632 MB. STANLT5T S. PLOWER ON THE [May 16, 



rare or local ; I have not met it myself there, nor remember meeting 

 any Englishman who had seen it for certain, but men have told me 

 they have heard it in parts of Perak and Pahang. In Siam, hovs'ever, 

 it is one of the commonest animals that attracts the attention of 

 everybody, however iinobservant or indiffei'ent to natural history : 

 I have met it in Bangkok, Ayuthia, Pakpreo, Patriew, Pachim, 

 Tahkamen, and Chantaboon. 



Eahits. The Tokay is very numerous both in towns and country 

 in Siam, almost every house is inhabited by one or more, and they 

 do not shun the busiest places ; for instance, two or three of these 

 striking lizards are to be seen any evening in either the Club or 

 Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, playing and feeding on the walls, 

 perfectly indifferent to the buzz of conversation and click of billiard- 

 balls. iSach Tokay usually has its particular hole or crevice which 

 it sleeps in regularly every day, and retires to at any time if 

 frightened. It gets its popular name froai its remarkable loud 

 call. Each call consists of, 1st, one " preliminary cackle " (or some- 

 times two) ; 2nd, the word to-hay very distinctly and deliberately 

 pronounced and repeated usually six, seven, or eight times, though 

 I have counted it eleven times. This cry of " tokay " can be dis- 

 tinctly heard at 120 paces (approximately 100 yards) from the 

 spot where the Wizard is calling. Besides this well-known loud 

 call, the Tokay when alarmed or angry can make a strong hissing 

 or puffing noise in a threatening manner, at the same time blowing 

 the sides of its body in and out and opening its mouth wide ready 

 to bite. 



The Tokay (in Bangkok) commences calling in December ; the 

 5th is the earliest date I have heard it, but it does not become 

 usual till the latter part of the month. In January it is to be 

 heard at intervals almost every evening, especially towards the end 

 of the month. In Eebruary it is more frequent at night and 

 occasionally to be heard during the day. In the hot weather of 

 March, April, and May it is often to be heard calling all night 

 long, in one direction or another ; in the old Wang Na (2nd King's 

 Palace) in Bangkok, on particularly hot nights, the noise of " tokay, 

 tokay" was almost continuous, one lizard after another taking up 

 the cry ; at this season, too, it is not unusual to hear one calling 

 in the morning or at midday. In June it becomes much quieter, 

 till in the first half of July often only one will be heard during a 

 whole evening. In 1897 the last Tokay heard calling that I have 

 a note of was on July 20th, in 1898 July 17th, and once again on 

 August 14. During the autumn, so far as my experience goes, it 

 remains mute and begins again in December. 



The little house-lizards (Hemidactylus frenatus, H. j)lntyurus, and 

 Gehyra mutilata), though, are almost as noisy in July and November 

 as in the spring ; their cry of " tok, tok, tok," repeated five to 

 eight times with increased celerity, is a very different thing to the 

 resonant, measured call of GecJco verticillntus. 



In March 1897, in the jungle to the south of Tahkamen, in 

 Eastern Siam, I heard the ordinary preliminary cackle of this 



