248 



THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



only, in search of food. I have often 

 seen the leaf -tailed variety, in wet 

 weather, climbing up the walls of 

 houses in search of a dry bed. Geckos 

 may be freely handled, and in some 

 countries are encouraged as pets, when 

 they are allowed to crawl all over the 

 inside walls of the houses where they 

 eat up the flies. Occasionally, if 



cornered or frightened, these lizards 

 o])en their mouths very wide and, by 

 clicking the tongue against the roof of 

 the mouth, emit a sound which resem- 

 bles " yecko," hence the probable 

 derivation of the name. 



The gecko has a peculiar and very 

 disconcerting habit of throwing off the 

 tail when handled too roughly, or when 

 too closely pursued by a hungry enemy. 

 The discarded member continues to 

 wriggle furiously for some time, thereby 

 attracting the attention of the pursuer 

 while the owner makes good its escape, 

 and in its place a rather rudimentary 

 one is grown. The colour and texture 



of the skin of these lizards affords 

 wonderful protection, and at a distance 

 of a few feet it is very hard to distin- 

 guish one of the broad-tailed varieties 

 from any rough rock upon which it may 

 be resting. 



Their food consists of almost any 

 small insect, especially the small beetles 

 which may be found under bark and 

 stones. 



One of the Wood Geckos (Dlplodactylus 

 vittatus). 



[Photo. — J. R. Kinghurn. 



During the last year over 208,000 

 visitors were admitted to the Museum, 

 whilst more than 2000 availed them- 

 selves of the ])opular lectures provided 

 by the institution. The attendance 

 and interest of school pupils is ex- 

 tremely encouraging. For these, ar- 

 rangements are made to enable them to 

 visit the galleries on Mondays, a day 

 not available to the public, unless it be 

 a holiday — so that the teacher-in- 

 charge may make freer use of the 

 exhibits than would otherwise be 

 possible. 



At the present time a considerable 

 interest is being displayed in the recent 

 discoveries at Luxor, Egypt. The op- 

 portunity is here taken to draw atten- 

 tion to those exhibits in the Museum's 

 galleries illustrating the culture of the 

 race which in the past inhabited that 

 land. Amongst these exhibits may be 

 mentioned the mummies, in their 

 original coffins, our possession of which 

 is due to the munificence of the late 



Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth, Bart. ; a 

 large series of ornaments presented by 

 Mr. E. Wunderlich, trustee, in associa- 

 tion with Mr. A. Wunderlich, some of 

 which were previously described in 

 The Australian Museum Magazine ; 

 there are also examples of pottery and 

 fragments of mural decorations. 



In the last issue of The Australian 

 Museum Magazine an appeal to our 

 readers was made for observations 

 regarding the Bulbul, an introduced 

 bird which may, or may not, be- 

 come a serious pest to our orchardists. 

 The metropolitan press very kindly 

 gave this appeal prominent notice in 

 their columns. In response a number 

 of replies has come to hand — all con- 

 taining valuable information but there 

 may be still some who, whilst possessing 

 first-hand knowledge have not written. 

 We would ask that they reply as soon 

 as possible, for every detail, no matter 

 how trivial it may seem, possesses 

 some value. 



