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J^^*

THE BISHOP OF VICTORIA'S WORK ON JAPAN.

One Volume, 8vo. with a Map and 8 Illustrations
in Chromoxylography, price 14s,

TEN WEEKS IN JAl>AN.

By GEOEaE SMITH, D.D.

Bishop of Victoria (Hong Kong).

" T OOKINa at the book as a
work of art, there is a brilliancy
of colour about it that would charm a
pre-Raphaelite. The Bishop has an eye
to the picturesque and a dash of ro-
mance in his composition, rarely dis-
played by an ecclesiastical dignitary.
His book is pregnant with ideas as well
as facts, and the style so attractive
that it cannot fail to allure general
readers as well as those who take a
special interest in Japan."

Liter arp Gazette.

" THE work has the charm of
abounding in pictures of the
habits, manners, and customs which
prevail amongst this peculiar and long-
isolated people, drawn by the hand of
a keen but benevolent observer, and
traced in lines of singular grace and
beauty. A more interesting volume
can hardly be opened.*' Observer.

«' "HE. SMITH'S book is, in most
respects, an excellent one. It
is in part compiled, no doubt, — for
Japan is not yet the country in which
a flying visit will supply original ma-
terials for a considerable volume ; but
so much of narrative as there is is
vivid and natural, marked by strong
common sense, and written in a tone
balanced between sympathy and enthu-
siasm. The Bishop sympathises with
the Japanese, but he is not thrown
into raptures by their paper pocket-
handkerchiefs and public baths. He
saw them, we suspect, as they were,
and not as they have appeared to

young oflEicers of the Eoyal "Naxj
who, when writing home from Naga-
saki, mistook nudity for innocence,
and fancied that because people bathed
in the streets they must necessarily be

angels of Paradise The Bishop's

sketches are more than ordinarily
bright in colour and animated in de-
tail. His description of the Nagasaki
market is admirable. Respecting the
new relations o! Japan with foreign
merchants, he has an illustration of an

interesting character The Bishop's

commentary is distressing in its real-
istic cruelty. The Japanese, he re-
marks, are praised for their frugality,
but they are the most drunken people
in the world. They are reputed to
tolerate no mendicancy, yet the most
loathsome beggars infest the public
highways. They have been eulogised
for cultivating no toliacco, but " in no
part of the world is tobacco more uni-
versally consumed." As to gambling,
they will bet upon the feats of a tame

mouse We have not met with

many books on Japan so readable a8_
this. The author, considering the ni
rowness of his opportunities, wasj
surprising sight-seer; and whatever !
did see, he at once sketched in gofi
faith, good taste and good feeling. Tl
volume is really an insight into tl
domestic life and manners of Japal
because Dr. Smith made his trip in tl
spirit of a genuine traveller, a man
the world, and a missionary really dj
serving the title, in the highest sen^
in which it can be enjoyed."

AthenteumA

London : LONGMAN, GREEN, and CO. Paternoster Row.
1

i

LIBRARY OF

1885- IQ56

^ ^i/^""

J
i

THE

NATUEAL HISTORY OF CEYLO>(

LONDON
PHINTED BT SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
NEW-STKEET SQUAEE

SKETCHES

OF THE

MTUEAL HISTOET OF CEYLON

NAEEATIYES AND ANECDOTES

Illustrative of the Habits and Instincts of the

MAMMALIA, BIEDS, EEPTILES, FISHES, INSECTS, &c.

INCLUDING A MONOGRAPH OF

THE ELEPHANT

AND A DESCEIPTIOir OF THE MODES OF CAPTUEING AlfD TEAINING IT

WITH ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS

BY

SIE J. EMEESON TENNENT, K.C.S. LL.D. &c.

Author of

' Ceylon, an Account of the Island, Physical, Historical, and Topographical " &c. &c.

LONDON
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS

1861

mTKODUCTION.

A CONSIDEEABLE poi'tion of the contents of the present
volume formed the zoological section of a much more
comprehensive work recently published, on the history
and present condition of Ceylon.^ But its inclusion
there was a matter of difficulty ; for to have altogether
omitted the chapters on Natural History would have
impaired the completeness of the plan on which I had
attempted to describe the island ; whilst to insert them
as they here appear, without curtailment, would have
encroached unduly on the space required for other
essential topics. In this dilemma, I was obliged to
adopt the alternative of so condensing the matter as to
bring the whole within the prescribed proportions.

But this operation necessarily diminished the general
interest of the subjects treated, as well by the omission
of incidents which would otherwise have been retained,
as by the exclusion of anecdotes calculated to illustrate
the habits and instincts of the animals described.

^ Ceylon: An Account of the son Tennent, K.C.S., LL.D., &c.

Island, Physical, Historical, and Illustrated by Maps, Plans, and

Topographical ; with Notices of its Drawings. 2 vols. 8vo. Longman

Natural History, Antiquities, and and Co., 1859.
Productions. By Sir James Emek-

A 8

vi INTRODUCTION.

A suggestion to re-publish these sections in an inde-
pendent form has afforded an opportunity for repairing
some of these defects by revising the entire, restoring
omitted passages, and introducing fresh materials col-
lected in Ceylon; the additional matter occupying a
very large portion of the present volume.

I have been enabled, at the same time, to avail my-
self of the corrections and communications of scientific
friends; and thus to compensate, in some degree for
what is still incomplete, by increased accuracy in minute
particulars.

In the Introduction to the First Edition of the
original work I alluded, in the following terms, to that
portion of it which is now reproduced in an extended
form : —

*^ Eegarding the fauna of Ceylon, little has been
published in any collective form, with the exception of
a volume by Dr. Kelaaet entitled Prodromus Faunae
Zeilanicoe ; several valuable papers by Mr. Edgar L.
Layard in the Annals and Magazine of Natural His-
tory for 1852 and 1853 ; and some very imperfect lists
appended to Pridham's compiled account of the island.^
ICnox, in the charming narrative of his captivity, pub-
lished in the reign of Charles II., has devoted a chapter
to the animals of Ceylon, and Dr. Davy has described
some of the reptiles : but with these exceptions the
subject is almost untouched in works relating to the
colony. Yet a more than ordinary interest attaches to

^ An Historical, Political, and its Dependencies, by C. Peidham,
Statistical Account of Ceylon and Esq. 2to1s. 8vo. London, 1849.

INTRODUCTIOX. Vll

the inquiry, since Ceylon, instead of presenting, as is
generally assumed, an identity between its fauna and
that of Southern India, exhibits a remarkable diversity,
taken in connection with the limited area over which
the animals included in it are distributed. The island,
in fact, may be regarded as the centre of a geographical
circle, possessing within itself forms, whose allied species
radiate far into the temperate regions of the north, as
well as into Africa, Australia, and the isles of the Eastern
Archipelago.

" In the chapters that I have devoted to its eluci-
dation, I have endeavoured to interest others in the
subject, by describing my own observations and impres-
sions, with fidelity, and with as much accuracy as may
be expected from a person possessing, as I do, no greater
knowledge of zoology and the other physical sciences
than is ordinarily possessed by any educated gentleman.
It was my good fortune, however, in my journeys to
have the companionship of friends familiar with many
branches of natural science : the late Dr. GtAEDner,
Mr. Edgar L. Layard, an accomplished zoologist.
Dr. Templeton, and others; and I was thus enabled
to collect on the spot many interesting facts relative
to the structure and habits of the numerous tribes.
These, chastened by the corrections of my fellow-tra-
vellers, and established by the examination of collec-
tions made in the colony, and by subsequent comparison
with specimens contained in museums at home, I have
ventured to submit as faithful outlines of the fauna of
Ceylon.

A 4

vm IXTEODUCTIOX.

'^ The sections descriptive of the several classes are
accompanied by lists, prepared with the assistance of
scientific friends, showing the extent to which each par-
ticular branch had been investigated by naturalists, up
to the period of my departure from Ceylon at the close
of 1849. These, besides their inherent interest, will, I
trast, stimulate others to engage in the same pursuit,
by exhibiting chasms, which it remains for future in-
dustry and research to fill up ; — and the study of the
zoology of Ceylon may thus serve as a preparative for
that of Continental India, embracing, as the former
does, much that is common to both, as well as possess-
ing a fauna peculiar to the island, that in itself will
amply repay more extended scrutiny.

" From these lists have been excluded all species
regarding the authenticity of which reasonable doubts
could be entertained ^, and of some of them, a very few
have been printed in italics^ in order to denote the
desirability of more minute comparison with well-de-
termined specimens in the great national depositories
before finally incorporating them with the Singhalese
catalogues.

'' In the labour of collecting and verifying the facts
embodied in these sections, I cannot too warmly ex-
press my thanks for the aid I have received from
gentlemen interested in similar studies in Ceylon : from

^ An exception occurs in the list lities are doubtful hare been ad-
of shells, prepared by Mr.. SYLVAxrs mitted for reasons adduced. (See
Hanley, in which some whose loca- p. 387.)

INTRODUCTION. IX

Dr. Kelaaet* and Mr. Edgar L. Latard, as well as
from officers of the Ceylon Civil Service; the Hon.
Gerald C. Talbot, Mr. C. E. Buller, Mr. Mercer,
Mr. Morris, Mr. Whiting, Major Skinner, and Mr.

MiTFORD.

" Before venturing to commit these chapters of my
work to the press, I have had the advantage of having
portions of them read by Professor Huxley, Mr. Moore,
of the East India House Museum ; Mr. E. Patterson,
F.E.S., author of the Introduction to Zoology ; and by
Mr. Adam White, of the British Museum ; to each of
whom I am exceedingly indebted for the care they have
bestowed. In an especial degree I have to acknowledge
the kindness of Dr. J. E. Gtrat, F.E.S., for valuable
additions and corrections in the list of the Ceylon Eep-
tilia ; and to Professor Faraday for some i^otes on the
nature and qualities of the " Serpent Stone," ^ submitted
to him.

" The extent to which my observations on the Ele-
phant have been carried, requires some explanation.
The existing notices of this noble creature are chiefly
devoted to its habits and capabilities in captivity ; and
very few works, with which I am acquainted, contain
illustrations of its instincts and functions when wild
in its native woods. Opportunities for observing the
latter, and for collecting facts in connection with them,
are abundant in Ceylon ; and from the moment of my

^ It is with deep regret that I accomplished gentleman, which oc-
have to record the death of this curred in 1860. - See p. 312.

X INTRODUCTIOX.

arrival, I profited by every occasion afforded to me for
observing the elephant in a state of nature, and obtain-
ing from hunters and natives correct information as to
its ceconomy and disposition. Anecdotes in connection
with this subject, I received from some of the most
experienced residents in the island ; amongst others,
from Major Skinner, -Captain Philip Payne G-allwet,
Mr. Faieholme, Mr. Ceipps, and Mr. Moeeis. Nor can
I omit to express my acknowledgments to Professor
Owen, of the British Museum, to whom this portion of
my manuscript was submitted previous to its committal
to the press."

To the foregoing observations I have little to add
beyond my acknowledgment to Dr. Albeet GtUNTHer, of
the British Museum, for the communication of im-
portant facts in illustration of the ichthyology of Ceylon,
as well as of the reptiles of the island.

Mr. Bltth, of the Calcutta Museum, has carefully
revised the Catalogue of Birds, and supplied me with
much useful information in regard to their geographical
distribution. To his experienced scrutiny is due the
perfected state in which the list is now presented. It
will be seen, however, from the italicised names still
retained, that inquiry is far from being exhausted.

Mr. Thwaites, the able Director of the Royal Botanic
Gardens at Peradenia, near Kandy, has forwarded to me
many valuable observations, not only in connection with
the botany, but the zoology of the mountain region.
The latter I have here embodied in their appropriate

INTRODUCTION. XI

places, and those relating to plants and vegetation will
appear in a future edition of my large work.

To M. NiETNEE, of Colombo, I am likewise indebted
for many particulars regarding Singhalese Entomology,
a department to which his attention has been given,
with equal earnestness and success.

Through the Hon. Eichaed Morgan, acting Senior
Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court at Colombo, I
have received from his Interpreter, M. D. de Silva
GoONERATNE MoDLiAR, a Singhalese gentleman of learn-
ing and observation, many important notes, of which
I have largely availed myself, in relation to the wild
animals, and the folk-lore and superstitions of the
natives in connection with them.

Of the latter I have inserted numerous examples ; in
the conviction that, notwithstanding their obvious errors
in many instances, these popular legends and traditions
occasionally embody traces of actual observation, and
may contain hints and materials deserving of minuter
inquiry.

I wish distinctly to disclaim offering the present
volume as a compendium of the Natural History of
Ceylon. I present it merely as a *' memoir e pour
servir," materials to assist some future inquirer in the
formation of a more detailed and systematic account of
the fauna of the island. My design has been to point
out to others the extreme richness and variety of the
field, the facility of exploring it, and the charms and
attractions of the undertaking. I am eager to show

Xll IXTEODUCTIOK

how much remains to do by exhibiting the little that
has as yet been done^

The departments of Mammalia and Birds are the
only two which can be said to have as yet under-
gone tolerably close investigation; although even in
these it is probable that large additions still remain to
be made to the ascertained species. But, independently
of forms and specific characteristics, the more interesting
inquiry into habits and instincts is still open for obser-
vation and remark ; and for the investigation of these
no country can possibly afford more inviting oppor-
tunities than Ceylon.

Concerning the Beptilia a considerable amount of
information has been amassed. The Batrachians and
smaller Lizards have, I apprehend, been imperfectly in-
vestigated ; but the Tortoises are well known, and the
Serpents, from the fearful interest attaching to the race,
and stimulating their destruction, have been so vigilantly
pursued, that there is reason to believe that few, if any,
varieties exist which have not been carefully examined.
In a very large collection, made by Mr. Charles
Reginald Buller during many years' residence in
Kandy, and recently submitted by him to Dr. Griinther,
only one single specimen proved to be new or previously
unknown to belong to the island.

Of the IcJdhyology of Ceylon I am obliged to
speak in very different terms ; for although the mate-
rials are abundant almost to profusion, little has yet
been done to bring them under thoroughly scientific
scrutiny. In the following pages I have alluded to the

IJs^TRODUCTION. XUl

large collection of examples of Fishes sent home by
officers of the Medical Staff, and which still remain
unopened, in the Fort Pitt Museum at Chatham ; but
I am not without hope that these may shortly undergo
comparison with the drawings which exist of each, and
that this branch of the island fauna may at last attract
the attention to which its richness so eminently en-
titles it.

In the department of Entomology much has already
been achieved ; but an extended area still invites future
explorers ; and one which the Notes of Mr. Walker
prefixed to the List of Insects in this volume, show to
be of extraordinary interest, from the unexpected con-
vergence in Ceylon of characteristics heretofore sup-
posed to have been kept distinct by the broad lines
of geographical distribution.

Eelative to the inferior classes of Tnvertebrata very
little has as yet been ascertained. The Mollusca, espe-
cially the lacustrine and fluviatile, have been most
imperfectly investigated ; and of the land-shells, a
large proportion have yet to be submitted to scientific
examination.

The same may be said of the Arachnida and Crus^
tacea. The jungle is frequented by sipidexs, phalangia^,
and acarids, of which nothing is known with certainty ;
and the sea-shore and sands have been equally over-
looked, so far as concerns the infinite variety of lobsters,
crayfish, crabs, and all their minor congeners. The

> Commonly called *' harvest-men."

XIV IXTRODUCTIOK

polypif echini, asterias, and other radiata of the coast,
as well as the acalephce of the deeper waters, have
shared the same neglect ; and literally nothing has been
done to collect and classify the infusorise and minuter
zoophytes, the labours of Dr. Kelaart amongst the Dia-
tomacese being the solitary exception.

Nothing is so likely to act as a stimulant to future
research as an accurate conception of what has already
been achieved. With equal terseness and truth Dr.
Johnson has observed that the traveller who would bring
back knowledge from any country must carry know-
ledge with him at setting out ; and I am not mthout
hope that the demonstration I now venture to offer, oT
the little that has already been done for zoology in
Ceylon, may serve to inspire others with a desire to
resume and complete the inquiry.

J. EMEKSON TENNENT.

London: November 1st, 1861,

CONTEOTS.

CHAPTER I.

MAMMALIA.

Neglect of zoology in Ceylon

Labours of Dr. Davy

Followed by Dr. Templeton and
others . . . . .

Dr. Kelaart and Mr. E. L. Layard

Monkeys • . . . .
The Eilawa, Macacus pileatus
Wanderoos . . . .

Knox's account of them .
Error regarding the Silenvs
Veter . . (iiote)
Presbytes Cephalopterus
Fond of eating flowers .
A white monkey .
^lethod of the flight of monkeys
P. Ursinus in the Hills .
P. Thersites in the Wanny
P. Priam us, Jaffna and Trinco

malie
No dead monkey ever found

Loris ....

Bats ....
Flying Fox, Pteropus Ed-

wardsii
Their numbers at Peradenia
Singularity of their attitudes
Food and mode of eating
Horse-shoe bat, Rhinolophus
Faculty of smell in bat .
A tiny bat, Scotophilvs foro-

mandelicus
Extraordinary parasite of th
bat, the Nycteribia .

Camivora. — Bears .
Their ferocity

Singhalese belief in the efficacy of
charms . . {note)

Page

3

ih.

4

ih.
5 I
ih
ih
ih.

ih.

8

9

ih

10

ih.
11
12
13

14
16
17
18
19
ih.

20

ih.
22
23

24

Page

Leopards . . . . .25
Erroneously confounded with

the Indian cheetah . . ih.
Curicus belief . , .26
Anecdotes of leopards . . 27
Their attraction by the small-
pox 28

Native superstition . . ih.

Encounter with a leopard . 29

Monkeys killed by leopards . 31
Alleged peculiarity of the claws 32

Palm-cat .... ih.

Civet . . . . . ih.

Dogs 33

Ciuel mode of destroying dogs ih.
Their republican instincts . 34

Jackal . . . . . ih.

Cunning, anecdotes of . .35
The horn of the jackal . . 36

Mungoos . . . .37

Its fights with serpents . . 38
Theory of its antidote . . 40

Squirrels . . . . .41

Flying squirrel . . . ib.

Tree-rat . . . . .42

Story of a rat and a snake . 43

Cofiee-rat .... ih.

Bandicoot . . . .44

Porcupine . . . .45

Pengolin 46

Its habits and gentleness . 47
Its skeleton . . . .48

Ruminantia. — The Gaur . . 49

Oxen 50

Humped cattle . . .51
Encounter of a cow and a leo-
pard .... ih.
Draft oxen . . . .52
Their treatment . . .53
A Tavalam .... ib.

XVI

COXTEXTS.

Page
Attempt to introduce the camel

(note) 53

Buffaloes . . . .54

Sporting buffaloes . . .55

Peculiar structure of the foot . 56

Deer ... . . 57

Meminna . . . . . ib.

Elk 59

Wild-boar . . . . ib.

Elephants . . . .60

Recent discovery of a new species ib.
Geological speculations as to

the island of Ceylon . .61
Ancient tradition . . . ib.
Opinion of Professor Ansted . ib.
Peculiarities in Ceylon mam-
malia . . . .63
The same in Ceylon birds and

insects .... ib.
Temminck's discovery of a new
species of elephant in Suma-
tra .....
Points of distinction between it
and the elephant of India .
Professor Schlegel's description
Cetacea .....
Whales ....

The Dugong

Origin of the fable of the mer-
maid ....
Credulity of the Portuguese .
Belief of the Dutch
Testimony of Valentyn
List of Ceylon mammalia .

CHAP. II.

THE ELEPHANT.

Its Structure.
Vast numbers in Ceylon
Derivation of the word "elephant"
(^note)
Antiquity of the trade in elephants
Numbers now diminishing .
Iklischief done by them to crops
Ivory scarce in Ceylon
Conjectures as to the absence of

tusks ....
Elephant a harmless animal
Alleged antipathies to other ani

mals ....
Fights with each other

64

65
66
68
ib.
69

70
ib.
ib.
71
73

76

77
ib.
ib.

79
81

82
86

The foot its chief weapon .

Use of the tusks in a wild state
doubtful . . . .

Anecdote of sagacity in an ele-
phant at Kandy

Difference between African and
Indian species

Native ideas of perfection in an
elephant . . . .

Blotches on the skin .

White elephants not unknown in
Ceylon . . . .

CHAP. III.

THE ELEPHANT.

Pajie
87

88

89

90

91
92

93

Its Habits.

Water, but not heat, essential to
elephants

Sight limited .

Smell acute

Caution .

Hearing, good .

Cries of the elephant

Trumpeting

Booming noise .

Height, exaggerated .

Facility of stealthy motion

Ancient delusion as to the joints
of the leg

Its exposure by Sir Thos. Browne

Its perpetuation by poets and
others . . . . .

Position of the elephant in sleep .

An elephant killed on its feet

Mode of lying down .

Its gait a shuiEe

Power of climbing mountains

I'acilitated by the joint of the knee

Mode of descending declivities .

A " herd " is a family

Attachment to their young

Suckled indifferently by the fe-
males .

A '' rogue " elephant .

Their cunning and vice

Injuries done by them

The leader of a herd a tusker

Bathing and nocturnal gambols,
description of a scene by ^lajor
Skinner . . . .

94
95
96
ib.
ib.
97
ib.
98
99
100

ib.
ib.

102
105
107
ib.
108
109
110
111
112
113

ib.
114
115

ib.
117

118

CONTENTS.

XVU

Method of swimming .

Internal anatomy imperfectly
known . . . .

Faculty of storing water .

Peculiarity of the stomach .

The food of the elephant

Sagacity in search of it .

Unexplained dread of fences

Its spirit of inquisitiveness

Anecdotes illustrative of its curi-
osity . . . . .

Estimate of sagacity

Singular conduct of a herd during
thunder . . . .

An elephant feigning death

Appendix. — Narratives of natives,
as to encounters with rogue
elephants ....

CHAP. IV.

THE ELEPHANT.

Elephant Shooting.

Vast numbers shot in Ceylon
Revolting details of elephant kill-
ing in Africa . (note)
Fatal spots at which to aim
Structure of the bones of the head
Wounds which are certain to kill
Attitudes when surprised .
Peculiar movements when reposing
Habits when attacked
Sagacity of native trackers .
Courage and agility of the ele-
phants in escape .
Worthlessness of the carcass
Singular recovery from a wound
. (woie)

CHAP, V.

THE ELEPHANT.

Page
121

]22
124
125
129
130
131
132

ih.
133

134
135

136

An Elephant Corral.

Early method of catching ele-
phants .....

Capture in pit-falls . (jiote)

By means of decoys .

Panickeas — their courage and
address ....

Their sagacity in following the
elephant ....

142

ib.
143
144
145
148

ib.
150

ib.

151
153

154

156

ib.

157

158

159

Mode of capture by the noose

Mode of taming

Method of leading the elephants
to the coast . . . .

Process of embarking them at Jla-
naar . . . . .

Method of capturing a whole herd

The " keddah " in Bengal de-
scribed. . . . .

Process of enclosing a herd

Pi'ocess of capture in Ceylon

An elephant corral and its con-
struction . . . .

An elephant hunt in Ceylon, 1847

The town and district of Korne-
galle . . . . .

The rock of Aetagalla

Forced labour of the corral in
former times.

Now given voluntarily

Form of the enclosure

Method of securing a wild herd .

Scene when driving them into the
corral

A failure .....

An elephant drove by night

Singular scene in the corral

Excitement of the tame elephants
(iiote')

CHAP. VI.

THE ELEPHANT.

Page
IGO
161

162

ih.
163

164

165

ib.

166
167

ih.
168

170
171

172
173

174
176
177
178

ih.

The Captives.

A night scene . . . .180
Morning in the corral . .181
Preparations for securing the cap-
tives ih.

The " cooroowe," or noosers . ih.
The tame decoys . . .182
First captive tied up . . .183
Singular conduct of the wild ele-
phants . . . . .184
Furious attempts of the herd to

escape 186

Courageous conduct of the natives IS 7
Variety of disposition exhibited by

the herd . . . - . 189
Extraordinary contortions of the
captives . . . .190

a

XVlll

CONTENTS.

Page

Page

Water withdrawn from the sto-

Working elephants, delicate

225

mach . . . . .

191

Deaths in government stud

226

Instinct of the decoys

ih.

Diseases . . .

227

Conduct of the noosers

194

Subject to tooth-ache

ih.

The young ones and their actions

lb.

Question of the value of labour of

Noosinc a " roorue," and his death

196

an elephant . . . .

229

Instinct of flies in searcii of car-

Food in captivity, and cost .

230

rion . . . (note)

ih.

Breed in captivity . . .

231

Strange scene ....

197

Age

232

A second herd captured

199

Theory of M. Fleurens

ih.

Their treatment of a sohtary ele-

No dead elephants found

234

phant

200

Sindbad's story . . . .

236

A magnificent female elephant .

201

Passage from ^Elian .

237

Her extraordinary attitudes

ih.

Wonderful contortions

203

CHAP. VIII.

Taking the captives out of the

O i

corral . . . . .

204

BIRDS.

Their subsequent treatment and

Their numbers

241

training . . . .

205

Songsters . . . .

ih.

Grandeur of the scene

ih.

Hornbills, the " bird with two

Story of young pet elephant

206

heads" . . . .

242

Pea fowl

244

CHAP. VII.

Sea birds, their number

245

\. Accipitres. — Eagles

ih.

THE ELEPHANT.

Falcons and hawks .
Owls — the devil bird

246

247

Conduct in Captivity.

II. Passeres. — Swallows .

248

Alleged superiority of the Indian

Kingfishers — sunbirds

249

to the African elephant — not

The cotton-thief

250

true . . . . .

207

Bul-bul — tailor bird — and

Ditto of Ceylon elephant to Indian

209

weaver . . . .

251

Process of training in Ceylon

211

The mountain jay

253

Allowed to batl.e

213

Crows, anecdotes of .

ih.

Difference of disposition

214

III. Scansores. — Parroquets .

256

Sudden death of " broken heart "

216

IV. Columhidoe. — Pigeons

257

First employment treading clay .

217

V. Gallince. — Jungle- fowl

259

Drawing a wairgon .

ih.

VI. Grallce. — Ibis, stork, &c. .

260

Dragging timber

218

VII. Anseres. — Flamingoes

261

Sagacity in labour

ih.

Pelicans . . . .

262

Mode of raising stones

ih.

Strange scene . .262,

263

Strength in throwing down trees

Game — Partridges, &c.

265

exaggerated . . . .

219

List of Ceylon birds .

ih.

Piling timber . . . .

ih.

List of birds peculiar to Ceylon .

269

Not uniform in habits of work .

220

Lazy if not watched .

ih.

CHAP. IX.

Obedience to keeper from affection,

not fear ....

221

REPTILES.

Change of keeper — story of child

222

Lizards. — Iguana .

271

Ear for sounds and music .

223

Kabara-goya,barbarous custom

Hurra! . . . (note)

ih.

in preparing the kabara-tel

Endurance of pain .

224

poison . . . 272-

-274

Docility

225

Blood-suckers

275

COXTEJS^TS.

XIX

The green calotes

The lyre-headed lizard .

Chameleon . . . .

Ceratophora . . . .

Geckoes, — their power of re-
producing limbs
Crocodiles . . . .

Their sensitiveness to tickling

Anecdotes of crocodiles .

Their power of burying them-
selves in the mud
Tortoises. — Curious parasite .

Terrapins . . . .

Edible turtle

Cruel mode of cutting it up
alive . . . .

Huge Indian tortoises (note)

Hawk's-bill turtle, barbarous
mode of stripping it of the
tortoise-shell
Serpents. — Venomous species rare

Tic polonga and carawala

Cobra de capello .

Tame snakes . {note')

Anecdotes of the cobra de ca-
pello . . . 298,

Legends concerning it .

Instance of land snakes found
at sea ....

Singular tradition regarding
the cobra de capello .

Uropeltidse. — Xew species dis-
covered in Ceylon

Buddhist veneration for the
cobra de capello

The Python

Tree snakes

"Water snakes

Sea snakes .

Snake stones

Analysis of one

Csecilia

Frogs .

Tree frogs .
List of Ceylon reptiles

CHAP. X.

FISHES.

Ichthyology of Ceylon, little
known ....

Fish for table, seir fish

Page
276
277
278
279

281

282
285
286

ib.
289
290
291

ih.
293

ib.
294
296
297
298

305
299

300

ih.

302

303

ih.

305

306

ih.

312

315

317

ib.

320

321

323
324

Sardines, poisonous ?

Sharks

Saw-fish . . . . .

Fish of brilliant colours

The ray . . . . .

The sword-fish

Curious fish described by ^lian

Salarias alticus

Beautifully coloured fishes .

Fresh-water fish, little known, —
not much eaten

Fresh -water fish in Colombo Lake

Perches

Eels

Immense profusion of fish in the
rivers and lakes

Their re- appearance after rain .

Mode of fishing in the ponds

Showers of fish

Conjecture that the ova are pre-
served, not tenable

Fish moving on dry land .
Ancient authorities, Greek and
Eoman . . . .
Aristotle and Theophrastus
Athenseus ai)d Pulybins .
Livy, Poniponms, Mela, and
Juvenal . . . .
Seneca and Pliny .
Georgius Agricola, Gesner, &c.
Instances in Guiana (note)
Perca Scandtns, ascends trees
Doubts as to the story of
Daldorf . . . .

Fishes burying themselves during
the dry season .
The protopterus of the Gambia
Instances in the fish of the
Nile ....

Instances in the fish of South
America ....
Living fish dug out of the
ground in the dry tanks in
Ceylon ....
Molluscs that bury themselves
The animals tliat so bury them-
selves in India .
Analogous case of
Theory of aestivation and
hybernation

Fish in hot water in Ceylon

List of Ceylon fishes

Page
324
325

ib.
326

ib.
328
330
332

ib.

335

336

ib.

337

339

340

ib.

341

342
344

345

346

ib.

ib.

ib.
347

ib.
348

350

351
352

ib.

353

354
355

357
358

ib.

ib.

359

a2

XX

CONTENTS.

Page

Instances of fishes falling from
the clouds . . . .362

Note on Ceylon fishes by Pro-
fessor Huxley . . . 364

Comparative note by Dr. Gray,
Brit. Mus 366

Note on the Bora-chung . . 367

CHAP. XI.

VOLI.USCA, RADIATA, AND ACA-
LEPH^.

I.

II.

Ill

369

ih.

370

372

Conchology. — General cha-
racter of Ceylon shells

Confusion regarding them in
scientific works and col-
lections

Ancient export of shells
from Ceylon .

Special forms confined to
particular localities

The pearl fishery of Aripo. 373

Frequent suspensions of . 374

Experiment to create beds of
the pearl oyster . .375

Process of diving for pearls 377

Danger from sharks . . 379

The transparent pearl oyster
(^Placuna placenta)

The " musical fish " at Bal-
licaloa

A similar phenomenon at
other places . (note) 383

Faculty of uttering sounds
in fishes

Instance in the Tritonia
arborescens .

Difficulty in forming a fist
of Ceylon shells

List of Ceylon shells
Radiata. — Star fish

Sea slugs

Parasitic worms

Plaiiaria .

Acalephoe, abundant

The Portuguese man-of-war 400

Eed infusoria . . . ib.

Note on the Tritonia arho-
rescem . . .401

380

381

384

385

. 386
388—395
. 395
. 396
. ib.
. 398
. ib.

CHAP. XII.

INSECTS.

Page
403
404
405
ib.
407
408

Profusion of insects in Ceylon
Imperfect knowledge of .

I. Culeoptera. — Beetles .

Scavenger beetles
Coco-nut beetles
Tortoise beetles .

II. Orthoptera. — Mantis and leaf-

insects .... ib.
Stick-insects . . .410

III. Neuroptera. — Dragon flies 411

Ant-lion .... ib.
White ants . . . ib.
Anecdotes of their instinct
and ravages . .412 — 416

IV. Hymenoptera. — Mason wasps 416
Wasps . . . .417
Bees . . . .418
Carpenter Bee . . . ib.
Ants .... 420
Burrowing ants . . . 424

V. Lepidoptera. — Butterflies . ib.

The spectre . . .426
Lycaenidse .... ib.
Moths .... 427
Silk worms . . . 428
Stinging caterpillars . . 429
Wood- carrying moths. . 430
Pterophorus . . 432

VI. Homoptera . . . ib.

Cicada .... ib.

VII. Hemiptera . . . 433
Bugs .... ib.

VIII. Aphaniptera . . . ib.

IX. Diptera. — Mosquitoes . 434

Mosquitoes the "plague of

flies" . . (iiote) ib.
The coffee bug . .436—441
General character of Ceylon in-
sects 442

List of insects in Ceylon 442 — 46

CHAP. XIIL

ARACHNIDJE, MYRIOPODA,
CRUSTACEA, ETC.

Spiders 464

Strange nets of the wood spi-
ders ib.

The mygale .... 465

CONTENTS.

XXI

Page

Page

Birds killed by it .

. 467

Crtistacea

. 477

Olios Taprobaniiis

. 469

Calling crabs

. ib.

The galeodes

470

Sand crabs .

. 478

Gregarious spiders

471

Painted crabs

. ib.

Ticks ....

ih.

Paddling crabs

. ib.

Mites. — Trombldlum tinctorun

I 472

Amielidre, Leeches. —

The land

Myriapods. — Centipedes .

. ib.

leech

. 479

Cermatiu

. 473

Medicinal leech

. 483

Scolopendra crassa.

474

Cattle leech .

. 484

S. pollipes

ib.

List of Articulata, &c.

. 485

The fish insect

ib.

Note. — On the revivi

fication of

MilUpeds. — Julus .

476

the Rotiiera and Paste-eels . 486

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.

Page
View of an Elephant Corral ....... Frontispiece

Groupof Ceylon Monkeys ....... to face 5

Hhe hovh (^Loris gracilis) . . . . . . . . .12

Gvovi'p of F\y'mgFox&s (^Pteropus Edwardsii) . . . to face 14

Head of the Horse-shoe Bat (i?%«o/op/iM5) . . . . . .19

Nycteribia. ........... 21

Indian Bear (Proc%?MS Za&zaf2is). ....... 23

Ceylon Leopard and Indian Cheetah ....... 26

Jackal's Skull and " Horn " 36

Mongoos of Neura-ellia {Herpesles vitticoUis) . . . . .38

Flying Squirrel (^Pteromys oral) ........ 41

Coflfee Rat (Goiunda Elliotli) ........ 44

Bandicoot Rat (J7«s bandicota) ........ 45

Pengolin (^Alanis pentadactylus) . . . . . . . .47

Skeleton of the Pengolin ......... 48

Moose -deer {Moschus meminna) . . . . , . . .58

The Dugong (Balicore dugung) ........ 69

The Mermaid, from Valentyn 72

Brain of the Elephant ......... 95

Bones of the Foie- leg. . . . . , . . . .108

Elephant descending a Hill . . . . . . . . .111

Elephant's Well 122

Elephant's Stomach, showing the Water-cells . . . . .125

Elephant's Trachea 126

Water-cells in the Stomach of the Camel . . . . . .128

Section of the Elephant's Skull ........ 145

Fence and Ground-plan of a Corral . . . . . . .172

Mode of tying an Elephant . . . . . . . . .184

His Struggles for Freedom ......... 185

Impotent Fury . . . . . . . . . . .188

Obstinate Resistance . . . . . . . . . .189

Attitude for Defence .......... 203

Singular Contortions of an Elephant 204

Figures of the African and Indian Elephants on Greek and Roman Coins . 208

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

xxni

Page
Medal of Numidia 212

Modern " Hendoo" .......... ib.

The Horn-bill (^Bticeros pica) ........ 243

The "■ DevW-hivd'' (Syrnium Indi^anee) . ...... 247

The " Cotton-thief" (Tchitrea paradisi) 250

Layard Mountain Jay (Cissa/>?/e//a) ....... 252

The "Double-spur" (GaWo-jjerti/a: 6«co/caraiMs) ..... 260

The Flamingo (^Phcenicopterus roseus) . . . . . . .261

The Kabara-goya Lizard (Hydrosaurus salvator) ..... 273

The Green Calotes {Calotes opkiomachiis) . . . . . .276

Tongue of the Chameleon ......... 278

Ceatophora ....... . . to face 280

Skulls of tlie Crocodile and Alligator 283

Terrapin {Emys trijugd) ......... 290

Shield-tailed Serpent ( Uropeltis grandis) ...... 302

Tree Snake (Passerita Jusca) ...... to face 307

Sea. Sn-dke {Hydrophis siiblcevis) . ..... to face 311

Saw of the Saw-fish (^Pristis antiquomm) .... to face 326

Ray (^Aetobaies nariaari) . . . . . . . .327

Sword-fish (^Histiophorus immaculatus) ...... 330

Cheironectes ....... ... 331

Pterois volitans .......... 334

Scartis harid ........... 335

Perch (Therapon quadriUneatus ........ 337

Eel (^Mastacembelus armatus) ........ 338

Mode of Fisliina, after Rain 340

rian of a Fish Decoy 342

The Anabas of the dry Tanks ........ 354

The Violet lanthina and its Shell 370

Bullia vittata ........... ib.

Pearl Oysters, in various Stages of Growth .... to face 380

Pearl Oyster, full grown ....... „ 381

Cerithium palustre .......... ib.

The Portuguese JNIan-of-war (Physahs urticulus) ..... 399

Longicorn Beetle (^Batocera rubus) ....... 406

Leaf Insects, &c. .......... 409

Eggs of the Leaf Insect (P^^&MWi stccyb&m) . . . . .410

The Carpenter Bee (^Xylocapa tenniscapd) . . . . . .419

Wood-carrying I\Ioths . . . . . . . . .431

The " Knife-grinder" {Cicada) 432

Flata {Elidiptera Eviersoniana and Pceciloptera Tennentii) . . . 433
The ^'Coffee-hug" (Lecanium caffece) ..... to face 436

Spider {Mygale fasciata) ....... „ 465

Cermatia ............ 473

The Calling Crab {Gelasimus) ........ 477

Eyes and Teeth of the Leech ........ 480

Land Leeches preparing to attack . . . . . . . .481

Medicinal Leech of Ceylon ......... 483

ERRATUM.
Page 104. for " Theoraldos" read " Theobaldus.'

Errata.

In List of Illustrations, p. xxiii. line 12, for Ceatophora read CeratopJwra.
P. 433, note, /or Foeciloptera read Pceciloptera.

^^■i.*..X. \J AVa.J

THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF CEYLON

CHAPTEE I.

MAMMALIA.

With the exception of the Mammalia and Birds, the
fauna of Ceylon has, up to the present, failed to receive
that systematic attention to which its richness and va-
riety most amply entitle it. The Singhalese themselves,
habitually indolent, and singularly unobservant of nature
and her operations, are at the same time restrained
from the study of natural history by the tenet of their
religion which forbids the taking of life under any cir-
cumstances. From the nature of their avocations, the
majority of the European residents, engaged in plant-
ing and commerce, are discouraged by want of leisure
from cultivating the taste ; and it is to be regretted
that, with few exceptions, the civil servants of the
government, whose position and duties would have
afforded them influence and extended opportunities for
successful investigation, have never seen the importance
of encouraging such studies.

The first effective impulse to the cultivation of natural
science in Ceylon, was communicated by Dr. Davy when
connected with the medical staffs of the army from
1816 to 1820, and his example stimulated some of the
assistant-surgeons of Her Majesty's forces to make col-

^ Dr. Davy, brother to the il- tants, which contains the earliest

Instrious Sir Humphry Davy, pub- notice of the Natural History of

lished, in 1821, hiii Account of the the island, and especially of its

Interior of Ceylon and its Inhabi- ophidian reptiles.

B 2

4 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

lections in illustration of the productions of the colony.
Of these the late Dr. Kinnis was one of the most ener-
getic and successful. He was seconded by Dr. Tem-
pleton of the Eoyal Artillery, who engaged assiduously
in the investigation of various orders, and commenced
an interchange of specimens with Mr. Bl3rth ^, the dis-
tinguished naturalist and curator of the Calcutta
Museum. The birds and rarer vertebrata of the island
were thus compared with their peninsular congeners,
and a tolerable knowledge of those belonging to the
island, so far as regards the higher classes of animals,
has been the result. The example so set was perse-
veringly followed by Mr. E. L. Layard and the late Dr.
Kelaart, and infinite credit is due to Mr. Blyth for the
zealous and untiring energy with which he has devoted
his attention and leisure to the identification of the
specimens forwarded from Ceylon, and to their descrip-
tion in the Calcutta Journal. To him, and to the gen-
tlemen I have named, we are mainly indebted for what-
ever accurate knowledge we now possess of the zoology
of the colony.

The mammalia, birds, and reptiles received their first
scientific description in an able work published in 1852
by Dr. Kelaart of the army medical staff 2, which is by
far the most valuable that has yet appeared on the
Singhalese fauna. Co-operating with him, Mr. Layard
has supplied a fund of information especially in ornitho-
logy and conchology. The zoophytes and Crustacea
have I believe been partially investigated by Professor
Harvey, who visited Ceylon in 1852, and more re-

' Joxi.rn. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. of Ceylon, by F. Kelaart, Esq.,

• XV. p. 280, 314. M.D., F.L. S., &c. &c. 2 vols.

* Frodromvs Faunce Zeylaniccs ; Colombo and London, 1852.
being Contributions to the Zoology

CEYl.uN MOiNKl-VS,

1. Prcsbytcs cepkaluplaus.
-'. /■. Tlursiles.

7,. r. /•,/,(»( MS.

1. .V'lrncu.-i j/ilcUuf

Chap. I.] MOXKEYS. 5

cently by Professor Sctimarda, of the University of
Prague. From the united labours of these gentlemen
and others interested in the same pursuits, we may
hope at an early day to obtain such a knowledge of the
zoology of Ceylon as will to some extent compensate
for the long indifference of the government officers.

I. QuADKUMANA. 1. Moukeys. — To a stranger in the
tropics, among the most attractive creatures in the
forests are the troops of monkeys that career in cease-
less chase among the loftiest trees. In Ceylon there
are five species, four of which belong to one group, the
Wanderoos, and the other is the little graceful grimacing
rilawa ^ which is the universal pet and favourite of
both natives and Europeans. The Tamil conjurors teach
it to dance, and in their wanderings carry it from village
to village, clad in a grotesque dress, to exhibit its lively
performances. It does not object to smoke tobacco.
The Wanderoo is too grave and melancholy to be trained
to these drolleries.

Knox, in his captivating account of the island, gives
an accurate description of both ; the Rilawas, with " no
beards, white faces, and long hair on the top of their
heads, which parteth and hangeth down like a man's,
and which do a deal of mischief to the corn, and are so
impudent that they will come into their gardens and eat
such fruit as grows there. And the Wanderoos, some

^ Macacus pileatus, Shaw and radiating from the cro-mi of the

Desmarest. The " bonneted Ma- head. A spectacled monkey is

caque " is common in the south and said to inhabit the low country

west ; it is replaced on the neigh- near to Bintenne ; but I have never

bouring coast of the Peninsula of seen one brought thence. A paper

India by the Toque, M. radiatus, by Dr. Templeton, in the Mag.

which closely resembles it in size, Isat. Hist. n. s. xiv. p. 361, contains

habit, and form, and in the peculiar some interesting facts relative to

appearance occasioned by the hairs the Rilawa of Ceylon.

B 3

6 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

as large as our English spaniel dogs, of a darkish grey
colour, and black faces with great white beards round
from ear to ear, which makes them show just like old
men. This sort does but little mischief, keeping in the
woods, eating only leaves and buds of trees, but when
they are catched they will eat anything."^

Knox, whose experience during his long captivity was
confined almost exclusively to the hill country around
Kandy, spoke in all probability of one large and com-
paratively pow^erful species, Presbytes ursinus, which
inhabits the lofty forests, and which, as well as another
of the same group, P. Thersites, was, till recently, un-
known to European naturalists. The Singhalese word
Ouandura has a generic sense, and being in every
respect the equivalent for our own term of '' monkey,"
it necessarily comprehends the low country species, as
well as those which inhabit other parts of the island.
In point of fact, there are no less than four animals
in the island, each of w^hich is entitled to the name of
" wanderoo." ^ Each separate species has appropriated

' EJNOX, Historical Relation of Europe ; but in the absence of in-

Ccylon, an Island in the East In- formation in this country as to

dies. — P. i. ch. vi. p, 25. Fol. their actual habitat, they were de-

Lond. 1681. See an account of his scribed, first by Zimmerman, on

captivity in Sm J. Emerson Ten- the continent, under the name of

nent's Ceylon, etc., Vol. II. p. Leiicoprymnus ce])halopterus, and

66 n. subsequently by Mr. E. Bennett,

2 Down to a very late period, a under that of Scmnopithecus Nestor
large and somewhat repulsive-look- (Proc. Zool. Soc. pt. i. p. 67 : 1833) ;
ing monkey, common to the Mala- the generic and specific characters
bar coast, the Silenus veter, Linn., being on this occasion most care-
was, from the circumstance of his fully pointed out by that eminent
possessing a " great white beard," naturalist. Eleven years later Dr.
incorrectly assiimed to be the Templeton forwarded to the Zoo-
" wanderoo " of Ceylon, described logical Society a description, ac-
by Knox ; and under that usurped companied by drawings, of the
"name it has figured in every author wanderoo of the western maritime
from BufFon to the present time, districts of Ceylon, and noticed
Specimens of the true Singhalese the fact that the wanderoo of au-
species were, however, received in thors {S. veter) was not to be found

Chap. I.] MOXKEYS. 7

to itself a different district of the wooded country, and
seldom encroaches on the domain of its neighbours.

1. Of the four species found in Ceylon, the most
numerous in the island, and the one best known in
Europe, is the Wanderoo of the low country, the P.
cephalopterus of Zimmerman.^ Although common in
the southern and western provinces, it is never found
at a higher elevation than 1300 feet. It is an active
and intelligent creature, little larger than the common
bonneted Macaque, and far from being so mischievous
as others of the monkeys in the island. In captivity it
is remarkable for the gravity of its demeanour and for
an air of melancholy in its expression and movements
which are completely in character with its snowy beard
and venerable aspect. In disposition it is gentle and
confiding, sensible in the highest degree of kindness,
and eager for endearing attention, uttering a low plain-
tive cry when its sympathies are excited. It is particu-
larly cleanly in its habits when domesticated, and spends
much of its time in trimming its fur, and carefully
divesting its hair of particles of dust.

Those which I kept at my house near Colombo were
chiefly fed upon plantains and bananas, but for no-
thing did they evince a greater partiality than the
rose-coloured flowers of the red hibiscus (H. rosa-

in the island except as an intro- was believed to truly represent the

duced species in the custody of the wanderoo of Knox. The later dis-

Arab horse-dealers, who visit the covery, however, of the P. ur sinus

port of Colombo at stated periods, by Dr. Kelaart, in the mountains

Mr. Waterhoiise, at the meeting amongst which we are assured that

{Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 1: 1844) at Knox spent so many years of cap-

which this communication was tivity, reopens the question, but

read, recognised the identity of the at the same time appears to me

subject of Dr. Templeton's descrip- clearly to demonstrate that in this

tion ^vith that already laid before latter we have in reality the animal

them by Mr. Bennett ; and from to which his narrative refers.
this period the species in question ^ Leucoprymnus Nestor, Bennett.

B 4

8 MAAIMALIA. [Chap. I.

sinensis). These they devoured with unequivocal gusto ;
they likewise relished the leaves of many other trees,
and even the bark of a few of the more succulent ones.
A hint might possibly be taken from this circumstance
for improving the regimen of monkeys in menageries,
by the occasional admixtm-e of a few fresh leaves and
flowers with their solid and substantial dietary.

A white monkey, taken between Ambepusse and Kor-
negalle, where they are said to be numerous, was
brought to me to Colombo. Except in colour, it had
all the characteristics of Preshytes cephalopterus. So
striking was its whiteness that it might have been con-
jectured to be an albino, but for the circumstance that
its eyes and face were black. I have heard that white
monkeys have been seen near the Eidi-galle Wihara in
Seven Korles and also at Tangalle ; but I never saw
another specimen. The natives say they are not un-
common, and Knox that they are " milk-white both in
body and face ; but of this sort there is not such
plenty." ^ The Kev. E. Spence Hardy mentions, in his
learned work on Eastern Monachism, that on the oc-
casion of his visit to the great temple of Dambool, he
encountered a troop of white monkeys on the rock in
which it is situated — which were, doubtless, a variety
of the Wanderoo.^ Pliny was aware of the fact that
white monkeys are occasionally found in India.^

When observed in their native wilds, a party of
twenty or thirty of these creatures is generally busily
engaged in the search for berries and buds. They
are seldom to be seen on the ground, except when

* Knox, pt. i. c. vi. p. 25.

2 Eastern Monachis7n, c. xix. p. 204.

* Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1. viii. c. xxxii.

Chap. I.] MONKEYS. 9

they may have descended to recover seeds or fruit
which have fallen at the foot of their favourite trees.
"WTien disturbed, their leaps are prodigious : but, ge-
nerally speaking, their progi'ess is made not so much
by leaping as by swinging from branch to branch,
using their powerful arms alternately ; and when
baffled by distance, flinging themselves obliquely so as
to catch the lower boughs of an opposite tree, the mo-
mentum acquired by their descent being sufficient to
cause a rebound of the branch, that carries them up-
wards again, till they can grasp a higher and more
distant one, and thus continue their headlong flight. In
these perilous achievements, wonder is excited less by
the surpassing agility of these little creatures, frequently
encumbered as they are by their young, which cling to
them in their career, than by the quickness of their eye
and the unerring accuracy with which they seem almost
to calculate the angle at which a descent will enable
them to cover a given distance, and the recoil to attain
a higher altitude.

2. The low country Wanderoo is replaced in the hills
by the larger species, P. ursinus, which inhabits the
mountain zone. The natives, who designate the latter
the Maha or Grreat Wanderoo, to distinguish it from
the KaloOf or black one, with which they are familiar,
describe it as much wilder and more powerful than its
congener of the lowland forests. It is rarely seen by
Europeans, this portion of the country having till very
recently been but partially opened ; and even now it is
difficult to observe its habits, as it seldom approaches
the few roads which wind through these deep solitudes.
At early morning, ere the day begins to dawn, its loud
and peculiar howl, which consists of a quick repetition

10 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

of the sounds hoiu hoiv I may be frequently heard in the
mountain jungles, and forms one of the characteristic
noises of these lofty situations. It was first captured
by Dr. Kelaart in the woods near Nuera-ellia, and from
its peculiar appearance it has been named P. ursinus
by Mr. Blyth.^

3. The P. Ther sites, which is chiefly distinguished
from the others by wanting the head tuft, is so rare that
it was for some time doubtful whether the single
specimen procured by Dr. Templeton from the Nuera-
kalawa, west of Trincomalie, and on which Mr. Blyth
conferred this new name, was in reality native ; but the
occurrence of a second, since identified by Dr. Kelaart,
has established its existence as a separate species. Like
the common wanderoo, the one obtained by Dr. Temple-
ton was partial to fresh vegetables, plantains, and fruit ;
but he ate freely boiled rice, beans, and gram. He was
fond of being noticed and petted, stretching out his
limbs in succession to be scratched, drawing himself up
so that his ribs might be reached by the finger, closing
his eyes during the operation, and evincing his satis-
faction by grimaces irresistibly ludicrous.

4. The P. Priamus inhabits the northern and eastern
provinces, and the wooded hills which occur in these
portions of the island. In appearance it differs both in
size and in colour from the common wanderoo, being
larger and more inclined to grey ; and in habits it is
much less reserved. At Jaffna, and in other parts of
the island where the population is comparatively nu-

' Mr, Blyth quotes as authority — " A species of very large monkey,

for this triyial name a passage that passed some distance before

from Major Forbes' Eleven Years me, when resting on all fours, looked

in Ceylon ; and I can vouch for so like a Ceylon bear, that I nearly

the graphic accuracy of the remark, took him for one."

Chap. T.] MONKEYS. 11

merous, these monke3"s become so familiarised with the
presence of man as to exhibit the utmost daring and
indifference. A flock of them will take possession of
a Palmyra palm; and so effectually can they crouch
and conceal themselves among the leaves that, on the
slightest alarm, the whole party becomes invisible in an
instant. The presence of a dog, however, excites such
an irrepressible curiosity that, in order to watch his
movements, they never fail to betray themselves. They
may be frequently seen congregated on the roof of a
native hut : and, some years ago, the child of a Euro-
pean clergyman stationed near Jaffna having been left
on the ground by the nurse, was so teased and bitten by
them as to cause its death.

The Singhalese have the impression that the remains
of a monkey are never to be found in the forest ; a
belief which they have embodied in the proverb that
"he who has seen a white crow, the nest of a paddi
bird, a straight coco-nut tree, or a dead monkey, is
certain to live for ever." This piece of folk-lore has
evidently reached Ceylon from India, where it is be-
lieved that persons dwelling on the spot where a hanu-
man monkey, Semnopithecus entellus, has been killed,
will die, that even its bones are unlucky, and that no
house erected where they are hid under ground can
prosper. Hence when a dwelling is to be built, it is
one of the employments of the Jyotish philosophers to
ascertain by their science that none such are concealed ;
and Buchanan observes that ^' it is, perhaps, owing to
this fear of ill-luck that no native will acknowledsfe his
having seen a dead hanuman." ^

* Buchanan's Survey/ ofBkagid- monTccy has never been found on
foor, p. 142. At GilDraltar it is the rock,
believed that the body of a dead ,

12

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. I.

The only other quadrumanous animal found in Cey-
lon is the little loris ^, which, from its sluggish move-
ments, nocturnal habits, and consequent inaction during
the day, has acquired the name of the " Ceylon Sloth."

THE LORIS.

There are two varieties in the island ; one of the ordi-
nary fulvous brown, and another larger, whose fur is
entirely black, A specimen of the former was sent to
me from Chilaw, on the western coast, and lived for
some time at Colombo, feeding on rice, fruit, and vege-
tables. It was partial to ants and other insects, and
was always eager for milk or the bone of a fowl. The
naturally slow motion of its limbs enables the loris to

* Loris gracilis, Geof.

Chap. L] BATS. 13

approach its prey so stealthil}^ that it seizes birds before
they can be alarmed by its presence. The natives assert
that it has been known to strangle the pea-fowl at night,
to feast on the brain. During the day the one which I
kept was usually asleep in the strange position repre-
sented on the last page ; its perch firmly grasped with
both hands, its back curved into a ball of soft fur, and
its head hidden deep between its legs. The singularly-
large and intense eyes of the loris have attracted the at-
tention of the Singhalese, who capture the creature for
the purpose of extracting them as charms and love-
potions, and this they are said to effect by holding the
little animal to the fire till its eyeballs burst. Its
Tamil name is thavangu, or " thin-bodied ; " and hence
a deformed child or an emaciated person has acquired
in the Tamil districts the same epithet. The light-
coloured variety of the loris in Ceylon has a spot on
its forehead, somewhat resembling the naniami, or
mark worn by the worshippers of Vishnu; and, from
this peculiarity, it is distinguished as the Nama-tha-
vangu}

II. Cheiroptera. Bats. — The multitude of hats is one
of the features of the evening landscape ; they abound
in every cave and subterranean passage, in the tunnels
on the highways, in the galleries of the fortifications,
in the roofs of the bungalows, and the ruins of every
temple and building. At sunset they are seen issuing
from their diurnal retreats to roam throuofh the twilio-ht
in search of crepuscular insects, and as night approaches
and the lights in the rooms attract the night-flying
lepidoptera, the bats sweep round the dinner-table and

* There is an interesting notice pletox, in the Mag. Nat. Hist.
of the Loris of Ceylon by Dr. Tem- 1844, ch. xiv. p. 362.

14 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

carry off their tiny prey within the glitter of the lamps.
Including the frugivorous section about sixteen species
have been identified in Ceylon; and remarkable va-
rieties of two of these are peculiar to the island. The
colours of some of them are as brilliant as the plumage
of a bird, bright yellow, deep orange, and a rich ferru-
ginous brown inclining to red.^

But of all the bats, the most conspicuous from its
size and numbers, and the most interesting from its
habits, is the rousette of Ceylon ^ ; — the " flying fox," as
it is called by Europeans, from the similarity to that
animal in its head and ears, its bright eyes, and intel-
ligent little face. In its aspect it has nothing of the
disagreeable and repulsive look so common amongst the
ordinary vespertilionidse ; it likewise differs from them
in the want of the nose-leaf, as well as of the tail. In
the absence of the latter, its flight is directed by means
of a membrane attached to the inner side of each of the
hind legs, and kept distended at the lower extremity
by a projecting bone, just as a fore-and-aft sail is dis-
tended by a " gaff."

In size the body measures from ten to twelve inches in
length, but the arms are prolonged, and especially the
metacarpal bones and phalanges of the four fingers over
which the leathery wings are distended, till the alar
expanse measures between four and five feet, ^^^lilst
the function of these metamorphosed limbs in sustain-
ing flight entitles them to the designation of "wings,"
they are endowed with another faculty, the existence of

^ Rhinolophus affinis ? var. ru- Hipposideros speoris, var. aureus,
bidus, Kelaart. Kclaart.

_.. . , . „ , Kerivoula picta, Pallas.

Hipposideros murinus, Mr. M- Scotopliilus Heathii, Horsf.
Tus, Kelaart. 2 pteropus Edwardsii, Geoff.

FLYING FOXES.

Pteropus Edwardsii.

Chap. I.] BATS. 15

which essentially distinguishes them from the feathery
wings of a bird, and vindicates the appropriateness of
the term Cheiro-ptera ^, or " mnged hands," by which
the bats are designated. Over the entire surface of the
thin membrane of which they are formed, sentient nerves
of the utmost delicacy are distributed, by means of which
the animal is enabled during the darkness to direct its
motions with security, avoiding objects against contact
with which at such times its eyes and other senses
would be insufficient to protect it.^ Spallanzani ascer-
tained the perfection of this faculty by a series of cruel
experiments, by which he demonstrated that bats, even
after their eyes had been destroyed, and their external
organs of smell and hearing obliterated, were still
enabled to direct their flight with unhesitating con-
fidence, avoiding even threads suspended to intercept
them. But after ascertaining the fact, Spallanzani was
slow to arrive at its origin ; and ascribed the surprising
power to the existence of some sixth supplementary
sense, the enjoyment of which was withheld from other
animals. Cuvier, however, dissipated the obscurity by
showing the seat of this extraordinary endowment to
be in the wings, the superficies of which retains the
exquisite sensitiveness to touch that is inherent in
the palms of the human hand and the extremities of the
fingers, as well as in the feet of some of the mammalia.^
The face and head of the Pteropus are covered with
brownish-grey hairs, the neck and chest are dark ferru-
ginous grey_, and the rest of the body brown, inclining
to black.

' X^lp, the '"hand," and xrepbi/, * See article on Cheirojptera, in

a "wing." Todd's Cyclopcedia of Anatomy

^ See Bell On the Hand, ch. iii. and Physiology, vol. i. p. 599.
p. 70.

16 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

These active and energetic creatures, though chiefly
frugivorous, are to some extent insectivorous also, as at-
tested by their teeth ^, as well as by their habits. They
feed, amongst other things, on the guava, the plantain,
the rose-apple, and the fruit of the various fig-trees.
Flying foxes are abundant in all the maritime districts,
especially at the season when the pulum-imhul^, one
of the silk-cotton trees, is putting forth its flower-buds,
of which they are singularly fond. By day they sus-
pend themselves from the highest branches, hanging by
the claws of the hind legs, with the head turned up-
wards, and pressing the chin against the breast. At
sunset taking wing, they hover, with a murmuring sound
occasioned by the beating of their broad membranous
wings, around the fruit trees, on which they feed till
morning, when they resume their pensile attitude as
before.

A favourite resort of these bats is to the lofty
india-rubber trees, which on one side overhang the
Botanic Grardens of Paradenia in the vicinity of Kandy.
Thither for some years past, they have congregated,
chiefly in the autumn, taking their departure when
the figs of the jiens elastica are consumed. Here
they hang in such prodigious numbers, that frequently,
large branches give way beneath their accumulated weight.
Every forenoon, generally between the hours of 9 and
11a. m., they take to wing, apparently for exercise, and
possibly to sun their wings and fur, and dry them after
the dews of the early morning. On these occasions, their
numbers are quite surprising, flying in clouds as thick as

* Those which I have examined the upper jaw and ten in the lower,

• have four minute incisors in each longitudinally grooved, and with a

jaw, with two canines and a very cutting edge directed backwards,

minute pointed tooth behind each ^ Eriodendron Orientale, Stead.
canine. They have six molars in

Chap. I.] BATS. 17

bees or midges. After these recreations, they hurry back
to their favourite trees, chattering and screaming like
monkeys, and always wrangling and contending angrily
for the most shady and comfortable places in which
to hang for the rest of the day protected from the sun.
The branches they resort to soon become almost di-
vested of leaves, these being stripped off by the action
of the bats, attaching and detaching themselves by
means of their hooked feet. At sunset, they fly off to
their feeding-grounds, probably at a considerable dis-
tance, as it requires a large area to furnish sufficient
food for such multitudes.

In all its movements and attitudes, the action of the
Pteropus is highly interesting. If placed upon the
ground, it is almost helpless, none of its limbs being
calculated for progressive motion ; it drags itself along
by means of the hook attached to each of its extended
thumbs, pushing at the same time with those of its hind
feet. Its natural position is exclusively pensile ; it moves
laterally from branch to branch with great ease, by using
each foot alternately, and climbs, when necessary, by
means of its claws.

When at rest, or asleep, the disposition of the limbs
is most curious. At such times it suspends itself by one
foot only, bringing the other close to its side, and thus it
is enabled to wrap itself in the ample folds of its wings,
which envelop it like a mantle, leaving only its up-
turned head uncovered. Its fur is thus protected from
damp and rain, and to some extent its body is sheltered
from the sun.

As it collects its food by means of its mouth, either
when on the wing, or when suspended within reach of
it, the flying-fox is always more or less liable to

c

18 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

have the spoil wrested from it by its intrusive com-
jDanions, before it can make good its way to some secure
retreat in which to devour it unmolested. In such
conflicts they bite viciously, tear each other with their
hooks, and scream incessantly, till, taking to flight, the
persecuted one reaches some place of safety, where he
hangs b}^ one foot, and grasping the fruit he has secured
in the claws and opposable thumb of the other, he
hastily reduces it to lumps, with which he stuffs his
cheek pouches till they become distended like those of
a monkey; then suspended in safety, he commences to
chew and suck the pieces, rejecting the refuse with his
tongue.

To drink, which it does by lapping, the Pteropus
suspends itself head downwards from a branch above the
water.

Insects, caterpillars, birds' eggs, and young birds are
devoured by them ; and the Singhalese say that the
flying-fox will even attack a tree snake. It is killed
by the natives for the sake of its flesh, which, I have
been told by a gentleman who has eaten of it, resembles
that of the hare.^ It is strongly attracted to the coco-
nut trees during the period when toddy is drawn for
distillation, and exhibits, it is said, at such times, symp-
toms resembling intoxication.

Neither the flying-fox, nor any other bat that I know
of in Ceylon, ever hybernates.

There are several varieties (one of them peculiar to
the island) of the horse-shoe-headed Rhinolophus, with
the strange leaf-like appendage erected on the extremity
of the nose.

* In "Western India the native pronounce it delicate, and far fron*
Portuguese eat the flying-fox, and disagreeable in flavour.

Chap. I.] BATS. 19

It has been suggested that the insectivorous bats,
thousfh nocturnal, are deficient in that keen vision cha-
racteristic of animals which take their prey by night.

EHINOLOPflUb.

I doubt whether this conjecture be well founded ; it
certainly does not apply to the Pteropus and the other
frugivorous species, in which the faculty of sight is sin-
gularly clear. As regards the others, it is possible that
in their peculiar oeconomy some additional power may
be required to act in concert with that of vision, as in in-
sects, touch is superadded, in its most sensitive develop-
ment, to that of sight. It is probable that the nose-
leaf, which forms an extended screen stretched behind
the nostrils in some of the bats, may be intended by
nature to facilitate the collection and conduction of
odours, just as the vast expansion of the shell of the ear
in the same family is designed to assist in the collection
of sounds — and thus to supplement their vision when
in pursuit of prey in the dusk by the superior sensi-
tiveness of the organs of hearing and smell.

One tiny little bat, not much larger than the humble

C 2

20 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

bee S and of a glossy black colour, is sometimes to be
seen about Colombo. It is so familiar and gentle that
it will alight on the cloth during dinner, and manifests
so little alarm that it seldom makes any effort to escape
before a wine glass can be inverted to secure it.

Although not strictly in order, this seems not an in-
appropriate place to notice one of the most curious pe-
culiarities connected with the bats — their singular
parasite, the Nycteribia.^ On cursory observation this
creature appears to have neither head, antennae, eyes, nor
mouth ; and the earlier observers of its structure satisfied
themselves that the place of the latter was supplied
by a cylmdrical sucker, which, being placed between
the shoulders, the insect had no option but to turn on
its back to feed. Another anomaly was thought to com-
pensate for this apparent inconvenience ; — its three
pairs of legs, armed with claws, are so arranged that
they seem to be equally distributed over its upper and
under sides, the creature being thus enabled to use
them like hands, and to grasp the strong hairs above it
while extracting its nourishment.

It moves, in fact, by rolling itself rapidly along, ro-
tating like a wheel on the extremities of its spokes, or
like the clown in a pantomime, hurling himself forward
on hands and feet alternately. Its celerity is so great
that Colonel Montague, who was one of the first to
describe it minutely ^, says its speed exceeds that of any

1 It is a very small Singhalese of the same family. Dr. Temple-
variety of Scotophilus Coromande- ton observed them in Ceylon in
licus, F. Cuv. great abundance on the fur of the

2 This extraordinary creature Scotophilus Coromandclicus, and
had formerly been discovered only they will, no doubt, be found on
on a few European bats. Joinville many others.

figured one which he found on the ^ Celeripes vespertilionis, Mont.
large roussette (the€ying-fox), and Lin. Trails, xi. p. 11.
says he had seen another on a bat

Chap. I.]

NYCTERIBIA.

21

nycterib;a.

known insect, and as its joints are so flexible as to yield
in every direction (like what mechanics call a " ball and
socket "), its motions are ex-
ceedingly grotesque as it tum-
bles through the fur of the
bat.

To enable it to attain its
marvellous velocity, each foot
is armed with two sharp hooks,
with elastic opposable pads, so
that the hair can not only be
rapidly seized and firmly held,
but as quickly disengaged, as
the creature whirls away in its headlong career.

The insects to which it bears the nearest affinity, are
the Hippohoscidce, or " spider flies," that infest birds and
horses ; but, unlike them, the Nycteribia is unable to fl}^

Its strangest peculiarity, and that which gave rise to
the belief that it was headless, is its faculty when at rest
of throwing back its head and pressing it close between
its shoulders till the under side becomes uppermost, not
a vestige of head beino: discernible where we would
naturally look for it, and the whole seeming but a
casual inequality on its back.

On closer examination this apparent tubercle is
found to have a leathery attachment like a flexible neck,
and by a sudden jerk the little creature is enabled to
project it forward into its normal position, when it is
discovered to be furnished with a mouth, antennge, and
four eyes, two on each side.

The ororanisation of such an insect is a marvellous
adaptation of physical form to special circumstances.
As the nycteribia has to make its way through fur and

c 3

22 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

hairs, its feet are furnished with prehensile hooks that
almost convert them into hands ; and being obliged to
conform to the sudden flights of its patron, and ac-
commodate itself to inverted positions, all attitudes are
rendered alike to it by the arrangement of its limbs,
which enables it, after every possible gyration, to find
itself always on its feet.

III. Carnivora. — Bears. — Of the carnivora, the one
most dreaded by the natives of Ceylon, and the only one
of the larger animals that makes the depths of the forest
its habitual retreat, is the bear ^, attracted chiefly by
the honey which is found in the hollow trees and
clefts of the rocks. Occasionally spots of fresh earth
are observed which have been turned up by the bears
in search of some favourite root. They feed also on
the termites and ants. A friend of mine traversing the
forest, near Jaffna, at early dawn, had his attention at-
tracted by the growling of a bear, that was seated
upon a lofty branch, thrusting portions of a red-ants'
nest into his mouth with one paw, whilst with the other
he endeavoured to clear his eyebrows and lips of the
angry inmates, which bit and tortured him in their rage.
The Ceylon bear is found in the low and dry districts
of the northern and south-eastern coast, and is seldom
met with on the mountains or the moist and damp
plains of the west. It is furnished with a bushy tuft of
hair on the back, between the shoulders, by which the
young are accustomed to cling till sufficiently strong to
provide for their own safety. During a severe drought
that prevailed in the northern province in 1850, the
district of Caretchy was so infested by bears that the

* Prochilus labiatus, Blainville.

Chap. J.]

BEARS.

23

Oriental custom of the women resorting to the wells was
altogether suspended, as it was a common occurrence
to find one of these animals in the water, unable to
climb up the yielding and slippery soil, down which its
thirst had impelled it to slide during the night.

Although the structure of the bear shows him to be
natui'ally omnivorous, he rarely preys upon flesh in

INDIAN BEAR.

