This conclusion Sir Everard has been led to draw from an examination of the foot of the Lacerta Gecko. Sir Joseph Banks had mentioned to him in the year 1815, that this lizard, which is a native of the island of Java, comes out in the evening from the roofs of the houses, and walks down the smooth hard-polished chunam walls in search of the flies which settle upon them, and which are its natural food. When Sir Joseph was at Batavia, he amused himself in catching this lizard. He stood close to the wall at some distance from the animal, and by suddenly scraping the wall with a long flattened pole, he was able to bring the animal to the ground.
Having procured from Sir Joseph a very large specimen of the Gecko, which weighed 5¾ ounces avoirdupois, Sir Everard Home was enabled to ascertain the peculiar mechanism by which the feet of this animal have the power of keeping hold of a smooth hard perpendicular wall, and carry up so heavy a weight as that of its body.
Fig. 62.
Fig. 63.
The foot of the Gecko has five toes (as shown in Fig. 62), and at the end of each of them, except the thumb, is a very sharp and highly-curved claw. On the under surface of each toe are sixteen transverse slits, leading to as many cavities or pockets, the depth of which is nearly equal to the length of the slit that forms the surface.
Fig. 64.
