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GECARCINUS GECKOID.E. 



GECARCINUS (Leach). A genus of land 

 crabs, belonging to the Decapod Crustacea, and sec- 

 tion Quadrilateres of Latreille, having the body some- 

 what square, the third and fourth pair of legs longer 

 than the second and fifth, and the antennae concealed 

 by the front of the carapace or shell ; the second and 

 third joints of the outer foot-jaws are large, flattened, 

 and curved. The typical species is the Cancer ruri- 

 cola, Linnsus, a native of the West Indies, and gene- 

 rally known under the name of the violet crab, or 

 Tourlourous of the French. They reside in the 

 mountainous districts, but as soon as the rainy season 

 sets in, in May and June, they make their way to the 

 sea, in order to deposit their spawn in the water, in 

 such vast numbers that the roads are covered by 

 them. They resemble a vast army marching in bat- 

 tle-array, keeping steadily onwards in a direct line, 

 without allowing any obstacle to impede their steps, 

 scaling even the walls of houses which happen to be 

 in their route, and travelling chiefly by night. When 

 arrived at length at the sea-shore, they are much en- 

 feebled, and dash into the water with great eagerness, 

 which they repeat several times ; they then retire 

 to some neighbouring wood or other covert, and, in a 

 short time afterwards, the females again return to the 

 water, and commit their eggs to the waves, which are 

 alive with fishes waiting for this annual treat, and by 

 which a very great deal of the spawn is devoured. 

 The crabs then return to their old quarters by the 

 same route, but this, in their still enfeebled state, is a 

 difficult task. When arrived there, however, they 

 have to undergo another annual labour, namely, that 

 of moulting, and which takes place in their subter- 

 ranean burrows, the mouths of which, it is said, they 

 close. See further the articles CRAB and BRA- 



CHYURA. 



GECKOID^E, GECKOS (Ascalabota). The fourth 

 family into which Cuvier divides the saurian or tailed 

 reptiles. They are, strictly speaking, the nocturnal 

 lizards, and they may all be included in one genus, 

 though the species, which are very numerous, differ 

 from each other in so many particulars that they ad- 

 mit of arrangement into several sub-genera. Their 

 relations to the other families of the order and orders 

 of the class will be found detailed in the article 

 REPTILE, in its place in the alphabet. 



Their form is not so light, nor their motions so 

 volatile, as those of the true lizards. They are flat- 

 tened, especially in the head, which gives them a 

 heavy appearance, and their motions are dull and 

 crawling. Their feet are of mean length, or rather 

 short, and their toes are of nearly equal length, and 

 often peculiarly formed. As is the case with all noc- 

 turnal animals that seek their prey chiefly on the 

 surface of the earth, their eyes are very large, and 

 the pupils close on vertical lines as in the cat. Their 

 eyelids are small and drawn in between the eyeballs 

 and the orbits, which gives them a very singular ap- 

 pearance- Their tongue is fleshy, and not extensile 

 beyond the mouth. Their jaws are furnished each 

 with one row of teeth, very small in size and closely 

 set ; and they have no teeth on the palate. Their 

 skins are covered with small granulated scales, 

 like shagreen, but these are interspersed with 

 larger tubercles, and the scales on the under part 

 are generally of a larger size and imbricated. Some 

 of the species have pores upon the thighs, and 

 others have not ; the tail has circular plaits or folds, 

 a in the genus Anolis; but when it is once broken 



off, the new tail which grows in its place is destitute 

 of folds, and also without tubercles in those species 

 which have the original tail tuberculated. 



Reptiles of this genus inhabit the warmer regions 

 of both continents, and the species are very numerous. 

 The appearance of these animals is peculiarly loath- 

 some ; they noi. only inhabit places which are dark 

 and obscure, but those which are rank and offensive ; 

 and as they bear no inconsiderable resemblance to 

 toads and salamanders, they have had the stigma set 

 upon them of being venomous. That it poisons by 

 stinging or biting, or any other species of offensive 

 apparatus, or instrument of attack, is not true, and 

 cannot be true, of any species of gecko ; for none of 

 them possesses a sting of any description, and the 

 teeth in all are so very minute that they are incapa- 

 ble of penetrating the skin of any animal of moderate 

 size. That some of them discharge a poisonous 

 liquor is, however, well understood, but this liquor is 

 discharged from pores in the feet ; it is of so very 

 virulent a nature as to inflame or even blister the 

 skin when they run across it ; and it is particularly 

 dangerous to those who have eaten any provisions over 

 which these animals have passed. The poison of the 

 geckos appears, therefore, to be very similar to the 

 poison of some species of toads ; being in both an 

 exudation from the skin, and not appearing to be, 

 generally speaking, a means of capturing their prey, 

 or of attacking any other animal, as is the^case in 

 animals which have stings or poison fangs. This 

 circumstance, together with the toad-like aspect and 

 clumsy gait of these creatures, is in all probability 

 the reason why they are looked upon with so much 

 aversion by most people ; and this is, no doubt, also 

 further increased by the foul places in which they 

 reside, and their nocturnal habits. 



Offensive as they are, however, they are not en- 

 tirely useless, even in the domestic economy of those 

 places where they are most abundant. These are, 

 as we have said, the warmer regions both of the east- 

 ern continent and of America ; and if the greatest 

 domestic cleanliness is not observed in such places, 

 the habitations of the people are very much pestered 

 with spiders, and also with a variety of insects, both 

 winged and crawling. Such of the winged ones as 

 are diurnal in their habits are, in a state of repose, in 

 holes and crannies during the night ; and it is at this 

 time that the nocturnal ones crawl abroad. These 

 minute creatures constitute the principal food of the 

 geckos, which ^eek- after them with so much assiduity 

 that in many places where the habits of the people 

 are slovenly, they are encouraged for the purpose of 

 keeping the houses as clear of the others as possible, 

 though, according to our notions of domestic cleanli- 

 ness, the cure would be considered as even worse 

 than the disease. 



The toes of the geckos are generally bordered with 

 membranes for the whole or the greater part of their 

 length. The under sides of them are generally 

 covered with regular rows of small scales, the edges 

 of which take a very firm hold of the substances over 

 which the animal passes. The toes, with the exception 

 of the thumb or inner toe, which is very small in some 

 of the species, are also, as has been said, of nearly 

 equal length ; and they spread as it were from a 

 centre, something in the same manner as the rays of 

 a fan, from which structure they become double 

 grasping feet, or what may perhaps be termed " crab 

 feet," which can hold on upon very slight inequalities, 



