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Show 1899.] REPTILES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA AND SIAM. 633 lizard, but instead of following it with "to-kay," it shouted "tuk-tuk-tu " several times. I could not see anything, so do not know whether the author of the cry was Gecko verticillatus or not, but I have seen it stated in books that the call of G. verticillatus (at any rate in Burma) is " tuk-tu." W h e n caught the Tokay, young or old, tries hard to defend itself by biting. It is of a bold and inquisitive nature. One day I held up the lash end of a cutting-whip to one looking out of a hole in the wall, and moved the lash about: this interested him very much ; he came right out after it and seized it in his mouth, so I let go, and while against the smooth vertical wall the lizard supported the whole weight of the whip in his mouth, but after an unsuccessful attempt to drag it into his hole, he gave up and dropped it. I am afraid the Tokay, besides its regular food of insects, eats the smaller house-geckoes and its own young, for, though I have never actually seen one do so, specimens of Hemidactylus frenatus, Gehyra mutilata, and young Gecko verticillatus which I have placed in the same glass case as an adult Tokay generally disappeared in a day or two, and there was no hole by which they could have got out of the cage. A Tokay has been seen to catch and eat a mouse, and it is supposed they catch small birds in trees at night. The Tokay falls a victim at times to the Green and Black Tree- Snake, Chrysopelea omata, but not without a prolonged struggle. Several instances of this have come before m y notice. In one a snake 1459 m m . long eventually swallowed a Tokay 311 m m . long, after some hours of fighting ; most of the time each animal held the other firmly in its jaws, and so intent were they, that they were caught and carried indoors without letting go their hold. Another time a snake 1243 m m . long had a similar encounter with a full-grown Tokay. This took place in the yard of m y house at Bangkok ; eventually the lizard seemed to grow quite stupefied or paralyzed, and fell an easy prey to the snake. Popular beliefs.-It is not surprising that many properties are attributed to an animal like the Tokay ; even some Europeans believe not only that its bite is fatal, but that the " suction" of its fingers causes painful blisters on the human skin. W h e n a new house is built, its inhabitants anxiously look out for the appearance of a Tokay in it, and from various causes, such as the number of days since the house was finished, or the number of times it calls, they predict such and such a fortune to the house and its inmates; as far as I can make out, the general idea is that the sooner the Tokay makes its appearance the better luck is in store. And in most affairs of life the Siamese attach importance to the cry of the Tokay : thus apparently for a Tokay to call at the birth of a child is good luck, and the oftener it repeats " to-kay " the better. It also affords the natives a simple form of gambling which requires no apparatus : the stakes and rules having been arranged among the party, they just sit still and wait till a Tokay cries the winning number. |
