SAURIANS. 3o 



FAMILY IV. 



THE GECKOS. 



This family is composed of nocturnal lizards, which are so similar that 

 they may be left in one genus. 



Gecko*, Daud, — Ascalobotes, Cuv. — Stellio, Schn. 



The Geckos are Saurians which do not possess the elongated graceful 

 form of those of which we have hitherto spoken, but, on the contrary, are 

 flattened, the head particularly, and have their feet moderate, and the toes 

 almost equal ; their gait is a heavy kind of crawling ; their very large eyes, 

 the pupil of which contracts at the approach of light, like that of a cat, 

 render them nocturnal animals, which secrete themselves during the day 

 in dark places. Their very short eyelids are completely withdrawn be- 

 tween the eye and the orbit, which gives them a different aspect from 

 other Saurians. Their tongue is fleshy and non-extensible; their tym- 



* Gecko, a name given to a species in India, in imitation of its cry, just as another 

 one is termed Tockaie at Siam, and a third Gsitje, at the Cape; atkalagotes, the Greek 

 name of the Geckotte, Lacep. 



vorous animal, but, from the small degree of complication about them, the dentations 

 of their edges, and the thin laminae of enamel which invested them, he concluded that 

 they belonged to reptiles. From their external appearance, Cuvier would have taken 

 them for the teeth of fishes, analogous to the Tetrodons, or Diodons; but the inter- 

 nal structure was altogether different. " Have we not in these teeth," writes Cuvier, 

 "an herbivorous reptile; and, as now we find the species of largest dimensions 

 amongst the herbivorous tribes of the land mammalia, may it not have been also the 

 case, that, amongst the reptiles of former times, the largest were also sustained upon ve- 

 getable food ? A portion of the large bones in your possession belongs to this animal, 

 which is, up to the present time, the only species of its genus. Time alone will con- 

 firm or contradict this suggestion; for, it is not impossible, that a portion of the ske- 

 leton, joined to pieces of the jaws, may be found with teeth. If you could obtain 

 only a very small portion of the jaw with adherent teeth, I think you would be able 

 to resolve the problem." Mr. Mantell's account of the Iguanodon represents it to 

 have been a horned animal of very large size. "The gigantic Megalosaurus, and 

 yet more gigantic Iguanodon," observes Mr. Mantell, " to whom the groves of palms 

 and arborescent ferns would be mere beds of reeds, must have been of such prodi- 

 gious magnitude, that the existing animal creation presents us with no fit objects of 

 comparison. Imagine an animal of the lizard tribe, three or four times as large as 

 the largest crocodile; having jaws, with teeth equal in size to the incisors of the rhi- 

 noceros; and crested with horn: such a creature must have been the Iguanodon!" 



The enormous size of the animal is thus given from a scientific calculation by Mr. 

 Mantell: — 



" Length of the animal, from the snout to the tip of the tail . . 70 feet, 



head ......... 4£ feet. 



body 13 feet. 



tail 52| feet. 



Height from the ground to the top of the head . . . . .9 feet. 



Circumference of the body ........ I-l| feet 



Length of the thigh and leg 8 ft. 2 in. 



Circumference of the thigh 7 \ feet. 



Length of the hind foot, from the heel to the point of the long toe . 6$ feet." 



VOL. II. D 



