FRINGED TREE GECKO. Ptychottim. liomaloctphc\a 



scollops. The toes are webbed to the tips, and, with the exception of the thumb-joint, 

 are furnished with claws at the swollen extremity. The scales of the back are smooth 

 and flat, and even the membranous fringes are covered with scales. 



Formerly this creature was thought to be aquatic in its habits, but it is now known to 

 live on trees, and to employ the membranous expansions in aiding it in its passage from 

 branch to branch, much after the well-known fashion of the flying squirrels. The generic 

 title, Ptychozoon, is composed of two Greek words, the former signifying a fold of a 

 garment, and the latter a living being. The general colour of the Fringed Tree Gecko 

 is brown above, with a slight yellowish tinge along the spine, and crossed with small 

 dark brown lines, very narrow and deeply waved. A line of similar appearance and of 

 a bold zig-zag form encircles the top of the head, looking as if a dark brown string had 

 been tied at the ends, formed into a rude circle and then pinched at intervals so as to 

 cause deep indentations. Below it is of a whitish grey colour. 



THE curious and rather interesting little Lizard called the CAPE TARENTOLA, is an 

 inhabitant, as its name signifies, of the Cape of Good Hope, and is found spread over a 

 considerable portion of Southern Africa. 



This reptile is of slower habits than the generality of the Geckos, and moves along 

 with deliberate and apparently purposeless steps. It is almost invariably seen upon or 

 near decayed wood, and is frequently found under the bark of dead trees, clinging tightly 

 to the trunk, and shielded by the bark from the unwelcome glare of daylight. In all 

 probability, it finds abundance of food in the same locality, for the space between the 

 bark and wood of a decaying or dead tree, is generally filled with insects of various kinds 

 and in their different states of existence, beside being the chosen home of millipedes, 

 spiders, and similar creatures. 



Although a slow mover, the Cape Tarentola can, after the manner of its kin, ascend 

 smooth and perpendicular objects with perfect ease and noiseless motions, and can even 

 traverse and cling to a ceiling or a cross-beam without difficulty, and there remain 

 motionless for hours. like the generality of the Gecko family, it detests the daylight. 



