SAURIANS. 37 



Is easily broken, and the new one that succeeds is sometimes consi- 

 derably enlarged, resembling in its figure a small radish. It is from 

 these accidental monstrosities that it has received the name of G. 

 rapicauda *. 



The fourth division of the Geckos, or 



Ptyodactyli-J-. 



Ptyodactyles have the ends of the toes only dilated into plates, the un- 

 der surface of which is striated so as to resemble a fan. The middle of 

 the plate is split, and the nail placed in the fissure. Each toe has a strongly 

 hooked nail. 



The toes of some are free, and their tail round. 



Lac. gecko, Hasselq. ; Gecko hbatus, Geoff. Rept. Egyp. Ill, 5 ; 

 Stellio Hasselquistii, Sclm. (The House Gecko); smooth; reddish- 

 grey, dotted with brown; the scales and tubercles very small; com- 

 mon in houses on the south and east of the Mediterranean. At 

 Cairo it is called Abou burs (the father of the leprosy), because they 

 say that it does mischief by poisoning with its feet the food, but parti- 

 cularly the corned provisions, to which it is exceedingly partial. In 

 passing over the skin it occasions a redness, but this is perhaps 

 solely owing to the fineness of its nails. Its cry somewhat resem- 

 bles that of a frog. 



In others, each side of the tail is edged with a membrane, and the feet 

 are semi-palmate ; they are probably aquatic, and are the Uiioplates of 

 Dumeril. 



Stellio jh ib rutins, Sclm.; Le Gecko f range; Tete plate, Lac, or 

 Famo-Cantraca of Madagascar, Brug. ; Lacep. I, xxx; Daud. IV, 

 lii. The membrane on the sides of the tail extending along the 

 flanks, where it is slashed and fringed. Found in Madagascar upon 

 trees, where it leaps from -branch to branch. The natives, though 

 without any reason, hold it in great fear \. 



Lac. caudiverbera, L. ; Gecko du Perou, Feuillee, I, 319. No 

 fringe on the sides of the body, it being confined to those of the tail, 

 on which there is also a vertical membranous crest. Feuillee found 

 it in a spring in the Cordilleras. It is blackish, and more than a 

 foot long. 



We may make a fifth division, — the 



Spheriodactyli 



Are certain small Geckos, the ends of whose toes terminate in a little pellet 

 without folds, but always with retractile nails. 



When this pellet is double or emarginated in front, they are closely 



* The G. scjualidus, Herm., if not the same as the Icevis, belongs to this division. 

 The Gecko de Surinam, Daud., is only a younger and better-coloured specimen of 

 the l<zvis. 



f From the Greek word ptuon, fan. 



X According to Brugiere's description, : !i< Sarroube of \A laga i has all the 

 ters of the Famo-cantraca, except the fringe and a deficiency of the thumb in 

 the fore feet. M. Fitzinger has taken it for his genus S \kki r- ■> 



