THE HABITS OF MALAY REPTILES. 193 
local. One, L. jer donianum, seems to be absolutely confined to 
Pulan Tikus in Penang, having never been seen е. 
Every onein the tropics soon makes the acquaintance of the 
House Geckos, and the habits of these useful little insect killers 
are well known, and have often been described, but it does not 
mon one is Gehyra mutilata, a very pale с lored and rather small 
kind, in others the large dark brown Gecko Monar chus takes its 
hi 
Tokay, Gecko ver -e a large kind with an exceedingly 
powerful voice, has been recorded f rom the peninsula, and even 
from Singapore, but this densi locality must be very dubious, 
e have, however, another very loud voiced one {жыгы 
G. stentor)in the forests, where it lives in hollow trees, and 
utters a very loud call. 
esides these house geckos, there are a number of jungle 
geckos, which live in holes in trees or under bark, only appear- 
ing at dusk. A very odd little one, Gonatodes kendalli, lives in 
cracks and ie under large rocks in the Bukit Timah woods. 
lt із dark brown, and has an unusually long tail, which it often 
carries over its back coiled up like a watch spring when it runs. 
SNAKES. 
The ordinary visitor to the tropics is filled with a nervous 
horror of snakes, always expecting to find most deadly kinds in 
the house or to be attacked by then if he sets foot outside. He 
‚ conceives it his duty to ккк all, even the most harmless 
and useful species, as soon as he cms e Н ог is Мз opinion 
mouth too small even to піра portion of one’s skin, assuring 
me that it was a most venomous animal. The visitor, however, 
if of an observant turn of mind, discovers ere long t tha poison- 
ous snakes are comparatively rare, and that cases of dangerous 