Ceylon, and his solitary habits whilst in search of honey
and fruits render him timid and retirinor. Hence he
evinces alarm on the approach of man or other animals,
and, unable to make a rapid retreat, his panic, rather
than any vicious disposition, leads him to become an
assailant in self-defence. But so furious are his assaults
under such circumstances that the Singhalese have a
terror of his attack greater than that created by any

c 4

24 MAMMALIA. [Chap. Tj

other beast of the forest. If not armed with a gun, a
native, in the places where bears abound, usually carries
a light axe, called " kodelly," with which to strike them
on the head. The bear, on the other hand, always aims
at the face, and, if successful in prostrating his victim,
usually commences by assailing the eyes. I have met
numerous individuals on our journeys who exhibited
frightful scars from such encounters, the white seams of
their wounds contrasting hideously with the dark colour
of the rest of their bodies.

The Veddahs in Bintenne, whose principal stores con-
sist of honey, live in dread of the bears, because, at-
tracted by the perfume, they will not hesitate to attack
their rude dwellings, when allured by this irresistible
temptation. The Post-office runners, who always travel
by night, are frequently exposed to danger from these
animals, especially along the coast from Putlam to
Aripo, where they are found in considerable numbers ;
and, to guard against surprise, they are accustomed to
carry flambeaux, to give warning to the bears, and en-
able them to shuffle out of the path.^

' Amongst the Singhalese there ceeding, we saw him suddenly turn

is a belief that certain charms are from an old tree and run back with

efficacious in protecting them from aR speed, his hair becoming un-

the violence of bears, and those fastened and like his clothes stream-

whose avocations expose them to ing in the wind. It soon became

encounters of this kind are accus- evident that he was flying from

tomed to carry a talisman either some terrific object, for he had

attached to their neck or enveloped thrown down his gun, and, in his

in the folds of their luxuriant hair, panic, he was taking the shortest

A friend of mine, writing of an ad- line towards us, which lay across a

venture which occurred at Anara- swamp covered with sedge and

japoora, thus describes an occasion rushes that greatly impeded his

on which a Moor, who attended progress, and prevented us ap-

him, was somewhat rudely dis- proaching him, or seeing what was

abused of his belief in the efficacy the cause of his flight. Missing

of charms upon bears: — "Desiring his steps from one hard spot to

to change the position of a herd of another he repeatedly fell into the

deer, the Moorman (with his charm) water, but he rose and resumed

was sent across some swampy land his flight. I advanced as far as

to disturb them. As he was pro- the sods would bear my weight,

Chap. I.j

BEARS.

25

Leopards ^ are the only formidable members of the
tiger race in Ceylon ^, and they are neither very nume-
rous nor very dangerous, as they seldom attack man.
By the Europeans, the Ceylon leopard is erroneously
called a cheetah, hnt the true "cheetah" { fells juhata),
the hunting leopard of India, does not exist in the
island.^

There is a rare variety of the leopard which has been
found in various parts of the island, in which the skin,
instead of being spotted, is of a uniform black.'* Leo-
pards frequent the vicinity of pasture lands in quest
of the deer and other peaceful animals which resort to
them ; and the villagers often complain of the destruc-

but to go further was impracticable.
Just within ball-range there was an
open space, and, as the man gained
it, I saw that he was pursued by a
bear and two cubs. As the person
of the fugitive covered the bear, it
was impossible to fire without risk.
At last he fell exhausted, and the
bear being close upon him, I dis-
charged both barrels. The first
broke the bear's shoulder, but this
only made her more savage, and
rising on her hind legs she ad-
vanced with ferocious growls, when
the second barrel, though I do not
think it took effect, served to frigh-
ten her, for turning round she re-
treated, followed by the cubs. Some
natives then waded through the
mud to the Moorman, who was
just exhausted, and would have
been di'owned but that he fell with
his head upon a tuft of grass : the
poor man was unable to speak,
and for several weeks his intellect
seemed confused. The adventure
sufficed to satisfy him that he could
not again depend upon a charm to
protect him from bears, though he
always insisted that but for its
having fallen from his hair where
he had fastened it under his tur-

ban, the bear would not have ven-
tured to attack him."

' Felis pardus, Linn. What is
called a leopard, or a cheetah, in
Ceylon, is in reality the true pan-
ther,

- A belief is prevalent at Trin-
comalie that a Bengal tiger inhabits
the jungle in its vicinity ; and the
story runs that it escaped from the
wreck of a vessel on which it had
been embarked for England. Offi-
cers of the Government state posi-
tively that they have more than
once come on it whilst hunting ;
and one gentleman of the Eoyal
Engineers, who had seen it, assured
me that he could not be mistaken
as to its being a tiger of India, and
one of the largest description.

^ Mr. Bakek, in his Eight Years
in Ceylon, has stated that there
are two species of leopard in the
island, one of which he implies is
the Indian cheetah. But although
he specifies discrepancies in size,
weight, and marking between the
varieties which he has examined,
his data are not sufficient to iden-
tify any of them with the true felis
Juhata.

* F. melas, Peron and Leseur. '

26

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. T.

tion of their cattle by these formidable marauders. In
relation to them, the natives have a curious but firm

LEOPARD AKD CHEETAE.

conviction that when a bullock is killed by a leopard,
and, in expiring, falls so that its right side is under-
most, the leopard will not return to devour it. I have
been told by English sportsmen (some of whom share
in the popular belief), that sometimes, when they have
proposed to watch by the carcase of a bullock recently
killed by a leopard, in the hope of shooting the spoiler
on his return in search of his prey, the native owner of
the slaughtered animal, though earnestly desiring to be
a-venged, has assured them that it would be in vain, as,
the beast having fallen on its right side, the leopard
would not return.

Chap. I.] LEOPAEDS. 27

The Singhalese hunt them for the sake of their ex-
tremely beautiful skins, but prefer taking them in traps
and pitfalls, and occasionally in spring cages formed of
poles driven firmly into the ground, within which a kid
is generally fastened as a bait ; the door being held open
by a sapling bent down by the united force of several
men, and so arranged as to act as a spring, to which a
noose is ingeniously attached, formed of plaited deer's
hide. The cries of the kid attract the leopard, which
being tempted to enter, is enclosed by the liberation of
the spring, and grasped firmly round the body by the
noose.

Like the other carnivora, leopards are timid and
cowardly in the presence of man, never intruding on
him voluntarily, and making a hasty retreat w^hen ap-
proached. Instances have, however, occurred of indi-
viduals having been slain by them ; and it is believed,
that, having once tasted human blood, they, like the
tiger, acquire an habitual relish for it. A peon, on duty
by night at the court-house of Anarajapoora, was some
years ago carried off by a leopard from a table in the
verandah on which he had laid down his head to sleep.
At Batticaloa a '^ cheetah " in two instances in succession
was known to carry off men placed on a stage erected
in a tree to drive away elephants from rice-land : but
such cases are rare, and, as compared with their dread
of the bear, the natives of Ceylon entertain but slight
apprehensions of the " cheetah." It is, however, the
dread of sportsmen, whose dogs when beating in the
jungle are especially exposed to its attacks ; and I am
aware of an instance in which a party having tied their
dogs to the tent-pole for security, and fallen asleep
round them, a leopard sprang into the tent and carried

28 MAMMALIA. IChap. t

off a dog from the midst of its slumbering masters.
On one occasion being in the mountains near Kandy, a
messenger despatched to me through the jungle ex-
cused his delay by stating that a " cheetah " had seated
itself in the only practicable path, and remained
quietly licking its fore paws and rubbing them over
its face, till he was forced to drive it, with stones, into
the forest.

Leopards are strongly attracted by the peculiar odour
which accompanies small-pox. The reluctance of the
natives to submit themselves or their children to vac-
cination exposes the island to frightful visitations of
this disease ; and in the villages in the interior it is
usual on such occasions to erect huts in the jungle to
serve as temporary hospitals. Towards these the leo-
pards are certain to be allured ; and the medical officers
are obliged to resort to increased precautions in con-
sequence. This fact is connected with a curious native
superstition. Amongst the avenging scourges sent direct
from the gods, the Singhalese regard both the ravages
of the leopard, and the visitation of the small-pox. The
latter they call pai' excellence " maha ledda,^'' the great
"sickness;" they look upon it as a special manifes-
tation of devidosay, " the displeasure of the gods ; " and
the attraction of the cheetahs to the bed of the sufferer
they attribute to the same indignant agency. A few
years ago, the capua, or demon-priest of a " dewale,"
at Oggalbodda, a village near, Caltura, when suffering
under small-pox, was devoured by a cheetah, and his
fate was regarded by those of an opposite faith as a
special judgment from heaven.

Such is the awe inspired by this belief in connection
with the small-pox, that a person afflicted with it is

Chap. I.] LEOPAEDS; 29.

always approached as one in immediate communication
with the deity ; his attendants address him as " my
lord," and "your lordship," and exhaust on him the
whole series of honorific epithets in which their language
abounds for approaching personages of the most exalted
rank. At evening and morning, a lamp is lighted before
him, and invoked with prayers to protect his family from
the dire calamity which has befallen himself. And after
his recovery, his former associates refrain from commu-
nication with him until a ceremony shall have been
performed by the capua, called aivasara-pandema, or
*^ the offering of lights for permission," the object of
which is to entreat permission of the deity to regard
him as freed from the divine displeasure, with liberty to
his friends to renew their intercourse as before.

Major Skinnee, who for upwards of forty years has
had occasionally to live for long periods in the interior,
occupied in the prosecution of surveys and the con-
struction of roads, is strongly of opinion that the dis-
position of the leopard towards man is essentially
pacific, and that, when discovered, its natural impulse
is to effect its escape. In illustration of this I insert an
extract from one of his letters, which describes an ad-
venture highly characteristic of this instinctive timi-
dity : —

" On the occasion of one of my visits to Adam's Peak,
in the prosecution of my military reconnoissances of the
mountain zone, I fixed on a pretty little patena {i, e.,
meadow) in the midst of an extensive and dense forest
in the southern segment of the Peak Eange, as a
favourable spot for operations. It would have been
difficult, after descending from the cone of the peak, to
have found one's way to this point, in the midst of so

30 MA^iMALIA. [Chap. I.

vast a wilderness of trees, had not long experience as-
sured me that good game tracks would be found lead-
ing to it, and by one of them I reached it. It was in
the afternoon, just after one of those tropical sun-
showers that decorate every branch and blade with
pendant brilliants, and the little patena was covered
with game, either driven to the open space by the drip-
pings from the leaves or tempted by the freshness of the
pasture : there were several pairs of elk, the bearded
antlered male contrasting finely with his mate ; and
other varieties of game in a profusion not to be found
in any place frequented by man. It was some time
before I would allow them to be disturbed by the rude
fall of the axe, in our necessity to establish our bivouac
for the night, and they were so unaccustomed to danger
that it was long before they took alarm at our noises.

" The following morning, anxious to gain a height for
my observations in time to avail myself of the clear
atmosphere of sunrise, I started off by myself through
the jungle, leaving orders for my men, with my sur-
veying instruments, to follow my track by the notches
which I cut in the bark of the trees. On leavinof the
plain, I availed myself of a fine wide game track which
lay in my direction, and had gone, perhaps, half a mile
from the camp, when I was startled by a slight rustling
in the nilloo ^ to my right, and in another instant, by
the spring of a magnificent leopard, which, in a bound
of full eight feet in height over the lower brushwood,
lighted at my feet within eighteen inches of the spot
whereon I stood, and lay in a crouching position, his
fiery gleaming eyes fixed on me.

* A species of one of the suffni- which grows abundantly in the
ticose Acanthacece (Strobilanthes), mountain ranges of Ceylon.

Chap. I.] LEOPAEDS. 31

" The predicament was not a pleasant one. I had no
weapon of defence, and with one spring or blow of his
paw the beast could have annihilated me. To move I
knew would only encourage his attack. It occurred to
me at the moment that I had heard of the power of
man's eye over wild animals, and accordingly I fixed
my gaze as intently as the agitation of such a moment
enabled me on his eyes : we stared at each other for
some seconds, when, to my inexpressible joy, the beast
turned and bounded down the straight open path before
me. This scene occurred just at that period of the
morning when the grazing animals retired from the open
patena to the cool shade of the forest: doubtless, the
leopard had taken my approach for that of a deer, or
some such animal. And if his spring had been at a
quadruped instead of a biped, his distance was so well
measured, that it must have landed him on the neck of
a deer, an elk, or a buffalo ; as it was, one pace more
would have done for me. A bear would not have let
his victim off so easily."

Notwithstanding the unequalled agility of the mon-
key, it falls a prey, and not unfrequently, to the leo-
pard. The latter, on approaching a tree on which a
troojD of monkeys have taken shelter, causes an instant
and fearful excitement, which they manifest by loud
and continued screams, and incessant restless leaps from
branch to branch. The leopard meanwhile walks round
and round the tree, with his eyes firmly fixed upon his
victims, till at last exhausted by terror, and prostrated
by vain exertions to escape, one or more falls a prey to
his voracity. So rivetted is the attention of both during
the struggle, that a sportsman, on one occasion, attracted
by the noise, was enabled to approach within an un-

32. MAMMALIA. [Chap. L

comfortable distance oS the leopard, before he dis-
covered the cause of the unusual dismay amongst the
monke3^s overhead.

It is said, but I have never been able personally to
verify the fact, that the leopard of Ceylon exhibits a
peculiarity in being unable entirely to retract its claws
within their sheaths.

■ There is another piece of curious folk lore, in con-
nexion with the leopard. The natives assert that it
devours the kaolin clay called by them kiri-mattie '
in a very peculiar way. They say that the cheetah
places it in lumps beside him, and then gazes intently
on the sun, till on turning his eyes on the clay, every
piece appears of a red colour like flesh, when he in-
stantly devours it.

They likewise allege that the female cheetah never
produces more than one litter of whelps.

Of the lesser feline species, the number and variety
in Ceylon is inferior to those of India. The Palm-cat ^
lurks by day among the fronds of the coco-nut palms,
and by night makes destructive forays on the fowls of
the villagers ; and, in order to suck the blood of its
victim, inflicts a wound so small as to be almost imper-
ceptible. The glossy genette ^, the " Civet " of Euro-
peans, is common in the northern province, where the
Tamils confine it in cages for the sake of its musk, which
they collect from the w^ooden bars on which it rubs it-
self. Edrisi, the Moorish geographer, writing in the
twelfth century, enumerates musk as one of the pro-
ductions then exported from Ceylon.'*

* See Sir J. E. Tennent's Cei/- * Edrisi, Geogr. sec, rii. Jau-

. Zo7?, voL i. p. 31. terts's translation, t. ii, p. 72. In

2 Paradoxurus typus, F. Cuv. connexion with cats, a Singhalese

' Viverra Indica, Geoffr., Hodgs, gentleman has described to me a

Chap. I.] DOGS. 33

Dogs. — There is no native wild dog in Ceylon, but
every village and towoi is haunted by mongrels of Eu-
ropean descent, that are known by the generic descrip-
tion of Pariahs. They are a miserable race, lean,
wretched, and mangy, acknowledged by no owners,
livinof on the orarbasre of the streets and sewers, and if
spoken to unexpectedly, they shrink with an almost in-
voluntary cry. Yet in these persecuted outcasts there
survives that germ of instinctive affection which binds
the dog to the human race, and a gentle word, even a
look of compassionate kindness, is sufficient foundation
for a lasting attachment.

The Singhalese, from their religious aversion to
taking away life in any form, permit the increase of these
desolate creatures till in the hot season they become so
numerous as to be a nuisance ; and the only expedient
hitherto devised by the civil government to reduce their
numbers, is once in each year to offer a reward for their
destruction, when the Tamils and Malays pursue them
in the streets with clubs (guns being forbidden by the
police for fear of accidents), and the unresisting dogs
are beaten to death on the side-paths and door-steps
where they had been taught to resort for food. Lord
Torrington, during his government of Ceylon, at-
tempted the more civilised experiment of putting some
check on their numbers, by imposing a dog-tax, the
effect of which would have been to lead to the drownincr
of puppies ; whereas there is reason to believe that dogs

plant in Ceylon, called Cupjpa-may- it into the air, watching it till it

niya by the natives ; by which he falls, and crouching to see if it

says cats are so enchanted, that will move. It would be worth in-

they play with it as they would quiring into the truth of this ; and

with a captured mouse ; throwing the explanation of the attraction.

34 MAMMALIA. [Chap. L

are at present bred by the horse-keepers to be killed
for sake of the reward.

The Pariahs of Colombo exhibit something of the
same instinct, by which the dogs in other eastern cities
partition the towns into districts, each apportioned to a
separate pack, by whom it is jealously guarded from
the encroachments of all intruders. Travellers at Cairo
and Constantinople are often startled at night by the
racket occasioned by the demonstrations made by the
rightful possessors of a locality in repelling its invasion
by some straggling wanderer. At Alexandria, in 1844,
the dogs had multiplied to such an inconvenient extent,
that Mehemet Ali, to abate the nuisance, caused them
to be shipped in boats and conveyed to one of the is-
lands at the mouth of the Mle. But the streets, thus
deprived of their habitual patroles, were speedily in-
fested by dogs from the suburbs, in such numbers
that the evil became greater than before, and in the
following year, the legitimate denizens were recalled
from their exile in the Delta, and speedily drove back
the intruders within their original boundary. May
not this disposition of the dog be referable to the
impulse by which, in a state of nature, each pack ap-
propriates its own hunting-fields within a particular
area? and may not the impulse which, even in a
state of domestication, they still manifest to attack
a passing dog upon the road, be a remnant of this
localised instinct, and a concomitant dislike of in-
trusion ?

Jackal. — The Jackal ^ in the low country of Ceylon
hunts thus in packs, headed by a leader, and these
audacious prowlers have been seen to assault and pull
' Canis Aureus, Linn.

Chap. I.] JACKALS. 35

down a deer. The small number of hares in the dis-
tricts they infest is ascribed to their depredations. In
the legends of the natives, and in the literature of the
Buddhists, the jackal in Ceylon is as essentially the type
of cunning as the fox is the emblem of craft and ad-
roitness in the traditions of Europe. In fact, it is more
than doubtful whether the jackal of the East be not
the creature alluded to, in the various passages of the
Sacred Writings which make allusion to the artfulness
and subtlety of the " fox."

These faculties they display in a high degree in their
hunting expeditions, especially in the northern portions
of the island, where they are found in the greatest num-
bers. In these districts, where the wide sandy plains are
thinly covered with brushwood, the face of the country
is diversified by patches of thick jungle and detached
groups of trees, that form insulated groves and topes.
At dusk, or after nightfall, a pack of jackals, having
watched a hare or a small deer take refuge in one of
these retreats, immediately surround it on all sides ; and
having stationed a few to watch the path by which the
game entered, the leader commences the attack by
raising the unearthly cry peculiar to their race, and
which resembles the sound okkay ! loudly and rapidly
repeated. The whole party then rush into the jungle,
and drive out the victim, which generally falls into the
ambush previously laid to entrap it.

A native gentleman ^, who had favourable opportunities
of observing the movements of these animals, informed
me, that when a jackal has brought down his game and
killed it, his first impulse is to hide it in the nearest
jungle, whence he issues with an air of easy indifference

' Mr. D, de Silva Gooneratne.
D 2

36

MA^IMALIA.

[Chap. I.

to observe whether an}i:hing more powerful than him-
self may be at hand, from which he might encounter
the risk of being despoiled of his capture. If the
coast be clear, he returns to the concealed carcase, and
carries it away, followed by his companions. But if
a man be in sight, or any other animal to be avoided,
my informant has seen the jackal seize a coco-nut husk
in his mouth, or any similar substance, and fly at full
speed, as if eager to carry off his pretended prize,
returning for the real booty at some more convenient
season.

They are subject to hydrophobia, and instances are
frequent in Ceylon of cattle being bitten by them and
dying in consequence.

An excrescence is sometimes found on the head of
the jackal, consisting of a small horny cone about half
an inch in length, and concealed by a tuft of hair.
This the natives call Qiarric-coonhoo ; and they aver that
this " Jackal's Horn " only grows on the head of the

JACSAL'S SKULL AND HORN.

leader of the pack.^ Both the Singhalese and the
Tamils regard it as a talisman, and believe that its for-

1 In the Museum of the College
of Surgeons, London (No. 4362 a),
there is a cranium of a jackal
■which exhibits this strange os-
seous process on the super-occi-

pital; and I hare placed along
\vdth it a specimen of the horny
sheath, which was presented to
me by Mr. Lavalliere, the late dis-
trict judge of Kandy.

Chap. I.] JACKL\LS. 37

tunate possessor can command by its instrumentality
the realisation of every wish, and that if stolen or lost
by him, it will invariably return of its own accord.
Those who have jewels to conceal rest in perfect se-
curity if along with them they can deposit a narri-
comboo, fully convinced that its presence is an effectual
safeguard against robbers.

One fabulous virtue ascribed to the narric-comboo
by the Singhalese is absurdly characteristic of their
passion for litigation, as well as of their perceptions of
the " glorious imcertainty of the law." It is the po-
pular belief that the fortunate discoverer of a jackal's
horn becomes thereby invincible in every lawsuit, and
must irresistibly triumph over every opponent. A
gentleman connected with the Supreme Court of
Colombo has repeated to me a circumstance, within his
own knowledge, of a plaintiff who, after numerous de-
feats, eventually succeeded against his opponent by the
timely acquisition of this invaluable charm. Before
the final hearing of the cause, the mysterious horn was
duly exhibited to his friends ; and the consequence was,
that the adverse witnesses, appalled by the belief that
no one could possibly give judgment against a person
so endowed, suddenly modified their previous evidence,
and secured an unforeseen victory for the happy owner
of the narric-comboo !

The Mongoos. — Of the Mongoos or Ichneumon four
species have been described ; and one, that frequents the
hills near Neuera-ellia ^, is so remarkable from its bushy

* Herpestes vitticollis. Mr. "W. the Gliat forests in 1829, and is now

Elliott, in his Catalogue of Mam- deposited in the British Muse\im ;

malia found in the Southern Mah- it is very rare, inhabiting only the

arata Country, Madras, 1840, says, thickest woods, and its habits are

that " One specimen of this Her- very little known," p. 9. In Ceylon

pestes was prociired by accident in it is comparatively common.

D 3

39,

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. I.

fur, that the invalid soldiers in the sanatarium there, to
whom it is familiar, have given it the name of the
« Ceylon Badger."

I have found universally that the natives of Ceylon
attach no credit to the European story of the Mongoos
{H, griseus) resorting to some plant, which no one has
yet succeeded in identifying, as an antidote against the

HERPESTES VITTICOLLIS.

bite of the venomous serpents on which it preys. There
is no doubt that, in its conflicts with the cobra de capello
and other poisonous snakes, which it attacks with as
little hesitation as the harmless ones, it may be seen
occasionally to retreat, and even to retire into the jun-
gle, and, it is added, to eat some vegetable; but a gen-
tleman, who has been a frequent observer of its exploits,
assures me that most usually the herb it resorted to was

Chap. I.] MOXGOOS. 39

grass ; and if this were not at hand, almost any other
plant that grew near seemed equally acceptable. Hence
has probably arisen the long list of plants, such as the
Ophioxylon serpentinum and Ophiorhiza niungos, the
Aristolochia Indicaf the Mimosa octandria, and others,
each of which has been asserted to be the ichneumon's
specific; whilst their multiplicity is demonstrative of
the non-existence of any one in particular on which the
animal relies as an antidote. Were there any truth
in the tale as regards the mongoos, it would be difficult
to understand why creatures, such as the secretary bird
and the falcon, and others, which equally destroy serpents,
should be left defenceless, and the ichneumon alone
provided with a prophylactic. Besides, were the ich-
neumon inspired by that courage which would result
from the consciousness of security, it would be so in-
different to the bite of the serpent that we might con-
clude that, both in its approaches and its assault, it
would be utterly careless as to the precise mode of its
attack. Such, however, is far from being the case ; and
next to its audacity, nothing can be more surprising
than the adroitness with which it escapes the spring of
the snake under a due sense of danger, and the cunning
with which it makes its arrangements to leap upon the
back and fasten its teeth in the head of the cobra. It
is this display of instinctive ingenuity that Lucan^
celebrates where he paints the ichneumon diverting the
attention of the asp, by the motion of his bushy tail,
and then seizing it in the midst of its confusion : —

" Aspidas ut Pharias eauda, solertior hostis
Ludit, et iratas incerta provocat umbra :

* The passage in Lucan is aver- lated by Pliny, lib, viii. ch. o3 ;
sification of the same narrative re- and iEUan, lib. iii. ch. 22.

D 4

40 MAIIMALIA. [Chap. I.

Obliquusque caput vanas serpentis in auras
EiFusae toto comprendit guttura morsu
Letiferam citra saniem ; tunc irrita pestis
Exprimitur, faucesque fluunt pereunte veneno."

Pharsalia, lib. iv. t. 729.

The mystery of the mongoos and its antidote has
been referred to the supposition that there may be some
peculiarity in its organisation which renders it proof
against the poison of the serpent. It remains for fu-
ture investigation to determine how far this conjecture
is founded in truth ; and whether in the blood of the
mongoos there exists any element or quality which acts
as a prophylactic. Such exceptional provisions are not
without precedent in the animal oeconomy : the hornbill
feeds with impunity on the deadly fruit of the strych-
nos; the milky juice of some species of euphorbia,
which is harmless to oxen, is invariably fatal to the
zebra; and the tsetse fly, the pest of South Africa,
whose bite is mortal to the ox, the dog, and the horse,
is harmless to man and the untamed creatures of the
forest.^

The Singhalese distinguish one species of mongoos,
which they designate " Hotantbeya,'^ and which they
assert never preys upon serpents. A writer in the
Ceylon Miscellany mentions, that they are often to be
seen " crossing rivers and frequently mud-brooks near
Chilaw ; the adjacent thickets affording them shelter,
and their food consisting of aquatic reptiles, crabs, and
mollusca." ^

^ Dr. LiviNGSTONi:, Tour in 8. or mouse-cat of Behar, which preys

Africa, p. 80. Is it a fact that, in upon birds and fish. Can it be the

America, pigs extirpate the rattle- Urva of the Nepalese (Urva can-

snakes with impunity ? crivora, Hodgson), which Mr. Hodg-

' This is possibly the "musbilai" son describes as dwelling in bur-

Chap. I.]

SQUIRRELS.

41

IV. EoDENTiA. Squirrels. — Smaller animals in great
numbers enliven the forests and lowland plains with

FLYING SQUIREEL,

their graceful movements. Squirrels ^, of which there
are a great variety, make their shrill metallic call heard

rows, and being carnivorous and ^ Of two kinds which frequent
ranivorous ? — Vide Journ. As. Soc. the mountains, one which is pe-
Beng. vol. vi. p. 56. culiar to Ceylon was discovered

42 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

at early morning in the woods ; and when sounding their
note of warning on the approach of a civet or a tree-
snake, the ears tingle with the loud trill of defiance,
which rings as clear and rapid as the running down of an
alarum, and is instantly caught up and re-echoed from
every side by their terrified playmates.

One of the largest, belonging to a closely allied sub-
genus, is known as the " Flying Squirrel," * from its
being assisted, in its prodigious leaps from tree to tree,
by a parachute formed by the skin of the flanks, which,
on the extension of the limbs front and rear, is laterally
expanded from foot to foot. Thus buoyed up in its
descent, the spring which it is enabled to make from
one lofty tree to another resembles the flight of a bird
rather than the bound of a quadruped.

Of these pretty creatures there are two species, one
common to Ceylon and India, the other {Sciuropterus
Layardii, Kelaart) is peculiar to the island, and by
far the most beautiful of the family.

Rats. — Among the multifarious inhabitants to which
the forest affords at once a home and provender is the
tree rat ■^, which forms its nest on the branches, and by
turns makes its visits to the dwellings of the natives,
frequenting the ceilings in preference to the lower parts
of houses. Here it is incessantly followed by the rat-
snake ^, whose domestication is encouraged by the ser-

by Mr. Edgar L. Layard, who lias at the base of the ears.

done me the honour to call it the * Pteromys oral., Tickel. P. pe-

Sciurus Tenncntii. Its dimensions taurista, Pallas.

are large, measuring upwards of ^ There are two species of the

two feet from head to tail. It is tree rat in Ceylon : M. rufescens,

distinguished from the S. macrurus Gray ; (M. flavescens, Elliot ;) and

by the predominant black colour of Mus nemoralis, Blyth.

the upper surface of the body, ^ Coryphodon Blumenbachii,

with the exception of a rusty spot Merr.

Chap. I.] EATS. 43

vants, in consideration of its services in destroying
vermin. I had one day an opportunity of surprising a
snake that had just seized on a rat of this description,
and of covering it suddenly with a glass shade, before it
had time to swallow its prey. The serpent, appeared
stunned by its own capture, and allowed the rat to
escape from its jaws, which cowered at one side of the
glass in the most pitiable state of trembling terror. The
two were left alone for some moments, and on my re-
turn to them the snake was as before in the same atti-
tude of sullen stupor. On setting them at liberty, the
rat bounded towards the nearest fence ; but quick as
lightning it was followed by its pursuer, which seized it
before it could gain the hedge, through which I saw the
snake glide with its victim in its jaws. In parts of the
central province, at Oovah and Bintenne, the house-rat
is eaten as a common article of food. The Singhalese
believe it and the mouse to be liable to hydrophobia.

Another indigenous variety of the rat is that which
made its appearance for the first time in the coffee plan-
tations on the Kandyan hills in the year 1847 ; and in
such swarms does it continue to infest them, at intervals,
that as many as a thousand have been killed in a single
day on one estate. In order to reach the buds and
blossoms of the coffee, it cuts such of the slender
branches as would not sustain its weight, and feeds on
them when fallen to the ground ; and so delicate and
sharp are its incisors, that the twigs thus destroyed are
detached by as clean a cut as if severed with a knife.

The coffee-rat ^ is an insular variety of the Mus hir~
sutus of W, Elliot, found in Southern India. They in-

* Golunda EUioti, Grat/.

44 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

habit the forests, making their nests among the roots of
the trees, and feeding, in the season, on the ripe seeds of
the nilloo. Like the lemmings of Norway and Lapland,

COFFEE EAT.

they migrate in vast numbers on the occurrence of a
scarcity of their ordinary food. The Malabar coolies
are so fond of their flesh, that they evince a preference
for those districts in which the coffee plantations are
subject to their incursions, where they fry the rats in
coco-nut oil, or convert them into curry.

Bandicoot. — Another favourite article of food with
the coolies is the pig-rat or Bandicoot \ which attains on
those hills the weight of two or three pounds, and grows
to nearly the length of two feet. As it feeds on grain
and roots, its flesh is said to be delicate, and much re-
sembling young pork.

' Mus bandicota, Beckst. The ruption of the Telinga name pan-
English term bandicoot is a cor- dikoku, literally ^?^-rfl^.

Chap. I.]

THE PORCUPIXE.

45

Its nests, when rifled, are frequently found to contain
considerable quantities of rice, stored up against the
dry season.

BAKDICOOT

Porcupine. — The Porcupine ^ is another of the ro-
dentia which has drawn down upon itself the hostility
of the planters, from its destruction of the young coco-
nut palms, to which it is a pernicious and persevering,
but withal so crafty, a visitor, that it is with difficulty
any trap can be so disguised, or any bait made so allur-
ing, as to lead to its capture. The usual expedient in
Ceylon is to place some of its favourite food at the ex-
tremity of a trench, so narrow as to prevent the porcu-
pine turning, whilst the direction of his quills etfectually
bars his retreat backwards. On a newly planted coco-
nut tope, at Hang-welle, within a few miles of Colombo,

' Hystrix leucunis, Si//ces.

46 MAMMALIA. [Chap. T.

I have heard of as many as twenty-seven being thus
captured in a single night ; but such success is rare.
The more ordinary expedient is to smoke them out by
burning straw at the apertures of their burrows. At
Ootacamund, on the continent of the Dekkan, spring-
guns have been used with great success by the Super-
intendent of the Horticultural Grardens ; placing them
so as to sweep the runs of the porcupines. The flesh
is esteemed a delicacy in Ceylon, and in consistenc}'',
colour, and flavour it very much resembles young pork.

V. Edentata. Pengolin. — Of the Edentata the only
example in Ceylon is the scaly ant-eater, called by the
Singhalese, Caballaya, but usually known by its Malay
name of Pengolin ^, a word indicative of its faculty,
when alarmed, of " rolling itself up " into a compact
ball, by bending its head towards its stomach, arching
its back into a circle, and securing all by a powerful
fold of its mail-covered tail. The feet of the pengolin
are armed with powerful claws, which in walking they
double in, like the ant-eater of Brazil. These they use
in extracting their favourite food from ant-hills and de-
caying wood. When at liberty, they burrow in the dry
ground to a depth of seven or eight feet, where they re-
side in pairs, and produce annually one or two young. ^

Of two specimens which I kept alive at different
times, one, about two feet in length, from the vicinity
of Kandy, was a gentle and affectionate creature, which,

' Manis pentadactyla, Linn. me, in connexion with the state-
^ I am assured that there is a ment, that its favourite dwelling is
hedge-hog in Ceylon ; but as I in the same biu-row with the pen-
have never seen it, I cannot tell golin. The popular belief in this
whether it belongs to either of the is attested by a Singhalese proverb,
two species known in India (Eri- in relation to an intrusive person-
naceusmentalis and E.collaris) — nor age; the import of which is that
can I vouch for its existence there he is like " a hedge-hog in the den
at all. But the fact was told to of a pengolinj*

CHAr. I.]

THE PENGOLIN.

47

after wandering over the house in search of ants, would
attract attention to its wants by climbing up my knee,
laying hold of my leg with its prehensile tail. The
other, more than double that length, was caught in the
jungle near Chilaw, and brought to me in Colombo. I
had always understood that the pengolin was unable to
climb trees ; but the one last mentioned frequently as-

THE PENGOLIN,

cended a tree in my garden, in search of ants ; and this
it effected by means of its hooked feet, aided by an
oblique grasp of the tail. The ants it seized by ex-
tending its round and glutinous tongue along their
tracks ; and in the stomach of one which was opened
after death, I found a quantity of small stones and
gravel, which had been taken to facilitate digestion. In
both specimens in my possession the scales of the back

48

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. I.

were a cream-coloured white, with a tinge of red in
that which came from Chilaw, probably acquired by the
insinuation of the Cabook dust which abounds along
the western coast of the island.

Of the habits of the pengolin I found that very little

was known by the natives,
who regard it with aversion,
one name given to it being
the "Negombo Devil." Those
kept by me were, generally
speaking, quiet during the
day, and grew restless and
active as evening and night
approached. Both had been
taken near rocks, in the hol-
lows of which they had their
dwelling, but owing to their
slow power of motion, they
were unable to reach their
hiding place when overtaken.
When frightened, they rolled
themselves instantly into a
rounded ball ; and such was
the powerful force of muscle,
that the strength of a man
was insufficient to uncoil it.
In reconnoitring they made
important use of the tail, rest-
ing upon it and their hind
legs, and holding themselves
nearly erect, to command a
view of their object. The
strength of this powerful limb
will be perceived from the accompanying drawing of

SKELETON OF PKNGOLIN.

Chap. I.] THE GAUR. 49

the skeleton of the Manis ; in which it will be seen
that the tail is equal in length to all the rest of the
body, whilst the vertebrae which compose it are stronger
by far than those of the back.

From the size and position of the bones of the leg,
the pengolin is endued with prodigious power; and
its faculty of exerting this vertically, was displayed
in overturning heavy cases, by insinuating itself under
them, between the supports, by which it is customary
in Ceylon to raise trunks a few inches above the
floor, in order to prevent the attacks of white ants.

VI. EuMiNANTiA. The Gaur. — Besides the deer, and
some varieties of the humped ox, that have been intro-
duced from the opposite continent of India, Ceylon has
probably but one other indigenous bovine ruminantf the
buffalo.^ There is a tradition that the gaur, found in
the extremity of the Indian peninsula, was at one period
. a native of the Kandyan Mountains ; but as Knox speaks
of one which in his time " was kept among the king's
creatures " at Kandy ^ and his account of it tallies with
that of the Bos Gaurus of Hindustan, it would appear
even then to have been a rarity. A place between
Neuera-ellia and Adam's Peak bears the name of " Grow-
ra-ellia," and it is not impossible that the animal may
yet be discovered in some of the imperfectly explored
regions of the island.^ I have heard of an instance in
which a very old Kandyan, residing in the mountains
near the Horton Plains, asserted that when young he
had seen what he believed to have been a gaur, and he
described it as between an elk and a buffalo in size.

' Bubalus buflfelus, Gray. Cei/lon, ^^c, A..Ti. 1681. Booki. c. 6.

^ Knox, Historical Belation of ' Kelaamt:, Fau7iaZe^lan.,Tp.87 .

E

50 MAMMALIA. [Chap. T.

dark brown in colour, and very scantily provided with
hair.

Oxen. — Oxen are used by the peasantry both in
ploughing and in tempering the mud in the wet paddi
fields before sowing the rice ; and when the harvest is
reaped they "tread out the corn," after the imme-
morial custom of the East. The wealth of the native
chiefs and landed proprietors frequently consists in their
herds of bullocks, which they hire out to their depend-
ents during the seasons for agricultural labour ; and as
they already supply them with land to be tilled, and
lend the seed which is to crop it, the further contribu-
tion of this portion of the labour serves to render the
dependence of the peasantry on the chiefs and head-
men complete.

The cows are often worked as well as the oxen ; and
as the calves are always permitted to suck them, milk
is an article which the traveller can rarely hope to pro-
cure in a Kandyan village. From their constant ex-
posure at all seasons, the cattle in Ceylon, both those
employed in agriculture and those on the roads, are
subject to devastating murrains, that sweep them away
by thousands. So frequent is the recurrence of these
calamities, and so extended their ravages, that they
exercise a serious influence upon the commercial in-
terests of the colony, by reducing the facilities of agri-
culture, and augmenting the cost of carriage during the
most critical periods of the coffee harvest.

A similar disorder, probably peripneumonia, fre-
quently carries off the cattle in Assam and other hill
countries on the continent of India ; and there, as in
Ceylon, the inflammatory symptoms in the lungs and
throat, and the internal derangement and external

Chap. L] OXE^nT. 51

eruptive appearances, seem to indicate that the disease
is a feverish influenza, attributable to neglect and ex-
posure in a moist and variable climate ; and that its
prevention might be hoped for, and the cattle pre-
served, by the simple expedient of more humane and
considerate treatment, especially by affording them
cover at night.

During my residence in Ceylon an incident occurred
at Neuera-ellia, which invested one of these pretty
animals with an heroic interest. A little cow, belong-
ing to an English gentleman, was housed, together with
her calf, near the dwelling of her owner, and being
aroused during the night by her furious bellowing, the
servants, on hastening to the stall, found her goring a
leopard, which had stolen in to attack the calf. She
had got it into a corner, and whilst lowing incessantly
to call for help, she continued to pound it Avith her
horns. The wild animal, apparently stupified by her
unexpected violence, was detained by her till despatched
by a bullet.

The number of bullock-carts encountered between
Colombo and Kandy, laden with coffee from the interior,
or carrying up rice and stores for the supply of the
plantations in the hill-country, is quite surprising. The
oxen thus employed on this single road, about seventy
miles long, are estimated at upwards of twenty thou-
sand. The bandy to which they are yoked is a barbar-
ous two-wheeled waggon, with a covering of plaited
coco-nut leaves, in which a pair of strong bullocks will
draw from five to ten hundred weight, according to the
nature of the country ; and with this load on a level
they will perform a journey of twenty miles a day.

A few of the large humped cattle of India are an-

E 2

52 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

nually imported for draught ; but the vast majority of
those in use are small and dark-coloured, with a grace-
ful head and neck, and elevated hump, a deep silky
dewlap, and limbs as slender as a deer. They appear
to have neither the strength nor weight requisite for
this service ; and yet the entire coffee crop of Ceylon,
amounting annually to upwards of half a million hun-
dred weight, is year after year brought down from the
mountains to the coast by these indefatigable little
creatures, which, on returning, carry up proportionally
heavy loads of rice and implements for the estates.^
There are two varieties of the native bullock ; one a
somewhat coarser animal, of a deep red colour ; the
other, the high-bred black one I have just described. So
rare was a white one of this species, under the native
kings, that the Kandyans were compelled to set them
apart for the royal herd.^

Although bullocks may be said to be the only animals
of draught and burden in Ceylon (horses being rarely
used except in spring carriages), no attempt has been
made to improve the breed, or even to better the con-
dition and treatment of those in use. Their food is in-
different, pasture in all parts of the island being rare,
and cattle are seldom housed under any vicissitudes of
weather.

The labour for which they are best adapted, and in
which, before the opening of roads, these cattle were
formerly employed, is in traversing the jungle paths of

* A pair of these little bullocks 1763, he saw in Ceylon two white

carry up about twenty bushels of oxen, each of which measured up-

rice to the hills, and bring down wards of eight feet high. They

from fifty to sixty bushels of coffee were sent as a present from the

to Colombo. King of Atchin. — Life and Ad-

2 Wolf says that, in the year ventures, p. 172.

Chap. I.] OXEN. 53

the interior, carrying light loads as pack-oxen in what
is called a '' tavalam,'" — a term which, substituting bul-
locks for camels, is equivalent to a " caravan." ^ The
class of persons engaged in this traffic in Ceylon resem-
ble in their occupations the " Banjarees " of Hindustan,
who bring down to the coast corn, cotton, and oil, and
take back to the interior cloths and iron and copper
utensils. In the unopened parts of the island, and
especially in the eastern provinces, this primitive prac-
tice still continues. WTien travelling in these districts
I have often encountered long files of pack-bullocks
toiling along the mountain paths, their bells tinkling
musically as they moved ; or halting during the noonday
heat beside some stream in the forests, their burdens
piled in heaps near the drivers, who had lighted their
cooking fires, whilst the bullocks were permitted to
bathe and browse.

The persons engaged in this wandering trade are
chiefly Moors, and the business carried on by them
consists in bringing up salt from the government depots
on the coast to be bartered with the Kandyans in the
hills for " native coffee," which is grown in small quan-
tities round every house, but without systematic culti-
vation. This they carry down to the maritime towns,
and the proceeds are invested in cotton cloths and brass
utensils, dried fish, and other commodities, with which
the tavalams supply the secluded villages of the in-
terior.

' Attempts hare been made to nection with the fact of the camel

domesticate the camel in Ceylon ; living in perfect health in climates

but, I am told, they died of ulcers equally, if not more, exposed to

in the feet, attributed to the too rain. I apprehend that sufficient

great moisture of the roads at justice has not been done to the

certain seasons. This explanation experiment,
seems insufficient if taken in con-

£ 3

54 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

The Buffalo. — Buffaloes abound in all parts of Cey-
lon, but they are only to be seen in their native wild-
ness in the vast solitudes of the northern and eastern
provinces, where rivers, lagoons, and dilapidated tanks
abound. In these they delight to immerse themselves,
till only their heads appear above the surface ; or, en-
veloped in mud to protect themselves from the assaults
of insects, they luxuriate in the long sedges by the
water margins. When the buffalo is browsing, a crow
will frequently be seen stationed on its back, engaged
in freeing it from the ticks and other pests which attach
themselves to its leathery hide, the smooth bro^vn sur-
face of which, unprotected by hair, shines with an un-
pleasant polish in the sunlight. When in motion a
buffalo throws back its clumsy head till the huge horns
rest on its shoulders, and the nose is presented in a line
with the eyes.

The temper of the wild buffalo is morose and uncer-
tain, and such is its strengfth and courao-e that in the
Hindu epic of the Eamayana its onslaught is comj)ared
to that of the tiger. ^ It is never quite safe to approach
them, if disturbed in their pasture or alarmed from
their repose in the shallow lakes. On such occasions
they hurry into line, draw up in defensive array, with a
few of the oldest bulls in advance ; and, wheeling in
circles, their horns clashing with a loud sound as they
clank them together in their rapid evolutions, they
prepare for attack ; but generally, after a menacing dis-
play the herd betake themselves to flight ; then forming
again at a safer distance, they halt as before, elevating
their nostrils, and throwing back their heads to take a
defiant survey of the intruders. The true sportsman

' Carey and Maesjiman's Transl. vol. i. p. 430, 447.

Chap. I.] THE BUFFALO. 55

rarely molests them, so huge a creature affording no
worthy mark for his skill, and their wanton slaughter
adds nothing to the supply of food for their assailant.

In the Hambangtotte country, where the Singhalese
domesticate buffaloes, and use them to assist in the
labour of the rice lands, the villagers are much annoyed
by the Avild ones, that mingle with the tame when sent
out to the woods to pasture ; and it constantly happens
that a savage stranger, placing himself at the head of
the tame herd, resists the attempts of the owners to
drive them homewards at sunset. In the districts of
Putlam and the Seven Corles, buffaloes are generally
used for draught ; and in carrying heavy loads of salt
from the coast towards the interior, they drag a cart
over roads which would defy the weaker strength of
bullocks.

In one place between Batticaloa and Trincomalie I
found the natives makino: an inofenious use of them
when engaged in shooting water-fowl in the vast salt
marshes and muddy lakes. Being an object to which
the birds are accustomed, the Singhalese train the
buffalo to the sport, and, concealed behind, the animal
browsing listlessly along, they guide it by ropes attached
to its horns, and thus creep undiscovered within shot of
the flock. The same practice prevails, I believe, in
some of the northern parts of India, where they are
similarly trained to assist the sportsman in approaching
deer. One of these " sporting buffaloes " sells for a
considerable sum.

In the thick forests which cover the Passdun Corle,
to the east and south of Caltura, the natives use the
sporting buffalo in another way, to assist in hunting
deer and wild hogs. A bell is attached to its neck, and

£ 4

56 MAMMALIA. [Chap. T.

a box or basket with one side open is securely strapped
on its back. This at nightfall is lighted by flambeaux
of wax, and the buffalo bearing it, is driven slowly into
the jungle. The huntsmen, with their fowling pieces,
keep close under the darkened side, and as it moves
slowly onwards, the wild animals, startled by the sound,
and bewildered by the light, steal cautiously towards
it in stupified fascination. Even the snakes, I am as-
sured, will be attracted by this extraordinary object ; and
the leopard too falls a victim to curiosity.

There is a peculiarity in the formation of the buffalo's
foot, which, though it must have attracted attention,
I have never seen mentioned by naturalists. It is
equivalent to the arrangement which distinguishes the
foot of the reindeer from that of the stag and the ante-
lope. In the latter, the hoofs, being constructed for
lightness and flight, are compact and vertical ; but, in
the reindeer, the joints of the tarsal bones admit of
lateral expansion, and the front hoofs curve upwards,
while the two secondary ones behind (which are but
slightly developed in the fallow deer and others of the
same family) are prolonged vertically till, in certain
positions, they are capable of being applied to the
ground, thus adding to the circumference and sustain-
ing power of the foot. It has been usually suggested
as the probable design of this structure, that it is to
enable the reindeer to shovel away the snow in order
to reach the lichens beneath it ; but I apprehend that
another use of it has been overlooked, that of facilitating
its movements in search of food by increasing the diflfi-
culty of its sinking in the snow.

A formation precisely analogous in the buffalo seems
to point to a corresponding design. The ox, whose life^

Chap. I.] DEER. 57

is spent on firm ground, has the bones of the foot so
constructed as to afford the most solid support to an
animal of its great weight ; but in the buffalo, which
delights in the morasses on the margins of pools and
rivers, the construction of the foot resembles that of the
reindeer. The tarsi in front extend almost horizontally
from the upright bones of the leg, and spread apart
widely on touching the ground ; the hoofs are flattened
and broad, mth the extremities turned upwards ; and the
false hoofs behind descend till they make a clattering
sound as the animal walks. In traversing the marshes,
this combination of abnormal incidents serves to erive
extraordinary breadth to the foot, and not only prevents
the buffalo from sinking inconveniently in soft ground ^,
but at the same time presents no obstacle to the with-
drawal of its foot from the mud.

The buffalo, like the elk, is sometimes found in
Ceylon as an albino, with purely white hair and a pink
iris.

Deer. — " Deer," says the truthful old chronicler,
Eobert Knox, " are in great abundance in the woods,
from the largeness of a cow to the smallness of a hare,
for here is a creature in this land no bigger than the
latter, though every part rightly resembleth a deer : it
is called meminna, of a grey colour, with white spots
and good meat."^ The little creature which thus dwelt
in the recollection of the old man, as one of the memo-

^ Professor Owex has noticed a in the camel and dromedary, that

similar fact regarding the rudi- traverse arid deserts. — O'na'ex on

ments of the second and fifth digits Limbs, p. 3-i ; see also Bell on the

in the instance of the elk and bison, Hand, ch. iii.

which have them largely expanded Knox's Relation, ^'c, hook i.

where they inhabit swampy ground; c. 6.
whilst they are nearly oljliterated

58

MMIMALIA.

[Chap. T.

rials of his long captivity, is the small " musk deer " ^
so called in India, although neither sex is provided with
a musk-bag. The Europeans in Ceylon know it by the
name of the " moose deer ; " and in all probability the
terms musk and moose are both corruptions of the
Dutch word " m/ais,^^ or " mouse " deer, a name par-
ticularly applicable to the timid and crouching attitudes

"MOOSE" DEER MOSCHUS MEMINNA).

and aspect of this beautiful little creature. Its extreme
length never reaches two feet ; and of those which were
domesticated about my house, few exceeded ten inches
in height, their graceful limbs being of proportionate
delicacy. It possesses long and extremely large tusks,
with which it can inflict a severe bite. The interpreter
moodliar of Negombo had a milk luhite meminna in
1847, which he designed to send home as an acceptable

' Moschus meminna.

CiiAr. l.J CEYLON ELK. 50

present to Her Majesty, but it was unfortunately killed
by an accident.^

Ceylon Elk. — In the mountains, the Ceylon elk 2,
which reminds one of the red deer of Scotland, attains
the height of four or five feet ; it abounds in all shady
places that are intersected by rivers ; where, though its
chase affords an endless resource to the sportsman, its
venison scarcely equals in quality the inferior beef of the
lowland ox. In the glades and park-like openings that
diversify the great forests of the interior, the spotted
Axis troops in herds as numerous as the fallow deer in
England ; but, in journeys through the jungle, when
often dependent on the guns of our party for the pre-
carious supply of the table, we found the flesh of the
Axis^ and the Muntjac"* a sorry substitute for that of the
pea-fowl, the jungle-cock, and flamingo. The occurrence
of albinos is very frequent in troops of the axis. Deer's
horns are an article of export from Ceylon, and consider-
able quantities are annually sent to the United Kingdom.

VII. Pachydermata. — The JElephant. — The elephant
and the wild boar, the Singhalese '^ waloora," ^ are the
only representatives of the jpachydermnatous order. The
latter, which differs somewhat from the wild boar of

' When the English took posses- stance occurred during my resi-

sion of Kan dy, in 1803, they found dence in Ceylon, in which two

" five beautiful milk-white deer in natives, whose mimicry had mu-

the palace, which was noted as a tually deceived them, crept so close

very extraordinary thing." — Let- together in the jungle that one shot

ter in Appendix to Perciv.il's the other, supposing the cry to

Ceylon, p. 428. The wi'iter does proceed from the game,

not say of what species they were. ^ Axis maculata, H. Smith.

2 Eusa Aristotelis. Dr. Gtrat * Stylocerus muntjac, Horsf.

has lately shown that this is the * Mr. Blyth of Calcutta has

great axis of Cuvier. — Oss. Foss. distinguished, from the hog, eom-

502, t. 39, f. 10. The Singhalese, mon in India, a specimen sent to

on following the elk, frequently him from Ceylon, the skull of which

effect their approaches by so imi- approaches in form, that of a spe-

tating the call of the animal as to cies from Borneo, the sics bar batus of

induce them to respond. An in- S. Mialler.

60

MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

India, is found in droves in all parts of the island where
vegetation and water are abundant.

The elephant, the lord paramount of the Ceylon
forests, is to be met with in every district, on the
confines of the woods, in the depths of which he finds
concealment and shade during the hours when the
sun is high, and from which he emerges only at twi-
light to wend his way towards the rivers and tanks,
where he luxuriates till dawn, when he again seeks the
retirement of the deep forests. This noble animal fills
so dignified a place both in the zoology and oeconomy of
Ceylon, and his habits in a state of nature have been so
much misunderstood, that I shall devote a separate
section to his defence from misrepresentation, and to an
exposition of what, from observation and experience,
I believe to be his genuine character when free in
his native domains. But this seems the proper place
to allude to a recent discovery in connexion with
the elephant, which strikingly confirms a conjecture
which I ventured to make elsewhere ^, relative to the
isolation of Ceylon, and its distinctness, in many re-
markable particulars, from the great continent of India.
Every writer who previously treated of the island, includ-
ing the accomplished Dr. Davy and the erudite Lassen,
was contented, by a glance at its outline and a reference
to its position on the map, to assume that Ceylon was a
fragment, which in a very remote age had been torn from
the adjacent mainland, by some convulsion of nature.
Hence it was taken for granted that the vegetation
which covers and the races of animals which inhabit it,
must be identical with those of Hindustan ; to which

' Ceylon, ^r., by Sir J. E.meeson Tennent, vol. i. pp. 7, 13, 85, 160,
183, n., 205, 270, &c.

Chap. I.] ZOOLOGY OF CEYLON AND INDL\. 61

Ceylon was alleged to bear the same relation as Sicily
presents to the peninsula of Italy. Malte Bkun * and
the geographers generally, declared the larger animals
of either to be common to both. I was led to question
the soundness of this dictum ; — and from a closer ex-
amination of its geological conformation and of its bo-
tanical and zoological characteristics I came to the con-
clusion that not only is there an absence of sameness
between the formations of the two localities ; but that
plants and animals, mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects
exist in Ceylon, which are not to be found in the flora
and fauna of the Dekkan ; but which present a striking
afi&nity, and occasionally an actual identity, with those
of the Malayan countries and some of the islands of the
Eastern Archipelago. Startling as this conclusion ap-
peared to be, it was strangely in unison with the legends
of the Singhalese themselves, that at an infinitely remote
period Ceylon formed an integral portion of a vast con-
tinent, known in the mythical epics of the Brahmans by
the designation of " Lanka ;^^ so immense that its south-
ern extremity fell below the equator, whilst in breadth
it was prolonged till its western and eastern boundaries
touch at once upon the shores of Africa and China.

Dim as is this ancient tradition, it is in consistency with
the conclusions of modern geology, that at the com-
mencement of the tertiary period northern Asia and a
considerable part of India were in all probability covered
by the sea — but that south of India land extended
eastward and westward connecting Malacca with Arabia.
Professor Ansted has propounded this view. His
opinion is, that the Himalayas then existed only as a
chain of islands, and did not till a much later age be-

* Malte Beun, Geogr. Univ., 1. xlix.

62 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

come elevated into mountain ranges, — a change which
took place during the same revolution that raised the
great plains of Siberia and Tartary and many parts of
north-western Europe. At the same time the great
continent whose position between the tropics has been
alluded to, and whose previous existence is still in-
dicated by the Coral islands, the Laccadives, the Mal-
dives, and the Chagos group, underwent simultaneous
depression by a counteracting movement.^

But divested of oriental mystery and geologic con-
jecture, and brought to the test of " geographical dis-
tribution," this once prodigious continent would appear
to have connected the distant Islands of Ceylon and
Sumatra and possibly to have united both to the Malay
peninsula, from which the latter is now severed by the
Straits of Malacca. The proofs of physical affinity be-
tween these scattered localities are exceedingly curious.
A striking dissimilarity presents itself between some
of the Mammalia of Ceylon and those of the continent
of India. In its general outline and feature, this branch
of the island fauna, no doubt, exhibits a general resem-
blance to that of the mainland, although many of the
larger animals of the latter are unknown in Ceylon ;
but, on the other hand, some species discovered there
are peculiar to the island. A deer^ as large as the
Axis, but differing from it in the number and arrange-
ment of its spots, has been described by Dr. Kela-
art, to whose vigilance the natural history of Ceylon is
indebted, amongst others, for the identification of two
new species of monkeys^, a number of curious shrews'*,

" * The Ancient World, by D. T. ^ Presbytes ursinus, Blyth, and

Ansted, M.A., &c.. pp. 322—324, P. Thersites, Elliot.

2 Cerviis oriziis, Kexaaht, Prod. * Sorex montanus, S. fermgineus,

F. Zeyl., p, 83. and Ferocnlus macropus.

Chap. I.] ZOOLOGY OF CEYLON AXD INDIA. 63

and an orange-coloured ichneumon ^, before unknown.
There are also two squirrels^ that have not as yet
been discovered elsewhere, (one of them belonging to
those equipped with a parachute^,) as well as some local
varieties of the palm squirrel (Sciurus penicillatus,
Leadi).^

But the Ceylon Mammalia, besides wanting a number
of minor animals found in the Indian peninsula, cannot
boast such a ruminant as the majestic Graur^, which
inhabits the great forests from Cape Comorin to the
Himalaya ; and, providentially, the island is equally free
of the formidable tiger and the ferocious wolf of Hin-
dustan. The Hyena and Cheetah^', common in Southern
India, are unknown in Ceylon ; and though abundant
in deer, the island possesses no example of the Antelope
or the Gazelle.

Amongst the Birds of Ceylon, the same abnormity is
apparent. About thirty-eight species will be presently
particularised^ which, although some of them may here-
after be discovered to have a wider geographical range,
are at present believed to be unknown in continental
India. I might further extend this enumeration, by in-
cluding the Cheela eagle of Ceylon, which, although I
have placed it in my list as identical with the Hematornis
cheela of the Dekkan, is, I have since been assured, a
different bird, and is most probably the Faleo bido of

^ Herpestes fulvescens, Kela- Ceylon. Dr. Templetox has no-

Aur, Prod. Faun. Ze^Ian., A]^^.ip.4:2. ticed a little shrew (Corsira pur-

2 Sciunis Tennentii, Layard. purascens, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1855,

3 Sciuropterus Layardi, Kelaart. p. 238) at Neuera-ellia, not as yet
* There is a rat found only in the observed elsewhere.

Cinnamon Gardens at Colombo, * Bos cavifrons, Hodgs. ; B. fi-on-

Mus Ceylonus, Kelaart; and a talis. Lamb.

mouse which Dr. Kelaart disco- ^ Felis jubata, Schrch.

vered at Trineomalie, M. falridi- '' See Chapter on the Birds of

ventris, Blyth, both pecidiar to Ceylon.

64 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

Horsfield, known to us by specimens obtained from Java
and Sumatra.

As to the Fishes of Ceylon, they are of course less dis-
tinct ; and besides they have hitherto been very imper-
fectly compared. But the Insects afford a remarkable con-
firmation of the view I have ventured to propound ; so
much so that Mr. Walker, by whom the elaborate lists
appended to this work have been prepared, asserts
that some of the families have a less affinity to the en-
tomology of India than to that of Australia.^

But more conclusive than all, is the discovery to
which I have alluded, in relation to the elephant of
Ceylon. Do^vn to a very recent period it was univer-
sally believed that only two species of the elephant are
now in existence, the African and the Asiatic; distin-
guished by certain peculiarities in the shape of the cra-
nium, the size of the ears, the ridges of the teeth, the
number of vertebrae, and, according to Cuvier, in the
number of nails on the hind feet. The elej)hant of
Ceylon was believed to be identical with the elephant
of India. But some few years back, Temminck, in
his survey of the Dutch possessions in the Indian Ar-
chipelago^, announced the fact that the elephant which
abounds in Sumatra (although unknown in the adjacent
island of Java), and which had theretofore been regarded
as the same species with the Indian one, has been recently
found to possess peculiarities, in which it differs as much
from the elephant of India, as the latter from its African
congener. On this new species of elephant, to which the
natives give the name of gadjah, Temminck has conferred
the scientific designation of the Elephas Sumatranus.

^ See Chapter on the Insects of Possessions Necrlandaises dans
Ceylon. Vlnde Archijpelagique.

2 Coup d'CEil General sur les

Chap. I.] ZOOLOGY OF CEYLON AXD INDIA. 65

The points which entitle it to this distinction he enume-
rated minutely in the work ^ before alluded to, but they
have been summarized as follows by Prince Lucien Bona-
parte.

"This species is perfectly intermediate between the
Indian and African, especially in the shape of the skull,
and will certainly put an end to the distinction between
Elephas and Loxodon, with those who admit that ana-
tomical genus ; since although the crowns of the teeth of
E. Sur}iatranus are more like the Asiatic animal, still
the less numerous undulated ribbons of enamel are
nearly quite as wide as those forming the lozenges of the
African. The number of pairs of false ribs (which alone
vary, the true ones being always six) is foiu'teen, one less
than in the Africanus, one more than in the Indicus ;
and so it is with the dorsal vertebrae, which are twenty
in the Sumatranus {twenty -one and nineteen, in the
others), whilst the new species agrees with Afmcanus in
the number of sacral vertebrae (four), and with Indicus
in that of the caudal ones, which are thirty-four.''' ^

^ Temminck, Coiip-d'oeil, ^'c, t. plutot de I'espece Asiatique que de

i. c. iv. p. 328.; t. ii. c. iii. p. 91. ceUe qui est propre a I'Afrique;

2 Proceed. Zool. Soc. London, e'est-a-dire que leur eouronne oSre

1849, p. 144, note. The original la forme de rubans ondoyes et non

description of Temminck: is as fol- pas en losange; mais ees rubans

lows : sont de lalargeur de ceux qu'on voit

" Elephas Suniatranus, Nob. res- a la eouronne des dents de 1' elephant

semble, par la forme generale du d'Afrique; ils sont consequem-

craue a 1' elephant du continent de ment moins nombreux que dans

I'Asie ; mais la partie libre des celui du continent de I'Asie. Les

intermaxiH aires est beaucoup plus dimensions de ces rubans, dans la

courte et plus etroite; les cavites direction d'avant en arriere, com-

nasales sont beaucoup moins larges ; parees a celle prises dans la direc-

I'espace entre les orbites des yeux tion trans versale et laterale, sont

est plus etroit ; la partie poste- en raison de 3 ou 4 a 1 ; tandis

rieur du crane au contraire est plus que dans 1' elephant du continent

large que dans I'espece du conti- eUes sont comme 4 ou 6 a 1. La

nent. longueur totale de six de ces ru-

"Lesmachelieresserapprochent, bans, dans I'espece nouvelle de

par la forme de leur eouronne, Sumatra, ainsi que dans celle

F

66 MAMMALIA. [Chap. I.

Professor Schlegel of Leyden, in a paper lately sub-
mitted by him to the Eoyal Academy of Sciences of
Holland, (the substance of which he has obligingly
communicated to me, through Baron Bentinck the Ne-
therlands Minister at this Court), has confirmed the
identity of the Ceylon elephant with that found in the
Lampongs of Sumatra. The osteological comparison of
which Temminck has given the results was, he says, con-
ducted by himself with access to four skeletons of the
latter. And the more recent opportunity of comparing
a living Sumatran elephant with one from Bengal, has
served to establish other though minor points of diver-
gence. The Indian species is more robust and powerful ;
the proboscis longer and more slender ; and the extre-
mity, (a point, in which the elephant of Sumatra resem-
bles that of Africa,) is more flattened and provided with
coarser and longer hair than that of India.

Professor Schlegel, adverting to the large export
of elephants from Ceylon to the Indian continent, which
has been carried on from time immemorial, suggests the
caution with which naturalists, in investigating this
question, should first satisfy themselves whether the ele-
phants they examine are really natives of the mainland,

d'Afrique, est d'environ 12 cen- et 15 fausses. Velephas Indicus

timetres, tandis que cette longueur a 7 vertebres du cou, 19 dorsales,

n'est que de 8 a 10 centimetres 3 lombaires, 5 sacrees, et 34 eau-

dans I'espece du continent de 1' dales, 19 paires de cotes, dont 6

Asie. vraies, et 3 fausses. Vele'phas Su-

" Les autres formes osteologiques matramcs a 7 vertebres du cou, 20

sont a peu pres les memes dans les dorsales, 3 lombaires, 4 sacrees, et

trois especes ; mais il y a difference 34 caudales ; 20 paires du cotes,

dans le nombre des os dont le dont 6 vraies, et 14 fausses,

squelette se compose, ainsi que " Ces caracteres ont 6te constates

le tableau comparatif ei-joint I'e- sur trois squelettes de I'espece nou-

' prouve. veUe, mi male et une femelle adultes

" Belephas Africanus a 7 verte- et un jeune male. Nous n'avons

bres du cou, 21 vert, dorsales, 3 pas encore ete a meme de nous

lombaires, 4 sacrees, et 26 caudales; procurer la depouiUe de cette

21 paires de cotes, dont 6 vraies, esp^ce. "

Chap. I.] ZOOLOGY OF CEYLOX AXD INDIA. 67

or whether they have been brought to it from the islands.^
" The extraordinary fact," he observes in his letter to
me, " of the identity thus established between the ele-
phants of Ceylon and Sumatra; and the points in which
they are found to differ from that of Bengal, leads to the
c[uestion whether all the elephants of the Asiatic con-
tinent belong to one single species ; or whether these vast
regions may not produce in some quarter as yet unex-
plored the one hitherto found only in the two islands
referred to ? It is highly desirable that naturalists who
have the means and opportunity, should exert them-
selves to discover, whether any traces are to be found
of the Ceylon elephant in the Dekkan ; or of that of
Sumatra in Cochin China or Siam."

To me the establishment of a fact so conclusively
confirmatory of the theory I had ventured to broach, is
productive of great satisfaction. But it is not a little re-
markable that the distinction should not lonof before have
been discovered between the elephant of India and that
of Ceylon. Nor can it be regarded otherwise than as a
singular illustration of " geographical distribution " that
two remote islands should be thus shown to possess in
common a species unknown in any other quarter of the
globe. As bearing on the ancient myth which represents
both countries as forming parts of a submerged continent,
the discovery is curious — and it is equally interesting in
connection with the circumstance alluded to by G-ibbon,
that amongst the early geographers and even down to a
comparatively modern date, Sumatra and Ceylon were
confounded; and grave doubts were entertained as to

' A further inquiry suggests it- case of elephants bred on the con-

self, how far the intermixture of tinentof India, from stock partially

the breed may have served to con- imported from Ceylon?
found specific differences, in the

F 2

68 MAMMALIA. [Chap. T.

which of the two was the " Taprobane " of antiquity.
GrEMMA Frisius, Sebastian Munster, Julius Scaliger,
Ortelius and Mercator contended for the former ;
Salmasius, Bochart, Cluverius, and Vossius for Ceylon :
and the controversy did not cease till it was terminated
by Delisle about the beginning of the last centur}^

VIII. Cetacea. — Whales are so frequently seen that
they have been captured within sight of Colombo, and
more than once their carcases, after having been flinched
by the whalers, have floated on shore near the light-
house, tainting the atmosphere within the fort by their
rapid decomposition.

Of this family, one of the most remarkable animals
on the coast is the dugong ', a phytophagous cetacean,
numbers of which are attracted to the inlets, from the
bay of Calpentyn to Adam's Bridge, by the still water
and the abundance of marine algae in these parts of the
gulf. One which was killed at Manaar and sent to me to
Colombo^ in 1847, measured upwards of seven feet in
length ; but specimens considerably larger have been
taken at Calpentyn, and their flesh is represented as
closely resembling veal.

The rude approach to the human outline, observed in
the shape of the head of this creature, and the attitude
of the mother when suckling her young, clasping it to
her breast with one flipper, while swimming with the
other, holding the heads of both above water ; and when
disturbed, suddenly diving and displaying her fish-like
tail, — these, together with her habitual demonstrations
of strong maternal affection, probably gave rise to the
. fable of the " mermaid ;" and thus that earliest invention

' Halicore dugung, F. Cuv. Museum of the Natural History

2 The skeleton is now in the Society of Belfast.

Chap. L]

THE DUGOIS'G.

69

THE DUGOKa

of mythical physiology may be traced to the Arab sea-
men and the Greeks, who had watched the movements
of the dugong in the waters of Manaar.

Megasthenes records the existence of a creature in the
ocean, near Taprobane, mth the aspect of a woman ^ ;
and JElian, adopting and enlarging on his information,
peoples the seas of Ceylon with fishes having the heads
of lions, panthers, and rams, and, stranger still, cetaceans
in the form of satyrs. Statements such as these must
have had their origin in the hairs, which are set round
the mouth of the dugong, somewhat resembling a beard,
which ^lian and Megasthenes both particularise, from
their resemblance to the hair of a woman ; " koL <yvvai-
Kwv OTTCTLV s')(ov(TLV olaTTsp clvtI ifKoKCLfxcov ciicavOaL jrpoarjp-
TrjVTai. "

The Portuguese cherished the belief in the mermaid.

' Megasthenes, Indica, fragm.
lix. 34.

- ^LiAN, Nat. Hist, lib. xvi. ch.
xviii.

