30 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TUBAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



ON A SPECIMEN OF HEMIDACTYLUS GLEADOVI1, 



MURRAY, WITH A BIFID RENEWED TAIL. 



By H. H. Brindley, M.A., St. John's College, Cambridge. 



{With two Plates.) 



{Read before tlie Bombay Natural History Society on 10th July, 1894.) 



The subject of this communication is the abnormal condition of the 

 tail of a specimen of the house gecko, Hemidactylus gleadovii. The 

 animal was sent to me by Mr. H. M. Phipson with a request that I 

 would write a note on it for the Journal of the Bombay Natural His- 

 tory Society. For its identification I am indebted to Mr. G. A. 

 Boulenger of the British Museum. 



The general appearance of the animal is shewn in the drawings of 

 the ventral surface, Plate A, figs. 1 and 2. The tail becomes bifid a short 

 distance behind the cloaca, and terminates in a short branch, which is 

 straight and lies almost in the long axis of the body, and in a longer 

 branch, which commences as an outgrowth on the right-hand side, and 

 gradually bends round towards the middle line. Whether this bent 

 condition was permanent during life is uncertain, as the animal had 

 been in spirit some time before I received it, and I do not know its 

 previous history. 



The chief dimensions are — 

 Length, snout to cloaca ... ... 



„ cloaca to fork of bifurcation ... 

 „ fork to tip of long branch of tail 

 » )> » a short „ ,, 



Width, long branch ... 

 „ short „ 



The short branch narrows suddenly at 1*4 cm. from the fork, after 

 which it tapers regularly. The other external features of the three 

 parts of the tail are as follows : — 



'5 tapering to 



O ,. ., 



5-5 



•45 

 3-1 

 1-9 



•07 



•1 



Section. 



Scaling. 



Dorsal and lateral. 



Ventral. 



Undivided proxima^ Rounded, depressed, 

 part. 



Long branch (taper- Oval, flattened ven 

 ing). trally. 



Small smooth scales. 

 Several longitudinal 

 series of large point- 

 ed keeled tubercles. 



Small smooth scales ; 

 no tubercles. 



Short branch (rela- 1 Rounded, flattened Small smooth scales 

 tively blunt). I ventrally. no tubercles. 



A median series of 

 transversely dilated 

 scutes. 



Transversely dilated 

 scutes. 



Small smooth scales. 



