OCR Text |
Show 42 REPTILIA. granulated, but without tubercles above; s~all sc~les beneath; its naturally long tail, which is encit·clecl w1th pl~1ts as u~ual, is easily broken, and the new one that succeed.s 1s so~et1mes considerably enlarged, resembling a small rad1sh. It 1s from these accidental monstrosities that it has received the name o£ G. rapicauda. ( 1) In the fourth division of the Geckos, or PTYODAOTYLI,(2) The ends of the toes only are dilated into plates, the undet· surface of which is striated so as to resemble a fan. The middle of the plate is split and the nail placed in the fissure. Each toe has a strongly hooked nail. The toes of some are ft·ee, and their tail round. Lac. gecko, Hasselq.; Gee/co lobatus, Geoff. Rept. Egyp. III, 5 · Stellio Ilasselquistii, Schn. Smooth; reddish-grey dotted with b'r own; the scales and tubercles very small; common .1 ~ h o~s~s on the south and east of the Mediterranean. At Cairo 1t 1s called the .!J.bou burs (father of leprosy), on account of its com· municating that disease by poisoning (as they say) the salted provisions and other aliments with its feet, in crawling ov~r them. In passing over the skin it occasions a redness, but th1s is perhaps solely owing to the fineness of its nails. Its cry somewhat resembles that of a Frog. In others, each side of the tail is edged with a membrane, and the feet are semi-palmate; they are probably aquatic, and are the Uno· PLATES of Dumeril. Stellio .fimbriatus, Schn.; Le Gee/co frange; Tete plate, Lac., or Famo-Cantrata of Madagascar, Brug.; Lacep. I, xxx; Daud. IV, lii. The membrane on the sides of the tail extending along the flanks where it is slashed and fringed. Found in Madagascar upon trees, where it leaps from branch to branch. The natives, though without any reason, hold it in great fear.(3) Lac. caudiverbera, L.; Gee/co du Perou, Feuillee, I, 319. No fringe on the sides of the body, it being confined to those of the tail on which there is also a vertical membranous crest. Feui!lee found it in a spring in the Cordilleras. It is blackish and more than a foot long. (1) The G. squalidus, Herm. if not the same as the lmvis, belongs to this div~· sion. The Gecko de SU?inam, Daud. is only a younger and better coloured specl· men of the lmvis. (2) From 71'7uov, fan. (3). Accorcling to Brugiere's description, the Sarroube of Madagascar has all the characters of t.he Ji'amo-cantrata, except the fringe and a deficiency of the thumb in the fore feet. M. Fit.zinger has taken it for his genus SARRUnA. SAURIA. 43 We may make a fifth division, the SPHERIODAOTYLI, Of certain small Geckos, the ends of whose toes terminate in a little pellet without folds, but always with retractile nails. When this pellet is double or emarginated in front, they are closely allied to the simple Ptyodactyli. The species known are from the Cape or from India: such is the G. porphyre, Daud. Reddish-grey, marbled and dotted with brown.(l) Most generally the pellet is simple and round. The species are all American: such is the G. sputateur a bandes, Lacep., Rept. I, pl. xxviii, f. I. A small species, prettily marked with transverse brown bands laid on a red ground: common in the houses of St Domingo where it is also called the Mabouia. There is a neighbouring species in the same island, but which is of a uniform ash-colour, Id., lb. f. 2. Finally, there are some Saurians which, possessing all the characters of Geckos, have no enlargement of the toes. Their five nails however are retractile. Some of them have a round tail, and the toes striate beneath and indented along the sides, constituting the ,. STENODAOTYLI. There is one in Egypt, Sten. guttatus, Egyp., Rept. pl. V, f. 2.(~) SmQoth, grey, sprinkled with whitish spots. Others have naked and slender toes: those which have a round tail form the GvMNODAOTYLI, Spix. Some of these are found in America with regular suites of small tubercles. The Gymnodactylus geclcoides, Spi.x, X, viii, I, also appears to be one of them. Others again haye their tail flattened horizontally, so as to resemble the shape of a leaf. PHYLLURUS. Only one species is known, and that is from New Holland, (1) Daudin was mistaken in considering this Gecko as an American species, and synonymous with the mabouia. (2) Under the improper name of .Bgame ponctue. It is reproduced in the Supp. pl. 1, f. 2; and a neighbou1'ing species, f. 4. \ |