GECKOS. 8 



1^ 



which these reptiles have been called in different 

 localities, are derived from the sounds emitted by 

 them, which are supposed to resemble these 

 words. M. Dumeril is unable to account for the 

 production of this voice, the more especially as 

 they are destitute of the dewlap, or goitre, 

 which we find in the Igua7iad6e. He suggests, 

 however, that the movement of the tongue may 

 bear a part in its emission, and the reception of 

 that organ in the concavity of the palate ; perhaps 

 in a similar way to that in which the cracking 

 sound is produced by a rider, when he stimulates 

 his horse, — the tongue being applied to the 

 palate, and quickly withdrawn. The goitre of 

 the Anoles does not appear to us to be in any 

 way connected with the emission of sounds. 



The motions of the Geckos are slow and 

 stealthy : they creep along with an almost imper- 

 ceptible step, with the chin and belly resting on 

 the surface on which they move ; yet on alarm 

 they display surprising agility. They watch, the 

 whole day long, at the mouth of some hole or 

 crevice, the head peeping out ; and if they do 

 venture to travel, rarely wander far from their 

 retreat, into which they vanish in an -instant, if 

 disturbed. Their senses seem acute, and to be 

 exercised by day, though night is the season of 

 their activity. 



The following summary of the habits of these 

 animals we extract from the elaborate article on 

 this Family in the Penny Cyclopaedia, though a 

 few of the remarks we have already anticipated, 

 and though we cannot fully agree with some of 

 the conclusions : — 



" The Geckotid^ are none of them large in 



