GECKOS, gek'6z, the small lizards of the family Geckonida', distinguished from other lizards by structural peculiarities which indicate that the group is a very ancient and distinct one. Externally their robust forms, short heads and thick, but fragile tails: the skin. iv most soft and pebbled with minute bony concretions (osteoderms) ; the lack of eyelids, the ball of the eye being studded by a transparent watch glass-like scale; and adhesive feet are so highly characteristic that a gecko is usually recogniz able at a glance. The group consists of about 50 genera, comprising some 270 species, and they are scattered all over the warmer part of the globe, occurring even in New Zealand and many oceanic islands. Most of the species are small, the largest not much exceeding a foot. They dwell mainly in the woods, and among rocks, hiding by day, or basking quietly in the sun, and becoming active at night. They are carnivorous, the smaller eating insects and the larger bigger insects and whatever else they can catch. They are well fitted for scrambling about tree trunks and cliffs, as is seen in the agility of the common "taren tola,n aosga" and other geckos of southern Europe, and the almost domestic (Hemidactylus) of Ceylon and India, which are numerous both outside and inside of farm and village houses, snapping up flies. They will climb a smooth wall or even a window pane without difficulty, and even run back downward along the smooth whitewashed ceiling. This is possible for them by the fact that the soles of the cushions of the toes are furnished with transverse lamellae beset with tiny hair-like ex crescences, between each two of which a vacuum is formed by the pressure of the foot on every step. Upon the differences in the arrangement
of the pads and lamellae are based generic dis tinctions. In 'addition to this facility of move ment, one species (Ptychozoon honsaloce pha lum), the flying or fringed gecko of the Malayan region, has a lateral parachute-like membrane assisting it to make long leaps from tree to tree.
Geckos are entirely harmless and could not inflict a painful bite if they tried; yet the peas ants of Spain and Italy fear as poisonous even those which they see daily in their houses, and the Egyptians accuse them of leprosy. When encouraged they become tame and friendly and show considerable intelligence. Their voices produce a feeble clicking sound, often repeated, from which comes the term and such local names as and the like. They reproduce by hiding among rotten wood two or three globular hard-shelled eggs, from which the young hatch, and are ready at once to be gin to care for themselves. Consult Gadow, and (1901); Gosse, 'A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica) (London 1851).
GED, William, Scottish goldsmith in ventor of stereotyping: b. Edinburgh, 1690; d. there, 19 Oct. 1749. In 1725 he took out a patent for his method of stereotyping, which was for long the only one in use. He met with such opposition in Edinburgh that he went to London, but there also failed to get his inven tion adopted. In 1731 he obtained a contract to print Bibles and prayer-books for the Uni versity of Cambridge, but only two prayer books had been executed when the lease was surrendered. He stereotyped an edition of Sallust in 1744. Consult by Nichols (1781).