180 
BLUEFIELDS. 
its look very different from the meek countenance of 
the Ameiva, It is very common, particularly in 
out-huildings and offices, where it inhabits crevices 
in the roofs and rafters, a pair commonly living 
either in the same hole or near together. On the 
approach of night one hears on all sides the singular# 
cracked, cackling call of these animals, somewhat 
like the sound produced by drawing a stick across 
a comb. M. Dumeril’s suggestion, that this voice 
may be produced by the tongue smacked, as it were, 
in the concavity of the palate, is the less unlikely 
from the fact that this organ is large, flexible, and 
fleshy. The name of Croaking Lizard commonly 
applied to the species in Jamaica is derived from its 
peculiar voice. In the woods the voice is also heard 
at night proceeding from hollow trees, and continued 
through the whole of the hours of darkness. The 
large prominent eye without any eyelid, whose pupil 
contracts in strong light to a perpendicular line, in- 
dicates their nocturnal habits ; yet they are fre- 
quently seen by day, as in the case just mentioned. 
In the old mill-house at Bluefields they are nume- 
rous ; and two or three pairs may be seen day after 
day at the same spot, peeping out of their crevices, 
and remaining perfectly still for hours. Sometimes 
they venture forth, and may be observed crawling 
slowly along the beams and rafters ; moving with ex- 
cessive deliberation, and never going far from their 
holes, into which they dart on the least alarm with 
swift rapidity. 
The curious structure of the feet in the Geckotidce, 
by which they are enabled to walk on reversed sur- 
