LIZARDS. 409 



l(PVts, is a most ahiiiKlant, as well as a most interesting, animal, though of repulsive 

 appearance and unfounded bad reputation. 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 the 

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

 vertical slit, giving the animal anj-thing but a prepossessing e.Ypression, a marked con- 

 trast to the meek countenance of the there abundant Ameivas. The skin of the 

 croaking gecko is very soft and fragile, tearing, like wet paper, 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, though on being lost it is 

 soon and rajiidly 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 evei-y little while and 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, PU/chozoon hotnalocephalum , is well worthy of notice, being 

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

 s])read ajiart, armed below with a single series of undivided transverse plates, and all 

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

 are the wing-like expansions of the skin, which appear as horizontal ]>lates, 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 ex])ansions 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 anim.al's movements. 



The flying-geckos are very beautiful and interesting. Cantor observed a pair 

 which he kept for some time in confinement. The power of changing the shade of 

 the body was possessed only to a limited degree. The female, after neglecting 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 gecko, Phyllodactylus xanti, was described 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 cajitured in the same locality. They are about 

 nine inches in length, and ornamented with fine blackish cross-bars, which continue 

 on the tail as rings. Diplodacti/lus unctus is also a native of Lower California, where 

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

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

 provided along the under side with two rows of membranous plates. 



The family Eublepharid.e includes a small nundier of gecko-like lizards, which 

 differ from the members of the previous family, however, in having the vertebrae pi-o- 

 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. 



jEublepharis hardioiclcii is a rare form inhabiting India, where it ordinarily passes 

 for a gecko, though on examination it is evidently of entirely different habits. Its 

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

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



