109 
Dec. 81, 1909. The I^ueekseand Naturalist. 
These Australian leaf-tailed lizards, although rare, 
were, in the case of one species — Phyllurus platurus— early 
in colonial history brought under notice. 
This was both described and figured under the name 
of the Flat-Tailed Lizard, Lacerta platura, by “ John White, 
Surgeon to the Settlement,” in that rare quarto, “ Journal 
of a Voyage to New South Wales,” published in London, 
in 1790.^ 
The honour of making known — after an interval of 
rather more than 100 years — the second species, Phyllurud 
cornutus, was reserved for our fellow-member, J. Douglas 
Ogilby (Records of the Australian Museum, Vol. II., No. 1, 
8-1^; April, 1892), who named his discovery Gymnodactylus 
cormitus, sp. nov. The occurrence of “ a strong spinate 
knob surmounted by a conical tubercle, behind the eye ” 
giving rise to the term cornutus (horned) applied to this 
Leaf- tail. 
Geckos, as is the case with some other lizards, loose 
their tails very readily, and are capable of reproducing 
these f;rgans, although the second editions are not fac- 
similes of those that they replace ; and, this is true of the 
Leaf- Tail Geckos now under consideration. 
Two of the three examples now exhibited are apparently 
endowed with these new growths. 
In them we observe that this broad-flattened organ 
is as smooth above as below, and simply covered with 
minute scales in transverse lines separated by fine striae. 
It has also the margin for the most part even and continuous. 
It again may be narrower or broader than the original 
organ. 
The third st>ecimen presents a strikingly dissimilar 
tail. This is conspicuously and irregularly festooned, 
the lobes— -larger anteriorly — being fringed with spines. 
In addition, above on each side of the smooth central 
area, there occur besides the fine disc set scales, erect 
conical spines, that are continuous with the consjjicuous 
series on the narrow tail extremity. This may be regarded 
as the original tail in its fully formed state. 
Ogilby refers to the presence of “ soft triangular 
appendages,” occupying in part the upper surface, but leaves 
one to infer that the margin is entire. 
A few^ years subsequent to Mr. Ogiiby’s announcement 
of a second Australian species of the Leaf- Tail Gecko 
specimens procured by Dr. Coppinger, of H.M.S. Alert, 
and the officers of the Challenger Expedition Phyllurus 
were examined by Dr. A. Gunther and he finding amongst 
them specimens corresponding to our third example 
described and figured it under the name Phtjllurus lichenosus 
(Novitates Zoologicce IV., p. 404, pi. XII., 1897), but Garnian, 
Bulletin Mus, Gompar. ZooL i^amrd, xxxix. p. 2 (1901) 
