LIZARDS, CROCODILES, AND TORTOISES 



When the prey is of larger size, however, and 

 especially when it consists of a thickly-plumed moth, 

 it is violently shaken, as a rat is by a terrier, and the 

 wings and loose down are plucked off and rejected 

 with seeming disgust. They certainly merit much 

 gratitude for the havoc that they play among in- 

 sects, and at no time more so than when a house is 

 suddenly invaded by a swarm of flying white ants, 

 who throng around the lamps and go struggling 

 about over the tables in their frantic efforts to get rid 

 of their unwieldy wings. Then indeed it is a joy to 

 see the geckos come hurrying out of their fastnesses 

 to gorge over their loathsomely greasy prey until 

 they begin to swell visibly. 



At first sight wall-geckos are not so attractive as 

 many other lizards, but there are none of the latter 

 who respond so readily to attempts to tame them. 

 In a house where I lived for many years the 

 verandah was used as a dining-room, and the dinner- 

 table was, consequently, every evening even more 

 beset by insects than it would have been within a 

 room. The presence of such an attractive hunting- 

 ground led two geckos to make their head-quarters 

 in it. During the day they remained hidden on the 

 under surface of the board, but whenever it was 

 spread and the lamps lit they came out to hunt. As 

 they were never in any way molested, they soon 

 became quite ludicrously tame, and developed a 

 depraved taste for cake, leaving their proper food in 



x 