F 3

70 MA:MMALIA. [Chap. I.

and the annalist of the exploits of the Jesuits in India,
gravely records that seven = of these monsters, male
and female, were captured at Manaar in 1560, and
carried to Groa, where they were dissected by Demas
Bosquez, physician to the Viceroy, and " their internal
structure found to be in all respects conformable to the
human." ^

The Dutch were no less inclined to the marvellous,
and they propagated the belief in the mermaid with
earnestness and particularity. Valenttn, one of their
chaplains, in his account of the Natural History of Am-
boina, embodied in his great work on the Netherlands'
Possessions in India, published so late as 1727^ has de-
voted the first section of his chapter on the Fishes of
that island to a minute description of the " Zee-Men-
schen," Zee-\Vy ven," and mermaids. As to the dugong
he admits its resemblance to the mermaid, but repudiates
the idea of its having given rise to the fable, by being
mistaken for one. This error he imagines must have
arisen at a time when observations on such matters were
made with culpable laxity ; but now more recent and
minute attention has established the truth beyond
cavil.

For instance, he states that in 1653, when a lieutenant
in the Dutch service was leading a party of soldiers
along the sea-shore in Amboina, he and all his company
saw the mermen swimming at a short distance from
the beach with long and flowing hair, of a colour be-
tween gray and green — and six weeks afterwards, the

' Hist, de la Compagnie de Jesus, van Oud en Isieuw Oost-Indien,

quoted in the Asiat. Journ. vol. &c. 5 vol. fol. Dordrecht and Am-

xiv. p. 461; andinFoEBEs' Orient, sterdam, mdccxxvh. vol. iii. p.

Memoirs, vol. i. p. 421. 330.

^ Fean, Valentyn, Beschryving

Chap. I.] THE DUGONG. 71

creatures were again seen by him and more than fifty-
witnesses, at the same place, by clear daylight.^

"If any narrative in the world," adds Valentyn,
" deserves credit, it is this ; since oiot only one but tivo
Tnermen together were seen by so many eye-witnesses.
Should the stubborn world, however, hesitate to believe
it, it matters nothing ; as there are people who would
even deny that such cities as Rome, Constantinople
or Cairo, exist, merely because they themselves have
not happened to see them."

But what are such incredulous persons, he continues,
to make of the circumstance recorded by Albert Herport
in his account of India^, that a sea-man was seen in the
water near the Church of Taquan, on the morning of
the 29th of April 1661, and a mermaid at the same spot
the same afternoon ? — or what do they say to the fact
that in 1714, a mermaid was not only seen but captured
near the island of Booro ? " five feet Rhineland measure
" in height, which lived four days and seven hours, but
" refusing all food, died without leaving any intelligible
" account of herself."

Valentyn, in support of his own faith in the mer-
maid, cites numerous other instances in which both
" sea-men and women" were seen and taken at Amboina;
especially one by an office-bearer in the Church of
Holland^, by whom it was surrendered to the Grovernor
Vanderstel.

Of this well-authenticated specimen he gives an
elaborate engraving amongst those of the authentic fishes
of the island — together with a minute ichthyological

^ Vaxentyn, Beschryving, ^c, Berne, 1669.

vol. iii. p. 331. 3 A " krank-bezoeker " or visit-

'^ Probably the Itinerarium In- ant of the sick.
dicum of Albkecht Hekpobt.

F 4

72

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. I.

description of each for the satisfaction of men of
science.

TEE MERMAID (.From VAiHNTTN),

The fame of this creature having reached Europe, the
British Minister in Holland wrote to Valentyn on the
28th December 1716, whilst the Emperor, Peter the
Great of Kussia, was his guest at Amsterdam ; to commu-
nicate the desire of the Czar, that the mermaid should be
brought home from Amboina for his Imperial inspection.

To complete his proofs of the existence of mermen and
women, Valentyn points triumphantly to the historical
fact, that in Holland in the year 1404, a mermaid was
driven during a tempest, through a breach in the dyke
of Edam, and was taken alive in the lake of Purmer.
Thence she was carried to Harlem, where the Dutch
women taught her to spin ; and where, several years
after,'she died in the Roman Catholic faith; — "but this,"

Chap. I.] LIST OF CEYLOX MAMMALIA. 73

says the pious Calvinistic chaplain, " in no way militates
against the truth of her story." ^

Finally Valentyn winds up his proofs, by the accumu-
lated testimony of Pliny 2, Theodore Graza, Greorge of
Trebisond, and Alexander ab Alexandre, to show that
mermaids had in all ages been known in Graul, Naples,
Epirus, and the Morea. From these and a multitude of
more modern instances he comes to the conclusion, that
as there are " sea-cows," " sea-horses," and " sea-dogs ; "
as well as " sea-trees " and " sea- flowers " which he him-
self had seen, what grounds in reason are there to doubt
that there may also be " sea-maidens " and "sea-men !"

List of Ceylon Mammalicu

A list of the Mammalia of Ceylon is subjoined. In
framing it, as well as the lists appended to the other chap-
ters on the Fauna of the island, the principal object in
view has been to exhibit the extent to which the Xatural
History of the island had been investigated, and collec-
tion.: made up to the period of my leaving the colony in
1850. It has been considered expedient to exclude a
few individuals which have not had the advantaofe of a
direct comparison with authentic specimens, either at
Calcutta or in England. This will account for the omis-
sion of a number that have appeared in other catalogues,
but of which many, though ascertained to exist, have not
been submitted to this rigorous process of identification.

The greater portion of the species of mammals and
birds contained in these lists will be found, with suitable

' Valentyn, Beschryving, ^c, ^ Nat. Hist. 1. ix. c. 5, where

p. 333. Pliny speaks of the Nereids.

74

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. I.

references to the' most accurate descriptions, in the
admirable catalogue of the collection at the India
House, published under the care of the late Dr. Hors-
field. This work cannot be too highly extolled, not
alone for the scrupulous fidelity with which the descrip-
tion of each species is referred to its first discoverer, but
also for the pains which have been taken to elaborate
synonymes and to collate from local periodicals and
other sources, (little accessible to ordinary inquii-ers,)
such incidents and traits as are calculated to illustrate
characteristics and habits.

QUADEUMANA.

Presbytes

cephalopterus, Zimm.

ursinus, Blyth.

Priamus, Elliot S( Blyth.

Thersites, Blyth.
Macacus pileatus, Shaw ^■

Destn.
Loris gracilis, Geoff.

CHEIROPTERA.

Pteropus Edwardsii, Geoff.

Leschenaultii, Hum.
Cynopterus

marginatus. Ham.
Megaderma spasma,Zmn.

lyra, Geoff.
Rhinolophus affinis, Horsf,
Hipposideros

muiinus, Elliot.

speoris, Elliot.

armiger, Hodgs.

vulgaris, Horsf.
Kerivoula picta, Pall.
Taphozous

longimanus, Har.
Scotophilus Coromandeli-
cus, F. Cuv.

adversus, Horsf.

Temminkii, Horsf.

Tickelli, Blyth.

Heathii.

CARNIVOEA.

Sorex ccerulescens, Shaw.

ferrugineus, Kelaart.

serpentarius, Is. Geoff.

montanus, Kelaart.
Feroculus macropus, Kel.
Ursus labiatus, Blainv.
Lutra nair, F. Cuv.
Canis aureus, Linn.
Viverra Indica, Geoff., Hod.
Herpestes vitticoUis, Benn.

griseus, Gtn.

Smithii, Gray.

fulvescens, Kelaart.
Paradoxurus typus, F.
Cuv.

Ceylonicus, Pall.
Felis pardus, Linn.

chaus, Guldens.

viverrinus, Benn.

RODENTIA,

Sciurus macrurus, Forst.

Tennentii, Layard.

penicillatus, Leach.

trilineatus, Waterh.
Sciuropterus Layardi, Kel.
Pteromys petaurista, Pall.
Mus bandicota, Btchst.

Kok, Gray.

Mus rufescens, Gray.

nemoralis, Blyth.

Indicus, Geoff

fulvidiventris, Blyth.
Nesoki Hardwickii, Gray.
Golunda Neuera, Kelaart.

Ellioti, Gray.
Gerbillus Indicus, Hardw.
Lepus nigricoUis, F. Cuv.
Hystrix leucurus, Sykes.

EDENTATA.
Manis pentadactyla, Linn.

PACHYDERMATA.

Elephas Sumatranus, Linn.
Sus Indicus, Gray.
Zeylonicus, Blyth.

EUMINANTIA.

Moschus meminna, Erxl.
Stylocerus muntjac, Horsf.
Axis maculata, H. Smith.
Rusa Aristotelis, Cuv.

CETACEA.
Halicore dugung, F. Cuv.

CHAP. II.

THE ELEPHANT.

Structure and Functions.

During my residence at Kandy, I had twice the oppor-
tunity of w-itnessing the operation on a grand scale, of
capturing wild elephants, intended to be trained for the
public service in the establishment of the Civil Engineer ;
— and in the course of my frequent journeys through
the interior of the island, I succeeded in collecting so
many facts relative to the habits of these interesting
animals in a state of nature, as enable me not only
to add to the information previously possessed, but
to correct many fallacies po23ularly received regardino-
their instincts and disposition. These particulars I am
anxious to place on record before proceeding to describe
the scenes of which I was a spectator, during the pro-
gress of the elephant hunts in the district of the Seven
Korles, at w^hich I was present in 1846, and again in
1847.

With the exception of the narrow but densely inha-
bited belt of cultivated land, that extends alon^ the
seaborde of the island from Chilaw on the western coast
to Tangalle on the south-east, there is no part of Ceylon

76

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. II.

in which elephants may not be said to abound; even
close to the environs of the most populous localities of
the interior. They frequent both the open plains and
the deep forests; and their footsteps are to be seen
wherever food and shade, vegetation and water ^, allure

^ M. Ad. Pictet has availed
himself of the love of the elephant
for -water, to found on it a solution
of the long-contested question as
to the etymology of the word
" elephant," — a term which, whilst
it has passed into almost every dia-
lect of the West, is scarcely to be
traced in any language of Asia.
The Grreek i\4<pas, to which we are
immediately indebted for it, did not
originally mean the animal, but, as
early as the time of Homer, was
applied only to its tusks, and sig-
nified ivory. BocHART has sought
for a Semitic origin, and seizing on
the Arabic Jil, and prefixing the
article «/, suggests a/Ji/, akin to
4\€(p ; but rejecting this, Bochart
himself resorts to the Hebrew ekpk,
an " ox" — and this conjecture de-
rives a certain degree of counte-
nance from the fact that the Ro-
mans, when they obtained their first
sight of the elephant in the army
of Pyrrhus, in Lucania, called it
the Ltcca bos. But the avros is
still unaccounted for ; and Pott
has sought to remove the difficulty
by introducing the Arabic hindi,
Indian, thus making eleph-hindi,
" bos Indicus." The conversion of
hindi into apTos is an obstacle, but
here the example of "tamarind"
comes to aid; taraar hindi, the
" Indian date," which in mediaeval
Greek forms rafxapevTi. A theory
of Benar\% that i\€(t>a5 might be
compounded of the Arabic al, and
ibha, a Sanskrit name for the ele-
phant, is exposed to still greater
etymological exception. Pictet' s
solution is, that in the Sanskrit

epics "the King of Elephants," who
has the distinction of carrying the
god Indra, is called airavata or
airavana, a modification of aira-
vanta, "son of the ocean," which
again comes from iravat, "abound-
ing in water." " Nous aurions
done ainsi, comme correlatif du
grec 4\e(pavTo, une aneienne forme.
diravanta ou dilavanta, affaiblie
plus tard en airavata ou dirdvana.
.... On connait la predilection
de r elephant pour le voisinage des
fleuves, et son amour pour I'eau,
dont I'abondanee est necessaire a
son bien-etre." This Sanskrit
name, Pictet supposes, may have
been carried to the West by the
Phcenieians, who were the pur-
veyors of ivory from India ; and,
from the Greek, the Latins derived
elephas, which passed into the
modern languages of Italy, Ger-
many, and France. But it is curi-
ous that the Spaniards acquired
from the Moors their Arabic term
for ivory, mar jil, and the Portu-
guese marfim ; and that the Scan-
dinavians, probably from their
early expeditions to the Mediterra-
nean, adopted J?// as their name for
the elephant itself, and fil-bein for
ivory; in Danish, fils-ben. (See
Journ. Asiat. 1843, t. xliii. p. 133.)
The Spaniards of South America
call the palm which produces the
vegetable ivory {Phytelephas nia-
crocarpa) Talma de mar jil, and the
nut itself, mar jil vegetal.

Since the above was written
Gooneratn6 Modliar, the Singhalese
Interpreter to the Supreme Court
at Colombo, has supplied me with

Chap. II.] THE ELEPHANT. 77

them, alike on the summits of the loftiest mountains,
and on the borders of the tanks and lowland streams.

From time immemorial the natives have been taught
to capture and tame them, and the export of elephants
from Ceylon to India has been going on without inter-
ruption from the period of the first Punic War.^ In later
times all elephants were the property of the Kandyan
cro^vn ; and their capture or slaughter without the royal
permission was classed amongst the gi'avest offences in
the criminal code.

In recent years there is reason to believe that their
numbers have become considerably reduced. They have
entirely disappeared from localities in which they were
formerly numerous^ ; smaller herds have been taken in
the periodical captures for the government service, and
hunters returning from the chase report them to be
growing scarce. In consequence of this diminution the
peasantry in some parts of the island have even suspended
the ancient practice of keeping watchers and fires by
night to drive away the elephants from their growing
crops.^ The opening of roads and the clearing of the
mountain forests of Kandy for the cultivation of coffee,

another conjecture, that the word ^'c, torn. ii. ch. Ixiii. p. 331.)

elephant may possibly be traced to ^ In some parts of Bengal, where

the Singhalese name of the animal, elephants were formerly trouble-

alia, which means literally, " the some (especially near the wilds of

huge one." Alia, he adds, is not a Eamgur), the natives got rid of

derivation from Sanskrit or Pali, them by mixing a preparation of

but belongs to a dialect more ancient the poisonous Nepal root caUed

than either. dakra in balls of grain, and other

' ^LiAN, de Nat. Anirn. lib. xvi. materials, of which the animal is

c. 18 ; CosMAS IxDicoPL. p. 128. fond. In Cuttack, above fifty

- Le Beun, who visited Ceylon years ago, mineral poison was laid

A. D. 1705, says that in the district for them in the same way, and the

round Colombo, where elephants carcases of eighty were found which

are now never seen, they were then had been killed by it. (Asiat. Res.,

so abundant, that 160 had been xv. 183.)
taken in a single corral. ( Voyage,

78 MAMMALIA. [Chap. II.

have forced the animals to retire to the low country,
where again they have been followed by large parties of
European sportsmen ; and the Singhalese themselves, be-
ing more freely provided with arms than in former times,
have assisted in swelling the annual slaughter.^

Had the motive that incites to the destruction of the
elephant in Africa and India prevailed in Ceylon, that is,
had the elephants there been provided with tusks, they
would lono* since have been annihilated for the sake of
their ivory.^ But it is a curious fact that, whilst in
Africa and India both sexes have tusks^, with some
slight disproportion in the size of those of the females ;
not one elephant in a hundred is found with tusks in
Ceylon, and the few that possess them are exclusively
males. Nearly all, however, have those stunted pro-
cesses called tushes, about ten or twelve inches in
length and one or two in diameter. These I have ob-
served them to use in loosening earth, stripping off bark,
and snapping asunder small branches and climbing

* The number of elephants has its way to China and to other

been similarly reduced throughout places, but because the chiefs and

the south of India, Buddhist priests have a passion for

2 The annual importation of collecting tusks, and the finest and

ivory into Great Britain alone, for largest are to be found ornament-

the last few years, has been about ing their temples and private

one million pounds ; which, taking dwellings. The Chinese profess

the average weight of a tusk at that for their exquisite carvings the

sixty pounds, would require the ivory of Ceylon excels all other,

slaughter of 8,333 male elephants. both in density of texture and in

But of this quantity the impor- delicacy of tint ; but in the Eu-

tation from Ceylon has generally ropeau market, the ivory of Africa,

averaged only five or six hundred from its more distinct graining

weight ; which, making allowance and other causes, obtains a higher

for the lightness of the tusks, would price.

not involve the destruction of more ^ A writer in the India Sporting

than seven or eight in each year. Beview for October 1857 says, " In

At the same time, this does not Malabar a tuskless male elephant

fairly represent the annual number is rare ; I have seen but two." — p.

of tuskers shot in Ceylon, not only 157.
because a portion of the ivory finds

Chap. II.] THE ELEPH.\]S"T. 79

plants; and hence tushes are seldom seen without a
groove worn into them near their extremities.^

Amongst other surmises more ingenious than sound,
the general absence of tusks in the elephant of Ceylon
has been associated with the profusion of rivers and
streams in the island ; whilst it has been thrown out as
a possibility that in Africa, where water is comparatively
scarce, the animal is equipped with these implements in
order to assist it in digging wells in the sand and in
raising the juicy roots of the mimosas and succulent
plants for the sake of their moisture. In support of this
hypothesis, it has been observed, that whilst the tusks
of the Ceylon species, which are never required for such
uses, are slender^ graceful and curved, seldom ex-
ceeding fifty or sixty pounds' weight, those of the
African elephant are straight and thick, weighing occa-
sionally one hundred and fifty, and even three hundred
pounds.^

^ The old fallacy is still renewed, and become the "permanent tusks,"

that the elephant sheds his tusks, which are never shed.

^LiAN says he drops them once in ^ Notwithstanding the inferiority

ten years (lib. xiv. c. 5); and Pliny in weight of the Ceylon tusks, as

repeats the story, adding that, compared with those of the ele-

when dropped, the elephants hide phaut of India, it would, I think,

them under ground (lib. viii.) be precipitate to draw the inference

whence Shaw says, in his Zoology, that the size of the former was

" they are frequently found in the tmifonnly and naturally less than

woods," and exported from Africa that of the latter. The truth, I

(vol. i. p. 213); and Sir W. Jab- believe to be, that if permitted to

DEsnE in the Naturalisf s Library grow to maturity, the tusks of the

(vol, ix. p, 110), says, "the tusks one would, in all probability, equal

are shed about the twelfth or thir- those of the other ; but, so eager

teenth year." This is erroneous : is the search for ivory in Ceylon,

after losing the first pair, or, as that a tusker, when once observed

they are called, the " milk tusks," in a herd, is followed up with such

which drop in consequence of the vigilant impatience, that he is al-

absorption of their roots, when the most invariably shot before attain-

animal is extremely young, the ing his full growth. Greneral De

second pair acquire'their fuU size, Lima, when returning from the

80 MAMMALIA. [Chap. II.

But it is manifestly inconsistent with the idea that tusks
were given to the elephant to assist him in digging for
his food, to find that the females are less bountifully
supplied with them than the males, whilst the necessity
for their use extends equally to both sexes. The same
argument serves to demonstrate the fallacy of the con-
jecture, that the tusks of the elephant were given to
him as weapons of offence, for if such were the case the
vast majority in Ceylon, males as well as females, would
be left helpless in presence of an assailant. But although
in their conflicts with one another, those which are pro-
vided with tusks may occasionally push with them
clumsily at their opponents ; it is a misapprehension to
imagine that tusks are designed specially to serve " in
warding off the attacks of the wily tiger and the furious
rhinoceros, often securing the victory by one blow which
transfixes the assailant to the earth." ^

goyernorship of the Portuguese set- logical Becreations, p. 255, says a
tlements at Mozambique, told me, tusk of 350 pounds' weight was
in 1848, that he had been requested sold at Amsterdam, but he does
to procure two tusks of the largest not quote his authority,
size, and straightest possible shape, * Menageries, ^r., published by
which were to be formed into a the Society for the Diffusion of
cross to surmount the high altar of Useful Knowledge, vol. i. p. 68 :
the cathedral at Groa : he succeeded "The Elephant," eh. iii. It will
in his commission, and sent two, be seen that I have quoted re-
one of which was 180 pounds, and peatedly from this volume, because
the other 170 pounds' weight, with it is the most compendious and
the slightest possible curve. In a careful compilation with which I
periodical, entitled The Friend, am acquainted of the information
published in Ceylon, it is stated in previously existing regarding the
the volume for 1837 that the officers elephant. The author incorporates
belonging to the ships Quorrah and no speculations of his own, but has
Alburhak, engaged in the Niger most diligently and agreeably ar-
Expedition, were shown by a na- ranged aU the facts collected by
tive king two tusks, each two feet his predecessors. The story of
and a half in circumference at the antipathy between the elephant
base, eight feet long, and weighing and rhinoceros is probably borrowed
upwards of 200 pounds. (Vol. i. from .^lian de Nat, lib. xvii. c.
p. 225.) Beodebip, in his Zoo- 44.

. Z. p. iviL^ \ CALF

Chap. H.] THE ELEPHAXT. 81

So harmless and peaceful is the life of the elephant,
that nature appears to have left it unprovided with any
weapon of offence : its trunk is too delicate an organ to
be rudely employed in a conflict with other animals,
and although on an emergency it may push or gore with
its tusks (to which the French have hastily given the
term " defenses "), their almost vertical position,
added to the difficulty of raising its head above the level
of the shoulder, is inconsistent with the idea of their
being designed for attack, since it is impossible for the
elephant to strike an effectual blow, or to " wield " its
tusks as the deer and the buffalo can direct their horns.
Nor is it easy to conceive under what circumstances an
elephant could have a hostile encounter with either a
rhinoceros or a tiger, with whose pursuits in a state of
nature its own can in no way conflict.

Towards man elephants evince shyness, arising from
their love of solitude and dislike of intrusion; any
alarm they exhibit at his appearance may be reasonably
traced to the slaughter which has reduced their num-
bers ; and as some evidence of this, it has always been
observed that an elephant exhibits greater impatience
of the presence of a white man than of a native. Were
its instincts to carry it further, or were it influenced by
any feeling of animosity or cruelty, it must be apparent
that, as against the prodigious numbers that inhabit
the forests of Ceylon, man would wage an unequal con-
test, and that of the two one or other must long since
have been reduced to a helpless minority.

Official testimony is not wanting in confirmation of
this view ; — in the returns of 108 coroners' inquests in
Ceylon, during five years, from 1849 to 1855 inclusive,
held in cases of death occasioned by wild animals; 16

a

82 MAM:MALIA. [Chap. II.

are recorded as having been caused by elephants, 15 by
buffaloes, 6 by crocodiles, 2 by boars, 1 by a bear, and
68 by serpents (the great majority of the last class of
sufferers being women and children, who had been
bitten during the night). Little more than three fatal
accidents occurring annually on the average of five years,
is certainly a very small proportion in a population
estimated at a million and a half, in an island abounding
with elephants, with which, independently of casual
encounters, voluntary conflicts are daily stimulated by
the love of sport or the hope of gain. Were the ele-
phants instinctively vicious or even highly irritable in
their temperament, the destruction of human life under
the circumstances must have been infinitely greater. It
must also be taken into account, that some of the
accidents recorded may have occurred in the rutting
season, when elephants are subject to fits of temporary
fury, known in India by the term rnust, in Ceylon
TYiudda, — a paroxysm which speedily passes away, but
during the fury of which it is dangerous even for the
mahout to approach those ordinarily the gentlest and
most familiar.

But, then, the elephant is said to "entertain an
extraordinary dislike to all quadrupeds; that dogs
running near him produce annoyance ; that he is alarmed
if a hare start from her form;" and from Pliny to
Buffon every naturalist has recorded its supposed aversion
to swine. ^ These alleged antipathies are in a great
degree, if not entirely, imaginary. The habits of the
elephant are essentially harmless, its wants lead to no
rivalry with other animals, and the food to which it is

* Menageries, ^r., " The Elepliant," ch. iii.

0
Chap, n.] THE ELEPHANT. 83

most attached flourishes in such abundance that it is
obtained without an efifort. In the quiet solitudes of
Ceylon, elephants may constantly be seen browsing
peacefully in the immediate vicinity of other animals,
and in close contact with them. I have seen groups of
deer and wild buffaloes reclining in the sandy bed of a
river in the dry season, and elephants plucking the
branches close beside them. They show no impatience
in the company of the elk, the bear, and the mid hog ;
and on the other hand, I have never discovered an
instance in which these animals have evinced any
apprehension of elephants. The elephant's natural
timidity, however, is such that it becomes alarmed on
the appearance in the jungle of any animal with which
it is not familiar. It is said to be afraid of the horse ;
but from my own experience, I should say it is the horse
that is alarmed at the aspect of the elephant. In the
same way, from some unaccountable impulse, the horse
has an antipathy to the camel, and evinces extreme
impatience, both of the sight and the smell of that animal.*
WTien enraged, an elephant will not hesitate to charge
a rider on horseback ; but it is against the man, not
against the horse, that his fury is directed; and no
instance has been ever known of his wantonly assail-
ing a horse. A horse, belonging to the late Major

' This peculiarity was noticed by it is necessary to train and accustom

the ancients, and is recorded by to their presence in order to avoid

Herodotus: ^^ KdfiriXov 'l-mros (po§4- accidents. ]Mr. Begderip mentions,

€Tat, /col ovK dpex^Tai ovre t)]v I5er]u that, "when the precaution of such

avTTJs opeuu ovt€ tV od/xr^u ocrrppai- training has not been adopted, the

v6fj.€vos " (Herod, ch. 80). Camels sudden and dangerous terror with

have long been bred by the Grand which a horse is seized in coming

Duke of Tuscany, at his establish- unexpectedly upon one of them is

ment near Pisa, and even there excessive." — Note-hook of a Nattc-

the same instinctive dislike to them ralist, ch. iv. p. 113.
is manifested by the horse, which

G 2

84 MAMMALIA. [Chap. II.

Kogers^, had run away from his groom, and was found
some considerable time afterwards grazing quietly with
a herd of elephants. In De Bry's splendid collection
of travels, however, there is included " The voyage of a
Certain Englishman to Gambay ; " in which the author
asserts that at Agra, in the year 1607, he was present at
a spectacle given by the Viceregent of the great Mogul,
in the course of which he saw an elephant destroy two
horses, by seizing them in its trunk,_ and crushing them
under foot.^ But the display was avowedly an artificial
one, and the creature must have been cruelly tutored for
the occasion.

Pigs are constantly to be seen feeding about the
stables of the tame elephants, which manifest no re-
pugnance to them. As to the smaller animals, the
elephant undoubtedly evinces uneasiness at the presence
of a dog, but this is referable to the same cause as its
impatience of a horse, namely, that neither is habitually
seen by it in the forest ; but it would be idle to suppose
that this feeling could amount to hostility against a
creature incapable of inflicting on it the slightest injury.^
The truth I apprehend to be that, when they meet, the
impudence and impertinences of the dog are offensive to

* Major EoGERS was many years Navigatio. De Bry, Coll., ^c, vol.

the chief civil officer of Grovernment iii. ch. xvi. p. 31.

in the district of Oovah, where he ^ To account for the impatience

was killed by lightning, 1845. manifested by the elephant at the

2 " Quidam etiam cum eqiiis sil- presence of a dog, it has been sng-

vestribus pugnant. Saepe unus ele- gested that he is alarmed lest the

phas cum sex equis committitur ; latter should attack his feet, a por-

atque ipse adeo interfui cum unus tion of his body of which the ele-

elephas duos equos cum primo phant is peculiarly careful. A

impetu protinus prosternerit ; — tame elephant has been observed

injecta enim jugulis ipsorum longa to regard with indifference a spear

proboscide, ad se protractos, denti- directed towards his head, but to

bus porro comminuit ac protrivit." shrink timidly from the same wea-

Aiigli Cujusdam in Camhayam pon when pointed at his foot.

Chap. II.] THE ELEPHANT. 85

the gravity of the elephant, and incompatible with his
love of solitude and ease. Or may it be assumed as an
evidence of the sagacity of the elephant, that the only
two animals to which it manifests an antipathy, are the
two which it has seen only in the company of its enemy,
man ? One instance has certainly been attested to me
by an eye-witness, in which the trunk of an elephant
was seized in the teeth of a Scotch terrier, and such was
the alarm of the huge creature that it came at once to
its knees. The dog repeated the attack, and on every
renewal of it the elephant retreated in terror, holding
its trunk above its head, and kicking at the terrier
with its fore feet. It would have turned to flight,
but for the interference of its keeper.

Major Skinner, formerly commissioner of roads in
Ceylon, whose official duties in constructing highways
involved the necessity of his being in the jungle for
months together, always found that, by night or by day,
the barking of a dog which accompanied him, was suffi-
cient to put a herd to flight. On the whole, therefore,
I am of opinion that the elephant lives on terms of
amity with every quadruped in the forest, that it neither
regards them as its foes, nor provokes their hostility by
its acts ; and that, with the exception of man, its greatest
enemy is a fly !

The current statements as to the supposed animosity
of the elephant to minor animals originated with ^lian
and Pliny, who had probably an opportunity of seeing,
what may at any time be observed, that when a captive
elephant is picketed beside a post, the domestic animals,
goats, sheep, and cattle, will annoy and irritate him by
their audacity in making free with his provender; but
this is an evidence in itself of the little instinctive dread

G 3

86 MAMMALIA. [Chap. II.

which such comparatively puny creatures entertain of
one so powerful and yet so gentle.

Amongst elephants themselves, jealousy and other
causes of irritation frequently occasion contentions
between individuals of the same herd ; but on such oc-
casions it is their habit to strike with their trunks, and
to bear down their opponents with their heads. It is
doubtless correct that an elephant, when prostrated by
the force and fury of an antagonist of its own species, is
often woimded by the downward pressure of the tusks,
which in any other position it would be almost impos-
sible to use offensively.^

Mr. Mercer, who in 1846 was the principal civil
officer of Grovernment at Badulla, sent me a jagged
fragment of an elephant's tusk, about five inches in
diameter, and weighing between twenty and thirty
pounds, which had been brought to him by some natives,
who, being attracted by a noise in the jungle, witnessed
a combat between a tusker and one without tusks, and
saw the latter with his trunk seize one of the tusks of
his antagonist and wrench from it the portion in ques-
tion, which measured two feet in length.

Here the trunk was shown to be the more powerful
offensive weapon of the two ; but I apprehend that the
chief reliance of the elephant for defence is on its pon-
derous weight, the pressure of its foot being sufficient
to crush any minor assailant after being prostrated by
means of its trunk. Besides, in using its feet for this
purpose, it derives a wonderful facility from the peculiar
formation of the knee-joint in the hind leg, which, en-

^ A writer in the India S])orting there was a large hole in the side,
Beview for October 1857 says a and the abdomen was ripped open,
male elephant was killed by two The latter wound was given pro-
others close to his camp: "the bably after it had fallen." — P.
bead waa completely smashed in; 175.

Chap. II.] THE ELEPHANT. ' s7

abling it to swing the hind feet forward close to the
ground, assists it to toss the body alternately from foot
to foot, till deprived of life.^

A sportsman who had partially undergone this opera-
tion, having been seized by a wounded elephant but
rescued from its fury, described to me his sufferings as
he was thus flung back and forward between the hind
and fore feet of the animal, which ineffectually at-
tempted to trample him at each concussion, and aban-
doned him without inflicting serious injury.

Knox, in describing the execution of criminals by the
state elephants of the former kings of Kandy, says, "they
will rim their teeth (tusks) through the body, and then tear
it in pieces and throw it limb from limb ; " but a Kandyan
chief, who was mtness to such scenes, has assured
me that the elephant never once applied its tusks,
but, placing its foot on the prostrate victim, plucked
off his limbs in succession by a sudden movement of
the trunk. If the tusks were designed to be employed
offensively, some alertness would naturally be exhibited
in using them ; but in numerous instances where sports-
men have fallen into the power of a wounded elephant,
they have escaped through the failure of the enraged
animal to strike them with its tusks, even when stretched
upon the ground.^

* In the Third Book of Macca- (irifi^peiv 6is adrju eV yovaai Kot iroal

bees, which is not printed in our ^-npiwu T]Ki(Tfx.evovs. 3 Mac. v. 42).

Apocrypha, but appears in the se- JElian makes the remark, that

ries in the Greek Septuagint, the elej^hants on such occasions use

author, in describing the persecu- their knees as well as their feet to

tion of the Jews by Ptolemy Phi- crush their victims. — Hist Anim.

lopater, b.c. 210, states that the yiii. 10.

king swore vehemently that he ^ ^he Hastisilpe, a Singhalese

woiild send them into the other work which treats of the " Science

world, "foully trampled to death of Elephants," enumerates amongst

by the knees and feet of elephants " those which it is not desirable to

G 4

88 MAMMALIA. [Chap. II.

Placed as tlie elephant is in Ceylon, in the midst of
the most luxuriant profusion of its favourite food, in
close proximity at all times to abundant supplies of water,
and vdth. no enemies against whom to protect itself, it
is difficult to conjecture any probable utility which it
could derive from such appendages. Their absence is
unaccompanied by any inconvenience to the individuals
in whom they are wanting ; and as regards the few who
possess them, the only operations in which I am aware
of their tusks being employed in relation to the oeconomy
of the animal, is to assist in ripping open the stem of
the jaggery palms and young palmyras to extract the
farinaceous core ; and in splitting the juicy shaft of the
plantain. WTiilst the tuskless elephant crushes the lat-
ter under foot, thereby soiling it and wasting its mois-
ture ; the other, by opening it with the point of his tusk,
performs the operation with delicacy and apparent ease.

These, however, are trivial and almost accidental ad-
vantages : on the other hand, owing to irregularities in
their growth, the tusks are sometimes an impediment in
feeding^ ; and in more than one instance in the Grovem-
ment studs, tusks which had so grown as to approach
and cross one another at the extremities, have had to be
removed by the saw ; the contraction of space between
them so impeding the free action of the trunk as to pre-
vent the animal from conveying branches to its mouth.^

possess, "fhe elephant which will as before. In the Museum of the

fight with a stone or a stick in his College of Surgeons, London, there

trunk." is a specimen, No. 2757, of a spira

' Among other eccentric forms, an tusk,
elephant was seen in 1844, in the ^ Since the foregoing remarks

district of Bintenne, near Friar's- were written relative to the unde-

Hood Mountain, one of whose tusks fined use of tusks to the elephant,

was so bent that it took what I have seen a speculation on thf

sailors term a "round turn," and same subject in Dr. Holland's

then resumed its curved direction " Constitution of the Animal Crea-

Chap. II.] THE ELEPHANT. 89

It is true that in captivity, and after a due course of
training, the elephant discovers a new use for its tusks
when employed in moving stones and piling timber ; so
much so that a powerful one will raise and carry on them
a log of half a ton weight or more. One evening, whilst
riding in the vicinity of Kandy, towards the scene of the
massacre of Major Davie's party in 1803, my horse
evinced some excitement at a noise which approached
us in the thick jungle, and which consisted of a repeti-
tion of the ejaculation unnph! urviph! in a hoarse and
dissatisfied tone. A turn in the forest explained the
mystery, by bringing me face to face with a tame
elephant, unaccompanied by any attendant. He was
labouring painfully to carry a heavy beam of timber,
which he balanced across his tusks, but the pathway
being narrow, he was forced to bend his head to one side
to permit it to pass endways ; and the exertion and this
inconvenience combined led him to utter the dissatisfied
sounds which distm-bed the composure of my horse. On
seeing us halt, the elephant raised his head, reconnoitred
us for a moment, then flung down the timber, and volun-
tarily forced himself backwards among the brushwood so
as to leave a passage, of which he expected us to avail

Hon, as expressed in structural marvellous motive powers inherent

Appendages;'^ but the conjecture to it ; his conjecture is, that they

of the author leaves the problem are " a species of safety valve

scarcely less obscure than before, of the animal oeconomy," — and that

Struck with the mere supplemental " they owe their development to

presence of the tusks, the absence the predominance of the senses of

of aU apparent use serving to dis- touch and smell, conjointly with

tinguish them from the essential the muscular motions of which the

organs of the creature, Dr. Hol- exercise of these is accompanied."

LAND concludes that their produc- " Had there been no proboscis," he

tion is a process incident, but not thinks, " there would have been no

ancillary, to other important ends, supplementary appendages, — the

especially connected with the vital former creates the latter." — Pp.

functions of the trunk and the 246, 271.

^0 MAMMALIA. [Chap. U.

ourselves. My horse hesitated: the elephant observed
it, and impatiently thrust himself deeper into the jungle,
repeating his cry of urmph ! but in a voice evidently
meant to encourage us to advance. Still the horse trem- .
bled; and anxious to observe the instinct of the two
sagacious animals, I forbore any interference : again the
elephant of his own accord wedged himself further in
amongst the trees, and manifested some impatience that
we did not pass him. At length the horse moved forward ;
and when we were fairly past, I saw the wise creature
stoop and take up its heavy burthen, trim and balance
it on its tusks, and resume its route as before, hoarsely
snorting its discontented remonstrance.

Between the African elephant and that of Ceylon,
with the exception of the striking peculiarity of the
infrequency of tusks in the latter, the distinctions are
less apparent to a casual observer than to a scientific
naturalist. In the Ceylon species the forehead is higher
and more hollow, the ears are smaller, and, in a section
of the teeth, the grinding ridges, instead of being
lozenge-shaped, are transverse bars of uniform breadth.

The Indian elephant is stated by Cuvier to have four
nails on the hind foot, the African variety having
only three : but amongst the perfections of a high-bred
elephant of Ceylon, is always enumerated the possession
of twenty nails, whilst those of a secondary class have
but eighteen in all.^

So conversant are the natives with the structure and
" points " of the elephant, that they divide them readily
into castes, and describe with particularity their dis-
tinctive excellences and defects. In the Hastisilpe, a

* See Chapter on Mammalia, p. 60.

Chap. II.] THE ELEPHANT. 91

Singhalese work which treats of their management, the
marks of inferior breeding are said to be " eyes restless
like those of a crow, the hair of the head of mixed
shades ; the face wrinkled ; the tongne curved and
black ; the nails short and green ; the ears small ; the
neck thin, the skin freckled; the tail without a tuft,
and the fore-quarter lean and low: " whilst the perfec-
tion of form and beauty is supposed to consist in the
'* softness of the skin, the red colour of the mouth and
tongue, the forehead expanded and hollow, the ears broad
and rectangular, the trunk broad at the root and
blotched with pink in front ; the eyes bright and kindly,
the cheeks large, the neck full, the back level, the chest
square, the fore legs short and convex in front, the hiud
quarter plump, and five nails on each foot, all smooth,
polished, and round. ^ An elephant with these perfec-
tions," says the author of the Hastisilpe, " will impart
glory and magnificence to the king ; but he cannot be
discovered amongst thousands, yea, there shall never be
found an elephant clothed at once with all the excel-
lences herein described." The " points " of an elephant
are to be studied with the greatest advantage in those
attached to the temples, which are always of the
highest caste, and exhibit the most perfect breeding.

The colour of the animal's skin in a state of natiu*e is
generally of a lighter brown than that of those in cap-
tivity ; a distinction which arises, in all probability, not
so much from the wild animal's propensity to cover itself
with mud and dust, as from the superior care which is
taken in repeatedly bathing the tame ones, and in rub-

' A native of rank informed me, pliant will sometimes touch the
that " the tail of a high-caste ele- ground, but such are very rare."

92 MAMMALIA. [Chap. II.

bing their skins with a soft stone, a lump of burnt clay,
or the coarse husk of a coco-nut. This kind of at-
tention, together with the occasional application of oil,
gives rise to the deeper black which the hides of the
latter present.

Amongst the native Singhalese, however, a singular
preference is evinced for elephants that exhibit those
flesh-coloured blotches which occasionally mottle the skin
of an elephant, chiefly about the head and extremities.
The front of the trunk, the tips of the ears, the forehead,
and occasionally the legs, are thus diversified with stains
of a yellowish tint, inclining to piuk. These are not
natural; nor are they hereditary, for they are seldom
exhibited by the younger individuals in a herd, but ap-
pear to be the result of some eruptive affection, the irri-
tation of which has induced the animal in its uneasiness
to rub itself against the rough bark of trees, and thus to
destroy the outer cuticle.^

To a European these spots appear blemishes, and the
taste that leads the natives to admire them is probably
akin to the feeling that has at all times rendered a white
elephant an object of wonder to Asiatics. The rarity
of the latter is accounted for by regarding this peculiar
appearance as the result of albinism ; and notwithstand-
ing the exaggeration of Oriental historians, who compare
the fairness of such creatures to the whiteness of snow,
even in its utmost perfection, I apprehend that the tint
of a white elephant is little else than a flesh-colour,
rendered somewhat more conspicuous by the blanching
of the skin, and the lightness of the colourless hairs by

^ This is confirmed by the fact of those which have been captured
that the scar of the ancle wound, by noosing, presents precisely the
occasioned by the rope on the legs same tint in the healed parts.

Chap. H.] THE ELEPHANT. 93

which it is sparsely covered. A white elephant is men-
tioned in the Mahawanso as forming part of the retinue
attached to the "Temple of the Tooth" at Anarajapoora,
in the fifth century after Christ ^ ; but it commanded no
religious veneration, and like those in the stud of the
kings of Siam, it was tended merely as an emblem of
royalty ^ ; the sovereign of Ceylon being addressed as the
"Lord of Elephants."^ In 1633 a white elephant was
exhibited in Holland ^ ; but as this was some years before
the Dutch had established themselves firmly in Ceylon,
it was probably brought from some other of their eastern
possessions.

* Mahawanso, eh. xxxviii. p. phants." — Asiat. Ses. xv. 253.
254, A.D. 433. * Aemandi, Hist. MiUt. cles Ele-

* Paxlegoes, Siam, ^~c., toI. i. p. phants, lib. ii. c. x. p. 380. Hoeace
152. mentions a white elephant as hav-

' Mahatvanso, ch. xviii. p. 111. ing been exhibited at Eome :" Siva

The Hindu sovereigns of Orissa, elephas albns Tulgi converteret

in the middle ages, bore the style era." — Hoe. Ep, n. 196.
of Gaja-pati, "powerful in ele-

94

MA^IMALIA. [Chap. III.

CHAP. III.

THE ELEPHANT.

Habits when Wild.

Although found generally in warm and sunny climates,
it is a mistake to suppose that tlie elephant is partial
either to heat or to light. In Ceylon, the mountain tops,
and not the sultry valleys, are its favourite resort. In
Oovah, where the elevated plains are often crisp with
the morning frost, and on Pedura-talla-galla, at the
height of upwards of eight thousand feet, they are
found in herds, whilst the hunter may search for them
without success in the hot jungles of the low country.
No altitude, in fact, seems too lofty or too chill for the
elephant, provided it affords the luxury of water in
abundance ; and, contrary to the general opinion that
the elephant delights in sunshine, it seems at all times
impatient of glare, and spends the day in the thickest
depth of the forests, devoting the night to excursions,
and to the luxury of the bath, in which it also indulges
occasionally by day. This partiality for shade is doubt-
less ascribable to the animal's love of coolness and soli-
tude ; but it is not altogether unconnected with the
position of the eye, and the circumscribed use which its
peculiar mode of life permits it to make of the faculty
of sight.

Chap, ni.]

THE ELEPHA]S"T.

95

All the elephant hunters and natives to whom I have
spoken on the subject, concur in opinion that its rano-e
of vision is circumscribed, and that it relies more on its
ear and sense of smell than on its sight, which is liable
to be obstructed by dense foliage ; besides which, from
the formation of its short neck, the elephant is incapable
of directing the range of the eye much above the level
of the head.^

The elephant's small range of vision is sufficient to
account for its excessive caution, its alarm at unusual
noises, and the timidity and panic exhibited at trivial

* After writing the above, I was
permitted by the late Dr. Haeei-
SON, of Dublin, to see some accurate
drawings of the brain of an ele-
phant, which he had the opportu-
nity of dissecting in 1847 ; and on
looking to that of the base, I have

found a remarkable verification of
the information which I collected
in Ceylon,

The small figure A is the gan-
glion of the fifth nerve, showing
the small motor and large sensitive
portion.

Olfactory lobes — large.

Optic nerve — email.

'^I^i'l?^ Third pair — email.
■^^ "'ij Fourth pair — small.

— The two portions of the fifth pair, the sensi-
tive portion very large, for the proboscis.
Sixth pair — small.

Seventh pair — portio dura, or motor, very
large for proboscis.

The olfactory lobes, from which
the olfactory nerves proceed, are
large, whilst the oiptic and muscular
nerves of the orbit are singularly
small for so vast an animal ; and
one is immediately struck by the
prodigious size of the fifth nerve,

which supplies the proboscis with
its exquisite sensibility, as well as
by the great size of the motor por-
tion of the seventh, which supplies
the same organ with its power of
movement and action.

96 MA^iIMALIA. [Chap. HI.

objects and incidents which, imperfectly discerned, excite
suspicions for its safety.^ In 1841 an officer ^ was chased
by an elephant that he had slightly wounded. Seizing
him near the dry bed of a river, the animal had its fore-
foot already raised to crush him ; but its forehead being
caught at the instant by the tendrils of a climbing plant
which had suspended itself from the branches above, it
suddenly turned and fled ; leaving him badly hurt, but
with no limb broken. I have heard similar instances,
equally well attested, of this peculiarity in the ele-
phant.

On the other hand, the power of smell is so remark-
able as almost to compensate for the deficiency of sight.
A herd is not only apprised of the approach of dan-
ger by this means, but when scattered in the forest, and
dispersed out of range of sight, they are enabled by it
to reassemble with rapidity and adopt precautions for
their common safety. The same necessity is met by a
delicate sense of hearing, and the use of a variety of
noises or calls, by means ot which elephants succeed in
communicating with each other upon all emergencies.
" The sounds which they utter have been described by
the African hunters as of three kinds : the first, which is
very shrill, produced by blowing through the trunk, is
indicative of pleasure ; the second, produced by the
mouth, is expressive of want ; and the third, proceeding
from the throat, is a terrific roar of anger or revenge."^
These words convey but an imperfect idea of the variety
of noises made by the elephant in Ceylon; and the
shrill cry produced by blowing through his trunk, so far

^ Menageries^ ^~c., " The Ele- found in the Ceylon Miscellany for

phant," p. 27. 1842, vol. i. p. 221.

2 Major EoGEES. An account of • Menageries, ^'c, " The Ele-

this singular adventure mil be phant," ch. iii. p. 68.

Chap, ni.] THE ELEPHANT. 97

from being regarded as an indication of *^ pleasure," is
the well-known cry of rage with which he rushes to en-
counter an assailant. Aristotle describes it as resem-
bling the hoarse sound of a " trumpet." ^ The French
still designate the proboscis of an elephant by the same
expression "trompe," (which we have unmeaningly
corrupted into trunk,) and hence the scream of the
elephant is known as " trumpeting " by the hunters in
Ceylon. Their cry when in pain, or when subjected to
compulsion, is a grunt or a deep groan from the throat,
with the proboscis curled upwards and the lips wide apart.

Should the attention of an individual in the herd be
attracted by any unusual appearance in the forest, the
intelligence is rapidly communicated by a low suppressed
sound made by the lips, somewhat resembling the twit-
tering of a bird, and described by the hunters by the
word "pru^."

A very remarkable noise has been described to me
by more than one individual, who has come unex-
pectedly upon a herd during the night, when the alarm
of the elephants was apparently too great to be satis-
fied with the stealthy note of warning just described.
On these occasions the sound produced resembled the
hollow booming of an empty tun when struck with a
wooden mallet or a muffled sledge. Major Macready,
Military Secretary in Ceylon in 1836, who heard it by
night amongst the wild elephants in the great forest of
Bintenne, describes it as " a sort of banging noise like a

^ Aristotle, Be Anim., lib. iv. with drawings illustratiye of the

c. 9. " bfiolot/ adxiriyyi." See also strange animals of the East.

Pliny, lib. x. eh. exiii. A manu- Amongst them are two elephants,

script in the Bi'itish Museum, con- whose trunks are literally in the

taining the romance of '^ Alex- form of trumpets with expanded

ander," which is probably of the mouths. See Wright's Archceolo-

fifteenth centurj^ is interspersed gical Album, p. 176.

H

98 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

cooper hammering a cask;" and Major Skinner is of
opinion that it must be produced by the elephant strik-
ing his sides rapidly and forcibly with his trunk. Mr.
Cripps informs me that he has more than once seen an
elephant, when surprised or alarmed, produce this sound
by striking the ground forcibly with the flat side of
the trunk ; and this movement was instantly succeeded
by raising it again, and pointing it in the direction
whence the alarm proceeded, as if to ascertain by the
sense of smell the nature of the threatened danger.
As this strange sound is generally mingled with the bel-
lowing and ordinary trumpeting of the herd, it is in all
probability a device resorted to, not alone for warning
their companions of some approaching peril, but also
for the additional purpose of terrifying unseen in-
truders.^

Elephants are subject to deafness ; and the Singhalese
regard as the most formidable of all wild animals, a
"rogue "2 afflicted with this infirmity.

Extravagant estimates are recorded of the height of
the elephant. In an age when popular fallacies in re-
lation to him were as yet uncorrected in Europe by the
actual inspection of the living animal, he was supposed
to grow to the height of twelve or fifteen feet. Even
within the last century in popular works on natural his-
tory, the elephant, when full grown, was said to measure
from seventeen to twenty feet from the ground to the
shoulder.^ At a still later period, so imperfectly had

• Pallegoix, in his Description a celui du cor." — Tom. i. p. 151.
du Royaume Thai ou Slam, adverts - For an explanation of the term

to a sound produced by the ele- "rogue" as applied to an elephant,

phant when weary: "quand il est see p. 115.

fatigue, il frappe la terre avec sa ^ Natural History of Ayiimals.

trompe, et en tire un son semblable By Sir John Hill, M.D. London,

i

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 99

the facts been collated, that the elephant of Ceylon was
believed " to excel that of Africa in size and strength." ^
But so far from equalling the size of the African species,
that of Ceylon seldom exceeds the height of nine feet; even
in the Hambangtotte country, where the hunters agree
that the largest specimens are to be found, the tallest of
ordinary herds do not average more than eight feet.
Wolf, in his account of the Ce3don elephant^, says he
saw one taken near Jaffna, which measured twelve feet
and one inch high. But the truth is, that the general
bulk of the elephant so far exceeds that of the ani-
mals which we are accustomed to see daily, that the ima-
gination magnifies its unusual dimensions; and I have
seldom or ever met with an inexperienced spectator who
did not unconsciously over-estimate the size of an ele-
phant shown to him, whether in captivity or in a state
of nature. Major Denham would have guessed some
which he saw in Africa to be sixteen feet in height, but

1748-52, p. 565. A probable source 4t., p. 164. Wolf was a native of

of these false estimates is men- Mecklenburg, who arrived in Ceylon

tioned by a writer in the Indian about 1750, as chaplain in one of

Sporting Review for Oct. 1857. the Dutch East Indiamen, and hav-

" Elephants were measured for- ing been taken into the government

merly, and even now, by natives, employment, he served for twenty

as to their height, by throwing a years at Jaffna, first as Secretary

rope over them, the ends brought to the Governor, and afterwards in

to the ground on each side, and an ofl&ce the duties of which he

half the length taken as the true describes to be the examination

height. Hence the origin of ele- and signature of the "writings

phants fifteen and sixteen feet which sei-ved to commence a suit

high. A rod held at right angles in any of the Courts of justice."

to the measuring rod, and parallel His book embodies a truthful and

to the ground, will rarely give generally accurate account of the

more than ten feet, the majority northern portion of the island,

being under nine." — P. 159. with which alone he was conver-

' i^uAVf's Zoology. Lond. 1806. sant, and his narrative gives a

vol. i. p. 216; Arm.yndi, Hist, curious insight into the policy of

Milit. des Elephans, liv. i. ch. i. the Dutch Government, and of the

p. 2. condition of the natives under their

^ Wolf's Life and Adventures, dominion.

H 2

]00

MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

the largest when killed was found to measure nine feet
six, from the foot to the hip-bone.^

For a creature of such extraordinary weight it is asto-
nishing how noiselessly and stealthily the elephant can
escape from a pursuer. \\Tien suddenly disturbed
in the jungle, it will burst away with a rush that seems
to bear down all before it; but the noise sinks into
absolute stillness so suddenly, that a novice might well
be led to suppose that the fugitive had only halted within
a few yards of him, when further search will disclose
that it has 'stolen silently away, making scarcely a
sound in its escape ; and, stranger still, leaving the
foliage almost undisturbed by its passage.

The most venerable delusion respecting the elephant,

and that which held its ground with unequalled tenacity,

is the ancient fallacy which is explained by Sir Thomas

Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, that "it hath no

joynts ; and this absurdity is seconded by another, that

being unable to lye downe it sleepeth against a tree,

which the hunters observing doe saw almost asunder,

whereon the beast relying, by the fall of the tree falls

also downe it-selfe and is able to rise no more."^ Sir

Thomas is disposed to think that " the hint and "ground

of this opinion might be the grosse and somewhat

cylindricall composure of the legs of the elephant, and

the equality and lesse perceptible disposure of the

joynts, especially in the forelegs of this animal, they

' Denham's Travels, ^r., 4to Falconer "that out of eleven hun-
p. 220. The fossil remains of the dred elephants from which the tall-
Indian elephant have been dis- est were selected and measured
covered at Jabalpur, showing a with care, on one occasion in India,
height of fifteen feet.—Journ. there was not one whose height
Asiat. Soc. Beng. vi. Professor equalled eleven feet."
Ansted in his Ancient World, p. ^ Vulgar Errors, \)o6km..chdi^.\.
197, says he was informed by Dr.

Chap. III.]

THE ELEPHANT.

101

appearing, when he standeth, like pillars of flesh ; " but
he overlooks the fact that Pliny has ascribed the same
peculiarity to the Scandinavian beast somewhat resem-
bling a horse, which he calls a " machlis," ^ and that
C^SAR in describing the wild animals in the Hercynian
forests, enumerates the alee, " in colour and configura-
tion approaching the goat, but surpassing it in size, its
head destitute of horns and its limbs of joints, whence
it can neither lie down to rest, nor rise if by any acci-
dent it should fall, but using the trees for a resting-place,
the hunters by loosening their roots bring the alee to
the ground, so soon as it is tempted to lean on them." ^
This fallacy, as Sir Thomas Browne says, is " not the
daughter of latter times, but an old and grey-headed
errour, even in the days of Aristotle," who deals with
the story as he received it from Ctesias, by whom it

' Machlis (said to be derived
from a, priv., and kKivoo, cubo,
quod non cubat). " Moreover in
the island of Scandinavia there is a
beast called Machlis, that hath
neither ioynt in the hough, nor
pasternes in his hind legs, and there-
fore he never lieth do"mi, but sleep-
eth leaning to a tree, wherefore the
hunters that lie in wait for these
beasts cut downe the trees while
they are asleepe, and so take them;
otherwise they should never be
taken, they are so swift of foot that
it is wonderful." — Pliny, Natur.
Hist. Transl. Philemon Holland,
book viii. eh. xv. p, 200.

* "Sunt item quae appellantur
Alces. Harum est consimilis cap-
reis figura, et varietas pellium ;
sed magnitudine paulo anteeedunt,
mutdseque sunt cornibus, et crura
sine nodis articulisque habent ;
neque quietis causa procumbunt;
Deque, si quo afflictse casu con-

siderunt. erigere sese aut subleva-
re possunt. His sunt arbores pro
cubilibus; ad eas sese applicant,
atque ita, paulum modo reclinatte,
quietem capiunt, quarum ex vesti-
giis cum est animadversum a vena-
toribus, quo se recipere consueve-
rint, omnes eo loco, aut a radicibus
subruunt aut aecidunt arbores tan-
tum, ut sunima species earum stan-
tium relinquatur. Hue cum se
cousuetudine reclinaverint. infirmas
arbores pondere af&igunt, atque
una ipspe concidunt." — C^sab, De
Bello Gall. lib. vi. ch. xxvii.

The same fiction was extended by
the early Arabian travellers to the
rhinoceros, and in the MS, of the
voyages of the " Two Mahometans,'^
it is stated that the rhinoceros of
Sumatra "n'a point d" articulation
au genou ni a la main." — Relations
des Voyages, §-c., Paris, 1845, vol. i
p. 29.

H 3

]02 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

appears to have been embodied in his lost work on India.
But although Aristotle generally receives the credit of
having exposed and demolished the fallacy of Ctesias, it
will be seen by a reference to his treatise On the Pro-
gressive Motions of Animals, that in reality he ap-
proached the question with some hesitation, and has not
only left it doubtful in one passage whether the ele-
phant has joints in his knee, although he demonstrates
that it has joints in the shoulders ^ ; but in another
he distinctly affirms that on account of his weight the
elephant cannot bend his forelegs together, but only one
at a time, and reclines to sleep on that particular side. ^
So great was the authority of Aristotle, that ^lian,
who wrote two centuries later and borrowed many of his
statements from the works of his predecessor, perpetuates,
this error ; and, after describing the exploits of the
trained elephants exhibited at Rome, adds the expres-
sion of his surprise, that an animal without joints
(avapOpov) should yet be able to dance.^ The fiction
was too agreeable to be readily abandoned by the poets

1 "When an animal moves pro- Be Ingrcssu Anim., ch. ix. Taylor's

gressively an hypothenuse is pro- Transl.

duced, which is equal in power to " Aristotle, Be Animal., lib. ii.
the magnitude that is quiescent, ch. i. It is curious that Taylor, in
and to that which is intermediate, his translation of this passage, was
But since the members are equal, so strongly imbued with the "grey-
it is necessary that the member headed errour," that in order to
which is quiescent should be in- elucidate the somewhat obscure
fleeted either in the knee or in the meaningof Aristotle, he has actually
incurvation, if the animal that interpolated the text with the ex-
walks is without knees. It is pos- ploded fallacy of Ctesias, and after
sible, however, for the leg to be the word reclining to sleep, has in-
moved, when not inflected, in the serted the words ^^ leaning against
same manner as infants creep; and some wall or tree" which are not to
there is an ancient report of this be found in the original,
kind about elephants, which is not ' "Z^oj/ Se dvap6pov avvi^vai koX
true, for such animals as these, pvdfxov koI ij.4\ovs, koI (bvkdTTeiv
are moved in conseq2itnce of an in- (tx^m" (pvaews Swpa ravra a/ma kuI
.flection taking jjlace either in their 15i6tt]s Kad' 'iKacrrov e/cTrArj/cTtJc^," —
shoulders or hi^sJ' — Aeistotle, iEnANjDeAa^.^nm.jlib. ii.cap. xi.

9

Chap, m.] THE ELEPHANT. 103

of the Lower Empire and the Eomancers of the middle
ages; and Phile, a contemporary of Petrarch and
Dante, who in the early part of the fourteenth century,
addressed his didactic poem on the elephant to the Em-
peror Andronicus II., untaught by the exposition of
Aristotle, still clung to the old delusion,

" nJSes 5e TouTOJ Qavfxa koX aacpes r^pas,
Ovs, ov Kaddnep raAAa ratv ^wwv "yivi],
Elfcofle Kiv€iv e| avapSpuv KAaaixdrcav
Kai yap ariSapois auvTedevres 6(Tt4ois,
Kal T^ 7r\a5apa twv (T(pvpu>v KaTaaToicrei,
Kal Trj irphs &pdpa tu>v (TK^Auv inroKpi(T€i,
Nw els t6vovs dyouai, vvv eis vcfteaeis,
Tas travToSaTras iK^pofxas tov dr^plov.

******
Bpaxvrepovs ovras 5^ twu diTLcrOicov
' Avaix(pi\4KTws ol5a tovs e^irpoadiovs'
TovTois i\e(pas ivradels Ssairep (ttvKois
'OpQo(jTa5i]v &,KafMTrTos vizvwttosv /xeVet."

V. 106, &c.

SoLiNUS introduced the same fable into his Polyhistor ;
and DicuiL, the Irish commentator of the ninth century,
who had an opportunity of seeing the elephant sent
by Haroun Alraschid as a present to Charlemagne ^ in
the year 802, corrects the error, and attributes its per-
petuation to the circumstance that the joints in the
elephant's leg are not very apparent, except when he
lies down.^

It is a strong illustration of the vitality of error,
that the delusion thus exposed by Dicuil in the ninth
century, was revived by Matthew Paris in the thir-
teenth; and stranger still, that Matthew not only saw

' EoiXHAJtD, Vita Karoli, c. xvi. Imperatoris Karoli videnint. Sed,

and Aornales Francorurn, a.d. 810. forsitan, ideo hoc de elephante ficte

2 "Sed idem Julius, unum de sestimando scriptum est, eo quod

elephantibus mentiens, falso loqui- genua et suffragines sui nisi quando

tur; dicens elephantem nunquam jacet, non palam apparent." — Di-

jacere; dumille sicut bos cert issime cinxrs, De Mensura Orbis Ttrroe,

jacet, ut populi communiter regni c. vii.
Francorurn elephantem, in tempore

H 4

104

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. IH.

but made a drawing of the elephant presented to King
Henry III. by the King of France in 1255, in which he
nevertheless represents the legs as wdthout joints.^

In the numerous mediaeval treatises on natural his-
tory, knowTi under the title of Bestiaries, this delusion
regarding the elephant is often repeated ; and it is given
at length in a metrical version of the Physiologiis of
Theoraldus, amongst the Arundel Manuscripts in the
British Museum. ^

With the Provencal song writers, the helplessness of
the fallen elephant was a favourite simile, and amongst
others Kichard de Baebezteux, in the latter half of the
twelfth century, sung^.

1 Cotton MSS. Nero. D. 1. fol.
168, b.

2 Arundel MSS. No 292, fol.
4, &c. It has been printed in the
ReliquicB Antiquce, vol. i. p. 208, by
Mr. Wright, to whom I am in-
debted for the following rendering
of the passage referred to : —

in water ge sal stonden

in water to mid side

^at wanne hire harde tide

iat ge ne falle ni?er nogt

^at it most in hire <5ogt

for he ne hayen no liS

<5at he mugen risen wicS, etc.

•' They will stand in the water,

in water up to the middle of the side,

that when it comes to them hard,

they may not fall down :

that is most in their thought,

for they have no joint

to enable them to rise again.

How he restPth him this animal,

when he walketh abroad,

hearken how it is here told.

For he is all unwieldy,

forsooth he seeks out a tree,

that is strong and stedfast,

and leans confidently agamst it,

when he is weary of walking.

The hunter has observed this,

who seeks to ensnare him,

where his usual dwelling is,

to do his will;

saws this tree and props it

in the manner that he best may,

covers it well that he (the elephant) may

not be on his guard.
Then he makes thereby a seat,
himself sits alone and watches
whether his trap takes effect.
Then cometh this unwieldy elephant,
and leans him on his side,
rests against the tree in the shadow,
and so both fall together,
if nobody be by when he falls,
he roars ruefully and calls for help,
roars ruefully in his manner,
hopes he shall through help rise.
Then cometh there one (elephant) in haste,
hopes he shall cause him to stand up;
labours and tries all his might,
but he cannot succeed a bit.
He knows then no other remedy,
but roars with his brother,
majiy and large (elephants) come there in

search,
thinking to make him get up,
but for the help of them all
he may not get up.
Then they all roar one roar,
like the blast of a horn or the sound of bell ;
for their great roaring
a young one cometh running,
stoops immediately to him,
puts his snout under him,
and asks the help of them all ;
this elephant they raise on his legs ;
and thus fails this hunter's trick,
in the manner that 1 have told you."

' One of the most venerable au-
thorities by whom the fallacy was
transmitted to modern times was
Philip de Thaun, who wrote, about

Chap, m.] THE ELEPHAJS'T. 105

" Atressi cimi 1' olifans
Que quan chai no s' pot levar."

As elephants were but rarely seen in Europe prior to
the seventeenth century, there were but few opportuni-
ties of correcting the popular fallacy by ocular demon-
stration. Hence Shakspeare still believed that,

" The elephant hath joints ; but none for courtesy :
His legs are for necessity, not flexure :" •

and Donne sang of

" Nature's great masterpiece, an Elephant ;
The only harmless great thing :
Yet Nature hath given him no knee to bend :
Himself he up-props, on himself relies ;
Still sleeping stands." ^

Sir Thomas Beowne, while he argues against the
delusion, does not fail to record his suspicion, that
"although the opinion at present be reasonably well
suppressed, yet from the strings of tradition and fruit-
ful recurrence of errour, it was not improbable it might
revive in the next generation ;"^ — an anticipation which
has proved singularly correct ; for the heralds still con-
tinued to explain that the elephant is the emblem of
watchfulness, " nee jacet in sonino,'^'^ and poets almost
of our own times paint the scene when

the year 1121, A.D., his lAvre des E le gentdelaterre, ki ll volpnt conquere,

CrpnfyrP9 flpfliVflfpf! tn ^(\pW^c\p nf ^ mur enfunderunt, u le arbre enciserunt;

f^reatures, oecucatea to Aaeiaiae oi q^^..^ jj gigj-g,,^ vendrat, ki s'i apuierat,

Louvame, Queen of Henry I. of La arbre u le mur carrat, e il tribucherat ;

England. In the copy of it printed ^^^^ faiterement le parnent cele gent."
by the Historical Society of Science i m -7 7^ ., '.. '

in 1841, and edited by i. Wright, , ^T.^^f. «^^ Cressida, act 11. sc.
^.v, ^ 11 • •' '3. A.D. 1609.
the toilo wing passage occurs: — „„ r^-, c^ ,

^ ^ ^ 2 Progress of the Sold, a.d. 1633.

" Et Ysidres nus dit ki le elefant descrit, ^ Sir T. Beo^T^, Vulgar Errors,

k^ T\ "y CI A a.
Es jambes par nature nen ad que une join- * *" -r> ' -rr .

ture, * Kandal Home s Academy of

11 ne pot pas gesir quant il se volt dormir, Armory, A.D. 1671. Home only

Ke 81 cachet estait par sei nen leverait; ^^,^^^„„+ a 4.\. jy r^

Pur <;eo li slot apuier, el lui del cucher, perpetuated the error of Guililim,

U a arbre u a mur, idunc dort aseur. who wrote his Display of Heraldry

106 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

"Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast
Their ample shade on Niger's yellow stream,
Or where the Granges rolls his sacred waves,
Leans the huge Elephant." •

It is not difficult to see whence this antiquated dehi-
sion took its origin ; nor is it, as Sir Thomas Browne
imagined, to be traced exclusively " to the grosse and
cylindrical 1 structure " of the animal's legs. The fact
is, that the elephant, returning in the early morning
from his nocturnal revels in the reservoirs and water-
courses, is accustomed to rub his muddy sides against
a tree, and sometimes against a rock if more convenient.
In my rides through the northern forests, the natives of
Ceylon have often pointed out that the elephants which
had preceded me must have been of considerable size,
from the heisfht at which their marks had been left on
the trees against which they had been rubbing. Not
unfrequently the animals themselves, overcome with
drowsiness from the night's gambolling, are found
dosing and resting against the trees they had so visited,
and in the same manner they have been discovered by
sportsmen asleep, and leaning against a rock.

It is scarcely necessary to explain that the position is
accidental, and that it is taken by the elephant not from
any difficulty in lying at length on the ground, but
rather from the coincidence that the structure of his
legs affords such support in a standing position, that
reclining scarcely adds to his enjoyment of repose ; and
elephants in a state of captivity have been known for

in A.D. 1610; wherein he explains he), and when he is once down he

that the elephant is " so proud of cannot rise up again." — Sec. m. ch.

his strength that he never bows xii. p. 147.

himself to any {neither indeed can * Thomson's Seasons, a.d. 1728.

Chaf. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 107

months together to sleep without lying down.^ So
distinctive is this formation, and so self-sustaining the
configuration of the limbs, that an elephant shot in the
brain, by Major Eogers in 1836, was killed so instan-
taneously that it died literally on its knees, and remained
resting on them. About the year 1826, Captain Daw-
son, the engineer of the great road to Kandy, over the
Kaduganava pass, shot an elephant at Hangwelle on
the banks of the Kalany Granga ; it reiniained on its feet,
but so motionless, that after discharging a few more balls,
he was induced to go close to it, and found it dead.

The real peculiarity in the elephant in lying down is,
that he extends his hind legs backwards as a man does
when he kneels, instead of bringing them under him
like the horse or any other quadruped. The wise pur-
pose of this arrangement must be obvious to any one
who observes the struggle with which the horse gets up
from the ground, and the violent efforts which he
makes to raise himself erect. Such an exertion in the
case of the elephant, and the force requisite to apply
a similar movement to raise his weight (equal to four
or five tons) would be attended with a dangerous
strain upon the muscles, and hence the simple arrange-
ment, which by enabling him to draw the hind feet
gradually under him, assists him to rise without a per-
ceptible effort.

The same construction renders his gait not a "gallop,"

* So little is the elephant inclined phant to sleep on his legs, to the

to lie dowai in captivity, and even difficulty he experiences in rising

after hard labour, that the keepers to his feet :
are generally disposed to suspect

illness when he betakes himself to ^OpdoardS-qv Se koI KaOevSei Travvvx<^s
this posture. Phile, in his poem "Ot ovKauaarriaai iJ,ev€uxepu>s'rr4Xu,
De Animalium Proprietate, attri-
butes the propensity of the ele- But this is a misapprehension.

108

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. IH.

as it has been somewhat loosely described^, which would
be too violent a motion for so vast a body; but a shuffle,
that he can increase at pleasure to a pace as rapid as
that of a man at full speed, but which he cannot main-
tain for any considerable distance.

It is to the structure of the knee-joint that the ele-
phant is indebted for his singular facility in ascending
and descending steep aclivities, climbing rocks and tra-
versing precipitous ledges, where even a mule dare not

* Menageries, ^c. "The elephant,"
ch. i.

