THE CAPE TARENTOLA. 



73 



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 color of the Fringed Tree 

 Gecko is brown above, with a light 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 gray color. 



FRINGED TREE GECKO. Ptychozoon homalocephala. 



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 mil- 

 lipedes, 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 



