Agnes Ann Schroeder, age 12t of Many, La., for her question:

What is a gecko?

The geckos form a branch of the lizard clan. They have all the advantages of the ordinary lizard, plus a few of their own. They are cold‑blooded, scaly skinned. little fellows, well able to take care of themselves. Like most lizards they can be fast and agile and' like all lizards, they can re-grow a lost toil.

Roost lizards, however, arc almost helpless without sunlight. They love to bask lazily in the sun. This often leads to trouble for they are; exposed to their enemies, Not so tree gecko. He is a creature of the night and. rarely, if ever, ventures forth during daylight hours. Though he can see in daylight his vision is best suited to the night, The little gecko has the long slit eye pupils of the cat, number of lizards can hiss and make warning noises when cornered.

But the gecko has a true voice and can utter all kinds of remarks, The name gecko comes from the call of a six‑inch native of Indo‑China. This is large for a gecko, lie lives more or less as a house guest with humans.

True, his noisy night conversation is a little hard to take but this is offset by the good he does. The gecko is a great insect eater and, wherever he lives, there are no cockroaches or other insect pests.

So, unlike their lizard cousins, almost all the geckos have a voice and most are noisy chatterboxes. Some squeak, some chirp, some make a giggling noise and certain geckos keep Africans awake with a chorus of shrill whistles. Between  sounds thousands of them skitter to and fro devouring vast quantities of pesky insects.

There are geckos of one sort or another throughout the Orient. They are in African, Indo‑China and Australia. There are a number of New World geckos, as a group, they prefer tropical, or semi‑tropical climates, so most of the most of the New World geckos live in Central and South America. However, six varieties live in the southwestern United. States. certain Texas gecko is remarkable, even for a gecko. He has claws on his dainty fingers which he can push out and draw in like the retractable claws of a cat. However, he seems to have paid, a price for his pussy cat claws. Other geckos have special pads on their claws which enable them to climb up walls and. even walk on ceilings, The Texas gecko, like all his kin, is a good climber, but he cannot walk upside down on a ceiling.

The mother gecko lays but two small eggs. She is careful to hide them safely in a crevice, for they must be safe for the six months it takes them to hatch. These youngsters start life by shedding and eating their shins, Though most geckos lay eggs, at least two varieties are known to be born alive.,