180 BLUEFIELDS. 



its look very different from the meek countenance of 

 the Ameiva. It is very common, particularly in 

 out-buildings and offices, vv^here it inhabits crevices 

 in the roofs and rafters, a pair commonly living 

 either in the same hole or near together. On tbe 

 approach of night one hears on all sides the singular* 

 cracked, cackling call of these animals, somewhat 

 like the sound produced by drawing a stick across 

 a comb. M. Dumeril's suggestion, that this voice 

 may be produced by the tongue smacked, as it were, 

 in the concavity of the palate, is the less unlikely 

 from the fact that this organ is large, flexible, and 

 fleshy. Tlie name of Croaking Lizard commonly 

 applied to the species in Jamaica is derived from its 

 peculiar voice. In the woods the voice is also heard 

 at night proceeding from hollow trees, and continued 

 through the whole of the hours of darkness. The 

 large prominent eye without any eyelid, whose pupil 

 contracts in strong light to a perpendicular line, in- 

 dicates their nocturnal habits ; yet they are fre- 

 quently seen by day, as in the case just mentioned. 

 In the old mill-house at Bluefields they are nume- 

 rous ; and two or three pairs may be seen day after 

 day at the same spot, peeping out of their crevices, 

 and remaining perfectly still for hours. Sometimes 

 they venture forth, and may be observed crawling 

 slowly along the beams and rafters ; moving with ex- 

 cessive deliberation, and never going far from their 

 holes, into which they dart on the least alarm with 

 swift rapidity. 



The curious structure of the feet in the Geckotidce, 

 by which they are enabled to walk on reversed sur- 



