IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 5

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

THE GECKOS

By

J. Drummond,

F.L.S., F,Z.S.

The green gecko lizards are so variable in their colours that a beautiful yellow one caught by Mr I). H. M'Kcnzie, of Milford, near Auckland city, is not very surprising. The particuular species to which this gecko belongs, well named Naultinus elegans, usually has a background of green on its upper surface, With white or yellow spots, while its lower Surface is yellowish white. Mr M'Kenzie’s Individual was not only conspicuous by its yellow coat, but also was larger than most of its species, measuring five inches and a-half. The rarest lizard in this Dominion is a greenish grey gecko, with irregular purplish bands on its back. Naultinus elegags, popularly known as the spotted lizard, is fairly plentiful in the North Island and in the South Island.

Geckos are not true lizards. Most of them have adhesive pads on their fingerd and toes. With these, they can climb on smooth and vertical surfaces, like a window pane. Some even can crawl upside down along a smooth whitewashed ceiling. For this ‘'stunt” they use an apparatus described as complicated in its minute detail, but very simple in principle. The adhesion is not by means of a sticky substance, but by vacuums. On each finger or toe there are many small plates or scales. When the foot is pressed down on a smooth surface these are caused to spread asunder and to drive out the air. On account of their elasticity, they return to their original position, and vacuums aie produced. Each little plate or scale has smaller hair-like excrescences, which secure close pressure to the slightest irregularity of the surface, and add to the elasticity of the pads. Geckos that live on sandy, barren ground usually are devoid of adhesive pads, and their, fingers and toes are narrow.

Naultinus utters a chattering sound, believed by Maoris to be a laugh. This probably, resembles the word “ gecko,” which is uttered by some species of geckos in other countries, and which has given the whole group the name. Other species use a sound like “dick" or “chick.” Most .geckos lay white, hard-shelled, slightly oval eggs, but Naultinus elegans produces Its young alive. A female sent from Pleasant Point, near Timaru, to Christchurch some years ago gave birth in capn„ two P rett y all-green baby geckos. lie whole family was liberated in an orchard. The geckos’ prehensile tails are used in climbing trees. In New Zealand geckos lave been known to re"lo,tlonles® for hours ‘ but U ’ey some- + - t mi e UP stran £ e and grotesque positions. They run quickly, with an undulating movement of their tails. They like water and swim very quickly, but clumsily, as if they are in great haste.

J a i’ Res t and handsomest gecko is As It £ IC4°.un?’ies 1 C 4 °. un ?’ ies i>i South-eastern Asia. It is 14m long, and is light blue with red or orange spots. The Malay Archipelago has a gecko equipped with an expansion on each side of its body whkh it, U i Se ? 111 P, araehu ti>ig from one treeJrunk to another.

New Zealand's commonest lizard, the mokomoko, which often lurks under stones and logs in the bush, and in the open country, is a skink, or true lizard. Usually its back is reddish brown, with a whitish stripe, edged below with black, and often with a dark stripe down the middle of the back, but sometimes it is pale golden brown on the back, and darker on the sides. A black or brown lizard found on shingly beaches is another skink.

Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona have the only poisonous lizards, the heloderms warty-skins. One of them is the Gila’ monster, a native of Gila Valley, Arizona, whose bite, it is reported, has caused the death of a few people. The monitors of Africa. Asia, and Australia are the largest lizards ot these times; some are more than 10ft long. The most beautiful lizard, perhaps, is the banded iguana, of Fiji. Nature has lavished her colours on the variegated male of this gorgeous species. His body is ornamented with alternating cashes of pale French-grey and emeraldgreen; his throat is almost pure white; his bps and his eyes are edged with gold. The female is uniform light green.

The world's champion ugly lizard, Moloch horridus, a native of our nextdoor neighbour, the Commonwealth, has an amazing panoply of spines and prickles on head and limbs that is likely to affright all creatures who do not know how harmless it is. It has been labelled “the mountain-devil,” but it is not devilish. As its favourite food is small black, evilsmelling pestilential ants that swarm into houses, it does a great deal of good.

Insects are their main food. 'The Rev W. Colenso watched a New Zealand gecko attack a fly. W hen it saw the fly, and was sure that the fly was alive, t stealthily crept up. When within two inches, it arched its back to a fairly sharp angle. Its eyes swelled and bulged upwards over their orbits, and its countenance took on a fiercer look. Raising its little hand-like paws, it moved a toe or a linger at a time, often in the air, very slowly and cautiously, as a tittle child moves its hands when' stealing along on tip-toe. It ■ thrust its head towards the fly, but so slowly that Mr Colenso detected the movement best bv watching 'ts shadow on marked paper. The movement reminded him of the almost imperceptible movement of the hour-hand of a clock It advanced within about an inch, or less, of the fly. It made a dart like a flash, and the fly was caught. It shook the fly rapidly from side to side, like a terrier with a rat. Half opening its mouth, it gulped the fly whole, legs, wings, and all.

Mr Colenso found that it was a pretty Bight to see geckos drinking. They lap water like a cat laps milk, but very slowly, as if they are merely tasting. They occasionally pass their broad, thin, large, -purple tongues over their eyes, as if they

were washing them, and always finish drinking in that way. Mr Colenso’s geckos often went into their water trough, and for some time remained extended in the water. Sir Walter Buller is the authority for a statement that the gecko’s laugh was enough to terrify the bravest Maori warrior, and that members of all tribes in all ;>arts of New Zealand attributed evil powers. to the geckos. This groundless dread is shared by many people, barbarous and civilised. In some countries geckos are feared more than poisonous snakes. They are absolutely harmless. They may try to bite a person’s finger, but their teeth do not penetrate the skin. If not molested, they become tame and confiding.

A gecko’s only defence when caught is to leave part of its tail in the hand, claw, or jaw, of its captor. The new tail it produces from the stump is like the old one. Portuguese geckos that lost their fails when they were caught were kept in a box without food for six weeks. When they arrived at their destination in England each had grown a new stump about half an inch long. In an officer’s quarters m the fort at Colombo many years ago, a gecko was taught to go to the dinner table daily. It always appeared with the dessert. While the family was absent for several months, the house was extensively .repaired, the roof being raised, the walls stuccoed, and the ceilings whitened. It was believed that the little lizard, after such a long suspension of its custom, would disappear, but when its old friends came back home, it attended at first meal, as soon as the cloth was removed.

Some 23 years ago Mr E. A. Hodges, Waitekauri, amused himself by doing a little gumdigging near a small farm owned by Mr J. Mitchelson, behind Dargaville. One dry summer, when turning over stiff soil in a small depression, which had been muddy in the wet season, he was surprised to find three •fish, about four inches long. They' were in a small pocket. There was no water, and the soil was not even moist. The mud-fish were lively, and wriggled about.

A correspondent who saw a song-thrush’s nest on June 25 last asked if this species has been known to nest in New Zealand as early as that in any previous season. Mr T. S. Mason, of Hamilton, states that at East Taieri, in 1916 or 1917, he found a song-thrush's nest with three eggs in it on June 3.