(j, I'lu/Uoihictijlus a-cuiti, was desci'ibed in 1863 by Professor Cope 

 from a specimen obtained at Cape St. Lucas by the person to whom it was dedicated. 

 Since that time several more have been captured in tlie same locality. They are aliout 

 nine inches in length, and ornamented with line l)lackish cross-bars, which continue 

 on the tail as rings. I)iplodacti/liis mictus is also a native of Lower California, where 

 it is called the St. Lucas gecko. It differs from /"•. xanti, which it about equals in 

 size, in several structural peculiarities, though lioth genera are alike in having the toes 

 ])rovided along the under side with two lows of membranous plates. 



The family Eublepiiakid-K includes a small number of gecko-like lizards, which 

 differ from the members of the previous family, however, la having the vertel)ra' pro- 

 ccelian, i. e., with the centra concave anteriorly, and in a few other skeletal peculiarities. 

 Three genera are included, one from each of the three continents, Asia, Africa, and 

 America. 



EuhJej^harls hardiHckii is a rare form inhabiting India, where it ordinarily jiasses 

 for a gecko, thi>ugli on examination it is evidently of entirelv different habits. Its 

 toes, not being compressed or dilated, prevent it from climbiiiu- any plane of more 

 than orilinary inclination, while the short, stout claws, show it to be a terrestrial 



