GECKOTIDJE. 



125 



be attributed to them. There are about sixteen known species 

 of Geckos distributed universally over all tropical and some temperate 

 countries. 



[The GeckotidcE are divided into many genera, according to the 

 construction of the toes. Dumeril refers to the comparative shortness 

 and general structure of the feet and conformation of the toes, which 

 he describes and figures in detail. The lower surface and the sole, 

 he states, are very dilatable, and furnished with small plates or 



Fig. 30. — Wall Gecko. 



lamellae, following or overlying each other in a mode which varies in 

 the different species. The nails are sometimes wanting on all the 

 toes, but more frequently possess them, when they are hooked, 

 and more or less retractile ; the toes sometimes are united at 

 the base, and in Platydactylus the extremity of the toe expands 

 into a fan shape, as in the Tree Frogs. The membranous and 

 soft plates of the lower surface of the toes have various modifi- 

 cations in different genera, which has been made the basis of 

 their arrangement. The Wall Gecko is supposed by Gesner to 

 be the Lizard spoken of by Aristophanes and Theophrastus, and 

 the Tarentula of the Italians ; and there is little doubt that it was 

 the 'Aa/caXa/Sw^e of Aristotle and the ancient Greeks; it clambered 



