Notices of New Books. 3869 



been slightly crushed in, probably by accident, and this appeared to 

 have been fatal to it, for its contents gradually dried up. I conjec- 

 tured at the time that this egg had been deposited by the gecko, but 

 I could not be quite certain, because one or two Anoles were kept in 

 the same cage. But on the 21st of February, as I was riding to Sa- 

 vanua-la-Mar, and passing a large fig-tree that overhangs the sea- 

 shore at Cave, I observed in a little crevice in the trunk — or rather in 

 one produced by the singular anastomosing of the supra-terrestrial 

 roots — several eggs. On dismounting, I found they were about eight 

 in number, and evidently of the same kind as the one above noticed. 

 Their form was irregularly oval, round, or rondo-triangular, all flat- 

 tened, very much resembling in size, shape and colour, those comfits 

 called lemon-drops : their greatest diameter was about half an inch. 

 They were shelly, but the shell was thin and very brittle ; yet it was 

 evident they had been soft when laid, for they adhered to each other, 

 and the side of one was, as it were, let in to that of its neighbour, and 

 at the base of some was a thick mass of shelly matter, as if a semifluid 

 substance had run down and then hardened. That all had not been 

 deposited at once, seemed apparent from their diverse degrees of ma- 

 turity; some containing only a white cream or soft curd, others the 

 lizard fully formed but immature ; while one which I broke displayed 

 the smooth sheath-claw perfectly formed and coloured, which pre- 

 sently crawled out, being quite independent of the vitellus. The 

 head of this new-born gecko was large ; the belly (of course) thin ; 

 the toes well formed ; the tubercles perfect, the markings dark and 

 beautifully distinct ; the pupil linear and perpendicular. The length 

 was two inches and a quarter ; one-third of an inch of the extremity 

 of the tail was pure white, abruptly defined from the darker colour. 

 The surface of the eggs, under a lens, was covered with minute tu- 

 bercles of lime, something like a whitewashed wall. 



" The cavity in which these eggs were found was so narrow that I 

 cannot understand how the lizard managed to deposit them in their 

 situation, unless (which seems very improbable) they were first laid 

 and afterwards placed with the feet. 



tf After a few weeks, being again in that neighbourhood, I noticed 

 that another egg had been laid since the removal of the former, and 

 in the course of a month two more, occupying the place of those first 

 deposited. 



" We thus perceive that the gecko lays her eggs at considerable 

 intervals of time, but selects the same spot for their deposition. 



