Geckotidæ, or Thick-Tongued Lizards.
This singular family of Saurians have the head wide and flattened, the mouth wide, the nostrils distant and lateral, the eyes large, with short lids; the tongue short, fleshy, and capable of slight elongation. The body is thick and short, low on the legs, rather squat and depressed, with a belly trailing on the ground; back without crest. The skin is defended by granular scales, interlaced with others of a tubercular character; they are almost always of a sombre colour. Their feet are short, wide apart, and robust; they are furnished on the upper part with imbricated laminæ, which enable them to adhere firmly to the surface of even the smoothest bodies, and to run with rapidity in all directions on a plain surface, and even to remain stationary with the back downwards, like the common house Fly. More generally, however, their hooked and retractile claws, like those of cats, assist them in climbing, crawling up trees, rocks, and even perpendicular walls, and to remain there immovable for several hours. Their flexible bodies mould themselves into the depressions of the surface of the earth, in which they become scarcely visible, their natural colour blending, and being confounded with, the colour of the soil. Their eye-balls, which dilate and contract considerably, protect them from the action of the sun's rays, and enable them, it is thought, to see in the dark. They are nocturnal, avoid the sun's rays, and catch their food in the chinks of rocks. Their movements are rapid, silent, and sudden. They hibernate, and are provided with fatty masses in the groin which are supposed to be a provision for their nourishment during that period. Geckos emit sounds which resemble the noise an equestrian makes when he would encourage his horse—smacking their tongues on the palate to produce the sound. They seek habitations in which they can find food, and are timid, inoffensive, and quite incapable of inflicting injury either by their bite or claws; but their repulsive appearance makes them objects of general repugnance, and has caused evil properties to be attributed to them. Thus people try to destroy them by every possible means. There are about sixteen known species of Geckos distributed in all quarters of the globe, but chiefly in warm countries.
Fig. 31.—Platydactylus homalocephalus.
[The Geckotidæ are divided into many genera, according to the construction of the toes. Duméril 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 lamellæ, 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 hooked, and more or less retractile; the toes sometimes 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 modifications in different genera, which have 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 Αακαλαβωνμε of Aristotle and the ancient Greeks; it clambered about their walls catching spiders, on which it fed. Schneider has shown it was the Stellio of Pliny. Linnæus mentions three species, which he places with his great genus Lacerta. Modern herpetologists, following Cuvier and Duméril, class them according to the structure under the several genera Ascalabotes, Platydactylus, Hemidactylus, Ptyodactylus, Thecadactylus, Stenodactylus, and Gymnodactylus.]
The Wall Gecko (P. homalocephalus), [Fig. 31], is of an ashy grey colour, as if powdered on the upper part of the body. It is white underneath, and inhabits the islands of the Mediterranean, as well as the countries which form the basin of that sea, such as Italy, France, Spain, and Africa. They are generally found in old walls; they are, however, sometimes seen running on those of modern habitations. They feed on all sorts of insects, particularly on the dipterous insects and Arachnidans.