Sir Charles Bell, in his essay
on The Hand and its Mechanism,
which forms one of the "Bridge-
water Treatises," has exhibited the
reasons dedueible from organisation,
which show the incapacity of the
elephant to spring or leap like the
horse and other animals whose
structure is designed to facilitate
agility and speed. In them the
various bones of the shoulder and
fore limbs, especially the clavicle
and humerus, are set at such an
angle, that the shock in descending
is modified, and the joints and

sockets protected from the injury
occasioned by concussion. But in
the elephant, where the weight of
the body is immense, the bones of
the leg, in order to present solidity
and strength to sustain it, are built
in one firm and perpendicular
column ; instead of being placed
somewhat obliquely at their points
of contact. Thus whilst the force
of the weight in descending is
broken and distributed by this
arrangement in the case of the
horse ; it would be so concentrated
in the elephant as to endanger
every joint from the toe to the
shoidder.

Chap, ni.] THE ELEPHANT. 109

venture ; and this again leads to the correction of an-
other generaUy received error, that his legs are " formed
more for strength than flexibility, and fitted to bear an
enormous weight upon a level surface, without the ne-
cessity of ascending or descending great acclivities." ^
The same authority assumes that, although the elephant
is found in the neighbourhood of mountainous ranges,
and will even ascend rocky passes, such a service is a
violation of its natural habits.

Of the elephant of Africa I am not qualified to speak,
nor of the nature of the ground which it most frequents;
but certainly the facts in connection with the elephant
of India are all irreconcilable with the theory mentioned
above. In Bengal, in the Nilgherries, in Nepal, in
Burmah, in Siam, Sumatra, and Ceylon, the districts in
which the elephants most abound, are all hilly and
mountainous. In the latter, especially, there is not
a ranofe so elevated as to be inaccessible to them.
On the very summit of Adam's Peak, at an altitude of
7,420 feet, and on a pinnacle which the pilgrims climb
with difiiculty, by means of steps hewn in the rock.
Major Skinner, in 1840, found the spoor of an elephant.
Prior to 1840, and before coffee-plantations had been
extensively opened in the Kandyan ranges, there was not
a mountain or a lofty feature of land of Ceylon which
they had not traversed, in their periodical migrations in
search of water ; and the sagacity which they display in
" laying out roads " is almost incredible. They gene-
rally keep along the backbone of a chain of hills, avoid-
ing steep gradients : and one curious observation was
not lost upon the government surveyors, that in crossing

* Menageries, ^r., " The Elephant," ch. ii.

110

MMIMALIA.

[Chap. III.

the valleys from ridge to ridge, through forests so dense
as altogether to obstruct a distant view, the elephants
invariably select the line of march which communicates
most judiciously with the opposite point, by means of
the safest forcU So sure-footed are they, that there
are few places where man can go that an elephant can-
not follow, provided there be space to admit his bulk,
and solidity to sustain his weight.

This faculty is almost entirely derived from the
unusual position, as compared with other quadrupeds,
of the knee joint of the hind leg ; arising from the
superior length of the thigh-bone, and the shortness of
the metatarsus : the heel being almost where it pro-
jects in man, instead of being lifted up as a "hock."
It is this which enables him, in descending declivities,
to depress and adjust the weight of his hinder por-
tions, which would otherwise overbalance and force him
headlong.^ It is by the same arrangement that he is

' Dr. Hooker, in describing the
ascent of the Himalayas, says, the
natives in making their paths de-
spise all zigzags, and run in straight
lines up the steepest hill faces ;
whilst "the elephant's path is an ex-
cellent specimen of engineering —
the opposite of the native track, —
for it winds judiciously." — Hbna-
layan Journal^ vol. i. ch. iv.

2 Since the above passage was
written, I have seen in the Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
vol. xiii. pt. ii. p. 916, a paper
upon this subject, illustrated by
the subjoined diagram.

The writer says, " an elephant
descending a bank of too acute an
angle to admit of his walking down
it direct, (which, were he to at-
tempt, his huge body, soon disar-
ranging the centre of gravity, would

certainly topple over,) proceeds
thus. His first manoeuvre is to
kneel down close to the edge of the
declivity, placing his chest to the
ground : one fore-leg is then cau-
tiously passed a short way down
the slope ; and if there is no natu-
ral protection to afford a firm foot-
ing, he speedily forms one by
stamping into the soil if moist, or
kicking out a footing if dry. This
point gained, the other fore-leg is
Ijrought down in the same way ;
and performs the same work, a
little in advance of the first ; which
is thus at liberty to move lower
still. Then, first one and then the
second of the hind legs is carefully
drawn over the side, and the hind-
feet in turn occupy the resting-
places previously used and left by
the fore ones. The course, how-

Chap. IH.]

THE ELEPH.\JfT.

Ill

enabled, on uneven ground, to lift his feet, which are
tender and sensitive, with delicacy, and plant them
with such precision as to ensure his own safety as
well as that of objects which it is expedient to avoid
touching.

A herd of elephants is a family, not a group whom
accident or attachment may have induced to associate
together. Similarity of features and caste attest that,
among the various individuals which compose it, there
is a common lineage and relationship. In a herd of

ever, in such precipitous ground is but slopes along the face of the
not straight from top to bottom, bank, descending till the animal

¥^ ""Q^^w-

gains the level below. This an operation." I hare observed that

elephant has done, at an angle of an elephant in descending a de-

45 degrees, carrying a howdah, its cli^dty uses his knees, on the side

occupant, his attendant, and sport- next the bank ; and his feet on the

ing apparatus ; and in a much less lower side only,
time than it takes to describe the

112 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

twenty-one elephants, captured in 1844, the trunks of
each individual presented the same peculiar formation,
— long, and almost of one uniform breadth throughout,
instead of tapering gradually from the root to the nostril.
In another instance, the eyes of thirty-five taken in one
corral were of the same colour in each. The same slope
of the back, the same form of the forehead, is to be de-
tected in the majority of the same group.

In the forest several herds will browse in close con-
tiguity, and in their expeditions in search of water they
may form a body of possibly one or two hundred ; but
on the slightest disturbance each distinct herd hastens
to re-form within its own particular circle, and to take
measures on its own behalf for retreat or defence.

The natives of any place which may chance to be fre-
quented by elephants, observe that the numbers of the
same herd fluctuate very slightly ; and hunters in pur-
suit of them, who may chance to have shot one or more,
always reckon with certainty the precise number of
those remaining, although a considerable interval may
intervene before they again encounter them. The pro-
portion of males is generally small, and some herds have
been seen composed exclusively of females ; possibly in
consequence of the males having been shot. A herd
usually consists of from ten to twenty individuals, though
occasionally they exceed the latter number ; and in
their frequent migrations and nightly resort to tanks
and water-courses, alliances are formed between mem-
bers of associated herds, which serve to introduce new
blood into the family.

In illustration of the attachment of the elephant to
its young, the authority of Knox has been quoted, that
" the shees are alike tender of any one's young ones as

Chap. III.]

THE ELEPHAXT.

113

of their own." ^ Their affection in this particular is
undoubted, but I question whether it exceeds that of
other animals ; and the trait thus adduced of their
indiscriminate kindness to all the young of the herd,
— of which I have myself been an eye-witness, — so far
from being an evidence of the strengih of parental
attachment individually, is, perhaps, somewhat incon-
sistent with the existence of such a passion to any
extraordinary degree.^ In fact, some individuals, who
have had extensive facilities for observation, doubt
whether the fondness of the female elephants for their
offspring is so great as that of many other animals ; as

' A correspondent of BufFon, M.
Majrcellus Bles, Seigneur de
Moergestal, who resided eleven
years in Ceylon in the time of the
Dutch, says in one of his commu-
nications, that in herds of forty or
fifty, enclosed in a single corral,
there were frequently yeiy young
calves ; and that "on ne pouroit
pas reconnaitre quelles etoient les
meres de chacun de ces petits ele-
phans, car tons ces jeunes animaux
paroissent faire manse commime ;
ils tetent indistinctement celles des
femelles de toute la troupe qui ont
du lait, soit qu'elles aient elles-
memes un petit en propre, soit
qu' elles n' en aient point." — Buffox,
Suppl. a V Hist, des Anim., roL yi.
p. 25.

- White, in his Natural History
of Selborne, philosophising on the
fact which had fallen under his owti
notice of this indiscriminate suck-
ling of the young of one animal
by the parent of another, is dis-
posed to ascribe it to a selfish feel-
ing ; the pleasure and relief of
haying its distended teats drawn
by this intervention. He notices

the circumstance of a leveret having
been thus nursed by a cat, whose
kittens had been recently drowned :
and observes, that "this strange
affection was probably occasioned
by that desiderium, those tender
maternal feelings, which the loss of
her kittens had awakened in her
breast ; and by the complacency
and ease she derived to herself
from procuring her teats to be
drawn, which were too much dis-
tended with milk ; till from habit
she became as much delighted with
this foundling as if it had been
her real offspring. This incident
is no bad solution of that strange
circumstance which grave historians,
as well as the poets, assert of ex-
posed children being sometimes
nurtured by female wild beasts
that probably had lost their young.
For it is not one whit more mar-
vellous that Romulus and Eemus
in their infant state should be
nursed by a she wolf than that a
poor little suckling leveret should
be fostered and cherished by a
bloody Grimalkin." — White's '^Sel-
borne, lett. XX.

114 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

instances are not wanting in Ceylon, in which, when
pursued by the hunters, the herd has abandoned the
young ones in their flight, notwithstanding the cries of
the latter for help.

In an interesting paper on the habits of the Indian
elephant, published in the Philosophical Transac-
tions for 1793, Mr. Corse says: "If a wild elephant
happens to be separated from its young for only two
days, though giving suck, she never after recognises or
acknowledges it," although the young one evidently
knows its dam, and by its plaintive cries and submissive
approaches solicits her assistance.

If by any accident an elephant becomes hopelessly
separated from his own herd, he is not permitted to
attach himself to any other. He may browse in the
vicinity, or frequent the same place to drink and to
bathe ; but the intercourse is only on a distant and con-
ventional footing, and no familiarity or intimate asso-
ciation is under any circumstances permitted. To such
a height is this exclusiveness carried, that even amidst
the terror and stupefaction of an elephant corral, when
an individual, detached from his own party in the melee
and confusion, has been driven into the enclosure mth
an unbroken herd, I have seen him repulsed in every
attempt to take refuge among them, and driven off by
heavy blows with their trunks as often as he attempted
to insinuate himself mthin the circle which they had
formed for common security. There can be no rea-
sonable doubt that this jealous and exclusive policy not
only contributes to produce, but mainly serves to
perpetuate, the class of solitary elephants which are
known by the term goondahs, in India, and which from

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 115

their vicious propensities and predatory habits are called
Hora, or Rogues, in Ceylon.^

It is believed by the Singhalese that these are either
individuals, who by accident have lost their former
associates and become morose and savage from rage and
solitude; or else that being naturally vicious they have
become daring from the yielding habits of their milder
companions, and eventually separated themselves from
the rest of the herd which had refused to associate with
them. Another conjecture is, that being almost uni-
versally males, the death or cajoture of particular females
may have detached them from their former companions
in search of fresh alliances.^ It is also believed that a
tame elephant escaping from captivity, unable to rejoin
its former herd, and excluded from any other, becomes
a '^rogue^^ from necessity. In Ceylon it is generally
believed that the rogues are all males (but of this I am
not certain), and so sullen is their disposition that

^ The term " rogue " is scarcely term peciiliar to that section of the
sufficiently accounted for by sup- island; but both there and else-
posing it to be the English equiva- where, it is obsolete at the present
lent for the Singhalese word Hora. day, unless it be open to conjecture
In that very curious book, the that the modern term "rogue" is a
Life and Adventures of Johx modification of ronquedue.
Christopher Wolf, late 'princi- ^ Buch.vxax, in his Survey of
fal Secretary at Jaffnapatam in Bhagidjpore, p. 503, says that soli-
Ceylon, the author says, when a tary males of the wild buiFalo,
male elephant in a quarrel about "when driven from the herd by
the females "is beat out of the stronger competitors for female
field and obliged to go without a society, are reckoned very dangerous
consort, he becomes furious and to meet with ; for they are apt to
mad, killing every living creature, wreak their vengeance on what-
be it man or beast: and in this ever they meet, and are said to
state is called ronkcdor, an object kill annually three or four people."
of greater terror to a traveller than Livin-gstoxe relates the same of
a hundred wild ones." — P. 142. the solitary hippopotamus, which
In another passage, p. 164, he is becomes soured in temper, and
called runkedor, and I have seen it wantonly attacks the passing ca-
spelt elsewhere roTZ^Mff/w^. Wolf noes. — Travels in South Africa,
does not give .^^ ronkedor^' as a p. 231.

I 2

116 MAMMALIA. [Chap. HI.

although two may be in the same vicinity, there is no
known instance of their associating, or of a rogue being
seen in company with another elephant.

They spend their nights in marauding, often about
the dwellings of men, destroying their plantations,
trampling down their gardens, and committing serious
ravages in rice grounds and young coco-nut plantations.
Hence from their closer contact with man and his dwell-
ings, these outcasts become disabused of many of the
terrors which render the ordinary elephant timid and
needlessly cautious ; they break through fences without
fear ; and even in the daylight a rogue has been known
near Ambogammoa to watch a field of labourers at work
in reaping rice, and boldly to walk in amongst them, seize
a sheaf from the heap, and retire leisurely to the jungle.
By day they generally seek concealment, but are fre-
quently to be met with prowling about the by-roads and
jungle paths, where travellers are exposed to the utmost
risk from their savage assaults. It is probable that this
hostility to man is the result of the enmity engendered
by those measures which the natives, who have a con-
stant dread of their visits, adopt for the protection of
their growing crops. In some districts, especially in the
low country of Badulla, the villagers occasionally enclose
their cottages with rude walls of earth and branches to
protect them from nightly assaults. In places infested
by them^ the visits of European sportsmen to the vicinity
of their haunts are eagerly encouraged by the natives,
who think themselves happy in lending their services to
track the ordinary herds in consideration of the benefit
conferred on the village communities by the destruction
of a rogue. In 1847 one of these formidable creatures
frequented for some months the Rangbodde Pass on the

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHAXT. Il7

great moimtain road leading to the sanatarium, at
Neuera-ellia; and amongst other excesses, killed a Caffre
belonging to the corps of Caffre pioneers, by seizing
him with its trunk and beating him to death against the
bank.

To return to the herd: one member of it, usually
the largest and most powerful, is by common consent
implicitly followed as leader. A tusker, if there be one
in the party, is generally observed to be the commander;
but a female, if of superior energy, is as readily obeyed
as a male. In fact, in this promotion there is no
reason to doubt that supremacy is almost unconsciously
assumed by those endowed with superior vigour and
courage rather than from the accidental possession of
greater bodily strength; and the devotion and loyalty
which the herd evince to their leader are very re-
markable. This is more readily seen in the case of a
tusker than any other, because in a herd he is generally
the object of the keenest pursuit by the hunters. On
such occasions the others do their utmost to protect him
from danger: when driven to extremity they place their
leader in the centre and crowd so eagerly in front of him
that the sportsmen have to shoot a number which they
might otherwise have spared. In one instance a tusker,
which was badly wounded by Major Eogees, was promptly
surrounded by his companions, who supported him be-
tween their shoulders, and actually succeeded in covering
his retreat to the forest.

Those who have lived much in the jungle in Ceylon,
and who have had constant opportunities of watching
the habits of wild elephants, have witnessed instances of
the submission of herds to their leaders, that suggest an
inquiry of singular interest as to the means adopted by

I 3

118 MAMMALIA. [Chap. m.

the latter to communicate with distinctness, orders
which are observed with the most implicit obedience by
their followers. The following narrative of an adven-
ture in the great central forest toward the north of
the island, communicated to me by Major Skinnek,
who was engaged for some time in surveying and
opening roads through the thickly- wooded districts there,
will serve better than any abstract description to convey
an idea of the conduct of a herd on such occasions : —

"The case you refer to struck me as exhibiting
something more than ordinary brute instinct, and ap-
proached nearer to reasoning powers than any other
instance I can now remember. I cannot do justice to
the scene, although it appeared to me at the time to be
so remarkable that it left a deep impression in my
mind.

" In the height of the dry season in Neuera-Kalawa,
you know the streams are all dried up, and the- tanks
nearly so. All animals are then sorely pressed for
water, and they congregate in the vicinity of those tanks
in which there may remain ever so little of the precious
element.

" During one of those seasons I was encamped on the
bund or embankment of a very small tank, the water in
which was so dried that its surface could not have
exceeded an area of 500 square yards. It was the only
pond within many miles, and I knew that of necessity a
very large herd of elephants, which had been in the
neighbourhood all day, must resort to it at night.

" On the lower side of the tank, and in a line with the
embankment, was a thick forest, in which the elephants
sheltered themselves during the day. On the upper
side and all around the tank there was a considerable

Chap. HI.] THE ELEPHAXT. 119

margin of open ground. It was one of those beautiful
bright, clear, moonlight nights, when objects could be
seen almost as distinctly as by day, and I determined to
avail myself of the " opportunity to observe the move-
ments of the herd, which had already manifested some
uneasiness at our presence. The locality was very
favourable for my purpose, and an enormous tree pro-
jecting over the tank afforded me a secure lodgement in
its branches. Having ordered the fires of my camp to
be extinguished at an early hour, and all my followers to
retire to rest, I took up my post of observation on the
overhanging bough ; but I had to remain for upwards
of two hours before anything was to be seen or heard of
the elephants, although I knew they were within 500
yards of me. At length, about the distance of 300
yards from the water, an unusually large elephant
issued from the dense cover, and advanced cautiously
across the open ground to mthin 1 00 yards of the tank,
where he stood perfectly motionless. So quiet had the
elephants become (although they had been roaring and
breaking the jungle throughout the day and evening),
that not a movement was now to be heard. The huge
vidette remained in his position, still as a rock, for a
few minutes, and then made three successive stealthy
advances of several yards (halting for some minutes
between each, with ears bent forward to catch the
slightest sound), and in this way he moved slowly up to
the water's edge. Still he did not venture to quench
his thirst, for though his fore-feet were partially in the
tank and his vast body was reflected clear in the water,
he remained for some minutes listening in perfect
stillness. Not a motion could be perceived in himself
or his shadow. He returned cautiously and slowly to

I 4

120 MAMMALIA. [Chap. lit

the position he had at first taken up on emerging from
the forest. Here in a little while he was joined by five
others, with which he again proceeded as cautiously, but
less slowly than before, to within a few yards of the
tank, and then posted his patrols. He then re-entered
the forest and collected around him the whole herd,
which must have amounted to between 80 and 100
individuals, — led them across the open ground with the
most extraordinary composure and quietness, till he
joined the advanced guard, when he left them for a
moment and repeated his former reconnoissance at the
edge of the tank. After which, having apparently
satisfied himself that all was safe, he returned and
obviously gave the order to advance, for in a moment
the whole herd rushed into the water with a degree of
unreserved confidence, so opposite to the caution and
timidity which had marked their previous movements,
that nothing will ever persuade me that there was not
rational and preconcerted co-operation throughout the
whole party, and a degree of responsible authority exer-
cised by the patriarch leader.

" WTien the poor animals had gained possession of the
tank (the leader being the last to enter), they seemed
to abandon themselves to enjoyment without restraint
or apprehension of danger. Such a mass of animal life
I had never before seen huddled together in so narrow
a space. It seemed to me as though they would have
nearly drunk the tank dry. I watched them with great
interest until they had satisfied themselves as well in
bathing as in drinking, when I tried how small a noise
would apprise them of the proximity of unwelcome
neighbours. I had but to break a little twig, and the
solid mass instantly took to flight like a herd of fright-

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 121

ened deer, each of the smaller calves being apparently
shouldered and carried along between two of the older
ones." ^

In drinking, the elephant, like the camel, although
preferring water pure, shows no decided aversion to it
when discoloured with mud ^ ; and the eagerness with
which he precipitates himself into the tanks and streams
attests his exquisite enjoyment of the fresh coolness,
which to him is the chief attraction. In crossing deep
rivers, although his rotundity and buoyancy enable him
to swim with a less immersion than other quadrupeds,
he generally prefers to sink till no part of his huge body
is visible except the tip of his trunk, through which he
breathes, moving beneath the surface, and only now and
then raising his head to look that he is keeping the
proper direction.^ In the dry season the scanty streams
which, during the rains, are sufficient to convert the
rivers of the low country into torrents, often entirely
disappear, leaving only broad expanses of dry sand,
which they have swept down with them from the hills.
In this the elephants contrive to sink wells for their
own use by scooping out the sand to the depth of four
or five feet, and leaving a hollow for the percolation of
the spring. But as the weight of the elephant would
force in the side if left perpendicular, one approach is
always formed with such a gradient that he can reach

^ Letter from Major Skuojer. ^ A tame elephant, when taken

2 This peculiarity was known in by his keepers to be bathed, and

the middle ages, and Phdle, writing to have his skin washed and rubbed,

in the fourteenth century, says, that lies down on his side, pressing his

such is his preference for muddy head to the bottom imder water,

water that the elephant stirs it be- with only the top of his trunk

fore he drinks. protruded, to breathe.
""TSwo 5^ TTij/etO'iryxwfleJ'Trplv Uvirivoi
. lh yap 5iei54s oiKpi^cos SiairTvei."
— Phile de Eleph., i. 144.

122

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. in.

the water with his trunk without disturbing the sur-
rounding sand.

^.vy;,',-.'.,-.y-;,'-;i;VJi,';;

I have reason to believe, although the fact has not been
authoritatively stated by naturalists, that the stomach of
the elephant mil be found to include a section analogous
to that possessed by some of the ruminants, calculated
to contain a supply of water as a provision against
emergencies. The fact of his being, enabled to retain a
quantity of water and discharge it at pleasure has been
long known to every observer of the habits of the
animal; but the proboscis has always been supposed to
be " his water-reservoir," ^ and the theory of an internal
receptacle has not been discussed. The truth is that the
anatomy of the elephant is even yet but imperfectly
understood ^, and, although some peculiarities of his

' Brodeeip's Zoological 'Recrea-
tions, p. 259,

t ^ For observing the osteology of
the elephant, materials are of course
abundant in the indestructible re-
mains of the animal : but tlie study
of the intestines, and the dissection
of the softer parts by comparative
anatomists in Europe, have been up
to the present time beset by difficul»
ties. These arise not alone from the
rarity of subjects, but even in cases
where elephants have died in these
countries, decomposition inter-
poses, and before the thorough ex-
amination of so vast a body can be
satisfactorily completed, the great
mass falls into putrefaction.

The principal EngKsh authorities
are An Anatomical Account of the
Elephant accidentally burnt in
Dublin, by A. Molyneux, a.d.
1696 ; which is probably a reprint
of a letter on the same subject in
the library of Trinity College, Dub-
lin, addressed by A. Moulin, to Sir
William Petty, Lond. 1682. There
are also some papers communicated
to Sir Hans Sloane, and afterwards
published in the Philosophical
Transactions of the year 1710, by
Dr. P. Blaib, who had an opportu-
nity of dissecting an elephant
which died at Dundee in 1708.
The latter writer observes that,
" notwithstanding the vast interest

Chaf. ni.]

THE ELEPHANT.

123

stomach were observed at an early period, and even their
configuration described, the function of the abnormal
portion remained undetermined, and has been only re-
cently conjectured. An elephant which belonged to
Louis XIV. died at Versailles in 1681 at the age of
seventeen, and an account of its dissection was published
in the Memoires pour servir a VHistoire Naturelle,
under the authority of the Academy of Sciences, in
which the unusual appendages of the stomach are pointed
out with sufficient particularity, but no suggestion is
made as to their probable uses." ^

attaching to the elephant in all
ages, yet has its body been hitherto
very little subjected to anatomical
inquiries;" and he laments that the
rapid decomposition of the carcase,
and other causes, had interposed
obstacles to the scrutiny of the sub-
ject he "was so fortunate as to find
access to.

In 1723 Dr. "Wm. Stuckley pub-
lished So7ne Anatomical Observa-
tions made upon the Dissection of an
Elephant; but each of the above
essays is necessarily unsatisfactory,
and little has since been done to
supply their defects. One of the
latest and most valuable contribu-
tions to the subjects, is a paper read
before the Royal Irish Academy, on
the 18th of Feb,, 1847, by Profes-
sor Haeeison, who had the oppor-
tunity of dissecting an Indian
elephant which died of acute fever;
but the examination, so far as he has
made it public, extends only to the
cranium, the brain, and the probos-
cis, the larynx, trachea, and oeso-
phagus. An essential service would
be rendered to science if some
sportsman in Ceylon, or some of the
officers connected with the elephant
establishment there, would take the
trouble to forward the carcase of a

young one to England in a state fit
for dissection.

Postscriptum. — I am happy to
say that a young elephant, carefully
preserved in spirits, has recently been
obtained in Ceylon, andfons^ardedto
Prof. Owen, of the British Museum,
by the joint exertions of M. Diard
and Major Skinner. An oppor-
tunity has thus been afforded from
which science will reap advantage,
of devoting a patient attention to
the internal structure of this in-
teresting animal.

^ The passage as quoted by Bur-
Fox from the Memoires is as follows :
— "L'estomac avoit peu de dia-
metre ; il en avoit moins que le
colon, car son diametre n'etoit que
de quatorze pouces dans la partie la
plus large ; il avoit trois pieds et
demi de longueur : 1' orifice superi-
eur etoit a-peu-pres aussi eloigne
du pylore que du fond du grand
cul-de-sac qui se terminoit en une
pointe composee de tuniques beau-
coup plus epaisses que cellesdu reste
de l'estomac; il y avoit au fond du
grand cid-de-sac plusieurs feuillets
epais d'une ligne, larges d'un pouce
et demi, et disposes irregulierement;
le reste de parois interieures etoit
perce de plusieurs petits trous et

124 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

A writer in the Quarterly Revieiv for December 1850,
says that " Camper and other comparative anatomists
have shown that the left, or cardiac end of the stomach
in the elephant is adapted, by several wide folds of lining
membrane, to serve as a receiver for water ; " but this is
scarcely correct, for although Camper has accurately
figured the external form of the stomach, he disposes
of the question of the interior functions with the simple
remark that its folds " semblent en faire une espece de
division paxticuliere." ^ In like manner Sir Everard
Home, in his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, has
not only carefully described the form of the elephant's
stomach, and furnished a drawing of it even more
accurate than Camper ; but he has equally omitted to
assign any purpose to so strange a formation, contenting
himself with observing that the structure is a peculiarity,
and that one of the remarkable folds nearest the orifice
of the diaphragm appears to act as a valve, so that the
portion beyond may be considered as an appendage
similar to that of the hog and the 'peccary ?•

par de plus grands qui correspon- at the extremity, the lining is thick

doient a des grains glanduleux." — and glandular, and is thrown into

BuFFON, Hist. Nat., vol. xi. p. 109. transverse folds, of which five are

' "L'extremiteToisine du cardia broad and nine narrow. That

se termine par une poche tres-con- nearest the orifice of the oesophagus

siderable et doublee a I'interieure is the broadest, and appears to act

du quatorze valvules orbiculaires occasionally as a valve, so that the

que semblent en faire une espece part beyond may be considered as

de division particuli ere." — Camper, an appendage similar to that of

Description Anatomique d^un Ele- the peccary and the hog. The

phant Male, p. 37, tabl. ix. membrane of the cardiac portion is

2 " The elephant has another uniformly smooth ; that of the

peculiarity in the internal structure pyloric is thicker and more vascu-

of the stomach. It is longer and lar." — Lectures on Comparative

narrower than that of most animals. Anatomy, \y^ Sir Everaed Home

The cutieular membrane of the Bart. '4to. Lond. vol. i. p. loo!

oesophagus terminates at the orifice The figure of the elephant's stomach

of the stomach. At the cardiac end, is given in his Lectures vol. ii.

which is very narrow and pointed plate xviii.

Chap, mj THE ELEPHAXT. 125

The appendage thus alluded to by Sir Everard Home
is the grand " cul-de-sac," noticed by the Academie des
Sciences, and the " division particuliere/' figured by
Camper. It is of sufficient dimensions to contain ten
gallons of water, and by means of the valve above alluded
to, it can be shut off from the chamber devoted to the

ELEPHANT'S STOMACH.

process of digestion. Professor Owen is probably the
first who, not from an autopsy, but from the mere in-
spection of the drawings of Camper and Home, ventured
to assert (in lectures hitherto unpublished), that the uses
of this section of the elephant's stomach may be analogous
to those ascertained to belong to a somewhat similar
arrangement in the stomach of the camel, one cavity of
which is exclusively employed as a reservoir for water,
and performs no function in the preparation of food.^

* A similar arrangement, with the Cordilleras of Chili and Peru ;

some modifications, has more re- but both these and the camel are

cently been found in the llama of ruminants, whilst the elephants

the Andes, which, like the camel, belongs to the Pachydermata.
is used as a beast of burden in

126

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. ni.

Whilst Professor Owen was advancing this conjecture,
another comparative anatomist, from the examination of
another portion of the structure of the elephant, was led
to a somewhat similar conclusion. Dr. Harrison of
Dublin had, in 1847, an opportunity of dissecting the
body of an elephant which had suddenly died ; and in
the com'se of his examination of the thoracic viscera, he
observed that an unusually close connection existed
between the trachea and oesophagus, which he found to
depend on a muscle unnoticed by any previous anatomist,
connecting the back of the former with the forepart of
the latter, along which the iibres descend and can be dis-
tinctly traced to the cardiac orifice of the stomach.

The Trachea drawn
over, bringing into
view its posterior
surface at tlie bi-
furcation

Pneumogastric
Nerves

(Esophagus.

-The Trachea-
(Esophageal
IMuscle.

Elastic Tissue
connecting Tra-
chea Bronchi,
G^sophagus.and
Tracliea - (Eso-
phageal Muscle
to the Dia-
phragm.

Diaphragm

Imperfectly acquainted -^^th the habits and functions of
the elephant in a state of nature, Dr. Harrison found it
difficult to pronounce as to the use of this very peculiar

Chap. IH.] THE ELEPH.IXT. 127

structure; but looking to the intimate connection between
the mechanism concerned in the functions of respiration
and deglutition, and seeing that the proboscis served in
a double capacity as an instrument of voice and an organ
for the prehension of food, he ventured (apparently
without adverting to the abnormal form of the stomach)
to express the opinion that this muscle, viemng its
attachment to the trachea, might either have some
influence in raising the diaphragm, and thereby assisting
in expiration, " or that it might raise the cardiac orifice
of the stomach, and so aid this organ to regurgitate a
portion of its contents into the oesophagus.'^ ^

Dr. Harrison, on the reflection that " we have no sa-
tisfactory evidence that the animal ever ruminates,"
thought it useless to speculate on the latter supposition
as to the action of the newly discovered muscle, and
rather inclined to the surmise that it was designed to
assist the elephant in producing the remarkable sound
through his proboscis known as " trumpeting ; " but there
is little room to doubt that of the two the rejected hy-
pothesis was the more correct one. I have elsewhere
described the occurrence to which I was myself a witness^,
of elephants inserting their proboscis in their mouths,
and withdrawing gallons of water, which could only have
been contained in the receptacle figured by Camper and
Home, and of which the true uses were discerned by the
clear intellect of Professor Owen. I was not, till very
recently, aware that a similar observation as to the re-
markable habit of the elephant, had been made by the
author of the Ayeen Akhery, in his account of the Feel

' Proceed. Boy. Irish Acad., vol. iv. p. 133.
- In the account of an elephant corral, chap. vi.

128

MMfMALIA.

[Chap. III.

Kaneh, or elephant stables of the Emperor Akbar, in
which he says, " an elephant frequently with his trunk
takes water out of his stomach and sprinkles himself
mth it, and it is not in the least offensive.^ Foebes, in
his Oriental Memoirs, quotes this passage of the Ayeen
Akbery, but without a remark ; nor does any European
writer with whose works 1 am acquainted appear to have
been cognisant of the peculiarity in question.

It is to be hoped that Professor Owen's dissection of

WATER-CELLS IN THE STOMACH OP THE CAMEL.

the young elephant, recently arrived, may serve to de-
cide this highly interesting point.'^ Should scientific in-
vestigation hereafter more clearly establish the fact that,
in this particular, the structure of the elephant is as-
similated to that of the llama and the camel, it will be

• Ayeen Akhery, transl. by Glad-
win, vol. i. pt. i. p. 147.

2 One of the Indian names for
the elephant is duipa, which signi-
fies " to drink twice " (Amandi, p.
513). Can this have reference to

the peculiarity of the stomach for
retaining a supply of water? Or
has it merely reference to the habit
of the animal to fill his trunk be-
fore transferring the water to his
mouth.

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 129

regarded as more than a common coincidence, that an
apparatus, so unique in its purpose and action, should
thus have been conferred by the Creator on the three
animals which in sultry climates are, by this arrangement,
enabled to traverse arid regions in the service of man.^
To show this peculiar organization where it attains its
fullest development, I have given a sketch of the water-
cells in the stomach of the camel on the preceding page.

The food of the elephant is so abundant, that in
feeding he never appears to be impatient or voracious,
but rather to play with the leaves and branches on
which he leisurely feeds. In riding by places where a
herd has recently halted, I have sometimes seen the bark
peeled curiously off the twigs, as though it had been
done in mere dalliance. In the same way in eating
grass the elephant selects a tussac which he draws fropi
the ground by a dexterous twist of his trunk, and
nothing can be more graceful than the ease with which,
before conveying it to his mouth, he beats the earth
from its roots by striking it gently upon his fore-leg.
A coco-nut he first rolls under foot, to detach the strong
outer bark, then stripping off with his trunk the thick
layer of fibre within, he places the shell in his mouth,
and swallows with evident relish the fresh liquid which
flows as he crushes it between his grinders.

The natives of the peninsula of Jaffna always look for
the periodical appearance of the elephants, at the precise

^ The buffalo and the humped water, somewhat more conspicuous

cattle of India, which are used for than in the rest of their congeners ;

draught and burden, have, I be- but nothing that approaches in

liere, a development of the organi- singularity of character to the

sation of the reticulum which distinct cavities in the stomach

enables the ruminants generally to exhibited by the three animals

endure thirst, and abstain from above alluded to.

330 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

time when the fruit of the palmyra palm begins to
fall to the ground from ripeness. In like manner in the
eastern provinces where the custom prevails of culti-
vating what is called chena land (by clearing a patch of
forest for the purpose of raising a single crop, after
which the ground is abandoned, and reverts to jungle
again), although a single elephant may not have been
seen in the neighbourhood during the early stages of the
process, the Moormen, who are the principal cultivators of
this class, will predict their appearance with almost un-
erring confidence so soon as the grains shall have begun
to ripen ; and although the crop comes to maturity at
different periods in different districts, herds are certain
to be seen at each in succession, as soon as it is ready to
be cut. In these well-timed excursions, they resemble
the bison of North America, which, by a similarly mys-
terious instinct, finds its way to portions of the distant
prairies, where accidental fires have been followed by a
growth of tender grass. Although the fences around
these chenas are little more than lines of reeds loosely
fastened together, they are sufficient, with the presence
of a single watcher, to prevent the entrance of the ele-
phants, who wait patiently till the rice and covacan have
been removed, and the watcher withdrawn ; and, then
finding gaps in the fence, they may be seen gleaning
among the leavings and the stubble ; and they take their
departure when these are exhausted, apparently in the
direction of some other chena, which they have ascer-
tained to be about to be cut.

There is something still unexplained in the dread
which an elephant always exhibits on approaching a
fence, and the reluctance which he displays to face the
slightest artificial obstruction to his passage. In the

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHAKT. 131

fine old tank of Tissa-weva, close by Anarajapoora, the
natives cultivate grain, during the dry season, around
the margin where the ground has been left bare by the
subsidence of the water. These little patches of rice
they enclose with small sticks an inch in diameter and
five or six feet in height, such as would scarcely serve to
keep out a wild hog if he attempted to force his way
through. Passages of from ten to twenty feet wide are
left between each field, to permit the wild elephants,
which abound in the vicinity to make their nocturnal
visits to the water still remainingr in the tank. Mg^ht
after night these open pathways are frequented by im-
mense herds, but the tempting corn is never touched,
nor is a single fence disturbed, although the merest
movement of a trunk would be sufficient to demolish
the fragile structure. Yet the same spots, the fences
being left open as soon as the grain has been cut and
carried home, are eagerly entered by the elephants to
glean amongst the stubble.

Sportsmen observe that an elephant, even when en-
raged by a wound, will hesitate to charge an assailant
across an intervening hedge, but will hurry along it to
seek for an opening. It is possible that, on the part of
the elephant, there may be some instinctive conscious-
ness, that o^ving to his superior bulk, he is exposed to
danger from sources that might be perfectly harmless in
the case of lighter animals, and hence his suspicion that
every fence may conceal a snare or pitfall. Some simi-
lar apprehension is apparent in the deer, which shrinks
from attempting a fence of wire, although it will clear
without hesitation a solid wall of s^reater heio^ht.

At the same time, the caution with which the elephant
is supposed to approach insecure ground and places of

K 2

132 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

doubtfuP solidity, appears to me, so far as my own ob-
servation and experience extend, to be exaggerated, and
the number of temporary bridges which are annually
broken down by elephants in all parts of Ceylon, is
sufficient to show that, although in captivity, and when
familiar with such structures, the tame ones may, and
doubtless do, exhilnt all the weariness attributed to them;
yet, in a state of liberty, and whilst unaccustomed to
such artificial appliances, their instincts are not suffi-
cient to ensure their safety. Besides, the fact is adverted
to elsewhere^, that the chiefs of the Wanny, during the
sovereignty of the Dutch, were accustomed to take in
pitfalls the elephants which they rendered as tribute to
government.

A fact illustrative at once of the caution and the
spirit of curiosity with which an elephant regards an
unaccustomed object has been frequently mentioned to
me by the officers engaged in opening roads through the
forest. On such occasions the wooden " tracing pegs "
which they are obliged to drive into the ground to mark
the levels taken during the day, will often be withdrawn
by the elephants during the night, to such an extent as
frequently to render it necessary to go over the work a
second time, in order to replace them.-^

Colonel Haedy, formerly Deputy Quarter-Master-
Greneral in Ceylon, when proceeding, about the 3^ear
1820, to a military out-post in the south-east of the
island, imprudently landed in an uninhabited part of

* " One of the strongest instincts rol. i. pp. 17, 19, 66.
which the elephant possesses, is this - Wolf's Life and Adventures,

which impels him to experiment p. 151. See p. 115, note.
upon the solidity of every siu-face ^ Private Letter from Dr. Davy,

which he is required to cross." — 2l\\X\\ov oi An Account of the Interior

Menageries, ^c. " The Elephant," of Ceylon.

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 133

the coast, intending to take a short cut through the
forest, to his destination. He not only miscalculated
the distance, but, on the approach of nightfall, he was
chased by a vicious rogue elephant. The pursuer was
nearly upon him, when, to gain time, he flung down a
small dressing-case, which he happened to be carrjdng.
The device was successful ; the elephant halted and
minutely examined its contents, and thus gave the
colonel time to effect his escape.^

As regards the general sagacity of the elephant, al-
though it has not been over-rated in the instances of
those Avhose powers have been largely developed in
captivity, an undue estimate has been formed in rela-
tion to them whilst still untamed. The difference of
instincts and habits renders it difficult to institute a just
comparison between them and other animals. Cuvier^
is disposed to ascribe the exalted idea that prevails of
their intellect to the feats which an elephant performs
with that unique instrument, its trunk, combined with
an imposing expression of countenance : but he records
his own conviction that in sagacity it in no way excels
the dog, and some other species of Carnivora. If there
be a superiority, I am disposed to award it to the dog,
not from any excess of natural capacity, but from the

* The Colombo Observer for the estate, whence it was its cus-

March 1858, contains an offer of a torn to sally forth at night for the

reward of twenty-fiye guineas for pleasure of pulling down buildings

the destruction of an elephant which and trees, " and it seemed to have

infested the Rajawalle coffee plan- taken a spite at the pipes of the

tation, in the vicinity of Kandy. water-works, the pillars of which

Its object seemed to be less the it several times broke down — its

search for food, than the satisfying latest fancy being to wrench off the

of its curiosity and the gratifica- taps," This elephant has since

tion of its passion for mischief, been shot.

IVIr. Tytleb, the proprietor, states ^ Cuvier, Eegne Animal. " Les

that it frequented the jungle near jMammiferes," p. 280.

K 3

134 MAMMALIA. [Chap. HI.

higher degree of development consequent on his more
intimate domestication and association with man.

One remarkable fact was called to my attention by a
gentleman who resided on a coffee plantation at Eassawe,
one of the loftiest mountains of the Ambogammoa range.
More than once during the terrific thunder-bursts that
precede the rains at the change of each monsoon, he ob-
served that the elephants in the adjoining forest hastened
from under cover of the trees and took up their station
in the open ground, where I saw them on one of these
occasions collected into a group ; and here, he said, it
was their custom to remain till the lightning had ceased,
when they retired again into the jungle.^ It must be
observed, however, that showers, and especially light
drizzling rain, are believed to bring the elephants from
the jungle towards pathways or other openings in the
forest; — and hence, in places infested by them, timid
persons are afraid to travel in the afternoon during
uncertain weather.

When free in its native woods the elephant evinces
rather simplicity than sagacity, and its intelligence
seldom exhibits itself in cunning. The rich profusion in
which nature has supplied its food, and anticipated its
every want, has made it independent of those devices
by which carnivorous animals provide for their sub-
sistence; and, from the absence of all rivalry between
it and the other denizens of the plains, it is never
required to resort to artifice for self-protection. For
these reasons, in its tranquil and harmless life, it may
appear to casual observers to exhibit even less than

' The elephant is believed by the of rain; and the Tamils have a
Singhalese to express his uneasi- proverb. — '•'•Listen to the elephant ,
ness by his voice, on the approach rain is coming"

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHAXT. I35

ordinary ability ; but when danger and apprehension call
for the exertion of its powers, those who have witnessed
their display are seldom inclined to undervalue its sa-
gacity.

Mr. Ceipps has related to me an instance in which a
recently captured elephant was either rendered senseless
from fear, or, as the native attendants asserted, feigned
death in order to regain its freedom. It was led from
the corral as usual between two tame ones, and had al-
ready proceeded far towards its destination; when
night closing in, and the torches being lighted, it re-
fused to go on, and finally sank to the ground, appar-
ently lifeless. Mr. Cripps ordered the fastenings to be
removed from its legs, and when all attempts to raise it
had failed, so convinced was he that it was dead, that he
ordered the ropes to be taken off and the carcase aband-
oned. While this was being done he and a gentleman
by whom he was accompanied leaned against the body
to rest. They had scarcely taken their departure and
proceeded a few yards, when, to their astonishment, the
elephant rose with the utmost alacrity, and fled towards
the jungle, screaming at the top of its voice, its cries
being audible long after it had disappeared in the shades
of the forest.

K 4

136 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.

NARRATIVES OF THE NATIVES OF CEYLON RELATIVE TO
ENCOLTJTERS WITH ROGUE ELEPHANTS.

The following narratives have been taken down by a Singhalese
gentleman, from the statements of the natives by whom
they are recounted; — and they are here inserted, in order to
show the opinion prevalent amongst the people of Ceylon as
to the habits and propensities of the rogue elephant. The
stories are given in words of my correspondent, who writes in
English, as follows : —

1. " We," said my informant, who w^as a native trader of
Caltura, " were on our way to Badulla, by way of Ratnapoora
and Balangodde, to barter our merchandize for coffee. There
were six in our party, myself, my brother-in-law, and four
coolies, who carried on pingoesi our merchandize, which con-
sisted of cloth and brass articles. About 4 o'clock, p. m., we
were close to Idalgasinna, and our coolies were rather unwilling
to go further for fear of elephants, which they said were sure
to be met with at that noted place, especially as there had been
a slight drizzling of rain during the whole afternoon, I was
as much afraid of elephants as the coolies themselves; but I
was anxious to proceed, and so, after a few words of encourage-
ment addressed to them, and a prayer or two offered up to
Saman dewhjo^y we resumed our journey. I also took the

* Yokes borne on the shoulder, ^ The tutelary spirit of the sa-
with a package at each end. cred mountain, Adam's Peak.

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 137

ilirther precaution of hanging up a few leaves.^ As the rain
was coming down fast and thick, and I was anxious to get
to our halting-place before night, we moved on at a rapid pace.
My brother-in-law was in the van of the party, I myself Avas
in the rear, and the four coolies between us, all moving
along on a rugged, rocky, and difficult path ; as the road to
Badulla till lately was on the sloping side of a hill, covered
with jungle, pieces of projecting rock, and brushwood. It
was about five o'clock in the evening, or a little later, and we
had hardly cleared the foot of the hill and got to the plain
below, Avhen a rustling of leaves and a crackling of dry brush-
wood were heard on our right, followed immediately by the
trumpeting of a hora allia^^ which was making towards us. We
all fled, followed by the elephant. I, who was in the rear of
the party, was the first to take to flight; the coolies threw away
their pingoes, and my brother-in-law his umbrella, and all ran
in different directions. I hid myself behind a large boulder of
granite nearly covered by jungle : but as my place of conceal-
ment was on high ground, I could see all that was going on
below. The first thing I observed was the elephant returning
to the place where one of the pingoes was lying : he was
carrying one of the coolies in a coil of his trunk. The
body of the man was dangling with the head downward. I
cannot say whether he was then alive or not ; I could not
perceive any marks of blood or bruises on his person : but
he appeared to be lifeless. The elephant placed him do^vn
on the groimd, put the pingo on his (the man's) shoulder,
steadying both the man and the pingo with his trunk
and fore-legs. But the man of course did not move or stand
up with his pingo. Seeing this, the elephant again raised the
cooly and dashed him against the ground, and then trampled

^ The Singhalese hold the be- pecially of elephants. Can it be

lief, that twigs taken from one that the latter avoid the path, on

bush and placed on another grow- discovering this evidence of the

ing close to a pathway, ensure proximity of recent passengers ?

protection to travellers from the ^ A rogue elephant,
attacks of wild animals, and es-

138 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

the body to a very jelly. This done, he took up the pingo and
moved away from the spot ; but at the distance of about a
fathom or two, laid it down again, and ripping open one of the
bundles, took out of it all the contents, somans^, cambdyas^j
handkerchiefs, and several pieces of white cambrick cloth, all
which he tore to small pieces, and flung them wildly here and
there. He did the same with all the other pingoes. When
this was over the elephant quietly walked away into the jungle,
trumpeting all the way as far as I could hear. When danger
was past I came out of my concealment, and retui^ned to the
place where we had halted that morning. Here the rest
of my companions joined me soon after. The next morning
we set out again on our joui'ney, our party being now increased
by some seven or eight traders from Salpity Corle : but this
time we did not meet with the elephant. We found the
mangled corpse of our cooly on the same spot where I had seen
it the day before, together with the torn pieces of my cloths,
of which we collected as fast as we could the few which were
serviceable, and all the brass utensils Avhich were quite unin-
jured. That elephant was a noted rogue. He had before this
killed many people on that road, especially those carrying
pingoes of coco-nut oil and ghee. He was afterwards lulled
by an Englishman. The incidents I have mentioned above,
took place about twenty years ago."

The following also relates to the same locality. It was
narrated to me by an old Moorman of Barberyn, who, during
his earlier years, led the life of a pedlar.

2. " I and another," said he, " were on our way to Badulla,
one day some twenty-five or thii'ty years ago. We were
({uietly moving along a path which wound round a hill, when
all of a sudden, and without the slightest previous intimation
either by the rustling of leaves or by any other sign, a huge
elephant with short tusks rushed to the path. Wliere he had
been before I can't say ; I believe he must have been lying in

* Woman's robe. ^ The figured cloth worn by men.

Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 139

wait for travellers. In a moment lie rushed forward to
the road, trumpeting dreadfully, and seized my companion. I,
who happened to be in the rear, took to flight, pursued by
the elephant, which had already killed my companion by
strikinfT him against the grround. I had not moved more than
seven or eight fathoms, when the elephant seized me, and threw
me up with such force, that I was carried high into the air
towards a Caliata tree, whose branches caught me and pre-
vented my falling to the groimd. By this I received no other
injury than the dislocation of one of my wrists. I do not know
whether the elephant saw me after he had hurled me away
through the air; but certainly he did not come to the
tree to which I was then clinging : even if he had come, he
couldn't have done me any more harm, as the branch on
which I was was far beyond the reach of his trunk, and the
tree itself too large for him to pull down. The next thing
I saw was the elephant retm-ning to the corpse of my com-
panion, which he again threw on the ground, and placing one
of his fore feet on it, he tore it with his trunk limb after limb ;
and dabbled in the blood that flowed from the shapeless mass
of flesh which he was still holding under his foot."

3. "In 1847 or '46," said another informant, "I was a
superintendent of a coco-nut estate belonging to Mr. Armitage,
situated about twelve miles from Negombo. A rogue elephant
did considerable injury to the estate at that time; and one day,
hearing that it was then on the plantation, a Mr. Lindsay, an
Englishman, who Avas proprietor of the adjoining property, and
myself, accomjDanied by some seven or eight people of the
neighbouring village, went out, carrying with us six rifles
loaded and primed. We continued to walk along a path which,
near one of its turns, had some bushes on one side. We had
calculated to come up with the brute where it had been seen
half an hour before ; but no sooner had one of our men,
who was walking foremost, seen the animal at the distance
of some fifteen or twenty fathoms, than he exclaimed,
' There ! there!' and immediately took to his heels, and we all

140 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III.

followed his example. The elephant did not see us until we
had run some fifteen or twenty paces from the spot w^here
we turned, when he gave us chase, screaming frightfully as he
came on. The Englishman managed to climb a tree, and
the rest of my companions did the same ; as for myself I
could not, although I made one or two superhuman efforts.
But there was no time to be lost. The elephant was running
at me with his trunk bent down in a curve towards the ground.
At this critical moment Mr. Lindsay held out his foot to me,
with the help of which and then of the branches of the tree,
which were three or four feet above my head, I managed to
scramble up to a branch. The elephant came directly to the
tree and attempted to force it down, Avhich he could not. He
first coiled his trunk round the stem, and pulled it with all his
might, but with no effect. He then applied his head to the
tree, and pushed for several minutes, but with no better
success. He then trampled with his feet all the projecting
roots, moving, as he did so, several times round and
round the tree. Lastly, failing in all this, and seeing a pile of
timber, which I had lately cut, at a short distance from us, he
removed it all (thirty-six pieces) one at a time to the root of
the tree, and piled them \vp in a regular business-like manner ;
then placing his hind feet on this pile, he raised the fore part
of his body, and reached out his trunk, but still he could not
touch us, as we were too far above him. The Englishman then
fired, and the ball took effect somewhere on the elephant's
head, but did not kill him. It made him only the more furious.
The next shot, however, levelled him to the ground. I
afterwards brought the skull of the animal to Colombo, and it
is still to be seen at the house of Mr. Armitage."

4. " One night a herd of elephants entered a village in the
Four Corles. After doing considerable injury to plaintain
bushes and young coco-nut trees, they retired, the villagers
being unable to do anything to protect their fruit trees from
destruction. But one elephant was left behind, who continued
to scream the whole night through at the same spot. It was

CnAr. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 141

then discovered that the elephant, on seeing a jak fruit on a tree
somewhat beyond the reach of his trunk, had raised himself on
his hind legs, placing his fore feet against the stem, in order to
lay hold of the fruit, but unluckily for him there happened to
be another tree standing so close to it that the vacant space
between the two stems was only a few inches. During his
attempts to take hold of the fruit one of his legs happened to
get in between the two trees, where, on account of his weight
and his clumsy attempts to extricate himself, it got so firmly
wedged that he could not remove it, and in this awkward
position he remained for some days, till he died on the spot."

142 MAMMALIA. [Chap. IV.

CHAP. IV.
THE ELEPHANT.

Elephant Shooting.

As the shooting of an elephant, whatever endurance and
adroitness the sport may display in other respects, requires
the smallest possible skill as a marksman, the numbers
which are annually slain in this wa}^ may be regarded as
evidence of the multitudes abounding in those parts of
Ceylon to which they resort. One officer, Major Eogees,
killed upwards of 1400 ; another. Captain GtALLWEY, has
the credit of slaying more than half that number; Major
Skinner, the Commissioner of Roads, almost as many ; and
less persevering aspirants follow at humbler distances.^

* To persons like myself, who that although man is naturally
are not addicted to what is called bloodthirsty, and a beast of prey
" sport," the statement of these by instinct, yet that the true
wholesale slaughters is calculated sportsman is distinguished from
to excite surprise and curiosity as the rest of the human race by his
to the natm'e of a passion tliat " love of nature and of noble sce-
impels men to self-exposure and neryT In support of this preten-
privation, in a pursuit which pre- sion to a gentler nature than the
sents nothing but the monotonous rest of mankind, the author pro-
recurrence of scenes of blood and ceeds to attest his own abliorrence
suffering. Mr. Baker, who has of cruelty by narrating the suf-
recently published, under the title ferings of an old hound, which,
of " The Rifle and the Hound in although " toothless," he cheered
Ceylon,'' an account of his exploits on to assail a boar at bay, but the
in the forest, gives us the assur' poor dog recoiled " covered with
ance that '■'all real sportsmen are blood, cut nearly in half, with a
tender-hearted men, who shun cru- wound fourteen inches in hmgth,
city to an animal, and are easily from the lower part of the belly,
'moved by a tale of distress;" smid. passing up the flank, completely

Chap. IV.]

THE ELEPHANT.

143

But notwithstanding this prodigious destruction, a re-
ward of a few shillings per head offered by the Grovern-
ment for taking elephants was claimed for 3500 destroyed
in part of the northern province alone, in less than three
years prior to 1848: and between 1851 and 1856, a
similar reward was paid for 2000 in the southern pro-
vince, between Gralle and Hambangtotte.

Although there is little opportunity for the display of
marksmanship in an elephant battue, there is one feature
in the sport, as conducted in Ceylon, which contrasts
favourably mth the slaughterhouse details chronicled
with revolting minuteness in some recent accounts of

severing the muscles of the hind
leg, and extending up the spine ;
his hind leg having tlie appearance
of being nearly off." In this state,
forgetful of the character he had
so lately given of the true sports-
man, as a lover of nature and a
hater of cruelty, he encouraged
"the poor old dog," as he calls
him, to resume the fight with the
boar, which lasted for an hour,
when he managed to call the dogs
off; and perfectly exhausted, the
mangled hound crawled out of the
jungle with several additional
wounds, including a severe gash
in his throat. " He fell from
exhaustion, and we made a litter
with two poles and a horsecloth to
carry him home." — P. 314. If
such were the habitual enjoyments
of this class of sportsmen, their
motiveless massacres would admit
of no manly justification. In com-
parison with them one is disposed
to regard almost with favour the
exploits of a hunter like Major
EoGERS, who is said to have applied
the value of the ivory obtained
from his encounters towards the
purchase of his successive regi-

mental commissions, and had,
therefore, an object, however dis-
proportionate, in his slaughter of
1400 elephants.

One gentleman in Ceylon, not
less distinguished for his genuine
kindness of heart, than for his
marvellous success in shooting ele-
phants, avowed to me that the
eagerness with which he found
himself impelled to pursue them
had often excited surprise in his
own mind ; and although he had
never read the theory of Lord
Kames, or the specidations of Vi-
cesimus Knox, he had come to the
conclusion that the passion thus
excited within him was a remnant
of the hunter's instinct, with which
man was originally endowed to
enable him, by the chase, to sup-
port existence in a state of nature,
and which, though rendered dor-
mant by civilisation, had not been
utterly eradicated.

This theory is at least more
consistent and intelligible than
the "love of nature and scenery,"
sentimentally propounded by the
author quoted above.

144 MMIMALIA. [Chap. IV.

elephant shooting in South Africa. The practice in
Ceylon is to aim invariably at the head, and the sportsman
finds his safety to consist in boldly facing the animal,
advancing to within fifteen paces, and lodging a bullet,
either in the temple or in the hollow over the eye, or in
a well-known spot immediately above the trunk, where
the weaker structure of the skull affords an easy access
to the brain.^ The region of the ear is also a fatal spot,
and often resorted to, — the places I have mentioned in
the front of the head being only accessible when the
animal is "charging." Professor Harrison, in his
communication to the Eoyal Irish Academy on the
Anatomy of the Elephant, has rendered an intelligible
explanation of this in the following passage descriptive
of the cranium : — "it exhibits two remarkable facts :
first, the small space occupied by the brain ; and,
secondly, the beautiful and curious structure of the bones
of the head. The two tables of all these bones, except
the occipital, are separated by rows of large cells, some
from four to five inches in length, others only small,
irregular, and honey-comb-like: — these all commu-
nicate with each other, and, through the frontal sinuses,
with the cavity of the nose, and also with the tympanum
or drum of each ear; consequently, as in some birds,
these cells are filled with air, and thus while the skull
attains a great size in order to afford an extensive surface

' The vulnerability of the ele- standing the comparative facility

phant in this region of the head of access to the brain afforded at

was knowTi to the ancients, and this spot, an ordinary leaden bnl-

Pliny, describing a combat of ele- let is not certain to penetrate, and

phants in the amphitheatre at frequently becomes flattened. The

Eome, says, that one was slain by hunters, to counteract this, are

a single blow, "pilum sub oculo accustomed to harden the ball, by

adactum, in vitalia capitis vene- the introduction of a small portion

rat." (Lib. viii. c. 7.) Notwith- of type-metal along with the lead.

Chap. IV.] THE ELEPHANT. 145

for the attachment of muscles, and a mechanical support
for the tusks, it is at the same time very light and
buoyant in proportion to its bulk ; a property the more
valuable as the animal is fond of water and bathes in
deep rivers."

SECTION OF ELEPHANT'S HEAD.

G-enerally speaking, a single ball, planted in the
forehead, ends the existence of the noble creature
instantaneously : and expert sportsmen have been known
to kill right and left, one with each barrel ; but occa-
sionally an elephant will not fall before several shots
have been lodged in his head.^

* " There is a wide difference of I tMnk the temple the most certain,
opinion as to the most deadly shot, but authority in Ceylon says the

L

146

MA^IMALIA.

[Chap. IV.

Contrasted with this, one reads with a shudder the
sickening details of the African huntsman approaching
hekind the retiring animal, and of the torture inflicted
by the shower of bullets which tear up its flesh and
lacerate its flank and shoulders.^

' fronter,' that is, above the trunk.
Behind the ear is said to be deadly,
but that is a shot which I never
fired or saw fired that I remember.
If the ball go true to its mark, all
shots (in the head) are certain ;
but the bones on either side of the
honey-comb passage to the brain
are so thick that there is in all a
'glorious uncertainty' which keeps
a man on the qui vive till he sees
the elephant down." — From a paper
on Elephant Shooting in Ceylon, by
Major Maceeady, late Military
Secretary at Colombo.

^ In Mi\ Gordon Ciimming's ac-
count of a Hunter's Life in South
Africa, there is a narrative of his
pursuit of a wounded elephant
which he had lamed by lodging a
ball in its shoulder-blade. It limped
slowly towards a tree, against
which it leaned itself in helpless
agony, whilst its pursuer seated
himself in front of it, in safety, to
hoil his coffee, and observe its suffer-
ings. The story is continued as
follows: — "Having admired him
for a considerable time, I resolved
to make eccperiments on vulnerable
points ; and approaching very near
I fired several bullets at different
parts of his enormous skull. He
only acknowledged the shots by a
salaam-like movement of his trunk,
with the point of which he gently
touched the wounds with a strik-
ing and peculiar action. Surprised
and shocked at finding that I was
only prolonging the sufferings of the
noble beast, which bore its trials
with such dignified composure, I

resolved to finish the proceeding
with all possible despatch, and ac-
cordingly opened fire upon him
from the left side, aiming at the
shoulder. I first fired six shots
with the two-grooved rifle, which
must have eventually proved mortal.
After which I fired six shots at the
same part with the Dutch six-
pounder. Large tears novj tricMed
from his eyes, which he slowly shut
and opened, his colossal frame
shivered convulsively, and falling
on his side, he expired." (Vol. ii.
p. 10.) _

In another place, after detamng
the manner in which he assailed a
poor animal — he says, "I was
loading and fii'ing as fast as could
be, sometimes at the head, some-
times behind the shoulder, until
my elephant's fore-quarter was a
mass of gore ; notwithstanding
which he continued to hold on,
leaving the grass and branches of
the forest scarlet in his wake. *
* * S.-dYmg&cedthi7'ty-Jiveroimds
with my two-grooved rifle, I opened
upon him with the Dutch six-
pounder, and when forty bullets
had perforated his hide, he began
for the first time, to evince signs of
a dilapidated constitution." The
disgusting description is closed
thus : " Throughout the charge he
repeatedly cooled his person with
large quantities of water, which he
ejected from his trunk over his
sides and back, and just as the
pangs of death came over him, he
stood trembling violently beside a
thorn tree, and kept pouring waters

Chap. IV.] THE ELEPHANT. 147

The shooting of elephants in Ceylon has been de-
scribed with tiresome iteration in the successive journals
of sporting gentlemen, but one who turns to their pages
for traits of the animal and his instincts is disappointed
to find little beyond graphic sketches of the daring and
exploits of his pursuers, most of whom, having had no
further opportunity of observation than is derived from a
casual encounter with the outraged animal, have ap-
parently tried to exalt their own prowess, by misrepre-
senting the ordinary character of the elephant, describing
him as " savage, wary, and revengeful." ^

These epithets may undoubtedly apply to the outcasts
from the herd, the " Eogues " or hora allia, but so small
is the proportion of these that there is not probably one
rogue to be found for every five hundred of those in
herds ; and it is a manifest error, arising from imperfect
information, to extend this censure to them generally,
or to suppose the elephant to be an animal " thirsting
for blood, lying in wait in the jungle to rush on the
unwary passer-by, and knowing no greater pleasure than
the act of crushing his victim to a shapeless mass beneath
his feet." ^ The cruelties practised by the hunters have
no doubt taught these sagacious creatures to be cautious
and alert, but their precautions are simply defensive;
and beyond the alarm and apprehension which they

into Ms bloody moutli until he died, ^ The Piifle and the Hound in

when he pitched heavily forward Ceylon ; by S. W. Baxeb, Esq., pp.

with the whole weight of his fore- 8, 9. "Next to a rogue," says Mr.

quarters resting on the points of his Bakee, "in ferocity, and even more

tusks. The strain was fair, and persevering in the pursuit of her

the tusks did not yield ; but the victim, is a female elephant." But

portion of his head in which the he appends the significant qualifi-

tusks were embedded, extending a cation, " when her young one has

long way above the eye, yielded and been killed r-^Ibid., p. 13.
burst with a nniffled crash." — {lb., 2 j^^'c^^
vol. ii. pp. 4, o.)

L 2

148 MAMMALIA. [Chap. TV.

evince on the approach of man, they exhibit no indication
of hostility or thirst for blood.

An ordinary traveller seldom comes upon elephants
unless after sunset or towards daybreak, as they go to or
return from their nightly visits to the tanks : but when
by accident a herd is disturbed by day, they evince, if
unattacked, no disposition to become assailants ; and if
the attitude of defence which they instinctively assume
prove sufficent to check the approach of the intruder, no
further demonstration is to be apprehended.

Even the hunters who go in search of them find them
in positions and occupations altogether inconsistent with
the idea of their being savage, wary, or revengeful.
Their demeanour when undisturbed is indicative of
gentleness and timidity, and their actions bespeak las-
situde and indolence, induced not alone by heat, but
probably ascribable in some degree to the fact that
the night has been spent in watchfulness and amuse-
ment. A few are generally browsing listlessly on the
trees and plants within reach, others fanning themselves
with leafy branches, and a few are asleep ; whilst the
young run playfully among the herd, the emblems of
innocence, as the older ones are of peacefulness and
gravity.

Almost every elephant may be observed to exhibit
some peculiar action of the limbs when standing at rest ;
some move the head monotonously in a circle, or from
right to left ; some swing their feet back and forward ;
others flap their ears or sway themselves from side to side,
or rise and sink by alternately bending and straightening
the fore knees. As the opportunities of observing this
custom have been almost confined to elephants in cap-
tivity, it has been conjectured to arise from some morbid

Chap. IV.] THE ELEPHANT. 149

habit contracted during the length of a voyage by sea ^,
or from an instinctive impulse to substitute a motion of
this kind in lieu of their wonted exercise ; but this sup-
position is erroneous ; the propensity being equally
displayed by those at liberty and those in captivity.
When surprised by sportsmen in the depths of the jungle,
individuals of a herd are always occupied in swinging
their limbs in this manner; and in the several corrals
which I have seen, where whole herds have been captured,
the elephants in the midst of the utmost excitement, and
even after the most vigorous charges, if they halted for
a moment in stupor and exhaustion, manifested their
wonted habit, and swung their limbs or swayed their
bodies to and fro incessantly. So far from its being a
substitute for exercise, those in the government employ-
ment in Ceylon are observed to practise their acquired
motion, whatever it may be, with increased vigour when
thoroughly fatigued after excessive work. Even the
favourite practice of fanning themselves with a leafy
branch seems less an enjoyment in itself than a resource
when listless and at rest. The term " fidgetty " seems
to describe appropriately the temperament of the ele-
phant.

They evince the strongest love of retirement and a
corresponding disUke to intrusion. The approach of a
stranger is perceived less by the eye, the quickness of
which is not remarkable (besides which its range is
obscured by the foliage), than by sensitive smell and
singular acuteness of hearing ; and the whole herd is
put in instant but noiseless motion towards some deeper
and more secure retreat. The effectual manner in

* Menageries, §-c., " The Elephant," ch. i p. 21.
L 3

150 MA^IMALIA. [Chap. IV.

which an animal of the prodigious size of the elephant
can conceal himself, and the motionless silence which
he preserves, is quite surprising ; whilst beaters pass and
repass within a few yards of his hiding place, he will
maintain his ground till the hunter, creeping almost
close to his legs, sees his little eye peering out through
the leaves, when, finding himself discovered, the elephant
breaks away -with a crash, levelling the brushwood in his
headlong career.

If surprised in open ground, where stealthy retreat is
impracticable, a herd will hesitate in indecision, and,
after a few meaningless movements, stand huddled toge-
ther in a group, whilst one or two, more adventurous
than the rest, advance a few steps to reconnoitre. Ele-
phants are generally observed to be bolder in open
ground than in cover, but, if bold at all, far more
dangerous in cover than in open ground.

In searching for them, sportsmen often avail them-
selves of the expertness of the native trackers; and
notwithstanding the demonstration of Combe that the
brain of the timid Singhalese is deficient in the organ
of destructiveness^, he shows an instinct for hunting,
and exhibits in the pursuit of the elephant a courage
and adroitness far surpassing in interest the mere hand-
ling of the rifle, which is the principal share of the
proceeding that falls to his Eiuropean companions.

The beater on these occasions has the double task of
finding the game and carrying the guns; and, in an
animated communication to me, an experienced sports-
man describes " this light and active creature, with his
long glossy hair hanging down his shoulders, every

* System of Phrenology, by Geo. Cosebe, toI. i. p. 256.

Chap. IY.] THE ELEPHANT. 151

muscle quivering with excitement ; and his countenance
lighting up with intense animation, leaping from rock to
rock, as nimble as a deer, tracking the gigantic game like
a blood-hound, falling behind as he comes up with it,
and as the elephants, baffled and irritated, make the first
stand, passing one rifle into your eager hand and holding
the other ready whilst right and left each barrel performs
its mission, and if fortune does not flag, and the second
gun is as successful as the first, three or four huge
carcases are piled one on another within a space equal
to the area of a dining room."^

It is curious that in these encounters the herd never
rush forward in a body, as buffaloes or bisons do, but
only one elephant at a time moves in advance of the
rest to confront, or, as it is called, to *^ charge," the
assailants. I have heard of but one instance in which
two so advanced as champions of their companions.
Sometimes, indeed, the whole herd will follow a leader,
and manoeuvre in his rear like a body of cavalry ; but
so large a party are necessarily liable to panic ; and, one
of them having turned in alarm, the entire body retreat
with terrified precipitation.

As regards boldness and courage, a strange variety
of temperament is observable amongst elephants, but it
may be affirmed that they are much more generally
timid than courageous. One herd may be as difficult
to approach as deer, gliding away through the jungle so
gently and quickly that scarcely a trace marks their
passage ; another, in apparent stupor, will huddle them-
selves together like swine, and allow their assailant to
come within a few yards before they break away in

* Private letter from Capt. Philip Payne Gtall-wet.
L 4

152 MAMMALIA. [Chap. IV.

terror; and a third will await his approach without
motion, and then advance with fury to the " charge."

In individuals the same differences are discernible;
one flies on the first appearance of danger, whilst
another, alone and unsupported, will face a whole host
of enemies. When wounded and infuriated with pain,
many of them become literally savage ^ ; but, so unac-
customed are they to act as assailants, and so awkward
and inexpert in using their strength, that they rarely or
ever exceed in killing a pursuer who falls into their
power. Although the pressure of a foot, a blow with the
trunk, or a thrust with the tusk, could scarcely fail to
prove fatal, three-fourths of those who have fallen into
their power have escaped without serious injury. So
great is this chance of impunity, that the sportsman
prefers to approach within about fifteen paces of the ad-
vancing elephant, a space which gives time for a second
fire should the first shot prove ineffectual, and should
both fail there is still opportunity for flight.

