No.im. HAWAIIAN LAND REPTILES— STEJNEGER. • 787 



The most striking difference in the proportions is shown by H. leu- 

 cost ictus, in which the (nonreproduced) tail is considerably shorter than 

 head and body, while in the other species it is longer. 



One of the peculiarities of most geckos is the facility with which their 

 tail breaks off and is again reproduced. It is not uncommon for them, 

 if caught by the tail, to wriggle themselves away from that organ, 

 which is thus left in the hands of the captor. A new tail soon grows 

 out again, but of a different shape and more or less different scale cov- 

 ering than in the original, being usually shorter, broader at base, and 

 often devoid of such "specialized structures as spines, plates, and denticu- 

 lations along the edges. In comparing specimens and descriptions it 

 is therefore essential to observe wliether the tail is an original or a 

 reproduced one. Duplication of species lias often resulted from this 

 rule not having been observed. 



The geckos to a great extent are crepuscular and nocturnal in their 

 habits, coining out at night from their hiding places to hunt for insects. 

 They are found not only on trees and among the vegetation generally, 

 but commonly take up their abode in and near human habitations being 

 particularly frequent about verandas and outhouses. All four si^ecies 

 occurring in the Hawaiian Islands are thus found in houses though 

 possibly in different proportion. Mr. Knudsen, when collecting them 

 for me, kept those obtained in the same place together in the same bottle, 

 and in the one containing the lizards caught in the house there were 

 6 Hemidactylus garnotii, 3 Feropus mutilatus, 2 Lepiflodactyhis lugu- 

 bris, and 1 Hemiphyllodactylus leucostictus. He adds that tl»«y are 

 "never found inside good houses," but only in "thatched and open 

 houses." However that may be in Kauai, Mr. E. P. Church, in a 1-et- 

 ter to Prof. A. A. Wright, of Oberlin College, about the geckos in 

 Honolulu writes expressly as follows : 



The lizards live in the best of houses, and are not seriously objected to by the 

 most excellent housekeepers. They remain behind the mirrors, pictures, etc., in the 

 daytime in the best of parlors. At nightfall they come out from their concealment 

 and call to their fellows with a little chirping noise that can be heard across good- 

 sized rooms. They run about on the walls and ceiling catching Hies and mosquitos. 

 This renders them somewhat welcome inmates of human dwellings. It is easy to 

 catch them as their i)ower8 of locomotion are not great. 



It would be very interesting to know, however, whether the geckos 

 in the Hawaiian houses during the time of their concealment keep apart 

 in different localities like those of India observed by Colonel Tytler, 

 who says : 



As a general rule they keep separate and aloof from each other; for instance, in a 

 house the dark cellars may be the resort of one species, the roof of another, and 

 crevices of the walls may be exclusively occupied by a third species. However, at 

 night they issue forth in quest of insects, and may be found mixed up together in 

 the same spot ; but on the slightest disturbance, or when they have done feeding, 

 they return hurriedly to their particular hiding places. 



On each side of the neck behind the ear-opening there may be seen 



