14 Nelson Annandale — The Lizards of the Andamans. [Supplfc. 



Gehyra mutilata, Hemidactylus frenatus and Gecko verticillatus are 

 house-lizards and have a wide adventitious range on coasts and islands, 

 being easily carried with merchandize or personal baggage. On the 

 mainland of Asia their range extends northwards and westwards from 

 the Malay Archipelago, through Malaya and Burma, to the north-eastern 

 districts of India proper. This range they share with many other 

 animals. Of the three, G. verticillatus (which is only a house-lizard 

 in some districts) is most restricted. Probably it does not occur in 

 the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, though abundant (not as a 

 house-lizard) in the northern, and the few specimens taken in Singa- 

 pore would seem to have been introduced from Bangkok (where it 

 occurs in almost every inhabited building) or Java. Gecko stentor, 

 on the other hand, is usually a jungle species ; in the dense woods of 

 northern Malaya its peculiar cry is heard perpetually, though the lizard 

 is seen but seldom. In Selangor and elsewhere, however, it has been 

 known to take up its abode in houses. Its retiring habits render it 

 somewhat rare in collections, and it is not known to occur west of 

 Chittagong. Lepidodactylus luguhris, regarding the habits of which 

 little or nothing! is known^ has a very wide insular distribution in the 

 Indian and Pacific Oceans and occurs sparingly in Malaya and Burma. 



Phelsuma andamanense is probably the most interesting of the 

 Andaman lizards. Its allies are found not in the Malayan islands or on 

 the mainland of Asia, nor even on the mainland of Africa, but in 

 Mauritius, the Seyschelles, Reunion and Madagascar. The number of 

 cases in which the names of authors of species are enclosed in brackets 

 in the tables which accompany this paper shows how little reliance can 

 often be placed on the generic distinctions of herpetologists ; but PheU 

 suma would appear to be a natural genus, in which the species are 

 closely related. It would not be difficult to confuse an example of 

 the Andaman species in which the colours had faded with one of 

 P. cepedianum from Mauritius, though the specific differences are much 

 greater than those between Gymnodactylus ruhidus^ and G. marmoratus .^ 



Both P. andamanense and G. ruhidus (also G. marnioratus) are 

 arboreal. Probably they never enter houses. 



In considering the fauna of any tropical district the Geckos have a 

 peculiar interest. Their structure (especially that of the vertebral 

 column, on which great stress must be laid) proves them extreme- 

 ly ancient, and their genera (except in a few cases, such as the 

 marmoratus section of Gymnodactylus and the Malabar division of 

 Gonatodes) lack the plasticity of some families. I have compiled lists 

 1 That is in Asia. Schnee has a note on its habits in the Pacific [Z. Natur. 

 Stuttgart, 1901) which I have not seen. 



8 These two forms were once placed in separate genera. 



