92 SAURIA. — GECKOTID.E. 



may commonly be seen, day after day, at the 

 same spot, frequently peeping out of a crevice, 

 and remaining perfectly still for hours. They 

 move with excessive deliberation, but are easily 

 alarmed, when they dart into their hole with 

 inconceivable rapidity. They may often be 

 observed crawling on the vertical side of a 

 beam, but we have never seen one actually in- 

 verted. 



The food of this species principally consists of 

 insects ; but we have frequently found in its 

 stomach substances of a vegetable nature also, as 

 pulpy berries, and seeds of various kinds. Its 

 eggs, which are about half-an-inch in length, 

 irregularly oval and flattened, are laid in any 

 crevice ; they are covered with a hard and brittle 

 calcareous shell. The young, when excluded, 

 are exactly like the adult, but have the hues 

 much more brilliant : they are able to run with 

 agility the moment they leave the shell. 



The sombre and lurid appearance of this 

 Lizard, its stealthy motions, its nocturnal ac- 

 tivity, and singular harsh cry, and especially a 

 certain sinister aspect, produced by its large 

 globular eye, unprotected by an eyelid, and 

 divided by its linear pupil, have doubtless com- 

 bined to give to it in the popular mind a charac- 

 ter for evil, which its fellows in other regions 

 possess, but to which it seems to have no rightful 

 claim ; for though dreaded, and vulgarly re- 

 puted poisonous, we have every reason to believe 

 that it is a perfectly innocuous reptile. 



