86 EXTRAORDINARY LIZARDS. [169I. 



better, at least in our Opinion, we never eat any of these 

 filthy Creatures. They carry their young about with them^; 

 We observ'd they had always two. 



The Palmtrees and Plantanes are always loaden with 

 Lizards^ about a foot long, the Beauty of which is very 

 Extraordinary; some of them are blue, some black, some 

 green, some red, some grey, and the colour of each the most 

 lively and bright of any of its kind. Their common Food is 

 the Fruit of the Palm-Trees. They are not mischievous, and 

 so Tame, that they often come and eat the Melons on our 

 Tables, and in our Presence, and even in our Hands^ ; they 

 serve for Prey to some Birds, especially the Bitterns. When 

 we beat 'em down from the Trees with a Pole, these Birds 

 M'ou'd come and devour them before us, tho' we did our 

 utmost to hinder them; and when we offer'd to oppose them, 

 they came on still after their Prey, and still follow'd us when 

 we endeavour'd to defend them. 



There's another sort of Nocturnal Lizards'^ of a grayish 



'■ " & ne les abandomient que lors qu'ils peuvent voler,'' omitted by 

 ti'anslator. 



2 Possibly, Ur. Giinther thinks, a species of Phclsuma, a genus well 

 represented in the Mascarene region. {Phil. Trans., I. c, p. 454.) 



^ The fact of there being lizards at Rodriguez is another proof of its 

 being zoologically distinct from Hindustan, for though several kinds 

 of these reptiles are found in Ceylon, there are none in the adjacent 

 continent. With reference to the lameness of lizards, Sir E. Tennent 

 relates the following anecdote : "In an officer's quarters, a gecko had 

 been taught to come daily to the dinner-table, and always made its 

 appearance along with the dessert. The family were absent for some 

 months while the house underwent repairs; but on the return of its 

 old friends, at their first dinner, the little lizard made its entrance as 

 usual as soon as the cloth had been removed." (Sir E. Teunent's 

 Ceylon, i, 186.) 



* Probably, according to the authority quoted above (n. 2), the species 

 of which Mr. Slater collected, with remains of the solitaire and tortoise, 

 several bones. He recognised them as the remains of a lizard, possibly 

 belonging to the family of Skinks. In Dr. Giiuther's opinion it is a 

 geckoid lizard, which cannot be separated from the genus Gecko. He 

 concurs in the proposal of Mr. Slater to name it, after Sir E. Newton, 

 Gecko NeicUmii. (Ibid.) 



