NUMBERS OF GECKOS 



bold, occurring in the most frequented rooms of those 

 houses. Geckos, like most lizards, are carnivorous in 

 habit. This giant form, relatively speaking, eats 

 insects, small birds, and is even at times a cannibal. 

 So firmly can it adhere to surfaces that it is used in 

 the pastime of fishing for hats with felonious intent ; the 

 gecko is let down on to the hat of some unsuspecting 

 passer by, and is hauled up together with the hat, just 

 as the remora or sucking fish is used to fish for turtles. 

 Geckos are very numerous in species ; nearly three 

 hundred exist, and they are found all over the world in 

 its warmer parts. The nearest point to this country 

 where they occur is the south of France, where lives 

 Tarentola mauritanica, a smaller species than that which 

 we have been considering. The visitor to the Zoo 

 will not have the opportunity of seeing so large a num- 

 ber of species, for something under twenty is the total 

 number of different forms which have been on exhibit 

 in that institution. 



THE FRILLED LIZARD 



As the frilled lizard, Chlamydosaurus kingi, has up 

 to the present been only once exhibited at the Zoological 

 Gardens, it is possible that this chapter may not be of 

 great use to the visitor ; on the other hand the reptile 

 seems, according to Mr. Savile Kent, to be not un- 

 common in Queensland and some other parts of tropical 

 Australia, and it is always possible, therefore, that 

 there may be specimens on view in Regent's Park 

 Gardens. It is in fact frequently the case at the Zoo 

 that an animal reputed rare has subsequently turned 

 up in greater numbers, so as to be no longer a rarity 

 at the menagerie. The frilled lizard belongs to a 

 family known as Agamidae, concerning which we shall 

 have something to say by way of an appendix to the 

 account of the representative of the family which has 



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