16 THE VIVARIUM. 
enemy they can shake off their tail, thus distracting for the 
moment the attention of the foe by their discarded wriggling 
member, and gain the necessary time for making good their 
escape. A very small blow is sufficient to sever a portion of the 
tail from the rest of the body. The Gecko is able to reproduce 
the lost member very rapidly, and perhaps this reproduction will 
take place several times in the course of a life. The reproduced 
tail is always different from the original one, being rounder, 
thicker, and smoother. Sometimes, when a tail has been only 
partially broken, another end begins to grow from the damaged 
portion, and the animal soon will have a bifid or forked tail. I 
have a Lizard at the present time with such a tail. 
The Geckos have a short, thick tongue, which is slightly 
forked. They possess pleurodont teeth, but no teeth on the 
palate. They spring upon their victims in rather a dog-like 
fashion ; and they have the power of adapting their colour to that 
of the surface upon which they are at rest. I have sometimes 
lifted up a piece of cork bark, under which I knew some Geckos 
were hiding, and failing to find them.at once have supposed for 
the moment that they had escaped, the little creatures having 
clung closely to the underside of the cork, and their colouring 
having become almost exactly like that of their shelter. Their 
colours are brown, grey, yellowish, and sometimes there are 
beautiful tints of green, red, and blue. The brighter colours 
generally belong to the males. Nevertheless, as I have said, 
their colours are more or less changeable, and they are able by 
this adaptation of colouring to make themselves so inconspicuous 
that they may both escape the enemy and take their prey more 
easily. Many of them have the strange habit of licking their 
own eyes. 
The Geckos, generally, do well in confinement, giving hardly any 
trouble. They may be kept in such a case as that represented by 
Fig. 17, and they will live with other Lizards of their own size. 
On fine days they come out of their hiding-places and bask in the 
sun. The bottom of the case should be covered rather deeply 
with fine and dry mould; hiding-places in the shape of pieces of 
cork bark ought to be provided for them, and a little water in a 
small trough. Care must be taken that they do not escape, for it 