Amongst full-grown timber, a skilful runner can
escape from an elephant by " dodging " round the trees,
but in cleared land, and low brushwood, the difficulty is
much increased, as the small growth of underwood which
obstructs the movements of man presents no obstacle to
those of an elephant. On the other hand, on level and
open ground the chances are rather in favour of the ele-
phant, as his pace in full flight exceeds that of man,
although as a general rule, it is unequal to that of a
horse, as has been sometimes asserted.^

* Some years ago an elephant succeeded in making good its re-

whieli had been wounded by a treat to the jungle,
native, near Hambangtotte, pursued ^ Shaw, in his Zoology, asserts

the man into the town, followed that an elephant can run as swiftly

him along the street, trampled him as a horse can gallop. London,

to death in the bazaar before a 1800-6, vol, i. p. 216.
crowd of terrified spectators, and

Chap. IV.] THE ELEPHANT. I53

The incessant slaughter of elephants by sportsmen in
Ceylon, appears to be merely in subordination to the in-
fluence of the organ of destructiveness, since the carcase
is never applied to any useful purpose, but left to de-
compose and to defile the air of the forest. The flesh is
occasionally tasted as a matter of curiosity : as a steak
it is coarse and tough ; but the tongue is as delicate as
that of an ox ; and the foot is said to make palatable
soup. The Caflres attached to the pioneer corps in the
Kandyan province are in the habit of securing the
heart of any elephant shot in their vicinity, and say it
is their custom to eat it in Africa. The hide it has
been found impracticable to tan in Ceylon, or to con-
vert to any useful purpose, but the bones of those shot
have of late years been collected and used for manuring
coffee estates. The hair of the tail, which is extremely
strong and horny, is mounted by the native goldsmith,
and made into bracelets ; and the teeth are sawn by the
Moormen at Gralle (as they used to be by the Romans
during a scarcity of ivory) into plates, out of which they
fashion numerous articles of ornament, knife-handles,
card racks, and " presse-papiers."

154 MMIMALIA. CChaf. IY.

NOTE.

Amongst extraordinary recoveries from desperate wounds, I
venture to record here an instance which occurred in Ceylon
to a gentleman while engaged in the chase of elephants, and
which, I apprehend, has few parallels in pathological experience.
Lieutenant Gerard Fretz, of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, whilst
firing at an elephant in the vicinity of Fort MacDonald, in
Oovah, was wounded in the face by the bursting of his fowling-
piece, on the 22nd January, 1828. He was then about thirty-
two years of age. On raising him, it was found that part of
the breech of the gun and about two inches of the barrel had
been driven tlirough the frontal sinus, at the junction of the
nose and forehead. It had sunk almost perpendicularly till
the iron-plate called " the tail-pin," by which the barrel is
made fast to the stock by a screw, had descended through the
palate, carrying with it the screw, one extremity of which had
forced itself into the right nostril, where it was discernible
externally, whilst the headed end lay in contact with his
tongue. To extract the jagged mass of iron thus sunk in the
ethmoidal and sphenoidal cells was found hopelessly impracti-
cable ; but, strange to tell, after the inflammation subsided,
Mr. Fretz recovered rapidly; his general health was unim-
paired, and he returned to his regiment with this singular ap-
pendage firmly embedded behind the bones of his face. He
took his turn of duty as usual, attained the command of his
company, participated in all the enjoyments of the mess-room,
and died eight years afterwards^ on the 1st of April, 1836, not
from any consequences of this fearful wound, but from fever
and inflammation brought on by other causes.

Chap. IV.] THE ELEPHATs^T. 155

So little was he apparently inconvenienced by the presence
of the strange body in his palate that he was accustomed with
his finger partially to undo the screw, which but for its extreme
length he might altogether have withdrawn. To enable this
to be done, and possibly to assist by this means the extraction
of the breech itself through the original orifice (which never
entirely closed), an attempt was made in 1835 to take off a
portion of the screw with a file ; but, after having cut it three
parts through the operation was interrupted, chiefly owing to
the carelessness and indifference of Capt. Fretz, whose death
occurred before the attempt could be resumed. The piece of
iron, on being removed after his decease, was found to measure
2|- inches in length, and weighed two scruples more than two
ounces and three quarters. A cast of the breech and screw
now forms No. 2790 amongst the deposits in the Medical
Museum of Chatham.

156 MAMMALIA. [Chap. V.

CHAP. V.

THE ELEPHANT.

An Elephant Corral.

So long as the elephants of Ceylon were merely required
in small numbers for the pageantry of the native prin-
ces, or the sacred processions of the Buddhist temples,
their capture was effected either by the instrumentality
of female decoys, or by the artifices and agility of the
individuals and castes who devoted themselves to their
pursuit and training. But after the arrival of the
European conquerors of the island, and when it had be-
come expedient to take advantage of the strength and
intelligence of these creatures in clearing forests and
making rOads and other works, establishments were or-
ganised on a great scale by the Portuguese and Dutch,
and the supply of elephants kept up by periodical
battues conducted at the cost of the government, on a
plan similar to that adopted on the continent of India,
when herds varying in number from twenty to one
hundred and upwards are driven into concealed en-
closures and secured.

In both these processes, success is entirely dependent
on the skill with which the captors turn to advantage
the terror and inexperience of the wild elephant, since
all attempts would be futile to subdue or confine by
ordinary force an animal of such strength and sagacity.^

^ The device of taking them by India: but in addition to the diffi-
means of pitfalls still prevails in culty of providing against that

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHAJS^T. 157

B^NOX describes with circumstantiality the mode
adopted, two centuries ago, by the servants of the King
of Kandy to catch elephants for the royal stud. He
says, "After discovering the retreat of such as have
tusks, unto these they drive some she elephants, which
they bring with them for the purpose, which, when
once the males have got a sight of, they will never
leave, but follow them wheresoever they go ; and the
females are so used to it that they will do whatsoever,
either by word or a beck, their keepers bid them. And
so they delude them along through towns and coun-
tries, and through the streets of the city, even to the
very gates of the king's palace, where sometimes they
seize upon them by snares, and sometimes by driving
them into a kind of pound, they catch them." ^

In Nepaul and Burmah, and throughout the Chin-
Indian Peninsula, when in pursuit of single elephants,
either rogues detached from the herd, or individuals

caution with which the elephant earth, which he placed underfoot
is supposed to reconnoitre suspi- as they were thrown down to him,
cious ground, it has the further till he was enabled to step out on
disadvantage of exposing him to soM ground, when the noosers and
injury from bruises and disloca- decoys were in readiness to tie him
tionsinhis fall. Still it was the up to the nearest tree." — See
mode of capture employed by the Wolf's Life and Adveritures, p.
Singhalese, and so late as 1750 152. Shakspeare appears to have
Wolf relates that the native chiefs been acquainted with the plan of
of the Wanny, when capturing ele- taking elephants in pitfalls : Decius,
phants for the Dutch, made " pits encouraging the conspirators, re-
some fathoms deep in those places minds them of Caesar's taste for
whither the elephant is wont to anecdotes of animals, by which he
go in search of food, across which would undertake to lure him to his
were laid poles covered with fate :

branches and baited with the food " For he loves to hear

of which he is fondest, making to- That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,

wards which he finds himself taken ""tlesT ' '' ' '^^''"'' ""'*

unawares. Thereafter being sub- Julius C^sar, Act ii. Scene I.

dued by fright and exhaustion, he ^ Ejg-Qx's Historical delation of

was assisted to raise himself to the Ceylon, a.d. 1681, part i. ch. vi<

surface by means of hurdles and p. 21.

158 MAJVIMALU. [Chap. V.

who have been marked for the beauty of their ivory,
the natives avail themselves of the aid of females in
order to effect their approaches and secure an oppor-
tunity of casting a noose over the foot of the destined
captive. All accounts concur in expressing high admi-
ration of their courage and address ; but from what has
fallen under my own observation, added to the descriptions
I have heard from other eye-witnesses, I am inclined
to believe that in such exploits the Moormen of Ceylon
evince a daring and adroitness, surpassing all others.

These professional elephant catchers, or, as they are
called, Panickeas, inhabit the Moorish villages in the
north and north-east of the island, and from time im-
memorial have been engaged in taking elephants, which
are afterwards trained by Arabs, chiefly for the use of
the rajahs and native princes in the south of India,
whose vakeels are periodically despatched to make pur-
chases in Ceylon.

The ability evinced by these men in tracing elephants
through the woods has almost the certainty of instinct ;
and hence their services are eagerly sought by the
European sportsmen who go down into their country in
search of game. So keen is their glance, that like hounds
running " breast high " they will follow the course of
an elephant, almost at the top of their speed, over
glades covered with stunted grass, where the eye of a
stranger would fail to discover a trace of its passage,
and on through forests strewn with dry leaves, where
it seems impossible to perceive a footstep. Here they
are guided by a bent or broken twig, or by a leaf
dropped from the animal's mouth, on which the pres-
sure of a tooth may be detected. If at fault, they fetch
a circuit like a setter, till lighting on some fresh marks.

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHAls^T. 159

they go a-head again with renewed vigour. So delicate
is the sense of smell in the elephant, and so indispen-
sable is it to go against the wind in approaching him,
that on those occasions when the wind is so still that its
direction cannot be otherwise discerned, the Panickeas
will suspend the film of a gossamer to determine it and
shape their course accordingly.

They are enabled by the inspection of the footmarks,
when impressed in soft clay, to describe the size as well
as the number of a herd before it is seen ; the height of
an elephant at the shoulder being as nearly as possible
twice the circumference of his fore foot.^

On overtaking the game their courage is as conspicuous
as their sagacity. If they have confidence in the sports-
man for whom they are finding, they will advance to
the very heel of the elephant, slap him on the quarter,
and convert his timidity into anger, till he turns upon
his tormentor and exposes his front to receive the bullet
which is awaiting him.^

* Previous to the death of the bivouacking on the bank of a river,

female elephant in the Zoological and had been kept out so late that

Gardens, in the Eegent's Park, in I did not get to my tent until be-

1851, !Mr. Mitchell, the Secre- t^vreen 9 and 10 at night. On our

tary, caused measurements to be return towards it we passed several

accurately made, and found the single elephants making their way

statement of the Singhalese hunters to the nearest water, but at length

to be strictly correct, the height at we came upon a large herd that had

the shoulders being precisely twice taken possession of the only road

the circumference of the fore foot, by which we could pass, and which

- Major Sktxxer, the Chief Offi- no intimidation would induce to

cer at the head of the Commission move off. I had some Panickeas

of Roads, in Ceylon, in writing to with me ; they knew the herd, and

me, mentions an anecdote illus- counselled extreme caution. After

trative of the daring of the Panic- trpng every device we coidd think

keas. " I once saw," he says, " a of for a length of time, a little old

very beautiful example of the con- Moorman of the party came to me

fidence with which these fellows, and requested we should all retire

from their knowledge of the ele- to a distance. He then took a

phants, meet their worst defiance, couple of chules (flambeaux of dried

It was in Neuera-Kalawa ; I was wood, or coco-nut leaves), one in

160 MAMMALIA. [Chap. Y.

So fearless and confident are they that two men,
without aid or attendants, will boldly attempt to cap-
ture the largest-sized elephant. Their only weapon is a
flexible rope made of elk's or buffalo's hide, with which
it is their object to secure one of the hind legs. This
they effect either by following in its footsteps when in
motion or by stealing close up to it when at rest, and
availing themselves of its well-known propensity at
such moments to swing the feet backwards and forwards,
they contrive to slip a noose over the hind leg.

At other times this is achieved by spreading the
noose on the ground partially concealed by roots and
leaves beneath a tree on which one of the party is sta-
tioned, whose business it is to lift it suddenly by means
of a cord, raising it on the elephant's leg at the moment
when his companion has succeeded in provoking him to
place his foot within the circle, the other end having
been previously made fast to -the stem of the tree.
Should the noosing be effected in open ground, and no
tree of sufficient strength at hand round which to wind
the rope, one of the Moors, allowing himself to be pur-
sued by the enraged elephant, entices him towards the
nearest grove ; where his companion, dexterously laying
hold of the rope as it trails along the ground, suddenly
coils it round a suitable stem, and brings the fugitive to
a stand still. On finding himself thus arrested, the
natural impulse of the captive is to turn on the man

each hand, and waving them ahoye face. The effect was instantaneous ;

his head till they flamed out fiercely, the whole herd dashed away in a

he advanced at a deliberate pace to panic, bellowing, screaming, and

within a few yards of the elephant crushing through the underwood,

who was acting as leader of the whilst we availed ourselves of the

party, and who was growling and open path to make our way to our

trumpeting in his rage, and flour- tents."
ished the flaming torches in his

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHANT. 161

who is engaged in making fast the rope, a movement
which it is the duty of his colleague to prevent by run-
ning up close to the elephant's head and provoking the
animal to confront him by irritating gesticulations and
taunting shouts of cZa/i/ dah! a monosyllable, the sound
of which the elephant peculiarly dislikes. Meanwhile the
first assailant, having secured one noose, comes up from
behind -svith another, with which, amidst the vain rage
and struggles of the victim, he entraps a fore leg, the
rope being, as before, secured to another tree in front,
and the whole four feet having been thus entangled, the
capture is completed.

A shelter is then run up with branches, to protect
their prisoner from the sun, and the hunters proceed to
build a wig^vam for themselves in front of him, kindling
their fires for cooking, and making all the necessary ar-
rangements for remaining day and night on the spot to
await the process of sui)duing and taming his rage. In
my journeys through the forest I have come unexpec-
tedly on the halting place of adventurous hunters when
thus engaged ; and on one occasion, about sunrise, in
ascending the steep ridge from the bed of the Malwatte
river, the foremost rider of our party was suddenly
driven back by a furious elephant, which we found
picketed by two Panickeas on the crest of the bank. In
such a position, the elephant soon ceases to struggle ;
and what with the exhaustion of rage and resistance,
the terror of fire which he dreads, and the constant an-
noyance of smoke which he detests, in a very short
time, a few weeks at the most, his spirit becomes sub-
dued ; and being plentifully supplied mth plantains
and fresh food, and indulged with water, in which he
luxuriates, he grows so far reconciled to his keepers

M

162 MAMMALIA. [Chap. V.

that they at length venture to remove him to their own
village, or to the sea-side for shipment to India.

No part of the hunter's performances exhibits greater
skill and audacity than this first forced march of the
recently captured elephant from the great central forests
to the sea-coast. As he is still too morose to submit to
be ridden, and as it would be equally impossible to
lead or to drive him by force, the ingenuity of the
captors is displayed in alternately irritating and eluding
him, but always so attracting his attention as to allure
him along in the direction in which they want him to
go. Some assistance is derived from the rope by which
the original capture was effected, and which, as it serves
to make him safe at night, is never removed from the
leg till his taming is sufficiently advanced to permit of
his being entrusted with partial liberty.

In Ceylon the principal place for exporting these
animals to India is Manaar, on the western coast, to
which the Arabs from the continent resort, bringing
with them horses to be bartered for elephants. In order
to reach the sea, open plains must be traversed, across
which it requires the utmost courage, agility, and pa-
tience of the Moors to coax their reluctant charge. At
Manaar the elephants are usually detained till any
wound on the leg caused by the rope has been healed,
when the shipment is effected in the most primitive
manner. It being next to impossible to induce the still
untamed creature to walk on board, and no mechanical
contrivances being provided to ship him ; a dhoney, or
native boat, of about forty tons' burthen, and about
three parts filled with the strong ribbed leaves of the
Palmyra palm, is brought alongside the quay in front of
the Old Dutch Fort, and lashed so that the gunwale

Chap. V.] THE ELEPKiXT. 163

may be as nearly as possible on a line with the level of
the wharf. The elephant being placed with his back to
the water is forced by goads to retreat till his hind legs
go over the side of the quay, but the main contest com-
mences when it is attempted to disengage his fore feet
from the shore, and force him to entrust himself on
board. The scene becomes exciting from the screams
and trumpeting of the elephants, the shouts of the Arabs,
the calls of the Moors, and the rushing of the crowd.
Meanwhile the huge creature strains every nerve to
regain the land ; and the day is often consumed before
his efforts are overcome, and he finds himself fairly
afloat. The same dhoney will take from four to five
elephants, who place themselves athwart it, and exhibit
amusing adroitness in accommodating their movements
to the rolling of the little vessel ; and in this way
they are ferried across the narrow strait which separates
the continent of India from Ceylon.^

But the feat of ensnaring and subduing a sino-le
elephant, courageous as it is, and demonstrative of the
supremacy with which man wields his " dominion over
every beast of the earth," falls far short of the daring

^ In tlie Fhilosophical Tr ansae- land, and he swam after the boat

tions for 1701, there is "An to the ship, w^here tackle was reeved

Account of the taking of Elephants to the sail-cloth, and he was hoisted

in Ceylon, by ]VIr. Steachax, a on board.

Physician who lived seventeen years "But a better way has been in-?

there," in which the author de- vented lately," says 3Ir. Strachau ;

scribes the manner in which they "a large flat-bottomed vessel is

were shipped by the Dutch, at prepared, covered Tvith planks like

Matura, Galle, and Negombo. A a floor ; so that this floor is almost

piece of strong sail-cloth having of a height with the key. Then

been wrapped round the elephant's the sides of the key and the vessel

chest and stomach, he was forced are adorned with green branches,

into the sea between two tame so that the elephant sees no water

ones, and there made fast to a boat, till he is in the ship." — ^hil. Trans.,

The tame ones then returned to vol. xxiii. No. 227, p. 1051.

M 2

164 MAMMALIA. [Chap. V.

exploit of capturing a whole herd : when from thirty to
one hundred wild elephants are entrapped in one vast
decoy. The mode of effecting this, as it is practised in
Ceylon, is no doubt imitated, but with considerable
modifications, from the methods prevalent in various
parts of India. It was introduced by the Portuguese,
and continued by the Dutch, the latter of whom had
two elephant hunts in each year, and conducted their
operations on so large a scale, that the annual export,
after supplying the government establishments, was
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty elephants,
taken principally in the vicinity of Matura, in the
southern province, and marched for shipment to
Manaar.^

The custom in Bengal is to construct a strong en-
closure (called a heddali), in the heart of the forest,
formed of the trunks of trees firmly secured by trans-
verse beams and buttresses, and leaving the gate for the
entrance of the elephants. A second enclosure, open-
ing from the first, contains water (if possible a rivulet) ;
this, again, communicates with a third, which termin-
ates in a funnel-shaped passage, too narrow to admit of
an elephant turning, and within this the captives being
driven in line, are secured with ropes introduced from
the outside, and led away in custody of tame ones trained
for the purpose.

The keddah being prepared, the first operation is
to drive the elephants towards it, for which purpose
vast bodies of men fetch a compass in the forest around
the haunts of the herds, contracting it by degrees, till
they complete the enclosure of a certain area, round

' Valentyn, Oud en ISieuw Oost-Indien, ch. xv. p. 272.

Chaf. v.] the ELEPHAIS^T. 165

which they kindle fires, and cut footpaths through the
jungle, to enable the watchers to communicate and
combine. All this is performed in cautious silence
and by slow approaches, to avoid alarming the herd.
A fresh circle nearer to the keddah is then formed in
the same way, and into this the elephants are admitted
from the first one, the hunters following from behind,
and lighting new fires around the newly inclosed space.
Day after day the process is repeated ; till the drove
having been brought sufficiently close to make the
final rush, the whole party close in from all sides, and
with drums, guns, shouts, and flambeaux^ force the
terrified animals to enter the fatal enclosure, when the
passage is barred behind them, and retreat rendered im-
possible.

Their efforts to escape are repressed by the crowd,
who drive them back from the stockade with spears
and flaming torches ; and at last compel them to pass
on into the second enclosure. Here they are detained
for a short time, and their feverish exhaustion relieved
by free access to water ; — until at last, being tempted
by food, or otherwise induced to trust themselves in the
narrow outlet, they are one after another made fast by
ropes, passed in through the palisade ; and picketed in
the adjoining woods to enter on their course of syste-
matic training.

These arrangements vary in different districts of
Bengal ; and the method adopted in Ceylon differs in
many essential particulars from them all ; the Keddah,
or, as it is here called, the corral or korahl ^ (from the

^ It is thus spelled by Wolf, in household word in South America,
his if/e and Adventures, p. 144. and especially in La Plata, to
Corral is at the present day a designate an enclosure for cattle.

M 3

166 MA]\IMALIA. [Chap. V.

Portuguese curral, a " cattle-pen "), consists of but one
enclosure instead of three. A stream or watering-place
is not uniformly enclosed within it, because, although
water is indispensable after the long thirst and ex-
haustion of the captives, it has been found that a pond
or rivulet within the corral itself adds to the difficulty
of leadinof them out, and increases their reluctance to
leave it ; besides which, the smaller ones are often smo-
thered by the others in their eagerness to crowd into
the water. The funnel-shaped outlet is also dis-
pensed with, as the animals are liable to bruise and
injure themselves within the narrow stockade; and
should one of them die in it, as is too often the case
in the midst of the struggle, the difficulty of removing
so great a carcase is extreme. The noosing and securing
them, therefore, takes place in Ce3don within the area
of the first enclosure into which they enter, and the
dexterity and daring displayed in this portion of the
work far surpasses that of merely attaching the rope
through the openings of the paling, as in an Indian
keddah.

One result of this change in the system is manifested
in the increased proportion of healthy elephants which
are eventually secured and trained out of the number
originally enclosed. The reason of this is obvious :
under the old arrangements, months were consumed in
the preparatory steps of surrounding and driving in the
herds, which at last arrived so wasted by excitement
and exhausted by privation that numbers died within
the corral itself, and still more died during the process
of training. But in later jesirs the labour of months is
reduced to weeks, and the elephants are driven in fresh
and full of vigour, so that comparatively few are lost

Chap. V.] THE ELEPH.\NT. 167

either in the enclosure or the stables. A conception of
the whole operation from commencement to end will be
best conveyed by describing the progress of an elephant
corral as I witnessed it in 1847 in the great forest on
the banks of the Alligator Kiver, the Kimbul-oya, in
the district of Kornegalle, about thirty miles north-west
of Kandy.

Kornegalle, or Kurunai-galle, was one of the ancient
capitals of the island, and the residence of its kings
from A.D. 1319 to 1347.^ The dwelling-house of the
principal civil officer in charge of the district now oc-
cupies the site of the former palace, and the ground
is strewn with fragments of columns and carved stones,
the remnants of the royal buildings. The modern town
consists of the bungalows of the European officials, each
surrounded with its own garden ; two or three streets
inhabited by Dutch descendants and by Moors ; and a
native bazaar, with the ordinary array of rice and curry
stuffs and cooking chattees of brass or burnt clay.

The charm of the village is the unusual beauty of
its position. It rests within the shade of an enormous
rock of gneiss upwards of 600 feet in height, nearly
denuded of verdure, and so rounded and' worn by time
that it has acquired the form of a couchant elephant,
from which it derives its name of Aetagalla, the Eock
of the Tusker.2 But Aetagalla is only the last eminence
in a range of similarly-formed rocky mountains, which
here terminate abruptly ; and, which from the fantastic
shapes into which their gigantic outlines have been

^ See Sm J. Emeesox Ten>t:nt's resemblance in shape to the back

Cfy/o??,Yol.I. Pt. m. ch, xii. p, 415. of that insect, and hence is said

2 Another enormous mass of to haxe been derived the name of

gneiss is called the Kuruminia- the town, Kuruna-galle or Korne-

galla, or the Beetle-rock, from its galle.

M 4

168 MAMMALIA. [Chap. V.

wrought by the action of the atmosphere, are called by
the names of the Tortoise Rock, the Eel Eock, and the
Rock of the Tusked Elephant. So impressed are the
Singhalese by the aspect of these stupendous masses
that in ancient grants lands are conveyed in perpetuity,
or " so long as the sun and the moon, so long as
Aetao:alla and Andaofalla shall endure." *

Kornegalle is the resort of Buddhists from the re-
motest parts of the island, who come to visit an ancient
temple on the summit of the great rock, to which access
is had from the valley below by means of steep paths
and steps hewn out of the solid stone. Here the chief
object of veneration is a copy of the sacred footstep
hollowed in the granite, similar to that which confers
sanctity on Adam's Peak, the towering apex of which,
about forty miles distant, the pilgrims can discern from
Aetagalla.

At times the heat at Kornegalle is intense, in con-
sequence of the perpetual glow diffused from these
granite cliffs. The warmth they acquire during the
blaze of noon becomes almost intolerable towards
evening, and the sultry night is too short to permit
them to cool between the setting and the rising of the
sun. The district is also liable to occasional droughts
when the watercourses fail, and the tanks are dried up.
One of these calamities occurred about the period of my
visit, and such was the suffering of the wild animals
that numbers of crocodiles and bears made their way

* Forbes quotes a Tamil con- chap. ii. It will not fail to be
veyance of land, the purchaser of obseryed, that the same figure was
which is to " possess and enjoy it employed in Hebrew literature as
as long as the sun and the moon, a type of duration — " They shall
the earth and its vegetables, the fear thee, so loyig as the su7i and
mountains and the River Cauvery moon endure ; throughout all gene-
exist." — Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. rations." — Psalm Lsxii. 5, 17.

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHANT. 169

into tlie town to drink at the wells. The soil is pro-
lific in the extreme ; rice, cotton, and dry grain are
cultivated largely in the valley. Every cottage is sur-
rounded by gardens of coco-nuts, arecas, jak- fruit and
coffee ; the slopes, under tillage, are covered with
luxuriant vegetation, and, as far as the eye can reach on
every side, there are dense forests intersected by streams,
in the shade of which the deer and the elephant abound.

In 1847 arrangements were made for one of the great
elephant hunts for the supply of the Civil Engineer's
Department, and the spot fixed on by Mr. Morris,
the Grovernment officer who conducted the corral, was
on the banks of the Kimbul river, about fifteen miles
from Kornegalle. The country over which we rode to
the scene of the approaching capture showed traces of
the recent drought, the fields lay to a great extent un-
tilled, owing to the want of water, and the tanks, almost
reduced to dryness, were covered with the leaves of the
rose-coloured lotus.

Our cavalcade was as oriental as the scenery through
which it moved ; the Grovernor and the officers of his
staff and household formed a long cortege, escorted by
the native attendants, horse-keepers, and foot-runners.
The ladies were borne in palankins, and the younger
individuals of the party carried in chairs raised on
poles, and covered with cool green awnings made of
the fresh leaves of the talipat palm.

After traversing the cultivated lands, the path led
across open glades of park-like verdure and beauty, and
at last entered the great forest under the shade of
ancient trees wreathed to their crowns with climbing
plants and festooned by natural garlands of convolvulus
and orchids. Here silence reigned, disturbed only by

170 MAMMALIA. [Chap. V.

the murmuring hum of glittering insects, or the shrill
clamour of the plum-headed parroquet and the flute-
like calls of the golden oriole.

We crossed the broad sandy beds of two rivers over-
arched by tall trees, the most conspicuous of which is
the Kombook ^, from the calcined bark of which the
natives extract a species of lime to be used with their
betel. And from the branches hung suspended over
the water the gigantic pods of the huge puswael bean ^,
the sheath of which measures six feet long by five or six
inches broad.

On ascending the steep bank of the second stream,
we found ourselves in front of the residences which had
been extemporised for our party in the immediate
vicinity of the corral. These cool and enjoyable struc-
tures were formed of branches and thatched with palm
leaves and fragrant lemon grass ; and in addition to a
dining-room and suites of bedrooms fitted with tent
furniture, they included kitchens, stables, and store-
rooms, all run up by the natives in the course of a few
days.

In former times, the work connected with these
elephant hunts was performed by the " forced labour "
of the natives, as part of that feudal service which under
the name of Eaja-kariya was extorted from the Sin-
ghalese during the rule of their native sovereigns. This
system was continued by the Portuguese and Dutch, and
prevailed under the British Government till its abolition
by the Earl of Ripon in 1832. Under it from fifteen
hundred to two thousand men superintended by their
headmen, used to be occupied, in constructing the

* Pentaptera 'paniculata. ^ Entada jpurscetha.

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHAiS^T. 171

corral, collecting the elephants, maintaining the cordon
of watch-fires and watchers, and conducting all the
laborious operations of the capture. Since the abolition
of Raja-kariya, howev^er, no diflficulty has been found in
obtaining the voluntary co-operation of the natives on
these exciting occasions. The government defrays the
expense of that portion of the preparations which in-
volves actual cost, — for the skilled labour expended in
the erection of the corral and its appurtenances, and the
providing of spears, ropes, arms, flutes, drums, gun-
powder, and other necessaries for the occasion.

The period of the year selected is that which least
interferes ^svith the cultivation of the rice-lands (in the
interval between seed time and harvest), and the people
themselves, in addition to the excitement and enjoyment
of the sport, have a personal interest in reducing the
number of elephants, which inflict serious injury on
their gardens and growing crops. For a similar reason
the priests encourage the practice, because the elephants
destroy their sacred Bo-trees, of the leaves of which they
are passionately fond ; besides which it promotes the
facility for obtaining elephants for the processions of the
temples : and the Rata-mahat-mayas and headmen have
a pride in exhibiting the number of retainers who follow
them to the field, and the performances of the tame
elephants which they lend for the business of the corral.
Thus vast numbers of the peasantry are voluntarily oc-
cupied for many weeks in putting up the stockades, cut-
ting paths through the jungle, and relieving the beaters
who are engaged in surrounding and driving in the
elephants.

In selecting the scene for the hunt a position is chosen
which lies on some old and frequented route of the ani-

172 MA^IMALIA. [Chap. V.

mals, in their periodical migrations in search of forage
and water ; and the vicinity of a stream is indispensable,
not only for the supply of the elephants dm^ing the time
spent in inducing them to approach the enclosure, but
to enable them to bathe and cool themselves throughout
the process of training after capture.

In constructing the corral itself, care is taken to
avoid disturbing the trees or the brushwood within the
included space, and especially on the side by which the
elephants are to approach, where it is essential to con-
ceal the stockade as much as possible by the density of
the foliaofe. The trees used in the structure are from
ten to twelve inches in diameter ; and are sunk about
three feet in the earth, so as to leave a length of from
twelve to fifteen feet above ground ; with spaces between
each stanchion sufiiciently wide to permit a man to glide
through. The uprights are made fast by transverse
beams, to which they are lashed securely by ratans and

0«OooOOO00 09OgQO0OOO0

GROUND PL&.N OP A CORRAL, AND METHOD OF FENCING IT.

flexible climbing plants, or as they are called "jungle
ropes," and the whole is steadied by means of forked

CuAP. v.] THE ELEPHAXT. I73

supports, which grasp the tie beams, and prevent the
work from being driven outward by the rush of the wild
elephants.

On the occasion I am now attempting to describe,
the space thus enclosed was about 500 feet in lenotli
by 250 wide. At one end an entrance was left open,
fitted with sliding bars, so prepared as to be capable
of being instantly shut; — and from each angle of
the end by which the elephants were to approach,
two lines of the same strong fencing were continued,
and cautiously concealed by the trees ; so that if, in-
stead of entering by the open passage, the herd should
swerve to right, or left, they would find themselves
suddenly stopped and forced to retrace their course to
the gate.

The preparations were completed by placing a stage
for the G-overnor's party on a group of the nearest trees
looking down into the enclosure, so that a view could
be had of the entire proceeding, from the entrance of
the herd, to the leading out of the captive elephants.

It is hardly necessary to observe that the structure here
described, massive as it is, would be entirely ineffectual
to resist the shock, if assaulted by the full force of an
enraged elephant ; and accidents have sometimes hap-
pened by the breaking through of the herd; but
reliance is placed not so much on the resistance of the
stockade as on the timidity of the captives and their
unconsciousness of their own strength, coupled with the
daring of their captors and their devices for ensuring
submission.

The corral being prepared, the beaters address them-
selves to drive in the elephants. For this purpose
it is often necessary to fetch a circuit of many miles in

174 MAMMALIA. [Chap. V.

order to surround a sufficient number, and the caution
to be observed involves patience and delay ; as it is
essential to avoid alarming the elephants, which might
otherwise escape. Their disposition being essentially
peaceful, and their only impulse to browse in solitude
and security, they withdraw instinctively before the
slightest intrusion, and advantage is taken of this
timidity and love of seclusion to cause only just such
an amount of disturbance as will induce them to re-
turn slowly in the direction which it is desired they
should take. Several herds are by this means concen-
trated within such an area as will admit of their being
completely surrounded by the watchers ; and day after
day, by degrees, they are moved gradually onwards to
the immediate confines of the corral. When their
suspicions become awakened and they exhibit restlessness
and alarm, bolder measures are adopted for preventing
their escape. Fires are kept burning at ten paces apart,
night and day, along the circumference of the area
within which they are detained ; a corps of from two to
three thousand beaters is completed, and pathways are
carefully cleared through the jungle so as to keep open
a communication along the entire circuit. The head-
men keep up a constant patrol, to see that their followers
are alert at their posts, since neglect at any one spot
might permit the escape of the herd, and undo in a
moment the vigilance of weeks. By this means any
attempt of the elephants to break away is generally
checked, and on any point threatened a sufficient force
can be promptly assembled to drive them back. At
last the elephants are forced onwards so close to the
enclosure, that the investing cordon is united at either
end with the winofs of the corral, the whole forminof a

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHANT. 175

circle of about two miles, within the area of which the
herd is detained to await the signal for the final drive.

Two months had been spent in these preliminaries,
and the preparations had been thus far completed, on
the day when we arrived and took our places on the
stage erected for us, overlooking the entrance to the
corral. Close beneath us a group of tame elephants
sent by the temples and the chiefs to assist in securing
the wild ones, were picketed in the shade, and lazily
fanning themselves with leaves. Three distinct herds,
whose united numbers were variously represented at
from forty to fifty elephants, were enclosed, and were
at that moment concealed in the jungle within a short
distance of the stockade. Not a sound was permitted
to be made, each person spoke to his neighbour in
whispers, and such was the silence observed by the mul-
titude of the watchers at their posts, that occasionally
we could hear the rustling of the branches as some of
the elephants stripped off a leaf.

Suddenly the signal was made, and the stillness of
the forest was broken by the shouts of the guard, the
rolling of the drums and tom-toms, and the discharge
of muskets ; and beginning at the most distant side of
the area, the elephants were urged forward at a rapid
pace towards the entrance into the corral.

The watcher? along the line kept silence only till the
herd had passed them, and then joining the cry in their
rear they drove them onward with redoubled shouts and
noises. The tumult increased as the terrified rout drew
near, swelling now on one side now on the other, as the
herd in their panic dashed from point to point in their
endeavours to force the line, but they were instantly
driven back by screams, muskets, and drums.

176 MAMMALIA. [Chap. Y.

At length the breaking of the branches and the
crackling of the brushwood announced their close ap-
proach, and the leader bursting from the jungle rushed
wildly forward to within twenty yards of the entrance
followed by the rest of the herd. x\nother moment
and they would have plunged into the open gate, when
suddenly they wheeled round, re-entered the forest, and
in spite of the hunters resumed their original position.
The chief headman came forward and accounted for
the freak by saying that a wild pig^, an animal which
the elephants are said to dislike, had started out of the
cover and run across the leader, who would otherwise
have held on direct for the corral ; and intimated that
as the herd was now in the highest pitch of excitement ;
and it was at all times much more difficult to effect a
successful capture by daylight than by night when the
fires and flambeaux act with double effect, it was the
wish of the hunters to defer their final effort till the
evening, when the darkness would greatly aid their
exertions.

After sunset the scene exhibited was of extraordinary
interest ; the low fires, which had apparently only smoul-
dered in the sunlight, assumed their ruddy glow amidst the
darkness, and threw their tinge over the groups collected
round them ; while the smoke rose in eddies through
the rich foliage of the trees. The crowds of spectators
maintained a profound silence, and not a sound was per-
ceptible beyond the hum of an insect. On a sudden the
stillness was broken by the distant roll of a drum, fol-

^ Fire, the sound of a horn, and Uvp Se TTToetToi koI Kpihu Kepa(T<p6pou,

the grunting of a boar are the three Kal ruv {xoviuv tt]i> fior]u rr]v adpoav.

things which the Greeks, in the _Phile, Expositio de Elephante,

middle ages, beheved the elephant i. 177.
specially to dislike :

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHAXT. 177

lowed by a discbarge of musketry. Tbis was tbe signal
for tbe renewed assault, and tbe bunters entered tbe
circle witb sbouts and clamour ; dry leaves and sticks
were flung upon tbe watcb-fires till tbey blazed aloft,
and formed a line of flame on every side, except in tbe
direction of tbe corral, wbicb was studiously kept
dark ; and tbitber tbe terrified elepbants betook tbem-
selves, followed by tbe yells and racket of tbeir pur-
suers.

Tbe elepbants approacbed at a rapid pace, trampling
down tbe brusbwood and crusbing tbe dry brancbes ;
tbe leader emerged in front of tbe corral, paused for an
instant, stared wildly round, and tben rusbed beadlong
tbrougb tbe open gate, followed by tbe rest of tbe berd.
Instantly, as if by magic, tbe entire circuit of tbe corral,
wbicb up to tbis moment bad been kept in profound
darkness, blazed witb tbousands of ligbts, every bunter
on tbe instant tbat tbe elepbants entered, rusbing for-
ward to tbe stockade witb a torcb kindled at tbe nearest
watcb-fire.

Tbe elepbants first dasbed to tbe very extremity of
tbe enclosure, and being brougbt up by tbe fence, re-
treated to regain tbe gate, but found it closed. Tbeir
terror was sublime : tbey burried round tbe corral at a
rapid pace, but saw it now girt by fire on every side ;
they attempted to force tbe stockade, but were driven
back by tbe guards witb spears and flambeaux ; and on
wbicbever side tbey approacbed tbey were repulsed witb
sbouts and volleys of musketry. Collecting into one
group, tbey would pause for a moment in apparent be-
wilderment, tben burst off in anotber direction, as if it
bad suddenly occurred to tbem to try some point wbicb
tbey bad before overlooked ; but again baffled, tbey

N

178 MAMMALIA. [Chap. V.

slowly returned to their forlorn resting-place in the
centre of the corral.

The attraction of this strange scene was not confined to
the spectators ; it extended to the tame elephants which
were stationed outside. At the first approach of the
flying herd they evinced the utmost interest. Two in
particular which were picketed near the front were
intensely excited, and continued tossing their heads,
pawing the ground, and starting as the noise drew near.
At length, when the grand rush into the corral took
place, one of them fairly burst from her fastenings and
rushed towards the herd, levelling a tree of considerable
size which obstructed her passage.^

For upwards of an hour the elephants continued to
traverse the corral and assail the palisade with unabated
energy, trumpeting and screaming with rage after each
disappointment. Again and again they attempted to
force the gate, as if aware, by experience, that it ought
to afford an exit as it had already served as an entrance,
but they shrank back stimned and bewildered. By de-
grees their efforts became less and less frequent. Single
ones rushed excitedly here and there, returning sullenly
to their companions after each effort ; and at last the
whole herd, stupified and exhausted, formed themselves
into a single group, drawn up in a circle with the young

' The other elephant, a fine after the Aratchy went in search of

tusker, which belonged to Dehigam it with a female decoy, and watch-

Ratamahatmeya, continued in ex- ing its approach, sprang fairly on

treme excitement throughout all the infuriated beast, with a pair of

the subsequent operations of the sharp hooks in his hands, which he

capture, and at last, after attempt- pressed into tender parts in front

ing to break its way into the corral, of the shoulder, and thus held the

shaking the bars with its forehead elephant firmly till chains were

and tusks, it went off in a state of passed over its legs, and it per-

frenzy into the jungle. A few days mitted itself to be led quietly away.

Chap. V.] THE ELEPHANT. 179

in the centre, and stood motionless under the dark shade
of the trees in the middle of the corral.

Preparations were now made to keep watch during
the night, the guard was reinforced around the enclosure,
and wood heaped on the fires to keep up a high flame
till sunrise.

Three herds had been originally entrapped by the
beaters outside ; but with characteristic instinct they
had each kept clear of the other, taking up different
stations in the space invested by the watchers. When
the final drive took place one herd only had entered the
enclosure, the other two keeping behind; and as the
gate had to be instantly shut on the first division, the
last were unavoidably excluded and remained concealed
in the jungle. To prevent their escape, the watchers
were ordered to their former stations, the fires were
replenished; and all precautions having been taken,
we returned to pass the night in our bungalows by the
river.

K 2

1 80 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VI.

CHAP. VI.

THE ELEPHANT.

The Captives.

As our sleeping-place was not above two hundred
yards from the corral, we were frequently awakened by
the din of the multitude who were bivouacking in the
forest, by the merriment round the watch-fires, and now
and then by the shouts with which the guards repulsed
some sudden charge of the elephants in attempts to
force the stockade. But at daybreak, on going down to
the corral, we found all still and vigilant. The fires
were allowed to die out as the sun rose, and the watchers
who had been relieved were sleeping near the great
fence, the enclosure on all sides being surrounded by
crowds of men and boys with spears or white peeled
wands about ten feet long, whilst the elephants within
were huddled together in a compact group, np longer
turbulent and restless, but exhausted and calm, and
utterly subdued by apprehension and amazement at all
that had been passing around them.

Nine only had been as yet entrapped ^, of which

' In some of the elephant hunts hood of them, and thns protect

conducted in the southern provinces the crops from destruction. In the

of Ceylon by the earlier British present instance, the object being

Governors, as many as 170 and to secure only as many as were

200 elephants were secured in a required for the Government stud,

single corral, of which a portion it was not sought to entrap more

only were taken out for the public than could conveniently be attended

service, and the rest shot, the to and trained after capture.
motive being to rid the neighbour-

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 181

three were very large, and two were little creatures
but a few months old. One of the large ones was a
^' rogue," and being unassociated with the rest of the
herd, he was not admitted to their circle, although
permitted to stand near them.

Meanwhile, preparations were making outside to con-
duct the tame elephants into the corral, in order to
secure the captives. Noosed ropes were in readiness ;
and far apart from all stood a party of the out-caste
Eodiyas, the only tribe Avho will touch a dead carcase,
to whom, therefore, the duty is assigned of preparing
the fine flexible rope for noosing, which is made from
the fresh hides of the deer and the buffalo.

At length, the bars which secured the entrance to
the corral were cautiously withdrawn, and two trained
elephants passed stealthily in, each ridden by its mahout
(or poniiekella, as the keeper is termed in Ceylon), and
one attendant; and, carrying a strong collar, formed
by coils of rope made from coco-nut fibre, from which
hung on either side cords of elk's hide, prepared with a
ready noose. Along with these, and concealed behind
them, the headman of the " coorootve,^^ or noosers,
crept in, eager to secure the honour of taking the first
elephant, a distinction which this class jealously contests
with the mahouts of the chiefs and temples. He was a
wiry little man, nearly seventy years old, who had
served in the same capacity under the Kandyan king,
and wore two silver bangles, which had been conferred
on him in testimony of his prowess. He was accom-
panied by his son, named Eanghanie, equally renowned
for his com'age and dexterity.

On this occasion ten tame elephants were in attend-
ance; two were the property of an adjoining temple

N 3

182 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VI.

(one of which had been caught but the year before,
yet it was now ready to assist in capturing others), four
belonged to the neighbouring chiefs, and the rest, in-
cluding the two which first entered the corral, were part
of the Government stud. Of the latter, one was of
prodigious age, having been in the service of the Dutch
and English Grovernments in succession for upwards of
a century.^ The other, called by her keeper " Siri-
beddi," was about fifty years old, and distinguished for
gentleness and docility. She was a most accomplished
decoy, and evinced the utmost relish for the sport.
Having entered the corral noiselessly, carrying a mahout
on her shoulders with the headman of the noosers seated
behind him, she moved slowly along with a sly composure
and an assumed air of easy indifference; sauntering
leisurely in the direction of the captives, and halting
now and then to pluck a bunch of grass or a few leaves
as she passed. As she approached the herd, they put
themselves in motion to meet her, and the leader, hav-
ing advanced in front and passed his trunk gently over
her head, turned and paced slowly back to his dejected
companions. Siribeddi followed with the same listless
step, and drew herself up close behind him, thus afford-
ing the nooser an opportunity to stoop under her and
slip the noose over the hind foot of the wild one. The
latter instantly perceived his danger, shook off the rope,
and turned to attack the man. He would have suffered
for his temerity had not Siribeddi protected him by
raising her trunk and driving the assailant into the
midst of the herd, when the old man, being slightly

* This elephant is since dead ; skeleton is now in the Museum of
she grew infirm and diseased, and the Natural History Society at
died at Colombo in 1848. Her Belfast.

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 183

wounded, was helped out of the corral, and his son,
Eanghanie, took his place.

The herd again collected in a circle, with their heads
towards the centre. The largest male was singled out,
and two tame ones pushed boldly in, one on either side
of him, till the three stood nearly abreast. He made
no resistance, but betrayed his uneasiness by shifting
restlessly from foot to foot. Eanghanie now crept up,
and, holding the rope open with both hands (its other
extremity being made fast to Siribeddi's collar), and
watching the instant when the wild elephant lifted its
hind-foot, succeeded in passing the noose over its leg,
drew it close, and fled to the rear. The two tame
elephants instantly fell back, Siribeddi stretched the
rope • to its full length, and, whilst she dragged out the
captive, her companion placed himself between her and
the herd to prevent any interference.

In order to tie him to a tree he had to be drawn
backwards some twenty or thirty yards, making furious
resistance, bellowing in terror, plunging on all sides, and
crushing the smaller timber, which bent like reeds be-
neath his clumsy struggles. Siribeddi drew him steadily
after her, and wound the rope round the proper tree,
holding it all the time at its full tension, and stepping
cautiously across it when, in order to give it a second
turn, it was necessary to pass between the tree and
the elephant. With a coil round the stem, however, it
was beyond her strength to haul the prisoner close up,
which was, nevertheless, necessary in order to make
him perfectly fast ; but the second tame one, perceiving
the difficulty, returned from the herd, confronted the
struggling prisoner, pushed him shoulder to shoulder,
and head to head, forcing him backwards, whilst at

s 4

184

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. VI.

every step Siribeddi hauled in the slackened rope till she
brought him fairly up to the foot of the tree, where he
was made fast by the cooroowe people. A second noose
was then passed over the other hind-leg, and secured
like the first, both legs being afterwards hobbled to-
gether by ropes made from the fibre of the kitool or
jaggery palm, which, being more flexible than that of
the coco-nut, occasions less formidable ulcerations. The
two decoys then ranged themselves, as before, abreast of

the prisoner on either side, thus enabling Ranghanie to
stoop under them and noose the two fore-feet as he had
already done the hind ; and these ropes being made fast
to a tree in front, the capture was complete, and the
tame elephants and keepers withdrew to repeat the
operation on another of the herd.

Chap. VI.]

THE ELEPHANT.

185

As long as the tame ones stood beside him the poor
animal remained comparatively calm and almost passive
under his distress, but the moment they moved off,
and he was left utterly alone, he made the most sur-
prising efforts to set himself free and rejoin his com-
panions. He felt the ropes with his trunk and tried
to untie the numerous knots; he drew backwards to
liberate his fore-legs, then leaned forward to extricate
the hind ones, till every branch of the tall tree vibrated
with his struggles. He screamed in anguish, with his

proboscis raised high in the air, then falling on his
side he laid his head to the ground, first his cheek and
then his brow, and pressed down his doubled-in trunk
as though he would force it into the earth ; then suddenly
rising he balanced himself on his forehead and fore-
legs, holding his hind-feet fairly off the ground. This
scene of distress continued some hours, with occasional
pauses of apparent stupor, after which the struggle was
from time to time renewed convulsively, and as if by

186 MMIMALIA. [Chap. VI.

some sudden impulse ; but at last the vain strife sub-
sided, and the poor animal remained perfectly motion-
less, the image of exhaustion and despair.

Meanwhile Eanghanie presented himself in front of
the governor's stage to claim the accustomed largesse
for tying the first elephant. He was rewarded by a
shower of rupees, and retired to resume his perilous
duties in the corral.

The rest of the herd were now in a state of pitiable
dejection, and pressed closely together as if under a
sense of common misfortune. For the most part they
stood at rest in a compact body, fretful and uneasy.
At intervals one more impatient than the rest would
move out a few steps to reconnoitre ; the others would
follow at first slowly, then at a quicker pace, and at last
the whole herd would rush off furiously to renew the
often-baffled attempt to storm the stockade.

There was a strange combination of the sublime and
the ridiculous in these abortive onsets ; the appearance
of prodigious power in their ponderous limbs, coupled
with the almost ludicrous shuffle of their clumsy gait,
and the fury of their apparently resistless charge, con-
verted in an instant into timid retreat. They rushed
madly down the enclosure, their backs arched, their
tails extended, their ears spread, and their trunks raised
high above their heads, trumpeting and uttering shrill
screams, yet when one step further would have dashed
the opposing fence into fragments, they stopped short
on a few white rods being pointed at them through the
paling^; and, on catching the derisive shouts of the

^ ' The fact of the elephant ex- relates, that in order to inculcate

hibiting timidity, on having a long contempt for want of courage in

rod pointed towards him, was the elephant, they were introduced

known to the Romans ; and Pliny, into the circus during the triumph

quoting from the annals of Piso, of Metellus, after the conquest of

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 187

crowd, they turned in utter discomfiture, and after an
objectless circle or two through the corral, they paced
slowly back to their melancholy halting place in the
shade.

The crowd, chiefly comprised of young men and boys,
exhibited astonishing nerve and composure at such
moments, rushing up to the point towards which the
elephants charged, pointing their wands at their trunks,
and keeping up the continual cry of tuhoop ! luhoop !
which invariably turned them to flight.

The second victim singled out from the herd was
secured in the same manner as the first. It was a
female. The tame ones forced themselves in on either
side as before, cutting her off from her companions,
whilst Eanghanie stooped under them and attached the
fatal noose, and Siribeddi dragged her out amidst un-
availing struggles, when she was made fast by each leg
to the nearest group of strong trees. When the noose
was placed upon her fore-foot, she seized it with her
trunk, and succeeded in carrying it to her mouth, where
she would speedily have severed it had not a tame ele-
phant interfered, and placing his foot on the rope
pressed it downwards out of her jaws. The individuals
who acted as leaders in the successive charges on the
palisades were always those selected by the noosers, and
the operation of tying each, from the first approaches of
the decoys, till the captive was left alone by the tree,
occupied on an average somewhat less than three-
quarters of an hour.

It is strange that in these encounters the wild ele-

the Carthaginians in Sicily, and operariis hastas prgepilatas haben-
driven round the area by workmen tibns, per circum totam actos." —
holding blunted spears, — " Ab Lib. viii. c. 6.

]88

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. VI.

phants made no attempt to attack or dislodge the mahouts
or the cooroowes, who rode on the tame ones. They
moved in the very midst of the herd, any individual in
which could in a moment have pulled the riders from
their seats : but no effort was made to molest them.^

As one after another their leaders were entrapped and
forced away from them, the remainder of the group

' "In a corral, to be on a tame
elephant, seems to insure perfect
immiinitj^ from the attacks of the
wild ones. I once saw the old
chief MoUegodde ride in amongst
a herd of wdld elephants, on a
small elephant ; so small that the

Adigar's head was on a level with
the back of the wild animals : I
felt very nervous, but he rode right
in among them, and received not
the slightest molestation." — Letter
from Major SKrN]ST;R,

Chap. VI.]

THE ELEPHANT.

189

evinced increased emotion and excitement ; but what-
ever may have been their sympathy for their lost com-
panions, their alarm seemed to prevent them at first
from following them to the trees to which they had
been tied. In passing them afterwards they sometimes
stopped, mutually entwined their trunks, lapped them
round each other's limbs and neck, and exhibited the
most touching distress at their detention, but made no
attempt to disturb the cords that bound them.

The variety of disposition in the herd as evidenced
by difference of demeanour was very remarkable :
some submitted with comparatively little resistance;
whilst others in their fury dashed themselves on the
ground with a force sufficient to destroy any weaker

190 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VI.

animal. They vented their rage upon every tree and
plant within reach ; if small enough to be torn down,
they levelled them with their trunks, and stripping them
of their leaves and branches, they tossed them wildly
over their heads on all sides. Some in their struggles
made no sound, whilst others bellowed and trumpeted
furiously, then uttered short convulsive screams, and at
last, exhausted and hopeless, gave vent to their anguish
in low and piteous moanings. Some, after a few violent
efforts of this kind, lay motionless on the ground, with
no other indication of suffering than the tears which
suffused their eyes and flowed incessantly. Others in all
the vigour of their rage exhibited the most surprising
contortions ; and to us who had been accustomed to
associate with the unwieldy bulk of the elephant the
idea that he must of necessity be stiff and inflexible,
the attitudes into which they forced themselves were
almost incredible. I saw one lie with the cheek pressed
to the earth, and the fore-legs stretched in front, whilst
the body was twisted round till the hind-legs extended
in the opposite direction.

It was astonishing that their trunks were not wounded
by the violence with which they flung them on all sides.
One twisted his proboscis into such fantastic shapes, that
it resembled the writhings of a gigantic worm ; he coiled
it and uncoiled it with restless rapidity, curling it up
like a watch-spring, and suddenly unfolding it again to
its full length. Another, which lay otherwise motion-
less in all the stupor of hopeless anguish, slowly beat
the ground with the extremity of his trunk, as a man
in despair beats his knee with the palm of his hand.

They displayed an amount of sensitiveness and de-
licacy of touch in the foot, which was very remarkable

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 191

in a limb of such clumsy dimensions and protected by so
thick a covering. The noosers could always force them
to lift it from the ground by the gentlest touch of a leaf
or twig, apparently applied so as to tickle ; but the im-
position of the rope was instantaneously perceived, and
if it could not be reached by the trunk the other foot
was applied to feel its position, and if possible remove
it before the noose could be drawn tight.

One practice was incessant with almost the entire
herd : in the interval between their struggles they beat
the ground with their fore feet, and taking up the dry
earth in a coil of the trunk, they flung it dexterously over
every part of their body. Even when lying down, the
sand within reach was thus collected and scattered over
their limbs : then inserting the extremity of the
trunk in their mouths, they withdrew a quantity of
water, which they discharged over their backs, repeat-
ing the operation again and again, till the dust was
thoroughly saturated. I was astonished at the quantity
of water thus applied, which was sufficient when the
elephant, as was generally the case, had worked the spot
where he lay into a hollow, to convert its surface into
a coating of mud. Seeing that the herd had been
now twenty-four hours without access to water of any
kind, surrounded by watch-fires, and exhausted by
struggling and terror, the supply of moisture an ele-
phant is capable of containing in the receptacle
attached to his stomach must be very consider-
able.

The conduct of the tame ones during all these pro-
ceedings was truly wonderful. They displayed the most
perfect conception of every movement, both of the object
to be attained, and of the means to accomplish it.

192 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VI.

They manifested the utmost enjoyment in what was
going on. There was no ill-humour, no malignity in
the spirit displayed, in what was otherwise a heartless
proceeding, but they set about it in a way that showed
a thorough relish for it, as an agreeable pastime.
Their caution was as remarkable as their sagacity ; there
was no hurrying, no confusion, they never ran foul of
the ropes, were never in the way of the animals already
noosed ; and amidst the most violent struggles, when
the tame ones had frequently to step across the captives,
they in no instance trampled on them, or occasioned
the slightest accident or annoyance. So far from this,
they saw intuitively a difficulty or a danger, and ad-
dressed themselves unbidden to remove it. In tying
up one of the larger elephants, he contrived before he
could be hauled close up to the tree, to walk once or
twice round it, carrying the rope with him ; the decoy,
perceiving the advantage he had thus gained over the
nooser, walked up of her own accord, and pushed him
backwards with her head, till she made him unwind him-
self again ; upon which the rope was hauled tight and
made fast. More than once, when a wild one was ex-
tending his trunk, and would have intercepted the rope
about to be placed over his leg, Siribeddi, by a sudden
motion of her own trunk, pushed his aside, and pre-
vented him ; and on one occasion, when successive efforts
had failed to put the noose over the fore-leg of an
elephant which was already secured by one foot, but
which wisely put the other to the ground as often as it
was attempted to pass the noose under it, I saw the
decoy watch her opportunity, and when his foot was
again raised, suddenly push in her own leg beneath it,
and hold it up till the noose was attached and dra\\Ti
tight.

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPH.iXT. 193

One could almost fancy there was a display of dry
humour in the manner in which the decoys thus played
with the fears of the wild herd, and made light of their
efforts at resistance. When reluctant they shoved them
forward, when violent they drove them back ; when the
vnld ones threw themselves down, the tame ones butted
them with head and shoulders, and forced them up
again. And when it was necessary to keep them down,
they knelt upon them, and prevented them from rising,
till the ropes were secm'ed.

At every moment of leisure they fanned themselves
with a bunch of leaves, and the graceful ease with
which an elephant uses his trunk on such occasions is
very striking. It is doubtless owing to the combination
of a circular with a horizontal movement in that flexible
limb ; but it is impossible to see an elephant fanning
himself without being struck by the singular elegance
of motion which he displays. The tame ones, too, in-
dulged in the luxury of dusting themselves with sand,
by flinging it from their trunks ; but it was a ciurious
illustration of their delicate sagacity, that so long as the
mahout was on their necks, they confined themselves to
flinging the dust along their sides and stomach, as if
aware, that to throw it over their heads and back would
cause annoyance to their riders.

One of the decoys which rendered good service, and
was obviously held in special awe by the wild herd, was
a tusker belonging to Dehigame Kata-mahatmeya. It
was not that he used his tusks for purposes of offence,
but he was enabled to insinuate himself between two
elephants by wedging them in where he could not force
his head ; besides which they assisted him in raising
up the fallen and refractory with greater ease. In some

o

194 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VI.

instances where the intervention of the other decoys
failed to reduce a wild one to order, the mere presence
and approach of the tusker seemed to inspire fear, and
insure submission, without more active intervention.

I do not know whether it was the surprising qualities
exhibited by the tame elephants that cast the courage
and dexterity of the men into the shade, but even when
supported by the presence, the sagacity, and co-operation
of these wonderful creatures, the part sustained by the
noosers can bear no comparison with the address and
daring displayed by the picador and matador in a
Spanish bull-fight. They certainly possessed great
quickness of eye in watching the slightest movement of
the elephant, and great expertness in flinging the noose
over its foot and attaching it firmly before the animal
could tear it off with its trunk ; but in all this they had
the cover of the decoys to conceal them ; and their
shelter behind which to retreat. Apart from the services
which, from their prodigious strength, the tame elephants
are alone capable of rendering, in dragging out and
securing the captives, it is perfectly obvious that without
their co-operation the utmost prowess and dexterity of
the hunters would not avail them, unsupported, to enter
the corral and ensnare and lead out a single captive.

Of the two tiny elephants which were entrapped, one
was about ten months old, the other somewhat more. The
smaller one had a little bolt head covered with woolly
brown hair, and was the most amusing and interesting
miniature imaginable. Both kept constantly with the
herd, trotting after them in every charge ; when the
others stood at rest they ran in and out between the legs
of the older ones ; and not their own mothers alone, but
every female in the group caressed them in turn.

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 195

The dam of the youngest was the second elephant
singled out by the noosers, and as she was dragged along
by the decoys, the little creature kept by her side till she
was drawn close to the fatal tree. The men at first were
rather amused than otherwise by its anger ; but they
found that it would not permit them to place the second
noose upon its mother ; it ran between her and them, it
tried to seize the rope, it pushed them and struck them
with its little trunk, till they were forced to drive it
back to the herd. It retreated slowly, shouting all the
way, and pausing at every step to look back. It then
attached itself to the laro^est female remaininof in the
group, and placed itself across her forelegs, whilst she
hung down her trunk over its side and soothed and
caressed it. Here it continued moaning and lamenting,
till the noosers had left off securing its mother, when it
instantly returned to her side ; but as it became trouble-
some again, attacking every one who passed, it was at last
tied up by a rope to an adjoining tree, to which the
other young one was also tied. The second little one,
equally with its playmate, exhibited great affection for
its dam ; it went willingly with its captor as far as the
tree to which she was fastened, and in passing her
stretched out its trunk and tried to rejoin her ; but
finding itself forced along, it caught at every twig and
branch mthin its reach, and screamed with grief and
disappointment.

These two little creatures were the most vociferous of
the whole herd, their shouts were incessant, they
struggled to attack every one within reach ; and as their
bodies were more lithe and pliant than those of gi-eater
growth, their contortions were quite wonderful. The
most amusing thing was, that in the midst of all their

o 2

196 MMIMALIA. [Chap. VI.

agony and affliction, the little fellows seized on every
article of food that was thrown to them, and ate and
roared simultaneously.

Amongst the last of the elephants noosed was the
rogue. Though far more savage than the others, he
joined in none of their charges and assaults on the fences,
as they uniformly drove him off and would not permit
him to enter their circle. When dragged past another
of his companions in misfortune, who was lying exhausted
on the groimd, he flew upon him and attempted to fasten
his teeth in his head ; this was the only instance of
viciousness which occurred during the progress of the
corral. When tied up and overpowered, he was at first
noisy and violent, but soon lay down peacefully, a sign,
according to the hunters, that his death was at hand.
Their prognostication was correct ; he continued for
about twelve hours to cover himself with dust like the
others, and to moisten it with water from his trunk ; but
at length he lay exhausted, and died so calmly, that
having been moving but a few moment before, his death
was only perceived by the myriads of black flies by which
his body was almost instantly covered, although not one
was visible a moment before.^ The Eodiyas were called

* The surprising faculty of vul- sively by the sense of smell ; but

tures for discovering carrion, has that which excites astonishment is

been a subject of much speculation, the small degree of odour which

as to whether it be dependent on seems to suffice for the purpose ;

their power of sight or of scent, the subtlety and rapidity with

It is not, however, more mysterious which it traverses and impregnates

than the unerring certainty and the air; and the keen and quick

rapidity with which some of the perception with which it is taken

minor animals, and more especially up by the organs of those creatures,

insects, in warm climates congre- The instance of the scavenger

gate around the oifal on which beetles has been already alluded

they feed. Circumstanced as they to ; the promptitude with which

are, they must be guided towards they discern the existence of matter

their object mainly if not exclu- suited to their purposes, and the

Chap. VI.]

THE ELEPHAJs'T.

197

in to loose the ropes that bound him, from the tree, and
two tame elephants being harnessed to the dead body, it
was dragged to a distance without the corral.

When every wild elephant had been noosed and tied
up, the scene presented was truly oriental. From one to
two thousand natives, many of them in gaudy dresses and
armed with spears, crowded about the enclosures. Their

speed with which they hurry to it
from all directions ; often from dis-
tances as extraordinary, proportion-
ably, as those traversed by the eye
of the Tulture. In the instance of
the dying elephant referred to
above, life was barely extinct when
the flies, of which not one was
visible but a moment before, arrived
in clouds and blackened the body
by their multitude ; scarcely an
instant was allowed to elapse for
the commencement of decompo-
sition; no odour of putrefaction
could be discerned by us who stood
close by ; yet some peculiar smell
of mortality, simultaneously with
parting breath, must have sum-
moned them to the feast. Ants
exhibit an instinct equally sur-
prising. I have sometimes covered
up a particle of refined sugar with
paper on the centre of a polished
table ; and counted the number of
minutes which would elapse before
it was fastened on by the small
black ants of Ceylon, and a line
formed to lower it safely to the
floor. Here was a substance which,
to our apprehension at least, is
altogether inodorous, and yet the
quick sense of smell must have
been the only conductor of the
ants. It has been observed of
those fishes which travel overland
on the evaporation of the ponds in
which they live, that they invari-
ably march in the direction of the
nearest water, and even when cap-

tured, and placed on the floor of
a room, their efforts to escape are
always made towards the same
point. Is the sense of smell suffi-
cient to account for this display of
instinct in them ? or is it aided by
special organs in the case of the
others ? Dr. Mc Gee, formerly of
the Royal Navy, writing to me on
the subject of the instant appear-
ance of flies in the vicinity of dead
bodies, says : "In warm climates
they do not wait for death to in-
vite them to the banquet. In
Jamaica I have again and again
seen them settle on a patient, and
hardly to be driven away by the
nurse, the patient himself sa}'ing,
' Here are these flies coming to
eat me ere I am dead.' At times
they have enabled the doctor, when
other^Aise he would have been in
doubt as to his prognosis, to deter-
mine whether the strange apyretic
interval occasionally present in the
last stage of yellow fever was the
fatal lull or the lull of recover)';
and ' What say the flies ?' has been
the settHng question. Among many,
many cases during a long period I
have seen but one recovery after
the assembling of the flies. I con-
sider the foregoing as a confir-
mation of smeU being the guide
even to the attendants, a cada-
verous smell has been perceived to
arise from the body of a patient
twenty-four hours before death,"

o 3

198 MA:MMALIA. [Chap. VI.

families had collected to see the spectacle; women,
whose children clung like little bronzed Cupids by their
sides ; and girls, many of them in the graceful costume
of that part of the country, — a scarf, which, after having
been brought round the waist, is thrown over the left
shoulder, leaving the right arm and side free and unco-
vered.

At the foot of each tree was its captive elephant ;
some still struggling and writhing in feverish excitement,
whilst others, in exhaustion and despair, lay motionless,
except that, from time to time, they heaped fresh dust
upon their heads. The mellow notes of a Kandyan flute,
which was played at a distance, had a striking effect
upon one or more of them ; they turned their heads in
the direction from which the music came, expanded
their broad ears, and were evidently soothed with the
plaintive sound. The two young ones alone still roared
for freedom ; they stamped their feet, and blew clouds
of dust over their shoulders, brandishing their little
trunks aloft, and attacking every one who came within
their reach.

At first the older ones, when secured, spurned every
offer of food, trampled it under foot, and turned haugh-
tily away. A few, however, as they became more com-
posed, could not resist the temptation of the juicy stems
of the plantain, but rolling them under foot, till they
detached the layers, they raised them in their trunks,
and commenced chewing listlessly.

On the whole, whilst the sagacity, the composure, and
docility of the decoys were such as to excite lively
astonishment, it was not possible to withhold the highest
admiration from the calm and dignified demeanour of
the captives. Their entire bearing was at variance with

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHAXT. 199

the representation made by some of the " sportsmen "
who harass them, that they are treacherous, savage, and
revengeful ; when tormented by the guns of their per-
secutors, they, no doubt, display their powers and
sagacity in efforts to retaliate or escape ; but here their
every movement was indicative of innocence and timidity.
After a struggle, in which they evinced no disposition to
violence or revenge, they submitted with the calmness
of despair. Their attitudes were pitiable, their grief
was most touching, and their low moaning went to the
heart. We could not have borne to witness their dis-
tress had their capture been effected by the needless
infliction of pain, or had they been destined to ill-treat-
ment afterwards.

It was now about two hours after noon, and the first
elephants that had entered the corral having been dis-
posed of, preparations were made to reopen the gate, and
drive in the other two herds, over which the watchers
were still keeping guard. The area of the enclosm^e was
cleared ; and silence was again imposed on the crowds
who surrounded the corral. The bars that secured the
entrance were withdrawn, and every precaution repeated
as before ; but as the space inside was now somewhat
trodden down, especially near the entrance, by the fre-
quent charges of the last herd, and as it was to be appre-
hended that the others might be earlier alarmed and
retrace their steps, before the barricades could be re-
placed, two tame ones were stationed inside to protect
the men to whom that duty was assigned.

All preliminaries being at length completed, the
signal was given ; the beaters on the side most distant
from the corral closed in mth tom-toms and discordant
noises ; a hedge-fire of musketry was kept up in the

o 4

200 MMIMALIA. [Chap. VI.

rear of the terrified elephants ; thousands of voices urged
them forward ; we heard the jungle crashing as they
came on, and at last they advanced through an opening
amongst the trees, bearing down all before them like a
charge of locomotives. They were led by a huge female,
nearly nine feet high, after whom one half of the herd
dashed precipitately through the narrow entrance, but
the rest turning suddenly towards the left, succeeded in
forcing the cordon of guards and making good their
escape to the forest.

No sooner had the others passed the gate, than the
two tame elephants stepped forward from either side,
and before the herd could return from the further end
of the enclosure, the bars were drawn, the entrance closed,
and the men in charge glided outside the stockade.
The elephants which had previously been made prisoners
within exhibited intense excitement as the fresh din
arose around them ; they started to their feet, and
stretched their trunks in the direction whence they
winded the scent of the herd in its headlong flight ; and
as the latter rushed past, they renewed their struggles
to get free and follow. It is not possible to imagine
anything more exciting than the spectacle which the
wild ones presented careering round the corral, uttering
piercing screams, their heads erect and trunks aloft, the
very emblems of rage and perplexity, of power and help-
lessness.

Along with those which entered at the second drive
was one that evidently belonged to another herd, and
had been separated from them in the melee when the
latter effected their escape, and, as usual, his new com-
panions in misfortune drove him off indignantly as often
as he attempted to approach them.

