GECKOTIDA. 177 



their gait is a heavy kind of crawling ; very large eyes, and the pupil becomes 

 narrow at the approach of light, like that of a cat, rendering them nocturnal 

 animals, which secrete themselves during the day in dark places. Their 

 very short eye-lids are completely withdrawn between the eye and the orbit, 

 which gives them a different aspect from other Saurians. Their tongue is 

 fleshy and non-extensible; their tympanum somewhat sunk; their jaws every- 

 where furnished with a range of very small closely-jointed teeth ; their palate 

 without teeth; their skin is studded above with very small granular scales, 

 among which are often found larger tubercles, and beneath, covered with 

 scales somewhat smaller, which are flat and imbricated. 



This genus is numerous and disseminated throughout the warm portions of 

 both continents. The melancholy and heavy air of the 

 Gecko, superadded to a certain resemblance it bears to the 

 salamander and the toad, have rendered it the object of 

 hatred, and caused it to be considered as venomous, but 

 of this there is no real proof. 



The toes of most of them are widened along the whole 

 or part of their length, and furnished beneath with regular 

 plaits of skin, which enable them to adhere so closely, that they are sometimes 

 seen crawling along ceilings. Their nails are retractile, and preserve their 

 point and edge. 



They are now divided into the Platidnctyli, Hemidactyli , Thecadactyli, 

 &c. &c., according to the different arrangement of the toes. The 



PLATYDACTYLI 



Are the most numerous, and have the toes widened throughout, and covered 

 beneath with transverse scales. They are a beautiful species, painted in the 

 most lively colours, and from the Mauritius. 



In some the femoral pores are deficient. To this division Mr. Grey gives 

 the name of PLATYDACTYLUS. In others the pores are strongly marked ; of 

 these Mr. Grey has made his genus PHELSUMA. They are considered very 

 venomous at the Cape; others have no nail to their thumb, nor to the 

 second and fifth toes of all the feet : these form the TARENTOLA of Grey . 

 In the 



HEMIDACTYLI, 



The base of the toes are furnished with an oval disk, formed beneath a double 

 row of scales, from the middle of which rises the second phalanx, which is 

 slender, and has the nail at its extremity ; one species of this division is found 

 in the south of Europe, another in the hot parts of America, and two others 

 in India. The 



THECADACTYLI 



Have the toes widened throughout, and furnished beneath with transverse 

 scales, divided by a deep longitudinal furrow, in which the nail is concealed. 

 The fourth division, or 



N 



