24 



Geckos.- 



-EEPTILES.- 



- Geckos. 



without any bad elTects liaving followed. He believes 

 th;it the fear with which tliey inspire the negroes, is 

 caiisodby their not flying from them when encountered; 

 but, on the contrary, boldly walking up to them with 

 their mouth wide open, in spite of any attempt they 

 niahe to frighten them away. The Famocantrata lives 

 generally upon trees like the chameleon, retiring into 

 holes during the day, and leaving them only at night. 

 Upon the approach of rain it may be seen leaping from 

 branch to branch with great agility. If it falls to the 

 ground, however, it is unable to leap up again, but it 

 crawls to the nearest tree, creeping up the smoothest 

 bark, and then recommencing leaping from one branch 

 to another. It walks witli difheulty on the ground, 

 like the chameleon, and what appears to add to its 

 awkward gait is, that its fore-feet are much shorter 

 than its hind ones, and its head forms, underneath, 

 such an angle with the body, that at every step it takes 

 it strikes its nose against the ground. Its food consists 

 exclusively of insects, and it may generally be seen 

 moving about with its throat wide open, ready to 

 cati.h them. 



In this first gronii we have also several genera, the 

 species of which are distinguished by having their toes 

 dilated only at their base, the two last joints being free, 

 compressed, and clawed. These are the Half-iocs, or 

 Ilemidacfyles. 



THE WARTY GECKO {Ilnuidndyhis vrrritculatus), 

 one of these, is one of the few Geckos found in Europe. 

 It is a native of all the countiies bordering upon the 

 Mediterranean, and is found in Northern Africa, in the 

 neighbourhood of Trebizond, in Greece, Sieil}', Italy, 

 Spain, and the south of France ; and, according to M. 

 Bibron, it would appear to be even foimd in Senegal 

 and in Chili. It is of a grayish colour, marbled with 

 brown. 



THE MABOTTYA OF THE WALLS {Hcmidadylus 

 Mahoiiiii), another Ilemidactyle, is extremely common 

 in the West Indies and Brazil, living in houses, and 

 where it receives this name, to distinguish it from the 

 Turnip-tailed Gecko, which the negroes call the 

 Mabouya of the Bananas. It is of a fawn colour on 

 the body, witli a inmiber of five-sided brown spots 

 across the back. Little is known of the particular 

 habits of these two animals. 



In the second group, those which have only a single 

 series of transverse plates underneath the toes, we fi^id 

 a number of genera, the species of which have the toes 

 dilated tliroughout their whole length, and the plates 

 beneath the toes membranaceous and smooth. These 

 are the Flat-toes, or Platydactyles. 



THE TRUE GECKO {Gedco verus), one of these, is 

 of a thicker and stouter form than most others of the 

 fanjJly, having a large and somewhat triangidar flat- 

 tish head, a wide mouth, large eyes, and a broad flat 

 tongue. The back is covered with numerous, distant, 

 round warts, or tubercles, and is of a reddish-gray 

 colour, spotted with white. It is a native of India, 

 being found both on the continent and throughout the 

 islands of the Indian archipelago. 



THE FRINGED TREE-GECKO [Ptijchosoon homah- 

 ccphala) is one of the most remarkable species of this 

 group. The aides of the head, the lateral partb of its 



body, the front and back parts of its feet, and the sides 

 of its tail, are fringed with membranes which are quite 

 entire along the flanks, but scalloped along the edges 

 of the tail. These membranes on the temples give the 

 head the appearance of being more than a third larger 

 than the skull. On their external margin they are very 

 thin, but where they approaeli the body of the animal, 

 they assume a greater thickness, owing to solid bundles 

 of muscidar fibres. The eyes are large, and the tees 

 are united to each other throughout their whole length 

 by a web or broad membrane. The body on the iijiper 

 parts is of a brown colour, marked with several black 

 lines en clievroii ; a dark-brown streak runs along tlio 

 head from the back of the eye along the neck, teimi- 

 naling on the shoulder ; and the membranes of the 

 heacl and flanl;s are white. This curious Gecko is 

 found in Java. It appears to live on trees, and makes 

 use of the expanded membranes with which its body 

 is fin'nished as parachutes, to assist its movements fi'om 

 one branch to another. 



The genus Tarentola [Platijilaclyhis) contains 

 several well-known species. 



THE WALL GECKO {Tarentola lifawitanica), is one 

 of the most common. It is said to be a most hideous 

 reptile, concealing itself in holes of walls and heaps 

 of stones, and covering its body with dust and ordure. 

 It is a native of temperate climates, being found all 

 round the Mediterranean Sea, even as far as Provence 

 and Languedoc, where it is very common, and is 

 called there Tarentc. The Wall Gecko likes warmth, 

 and avoiding low and damp situations, takes up its 

 abode under the roofs of ruined houses and old habita- 

 tions of all kinds, in which kind of places it spends 

 the winter, but without becoming perfectly torpid. 

 At the first approach of spring, it leaves its hiding 

 place, and betakes itself to some warm spot to Iiask 

 in the rays of the sun ; but it does not go far from its 

 retreat, returning there upon the least noise, or on the 

 approach of rain. Its food consists of insects chiefly, 

 and to find these it can nm quickly up walls or along 

 the ceilings of rooms back downwards. Like most 

 repulsive looking animals, the Wall Gecko has the 

 credit with the vulgar of being venomous. This, how- 

 ever, is a mistaken notion, as they are perfectly harm- 

 less. Lacepede, on the authority of M. Olivier, aays 

 that this species, imlike the generality of the family, 

 utters no cry; and that M. Olivier has frequently taken 

 hold of them with a pair of ])incers without being able 

 to elicit from them any soimd. 



THE EGYPTIAN iGECKO {Tarentola Eijyptiaca), 

 represented in Plate 2, fig. 1, very neatly resembles 

 the Wall Gecko, (UtTering only in a few particulars, 

 and being a little larger. Geoflroy says that full-grown 

 individuals measure five feet in length from the muzzle 

 to the extremity of the tail. It seems peculiar to 

 Egypt, and its habits are nearly the same as those of 

 the last. Two or three species of this same genus are 

 found in South Africa, 



BIBRON'S TARENTOLE [Tarentola Bihronii), and 

 the CAPE TARENTOLE {T. CaiKusis), are described 

 by Sir A. Smith, as being found in tlie interior, though 

 not very abundantly. They occur chiefly in rocky 

 precipitous places, and in outhouces badly lighted. 