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 201

The demeanour of those taken in the second drive
differed materially from that of the preceding captives,
who, having entered the corral in darkness, to find
themselves girt with fire and smoke, and beset by hideous
sounds and sights on every side, were speedily reduced
by fear to stupor and submission — whereas, the second
herd having passed into the enclosure by daylight,
and its area being trodden down in many places, could
clearly discover the fences, and were consequently more
alarmed and enraged at their confinement. They were
thus as restless as the others had been calm, and so
much more vigorous in their assaults that, on one occa-
sion, their courageous leader, undaunted by the multi-
tude of white wands thrust towards her, was only driven
back from the stockade by a hunter hurling a blazing
flambeau at her head. Her attitude as she stood repulsed,
but still irresolute, was a study for a painter. Her eye
dilated, her ears expanded, her back arched like a tiger,
and her fore-foot in air, whilst she uttered those hideous
screams that are imperfectly described by the term
'' trumpeting.^^

Although repeatedly passing by the unfortunates from
the former drove, the new herd seemed to take no
friendly notice of them ; they halted inquiringly for a
minute, and then resumed their career round the corral,
and once or twice in their headlong flight they rushed
madly over the bodies of the prostrate captives as they
lay in their misery on the ground.

It was evening before the new captives had grown
wearied with their furious and repeated charges, and stood
still in the centre of the corral collected into a terrified
and motionless group. The fires were then relighted,
the guard redoubled by the addition of the watchers.

202 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VI.

who were now relieved from duty in the forest, and the
spectators retired to their bungalows for the night.

The business of the third clay began by noosing and
tying up the new captives, and the first sought out was
their magnificent leader. Siribeddi and the tame tusker
having forced themselves on either side of her, a boy in
the service of the Eata-Mahatmeya succeeded in attach-
ing a rope to her hind-foot. Siribeddi moved off, but
feeling her strength insufficient to drag the reluctant
prize, she went down on her fore-knees, so as to add the
full weight of her body to the pull. The tusker, seeing
her difficulty, placed himself in front of the prisoner, and
forced her backwards, step by step, till his companion
brought her fairly up to the tree, and wound the rope
round the stem. Though overpowered by fear, she
showed the fullest sense of the nature of the danger she
had to apprehend. She kept her head turned towards
the noosers, and tried to step in advance of the de-
coys ; in spite of all their efforts, she tore off the first
noose from her fore-leg, and placing it under her foot,
snapped it into fathom lengths. WTien finally secured,
her Avrithings were extraordinary. She doubled in her
head under her chest, till she lay as round as a hedge-
hog, and rising again, stood on her fore-feet, and lifting
her hind-feet off the ground, she wrung them from side
to side, till the great tree above her quivered in every
branch.

Before proceeding to catch the others, we requested
that the smaller trees and jungle, which partially ob-
structed our view, might be broken away, being no longer
essential to screen the entrance to the corral ; and five
of the tame elephants were brought up for the purpose.
They felt the strength of each tree with their trunks,

Chap. VI.]

THE ELEPHANT.

203

then swaying it backwards and forwards, by pushing it
with their foreheads, they watched the opportunity when
it was in full swing to raise their fore-feet against the
stem, and bear it down to the ground. Then tearing off
the festoons of climbing plants, and trampling down the
smaller branches and brushwood, they pitched them with
their tusks, piling them into heaps along the side of the
fence.

Amongst the last that was secured was the solitary
individual belonging to the fugitive herd. WTien they
attempted to drag him backwards from the tree near

which he was noosed, he laid hold of it with his trunk
and lay down on his side immoveable. The temple
tusker and another were ordered up to assist, and it re-
quired the combined efforts of the three elephants to

204

MMIMALIA.

[Chap. VI.

force him along. WTien dragged to the place at which
he was to be tied up, he continued the contest with
desperation, and to prevent the second noose being placed
on his foot, he sat down on his haunches, almost in the
attitude of the " Florentine Boar," keeping his hind-feet
beneath him, and defending his fore-feet with his trunk,
with which he flung back the rope as often as it was
attempted to attach it.

AMien overpowered and made fast, his grief was most
affecting ; his violence sunk to utter prostration, and he

lay on the ground, uttering choking cries, with tears
trickling down his cheeks.

The final operation was that of slackening the ropes,
and marching each captive down to the river between
two tame ones. This was effected very simply. A
decoy, with a strong collar round its neck, stood on
either side of the wild one, on which a similar collar
was formed, by successive coils of coco-nut rope ; and

Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 205

then, connecting the three collars together, the pri-
soner was effectually made safe between his two guards.
Dui'ing this operation, it was curious to see how the
tame elephant, from time to time, used its trunk to
shield the arm of its rider, and ward off the trunk of the
prisoner, who resisted the placing the rope round his
neck. This done, the nooses were removed from his
feet, and he was marched off to the river, in which
he and his companions were allowed to bathe ; a privi-
lege of which all availed themselves eagerly. Each
was then made fast to a tree in the forest, and keepers
beinof assicjned to him, mth a retinue of leaf-cutters, he
was plentifully supplied with his favourite food, and left
to the care and tuition of his new masters.

Returning from a spectacle such as I have attempted
to describe, one cannot help feeling how immeasurably
it exceeds in interest those royal battues where timid
deer are driven in crowds to unresisting slaughter; or
those vaunted " wild sports " the amusement of which
appears to be in proportion to the effusion of blood.
Here the only display of power was the imposition of
restraint ; and though considerable mortality often occurs
amongst the animals caught, the infliction of pain, so
far from being an incident of the operation, is most cau-
tiously avoided from its tendency to enrage, the policy
of the captor being to conciliate and soothe. The whole
scene exhibits the most marvellous example of the volun-
tary alliance of animal sagacity and instinct in active
co-operation with human intelligence and courage ; and
nothing else in nature, not even the chase of the whale,
can afford so vivid an illustration of the sovereignty of
man over brute creation even when confronted with
force in its most stupendous embodiment.

20G MAIklMALIA. [Chap. VI.

Of the two young elephants which were taken in the
corral, the smallest was sent down to my house at Colombo,
where he became a general favourite with the servants.
He attached himself especially to the coachman, who had
a little shed erected for him near his own quarters at
the stables. But his favourite resort was the kitchen,
where he received a daily allowance of milk and plan-
tains, and picked up several other delicacies besides.
He was innocent and playful in the extreme, and when
walking in the grounds he would trot up to me, twine his
little trunk round my arm, and coax me to take him to
the fruit-trees. In the evening the grass-cutters now
and then indulged him by permitting him to carry home
a load of fodder for the horses, on which occasions he
assumed an ?oir of gravity that was highly amusing, show-
ing that he was deeply impressed with the importance
and responsibility of the service entrusted to him. Being
sometimes permitted to enter the dining-room, and
helped to fruit at desert, he at last learned his way to the
side-board ; and on more than one occasion having stolen
in, during the absence of the servants, he made a clear
sweep of the wine-glasses and china in his endeavours to
reach a basket of oranges. For these and similar pranks
we were at last forced to put him away. He was sent to
the Grovernment stud, where he was affectionately re-
ceived and adopted by Siribeddi, and he now takes his
turn of public duty in the department of the Commis-
sioner of Roads.

207

CHAP. VIL

THE ELEPHANT.

Conduct in Captivity,

The idea prevailed in ancient times, and obtains even at
the present day, that the Indian elephant surpasses that
of Africa in sagacity and tractability, and consequently
in capacity for training, so as to render its services more
available to man. There does not appear to me to be
sufficient ground for this conclusion. It originated, in
all probability, in the first impressions created by the
accounts of the elephant brought back by the Grreeks
after the Indian expedition of Alexander, and above all
by the descriptions of Aristotle, whose knowledge of the
animal was derived exclusively from the East. A long
interval elapsed before the elephant of Africa, and its
capabilities, became known in Europe. The first ele-
phants brought to Grreece by Antipater, were from India,
as were also those introduced by Pyrrhus into Italy.
Taught by this example, the Carthaginians undertook to
employ African elephants in war. Jugurtha led them
against Metellus, and Juba against Caesar ; but from in-
experienced and deficient training, they proved less
effective than the elephants of India ^, and the historians

1 Aemajtdi, Hist Milit. des Ele- on the coins of Alexander, and the

phants, liv. i. ch. i, p. 2. It is an Seleueidae invariably exhibit the

interesting fact, noticed by An- characteristics of the Indian type,

MANDi, that the elephants figured whilst those on Roman medals

208

MA^klMALIA.

[Chap. VII.

of these times ascribed to inferiority of race, that which
was but the result of insufficient education.

It must, however, be remembered that the elephants
which, at a later period, astonished the Eomans by their
sagacity, and whose performances in the amphitheatre
have been described by ^lian and Pliny, were brought
from Africa, and acquired their accomplishments from
European instructors^ ; a sufficient proof that under
equally favourable auspices the African species are
capable of developing similar docility and powers with
those of India. It is one of the facts from which the
inferiority of the Negro race has been inferred, that
they alone, of all the nations amongst whom the elephant
is found, have never manifested ability to domesticate it ;
and even as regards the more highly developed races
who inhabited the valley of the Nile, it is observable that
the elephant is nowhere to be found amongst the animals
figured on the monuments of ancient Egypt, whilst the
camel opard, the lion, and even the hippopotamus are re-
presented. And although in later times the knowledge
of the art of training appears to have existed under the
Ptolemies, and on the southern shore of the Mediterra-
nean, it admits of no doubt that it was communicated
by the more accomplished natives of India who had
settled there.^

can at once be pronounced African,
from the peculiarities of the con-
vex forehead and expansive ears.
— Ibid. liv. i. cap. i. p. 3.

AuMAXDi has, with infinite in-
dustry, collected from original
sources a mass of curious inform-
ations relative to the employment
of elephants in ancient warfare,
which he has published under the
title of Histoire MiUtaire dcs Ele-
jphants deipuis les temps les plus
recuUs jusqxC a V introduction des
armcs a feu. Paris. 1843.

' JElian, lib. ii. cap. ii.

2 See Scklegel's Essay on the

Chap. YII.] THE ELEPHANT. 209

Another favourite doctrine of the earlier visitors to
the East seems to me to be equally fallacious ; Pteard,
Bernier, Phillipe, Theyenot, and other travellers in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, proclaimed the
superiority of the elephant of Ceylon, in size, strength,
and sagacity, above those of all other parts of India' ;
and Tavernier in particular is supposed to have stated
that if a Ceylon elephant be introduced amongst those
bred in any other place, by an instinct of nature they
do him homage by laying their trunks to the ground,
and raising them reverentially. This passage has been
so repeatedly quoted in works on Ceylon that it has
passed into an aphorism, and is always adduced as a
testimony to the surpassing intelligence of the elephants
of that island : althouo^h a reference to the original shows
that Tavernier's observations are not only fanciful in
themselves, but are restricted to the supposed excellence

Elephant and the Sphynx, Classical elephant figured in the sculptures

Journal, No. Ix. Although the of Xineyeh is universally as wild,

trained elephant nowhere appears not domesticated,
upon the monuments of the Egyp- ' This is merely a reiteration of

tians, the animal was not unknown the statement of ^liax, who as-

to them, and ivor}- and elephants cribes to the elephants of Taprobane

are figured on the walls of Thebes a xast superiority in size, strength,

and Karnac amongst the spoils of and intelligence, aboTe those of

Thothmes III., and the tribute continental India, — KaX olBe ye

paid to Rameses I. The Island of vr}(nuTai i?\4(pavT6S twu riTTdpuTuv

Elephantine, in the Nile, near oA/ci/tiwrepoi re r^u pw/xriv koI jj-ei^ovs

Assouan (Syene) is styled in hiero- ISeiu elal, Koi ^v/xoaocpwTepoL 8e Trdura

gl}'phical writing " The Land of iravrri KpiuoivTo au.'' — ^llvx, De

the Elephant ; " but as it is a mere Nat. Anim., lib. xvi. cap. xxiii.
rock, it probably owes its designa- -Sh:iAN also, in the same chap-

tion to its form. See Sir Gaed- ter, states the fact of the ship-

NEE "Wllkcvson's Ancitnt Egyp- ment of elephants in large boats

tians, vol. i. pi. iy.; vol. v. p. 176. from Ceylon to the opposite couti-

Above the first cataract of the Nile nent of India, for sale to the king

are two small islands, each bearing of Kalinga ; so that the export

the name of Phylse; — quaere, is from Manaar, described in a former

the derivation of this word at all passage, has been going on appa-

connected with the Arabic term rently without interruption since

fill See ante, p. 76, note. The the time of the Eomans.

210 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VII.

of the Ceylon animal in war.^ This estimate of the
superiority of the elephant of Ceylon, if it ever prevailed
in India, was not current there at a very early period ;
for in the Ramayana, which is probably the oldest epic
in the world, the stud of Dasartha, the king of Ayodhya,
was supplied with elephants from the Himalaya and the
Vindhya Mountains.- I have had no opportunity of test-
ing by personal observation the justice of the assumption ;
but from all that I have heard of the elephants of the
continent, and seen of those of Ceylon, I have reason to
conclude that the difference, if nob imaginary, is except-
ional, and must have arisen in particular and individual
instances, from more judicious or elaborate instruction.

The earliest knowledge of the elephant in Europe
and the West, was derived from the conspicuous
position assigned to it in the wars of the East : in
India, from the remotest antiquity, it formed one of
the most picturesque, if not the most effective, features
in the armies of the native princes.^ It is more than

* The expression of Tavernieb is relevant. II est vrai que les ele-

to the eiFect that as compared with all phants que les grands seignem*s

others, the elephants of Ceylon are entretiennent, quand on les amene

"plus courageux a la guerre." The devant eux, pour voir s'ils sont en

rest of the passage is a curiosity; — bon point, font trois fois une espece

" II faut remarquer ici une chose de reverence avec leur trompe, cr

qu'on aura peut-etre de la peine a qite fai vu souvent; mais ils sont

croire mais qui est toutefois tres- styles a cela, et leurs maitres le

veritable : c'est que lorsque quelque leur enseignent de bonne heure." —

roi ou quelque seigneur a quelqu'un Les Six Vo7/agcsdeJ.3.TATEUNiER,

de ces elephants de Ceylan, et qu'on lib. iii. ch. 20.
en amene quelqu' autre des lieux ^ Eamayana, sec. vi. ; Caeey

ou les marchands vont les prendre, and Marshman, i. 105 ; Fauche,

commed'Achen, de Siam, d'Arakan, t. i. p. 66.

de Pegu, du royaume de Boutan, ^ The only mention of the ele-

d' Assam, des terres de Cochin et phant in Sacred History is in the

de la coste du Melinde, des que les account given in Maccabees of the

elephants en voient un de Ceylan, invasion of Egypt by Antiochus,

par un instinct de nature, ils lui who entered it 170 B.C., "with

font la reverence, portant le bout chariots and elephants, and horse-

de leur trompe a la terre et la men, and a great navy." — 1 Mace.

Chaf. VII.J

THE ELEPHAXT.

211

probable that the earliest attempts to take and train
the elephant, were with a view to railitary uses, and
that the art was perpetuated in later times to gratify
the pride of the eastern kings, and sustain the pomp
of their processions.

An impression prevails even to the present day, that
the process of training is tedious and difficult, and the
reduction of a full-grown elephant to obedience, slow
and troublesome in the extreme.^ In both particulars,
however, the contrary is the truth. The training as it
prevails in Ceylon is simple, and the conformity and
obedience of the animal are developed with singular

i. 17. Frequent allusions to the
use of elephants in war occur in
both books ; and in chap. vi. 34, it
is stated that "to provoke the ele-
phants to fight they shoTved them
the blood o^ grapes and of mulber-
ries." The term showed, '"eSei^av,"
might be thought to imply that the
animals were enraged by the sight
of the wine and its colour, but in
the Third Book of Maccabees, in
the Greek Septuagint, various
other passages show that wine, on
such occasions, was administered
to the elephants to render them
furious. — Mace. v. 2, 10, 45.
Phile mentions the same fact, De
Elepkante, i. 145.

There is a very curious account
of the mode in which the Arab
conquerors of Scinde, in the 9th
and 10th centuries, equipped the
elephant for war ; which being
written with all the particularity
of an eye-witness, bears the impress
of truth and accuracy, Massoudi,
who was born in Bagdad at the
close of the 9th century, travelled
in India in the year a.d. 913, and
visited the Gulf of Cambay, the
coast of Malabar, and the Island of
Ceylon : — fi-om a larger account of

his journeys he compiled a sum-
mary under the title of " Moroudj
al-dzeheh^' or the " Golden Mea-
doivs" the MS. of which is now in
the Bibliotheque Rationale. M.
Eeixaud, in describing this manu-
script says, on its authority, '• The
Prince of Mensura, whose do-
minions lay south of the Indus,
maintained eighty elephants train-
ed for war, each of which bore in
his trunk a bent cymeter (car-
thel), with which he was taught to
cut and thrust at all confronting
him. The trunk itself was effect-
ually protected by a coat of mail,
and the rest of the body enveloped
in a covering composed jointly of
iron and horn. Other elephants
were employed in drawing chariots,
carrying baggage, and grinding
forage, and the peformance of all
bespoke the utmost intelligence and
docility." — Eeixaud, Memoire stir
rinde, anterienrement cm milieu du
XI^ siecle, d'apres les ecrivains
arabcs, persans et chinois. Paris,
M.D.ccc. XLix. p. 215. See Speen-
ger's English Translation of
Massoudi, vol. i. p. 383.

* Broderip, Zoological Eccrca-
tions, p. 226.

p 2

212

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. Vn.

rapidity. For the first three days, or till they will eat
freely, which they seldom do in a less time, the newly-
captured elephants are allowed to stand quiet ; and, if
practicable, a tame elephant is tied near to give the
wild ones confidence. Where many elephants are being
trained at once, it is customary to put every new
captive between the stalls of half-tamed ones, when it
soon takes to its food. This stage being attained,
training commences by placing tame elephants on
either side. The " cooroowe vidahn," or the head of
the stables, stands in front of the wild elephants hold-
ing a long stick with a sharp iron point. Two men are
then stationed one on either side, assisted by the tame
elephants, and each holding a hendoo or crook ^ towards
the wild one's trunk, whilst one or two others rub their
hands over his back, keeping up all the while a sooth-
ing and plaintive chaunt, interlarded with endearing
epithets, such as " ho ! my son," or " ho I my father,"
or " my mother," as may be applicable to the age and
sex of the captive. The elephant is at first furious,
and strikes in all directions with his trunk : but the

^ The iron goad with which the It is figured in the medals of

keeper directs the moyements of Caracalla in the identical form in

the elephants, called a hendoo in which it is in use at the present

Ceylon and hawJcus in Bengal, day in India,

appears to hare retained the present The Greeks called it apTTTj, and

shape from the remotest antiquity, the Eomans cuspis.

r

Modern Hendoo.

^

Medal of Xumidia.

Chaf. VII.] THE ELEPHAXT. 213

men in front receiving all these blows on the points of
their weapons, the extremity of the trunk becomes so
sore that the animal curls it up close, and seldom
afterwards attempts to use it offensively. The first
dread of man's power being thus established, the pro-
cess of taking him to bathe between two tame elephants
is greatly facilitated, and by lengthening the neck rope,
and drawing the feet together as close as possible, the
process of laying him down in the water is finally
accomplished by the keepers pressing the sharp point
of their hendoos over the backbone.

For many days the roaring and resistance which
attend the operation are considerable, and it often re-
quires the sagacious interference of the tame elephants
to control the refractory wild ones. It soon, however,
becomes practicable to leave the latter alone, only
taking them to and from the stall by the aid of a decoy.
This step lasts, under ordinary treatment, for about
three weeks, when an elephant may be taken alone
with his legs hobbled, and a man walking backwards
in front with the point of the hendoo always presented
to the elephant's head, and a keeper with an iron crook
at each ear. On getting into the water, the fear of
being pricked on his tender back induces him to lie
down directly on the crook being only held over him
in terrorem. Once this point has been achieved, the
further process of taming is dependent upon the dis-
position of the creature.

The greatest care is requisite, and daily medicines
are applied to heal the fearful wounds on the legs
which even the softest ropes occasion. This is the
great difficulty of training; for the wounds fester
grievously, and months and sometimes years will

p 3

214 MAJIMALIA. [Chap. VII.

elapse before an elephant will allow his feet to be
touched without indications of alarm and anger.

The observation has been frequently made that the
elephants most vicious and troublesome to tame, and
the most worthless when tamed, are those distinguished
by a thin trunk and flabby pendulous ears. The period
of tuition does not appear to be influenced by the size
or strength of the animals : some of the smallest give
the greatest amount of trouble; whereas, in the in-
stance of the two largest that have been taken in
Ceylon within the last thirty years, both were docile
in a remarkable degree. One in particular, which was
caught and trained by Mr. Cripps, when Grovernment
agent, in the Seven Korles, fed from the hand the first
night it was secured, and in a very few days evinced
pleasure on being patted on the head.^ There is
none so obstinate, not even a rogue, that may not,
when kindly and patiently treated, be conciliated and
reconciled.

The males are generally more unmaneagable than the
females, and in both an inclination to lie down to rest
is regarded as a favourable symptom of approaching
tractability, some of the most resolute having been
known to stand for months together, even during sleep.
Those which are the most obstinate and violent at first

^ This was the largest elephant attendant decoys. He, on one oc-

that had been tamed in Ceylon ; casion, escaped, but was recaptured

he measured upwards of nine feet in the forest ; and he afterwards

at the shoulders and belonged to became so docile as to perform a

the caste so highly prized for the variety of tricks. He was at length

temples. He was gentle affer his ordered to be removed to Colombo ;

first capture, but his removal from but such was his terror on ap-

the corral to the stables, though only proaching the fort, that on coaxing

a distance of six miles, was a matter him to enter the gate, he became

of the extremest difficulty ; his paralysed in the extraordinary way

extraordinary strength rendering elsewhere aUuded to, and died on

him more than a match for the the spot.

Chap. VII.]

THE ELEPHANT.

215

are the soonest and most effectually subdued, and
generally prove permanently docile and submissive.
But those which are sullen or morose, although they
may provoke no chastisement by their viciousness, are
always slower in being taught, and are rarely to be
trusted in after life.^

But whatever may be its natural gentleness and
docility, the temper of an elephant is seldom to be im-
plicitly relied on in a state of captivity and coercion.
The most amenable are subject to occasional fits of
stubbornness ; and even after years of submission, irri-
tability and resentment will unaccountably manifest
themselves. It may be that the restraints and severer
discipline of training have not been entirely forgotten ;
or that incidents which in ordinary health would be pro-

' The natives profess that the
high caste elephants, such as are
allotted to the temples, are of all
others 'the most difficult to tame,
and M. Bles, the Dutch corre-
spondent of BuFFON, mentions a
caste of elephants which he had
heard of, as being peculiar to the
Kandyan kingdom, that were not
higher than a heifer (genisse),
covered with hair, and insuscep-
tible of being tamed. (Buffon-,
Supp. vol. vi. p. 29.) Bishop He-
BER, in the account of his journey
from Bareilly towards the Hima-
layas, describes the Raja Goiu*-
man Sing, "mounted on a little
female elephant, hardly bigger
than a Durham ox, and almost as
shaggy as a poodle." — Journ., ch.
xvii. It will be remembered that
the mammoth discovered in 1803
embedded in icy soil in Siberia,
was covered mth a coat of long
hair, with a sort of wool at the
roots. Hence there arose the ques-
tion whether that northern region

had been formerly inhabited by a
race of elephants, so fortified by na-
ture against cold; or whether the in-
dividual discovered had been borne
thither by currents from some more
temperate latitudes. To the latter
theory the presence of hair seemed
a fatal objection ; but so far as my
own observation goes, I believe the
elephants are more or less provided
with hair. In some it is more
developed than in others, and it is
particularly observable intheyoung,
which when captm'ed are frequently
covered with a woolly fleece, es-
pecially about the head and
shoulders. In the older individu-
als in Ceylon, this is less apparent :
and in captivity the hair appears
to be altogether removed by the
custom of the mahouts to rub their
skin daily with oil and a rough
lump of burned clay. See a paper
on the subject, Asiat. Journ. N. S.
vol. xiv. p. 182, by Mr. G-. Ymr-

HOLME.

P 4

216 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VII.

ductive of no demonstration whatever, may lead, in mo-
ments of temporary illness, to fretfulness and anger.
The knowledge of this infirmity led to the popular
belief recorded by Phile, that the elephant had hvo
hearts, under the respective influences of which it
evinced ferocity or gentleness ; subdued by the one to
habitual tractability and obedience, but occasionally
roused by the other to displays of rage and resist-
ance.^

In the process of taming, the presence of the tame
ones can generally be dispensed with after two months,
and the captive may then be ridden by the driver alone ;
and after three or four months he may be entrusted
with labour, so far as regards docility; — but it is un-
desirable, and even involves the risk of life, to work an
elephant too soon ; it has frequently happened that a
valuable animal has lain down and died the first time it
was tried in harness, from what the natives believe to be
" broken heart," — certainly without any cause inferable
from injury or previous disease.^ It is observable, that

• " AittAtjs 5e (pdffLv eujropTjo-ot Kap- hibitecl to the British Envoy, "made

bias' vigorous resistance to the placing

Kal tt) fxeu eluai bv/jLiKhu rh br]piov of a collar on its neck, and the

Els aKparri Kivrjaiu T]p€Qi(Tfxivov, people were proceeding to tighten

T_^ 5e ■Kpo(Tr\i'ks koL ^paavT-rjTos ^€vov. it, when the elephant, which had

Kal TTTj ixku avruv aKpoaaOai tuu lain down as if quite exhausted,

Adywu reared suddenly on the hind quar-

Ots &v ris 'IvShs eu Ti6a<revo}u Keyoi, ters, and fell on its side — dead/"

Tlrj Se Trphs avTohs rohs vofx^'is iiri- — P. 101.

rpex^iv Mr. Steachan noticed the same

Els Tas naXaias iKTpairev KuKovp- liability of the elephants to sudden

yias." death from very slight causes ; "of

Vbjlti, Ex2)os. de Elc2)k.,\. 126, &:c. the fall," he says, "at any time,

- Captain Yule, in his Narra- though on plain ground, they

tive of cm Embassy to Ava in 1855, either die immediately, or languish

records an illustration of this ten- till they die ; their great weight

dency of the elephant to sudden occasioning tlaem so much hurt by

death; one newly captured, the the fall." — Phil. Trans. a.T). 1701,

process of taming which was ex- vol. xxiii. p. 1052.

Chap. VU.] THE ELEPHANT. 217

till a captured elephant begins to relish food, and grow
fat upon it, he becomes so fretted by work, that it kills
him in an incredibly short space of time.

The first employment to which an elephant is put is
to tread clay in a brick-field, or to draw a waggon in
double harness mth a tame companion. But the work
in which the display of sagacity renders his labours of
the highest value, is that which involves the use of hesivj
materials ; and hence in dragging and piling timber, or
moving stones^ for the construction of retaining walls
and the approaches to bridges, his services in an un-
opened country are of the utmost importance. AMien
roads are to be constructed along the face of steep de-
clivities, and the space is so contracted that risk is in-
curred either of the working elephant falling over the
precipice or of rocks slipping down from above, not only
are the measures to which he resorts the most judicious
and reasonable that could be devised, but if urged by his
keeper to adopt any other, he manifests a reluctance
sufficient to show that he has balanced in his own mind
the comparative advantages of each. An elephant ap-
pears on all occasions to comprehend the purpose and
object that he is expected to promote, and hence he vo-
luntarily executes a variety of details without any
guidance whatever from his keeper. This is one cha-
racteristic in which this animal manifests a superiority
over the horse ; although his strength in proportion to
his weight is not so great as that of the latter.

His minute motions when engrossed by such opera-

' A correspondent informs me means of a rope, whieli he either

that on the Malabar coast of India, draws with his forehead, or ma-

the elephant, when employed in nages by seizing it in his teeth,
dragging stones, moves them by

218 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VII.

tions, the activity of his eye, and the earnestness of his
attitudes, can only be comprehended by being seen. In
moving timber and masses of rock his trunk is the in-
strument on which he mainly relies, but those which
have tusks turn them to good account. To get a weighty
stone out of a hollow an elephant will kneel down so as
to apply the pressure of his head to move it upwards,
then steadying it with one foot till he can raise himself,
he will apply a fold of his trunk to shift it to its place,
and fit it accurately in position : this done, he will step
round to view it on either side, and adjust it with due
precision. He appears to gauge his task by his eye, and
to form a judgment whether the weight be proportion-
ate to his strength. If doubtful of his own power, he
hesitates and halts, and if urged against his will, he roars
and shows temper.

In clearing an opening through forest land, the power
of the African elephant, and the strength ascribed to him
by a recent traveller, as displayed in uprooting trees, have
never been equalled or approached by anything I have
seen of the elephant in Ceylon ^ or heard of them in India.

* "Here the trees were large and the trees thus broken lay so thick

handsome, but not strong enough across one another, that it was

to resist the inconceivable strength almost impossible to ride through

of the mighty monarch of these the district."— 7Z>z(^., p. 310.

forests ; almost every tree had half Mr. Gordon Gumming does not

its branches broken short by them name the trees which he saw thus

and at every hundred yards I came " uprooted " and " broken across,"

upon entire trees, and these, the nor has he given any idea of their

largest in the forest, n-prooted clean size and weight; but Major Den-

out of the ground, and broken short ham, who observed like traces of

across their sterns.'' — A Himter's the elephant in Africa, saw only

Life in South Africa. ByR. Gor- small trees overthrown by them;

DON Gumming, vol, ii. p. 305. — and Mr. Pringle, who had an

" Spreading out from one another, opportunity of observing similar

they smash and destroy all the practices of the animals in the

finest trees in the forest which neutral territory of the Eastern

happen to be in their course, . . . frontier of the Cape of Good Hope,

I have rode through forests where describes their ravages as being

Chap. VII.] THE ELEPHAXT. 219

Of course much must depend on the nature of the timber
and the moisture of the soil ; thus a strong tree on the
verge of a swamp may be overthrown with greater ease
than a small and low one in parched and solid ground.
I have seen no " tree " deserving the name, nothing but
jungle and brushwood, thrown down by the mere move-
ment of an elephant without some special exertion of
force. But he is by no means fond of gratuitously tasking
his strength ; and food being so abundant that he obtains
it without an effort, it is not altogether apparent, even
were he able to do so, why he should assail "the largest
trees in the forest, " and encumber his own haunts with
their broken stems ; especially as there is scarcely any-
thing which an elephant dislikes more than venturing
amongst fallen timber.

A tree of twelve inches in diameter resisted successfully
the most strenuous struggles of the largest elephant I
ever saw led to it ; and when directed by their keepers to
clear away jungle, the removal of even a small tree, or
a healthy young coco-nut palm, is a matter both of time
and exertion. Hence the services of an elephant are of
much less value in clearing a forest than in dragging
and piling felled timber. But in the latter occupation
he manifests an intelligence and dexterity which is sur-
prising to a stranger, because the sameness of the oper-
ation enables the animal to go on for hours disposing
of log after log, almost without a hint or direction from
his attendant. For example, two elephants employed

confined to the mimosas, " immense of their food. Many of the /^r^cr

nxunbers of which had been torn mimosas had resisted all tJieir

out of the ground, and placed in efforts ; and indeed it is only after

an inyerted position, in order to heavy rain, when the soil is soft and

enable the animals to browse at loose, that they ever successfully

their ease on the soft and juicy attempt this operation.^' — Prin-

roots, which form a favourite part gle's Sketches of South Africa,

220 MA:yiMALIA. [Chap. VII.

in piling ebony and satinwood in the yards attached to
the commissariat stores at Colombo, were so accustomed
to their work, that they were able to accomplish it mth
equal precision and with greater rapidity than if it had
been done by dock-labourers. When the pile attained
a certain height, and they were no longer able by their
conjoint efforts to raise one of the heavy logs of ebony
to the summit, they had been taught to lean two pieces
against the heap, up the iaclined plane of which they
gently rolled the remaining logs, and placed them
trimly on the top.

It has been asserted that in their occupations " ele-
phants are to a surprising extent the creatures of habit," ^
that their movements are altogether mechanical, and
that "they are annoyed by any de^dation from their
accustomed practice, and resent any constrained depar-
ture from the regularity of their course." So far as my
own observation goes, this is incorrect; and I am
assured by officers of experience, that in regard to
changing his treatment, his hours, or his occupation,
an elephant evinces no more consideration than a horse,
but exhibits the same pliancy and facility.

At one poiat, however, the utility of the elephant
stops short. Such is the intelligence and earnestness he
displays in work, which he seems to conduct almost
without supervision, that it has been assumed^ that he
would continue his labour, and accomplish his given
task, as well in the absence of his keeper as during his
presence. But here his innate love of ease displays
itself, and if the eye of his attendant be withdrawn, the
moment he has finished the thing immediately in hand,

' Menageries, ^'c, " The Elephant," toI. ii. p. 23.
2 Jbid., eh. xi. p. 138.

Chap. Yll.] THE ELEPHAIs'T. 221

he will stroll away lazily, to browse or enjoy the luxury
of fanning himself and blowing dust over his back.

The means of punishing so powerful an animal is a
question of difficulty to his attendants. Force being
almost inapplicable, they try to work on his passions
and feelings, by such expedients as altering the na-
ture of his food or withholding it altogether for a time.
On such occasions the demeanour of the creature will
sometimes evince a sense of humiliation as well as
of discontent. In some parts of India it is customary,
in dealing mth offenders, to stop their allowance of
sugar canes or of jaggery ; or to restrain them from
eatinof their own share of fodder and leaves till their
companions shall have finished ; and in such cases the
consciousness of degradation betrayed by the looks and
attitudes of the culprit is quite sufficient to identify
him, and to excite a feeling of sympathy and pity.

The elephant's obedience to his keeper is the result
of affection, as well as of fear ; and although his attach-
ment becomes so strong that an elephant in Ceylon
has been kno^vn to remain out all night, without food,
rather than abandon his mahout, lying intoxicated in
the jungle, yet he manifests little difficulty in yielding
the same submission to a new driver in the event of a
change of attendants. This is opposed to the popular
belief that " the elephant cherishes such an enduring
remembrance of his old mahout, that he cannot easily
be brought to obey a stranger."^ In the extensive
establishments of the Ceylon Grovernment, the keepers
are changed without hesitation, and the animals, when
equally kindly treated, are usually found to be as tract-

1 Menageries, ^c, "The Elepliant," vol. i. p. 19.

222 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VIF.

able and obedient to their new driver as to the old, in
fact so soon as they have become familiarised with his
voice.

This is not, however, invariably the case ; and Mr.
Cripps, who had remarkable opportunities for observing
the habits of the elephant in Ceylon, mentioned to me
an instance in which one of a singularly stubborn
disposition occasioned some inconvenience after the
death of its keeper, by refusing to obey any other, till
its attendants bethought them of a child about twelve
years old, in a distant village, where the animal had
been formerly picketed, and to whom it had displayed
much attachment. The child was sent for ; and on its
arrival the elephant, as anticipated, manifested extreme
satisfaction, and was managed with ease, till by degrees
it became reconciled to the presence of a new superin-
tendent.

It has been said that the mahouts die young, owing
to some supposed injury to the spinal column from the
peculiar motion of the elephant; but this remark does
not apply to those in Ceylon, who are healthy, and as
long lived as other men. If the motion of the elephant
be thus injurious, that of the camel must be still more
so; yet we never hear of early death ascribed to this
cause by the Arabs,

The voice of the keeper, with a very limited vocabulary
of articulate sounds, serves almost alone to guide the
elephant in his domestic occupations.^ Sir Everaed

' The principal sound by which the sound is so expressive of the

the mahouts in Ceylon direct the sense that persons in charge of

motions of the elephants is a repe- animals of almost every descrip-

tition, with various modulations, of tion throughout the world appear

the words ur-re ! tir-re ! This is to have adopted it with a concur-

one of those interjections in which rence that is very curious. The

Chap. VII.] THE ELEPHANT. 223

Home, from an examination of the muscular fibres in
the drum of an elephant's ear, came to the conclusion,
that notwithstanding the distinctness and power of his
perception of sounds at a greater distance than other
animals, he was insensible to their harmonious modula-
tion and destitute of a musical ear.^ But Professor
Harrison, in a paper read before the Eoyal Irish
Academy in 1847, has stated that on a careful examina-
tion of the head of an elephant which he had dissected,
he could " see no evidence of the muscular structure of
the nieiinbrana tympani so accurately described by Sir
E. Home." Sir Eyerard's deduction, I may observe,
is clearly inconsistent with the fact that the power of
two elephants may be combined by singing to them a
measured chant, somewhat resembling a sailor's capstan
song ; and in labour of a particular kind, such as hauling
a stone with ropes, they will thus move conjointly a
weight to which their divided strength would be un-
equal.^

drivers of camels in Turkey, Pales- shouts of hurrish ! a sound closely
tine, and Egypt encourage them to resembling that used by the ma-
speed by shouting ar-re ! ar-re ! houts in Ceylon.
The Arabs in Algeria ciy eirich ! ^ On the Difference between the
to their mules. The Moors seem Human Membrana Tym-pani and
to have carried the custom with that of the Elephant. By Sir Eve-
them into Spain, where mules are eard Home, Bart., Philos. Trans.,
still driven with cries of arre 1823. Paper by Prof. Haeeison-,
(whence the muleteers derive their Proc. Eoyal Irish Academy, vol. iii.
Spanish appellation of " arrieros "). p. 386.

lu France the Sportsman excites ^ j j^g^yg already noticed the

the hound by shouts of ^«rf/ Aare.' striking effect produced on the

and the waggoner there turns his captive elephants in the corral, by

horses by his voice, and the use of the harmonious notes of an ivory

the word hurhaut ! In the North, flute ; and on looking to the graphic

" Huts was a word used by the old description which is given by

Germans in urging theii- horses to -SElian of the exploits which he

speed ; " and to the present day, witnessed as performed by the

the herdsmen in Ireland, and parts elephants exhibited at Eome, it is

of Scotland, drive their pigs with remarkable how very large a share

224 MA^IMALIA. [Chap. VII.

Nothing can more strongly exhibit the impulse to
obedience in the elephant, than the patience with which,
at the order of his keeper, he swallows the nauseous
medicines of the native elephant-doctors ; and it is im-
possible to witness the fortitude with which (without
shrinking) he submits to excruciating surgical operations
for the removal of tumours and ulcers to which he is sub-
ject, without conceiving a vivid impression of his gentle-
ness and intelligence. Dr. Davy when in Ceylon was
consulted about an elephant in the government Stud,
which was suffering from a deep, burrowing sore in the
back, just over the back-bone, which had long resisted
the treatment ordinarily employed. He recommended
the use of the knife, that issue might be given to the
accumulated matter, but no one of the attendants was
competent to undertake the operation. " Being assured,"
he continues, " that the creature would behave well, I
undertook it myself. The elephant was not bound, but
was made to kneel down at his keeper's command — and
with an amputating knife, using all my force, I made
the incision required through the tough integuments.
The elephant did not flinch, but rather inclined towards
me when using the knife ; and merely uttered a low, and
as it were suppressed, groan. In short, he behaved as
like a human being as possible, as if conscious (as I

of their training appears to have mouy : the whole ^^ suprising in a

been ascribed to the employment creature whose limbs are without

of music. joints!

Phele, in the account which he ^ v i _- ■>>■ ■> > a
has given of the eiephant s fondness ydpwv"

for music would almost seem to p^' ^ ^^^ , j_ 216.

have versified the prose narrative -^ ^

of ^LiAN, as he describes its excite- For an account of the training

ment at the more animated por- and performances of the elephants

tions, its step being regulated to the at Eome, as narrated by -SIlian,

time and movements of the har- see the appendix to this chapter.

Chap. VII.] THE ELEPHANT. 225

believe lie was), that the operation was for his good,
and the pain unavoidable "^

Obedience to the orders of his keepers is not, however,
to be assumed as the result of a uniform perception of
the object to be attained by compliance; and we cannot
but remember the touching incident which took place
during the slaughter of the elephant at Exeter Change
in 1846, when, after receiving ineffectually upwards of
120 balls in various parts of his body, he turned his face
to his assailants on hearing the voice of his keeper, and
knelt down at the accustomed word of command, so as to
bring his forehead within view of the rifles.^

The working elephant is always a delicate animal,
and requires watchfulness and care. As a beast of
burden he is unsatisfactory; for although in point of
mere strength there is scarcely any weight which could
be conveniently placed on him that he could not carry,
it is difficult to pack his load without causing abrasions
that afterwards ulcerate. His skin is easily chafed by
harness, especially in wet weather. During either long
droughts or too much moisture, his feet become liable to
sores, that render him non-effective for months. Many
attempts have been made to provide him with some pro-
tection for the sole of the foot, but from his extreme
weight and peculiar mode of planting the foot, they
have all been unsuccessful. His eyes are also liable to
frequent inflammations, and the skill of the native ele-
phant-doctors, which has been renowned since the time
of ^lian, is nowhere more strikingly displayed than in
the successful treatment of such attacks.^ In Ceylon,

* The Angler in the Lake Bis- in Hone's Every-Day Book, March,

tnct, p. 23. ^ 1830, p. 337,

"^ A shocking account of the * -^iIllin, lib. xiii. c. 7.
death of tliis poor animal is given

Q

226

MAMMALIA.

[Chap. YII.

tlie murrain among cattle is of frequent occurrence, and
carries off great numbers of animals, wild as well as
tame. In such visitations the elephants suffer severely,
not only those at liberty in the forest, but those care-
fully tended in the government stables. Out of a stud
of about 40 attached to the department of the Com-
mission of Eoads, the deaths between 1841 and 1849
were on an average fouT in each year, and this was
nearly doubled in those years when murrain prevailed.

Of 240 elephants, employed in the public departments
of the Ceylon Grovernment, which died in twenty-five
years, from 1831 to 1856, the length of time that each
lived in captivity has only been recorded in the instances
of 138. Of these there died : —

Duration of Captivity.

No.

Male.

Female

Under 1 year

72

29

43

From 1 to 2 years

14

5

9

„ 2 „ 3 „

8

5

3

„ 3 „ 4 „

8

3

5

„ 4 „ 5 „

3

2

1

„ 5 „ 6 „

2

2

.

„ 6 „ 7 „

3

1

2

„ 7 „ 8 „

5

2

3

„ 8 „ 9 „

5

5

.

» 9 „ 10 „

2

2

.

M 10 „ 11 „

2

2

» 11 „ 12 „

3

1

2

„ 12 „ 13 „

3

,

3

„ 13 „ 14 „

.

.

,

„ 14 „ 15 „

3

1

2

„ 15 „ 16 „

1

1

,

„ 16 „ 17 „

1

,

1

„ 17 „ 18 „

,

,

„ 18 „ 19 „

2

1

1

„ 19 „ 20 „

1

•

1

Total .

•

138

62

76

Chap. YII.] THE ELEPHAIS'T. 227

Of the 72 who died in one year's servitude, 35 ex-
pired within the first six months of their captivity.
During training, many elephants die in the unaccount-
able manner already referred to, of what the natives
designate a broken heart

On being first subjected to work, the elephant is
liable to severe and often fatal swellings of the jaws and
abdomen.^

From these causes there died, betTveen 1841 and 1849 . 9
Of cattle murrain . . , . . . . .10

Sore feet ........... 1

Colds and inflammation . ^ . . . . . .6

Diarrhoea .... '*^.~ .... .

AVorms ..........

Of diseased liver ........

Injuries from a fall ........

General debility ........

Unknown causes ........ 3

Of the entire, twenty-three were females and eleven
males.

The ages of those that died could not be accurately
stated, owing to the circumstance of their having been
captured in corral. Two only were tuskers. Towards
keeping the stud in health, nothing has been found so
conducive as regularly bathing the elephants, and
giving them the opportunity to stand with their feet in
water, or in moistened earth.

Elephants are said to be afflicted with tooth-ache;
their tushes have likewise been found with sjnmptoms of
internal perforation by some parasite, and the natives
assert that, in their agony, the animals have been known

* The elephant which was dis- letter, was " very like scarlatina, at

sected by Dr. Harrison of Dublin, that time a prevailing disease ; its

in 1847, died of a febrile attack, skin in some places became almost

after four or five days' illness, scarlet."
which, as Dr. H, tells me in a private

Q 2

228 MAMMALIA. [€hap. YII.

to break them off sliort.^ I have never heard of the
teeth themselves being so affected, and it is just pos-
sible that the operation of shedding the subsequent
decay of the milk-tushes, may have in some instances
been accompanied by incidents that gave rise to this
story.

At the same time the probabilities are in favour of its
being true. Cuvier committed himself to the statement
that the tusks of the elephant have no attachments to
connect them with the pulp lodged in the cavity at
their base, from which the peculiar modification of
dentine, known as " ivory, " is secreted^ ; and hence, by
inference, that they would be devoid of sensation.

But independently of the fact that ivory is permeated
by tubes so fine that at their origin from the pulpy
cavity they do not exceed ^g ooo^^ P^^'^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^
diameter, Owen had the tusk and pulp of the great
elephant which died at the Zoological Grardens in
London in 1847 longitudinally divided, and found that,
«^ although the pulp could be easily detached from the
inner surface of the cavity, it was not without a certain
resistance ; and when the edges of the co-adapted pulp
and tusk were examined by a strong lens, the filamen-
tary processes from the outer surface of the former
could be seen stretching, as they were drawn from the
dentinal tubes, before they broke. These filaments are
so minute, he adds, that to the naked eye the detached
surface of the pulp seems to be entire ; and hence Cuvier
was deceived into supposing that there was no organic

* See a paper entitled " TiecoUec- 1805. p. 94, and Ossemens Fossiles,
tions of Ceylon,'' in Frascr's Maga- quoted by Owtin, in the article on
zine for December, 1860. " Teeth," in Todd's Cyclop, of

* Annales du Museum F. viii. Anatomy, ^-c, vol. iv. p. 929.

Chap. VII.] THE ELEPHAXT. 229

connexion between the pulp and the ivory.- But if, as
there seems no reason to doubt, these delicate nervous
processes traverse the tusk by means of the numerous
tubes already described, if attacked by caries the pain
occasioned to the elephant would be excruciating.

As to maintaining a stud of elephants for the purposes
to which they are now assigned in Ceylon, there may
be a question on the score of prudence and economy.
In the rude and unopened parts of the country, where
rivers are to be forded, and forests are only traversed
by jungle paths, their labour is of value, in certain
contingencies, in the conveyance of stores, and in the
earlier operations for the construction of fords and
rough bridges of timber. But in more highly civilised
districts, and wherever macadamised roads admit of
the employment of horses and oxen for draught, I appre-
hend that the services of elephants might, with advan-
tage, be gradually reduced, if not altogether dispensed
with.

The love of the elephant for coolness and shade
renders him at all times more or less impatient of work
in the sun, and every moment of leisure he can snatch
is employed in covering his back with dust, or fanning
himself to diminish the annoyance of the insects and
heat. From the tenderness of his skin and its liability
to sores, the labour in which he can most advantageously
be employed is that of draught ; but the reluctance of
horses to meet or pass elephants renders it difficult to
work the latter with safety on frequented roads. Be-
sides, were the full load which an elephant is capable of
drawing, in proportion to his muscular strength, to be
placed upon waggons of corresponding dimension, the
injury to the roads would be such that the wear and

Q3

230 MMIMALIA. [Chap. VII.

tear of the highways and bridges would prove too costly
to be borne. On the other hand, by restricting it to a
somewhat more manageable quantity, and by limiting
the weight, as at present, to about one ton and a half,
it is doubtful whether an elephant performs so much
more work than could be done by a horse or by bullocks,
as to compensate for the greater cost of his feeding and
attendance.

Add to this, that from accidents and other causes,
from ulcerations of the skin, and illnesses of many kinds,
the elephant is so often invalided, that the actual cost
of his labour, when at work, is very considerably en-
hanced. Exclusive of the salaries of higher officers
attached to the government establishments, and other
permanent charges, the expenses of an elephant, looking
only to the wages of his attendants and the cost of his
food and medicines, varies from three shillings to four
shillings and sixpence per diem, according to his size
and class. ^ Taking the average at three shillings and

^ An ordinary-sized elephant en- that would be likely to disagree

grosses the undivided attention of with him he unerringly rejects.

three men. One, as his mahout or His faA'ourites are the palms, espe-

superintendent, and two as leaf- cially the cluster of rich, unopened

cutters, who bring him branches leaves, known as the " cabbage," of

and grass for his daily supplies, the coco-nut, and areca ; and he de-

An animal of larger growth would lights to tear open the young trunks

probably require a third leaf-cutter, of the palmyra and jaggery ( Caryofa

The daily consumption is two cwt. urcns) in search of the farinaceous

of green food with about half a matter contained in the spongy

bushel of grain. When in the pith. Next to these come the

vicinity of towns and villages, the varieties of fig-trees, particularly

attendants have no difficult}^ in pro- the sacred Bo (F. rcUgiosa) which

curing an abundant supply of the is found near every temple, and

branches of the trees to which ele- the na gaha {Messua f erred), with

phants are partial ; and in journeys thick dark leaves and a scarlet

through the forests and unopened flower. Tlie leaves of the Jak-tree

country, the leaf-cutters are suffi- and bread-fruit {Artocarpus intc-

ciently expert in the knowledge of grifolia, and A. incisd), the Wood

those particular plants with which apple (yMgle Marmelos), Palu {Mi-

the elephant is satisfied. Those muso])s Indica), and a number of

Chap. VII.] THE ELEPHANT. 231

nine-pence, and calculating that hardly any individual
works more than four days out of seven, the charge for
each day so employed would amount to six shillings and
sixpence. The keep per day of a powerful dray-horse,
working five days in the week, would not exceed half-a-
crown, and two such would unquestionably do more
work than any elephant under the present system. I
do not know whether it be from a comparative calcula-
tion of this kind that the strength of the elephant
establishments in Ceylon has been gradually diminished
of late years, but in the department of the Commis-
sioner of Eoads, the stud, which formerly numbered
upwards of sixty elephants, was reduced, some years
ago, to thirty-six, and is at present less than half that
number.

The fallacy of the supposed reluctance of the elephant
to breed in captivity has been demonstrated by many
recent authorities ; but with the exception of the birth
of young elephants at Eome, as mentioned by tElian,
the only instances that I am aware of their actually pro-
ducing young under such circumstances, took place in
Ceylon. Both parents had been for several years attached

others well known to their attend- The grasses are not found in suf-
ants, are all consumed in turn, ficient quantity to be an item of
The stems of the plaintain, the daily fodder; the Mauritius or
stalks of the sugar-cane, and the the Guinea grass is seized with
feathery tops of the bamboos, are avidity ; lemon grass is rejected
irresistible luxuries. Pine-apples, from its overpowering perfume, but
water-melons, and fruits of every rice in the straw, and every de-
description, are voraciously de- scription of grain, whether growing
voured, and a coco-nut when found or diy; gi'am (Cicer arietinum),
is first rolled under foot to detach Indian Corn, and millet are his
it from the husk and fibre, and then natural food. Of such of these as
raised in his trunk and crushed, can be found, it is the duty of the
almost without an effort, by his leaf-cutters, when in the jungle and
ponderous jaws. on march, to provide a daily supply.

(i4

S32 MMIMALIA. [Chap. VH.

to the stud of the Commissioner of Roads, and in 1844
the female, whilst engaged in dragging a waggon, gave
birth to a still-born calf. Some years before, an ele-
phant that had been captured by Mr. Cripps, dropped a
female calf, which he succeeded in rearing. As usual,
the little one became the pet of the keepers ; but as it
increased in growth, it exhibited the utmost violence
when thwarted ; striking out with its hind-feet, throwing
itself headlong on the ground, and pressing its trunk
against any opposing object.

The duration of life in the elephant has been from the
remotest times a matter of uncertainty and speculation,
Aristotle says it was reputed to live from two to three
hundred years^, and modern zoologists have assigned to
it an age very little less; Cuvier^ allots two hundred
and De Blainville one hundred and twenty. The only
attempt which I know of to establish a period histori-
cally or physiologically is that of Fleurens, who has
advanced an ingenious theory on the subject in his
treatise " De la Longevite Huwaine.^^ He assumes the
sum total of life in all animals to be equivalent to five
times the number of years requisite to perfect their
growth and development; — and he adopts as evidence
of the period at which growth ceases, the final consoli-
dation of the bones with their epiphyses ; which in the
young consist of cartilages; but in the adult become
uniformly osseous and solid. So long as the epiphyses
are distinct from the bones, the growth of the animal
is proceeding, but it ceases so soon as the consolidation
is complete. In man, according to Fleurens, this con-
summation takes place at 20 years of age, in the horse at

' Aeistotixes de Anim. I. viii. c. 9. ^ Menag. deMus. Nat. p. 107.

X. P. Mb i O/

Chap. VH.] THE ELEPHANT. 233

5, in the dog at 2 ; so that conformably to this theory the
respective normal age for each would be 100 years for
man, 25 for the horse, and 10 for a dog. As a datum for
his conclusion, Fleurens cites the instance of one young
elephant in which, at 26 years old, the epiphyses were
still distinct, whereas in another, which died at 31, they
were firm and adherent. Hence he draws the inference
that the period of completed solidification is thirty years,
and consequently that the normal age of the elephant is
one hundred and fifty. ^

Amongst the Singhalese the ancient fable of the
elephant attaining to the age of two or three hundred
years still prevails ; but the Europeans, and those in im-
mediate charge of tame ones, entertain the opinion that
the duration of life for about seventy years is common
both to man and the elephant ; and that before the ar-
rival of the latter period, symptoms of debility and decay
ordinarily begin to manifest themselves. Still instances
are not wanting in Ceylon of trained decoys that have
lived for more than double the reputed period in actual
servitude. One employed by Mr. Cripps in the Seven
Korles was represented by the Cooroowe people to have
served the king of Kandy in the same capacity sixty
years before ; and amongst the papers left by Colonel
Eobertson (son to the historian of " Charles V."), who
held a command in Ceylon in 1799, shortly after the
capture of the island by the British, I have found a
memorandum showing that a decoy was then attached
to the elephant establishment at Matura, which the
records proved to have served under the Dutch during
the entire period of their occupation (extending to
upwards of one hundred and forty years) ; and it was

' Fleueens, De la LongeviU Humaine, pp. 82, 89.

234 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VII.

said to have been found in tlie stables by the Dutch on
the expulsion of the Portugese in 1656.

It is perhaps from this popular belief in their almost
illimitable age, that the natives generally assert that the
body of a dead elephant is seldom or never to be dis-
covered in the woods. And certain it is that frequenters
of the forest with whom I have conversed, whether
European or Singhalese, are consistent in their assur-
ances that they have never found the remains of an
elephant that had died a natural death. One chief, the
Wannyah of the Trincomalie district, told a friend of
mine, that once after a severe murrain, which had swept
the province, he found the carcases of elephants that
had died of the disease. On the other hand, a Euro-
pean gentleman, who for thirty-six years without
intermission has been living in the jungle, ascending to
the summits of mountains in the prosecution of the
trigonometrical survey, and peneti-ating valleys in trac-
ing roads and opening means of communication, — one,
too, who has made the habits of the wild elephant a
subject of constant observation and study, — has often
expressed to me his astonishment that after seeing many
thousands of living elephants ia all possible situations,
he had never yet found a single skeleton of a dead one,
except of those which had fallen by the rifle. ^

It has been suggested that the bones of the elephant
may be so porous and spongy as to disappear in conse-
quence of an early decomposition; but this remark would

* This remark regarding the ele- woods are frequently found." —
phant of Ceylon does not appear to African Memoranda relative to an
extend to that of Africa, as I observe attempt to establish British Settle-
that Beaver, in his African Me- mcnts at the Island of Bulama.
nnoranda, says that "the skeletons Loud. 1815, p. 353.
of old ones that have died in the

Chap. VII.] THE ELEPHAXT. 235

not apply to the grinders or to the tusks ; besides which,
the inference is at variance wdth the fact, that not only
the horns and teeth, but entire skeletons of deer, are
frequently found in the districts inhabited by the ele-
phant.

The natives, to account for this popular belief, declare
that the survivors of the herd bury such of their com-
panions as die a natural death. ^ It is curious that this
belief was current also amongst the Grreeks of the Lower
Empire ; and Phile, writing early in the fourteenth
century, not only describes the younger elephants as
tending the wounded, but as burying the dead :

KotvoO Tskovs a^vvav o ^svos cjjspsL^^^

The Singhalese have a further superstition in relation
to the close of life in the elephant : they believe that, on
feeling the approach of dissolution, he repairs to a solitary
valley, and there resigns himself to death. A native
who accompanied Mr. Cripps, when hunting, in the
forests of Anarajapoora, intimated to him that he was
then in the immediate vicinity of the spot " to ivliich
the elephants come to die,^^ but that it was so mysteriously
concealed, that although every one believed in its exist-'

' A corral -was organised near was complete. The M-ild elephants

Putlam in 1846, by Mr. Morris, resumed their path through it, and

the chief officer of the district. It a few days afterwaitls the headman

was constructed across one of the reported to Mr. Morris that the

paths which the elephants frequent bodies had been removed and

in their frequent marches, and carried outside the corral to a spot

during the course of the proceedings to which nothing biit the elephants

two of the captured elephants died, could have borne them.

Their carcases were left of course - Phile, Expositio de Eleph. 1^

within the enclosure, which was 243.
abandoned as soon as the capture

236 MAMMALIA. [Chap. Vn.

ence, no one had ever succeeded in penetrating to it.
At the corral which I have described at Kornegalle, in
1 847, Dehigame, one of the Kandyan chiefs, assured me
it was the universal belief of his countrymen, that the
elephants, when about to die, resorted to a valley in
Saffragam, among the mountains to the east of Adam's
Peak, which was reached by a narrow pass with walls
of rock on either side, and that there, by the side of a
lake of clear water, they took their last repose.^ It was
not without interest that I afterwards recognised this
tradition in the story of Sinbad of the Sea, who in his
Seventh Voyage, after conveying the presents of Haroun
al Raschid to the king of Serendib, is wrecked on his re-
turn from Ceylon, and sold as a slave to a master who
employs him in shooting elephants for the sake of their
ivory ; till one day the tree on which he was stationed
having been uprooted by one of the herd, he fell sense-
less to the ground, and the great elephant approaching
wound his trunk around him and carried him away,
ceasing not to proceed, until he had taken him to a place
where, his terror having subsided, ?ie found himself
amongst the bones of elephants, and knew that this
was their burial place.^ It is curious to find this legend
of Ceylon in what has, not inaptly, been described as the
^' Arabian Odyssey " of Sinbad ; the original of which

' * The selection by animals of a and twenty heads," — Nat. Voy.
'place to die, is not confined to the ch, viii. The same has been re-
elephant, Dajrwin says, that in marked in the Rio Gallegos ; and
South Amei'ica "the guanacos (11a- at St, Jago in the Cape de Verde
mas) appear to have favourite spots Islands, Pabwin saw a retired
for lying down to die ; on the comer similarly covered with the
banks of the Santa Cmz river, in bones of the goat, as if it were " the
certain circumscribed spaces which burial-ground of aU the goats in the
were generally bushy and aU near island."

the water, the ground was actually "^ Arabian Nights' Entertain-

white with their bones ; on one Tnent^ Lake's edition, vol, iJi, p.

BXLch spot I counted between ten IT,

Chap. VII.]

THE ELEPHANT.

237

evidently embodies the romantic recitals of the sailors
returning from the navigation of the Indian Seas, in the
middle ages^, which were current amongst the Mussul-
mans, and are reproduced in various forms throughout
the tales of the Arahian Nights.

1 See a disquisition on the origin to his translation of the Arabian
of the story of Sinbad, by M. Rei- Geography of Aboulfeda, vol. i. p.
NAUD, in the introduction prefixed Ixxvi.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VH.

As ^^han's work on the Nature of Animals has never, I beheve,
been republished in any English version, and the passage in
relation to the training and performance of elephants is so per-
tinent to the present inquiry, I venture to subjoin a translation
of the 11th Chapter of his 2nd Book.

" Of the cleverness of the elephant I have spoken elsewhere,
and likewise of the manner of hunting. I have mentioned
these things, a few out of the many which others have stated ;
but for the present I purpose to speak of their musical feehng,
their tractability, and facility in learning what it is difficult
for even a human being to acquire, much less a beast, hitherto
so wild : — such as to dance, as is done on the stage ; to wallv
with a measured gait ; to hsten to the melody of the flute and
to perceive the difference of sounds, that, being pitched low
lead to a slow movement, or high to a quick one : all this the
the elephant learns and understands, and is accurate withal.

238 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VII.

and makes no mistake. Thus lias Nature formed him not only
the greatest in size, but the most gentle and the most easily
tauo-ht. Now if I were going to write about the tractability
and aptitude to learn amongst those of India, Ethiopia, and
Libya, I should probably appear to be concocting a tale and
acting the braggart, or to be telling a falsehood respecting the
natui-e of the animal founded on a mere report, all which it
behoves a philosopher, and most of all one who is an ardent
lover of truth, not to do. But what I have seen myself, and
what others have described as havuig occurred at Rome, this
I have chosen to relate, selecting a few facts out of many, to
show the particular nature of those creatures. The elephant
when tamed is an animal most gentle and most easily led to do
whatever he is directed. And by way of showing honour to
time, I will first narrate events of the oldest date. C^sar
Germanicus, the nephew of Tiberius, exhibited once a pubhc
show, wherein there were many full-grown elephants, male
and female, and some of their breed born in this country.
When their limbs were beginning to become firm, a person
familiar with such animals instructed them by a strange and
surpassing method of teaching ; using only gentleness and kind-
ness, and adding to his mild lessons the bait of pleasant and
varied food. By this means he led them by degrees to throw
off all wildness, and, as it were, to desert to a state of civilisa-
tion, conducting themselves in a manner almost human. He
taught them neither to be excited on hearing the pipe, nor to
be disturbed by the beat of drum, but to be soothed by
the sounds of the reed, and to endure unmusical noises and
the clatter of feet from persons while marching ; and they
were trained to feel no fear of a mass of men, nor to be enraged
at the infliction of blows, not even when compelled to twist
their limbs and to bend them like a stage-dancer, and this too
althoun-h endowed with strength and might. And there is in
this a very noble addition to nature, not to conduct themselves
in a disorderly manner and disobediently towards the instructions
of man ; for after the dancing-master had made them expert.

Chap. YII.] THE ELEPHANT. 239

and they had learnt their lessons accurately, they did not
belie the labour of his instruction whenever a necessity and
opportunity called upon them to exhibit what they had been
taught. For the whole troop came forward from this and that
side of the theatre, and divided themselves into parties! they
advanced walldng Avith a mincing ^ait and exhibiting in their
whole body and persons the manners of a beau, clothed in the
flowery dresses of dancers ; and on the ballet-master giving a
signal with his voice, they fell into Hne and went round in a
circle, and if it were requisite to deploy they did so. They
ornamented the Hoor of the stage by throwing flowers upon it,
and this they did in moderation and sparingly, and straight-
way they beat a measure with their feet and kept time to-
gether.

"Now that Damon and Spintharus and Aristoxenus and
Xenophilus and Philoxenus and others should know music
excellently well, and for their cleverness be ranked amongst
the few, is indeed a thing of wonder, but not incredible nor
contrary at all to reason. For this reason that a man is a
rational animal, and the recipient of mind and intelligence.
But that a jointless animal (dvapdpov) should miderstand
rhythm and melody, and preserve a gesture, and not deviate
from a measiu'ed movement, and fulfil the requirements of
those who laid down instructions, these are gifts of nature, I
think, and a peculiarity in eveiy way astounding. Added to
these there were things enough to drive the spectator out of
his senses ; when the stre^vn rushes and other materials for
beds on the gi'oimd were placed on the sand of the theatre,
and they received stuffed mattrasses such as belonged to rich
houses and variegated bed coverings, and goblets were placed
there very expensive, and bowls of gold and silver, and in
them a great quantity of water ; and tables- were placed there of
sweet-smelling wood and ivory very superb : and upon them
flesh meats and loaves enough to fill the stomachs of animals
the most voracious. When the preparations were completed
and abimdant, the banqueters came forward, six male and an

240 MAMMAUA. [Chap. VH.

equal number of female elephants ; the former had on a male
dress, and the latter a female ; and on a signal being given
they stretched forward their trunks in a subdued manner, and
took their food in great moderation, and not one of them ap-
peared to be gluttonous greedy, or to snatch at a greater por-
tion, as did the Persian mentioned by Xenophon. And when
it was requisite to drink, a bowl was placed by the side of
each ; and inhaling with their trunks they took a draught
very orderly ; and then they scattered the drink about in fun ;
but not as in insult. Many other acts of a similar kind, both
clever and astonishing, have persons described, relating to the
peculiarities of these animals, and I saw them writing letters on
Eoman tablets with their trunks, neither looking awry nor turn-
ing aside. The hand, however, of the teacher was placed so
as to be a guide in the formation of the letters ; and while it
was writing the animal kept its eye fixed down in an accom-
plished and scholarlike manner."

241

CHAP. VIII.

BIRDS.

Op the Birds of the island, upwards of three hundred
and twenty species have been indicated, for which we
are indebted to the persevering labours of Dr. Temple-
ton, Dr. Kelaart, and Mr. Layard ; but many 3^et
remain to be identified. In fact, to the eye of a
stranger, their prodigious numbers, and especially the
myriads of waterfowl which, notwithstanding the pre-
sence of the crocodiles, people the lakes and marshes in
the eastern provinces, form one of the marvels of Ceylon.
In the glory of their plumage, the birds of the inte-
rior are surpassed by those of South America and
Northern India; and the melody of their song bears
no comparison with that of the warblers of Europe, but
the want of brilliancy is compensated by their singular
grace of form, and the absence of prolonged and modu-
lated harmony by the rich and melodious tones of their
clear and musical calls. In the elevations of the Kan-
dyan country there are a few, such as the robin of
Neuera-ellia ^ and the long-tailed thrush^, whose sono-
rivals that of their European namesakes ; but, far be-
yond the attraction of their notes, the traveller rejoices
in the flute-like voices of the Oriole, the Dayal-bird^,

^ Vratmcola atrata, Kelaart. " Magpie Robin." This is not to be

2 Kittacincla macrura, Gm. confounded with the other popular

3 Copsychussaularis,imw. Call- favourite the "Indian Eobin"
ed by the Europeans in Ceylon the (Thamnobia fiilicata, Linn.), which

H

242

BIRDS.

[Chap. VIII.

and some others equally charming ; when at the first
dawn of day, they wake the forest with their clear reveil.
It is only on emerging from the dense woods and
coming into the vicinity of the lakes and pasture of the
low country, that birds become visible in great quanti-
ties. In the close jungle one occasionally hears the call
of the copper-smith ^ or the strokes of the great orange-
coloured woodpecker ^ as it beats the decaying trees in
search of insects, whilst clinging to the bark with its
finely-pointed claws, and leaning for support upon the
short stiff feathers of its tail. And on the lofty
branches of the higher trees, the hornbilF (the toucan
of the East), with its enormous double casque, sits to
watch the motions of the tiny reptiles and smaller birds
on which it preys, tossing them into the air when seized,
and catching them in its gigantic mandibles as they
fall.'* The remarkable excrescence on the beak of this

is " never seen in the unfrequented
jungle, but, like the coco-nut palm,
which the Singhalese assert will
only fiom'ish within the sound of
the human voice, it is always found
near the habitations of men." —
E. L. Layaed.

* The greater red-headed Barbet
(Megalaima indica, Lath. ; M. Phi-
lippensis, var. A. Lath.), the inces-
sant din of which resembles the
blows of a smith hammering a
cauldron.

2 Brachypternus aurantius, Linn.
' Buceros pica. Scop. ; B. Mala-
baricus, Jerd. The natives assert
that B. pica builds in holes in the
trees, and that when incubation
has fairly commenced, the female
takes her seat on the eggs, and the
male closes up the orifice by which
she entered, leaving only a small
aperture through which he feeds
his partner, whilst she successfully

guards their treasures from the
monkey tribes ; her formidable bill
nearly filling the entire entrance.
See a paper by Edgar L. Layard,
Esq. Mag. Nat. Hist. March, 1853.
Dr. Horsfield had previously ob-
served the same habit in a species
of Buceros in Java. (See Hoes-
field and Mooee's Catal. BirdF,
E. I. Comp. Mus. vol. ii.) It is
curious that a similar trait, though
necessarily from very different in-
stincts, is exhibited by the ter-
mites, who literally build a cell
round the great progenitrix of the
community, and feed her through
apertures.

* The hornbill is also frugivor-
ous, and the natives assert that
when endeavouring to detach a
fruit, if the stem is too tough to be
severed by his mandibles, he flings
himself off the branch so as to add
the weight of his body to the pres-

Chap. VIH.]

THE HORNBILL.

243

extraordinary bird may serve to explain the statement
of the Minorite friar Odoric, of Portenau in Friuli, who
travelled in Ceylon in the fourteenth century, and

THE HORNBILL.

brought suspicion on the veracity of his narrative by
asserting that he had there seen " birds with two
heads.''^ ^

The Singhalese have a belief that the hornbill never
resorts to the water to drink ; but that it subsists exclu-
sively by what it catches in its prodigious bill while

sure of his beak. The hornbill flesh as a sovereign specific for

abounds in Cuttack, and bears there rheumatic affections. — Asiat. Ees.

the name of " Kuchila-Kai," or ch. xv. p. 3 84.
Kuchila-eater, from its partiality * Ithterarius Frateis Odoeici,

for the fruit of the Strychnus nux- de Foro Julii de Portu-yahonis,

vomica. The natives regard its &c. — Hakxutt, vol. ii. p. 39.

B 2

244 BIRDS. [Chap. YIII.

rain is falling. This they allege is associated with
the incessant screaming which it keeps up during
showers.

As we emerge from the dark shade, and approach
park-like openings on the verge of the low country,
quantities of pea-fowl are to be found either feeding
on the seeds among the long grass or sunning them-
selves on the branches of the surrounding trees. No-
thing to be met with in English demesnes can give
an adequate idea of the size and magnificence of this
matchless bird when seen in his native solitudes.
Here he generally selects some projecting branch, from
which his plumage may hang free of the foliage, and,
if there be a dead and leafless bough, he is certain to
choose it for his resting-place, whence he droops his
wings and suspends his gorgeous train, or spreads it in
the morning sun to drive off the damps and dews of the
night.

In some of the unfrequented portions of the eastern
province, to which Europeans rarely resort, and where
the pea-fowl are unmolested by the natives, their num-
ber is so extraordinary that, regarded as game, it ceases
to be "sport" to destroy them; and their cries at early
dawn are so tumultuous and incessant as to banish
sleep, and amount to an actual inconvenience. Their
flesh is excellent in flavour when served up hot, though
it is said to be indigestible ; but, when cold, it contracts
a reddish and disagreeable tinge.

The European fable of the jackdaw borrowing the
plumage of the peacock, has its counterpart in Ceylon,
where the popular legend rims that the pea-fowl stole
the plumage of a bird called by the natives avitchia.
I have not been able to identify the species which bears

Chap. VIII.] EAGLES. 245

this name ; but it utters a cry resembling the word raaU
kiang ! which in Singhalese means, "I ivill complain!"
This they believe is addressed by the bird to the rising
sun, imploring redress for its wrongs. The avitchia is
described as somewhat less than a crow, the colours of
its plumage being green, mingled with red.

But of all, the most astonishing in point of multi-
tude, as well as the most interesting from their endless
variety, are the myriads of aquatic birds and waders
which frequent the lakes and watercourses ; especially
those along the coast near Batticaloa, between the
mainland and the sand formations of the shore, and the
innumerable salt marshes and lagoons to the south of
Trincomalie. These, and the profusion of perching birds,
fly-catchers, finches, and thrushes, that appear in the
open country, afford sufficient quarry for the raptorial
and predatory species — eagles, hawks, and falcons —
whose daring sweeps and effortless undulations are
striking objects in the cloudless sky.

I. AcciPiTRES. Eagles. — The Eagles, however, are
small, and as compared with other countries rare;
except, perhaps, the crested eagle ^, which haunts the
mountain provinces and the lower hills, disquieting the
peasantry by its ravages amongst their poultry ; and the
gloomy serpent eagle ^, which, descending from its ejn'ie
in the lofty jungle, and uttering a loud and plaintive
cry, sweeps cautiously around the lonely tanks and
marshes, to feed upon the reptiles on their margin.
The largest eagle is the great sea Erne^, seen on the

' Spizaetuslimnaetus, ZTors/. The ^ -wiiicli Goxild believes to be the

race of these birds in theDeccanand Hcematorms Bacha, Daud.

Ceylon are rather more crested, ori- ^ Pontoaetus leucogaster, GtmI.
ginating the Sp. Cristatellus, Auct.

R 3

246 BIRDS. [Chap. VHI.

northern coasts and the salt lakes of the eastern pro-
vinces, particularly when the receding tide leaves bare
an expanse of beach, over which it hunts, in company
with the fishing eagle ^, sacred to Siva. Unlike its
companions, however, the sea eagle rejects garbage for
living prey, and especially for the sea snakes which
abound on the northern coasts. These it seizes by
descending with its wings half closed, and, suddenly
darting down its talons, it soars aloft again with its
writhing victim.^

Hawks. — The beautiful Peregrine Falcon^ is rare,
but the Kestrel'* is found almost universally ; and the
bold and daring Groshawk^ wherever wild crags and pre-
cipices afford safe breeding places. In the district of
Anarajapoora, where it is trained for hawking, it is
usual, in lieu of a hood, to darken its eyes by means
of a silken thread passed through holes in the eyelids.
The ignoble birds of prey, the Kites ^, keep close by the
shore, and hover round the returning boats of the fisher-
men to feast on the fry rejected from their nets.

Owls, — Of the nocturnal accipitres the most remark-
able is the brown owl, which, from its hideous yell, has
acquired the name of the " Devil-Bird." ^ The Singha-

' Haliastur Indus, Bodd. Hamilton Buclianan remarks that

^ E. L. Layard. Europeans have when gorged this bird delights to

given this bird the name of the sit on the entablature of buildings,

"Brahminy Kite," probably from exposing its back to the hottest

observing the superstitious feeling rays of the sun, placing its breast

of the natives regarding it, who against the wall, and stretching

believe that when two armies are out its wings exactly as the Egyptian

about to engage, its appearance Hawk is represented on the monu-

prognosticates victory to the party ments.

over whom it hovers. ^ Syrnium Indranee, Sykes. Mr.

' Falco peregrinus, lAnn. Blyth writes to me from Calcutta

'' Tinnunculus alaudarius, Briss. that there are some doubts about

* Astur trivirgatus, Temm. this bird. There would appear to

® Milvus govinda, Sykes. Dr. be three or four distinguishable

Chap. VIII.]

OWLS.

247

lese regard it literally with horror, and its scream by
night in the vicinity of a village is bewailed as the

THE " DEVIL BIRD."

harbinger of impending calamity. ^ There is a popular
legend in connection with it, to the effect that a morose

races, tlie Ceylon bird approximat-
ing most nearly to that of the
Malayan Peninsula.

' The horror of this nocturnal
scream was equally prevalent in the
West as in the East. Ovid intro-
duces it in his Fasti, L. vi. 1. 139 ;
and TibuUus in his Elegies, L. i.
El. 5. Statins says —

Noctumoeque gemunt striges, et feralia bubo
Damna canent. 'X'beb. iii. 1. 511.

But Pliny, 1. xi. e. 93, doubts as to
what bird produced the sound ; —
and the details of Ovid's descrip-
tion do not apply to an owl.

Mr. Mitford, of the Ceylon Civil
Service, to whom I am indebted
for many valuable notes relative to
the birds of the island, regards the
identification of the Singhalese
Devil-Bird as open to similar

& 4

Si4S BIRDS. [Chap. VIII.

and savage husband, who suspected the fidelity of his
wife, availed himself of her absence to kill her child,
of whose paternity he was doubtful, and on her return
placed before her a curry prepared from its flesh. Of
this the unhappy woman partook, till discovering the
crime by finding the finger of her infant, she fled in
frenzy to the forest, and there destroyed herself. On
her death she was metamorphosed, according to the
Buddhist belief, into an ulama, or Devil-bird, which
still at nightfall horrifies the villagers by repeating
the frantic screams of the bereaved mother in her
agony.

II. Passeres. Sivallou's. — Within thirty-five miles of
Caltura, on the western coast, are inland caves, to which
the Esculent Swift ^ resorts, and there builds the " edible
bird's nest," so highly prized in China. Near the spot
a few Chinese immigrants have established themselves,
who rent the nests as a royalty from the government,
and make an annual export of the produce. But the
Swifts are not confined to this district, and caves con-

doubt: he says — " The Devil-Bird compare it to a boy in torture,

is not an owl. I never heard it whose screams are being stopped

until I came to Kornegalle, where by being strangled. I have offered

it haunts the rocky hill at the back rewards for a specimen, but with-

of Grovernment-house. Its ordinary out success. The only European

note is a magnificent clear shout who had seen and fired at one

like that of a human being, and agreed with the natives that it is

which can be heard at a great dis- of the size of a pigeon, with a long

tance, and has a fine effect in the tail. 1 believe it is a Podargus or

silence of the closing night. It has Night Hawk." In a subsequent

another cry like that of a hen just note he further says — "I have

caught, but the sounds which have since seen two birds by moonlight,

earned for it its bad name, and one of the size and shape of a

which I have heard but once to cuckoo, the other a large black

perfection, are indescribable, the bird, which I imagine to be the

most appalling that can be ima- one which gives these calls."

gined, and scarcely to be heard ' Collocaliabrevirostris,3f<?CT^//.;

without shuddering; I can only C. nidifica, Gra^.

Chap. VIII.] SWALLOWS. — SUN BIRDS. 249

taining them have been found far in the interior, a fact
which complicates the still unexplained mystery of the
composition of their nest; and, notwithstanding the
power of wing possessed by these birds, adds something
to the difficulty of believing that it consists of glutinous
material obtained from algae. ^ In the nests brougrht
to me there was no trace of organisation ; and the
original material, whatever it be, is so elaborated by
the swallow as to present somewhat the appearance and
consistency of strings of isinglass. The quantity of
these nests exported from Ceylon is trifling.

Kingfishers. — In solitary places, where no sound
breaks the silence except the gurgle of the river as
it sweeps round the rocks, the lonely Kingfisher, the
emblem of vigilance and patience, sits upon an over-
hanging branch, his turquoise plumage hardly less
intense in its lustre than the deep blue of the sky
above him ; and so intent is his watch upon the passing
fish that intrusion fails to scare him from his post.

Sun Birds. — In the gardens the tiny Sun Birds ^
(known as the Humming Birds of Ceylon) hover all
day long, attracted to the plants, over which they hang
poised on their glittering wings, and inserting their
curved beaks to extract the insects that nestle in the
flowers.

Perhaps the most graceful of the birds of Ceylon in form
and motions, and the most chaste in colouring, is the
one which Europeans call " the Bird of Pai*adise," ^ and

* An epitome of what has been found the nests of the Esculent

written on this subject will be Swallow eighty miles distant from

found in Dr. Horsfield's Catalogice the sea.

of the Birds in the E. I. Comp. 2 Nectarina Zeylanica, Linn.

Museum, vol. i. p. 101, &c. Mr. • Tchitrea paradisi, Linn.
Morris assures me, that he has

250

BIKDS.

[Chap. VIII.

natives '"the Cotton Thief," from the circumstance that
its tail consists of two long white feathers, which stream

behind it as it flies. Mr. Layard
says : — "I have often watched
them, when seeking their insect
prey, turn suddenly on their perch
and whisk their long tails with a
jerk over the bough, as if to pro-
tect them from injury."

The tail is sometimes brown, and
the natives have the idea that the
bird changes its plumage at stated
periods, and that the tail-feathers
become white and brown in alter-
nate years. The fact of the va-
riety of plumage is no doubt true,
but this story as to the alternation

Chap. VIII.] THE BULBUL. TAILOR-BIKD. 251

of colours in the same individual requires confirma-
tion.^

The Bulbul. — The Condatchee Bulhul ^, which, from
the crest on its head, is called by the Singhalese the
" Konda Cooroola," or Tuft bird, is regarded by the
natives as the most " game " of all birds ; and training
it to fight was one of the duties entrusted by the Kings
of Kandy to the Cooroowa, or Head-man, who had
charge of the King's animals and Birds. For this pur-
pose the Bulbul is taken from the nest as soon as the
sex is distinguishable by the tufted crown ; and secured
by a string, is taught to fly from hand to hand of its
keeper. When pitted against an antagonist, such is
the obstinate courage of this little creature that it will
sink from exhaustion rather than release its hold. This
propensity, and the ordinary character of its notes,
render it impossible that the Bulbul of India could be
identical with the Bulbul of Iran, the " Bird of a
Thousand Songs," ^ of which poets say that its delicate
passion for the rose gives a plaintive character to its
note.

Tailor-Bird, — The Weaver-Bird. — The tailor-bird ''
having completed her nest, sewing together leaves by
passing through them a cotton thread twisted by herself,
leaps from branch to branch to testify her happiness by

^ The engraying of the Tchitrea bulbul has a passion for the rose,

given on page 244 is copied by per- and laments and cries when he sees

mission from one of the splendid it pulled." — Ouselet's Oriental

drawings in Mb. Gould's Birds of Collections, vol. i. p. 16. Accord-

India. ing to Pallas it is the true nightin-

2 Pyenonotus hsemorrhous, Gmel. gale of Europe, Sylvia luscinia,

s " Hazardasitaum," the Persian which the Armenians call boulboid,

name for the bulbul. " The Per- and the Grim-Tartars hyl-hyl-i.
sians," according to Zakary ben * Orthotomus longicauda, Gmel.
Mohamed al Caswini, " say the

252

BIRDS.

[Chap. Vni.

a clear and merry note ; and the Indian weaver ^, a
still more ingenious artist, hangs its pendulous dwell-
ing from a projecting bough ; twisting it with grass into
a form somewhat resembling a bottle with a prolonged
neck, the entrance being inverted, so as to baffle the
approaches of its enemies, the tree snakes and other
reptiles. The natives assert that the male bird carries
fire flies to the nest, and fastens them to its sides by a
particle of soft mud ; — Mr. Layard assures me that

' 0I8SA PUELLA.

although he has never succeeded in finding the fire fly,
the nest of the male bird (for the female occupies
another during incubation) invariably contains a patch

• Ploceus baya, Blyth. ; P. Philippinus, Auct.

Chap. YIII.] CEOWS. 253

of mud on each side of the perch. Grass is apparently
the most convenient material for the purposes of the
Weaver-bird when constructing its nest, but other sub-
stances are often substituted, and some nests which I
brought from Ceylon proved to be formed with deli-
cate strips from the fronds of the dwarf date-palm.
Phoenix paludosa, which happened to grow near the
breeding place.

Amongst the birds of this order, one which, as far as
I know, is peculiar to the island is Layard's Mountain-
jay {Cissa puella, Blyth and Layard), is distinguished
not less by the beautiful blue colour which enlivens its
plumage, than by the elegance of its form and the grace
of its attitudes. It frequents the hill country, and is
found about the mountain streams at Neuera-ellia, and
elsewhere.^

Grows. — Of all the Ceylon birds of this order the
most familiar and notorious are the small glossy crows,
whose shining black plumage shot with blue has sug-
gested the title of Corvus sj^lendens.^ They frequent
the towns in companies, and domesticate themselves in
the close vicinity of every house ; and it may possibly
serve to account for the familiarity and audacity which
they exhibit in their intercourse with men, that the
Dutch during their sovereignty in Ceylon, enforced
severe penalties against any one killing a crow, under
the belief that they were instrumental in extending the

* The engraving above is taken seen in the toTvns, it lives chiefly

by permission of Mr. Gould from in the open country, and may be

one of his drawings for his Birds constantly observed wherever there

of India. are buffaloes, perched on their

2 There is another species, the backs and engaged, in company

C. cidminatus, so called from the with the small Minah {Acridotheres

convexity of its biU ; but though tristis), in freeing them from ticks.

254 BIRDS. [Chap. Vin.

growth of cinnamon by feeding on the fruit, and thus
disseminating the undigested seed.^

So accustomed are the natives to their presence and ex-
ploits, that, like the Grreeks and Eomans, they have made
the movements of crows the basis of their auguries ;
and there is no end to the vicissitudes of good and evil
fortune which may not be predicted from the direction
of their flight, the hoarse or mellow notes of their croak-
ing, the variety of trees on which they rest, and the
numbers in which they are seen to assemble.

All day long these birds are engaged in watching either
the offal of the offices, or the preparation for meals in
the dining-room : and as doors and windows are neces-
sarily opened to relieve the heat, nothing is more com-
mon than the passage of a crow across the room, lifting on
the wing some ill-guarded morsel from the dinner-table.
No article, however unpromising its quality, provided
only it be portable, can with safety be left unguarded in
any apartment accessible to them. The contents of
ladies' work-boxes, kid gloves, and pocket handkerchiefs
vanish instantly if exposed near a window or open door.
They open paper parcels to ascertain the contents ; they
will undo the knot on a napkin if it encloses anything
eatable, and I have known a crow to extract the peg
which fastened the lid of a basket in order to plunder
the provender within.

On one occasion a nurse seated in a garden adjoining
a regimental mess-room, was terrified by seeing a bloody
clasp-knife drop from the air at her feet ; but the mys-
tery was explained on learning that a crow, which had
been watching the cook chopping mince-meat, had seized

* "Wolf's JAfe and Adventures, p. 117.

Chap. VUI.] CROWS. 255

the moment when his head was turned to carry off the
knife.

One of these ingenious marauders, after vainly atti-
tudinising in front of a chained watch-dog, that was
lazily gnawing a bone, and after fruitlessly endeavouring
to divert his attention by dancing before him, with
head awry and eye askance, at length flew away for
a moment, and returned bringing a companion which
perched itself on a branch a few yards in the rear. The
crow's grimaces were now actively renewed, but with no
better success, till its confederate, poising itself on its
wings, descended with the utmost velocity, striking the
dog upon the spine with all the force of its strong beak.
The ruse was successful ; the dog started with surprise
and pain, but not quickly enough to seize his assailant,
whilst the bone he had been gnawing was snatched away
by the first crow the instant his head was turned. Two
well-authenticated instances of the recurrence of this
device came within my knowledge at Colombo, and
attest the sagacity and powers of communication and
combination possessed by these astute and courageous
birds.

On the approach of evening the crows near Colombo
assemble in noisy groups along the margin of the fresh-
water lake which surrounds the fort on the eastern side;
and here for an hour or two they enjoy the luxury of
throwing the water over their shining backs, and arrano--
ing their plumage decorously, after which they disperse,
each taking the direction of his accustomed quarters for
the night. ^

_ ' A similar habit has been no- daily resort at the same hour to
ticed in the damask Parrots of their accustomed pools to bathe.
Africa {Falceornis fuscus), which

256 BIRDS. [Chap. VIII.

During the storms which usher in the monsoon, it has
been observed, that when coco-nut palms are destroyed
by lightning, the effect frequently extends beyond
a single tree, and from the contiguity and conduction
of the spreading leaves, or some other peculiar cause,
large groups will be affected by a single flash, a few
killed instantly, and the rest doomed to rapid decay.
In Belligam Bay, a little to the east of Point-de-Gralle,
a small island, which is covered with coco-nuts, has
acquired the name of " Crow Island," from being the
resort of those birds, which are seen hastening towards
it in thousands towards sunset. A few years ago, during
a violent storm of thunder, such was the destruction of
the crows that the beach for some distance was covered
with a black line of their remains, and the grove on
which they had been resting was to a great extent
destroyed by the same flash. ^

III. ScAJsSORES. Parroquets. — Of the Psittacidse the
only examples are the parroquets, of which the most
renowned is the Palceornis Alexandri, which has the
historic distinction of bearing the name of the great
conqueror of India, having been the first of its race
introduced to the knowledge of Europe on the return of
his expedition. An idea of their number may be formed
from the following statement of Mr. Layard, as to the
multitudes which are to be found on the western coast.
" At Chilaw, I have seen such vast flights of parroquets
hurrying towards the coco-nut trees which overhang the

^ Similar instances are recorded found on the shores of a lake in
in other countries of sudden and pro- the county Westmeath in Ireland
digious mortality amongst crows ; after a storm. — Thompson's Nat.
but whether occasioned by lightning Hist. Ireland, vol. i. p. 319. Pat-
seems uncertain. In 1839 thirty- tersox in his Zoology, p. 356, men-
three thousand dead crows were tions other cases.

Chap. YIII.] PARROQUETS. 257

bazaar, that their noise drownied the Babel of tonsfues
bargaining for the evening provisions. Hearing of the
swarms that resorted to this spot, I posted myself on a
bridge some half mile distant, and attempted to count
the flocks which came from a single direction to the
eastward. About four o'clock in the afternoon, strag-
gling parties began to wend towards home, and in the
course of half an hour the current fairly set in. But I
soon found that I had no longer distinct flocks to count,
it became one living screaming stream. Some flew high
in the air till right above their homes, and dived ab-
ruptly downward with many evolutions till on a level
with the trees ; others kept along the ground and dashed
close by my face with the rapidity of thought, their
brilliant plumage shining with an exquisite lustre in the
sun-light. I waited on the spot till the evening closed,
when I could hear, though no longer distinguish, the
birds fighting for their perches, and on firing a shot
they rose with a noise like the *' rushing of a mighty
wind,' but soon settled again, and such a din com-
menced as I shall never forget ; the shrill screams of
the birds, the fluttering of their innumerable wings, and
the rustling of the leaves of the palm trees was almost
deafening, and I was glad at last to escape to the
Grovernment Eest House." ^

IV. CoLUMBiD^. Pigeons. — Of pigeons and doves
there are at least a dozen species. Some live entirely
on trees'^, never alighting on the ground ; others, not-
withstanding the abundance of food and warmth, are

' Annals of Nat. Hist, vol. xiii. - Treron biciucta, Jerd,
p. 263.

258 BIRDS. [Chap. VIII.

migratory \ allured, as the Singhalese allege, by the
ripening of the cinnamon berries, and hence one species
is known in the southern provinces as the '^ Cinnamon
Dove." Others feed on the fruits of the banyan : and
it is probably to their instrumentality that this mar-
vellous tree chiefly owes its diffusion, its seeds being-
carried by them to remote localities. A very beautiful
pigeon, peculiar to the mountain range, discovered in
the lofty trees at Neuera-ellia, has, in compliment to
the Viscountess Torrington, been named Carpophaga
TorringtonicB.

Another, called by the natives neela-coheya ^, although
strikingly elegant both in shape and colour, is still more
remarkable for the singularly soothing effect of its low
and harmonious voice. A gentleman who has spent
many years in the jungle, in writing to me of this
bird and of the effects of its melodious song, says, that
" its soft and melancholy notes, as they came from some
solitary place in the forest, were the most gentle sounds
I ever listened to. Some sentimental smokers assert
that the influence of the propensity is to make them
feel as if they could freely forgive all who had ever
offended them ; and I can say with truth such has been
the effect on my own nerves of the plaintive murmurs
of the neela-cobeya, that sometimes, when irritated, and
not without reason, by the perverseness of some of
my native followers, the feeling has almost instantly
subsided into placidity on suddenly hearing the loving
tones of these beautiful birds."

' Alsoconms puniceus, the " Sea- its periodical arrival and departure,
son Pigeon "of Ceylon, so called from - Chalcophaps Indicus, Linn.

Chap. VIII.] THE CEYLOX JUXGLE FOWL. 259

V. GrALLiN^. The Ceylon Jungle-fowl. — The jungle-
fowl of Ceylon ^ is shown by the peculiarity of its
plumage to be not only distinct from the Indian species,
but peculiar to the island. It has never yet bred or
survived long in captivity, and no living specimens
have been successfully transmitted to Europe. It
abounds in all parts of the island, but chiefly in the
lower ranges of mountains ; and one of the vivid
memorials which are associated with our journeys
through the hills, is its clear cry, which sounds like
a person calling " Greorge Joyce ," ^ and rises at early
morning amidst mist and dew, giving life to the
scenery, that has scarcely yet been touched by the
sun-light.

The female of this handsome bird was figured many
years ago by Dr. Gteay in his illustrations of " In-
dian Zoology^^^ under the name of G. Stanlcyi. The
cock bird subsequently received from Lesson, the
name by which the species is now known : but its
habitat was not discovered, until a specimen having
been forwarded from Ceylon to Calcutta, Dr. Bltth
recognised it as the long-sought-for male of Dr. Gray's
specimen.

Another of the Grallinse of Ceylon, remarkable for the
delicate pencillings of its plumage, as well as for the
peculiarity of the double spur, from which it has ac-
quired its trivial name, is the Galloperdix bicalcaratus,
of which a figure is given from a drawing by Mr.
Gould.

* Gallus Lafayetti, Lesson, j^ingle fowl differs from that of

2 I apprehend that in the parti- the Dekkan, where / am told that
cular of the peculiar cry the Ceylon it crows like a bantam cock.

s 2

i2(jO

BIRDS.

[Chap. YIII.

GALLOPEEDIX BICALCARATUS.

YI. Grall^. — On reaching the marshy plains and
shallow lac^oons on either side of the island, the aston-
ishment of the stranger is excited by the endless multi-
tudes of stilt-birds and waders which stand in long array
within the wash of the water, or sweep in vast clouds
above it. Ibises^, storks^, egrets, spoonbills^, herons'*,
and the smaller races of sand larks and plovers, are seen
busily traversing the wet sand, in search of the red
w^orm which burrows there, or peering with steady eye
to watch the motions of the small fry and aquatic insects
in the ripple on the shore.

VII. Anseres. — Preeminent in size and beauty, the

' Tantalus leucocephalus, and conia leucocepliala).
Ibis falcinellus. ^ Platalea leucorodia, Linn.

' The violet-headed Stork (Ci- ^ Ardea cinerea. A. purpurea.

Chap. VIII.]

FLAMINGO.

261

tall flamingoes'^, with rose-coloured plumage, line the
beach in long files. The Singhalese have been led, from
their colour and their military order, to designate them
the ^^ English Soldier birds.^^ Nothing can be more
startling than the sudden flight of these splendid creatures
when alarmed ; their strong wings beating the air with a
sound like distant thunder ; and as they soar over head,
the flock which appeared almost white but a moment
before, is converted into crimson by the sudden display
of the red lining of their wings. A peculiarity in the
beak of this bird has scarcely attracted the attention it

fla:jikgo.

merits, as a striking illustration of creative wisdom in
adapting the organs of animals to their local necessities.

* Phcenicopterus roseus, Pallas.
s 3

262 BIRDS. [Chap. VIII.

The upper mandible, which is convex in other birds, is
flattened in the flamingo, whilst the lower, instead of
being flat, is convex. To those who have had an oppor-
tunity of witnessing the action of the bird in its native
haunts, the expediency of this arrangement is at once
apparent. To counteract the extraordinary length of
its legs, it is provided with a proportionately long neck,
so that in feeding in shallow water the crown of the
head becomes inverted and the upper mandible brought
into contact with the bottom ; where its flattened surface
qualifies it for performing the functions of the lower
one in birds of the same class ; and the edges of both
being laminated, it is thus enabled, like the duck, by
the aid of its fleshy tongue, to sift before swallowing
its food.

Floating on the surface of the deeper water, are fleets
of the Anatidse, the Coromandel teal ^, the Indian hooded
gull ^, the Caspian tern, and a countless variety of ducks
and smaller fowl — pintails ^, teal ''j red-crested pochards ^
shovellers^, and terns."^ Pelicans^ in great numbers
resort to the mouths of the rivers, taking up their posi-
tion at sunrise on some projecting rock, from which to
dart on the passing fish, and returning far inland at
night to their retreats among the trees which over-
shadow some solitary river or deserted tank.

I chanced upon one occasion to come unexpectedly
upon one of these remarkable breeding places during a
visit which I made to the great tank of Padivil, one of
those gigantic constructions by which the early kings of
Ceylon have left imperishable records of their reigns.

* Nettapus coromandelianus, Gm. * FuUgida rufina, Pallas.
2 Larus brunnicephalus, Jerd. ^ Spatula clypeata, Ldnoi.
^ Dafila acuta, Linn. ' Sterna minuta, Linn.

* Querquedula crecca, Linn. ^ Pelicanus Philippensis, Grnel.

Chap. YIH.] PELICAXS. 263

It is situated in the depth of the forests to the north-
west of Trincomalie, and the tank is itself the basin
of a broad and shallow valley, enclosed between two
lines of low hills, that gradually sink into the plain as
they approach towards the sea. The extreme breadth
of the included space may be twelve or fourteen miles,
narrowing to eleven at the spot where the retain-
ing bund has been constructed across the valley ; and
when this enormous embankment was in effectual repair,
and the reservoir filled by the rains, the water must
have been thrown back along the basin of the valley
for at least fifteen miles. It is difiicult now to deter-
mine the precise distances, as the overgrowth of wood
and jungle has obliterated all lines left by the original
level of the lake at its junction with the forest. Even
when we rode along it, the centre of the tank was deeply
submerged, so that notwithstanding the partial escape,
the water still covered an area of ten miles in diameter.
Even now its depth when full must be very considerable,
for high on the branches of the trees that grow in the
area, the last flood had left quantities of driftwood and
withered grass ; and the rocks and banks were coated
with the yeasty foam, that remains after the subsidence
of an agitated flood.

The bed of the tank was difficult to ride over, being
still soft and treacherous, although covered everywhere
with tall and waving grass ; and in every direction it
was poched into deep holes by the innumerable ele-
phants that had congregated to roll in the soft mud, to
bathe in the collected water, or to luxuriate in the rich
herbage, under the cool shade of the trees. The ground,
too, was thrown up into hummocks like great molehills
which, the natives told us, were formed by a huge earth-

s 4

264 BIKDS. [Chap. VIH.

worm, common in Ceylon, nearly two feet in length,
and as thick as a small snake. Through these inequali-
ties the water was still running off in natural drains
towards the great channel in the centre, that conducts it
to the broken sluice ; and across these it was sometimes
difficult to find a safe footing for our horses.

In a lonely spot, towards the very centre of the tank,
we came unexpectedly upon an extraordinary scene. A
sheet of still water, two or three hundred yards broad,
and about half a mile long, was surrounded by a line of
tall forest-trees, whose branches stretched above its
margin. The sun had not yet risen, when we perceived
some white objects in large numbers on the tops of the
trees ; and as we came nearer, we discovered that a vast
colony of pelicans had formed their settlement and
breeding-place in this solitary retreat. They literally
covered the trees in hundreds ; and their heavy nests,
like those of the swan, constructed of large sticks,
forming great platforms, were sustained by the horizontal
branches. Each nest contained three eggs, rather larger
than those of a goose ; and the male bird stood placidly
beside the female as she sat upon them.

Nor was this all ; along with the pelicans prodigious
numbers of other water-birds had selected this for their
dwelling-place, and covered the trees in thousands,
standing on the topmost branches ; tall flamingoes,
herons, egrets, storks, ibises, and other waders. We
had disturbed them thus early, before their habitual
hour for betaking themselves to their fishing-fields. By
degrees, as the light increased, we saw them beginning
to move upon the trees ; they looked around them on
every side, stretched their awkward legs behind them,
extended their broad wings, gradually rose in groups.

Chap. YIII.] PELICANS. 265

and slowly soared away in the direction of the sea-
shore.

The pelicans were apparently later in their move-
ments ; they allowed us to approach as near them as
the swampy nature of the soil would permit ; and even
when a gun was discharged amongst them, only those
moved off which the particles of shot disturbed. They
were in such numbers at this favourite place, that the
water over which they had taken up their residence
was swarming with crocodiles, attracted by the frequent
fall of the young birds ; and the natives refused, from
fear of them, to wade in for one of the larger pelicans
which had fallen, struck by a rifle ball. It was alto-
gether a very remarkable sight.

Of the birds familiar to European sportsmen, par-
tridges and quails are to be had at all times ; the wood-
cock has occasionally been shot in the hills, and the
ubiquitous snipe, which arrives in September from
Southern India, is identified not alone by the eccen-
tricity of its flight, but by retaining in high perfection
the qualities which have endeared it to the gastronome
at home. But the magnificent pheasants, which inhabit
the Himalayan range and the woody hills of the Chin-
Indian peninsula, have no representative amongst the
tribes that people the woods of Ceylon ; although a bird
believed to be a pheasant has more than once been
seen in the jungle, close to Rangbodde, on the road to
Neuera-ellia.

List of Ceylon Birds.
In submitting this catalogue of the birds of Ceylon,
I am anxious to state that the copious mass of its con-

266

BIRDS.

[Chap. Vm.

tents is mainly due to the untii-ing energy and exertions
of my friend, Mr. E. L. Layard. Nearly every bird in
the list has fallen by his gun ; so that the most ample
facilities have been thus provided, not only for extend-
ing the limited amount of knowledge which formerly
existed on this branch of the zoology of the island ; but
for correcting, by actual comparison with recent speci-
mens, the errors which had previously prevailed as to
imperfectly described species. The whole of Mr.
Layard's fine collection is at present in England.

ACCIPITEES.

Aquila

Bonelli, Temm.

pennata, Gm.
Spizaetus

Nipalensis, Hodgs.

limnaeetus, Horsf.
Ictinaetus

Malayensis, Reinw.
Haematornis

Bacha, Dnud.

spilogaster, Blyth.
Pontoaetus

leucogaster, Gm.

ichthyaetus, Horsf.
Haliastur

Indus, Bodd.
Falco

peregrinus, Linn.

peregrinator, Sund.
Tinnunciilus

alaiidarius, Briss,
Hypotriorchis

chicquera, Daud.
Baza

lophotes, Cuv.
Milvus

govinda, Sykes.
Elanus

melanopterus, Daud.
Astur

trivirgatus, Temm.
Accipiter

badius, Gm.
Circus

Swainsonii, A. Smith.

cinerascens, Mont.

melanoleucos, G;w.

(Eruginosus, Linn.
Athene

castonatus, ^lyth.

scutulata, Btifftei.
Ephialtes

scops, Linn.

lempijii, Horsf.

sunia, Hodgs.
Ketupa

Ceylonensis, Gm.

Syrnium

Indranee, Sykes.
Strix

Javanica, Gm.

PASSERES.

Batrachostomus

moniliger, Layard.
Caprimulsus

Mahrattensis, Sykes.

Kelaarti, Blyth.

Asiaticus, Lath.
Cypselus

batassiensis, Gray.

melba, Linn.

affinis, Gray.
Macropteryx

coronatus, Tickell.
CoUocalia

brevirostris, McCleL
Acanthylis

caudacuta, Lath.
Hirundo

panayana, Gm.

daurica, Linn.

hyperyihra, Layard.

domicola, Jerdon.
Coracias

Indica, Linn.
Harpactes

fasciatus, Grn.
Eurystomus

orieutalis, Linn.
Halcyon

Capensis, Linn.

atricapilhis, Gw.

Smyrneusis, Linn.
Ceyx

tridactyla, Linn.
Alcedo

Bengalensis, Gm.
Ceryle

rudis, Linn.
Merops

Philippinus, Linn.

viridis, Linn.

quincticolor, Vieill.
Upupa

nigripennis, Gould.

Nectarina

Zeylanica, Linn.

minima, Sykes,

Asiatica, Lath. ,

Lotenia, Linn.
Dicasum

minimum, Tickell.
Phyllornis

Malabarica. Lath.)

Jerdoni, Blyth.
Dendrophila

frontalis, Horsf.
Piprisoma

agile, Blyth.
Orthotomus

iongicauda, Gm.
Cisticola

cursitans, Fiankl.

omalura, Blyth.
Drymoica

valida, Blyth.

inornata, Sykes.
Prinia

socialis, Sykes.
Acrocephalus

dumetorum, Blyth.
Phyllopneuste

nitidus, Blyth.

montanus, Blyth.

viridanus, Blylh.
Copsychus

saularis, Linn.
Kittacincla

macrura, Gm.
Pratincola

caprata, Linn.

atrata, Kelaart.
Calliope

cyanea, Hodgs.
Thaninobia

fulicata, Linn.
Cyanecula

Suecica, Linn.
Sylvia

aflRnis, Blyth.
Parus

cinereus, Vieill.
Zosterops

palpebrosus, Temm.

Chap. VIII.] LIST OF CEYLOX BIRDS.

267

lora

Zeylanica, Gw.
typhia, Linn.
Motacilla

sulDhurea, Bechs.
Indica, Gm.
Madraspataiia, Briss,
Budytes

viridis, Gf?i.
Antlnis

rufulus, T'ieill.
Richardii, Vieill,
striolatus, Blyth.
Brachypteryx

Palliseri, Kelaart.
Alcippe

nigrifrons, Blyth.
Pitta

brachyura, Jerd.
Oreocincia

spiloptera, Blyth.
Merula

Wardii, Jerd.
Kinnisii, Kelaart.
Zoothera

imbricata, Layard.
Garrulax

cinereifrons, Blyth.
Pormatorliinus

melanurus, Blyth.
Malacocercus

rufescens, Blyth.
griseus, Gm.
striatus, Swains.
Pellorneum

fuscocapillum, Blyth.
Dumetia

albogularis, Blyth.
Chrysomma

Sineiise, Gm.
Oriolus

melanocephalus, Linn.
Indicus, Briss.
Criniger

ictericus, Stickl.
Pycnonotus

pen cillatus, Kelaart.
flavirictus, StricU.
hasmorrhous, G>n.
atricapillus, Vieitl.
Hemipiis

picatus, Sykes.
Hypsipetes

Nilgherrieusis, Jerd.
Cyornis

rubeculoides, Vig.
Myiagra

azurea, Bodd.
Cryptolopha

cinereocapilla, Vieill.
Leucocerca

compressirostris, Blyth.
Tchitrea

paradisi, Linn.
Butaiis

latirostris, Raffles.
Muttui, Layard.
Stoparola

melanops, Vig.
Pericrocotus

flammeus, Forst.
peregriiius, Linn.

Campephaga
Miicei, Less.
Sykesii, Strickl.
Artamus

fuscus, Vieill.
Edolius

paradiseus, Gm.
Dicrurus

niarrocercus, Vieill.
edoliformis, Blyth.
longicaudatus, A. Hay
leucopygialis, Blyth.
coerulescens, Linn.
Irena

puella, Lath.
Lanius

superciliosus, Lath,
erythronotus, Vig.
Teplirodornis

affinis, Blyth
Cissa

puella, Blyth ^- Layard.
Corvus

splendens, Vieill.
culminatus, Sykes.
Eulabes

religiosa, Linn.
ptilogenys, Blyth,
Pastor

roseus, Linn.
Hetaerornis

pagodarum, Gm.
albifrontata^ Layard.
Acridotheres

tristis, Linn.
Ploceus

manyar, Horsf.
bay a. Blyth.
Munia

undulata, Latr.
Malabarica. Linn.
Malacca, Linn.
rubronigra, Hodgs.
striata, Linn.
Kelaarti, Blyih.
Passer

Indicus, Jard. ^ Selb.
Alauda

gulgula, Frank.
Malabarica, Scop.
Pyrrhulauda

grisea, Scop.
Mirafra

affinis, Jerd.
Buceros

gingalensis, Shato.
Malabaricus, Jerd.

SCANSOEES.

Loriculus

Asiaticus, Lath.
Palaeornis

Alexandri, Linn.

torquatus, Briss.

cyanocephalus, Linn.

Calthropae, Layard.
Megalaima

Indica, Latr.

Zeylanica, Gmel.

flavifrons, Cuv.

rubicapilla, G7n.

Pious'

gymnophthalmus, Blth.

Mahrattensis, Lath.

Macei, Vieill.
Gecinus

chlorophanes, Vieill.
Brachypternus

aurantius, Linn.

Ceylonus, Forst.

rubescens, Vieill.

Strickland!, Layard.
Micropternus

gularis, Jerd.
Centropus

rutipennis, llliger.

chlororhynclios, Blyth.
Oxylophus

melanoleucos, Gm.

Coromandus, Linn.
Eudynaniys

orientalis, Linn.
Cuculus

Poliocephalus, Lath.

striatus, Drapiez.

canorus, Linn.
Polyphasia

tenuirostris. Gray.

Sonneratii, Lath.
Hierococcyx

varius, Vahl.
Surniculus

dicruroides, Hodgs.
Phcenicophaus

pyrrhocephalus, Forst.
Zanclostomus

viridirostris, Jerd.

COLUMB.E.

Treron

bicincta, Jerd.

flavogularis, Blyth.

Pompadoura, Gm.

chlorogaster, Blyth.
Carpophaga

pus ilia, Blyth.

Torringtoniae, Kelaart.
Alsocomus

puniceus, Ticket.
Columba

intermedia, Strickl.
Turtur

risorius, Linn.

Suratensis, Lath.

humilis, Temm.

orientalis. Lath.
Chalcophaps

Indicus^Linn.

GMSLVSM.

Pavo

cristatus, Linn,
Gallus

Lafayetti, Lesson.
Galloperdix

bicalcaratus, Linn.
Fran col in us

Poiiticerianus, Gm.
Perdicula

agoondab, Sykes.

268

BIRDS.

[Chap. VIII.

Coturnix

Chinensis, Linn.
Turnix ocellatus,

uar.Bengalensis, Blyih.

var. taigoor, Sykes.

GEALLJE.

Esacus

recurvirostris, Cuv.
CEdiciiemus

crepitans, Tetnm.
Cursorius

Coromandelicus, Gm.
Lobivanellus

bilobus, Gyn.

Goensis, Gtn.
Charadrius

virginicus, Bechs.
Hiaticula

Philippensis, Scop.

Cantiana, Lath.

Leschenaultii, Less.
Strepsilas

Inieipres, Linn.
Ardea

purpurea, Linn.

cinerea, Linn,

asha, Sykes.

intermedia, IVagler.

garzetta, Linn.

alba, Linn.

bubulcus, Savig.
Ardeola

leucoptera, Bodd.
Ardetta

cinnamomea, Gm.

flavicoUis, Lath.

Sinensis, Gtn.
Butoroides

Javanica, Horsf.
Platalea

leucorodia, Linn.
Nycticorax

griseus, Linn.
Tigrisoma

melanolopha, Baffl.
Mycteria

auitralis, Shaw,
Leptophilus

Javanica, Horsf.
Ciconia

leucocephala, Gm.
Anastomus

oscitans, Bodd.

Tantalus

leucocephalus, Gm.
Geronticus

melanocephalus. Lath.
Falcinellus

igneus, Gm.
Numenius

arquatus, Linn.
phaeopus, Linn.
Totanus

fuscus, Linn.
calidris, Linn.
glottis, Linn.
stagnalis, Bechst.
Actitis

glareola, Grn.
ochropus, Linn.
hypoleucos, Linn.
Tringa

minuta, Leist.
subarquata, Gm,
Limicola

platyrhyncha, Temm.
Limosa

aegocephala, Linn.
Himantopus

candidus, Bon.
Recurvirostra

avocetta, Linn.
Haematopus

ostralegus, Linn.
Rhynchcea

Bengalensis, Linn,
Scolopax

rusticola, Linn.
Gallinago

stenura, Temm.
scolopncina , Bon.
gallinuld, Linn.
Hydrophasianus

Sinensis, Gm.
Ortygometra

rubiginosa, Temm.
Corethura

Zeylanica, Gm.
Rail us

stri;itus, Linn.
Iiidicus, Blyth.
Porphyrio

poliocephalus. Lath.
Porzana

pygm^a, San.
Gallinula

phoenicura, Penn.
chloropus, Linn.
cristata, Lath.

A>'SERES.

Phcenicopterus

ruber, Linn.
Sarkidiornis

melanonotos, Penn.
Nettapus

Coromandelianus, Gm.
Anas

poecilorhyncha, Penn.
Dendrocygnus

arcuatus, Cuv.
Dafila

acuta, Linn.
Querquedula
crecca, Linn.
circia, Linn.
Fuligula

riifina^ Pall.
Spatula

clypeata, Linn.
Podiceps

Philippensis, Gm.
Larus

brunnicephalus, Jerd.
ichihyaetus, Pall.
Sylochelidon

Caspius, Lath.
Hydrochelidon

Indicus, Steph.
Gelochelidon

Anglicus, Mont.
Onychoprion

anasthaetus. Scop.
Sterna

Javanica. Horsf.
melanogaster, Temm.
minuta, Linn.
Seena

aurantia, Gray.
Tha'asseus

Bengalensis, Less.
cristata, Steph.
Dromas

ardeola, Payk.
Atagen

ariel, Gould.
Thalassidroma

melanogaster, Gould.
Plotus

melanogaster, Gm.
Pelicanus

Philippensis, Gm.
Graculus

Sinensis, Shaxr,
pygmasus, Pallas.

Chap. VIII.] LIST OF CEYLOX BIRDS.

2G9

NOTE.

The follo-vving is a list of the birds which are, as far as is at
present known, peculiar to the island ; it will probably be
determined at some future day that some included in it have
a wider geogi-aphical range.

Haematornis spilogaster. The *' Ceylon
eagle; " was discovered by Mr. Layard
ill tlie Wanny, and by Dr. Kelaart at
Trincomalie.
Athene castonotus. The chestnut-winged
hawk owl. This pretty little owl was
added to the list of Ceylon birds by Dr.
Templeton. Mr. BIytli is at present of
opinion that this bird is identical with
Ath. Castanopteriis, Homf. of Java as
figured by Temminck : P. Col.
Batrachostbrnus moniliger. The oil bird;
was discovered amongst the precipitous
rocks of the Adam's Peak range by Mr.
Layard. Another specimen was sent
about the same time to Sir James Emer-
son Tennent from Avisavelle. Mr. Mit-
ford has met with it at Katnapoora.
Caprimulgus Kelaarti. Kelaart's night-
jar ; swarms on the marshy plains of
Neuera-ellia at dusk.
Hirundo hyperythra. The red-bellied
swallow; was discovered in 1849, by Mr.
Layard at Ambepusse. They build a
globular nest, with a round hole at top
A pair built in the ring for a hanging
lamp in Dr. Gardner's study at Pera-
denia. and hatched their young, un-
disturbed by the daily trimming and
lighting of the lamp.
Cisticola omalura. Layard's mountain
grass warbler ; is found in abimdance on
Horton Plain and Neuera-ellia, among
the long Patena grass.
Drymoica valida. Liyard's wren-war-
bler ; frequents tufts of grass and low
bushes, feeding on injects.
Pratincola atrata. Tlie Neuera-ellia
robin ; a melodious songster ; added to
our catalogue by Dr. Kelaart.
Brachypteryx Palliseri. Ant thrush. A
rare bird, added by Dr. Kelaart from
Dimboola and Neuera-ellia.
Pellorneum fiiscocapillum. Mr. Layard
found two specimens of this rare thrush
creeping about shrubs and bushes,
feeding on insects.
Alcippenigrifrons. This thrush frequents
low impenetrable thickets, and seems
to be widely distributed.
Oreocincla spiloptera. The spotted thrush
is only found in the mountain zone about
lofty trees.
Meruia Kinnisii. The Neuera-ellia black-
bird ; was added by Dr. Kelaart.
Garrulax cinereifrons. The ashv-headed

babbler ; was found by Mr. Layard near
Ratnapoora.
Pomatorhinus melanurus. Mr. Layard
states that the mountain babbler "fre-
quents low, scraggy, impenetrable brush,
along the margins of deserted cheena
land. This may turn out to be little
more than a local yet striking variety of
P. Horsfieldii of the Indian Peninsula.
Malacocercus rufescens. The red dung
thrush added by Dr. Templeton to the
Singhalese Fauna, is found in thick
jungle in the southern and midland
districts.
Pycnonotus penicillatus. The yellow-
eared bulhul ; was found by Dr. kelaart
at Neuera-ellia.
Butalis Muttui. This very handsome
flycatcher was procured at Point Pedro,
by Mr. Layard.
Dicrurus ecioliformis. Dr. Templeton
found this kingcrow at the Bibloo Oya.
Mr. Layard has since got it at Ambo-
gammoa.
Dicrurus leucopygialis. The Ceylon
kingcrow was sent to Mr. Blvth from
the vicinity of Colombo, by Dr. Tem-
pleton. A species very closely allied to
D.ccerulescens of the Indian continent.
Tephrodnrnis afBnis. The Ceylon
butcher-bird. A migatory species found
in the wooded grass lands in October.
Cissapuella. Layard's mountain jay. A
most lovely bird, found along mountain
streams at Neuera-ellia and elsewhere.
Eulabes ptilogenys. Templeton's mynah.
The largest and most beautiful of the
species. It is found in flocks perching
on the highest trees, feeding on berries.
Munia Kelaarti. This Grosbeak previ-
ously assumed to be M. pectoralis of
Jerdon; is most probably peculiar to
Ceylon.
Loriculus asiaticus. The small parroquet,

abundant in various districts.
Palffiornis Calthropae. Layard's purple-
headed parroquet, found at Kandy, is a
very handsome bird, flying in flocks, and
resting on the summits of the very
highest trees. Dr. Kelaart states that
it is the only parroquet of the Neuera-
ellia range.
Megalaima flavifrons. The yellow-headed

^a^bet, is not uncommon.
Meiialaima rubricapilla, is found in most
parts of the island.

270

BIRDS.

[Chap. Tin.

Picus gymnophthalmus. Layard's wood-
pecker. The smallest of the species,
was discovered near Colombo, amongst
jak-trees.

Brachypternus Ceylonus. The Ceylon
woodpecker, is lound in abundance near
Neuera-ellia.

Brachypternus rubescens. The red wood-
pecker.

Centropus chlororhynchus. The yellow-
billed cuckoo, was detected by Mr.
Layard in dense jungle near Colombo
and Avisavelle.

Phcenicophaus pyrrhocephalus. The mal-
koha, is confined to the southern high-
lands.

Treron Pompadoura. The Pompadour
pigeon. " The Prince of C^niiio has
show n that this is a totally distinct bird
from Tr. flavogularis, with which it was
confounded: it is much smaller, with the
quantity of maroon colour on the mantle
greatly'reduced." — Paper by Mr. Blyth,
Mag. Xat. Hist. p. 514 : 1857.

Carpophaga Torringtoniae. Lady Tor-
rington's pigeon ; a very handsome
pigeon discovered in the highlands by
Dr. Kelaart. It flies high in long
sweeps, and makes its nest on the loft-

iest trees. Mr. Blyth is of opinion that
it is no more than a local race, barely
separable from C. Elphinstonii of the
Nilgiris and Malabar coast.

Carpophaga pusilla. The little-hill dove,
a migratory species found by Mr. Layard
in the mountain zone, only appearing
with the ripened fruit of the teak, ban-
yan, &c., on which they feed.

Callus Lafayetti. The Ceylon jungle
fowl. The female of this handsome
bird was figured by Mr. Gray (///. Ind.
Zool.) under the name of G. Stanleyi.
The cock bird had long been lost to
naturalists, until a specimen was for-
warded by Dr. Templeton to Mr. Blyth,
who at once recognised it as the long-
looked-for male of Mr. Gray's recently
described female. It is abundant in all
the uncultivated portions of Ceylon;
coming out into the open spaces to feed
in the mornings and evenings. Mr.
Blyth states that there can be no doubt
that Hardwicke's published figure refers
to the hen of this species, long after,
wards termed G. Lafayetti.

Galloperdix bicalcaratus. Not uncom-
mon in suitable situations.

Chap. IX.] THE TALLA-GOYA. 271

CHAP. IX.

EEPTILES.

Lizards. Iguana. — One of the earliest, if not the
first remarkable animal to startle a strano^er on arrivinof
in Ceylon, whilst wending his way from Point-de-
Gralle to Colombo, is a huge lizard of from four to
five feet in length, the Talla-goyd of the Singhalese,
and Iguana ^ of the Europeans. It may be seen at noon-
day searching for ants and insects in the middle of the
highway and along the fences ; when disturbed, but by
no means alarmed, by the approach of man, it moves
off to a safe distance ; and, the intrusion being at an
end, it retm-ns again to the occupation in which it had
been interrupted. Eepulsive as it is in appearance, it
is perfectly harmless, and is hunted down by doo-s
in the maritime provinces, and its delicate flesh, which
is believed to be a specific in dysentery, is con-
verted into curry, and its skin into shoes. WTien
seized, it has the power of inflicting a smart blow with
its tail. The Talla-goya lives in almost any convenient
hollow, such as a hole in the ground, or a deserted
nest of the termites ; and some small ones, which fre-
quented my garden at Colombo, made their retreat in
the heart of a decayed tree.

' Monitor drac8ena,Zz?2w. Among iguana, ^rhicli they regard as a spe-

the barbarous nostrums of the un- cific for consumption, if phicked

educated natives, both Singhalese from the living animal and swal-

and Tamil, is the tongue of the lowed whole.

272 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

A still larger species, the Kabaragoyd ^ is partial to
marshy ground, and when disturbed upon land, will take
refuge in the nearest water. From the somewhat
eruptive appearance of the yellow blotches on its scales,
a closely allied species, similarly spotted, formerly ob-
tained amongst naturalists the name of Monitor exan-
thematicus, and it is curious that the native appellation
of this one, kabara ^, is suggestive of the same idea. The
Singhalese, on a strictly homoeopathic principle, believe
that its fat, externally applied, is a cure for cutaneous
disorders, but that taken inwardly it is poisonous. The
skilfulness of the Singhalese in their preparation of
poisons, and their addiction to using them, are unfor-
tunately notorious traits in the character of the rural
population. Amongst these preparations, the one which
above all others excites the utmost dread, from the
number of murders attributed to its agency, is the
potent kabara-tel — a term which Europeans some-
times corrupt into cobra-tel, implying that the venom is
obtained from the hooded-snake ; whereas it professes
to be extracted from the " kabara-goya." Such is the
bad renown of this formidable poison, that an indi-
vidual suspected of having it in his possession, is
cautiously shunned by his neighbours. Those especi-
ally who are on doubtful terms with him, suspect their
own servants lest they should be suborned to mix
kabara-tel in the curry. So subtle is the virus sup-

' Hydrosaurus salvator, Laur. ' In the Mahawanso the hero,

Tail compressed ; fingers long ; Tissa, is said to have been

nostrils near the extremity of the " afflicted with a cutaneous com-

snout. A black band on each plaint which made his skin scaly

temple ; round yellow spots dis- like that of the godho." — Ch. xxiv.

posed in transverse series on the p. 148. " Godho " is the Pali

back. Teeth with the crowTi com- name for the Kabara-goya.
pressed and notched.

Chap. IX.]

THE KABARA-TEL.

273

posed to be, that one method of adimnistering it, is to
introduce it within the midrib of a leaf of betel, and close

THE KABAEA-GOYA.

the orifice with chiinam ; and, as it is an habitual act of
courtesy for one Singhalese on meeting another to offer

T

274 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

the compliment of a betel-leaf, which it would be rude-
ness to refuse, facilities are thus afforded for present-
ing the concealed drug. It is curious that to this
latent suspicion has been traced the origin of a custom
universal amongst the natives, of nipping off with the
thumb nail the thick end of the stem before chewing
the betel.

In the preparation of this mysterious compound, the
unfortunate Kabara-goya is forced to take a painfully
prominent part. The receipt, as written down by a
Kandyan, was sent to me from Kornegalle, by Mr.
Morris, the civil officer of that district ; and in
dramatic arrangement it far outdoes the cauldron of
Macheth's witches. The ingredients are extracted from
venomous snakes, the cobra de capello, the Carawilla,
and the Tic-polonga, by making incisions in the head
of these reptiles and suspending them over a chattie to
collect the poison as it flows. To this, arsenic and other
drugs are added, and the whole is " boiled in a human
skull, with the aid of the three Kabara-goyas, which are
tied on three sides of the fire, with their heads directed
towards it, and tormented by whips to make them hiss,
so that the fire may blaze. The froth from their lips is
then added to the boiling mixture, and so soon as
an oily scum rises to the surface, the hahara-tel is
complete."

It is obvious that arsenic is the main ingredient in the
poison, and Mr. Morris reported to me that the mode
of preparing it, described above, was actually practised
in his district. This account was transmitted by him
apropos to the murder of a Mohatal ^ and his wife,
which had been committed with the hahara-tel, and

' A native head-man of low rank.

Chap. IX.] THE GREEN CALOTES. 275

was then under investigation. Before commencing the
operation of preparing the poison, a cock has to be
sacrificed to the yaklios or demons.

This ugly lizard is itself regarded with such aversion
by the Singhalese, that if a kahara enter a house or
walk over the roof, it is regarded as an omen of ill fortune,
sickness, or death ; and in order to avert the evil, a priest
is employed to go through a rhythmical incantation ; one
portion of which consists in the repetition of the words

Kabara goyin ■wan dosey
Ada palayan e dosey.

" These are the inflictions caused by the Kabara-goya
— let them now be averted ! "

It is one of the incidents that serve to indicate that
Ceylon may belong to a separate circle of physical geo-
graphy, that this lizard, though found to the eastward
in Burmah^, has not hitherto been discovered in the-
Dekkan or Hindustan,

Blood-suckers. — The lizards already mentioned, how-
ever, are but the stranger's introduction to innumerable
varieties of others, all most attractive in their sudden
movements, and some unsurpassed in the brilliancy of
their colouring, which bask on banks, dart over rocks,
and peer curiously out of the chinks of every ruined wall.
In all their motions there is that vivid and brief energy,
the rapid but restrained action associated with their

• In coiToboration of the view eluding, not only indiyidual species,

propounded elsewhere (see pp. 7, but whole genera pecidiar to the

84, «fce.), and opposed to the island, and not to be found on the

popular belief that Ceylon, at some mainland. See a paper by Dr. A.

remote period, was detached from Gunthee on The Geog. Distribution

the continent of India by the in- of Eeptilcs, Magaz, Nat. Hist, for

terposition of the sea, a list of March, 1859, p. 230.
reptiles will be found at p. 319, in-

T 2

276

REPTILES.

[Chap. IX.

5"^

limited poAver of
respiration^ which
justifies the ac-
curate picture of —

" The green lizard, rustling thro' the

grass,
And up the fluted shaft, with short,

quick, spiring
To vanish in the^ chinks which time

has made." '

The most beautiful of the
race is the green ccdotes^, in
length about twelve inches,
which, with the exception of
a few dark streaks about the
head, is as brilliant as the
purest emerald or malachite.
Unlike its congeners of the
same family, it never alters
this dazzling hue ; whilst
many of them possess, but

' Rogers' Pcestum.
^ Calotes sp.

CALOTES OPHTOMACHOS

Chap. IX.] CALOTES VEESICOLOE, ETC. 277

in a less degree, the power, like the chameleon, of
exchanging their ordinary colours for others less con-
spicuous. One of the most remarkable features in the
physiognomy of those lizards is the prominence of their
cheeks. This results from the great development of
the muscles of the jaws ; the strength of which is such
that they can crush the hardest integuments of the
beetles on which they feed. The calotes will permit
its teeth to be broken, rather than quit its hold of a stick
into which it may have struck them. It is not provided,
like so many other tropical lizards, wdth a gular sac or
throat-pouch, capable of inflation when in a state of
high excitement. The tail, too, is rounded, not com-
pressed, thus clearly indicating that its habits are those
of a land-animal.

The Calotes versicolor, and another, the Calotes ophio-
machus, of which a figure is attached, possess in a
remarkable degree the faculty, above alluded to, of
changing their hue. The head and neck, when the
animal is irritated or hastily swallowing its food, be-
come of a brilliant red (whence the latter species has
acquired the name of the " blood-sucker "), whilst the
usual tint of the rest of the body is converted into pale
yellow.^ The sitana'^, and a number of others, exhibit
similar phenomena.

The lyre-headed lizard^, w^hich is not uncommon in the
woods about Kandy, is more bulky than any of the
species of Calotes, and not nearly so active in its move-

' The characteristics by which specimens are uniform, others

the Calotes ojjhiomackus may be banded transversely with white,

readily recognised, are a small crest and others again have a ])lack

formed by long spines running band on each side of the neck.

on each side of the neck to above - Sitana Ponticereana,. Ciiv.

the ear, coupled with a green ^ Lyriocephalus sciitatus, Linn,
ground-colour of the scales. Many

T 3

278 KEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

ments. As usually observed it is of a dull greenish
brown, but when excited its back becomes a rich olive
green, leaving the head yellowish : the underside of the
body is of a very pale blue, almost approaching white.
The open mouth exhibits the fauces of an intense ver-
milion tint; so that, although extremely handsome,
this lizard presents, from its extraordinarily shaped
head and threatening gestures, a most malignant aspect.
It is, however, perfectly harmless.

Chameleon. — The true chameleon^ is found, but not
in great numbers, in the dry districts to the north of
Ceylon, where it frequents the trees, in slow pursuit of
its insect prey; but compensated for the sluggishness
of its other movements, by the electric rapidity of its
extensible tongue. Apparently sluggish in its general
habits, the chameleon rests motionless on a branch,
from which its varied hues render it scarcely distin-
guishable in colour ; and there patiently awaits the ap-
proach of the insects on which it feeds. Instantly on
their appearance its wonderful tongue comes into play.

TONGUE OF CHAMELEON.

Though ordinarily concealed, it is capable of protrusion
till it exceeds in length the whole body of the creature.
No sooner does an incautious fly venture within reach

' Cliameleo vul<iaris. Baud.

Chap. IX.] CERATOPHOEA. 279

than the extremity of this treacherous weapon is
disclosed, broad and cuneiform, and covered with a
viscid fluid ; and this, extended to its full length, is
darted at its prey with an unerring aim, and redrawn
within the jaws with a rapidity that renders the act
almost invisible.^

WTiilst the faculty of this creature to assume all the
colours of the rainbow has attracted the v/onder of all
ages, sufficient attention has hardly been given to the im-
perfect sympathy which subsists between the two lobes
of its brain, and the two sets of nerves that permeate the
opposite sides of its frame. Hence, not only has each of
the eyes an action quite independent of the other, but
one side of its body appears to be sometimes asleep whilst
the other is vigilant and active ; one will assume a green
tinge whilst the opposite one is red ; and it is said that
the chameleon is utterly unable to swim, from the in-
capacity of the muscles of the two sides to act in concert.

Ceratophora, — This which till lately was an unique
lizard, known by only two specimens, one in the British
Museum, and another in that of Leyden, was ascertained
by Dr. Kelaart, about five years ago, to be a native of the
higher Kandyan hills, where it is sometimes seen in the
older trees in pursuit of insect larvae. The first speci-
men brought to Europe was called Ceratophora Stod-
dartii, after the name of its finder ; and the recent
discovery of several others in the National Collection has
enabled me, by' the aid of Dr. A. Griinther, to add some
important facts to their history.

This lizard is remarkable for having no external
ear; and it has acquired its generic name from the

* Prof. Ryaier Jones, art. Ecpt- vol. iv. pt. i. p. 292.
iNa, in Todd's Ci/cIop. of Anat.

T 4

•280 REPTILES. [Cuap. IX.

curious lioni-like process on the extremity of the nose.
This horn, as it is found in mature males of ten inches
in length, is five lines long, conical, pointed, and slightly
curved; a miniature form of the formidable weapon,
from which the Rhinoceros takes its name. But the
comparison does not hold good either from an anato-
mical or a physiological point of view. For, whilst
the horn of the rhinoceros is merely a dermal produc-
tion, a conglomeration of hairs cemented into one dense
mass as hard as bone, and answering the purpose of a
defensive weapon, besides being used for digging up the
roots on which the animal lives ; the horn of the cerato-
pJiora is formed of a soft, spongy substance, coated by
the rostral shield, which is produced into a kind of sheath.
Although flexible, it always remains erect, owing to the
elasticity of its substance. Not having access to a living
specimen, which would afford the opportunity of testing
conjecture, we are left to infer from the internal structure
of this horn, that it is an erectile organ which, in mo-
ments of irritation, will swell like the comb of a cock.
This opinion as to its physiological nature is confirmed
by the remarkable circumstance that, like the rudiment-
ary comb of the hen and young cocks, the female and
the immature males of the ceratophora have the horn
exceedingly small. In mature females of eight inches in
length (and the females appear always to be smaller
than the males), the horn is only one half or one line
long ; while in immature males five inches in length, it
is one line and a half.

Among the specimens sent from Ceylon by Dr. Kelaart,
and now in the British Museum, there is one which so
remarkably differs from C. Stoddartii, that it attracted
my attention, by the peculiar form of this rostral ap-
pendage. Pr. GuNTiiER pronounced it to be a new

Chap. IX.J THE GECKO. 281

species ; and Dr. Gray concurring in this opinion, tbe}^
have done me the honour to call it Ceratophora Ten-
nentii. Its "horn" somewhat resembles the comb of a
cock not only in its internal structure, but also in its
external appearance ; it is nearly six lines long by two
broad, slightly compressed, soft, flexile, and extensible,
and covered with a corrugated, granular skin. It bears
no resemblance to the depressed rostral hump of Lyvio-
cephcdus^ and the differences of the new species from
the latter lizard may be easily seen from the annexed
drawing and the notes given below.'

Geckoes. — The most familiar and attractive of the
lizard class are the Geckoes'-, that frequent the sitting-
rooms, and being furnished with pads to each toe, they are
enabled to ascend perpendicular walls and adhere to glass
and ceilings. Being nocturnal in their habits, the pupil of
the eye, instead of being circular as in the diurnal species,
is linear and vertical like that of the cat. As soon as
evening arrives, the geckoes are to be seen in every house
in keen and crafty pursuit of their prey ; emerging from
the chinks and recesses where they conceal themselves

* The specimen in the British of the neck. The scales on the

Museum is apparently an adult belly, on the extremities, and on

male, ten inches long, and is, ^"ith the tail are slightly keeled. Tail

regard to the distribution of the nearly round. This species is more

scales and the form of the head, uniformty coloiu'ed than C. Stod-

very similar to C. Stoddartii. The dartii ; it is greenish, darker on the

posterior angles of the orbit are sides.

not projecting, but there is a small - Hemidactylus maculatus, Durn.

tubercle behind them ; and a pair et Bih., H. Leschenaultii, Bum,

of somewhat larger tubercles on et Bih ; H. frenatus, Schlcgel. Of

the neck. The gular sac is absent, these the last is very common in

There are fire longitudinal quad- the houses of Colombo. Colour,

rangular, imbricate scales on each grey ; sides wdth small granules ;

side of the throat ; and the sides of thiunb short ; chin-shields foiu- ;

the body present a nearly horizontal tail rounded with transverse series

series of similar scales. The scales of small spines ; femoral and

on the median line of the back preanal pores in a continuous line,

scarcely form a crest; it is, how- Gray, Lizards, p. loo.
ever, more distinct on the nape

282 EEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

during the day, to search for insects that then retire to
settle for the night. In a boudoir where the ladies of
my family spent their evenings, one of these familiar
and amusing little creatures had its hiding-place behind
a gilt picture frame. Punctually as the candles were
lighted, it made its appearance on the wall to be fed
with its accustomed crumbs ; and if neglected, it reite-
rated it sharp, quick call of chic, chic, chit, till attended
to. It was of a delicate gray colour, tinged with pink ;
and having by accident fallen on a work-table, it fled,
leaving part of its tail behind it, which, however, it re-
produced within less than a month. This faculty of
reproduction is doubtless designed to enable the creature
to escape from its assailants : the detaching of the limb
is evidently its own act ; and it is observable, that when
reproduced, the tail generally exhibits some variation
from the previous form, the diverging spines being
absent, the new portion covered with small square uni-
form scales placed in a cross series, and the scuta below
being seldom so distinct as in the original member.^
In an officer's quarters in the fort of Colombo, a geckoe
had been taught to come daily to the dinner-table, and
always made its appearance along with the dessert. The
family were absent for some months, dming which the
house underwent extensive repairs, the roof having been
raised, the walls stuccoed, and the ceilings whitened. It
was naturally surmised that so long a suspension of its
accustomed habits would have led to the disappearance
of the little lizard ; but on the return of its old friends,
it made its entrance as usual at their first dinner the
instant the cloth was removed.

Crocodile. — The Portuguese in India, like the Spa-

' Brit. Mus. Cat. p. 143 ; Kela^^rt's Prod. Faun. Zcylan., p. 183.

Chap. IX.]

CROCODILES.

283

niards in South America, affixed the name of lagarto to
the huge reptiles that infested the rivers and estuaries of
both continents ; and to the present day the Europeans
in Ceylon apply the term alligator to what are in reality
crocodiles, which literally swarm in the still waters and
tanks in the low country, but rarely frequent rapid
streams, and have never been found in the marshes
among the hills. The differences, however, between the
two, when once ascertained, are sufficiently marked, to
prevent their being afterwards confounded. The head of
the alligator is broader and the snout less prolonged, and
the canine teeth of the under jaw, instead of being received
into foramina in the upper, as in the crocodile, fit into
furrows on each side of it. The legs of the alligator, too,
are not denticulated, and the feet are only semi-palmate.
The following drawing exhibits a cranium of each.

SKULLS OP ALLIGA. rOK AND CPXiCODILE

The instincts of the crocodiles in Ceylon do not lead to

284 KEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

any variation from the habits of those found in other
countries. There would appear to be two well-distin-
guished species found in the island, the Eli-kimhoola ^,
the Indian crocodile, inhabiting the rivers and estuaries
throughout the low countries of the coasts, attaining the
length of sixteen or eighteen feet, and read}^ to assail man
when pressed by hunger ; and the marsh-crocodile ^,
which lives exclusively in fresh water, frequenting the
tanks in the northern and central provinces, and con-
finino: its attacks to the smaller animals : in length it
seldom exceeds twelve or thirteen feet. Sportsmen com-
plain that their dogs are constantly seized by both
species ; and water-fowl, when shot, frequently disappear
before they can be secured by the fowler.^ It is generally
believed in Ceylon that, in the case of larger animals, the
crocodile abstains from devouring them till the com-
mencement of decomposition facilitates the operation of
swallowing. To assist in this, the natives assure me that
the reptile contrives to fasten the carcase behind the
roots of a mangrove or some other convenient tree,
and tears off each piece by a backward spring.

There is another popular belief that the crocodile is
exceedingly sensitive to tickling; and that it will relax
its hold of a man, if he can only contrive to reach and
rub with his hand the softer parts of its under side.'' An

* Crocodilus biporcatus, Cuvier. sided for a long time at Caltura,

^ Crocodilus palustris, Less. tells me that in the rivers which

^ In Siam the flesh of the croco- flow into the sea, both there and

dile is sold for food in the markets at Bentotte, crocodiles are fre-

and bazaars. " Un joiu' je \is quently caught in corrals, formed

plus de cinquante crocodiles, petits of stakes cbiven into the ground

et grands, attaches aux colonnes in shallow water, and so con-

de lem-s maisons. lis es vendent structed, that when the reptile

la chair comme on vendrait de la enters to seize the bait placed

chair de pore, mais a bien meilleur within, the aperture closes behind,

marche." — Pallegoix, Siam, yol. and secures him, A professional

i. p. 174. "crocodile charmer" then enters,

■* A native gentleman who re- muttering a spell, and with one end

Chap. IX.] CROCODILES. 285

incident indicative of some reality in this piece of folk-
lore, once came under my own observation. One morn-
ing, about sunrise, when riding across the sandy plain
near the old fort of Moeletivoe, we came suddenly upon
a crocodile asleep under some bushes of the Buffalo-
thorn, several hundred yards from the water. The
terror of the poor wretch was extreme, when it awoke
and found itself discovered and completely surrounded.
It was a hideous creature, upwards of ten feet long, and
evidently of prodigious strength, had it been in a con-
dition to exert it, but consternation completely para-
lysed it. It started to its feet and turned round in a
circle hissing and clanking its bony jaws, with its ugly
green eye intently fixed upon us. On being struck
with a stick, it lay perfectly quiet and apparently dead.
Presently it looked cunningly round, and made a rush
towards the water, but on a second blow it lay again
motionless and feigning death. We tried to rouse it,
but without effect, pulled its tail, slapped its back,
struck its hard scales, and teased it in every way, but
all in vain ; nothing would induce it to move till acci-
dentally my son, then a boy of twelve years old, tickled
it gently under the arm, and in an instant it drew the
limb close to its side and turned to avoid a repetition of
the experiment. Again it was touched under the other
arm, and the same emotion was exhibited, the g-reat
monster twisting about like an infant to avoid being"
tickled. The scene was highly amusing, but the sun was
rising high, and we pursued our journey to Moeletivoe,

of a stick pats the creature gently a rope under its body, by which it

on the head for a time. The ope- is at last dragged on shore. This

rator then boldly mounts astride story serves to corroborate the nar-

upon its shoulders, and continues to rative of Mr. Waterton and his

soothe it with his one hand, whilst alligator,
with the other he contrives to pass

286 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

leaving the crocodile to make its way to the adjoining
lake.

The Singhalese believe that the crocodile can only
move s^viftly on sand or smooth clay, its feet being too
tender to tread firmly on hard or stony ground. In
the dry season, when the watercourses begin to fail and
the tanks become exhausted, the marsh-crocodiles have
occasionally been encountered in the jungle, wandering
in search of water. During a severe drought in 1844,
they deserted a tank near Kornegalle and traversed the
town during the night, on their way to another reservoir
in the suburb ; two or three fell into the wells ; others,
in their trepidation, laid eggs in the street, and some
were found entangled in garden- fences and killed.

Generally, however, during the extreme drought,
when unable to procure their ordinary food from the
drying up of the watercourses, they bury themselves in
the mud, and remain in a state of torpor till released by
the recurrence of rains. ^ At Arne-tivoe, in the eastern
province, whilst riding across the parched bed of the
tank, I was shown the recess, still bearing the form and
impress of a crocodile, out of which the animal had
been seen to emerge the day before. A story was also
related to me of an officer attached to the department
of the Surveyor-Greneral, who, having pitched his
tent in a similar position, was disturbed during the
night by feeling a movement of the earth below his bed,
from which on the following day a crocodile emerged,
making its appearance from beneath the matting.^

The fresh water species that inhabits the tanks is essen-

* Heeodotus records the obser- ^ Humboldt relates a .similar

vations of the Egyptians that the story as occurring at Calabazo, in

crocodile of the Nile abstains from Venezuela. — Personal Narrative, c.

food during the four winter months, xvi.
— Euterpe, Iviii.

Chap. IX.] CROCODILES. 287

tially cowardly in its instincts, and hastens to conceal
itself on the appearance of man. A gentleman (who told
me the circumstance), when riding in the jungle, over-
took a crocodile, evidently roaming in search of water.
It fled to a shallow pool almost dried by the sun, and,
thrusting its head into the mud till it covered up its
eyes, remained unmoved in profound confidence of per-
fect concealment. In 1833, during the progress of the
Pearl Fishery, Sir Eobert Wilmot Horton employed
men to drag for crocodiles in a pond which was infested
by them in the immediate vicinity of Aripo. The
pool was about fifty yards in length, by ten or twelve
wide, shallowing gradually to the edge, and not ex-
ceeding four or five feet at the deepest part. As the
party approached the bund, from twenty to thirty
reptiles, which had been basking in the sun, rose and
fled to the water. A net, specially weighted so as to
sink its lower edge to the bottom, was then stretched
from bank to bank and swept to the further end of the
pond, followed by a line of men with poles to drive the
crocodiles forward : so complete was the arrangement,
that no individual could have evaded the net, yet, to the
astonishment of the Grovernor's party, not one was to be
found when it was drawn on shore, and no means of
escape for them was apparent or possible except by their
descending into the mud at the bottom of the pond.

The lagoon of Batticaloa, and indeed all the still
waters of this district, are remarkable for the numbers
and prodigious size of the crocodiles which infest them.
Their teeth are sometimes so large that the natives
mount them with silver lids and use them for boxes to
carry the powdered chunam, which they chew with the
betel leaf. During one of my visits to the lake a crocodile
was caught within a few yards of the government agent's

288 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

residence, a hook having been laid the night before,
baited with the entrails of a goat ; and made fast, in the
native fashion, by a bunch of fine cords, which the
creature cannot gnaw asunder as it would a solid rope,
since they sink into the spaces between its teeth. The
one taken was small, being only about ten or eleven
feet in length, whereas they are frequently killed from
fifteen to nineteen feet long. As long as it was in the
water, it made strong resistance to being hauled on
shore, carrying the canoe out into the deep channel,
and occasionally raising its head above the surface, and
clashing its jaws together menacingly. This action has
a horrid sound, as the crocodile has no fleshy lips, and
it brings its teeth and the bones of the mouth together
with a loud crash, like the clank of two pieces of hard
wood. After playing it a little, the boatmen drew it to
land, and when once fairly on the shore all courage and
energy seemed utterly to desert it. It tiied once or
twice to regain the water, but at last lay motionless and
perfectly helpless on the sand. It was no easy matter
to kill it ; a rifle ball sent diagonally through its breast
had little or no effect, and even when the shot had been
repeated more than once, it was as full of life as ever.^ It

' A remarkable instance of the ganga, a stream which flows tlirongh

vitality of the common crocodile, the Pasdun Corle, to join the Ben-

C. hiporcatus, was related to me tolle river. A man was fishing

by a gentleman at Galle : he had seated on the branch of a tree that

caught on a baited hook an un- overhung the water ; and to shelter

usually large one, which his coolies himself from the drizzling rain, he

disembowelled, tlie aperture in the covered his head and shoulders

stomach being left expanded by a with a bag folded into a shape

stick placed across it. On return- common with the natives. While

ing in the afternoon with a view to in this attitude, a leopard spnmg

secure the head, they found that upon him from the jungle, but,

the creature had crawled for some missing, its aim, seized the bag and

distance, and made its escape into not the man, and fell with it into

the water. the river. Here a crocodile, which

. "A curious incident occurred had been eyeing the angler in

some years ago on the Maguni- despair, seized the leopard as it

Chap. IX.] THE TORTOISE. 289

feigned death and lay motionless, with its eye sclosed ;
but, on being pricked with a spear, it suddenly regained
all its activity. It was at last finished by a harpoon,
and then opened. Its maw contained several small
tortoises, and a quantity of broken bricks and gravel,
taken medicinally, to promote digestion.

During our journeys we had numerous opportunities
of observing the habits of these hideous creatures, and
I am far from considering them so formidable as they
are usually supposed to be. They are evidently not
wantonly destructive ; they act only under the influence
of hunger, and even then their motions on land are
awkward and ungainly, their action timid, and their
whole demeanour devoid of the sagacity and courage
which characterise other animals of prey.

Testudinata. Tortoise, — Land tortoises are numerous,
but present no remarkable features beyond the beautiful
marking of the starred variety ^, which is common in the
north-western province around Putlam and Chilaw, and
is distinguished by the bright yellow rays which diversify
the deep black of its dorsal shield. From one of these
which was kept in my garden I took a number of flat
ticks {Ixodes), which adhere to its fleshy neck in such
a position as to baffle any attempt of the animal itself
to remove them ; but as they are exposed to constant
danger of being crushed against the plastron during
the protrusion and retraction of the head, each is
covered with a horny case almost as resistant as the
carapace of the tortoise itself. Such an adaptation of
structure is scarcely less striking than that of the

fell, and sunk with it to the Supreme Court, 10th Jany., 186].
bottom." — Letter from Goone- ' Testudo stellata.
BATNE Modliar, interpreter of the

U

290

REPTILES.

[Chap. IX.

parasites found on the spotted lizard of Berar by Dr.
Hooker, each of which presents the distinct colour of
the scale to which it adheres.^

The marshes and pools of the interior are frequented
by terrapins ^, which the natives are in the habit of
keeping alive in wells under the conviction that they
clear them of impurities. These fresh-water tortoises,
the greater number of which are included in the genus
Emys of naturalists, are distinguished by having their
toes webbed. Their shell is less convex than that of
their congeners on land (but more elevated than that
of the sea-turtle); and it has been observed that the
more rounded the shell, the nearer does the terrapin
approach to the land-tortoise both in its habits and in

THE THREE-PJDGED TORTOISE QEMYS TRIJUGA)

' 'KooKEiCs Hi7nalai/an Journals,
vol. i. p. 37.

2 Cri/ptopus gramcm, Schopf.
Dr. Kelaa-rt, in liis Prodromus
(p. 179), refers this to the common
Indian species, C. punctata ; but it

is distinct. It is generally distri-
buted in the lower parts of Ceylon,
in lakes and tanks. It is the one
usually put into wells to act the part
of a scavenger. By the Singhalese
it is named Kiri-ibba.

Chap. IX.] TEREAPINS. 291

the choice of its food. Some of them live upon animal
as well as vegetable food, and those which subsist
exclusively on the former, are noted as having the flat-
test shells.

The terrapins lay about thirty eggs in the course of
several weeks, and these are round, with a calcareous
shell. They thrive in captivity, provided that they have
a regular supply of water and of meat, cut into small
pieces and thrown to them. The tropical species, if
transferred to a colder climate, should have arrange-
ments made for enabling them to hybernate during
the winter : they will die in a very short time if exposed
to a temperature below the freezing point. ^

The edible turtle^ is found on all the coasts of the
island, and sells for a few shillings or a few pence, ac-
cordinof to its size and abundance at the moment. A
very repulsive spectacle is exhibited in the markets of
Jaffna by the mode in which the flesh of the turtle is
sold piece-meal, whilst the animal is still alive, by the
families of the Tamil fishermen. The creatures are to be
seen in the market-place undergoing this frightful mu-
tilation ; the plastron and its integuments having been
previously removed, and the animal thrown on its back,
so as to display all the motions of the heart, viscera,
and lungs. A broad knife, from twelve to eighteen
inches in length, is first inserted at the left side, and
the women, who are generally the operators, introduce

1 Of the Emys trijuga, the fresh areola situated in the upper poste-

water tortoise figured on preceding rior corner. Shell brown, with the

page, the technical characteristics areolse and the keels yellowish ;

are;— vertical plates lozenge-shaped; head brown, with a yellow streak

shell convex and oval ; with three over each eye.

more or less distinct longitudinal ^ Chelonia virgata, Schweig.
keels ; shields corrugated ; with

D 2

292 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

one hand to scoop out the blood, which oozes slowly.
The blade is next passed round, till the lower shell
is detached and placed on one side, and the internal
organs exposed in full action. A customer, as he
applies, is served with any part selected, which is cut
off as ordered, and sold by weight. Each of the fins is
thus successively removed, with portions of the fat and
flesh, the turtle showing, by its contortions, that each
act of severance is productive of agony. In this state it
lies for hours, writhing in the sun, the heart ^ and head
being usually the last pieces selected, and till the latter
is cut off the snapping of the mouth, and the opening
and closing of the eyes, show that life is still inherent,
even when the shell has been nearly divested of its
contents.

At certain seasons the flesh of turtle on the south-
western coast of Ceylon i-s avoided as poisonous, and
some lamentable instances are recorded of deaths
ascribed to its use. At Pantura, to the south of
Colombo, twenty-eight persons who had partaken of
turtle in October, 1840, were immediately seized with
sickness, after which coma supervened, and eighteen
died durinof the nis:ht. Those who survived said there
was nothing unusual in the appearance of the flesh
except that it was fatter than ordinary. Other similarly
fatal occurrences have been attributed to turtle curry ;
but as they have never been proved to proceed exclu-
sively from that source, there is room for believing that
the poison may have been contained in some other
ingredient.

In the Gulf of Manaar turtle is frequently found

' AnisTOTLE was aware of the the removal of the heart. — De Vita
fact that the turtle will live after et Morte, eh. ii.

Chap. IX.] TURTLES. 293

of such a size as to measure between four and five
feet in length ; and on one occasion, in riding along
the sea-shore north of Putlam, I saw a man in charge
of some sheep, resting under the shade of a turtle shell,
which he had erected on sticks to protect him from the
sun — almost verifying the statement of ^lian, that in
the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so large that
several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single
shell. 1

The hawksbill-turtle^, which supplies the tortoise-shell
of commerce, was at former times taken in great num-
bers in the vicinity of Hambangtotte during the season
when they came to deposit their eggs. This gave rise
to the trade in tortoise-shell at Point de G alle, where it
is still manufactured into articles of ornament by the
Moors ; but the shell they employ is almost entirely
imported from the Maldives.

If taken from the animal after death and decomposi-
tion, the colour of the shell becomes clouded and milky,
and hence the cruel expedient is resorted to of seizing
the turtles as they repair to the shore to deposit their
eggs, and suspending them over fires till heat makes the
plates on the dorsal shields start from the bone of the
carapace, after which the creature is permitted to escape
to the water.^ In illustration of the resistless influence

' "TIktoptui Se &pa iu Tainr) r-p referred to some tradition eon-

SaAaTTT?, Kol x^^^^"-'^ iiiyunai, nected with the gigantic fossilised

diVK^p ovv ra iXvrpa 6po<poi yivou- species discovered on the Sewalik

Taf KOI 7ap e(ni koX Tr^vreKaideKa Hills, the remains of which are now

TTTjxwj/ tv x^^^^veiov, ws vitoiK^lv ovK in the Museum at the East India

oXiyovs, Koi Tovs T]\iovs irvpaSe- House ?
(TTaTous aTTocTTeyei, Koi cKtav aa/xevois ^ Caretta imbricata, Linn.
Trope'xet." — Lib. xvi. c. 17. -Slian ^ At Celebes, whence the finest

copied this statement literatim from tortoise-shell is exported to China,

Megasthenes, Inclica Frag. LLx. the natives kill the turtle by blows

3L May not Megasthenes have on the head, and immerse the shell

n 3

294 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

of instinct at the period of breeding, it may be men-
tioned that the identical tortoise is believed to return
again and again to the same spot, notwithstanding that
at each visit she may have to undergo a repetition of
this torture. In the year 1826, a hawksbill turtle was
taken near Hambangtotte, which bore a ring attached
to one of its fins that had been placed there by a Dutch
officer thirty years before, with a view to establish the
fact of these recurring visits to the same beach.*

An opportunity is afforded on the sea-shore of Ceylon
for observing a remarkable illustration of instinct in the
turtle, when about to deposit its eggs. As if conscious
that if she went and returned by one and the same line
across the sandy beach, her hiding place would be dis-
covered at its farthest extremity, she resorts to the ex-
pedient of curving her course, so as to regain the sea by
a different track ; and after depositing the eggs, burying
them about eighteen inches deep, she carefully smoothes
over the surface to render the precise spot indiscernible.
The Singhalese, aware of this device, sound her line of
march with a rod till they come upon the concealed
nest.

Snakes. — It is perhaps owing to the aversion excited by
the ferocious expression and unusual action of serpents,
combined with an instinctive dread of attack^, that ex-
aggerated ideas prevail both as to their numbers in
Ceylon, and the danger to be apprehended from en-
countering them. The Singhalese profess to distinguish
a gTeat many kinds, of which they say not more than

in boiling water to detach the ration. — Journal Indian Archipel.

plates. Dry heat is only resorted vol. iii. p. 227, 1849.

to by the unskilful, who frequently ' Bennett's Ceylon, ^'C, c. xxxiv.

destroy the tortoise-sheU in the ope- ^ Genesis iii. 15.

Chap. IX.] SNAKES. 295

one half have as yet been scientifically identified ^ ;
but so cautiously do serpents make their appearance,
that the surprise of persons long resident is invariably
expressed at the rarity with which they are to be seen ;
and from my own journeys through the jungle, often of
from two to five hundred miles, I have frequently re-
turned without observing a single snake. Mr. Bennett,
who resided much in the south-east of the island, ascribes
the rarity of serpents in the jungle to the abundance
of the wild peafowl, whose partiality to young snakes
renders them the chief destroyers of these reptiles. It
is likely, too, that they are killed by the jungle-cocks ;
for they are frequently eaten by the common barn-door
fowl in Ceylon. This is rendered the more probable by
the fact, that in those districts where the extension of
cultivation, and the visits of sportsmen, have reduced the
numbers of the jungle-cocks and pea-fowl, snakes have
perceptibly increased. The deer also are enemies of the
snakes, and the natives who have had opportunities of
watching their encounters assert that they have seen
deer rush upon a serpent and crush it by leaping on it
with all its four feet.

As to the venomous powers of snakes, De. Davy, whose

* This is not likely to be true : as being about four feet in length,

in a Tery large collection of snakes of the diameter of the little finger,

made in Ceylon by Mr. C. R. and of a uniform dark browTi

Butler, and recently examined by colour. It is said to be often seen

Dr. Griinther, of the British Museum, in company with another snake

only a single specimen proved to be called in Singhalese Lay Medilla,

new. a name which impHes its deep red

There is, however, one venomous hue. The latter is believed to be

snake, of the existence of which venomous. It would be weU if

I am assured by a native conges- some collector in Ceylon would

pondent in Ceylon, no mention has send home for examination the

yet been made by European natu- species which respectively bear

ralists. It is called Mdpild by the these names.
Singhalese ; it is described to me

u 4

296 KEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

attention was carefully directed to the poisonous serpents
of Ceylon^, came to the conclusion that but four, out of
twenty species examined by him, were venomous, and
that of these only two (the tic-polonga'^ and cohra de
capello^) were capable of inflicting a wound likely to be
fatal to man. The third is the carawala*, a brown
snake of about two feet in length ; and for the fourth,
of which only a few specimens have been procured, the
Singhalese have no name in their vernacular — a proof
that it is neither deadly nor abundant. But Dr. Davy's
estimate of the venom of the carawala is below the
truth, as cases have been authenticated to me, in which
death from its bite ensued within a few days. The
effect, however, is not uniformly fatal ; a circumstance
which the natives explain by asserting that there are
three varieties of the carawala, named the hil-la, the
dunu, and the ma^-carawala ; the second being the
largest and the most dreaded.

In like manner, the tic-polonga, particularised by
Dr. Davy, is said to be but one out of seven varieties of
that formidable reptile. The word " tic " means literally
the " spotted " polonga, from the superior clearness of
the markings on its scales. Another, the nidi, or " sleep-
ing " polonga, is so called from the fact that a person
bitten by it is soon prostrated by a lethargy from which
he never awakes.^ These formidable serpents so infested

^ See Davy's Ceylon, ch. xiv. folk-lore in Ceylon in connexion

2 Daboia elegans, Baud. with snakes, is the belief that a

^ Naja tripudians, Merr. deadly enmity subsists between the

■* Trigonoeephalus hypnale, Merr. polonga and the cobra de capello,

* The other varieties are the and that the latter, which is

ffetta, lay, alu, kunu, and nil-po- naturally shy and retiring, is pro-

longas. I have heard of an eighth, voked to conflicts by the audacity

the palla-polonga. of its rival. Hence the proverb

Amongst the numerous pieces of applied to persons at enmity, that

Chap. IX.] SNAKES. 297

the official residence of the District Judge of Trincomalie
in 1858, as to compel his family to abandon it. In an-
other instance, a friend of mine, going hastily to take a
supply of wafers from an open tin case which stood in
his office, drew back his hand, on finding the box occu-
pied by a tic-polonga coiled within it. During my
residence in Ceylon, I never heard of the death of a
European which was caused by the bite of a snake ;
and in the returns of coroners' inquests made officially
to my department, such accidents to the natives appear
chiefly to have happened at night, when the animal,
having been surprised or trodden on, inflicted the wound
in self-defence.^ For these reasons the Singhalese, when
obliged to leave their houses in the dark, carry a stick
with a loose ring, the noise '^ of which as they strike it
on the ground is sufficient to warn the snakes to leave
their path.

"they hate like the polonga and the infant was not to be molested,

cobra." But the polonga, on reaching the

The Singhalese believe the po- tub, was no sooner obstructed by

longa to be by far the most savage the little one, than it stung him to

and wanton of the two, and they death.

illustrate this by a popular legend, * In a return of 112 coroners'
that once upon a time a child, in the inquests, in cases of death from
absence of its mother, was playing wild animals, held in Ceylon in
beside a tub of water, which a cobra, five years, from 1851 to 1855 in-
impelled by thirst during a long- elusive, 68 are ascribed to the bites
continued drought, approached to of serpents ; and in almost every
drink, the unconscious child all the instance the assault is set down as
while striking it with its hands to having taken place at night. The
prevent the intrusion. The cobra, majority of the suflferers were
on returning, was met by a tic- children and women,
polonga, which seeing its scales ^ Pi^i^y notices that the serpent
dripping with delicious moisture, has the sense of hearing more
entreated to be told the way to the acute than that of sight ; and that
well. The cobra, knowing the it is more frequently put in motion
vicious habits of the other snake, by the sound of footsteps than by
and anticipating that it would kill the appearance of the intruder,
the innocent child which it had so "excitaturpedessepius." — Lib. viii.
recently spared, at first refused, c. 36.
and only yielded on condition that

298 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

Cobra de Gapello. — The cobra de capello is the only
one exhibited by the itinerant snake-charmers : and
the truth of Davy's conjecture, that they control it,
not by extracting its fangs, but by courageously avail-
ing themselves of its well-known timidity and extreme
reluctance to use its fatal weapons, received a painful
confirmation during my residence in Ceylon, by the
death of one of these performers, whom his audience
had provoked to attempt some unaccustomed familiarity
with the cobra ; it bit him on the wrist, and he expired
the same evening. The hill near Kandy, on which the
official residences of the Grovernor and Colonial Secretary
are built, is covered in many places with the deserted
nests of the white ants (termites), and these are the
favourite retreats of the sluggish and spiritless cobra,
which watches from their apertures the toads and
lizards on which it preys. Here, when I have re-
peatedly come upon them, their only impulse was
concealment; and on one occasion, when a cobra of
considerable length could not escape, owing to the
bank being nearly precipitous on both sides of the road,
a few blows from my whip were sufficient to deprive it
of life.i

A gentleman who held a civil appointment at
Kornegalle, had a servant who was bitten by a snake ;

' A Singhalese work, tlie Sarpa- correctly, in the Ceylon Times for

dosd, enumerates four castes of the January, 1857. It is more than

cobra; — the raja, or king; the probable, as the division repre-

bamumi, or Brahman ; the velanda, sents the four castes of the Hindus,

or trader ; and the gori, or agricul- Chastriyas, Brahmans Vaisyas, and

turist. Of these the raja, or "king Sudras ; that the insertion of the

of the cobras," is said to have the gori instead of the latter was a

head and the anterior half of the pious fraud of some copyist to

body of so light a colour, that at a confer rank upon the Vellales, the

distance it seems like a silvery agricultural caste of Ceylon,
white. The work is quoted, but not

Chap. IX.] SNAKES. 299

and he informed me that on enlarging a hole near
the foot of the tree under which the accident occur-
red, he unearthed a cobra of upwards of three feet
long, and so purely white as to induce him to be-
lieve that it was an albino. With the exception of the
rat-snake ^, the cobra de capello is the only serpent
which seems from choice to frequent the vicinity of
human dwellings, doubtless attracted by the young of
the domestic fowl and by the moisture of the wells and
drainage.

The young cobras, it is said, in the Sa'i^a-dosd, are
not venomous till after the thiileenth day, when they
shed their coat for the first time.

The Singhalese remark that if one cobra be destroyed
near a house, its companion is almost certain to be dis-
covered immediately after, — a popular belief which I
had an opportunity of verifying on more than one
occasion. Once, when a snake of this description was

• Coryiphodon BhnnenhacJni. had eaten its fill, he gave it a kiss,
There is a belief iu Ceylon that and hade it go to its hole."
the bite of the rat-snake, though 3Iajor Skiistcee, -writing to me
harmless to man, is ftital to black 12th Dec., 1858, mentions the still
cattle. The Singhalese add that more remarkable case of the domes-
it would be equally so to man were tication of the cobra de capello in
the woimd to be touched by cow- Ceylon. " Did you ever hear," he
dung. Wolf, in the interesting says, "of tame cobras being kept
stoTj ofhis Life and Adventures in and domesticated about a house,
Ceylon, mentions that rat-snakes going in and out at pleasure, and
were often so domesticated by the in common with the rest of the
natives as to feed at their batle. inmates? In one family, near
He says : "I once saw an example Negombo, cobras are kept as pro-
of this in the house of a native, tectors, in the place of dogs, by a
It being meal time, he called his wealthy man who has always large
snake, which immediately came sums of money in his house. But
forth from the roof xmder which this is not a solitary case of the
he and I were sitting. He gave kind. I heard of it only the other
it victuals from his own dish, which day, but from imdoubtedly good au-
the snake took of itself from off a thority. The snakes glide about the
fig-leaf that was laid for it, and house, a terror to thieves, but never
at€ along with its host. When it attempting to harm the inmates."

300 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

killed in a bath of the Grovernment House at Colombo,
its mate was found in the same spot the day after ; and
again, at my own stables, a cobra of five feet long,
having fallen into the well, which was too deep to permit
its escape, its companion of the same size was found the
same morning in an adjoining drain. ^ On this occasion
the snake, which had been several hours in the well,
swam with ease, raising its head and hood above water ;
and instances have repeatedly occurred of the cobra de
capello voluntarily taking considerable excursions by
sea. When the " Wellington," a government vessel
employed in the conservancy of the pearl banks, was
anchored about a quarter of a mile from the land, in
the bay of Koodremale, a cobra was seen, about an
hour before sunset, swimming vigorously towards the
ship. It came within twelve yards, when the sailors
assailed it with billets of wood and other missiles, and
forced it to return to land. The following morning
they discovered the track which it had left on the
shore, and traced it along the sand till it was lost in
the jungle. On a later occasion, in the vicinity of the
same spot, when the " Wellington " was lying at some
distance from the shore, a cobra was found and killed
on board, where it could only have gained access by
climbing up the cable. It was first discovered by a
sailor, who felt the chill as it glided over his foot.

One curious tradition in Ceylon embodies the popular
legend, that the stomach of the cobra de capello occa-
sionally contains a precious stone of such unapproachable

' Pliny notices the affection them happens to be killed, the
that subsists between the male and other seeks to avenge its death. —
female asp ; and that if one of Lib. viii. e. 37.

Chap. IX.] SNAKES. 301

brilliancy as to surpass all known jewels. This in-
estimable stone is called the ndga-mdnik-hya ; but not
one snake in thousands is supposed to possess such
a treasure. The cobra, before eating, is believed to
cast it up and conceal it for the moment; else its
splendour, like a flambeau, would attract all beholders.
The tales of the peasantry, in relation to it, all turn
upon the devices of those in search of the gem, and
the vigilance and cunning of the cobra by which
they are baffled; the reptile itself being more en-
amoured of the priceless jewel than even its most
ardent pursuers.

In Bennett's account of " Ceylon and its Capa-
bilities,''^ there is another curious piece of Singhalese
folk-lore, to the effect, that the cobra de capello every
time it expends its poison loses a joint of its tail, and
eventually acquires a head resembling that of a toad.
A recent addition to zoological knowledge has thrown
light on the origin of this popular fallacy. The family
of " false snakes " (pseudo typhlops, as Schlegel names
the group) have till lately consisted of but three species,
of which only one was known to inhabit Ceylon. They
belong to a family intermediate between the serpents
and that Saurian group commonly called Sloiu-worms or
Glass-snakes ; they in fact represent the slow-worms of
the temperate regions in Ceylon. They have the body
of a snake, but the cleft of their mouth is very narrow,
and they are unable to detach the lateral parts of the
lower jaw from each other, as the true snakes do when
devouring a prey. The most striking character of the
group, however, is the size and form of the tail ; this
is very short, and according to the observations of

302

REPTILES.

[Chap. IX.

Professor Peters of Berlin', shorter in the female than
in the male. It does not terminate in a point as in
other snakes, but is truncated obliquely, the abrupt
surface of its extremity being either entirely flat, or
more or less convex, and always covered with rough

THE UR0PELT18 PHILIPPINUS,

keels. The reptile assists its own movements by press-
ing the rough end to the ground, and from this peculiar
form of the tail, the family has received the name of Uro-
peltidce, or " Shield-tails." Within a very recent period
important additions have been made to this family,
which now consists of four genera and eleven species.
Those occurring in Ceylon are enumerated in the List

Peters, Be Serpentum familia TJropeltaceorum. Berol. 4. 1861.

Chap. IX.] SNAKES. 303

appended to this chapter. One of these, the Uropeltis
grandis of Kelaart *, is distinguished by its dark brown
colour, shot mth a bluish metallic lustre, closely ap-
proaching the ordinary shade of the cobra ; and the tail
is abruptly and flatly compressed as though it had been
severed by a knife. The form of this singular reptile
will be best understood by a reference to the accom-
panying figure ; and there can, I think, be little doubt
that to its strange and anomalous structure is to be
traced the fable of the transformation of the cobra de
capello. The colour alone would seem to identify the
two reptiles, but the head and mouth are no longer
those of a serpent, and the disappearance of the tail
might readily suggest the mutilation which the tradition
asserts.

The Singhalese Buddhists, in their religious abstinence
from inflicting death on any creature, are accustomed,
after securing a venomous snake, to enclose it in a
basket woven of palm leaves, and to set it afloat on a
river.

The Python. — The great python ^ (the "boa," as it is
commonly designated by Europeans, the "anaconda" of
Eastern story), which is supposed to crush the bones of
an elephant, and to swallow the tiger, is found, though

* The Uropeltis grandis of Eastern Archipelago. The eharac-

Kelaart, which was at fii-st sup- teristics of this reptile, as given by

posed to be a new species, proves Dr. Gray, are as follows : — " Caudal

to be identical with U. Phillip- disc subcirciilar, with large scat-

pinus of Cuvier. It is doubtful, tered tubercles ; snout subacute,

however, whether this species be slightly produced. Dark brown,

found in the Phillippine Islands, as lighter below, with some of the

stated by Cuvier ; and it is more scales dark brown in the centre

than probable that the typical spe- near the posterior edge. Gray,

cimen came from Ceylon — -afar- Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 262.

ther illustration of the affinity of - P}i:lion reticulatus, Grai/.
the fauna of Ceylon to that of the

304 EEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

not of such portentous dimensions, in the cinnamon
gardens within a mile of the fort of Colombo, where it
feeds on hog-deer, and other smaller animals.

The natives occasionally take it alive, and securing it
to a pole expose it for sale as a curiosity. One that
was brought to me tied in this way measured seventeen
feet with a proportionate thickness ; but one more fully
grown, which crossed my path on a coffee estate on the
Peacock Mountain at Pusilawa, considerably exceeded
these dimensions. Another which I watched in the
garden at Elie House, near Colombo, surprised me by
the ease with which it erected itself almost perpendi-
cularly in order to scale a wall upwards of ten feet
high.

The Singhalese assert that when it has swallowed a
deer, or any animal of similarly inconvenient bulk, the
python draws itself through the narrow aperture between
two trees, in order to crush the bones and assist in the
process of deglutition.

It is a singular fact that the small and innocuous
ground-snakes called Calamarim, which abound on the
continent of India and in the islands, are not to be found
in Ceylon ; where they would appear to be replaced by
two singular genera, the Aspiduo^a and Haplocercus,
These latter have only one series of shields below
the tail, whilst most other harmless snakes (Cala-
maria included) have a double series of sub-caudals.
The Aspidura has been known to naturalists for
many years ^ ; the Haplocercus of Ceylon has only
recently been described by Dr. Griinther, and of it not
more than three existing specimens are known : hence

' Boie in Isis 1827 p. 517.

Chap. IX.] SNAKES. 305

its habits and the extent of its distribution over the
island are still left in uncertainty.^

Of ten species of snakes that ascend trees in Ceylon
to search for squirrels and lizards, and to rifle the nests
of birds, one half, including the green caraivala, smd
the deadly tic polonga, are believed by the natives to
be venomous; but the truth of this is very dubious.
I have heard of the cobra being found on the crown of
a coco-nut palm, attracted, it was said, by the toddy
which was flowing at the time, it being the season for
drawing it. Surrounding Elie House, near Colombo,
in which I resided, were a number of tall casuarinas
and India-rubber trees, whose branches almost touched
the lattices of the window of the room in which I usually
sat. These were a favourite resort of the tree-snakes,
and in the early morning the numbers which clung to
them were sometimes quite remarkable. I had thus an
opportunity of observing the action of these creatures,
which seems to me one of vigilance rather than of
effort, the tongue being in perpetual activity, as if it
were an organ of feeling; and in those in which the
nose is elongated, a similar mobility and restlessness,

' G-mfTE. Col. Snakes, p. 14. In terior and two posterior frontals ;

the hope that some inquirer in no loreal shield; one small shield

Ceylon -will be able to furnish such before, two behind the eye ; seven

information as may fill up this shields along the upper lip, the eye

blank in the history of the haplo- being above the fourth. The scales

cercus, the following particulars are disposed in seventeen longi-

are here appended. The largest of tudinal series ; they are lanceolate

the specimens in the British and strongly keeled. The upper

Museum is about twenty-five inches parts are uniform blackish or

in length ; the body thin, and much brown, with two dorsal rows of

elongated; the head narrow, and small indistinct black spots ; occiput

not distinct from the neck, the -with a whitish collar, edged with

tail of moderate length. Forehead darker. The lower parts uniforua.

covered by three shields, one an- yellowish.

306 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

especially when alarmed, affords evidence of the same
faculty.

The general characteristic of the Tree-snake is an
exceedingly thin and delicate body, often adorned with
colours exquisite as those of the foliage amongst which
they live concealed. In some of the South American
species the tints vie in brilliancy with those of the
humming-birds ; whilst their forms are so flexible and
slender as to justify the name conferred on them of
" luhip-snakes.'''' The Siamese, to denote these combina-
tions of grace and splendour, call them " Sun-beams."
A naturalist^, describing a bright green species in Brazil
(Philodryas mridissimus), writes : " I am always de-
lighted when I find that another tree-snake has settled
in my garden. You look for a bird's nest, the young
ones have gone, but you find their bed occupied by one
of these beautiful creatures, which will coil up its
body of two feet in length within a space no larger
than the hollow of your hand. They appear to be
always watchful; for at the instant you discover one,
the quick playing of the long, black, forked tongue
will show you that you too are observed. On perceiving
the slightest sign of your intention to disturb it, the
snake will dart upwards through the branches and over
the leaves which scarcely appear to bend beneath the
weight. A moment more, and you have lost sight of
it. Whenever I return to Europe, you may be sure
that in my hot-house those harmless, lovely creatures
shall not be missing."

Ceylon has several species of Tree-snakes, and one of
the most common is the green Passerita, easily recog-

* Dr. WucHEEER of Bahia.

TREE SNAKE.

Passeritn fnnm.

Chap. IX.] TEEE-SXAKES. 307

nized from its bright colour and from tlie pointed move-
able appendage, into which the snout is prolonged. The
snakes of this genus being active chiefly during the
night, the pupil of the eye is linear and horizontal.
They never willingly descend from trees, but prey
there upon nocturnal Saurians, geckoes, small birds and
their young; and they are perfectly harmless, although
they often try to bite. It is strange that none of the
numerous specimens which it has been attempted to
bring to Europe have ever fed in captivity; whilst in
South America they take their food freely in confine-
ment, provided that some green plants are placed in
their caofe.

In Ceylon I have never seen any specimen of a
larger size than three feet ; whilst they are known to
attain to more than five on the Indian Continent.

The inference is obvious, that the green coloration
of the majority of tree-snakes has more or less con-
nection with their habits and mode of life. Indeed,
whenever a green-coloured snake is observed, it may at
once be pronounced, if slender or provided with a pre-
hensile tail, to be of the kind which passes its life on
trees; but if it be short-bodied then it lives on the
prairies. There are nevertheless tree-snakes which have
a very different coloration ; and one of the most re-
markable species is the Passerita fusca or Drylnus
fuscus, of which a figure is annexed. It closely re-
sembles the green Passerita in form, so that natu-
ralists have considered it to be a mere variety. It is
entirely of a shining brown, shot with purple, and
the yellow longitudinal stripe which runs along the
side of the belly of the green species, is absent in this
one. It is much more rare than the green one, and

X 2

308 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

does not appear to be found in Hindostan : no inter-
mediate forms have been observed in Ceylon.

Water- Snakes. — The fresh-water snakes, of which
several species ^ inhabit the still waters and pools, are
all harmless in Ceylon. A gentleman, who found near
a river an agglutinated cluster of the eggs of one variety
{Tropidophis schistosusf), placed them under a glass
shade on his drawing-room table, where one by one the
young reptiles emerged from the shell to the number of

twenty.

The sea-snakes of the Indian tropics did not escape
the notice of the early Grreek mariners who navigated
those seas ; and amongst the facts collected by them,
^Elian has briefly recorded that the Indian Ocean
produces serpents with flattened tails'^, whose bite, he
adds, is to be dreaded less for its venom than the lacer-
ation of its teeth. The first statement is accurate, but
the latter is incorrect, as there is an all but unani-
mous concurrence of opinion that every species of this
family of serpents is more or less poisonous. The com-
pression of the tail noticed by ^lian is one of the
principal characteristics of these reptiles, as their motion
through the water is mainly effected by its aid, coupled
with the undulating movement of the rest of the body.
Their scales, instead of being imbricated like those of
land-snakes, form hexagons ; and those on the belly,
instead of being scutate and enlarged, are nearly of the
same size and form as on other parts of the body.

* Chersydrus granulatus, Merr. ; water snakes. His remark on

Cerbenis cinereus, i)f«<c7.; Tropido- the compression of the tail shows

phis schistosus, Band. that his informants were aware of

2 " riAaTets Tos ov^a.'ir JEliax, this speciality in those that inhabit

L. XTi. c. 8. the sea.

^lian speaks elsewhere of fresh-

Chap. IX.] SEA-SNAKES. 309

Sea-snakes (Hyclrophis) are found on all tlie coasts
of Ceylon. I have sailed through large shoals of them
in the Grulf of Manaar, close to the pearl-banks of
Aripo. The fishermen of Calpentyn on the west live
in perpetual dread of them, and believe their bite to
be fatal. In the course of an attempt which was re-
cently made to place a lighthouse on the great rocks of
the south-east coast, known by seamen as the Basses ^, or
Baxos, the workmen who first landed found the portion
of the surface liable to be covered by the tides, honey-
combed, and hollowed into deep holes filled with water,
in which were abundance of fishes and some molluscs.
Some of these cavities also contained sea-snakes from
four to five feet long, which were described as having
the head " hooded like the cobra de capello, and of a
light grey colour, slightly speckled. They coiled them-
selves like serpents on land, and darted at poles thrust
in among them. The Singhalese who accompanied the
party, said that they not only bit venomously, but
crushed the limb of any intruder in their coils." ^

Still, sea-snakes, though well-known to the natives,
are not abundant round Ceylon, as compared with their
numbers in other places. Theii" principal habitat is
the ocean between the southern shores of China and
the northern coast of New Holland ; and their western
limit appears to be about the longitude of Cape Comorin.
It has long since been ascertained that they frequent
the seas that separate the islands of the Pacific ; but
they have never yet been found in the Atlantic, nor even

' The Basses are believed to be possibly be the Basses of Ptolemy's

the remnants of the great island of map of Taprobmie.

Giri, swallowed up by the sea. — ^ Official Report to the Groremor

Mahawanso, ch. i p. 4. They may of Ceylon.

X 3

310 EEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

on the western shores of tropical America. And if, as
has been stated^, they have been seen on a late occasion
in considerable numbers in the Bay of Panama, the fact
can only be regarded as one of the rare instances, in
which a change in the primary distribution of a race of
animals has occurred, either by an active or a passive
immigration. Being exclusively inhabitants of the sea,
they are liable to be swept along by the influence of
currents ; but to compensate for this they have been
endowed with a wonderful power of swimming. The
individuals of all the groups of terrestrial serpents are
observed to be possessed of this faculty to a greater or
a less degree ; and they can swim for a certain distance
without having any organs specially modified for the
purpose ; except, perhaps, the lung, which is a long sac
capable of taking in a sufficient quantity of air, to keep
the body of the snake above water. Nor do we find any
peculiar or specially adapted organs even in the fresh-
water-snakes, although they can catch frogs or fishes
while swimming. But in the hydrophlds, which are
permanent inhabitants of the ocean, and which in an
adult state, approach the beach only occasionally, and
for very short times, the tail, which is rounded and
tapering in the others, is compressed into a vertical
rudder-like organ, similar to, and answering all the
purposes of, the caudal fin in a fish. When these snakes
are brought on shore or on the deck of a ship, they
are helpless, and struggle vainly in awkward attitudes.
Their food consists exclusively of such fishes as are
found near the surface ; a fact which affords ample
proof that they do not descend to great depths, although

J Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

:« I,

, \' '''''"■'«^'-i'''i«

Chap. IX.] SEA-SNAKES. 311

they can dive as well as swim. They are often found in
groups during calm weather, sleeping on the sea ; but
owing to their extreme caution and shyness, attempts
to catch them are rarely successful ; on the least alarm,
they suddenly expel the air from their lungs and descend
below the surface ; a long stream of rising air-bubbles
marking the rapid course which they make below. Their
poisonous nature has been questioned ; but the presence
of a strong perforated tooth and of a venomous gland
sufficiently attest their dangerous powers, even if these
had not been demonstrated by the effects of their bite.
But fortunately for the fishermen, who sometimes find
them unexpectedly among the contents of their nets,
sea-snakes are unable, like other venomous serpents,
to open the jaws widely, and in reality they rarely
inflict a wound. Dr. Cantor believes, that they are
blinded by the light when removed from their own
element; and he adds that they become sluggish and
speedily die.^

Those found near the coasts of Ceylon are generally
small, — from one to three feet in length, and apparently
immature ; and it is certain that the largest specimens
taken in the Pacific do not attain to greater length than
eight feet. In colour they are generally of a greenish
brown, in parts inclining to yellow, with occasionally
cross bands of black. The species figured in the accom-
panying drawing is the HydropJiis sublcevis of Grray;
or Hydrus cyanocinctus of Boie.^ The specimen from

* Catal. Mai. Sept. p. 136. sided, smooth, some divided into

- Its teclinical characteristics are two, by a slight central groove,

as follows, — Body rather slender; Occipital shields large, triangular,

ground colour yellowish with irre- and produced, with a small central

gular black rings. Scales nearly shield behind them ; a series of four

smooth ; ventral plates broad, six- large temporal shields ; chin-shields

X 4

312 REPTILES. [Chap. IX.

whicti the drawing is taken, was obtained by Dr. Tem-
pleton at Colombo.

The use of the Pamboo-Kaloo, or snake-stone, as a
remedy in cases of wounds by venomous serpents, has
probably been communicated to the SiDghalese by the
itinerant snake-charmers who resort to the island from
the coast of Coromandel; and more than one well-
authenticated instance of its successful application has
been told to me by persons who had been eye-wit-
nesses to what they described. On one occasion, in
March, 1854, a friend of mine was riding, with some
other civil officers of the Grovernment, aloDg a jungle
path in the vicinity of Bintenne, when he saw one of
two Tamils, who were approaching the party, suddenly
dart into the forest and return, holding in both hands
a cobra de capello which he had seized by the head and
tail. He called to his companion for assistance to place
it in their covered basket, but, in doiug this, he handled
it so inexpertly that it seized him by the finger, and re-
tained its hold for a few seconds, as if unable to retract
its fangs. The blood flowed, and intense pain appeared
to follow almost immediately ; but, with all expedition,
the friend of the sufi'erer undid his waistcloth, and took
from it two snake-stones, each of the size of a small
almond, intensely black and highly polished, though
of an extremely light substance. These he applied,
one to each wound inflicted by the teeth of the serpent,
to which they attached themselves closely ; the blood
that oozed from the bites being rapidly imbibed by the
porous texture of the article applied. The stones ad-

in two pairs ; eyes very small, over second upper labial shield elon-
the fourth and fifth labials ; one gated,
ante- and two post-oculars ; the

Chap. IX.] S^AKE-STONES. 313

hered tenaciously for three or four minutes, the wounded
man's companion in the meanwhile rubbing his arm
downwards from the shoulder towards the fingers. At
length the snake-stones dropped off of their own ac-
cord ; the suffering of the man appeared to subside ; he
twisted his fingers till the joints cracked, and went on
his way without concern. Whilst this had been going
on, another Indian of the party who had come up took
from his bag a small piece of white wood, which re-
sembled a root, and passed it gently near the head of
the cobra, which the latter immediately inclined close to
the ground ; he then lifted the snake without hesitation,
and coiled it into a circle at the bottom of his basket.
The root by which he professed to be enabled to perform
this operation with safety he called the Kaya-thcdic
Kaldnga (the root of the snake-plant), protected by
which he professed his ability to apprc^ch any reptile
with impunity.

In another instance, in 1853, Mr. Lavalliere, then
District Judge of Kandy, informed me that he saw a
snake-charmer in the jungle, close by the town, search
for a cobra de capello, and, after disturbing one in its
retreat, the man tried to secure it, but, in the attempt,
he was bitten in the thigh till blood trickled from
the wound. He instantly applied the Pmnhoo-Kaloo,
which adhered closely for about ten minutes, during
which time he passed the root which he held in his
hand backwards and forwards above the stone, till the
latter dropped to the ground. He assured Mr. Laval-
liere that all danger was then past. That gentleman
obtained from him the snake-stone he had relied on,
and saw him repeatedly afterwards in perfect health.

The substances used on both these occasions are now

ai4

REPTILES.

[Chap. IX.

in my possession. The roots employed by the several
parties are not identical. One appears to be a bit of
the stem of an Aristolochia ; the other is so dried as to
render its identification difficult, but it resembles the
quadrangular stem of a jungle vine. Some species of
Aristolochia, such as the A. serpentcvvia of North Ame-
rica, are supposed to act as specifics in the cm^e of snake-
bites; and the A. indica is the plant to which the
ichneumon is popularly believed to resort as an antidote
when bitten^ ; but it is probable that the use of any
particular plant by the snake-charmers is a pretence, or
rather a delusion, the reptile being overpowered by the
resolute action of the operator-, and not by the influence

* For an account of tlie en-
counter between the ichneumon
and the yenomous snakes of Ceylon,
see Ch. I. p. 39.

- The following narratire of the
operations of a snake-charmer in
Ceylon is contained in a note from
Mr. Eeyne, of the department of
public works: "A snake-charmer
came to my bungalow in 1854, re-
questing me to allow him to show
me his snakes dancing. As I had
frequently seen them, I told him I
would gire him a rupee if he would
accompany me to the jungle, and
catch a cobra, that I knew fre-
quented the place. He was willing,
and as I was anxious to test the
truth of the charm, I counted his
tame snakes, and put a watch over
them untn I returned "with him.
Before going I examined the man,
and satisfied myself he had no
snake about his person. When
we arrived at the spot, he played
on a small pipe, and after perse-
vering for some time out came a
large cobra from an ant hill, which
I knew it occuj)ied. On seeing the

man it tried to escape, but he
caught it by the tail and kept
swinging it round until we reached
the bungalow. He then made it
dance, but before long it bit him
above the knee. He immediately
bandaged the leg above the bite,
and applied a snake-stone to the
wound to extract the poison. He
was in great pain for a few minutes,
but after that it gradually went
away, the stone falling off just be-
fore he was relieved. When he
recovered he held a cloth up, which
the snake flew at, and caught its
fangs in it ; while in that position,
the man passed his hand iip its
back, and having seized it by the
throat, he extracted the fangs in
my presence and gave them to me.
He then squeezed out the poison
on to a leaf. It was a clear oily
substance, and when rubbed on the
hand produced a fine lather. I
carefully watched the whole opera-
tion, which was also witnessed by
my clerk and two or three other
persons. Colombo, 13th January,
I860.— H. E. Rey>t:."

Chap. IX.] SXAKE-STO>s"ES. 315

of any secondary appliance. In other words, the confi-
dence inspired by the supposed talisman enables its
possessor to address himself fearlessly to his task, and
thus to effect, by determination and will, what is popu-
larly believed to be the result of charms and stupefac-
tion. Still it is curious that, amongst the natives of
Northern Africa, who lay hold of the Cerastes without
fear or hesitation, impunity is ascribed to the use of
a plant with the juice of which they anoint themselves
before touching the reptile ^ ; and Bruce says of the
people of Sennar, that they acquire exemption from the
fatal consequences of the bite by chewing a particular
root, and washing themselves with an infusion of cer-
tain plants. He adds that a portion of this root was
given him, with a view to test its efficacy in his own
person, but that he had not sufficient resolution to
make the experiment.

As to the snake-stone itself, I submitted one, the
application of which I have been describing, to Mr.
Faraday, who has communicated to me, as the result
of his analysis, his belief that it is " a piece of charred
bone which has been filled with blood perhaps several
times, and then carefully charred again. Evidence of
this is affi3rded, as well by the apertures of cells or tubes
on its surface as by the fact that it yields and breaks
under pressure, and exhibits an organic structm-e within.
When heated slightly, water rises from it, and also a
little ammonia ; and, if heated still more highly in the
air, carbon burns away, and a bulky white ash is left,
retaining the shape and size of the stone." This ash,
as is evident from inspection, cannot have belonged to

^ Hasselquist.

316 EEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

any vegetable substance, for it is almost entirely com-
posed of phosphate of lime. Mr. Faraday adds that " if
the piece of matter has ever been employed as a spongy
absorbent, it seems hardly fit for that purpose in its
present state : but who can say to what treatment it has
been subjected since it was fit for use, or to what treat-
ment the natives may submit it when expecting to have
occasion to use it ? "

The probability is, that the animal charcoal, when
instantaneously applied, may be sufficiently porous
and absorbent to extract the venom from the recent
wound, together with a portion of the blood, before it
has had time to be carried into the system ; and that the
blood which Mr. Faraday detected in the specimen sub-
mitted to him was that of the Indian on whose person
the effect was exhibited on the occasion to which my
informant was an eye-witness. The snake-charmers
from the coast who visit Ceylon profess to prepare the
snake-stones for themselves, and to preserve the com-
position a secret. Dr. Davy^, on the authority of Sir
Alexander Johnston, says the manufacture of them is a
lucrative trade, carried on by the monks of Manilla, who
supply the merchants of India — and his analysis con-
firms that of Mr. Faraday. Of the three different kinds
which he examined — one being of partially burnt bone,
and another of chalk, the third, consisting chiefly of
vegetable matter, resembled bezoar, — all of them (ex-
cept the fijrst, which possessed a slight absorbent power)
were quite inert, and incapable of having any eff'ect
except on the imagination of the patient. Thunberg
was shown the snake-stone used by the boers at the

' Account of the Interior of Ceylon, cK. iii. p. 101.

Chap. IX.] CECILIA GLUTINOSA. 317

Cape in 1772, which was imported for them " from the
Indies, especially from Malabar," at so high a price
that few of the farmers could afford to possess them-
selves of it ; he describes it as convex on one side,
black, and so porous that '' when thrown into water,
it caused bubbles to rise ;" and hence, by its absorbent
qualities, it served, if speedily applied, to extract the
poison from the wound. ^

Ccecilia. — The rocky jungle, bordering the higher
coffee estates, provides a safe retreat for a very singular
animal, first introduced to the notice of European
naturalists about a century ago by Linnaeus, who
gave it the name Ccecilia glutinosa, to indicate two
peculiarities manifest to the ordinary observer — an
apparent defect of vision, from the eyes being so small
and embedded as to be scarcely distinguishable ; and a
power of secreting from minute pores in the skin a

^ T^unberg, \ol.i. -p. 155. Since "Use. — Thewoundbeingslightly
the foregoing account was pub- punctured, apply the bone to the
lished, I have received a note from opening, to which it will adhere
Mr. Haedy, relative to the p/'edra firmly for the space of two minutes ;
ponsona, the snake-stone of Mexico, and when it falls, it should be re-
in which he gives the following ceived into a basin of water. It
account of the method of pre- should then be dried in a cloth,
paring and applying it : " Take a and again applied to the wound,
piece of hart's horn of any con- But it will not adhere longer than
venient size and shape ; cover it about one minute. In like manner
well round with grass or hay, it may be apphed a third time;
enclose both in a thin piece of but now it will fall almost imme-
sheet copper well wrapped round diately, and nothing will cause it
them, and place the parcel in a to adhere any more,
charcoal fire till the bone is suffi- " These effects I witnessed in the
ciently charred. case of a bite of a rattle-snake at

"When cold, remove the calcined Oposura, a town in the province of

horn from its envelope, when it Sonora, in Mexico, from whence I

will be ready for immediate use. obtained my recipe; and I have

In this state it will resemble a given other particulars respecting

solid black fibrous substance, of it in my Travels in the Interior of

the same shape and size as before Mexico, published in 1830. K.

it was subjected to this treat- W. H. Hardy. Bath, 30th Janic-

ment. ar^, 1860."

318 KEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

viscous fluid, resembling that of snails, eels, and some
salamanders. Specimens are rare in Europe owing to
the readiness with which it decomposes, breaking down
into a flaky mass in the spirits in which it is attempted
to preserve it.

The creature is about the length and thickness of an
ordinary round desk ruler, a little flattened before and
rounded behind. It is brownish, with a pale stripe
along either side. The skin is furrowed into 350 circu-
lar folds, in which are imbedded minute scales. The
head is tolerably distinct, with a double row of fine
curved teeth for seizing the insects and worms on which
it is supposed to live.

Naturalists are most desirous that the habits and me-
tamorphoses of this creature should be carefully ascer-
tained, for great doubts have been entertained as to the
position it is entitled to occupy in the chain of creation.

Batrachians. — In the numerous marshes formed by
the overflowing of the rivers in the plains of the low
country, there are many varieties of frogs, which, both
by their colours and by their extraordinary size, are cal-
culated to excite the surprise of a stranger. In the
lakes around Colombo and the still water near Trin-
comalie, there are huge creatures of this family, from
six to eight inches in length ^, of an olive hue, deepen-
ing into brown on the back and yellow on the under
side. A Kandyan species, recently described, is of much
smaller dimensions, but distinguished by its brilliant
colouring, a beautiful grass green above and deep orange
underneath.^

* A Singhalese variety of the busta, proves to be a Ceylon spe-

Rana cutipora ? and the Malabar cimen of the B. cutipora.
bull-frog, Hylarana Malaharica. A ^ j^ Kandiana, Kelaart.
frog named by Blyth Eana to-

Chap. IX.] BATRACHIAXS. 319

In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the
graceful little tree-frogs ^ were to be found in gTeat
numbers, sheltered under broad leaves to protect them
from the scorching sun ; — some of them utter a sharp
metallic sound at night, similar to that produced by
smacking the lips.

In the gardens and grounds toads ^ crouch in the
shade, and pursue the flies and minute coleoptera. In
Ceylon, as in Europe, these creatures suffer from the bad
renown of injecting a poison into the wound inflicted
by their bite.^ The main calumny is confuted by the
fact that no toad has yet been discovered furnished with
any teeth whatsoever; but the obnoxious repute still
attaches to the milky exudation sometimes perceptible
from glands situated on either side behind the head;
nevertheless experiments have shown, that though acrid,
the secretions of the toad are incapable of exciting more
than a slight erythema on the most delicate skins. The
smell is, however, fetid and offensive, and hence toads
are less exposed to the attacks of carnivorous animals
and of birds than frogs, in which such glands do not exist.

In the class of Eeptiles, those only are included in
the order of Batrachians which undergo a metamor-
phosis before attaining maturity ; and as they offer the
only example amongst Vertebrate animals of this mar-
vellous transformation, they are justly considered as the
lowest in the scale, with the exception of fishes, which
remain during life in that stage of development which
is only the commencement of existence to a frog.

* Tolypedates maculatus, Gray, of " King Asoka attempted to de-

2 Biifo mdanostictus, Schneid. stroy the great bo-tree (at Ma-

^ In Ceylon this error is as old as gadha) with the poisoned fang of

the third century, b. c, when, as a toadr — Ch. xx. p. 122.

the Mahawanso tells us, the wife

320 EEPTILES. [Chap. IX.

In undergoing this change, it is chiefly the organs
of respiration that manifest alteration. In its earliest
form the young batrachian, living in the water, breathes
as a fish does by gills, either free and projecting as in
the water-newt, or partially covered by integument as
in the tadpole. But the gills disappear as the lungs
gradually become developed : the duration of the pro-
cess being on an average one hundred days from the time
the eggs were first deposited. After this important
change, the true batrachian is incapable any longer of
living continuously in water, and either betakes itself
altogether to the land, or seeks the surface from time to
time to replenish its exhausted lungs. ^

The change in the digestive functions during meta-
morphosis is scarcely less extraordinary ; frogs, for
example, which feed on animal substances at maturity,
subsist entirely upon vegetable when in the condition
of larvae, and the subsidiary organs undergo remarkable
development, the intestinal canal in the earlier stage
being five times its length in the later one.

Of the family of tailed batrachians, Ceylon does not
furnish a single example ; but of those without this
appendage, the island, as above remarked, affords many
varieties ; seven distinguishable species pertaining to
the genus rana, or true frogs with webs to the hind
feet ; two to the genus bufo, or true toads, and five to
the Polypedates, or East Indian " tree-frogs ;" besides a
few others in allied genera. The " tree-frog," whose

^ A fe^r Batrachians, such as the with hmgs in mature age, they are

Siren of Carolina, the Proteus of not capable of living out of the

Illyria, the Axolotl of Mexico, and water. Such batrachians form an

the MenoJ)ranchus of the North intermediate link between reptiles

American Lakes, retain their giUs and fishes,
during life ; but although provided

Chap. IX.]

LIST OP REPTILES.

321

toes are terminated by rounded discs which assist it in
climbing, possesses, in a high degree, the faculty of
changing its hues ; and one as green as a leaf to-day,
will be found grey and spotted like the bark to-morrow.
One of these beautiful little creatures, which had seated
itself on the gilt pillar of a lamp on my dinner-table,
became in a few minutes scarcely distinguishable in
colour from the or-molu ornament to which it clung.

List of Ceylon Reptiles.

I am indebted to Dr. Grray and Dr. Griinther, of the
British Museum, for a list of the reptiles of Ceylon ; but
many of those new to Europeans have been carefully
described by the late Dr. Kelaart in his Prodromus
Faunce Zeylanicce and its appendices, as well as in the
13th vol. 3fagaz. Nat. Hist (1854).

SAUEA.

Hydrosaurus

salvator, Wagler.
Monitor

dracaena, Linn.
Riopa

punctata. Linn.

Hardwickii, Gray.
Brachymeles

Bonitse, Hum. 8( Bib.
Tiliqua

rufescens, Shaw.
Eumeces

Taprobanius, Kel.
Nessia

Buitoni, Gray.
Acontias

Layardi, Kelaart,
Argyrophis

braraicus, Baud.
Lygosoma

fallax, Peters.
Rhinophis

oxyrhynchus, Sc/m.

punctatus, J. Miill.

philippinus, J. Miill,

homolepis, Hempr.

planiceps, Peters

Blythii, Kelaart.

melanogaster, Gray.
Uropeltis

grandis, Kelaart.

saffragamus, Kelaart.

Silybura

Ceylonica, Cuv.
Hemidactylus

frenatus, Schleg.

Leschenaultii, Dum. &
Bib.

trihedrus, Baud.

maculatus, Lum.Sf Bib,

Piresli, Kelaart. _

Coctcei, Dum. &; Bib.

pustulatus, Dum.

sublffivis, Cantor.
Peripia

Peronii, Dum. 4' Bib.
Gymnodactylus

Kandianus, Kelaart.
Sitana

Pontioereana, Cuv.
Lyriocephalus

scutatus, Linn.
Ceratophora

Stoddartii, Gray,

Tennentii, Giinther.
Otocryptis

bivittata, Wiegm.
Salea Jerdoni, Gray.
Calotes

ophiomachus, Merr.

nigrilabris, Peters.

versicolor, Daud.

Rouxii, Dum. 8( Bib.

mystaceus, Dm<w.
Chameleo

vulgaris, Daud.

OPHIDIA.

Megaera

trigonocephala, Latr.
Trigonocephalus

hypnalis, Merr.
Daboia

elegans, Daud.
Pelamys

bicolor, Daud.
Aturia

lapemoides. Gray.
Hydrophis

sublaevis, Gray,

cyanocinctus, Daud.
Chersydrus

granulatus, Schneid.
Cerberus

cinereus, Daud,
Tropidophis

schistosus, Daud.
Python

reticulatus, Gray.
Cylindrophis

rufa, Schneid.

maculata, Linn.
Aspidura

brachyorrhos, Boie.

trachyprocta, Cope.
Haplocercus

Ceylonensis, GUnth,
Oligodon

subquadratus, Dum. Sf
Bib.

322

REPTILES.

[Chap. IX.

subgriseus. Bum. S(Bib.

iuhMnedXwi, Bum. Sf Bib.
Simotes

Russellii, Baud.

purpurascens, Schlcg.
Ablabes

collaris. Gray.
Tropidonotus

quincunciatus, Schleg.
var. funebris.
var. carinatus.

stolatus, Linn.

chrysargus, Bote.
Cynophis

Helena, Bated.
Coryphodon

Blumenbachii, Men:
Cyclophis

calamaria, G'unth.
Chrysopelea

ornata, Shaw.
Dendrophis

picta, Gm.
Passerita

iTiycterizans, Linn.

fusca.
Dipsadomorphus

Ceylonensis, Giinth.
Lycodon

aulicus, Linn.
Cercaspis

carinata, Kuhl.

Bungarus

fasciatus, Schneid.

var. Ceylonensis, Gthr.
Naja

tripudians, Merr.

CHELON'L\..

Testudo

stellata, Schweig.
Emys

Sebae, Gray.

trijuga, Schtoeigg.
Caretta

imbricata, Linn.
Chelonia

virgata, Schweigg.

EMYDOSAUEI.

Crocodihis

biporcatus. Cuv.
palustris, Less.

BATRACHIA.

Bana

hexadactyla. Less.
Kuhlii, Schleg.
cutipora, Bum. 4 Bib.
tigrina, Baud.
vittigera, Wiegm.
Malabarica, Buvi.SfBib.
Kandiana, Kclaart.
Neuera-elliana, Kel.

Bufo

melanostictns. Schneid.

Kelaartii, Giinth.
Ixaliis

variabilis, Giinth.

leucorhinus, Martens.

poecilopleurus. Mart.

aurifasciatus, Schleg.

schmardanus, Kelaart.
Polypedates

maculatiis, Gray.

microtympaniim, Gth.

eques, Giinth.
Limnodytes

lividus, Blyth.

macularis, Blyth.

mutabilis, Kelaart.

maculatus, Kelaart.
Kaloula

piilchra. Gray.

balteata, var. Giinth.

stellata, Kelaart.
Adenoraus

badioflavus, Cope.
Pyxicephalus

fodiens, Jerd.
Engystoma

rubrum, Jerd.

PSEUDOPHIDIA.

CaBcili;i

glutinosa, Linn.

Note. — The following species are peculiar to Ceylon (and
the genera Ceratophora, Otocryptis, Uropeltis, Aspidura,
Cercaspis, and Haplocercus would appear to be similarly re-
stricted);— Lygosoma fallax ; Trimesurus Ceylonensis, T.
nigromarginatus ; Megsera Trigonocephala ; Trigonocephaius
hypnalis ; Daboia elegans ; Rhinophis punctatus, Rh. homo-
lepis, Rh. planiceps, Rh. Blythii, Rh. melanogaster ; Uropeltis
grandis ; Silybura Ceylonica ; Cylindrophis maculata ; Aspi-
dura brachyorrhos ; Haplocercus Ceylonensis ; Oligodon sub-
lineatus ; Cjmophis Helena ; Cycloj)his calamaria ; Dipsado-
morphus Ceylonensis ; Cercaspis carinata ; Ixalus varial^ilis, I.
leucorhinus, I. poecilopleurus ; Polypedates microtympanum,
P. eques.

323

CHAP. X.

FISHES.

Hitherto no branch of the zoology of Ceylon has been
so imperfectly investigated as its Ichthyology. Little
has been done in the examination and description of its
fishes, especially those which frequent the rivers and
inland waters. Mr. Bennett, who was for some years
employed in the Civil Service, directed his attention to
the subject, and published in 1830 some portions of a
projected work on the marine fishes of the island ^, but
it never proceeded beyond the description of thirty in-
dividuals. The great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes ^
particularises about one hundred species, specimens
of which were procured from Ceylon by Keynard, Les-
chenault and other correspondents; but of these not
more than half a dozen belong to fresh water.

The fishes of the coast, so far as they have been ex-
amined, present few that are not in all probability
common to the seas of Ceylon and India. A series of
drawings, including upwards of six hundred species and
varieties of Ceylon fish, all made from recently-captured
specimens, has been submitted to Professor Huxley, and

' A Selection of the most Be- J. W. Bennett, Esq. London^

markable and Interesting Fishes 1830.

found on the Coast of Ceylon. By ^ jjistoire Naturelle des Poissons.

Y 2

324 FISHES. [Chap. X.

a notice of their general characteristics forms an in-
teresting appendix to the present chapter.^

Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far
is the Seir-fish ^ a species of Scomberoids, which is called
Tora-malu by the natives. It is in size and form very
similar to the salmon, to which the flesh of the female
fish, notwithstanding its white colour, bears a very close
resemblance both in firmness and flavour.

Mackerel, carp, whitings, mullet both red and striped,
perches and soles are abundant, and a sardine {Sarcli-
nella Neohowii, Val.) frequents the southern and eastern
coast in such profusion that in one instance in 1839,
a gentleman who was present saw upwards of four
hundred thousand taken in a haul of the nets in the
little bay of Groyapanna, east of Point-de-Gralle. As
this vast shoal approached the shore the broken water
became as smooth as if a sheet of ice had been floating
below the surface.^

Poisonous Fishes. — The sardine has the reputation
of being poisonous at certain seasons, and accidents
ascribed to eating it are recorded in all parts of the
island. Whole families of fishermen who have partaken
of it have died. Twelve persons in the jail of Chilaw
were thus poisoned, about the year 1829; and the
deaths of soldiers have repeatedly been ascribed to the
same cause. It is difficult in such instances to say with
certainty whether the fish were in fault ; whether there

' See note B appended to this in sucli abundance that for a great

chapter. distance into the sea nothing can

2 Cybium {Scomber, Linn.) gut- be seen but the backs of fishes,

tatum. which casting themselves on the

^ These facts serve to explain shore, do suiFer men for the space

the story told by the friar Odoric of three daies to come and to take

of Friuli, who visited Ceylon about as many of them as they please,

the year 1320 a.d., and says there and then they return again into

are "fishes in those seas that come the sea." — Hakluyt, vol. ii, p. 57.
swimming towards the said country

Chap. X.] SHARKS. — SAW-FISH. 31?5

was not a peculiar susceptibility in the condition of the
recipients ; or whether the mischief may not have been
occasioned by the wilful administration of poison, or its
accidental occurrence in the brass cooking vessels used
by the natives. The popular belief was, however, de-
ferred to by an order passed by the Governor in Council
in February, 1824, which, after reciting that "Whereas
it appears by information conveyed to the Grovernment
that at three several periods at Trincomalie, death has
been the consequence to several persons from eating the
fish called Sardinia during the months of January and
December," enacts that it shall not be lawful in that
district to catch sardines during these months, under
pain of fine and imprisonment. This order is still in
force, but the fishing continues notwithstanding.^

Sharks. — Sharks appear on all parts of the coast,
and instances continually occur of persons beino- seized
by them whilst bathing even in the harbours of Trin-
comalie and Colombo. In the Grulf of Manaar they are
taken for the sake of their oil, of which they }deld such
a quantity that " shark's oil " is a recognised export. A
trade also exists in drying their fins, for which, owing
to the gelatine contained in them, a ready market is
found in China; whither the skin of the basking shark
is also sent, to be converted, it is said, into shagreen.

Saiu Fish. — The huge Pristis antiquorurn ^ infests

* There are other species of Sar- as the " poisonous sprat ; " the

dine foimd at Ceylon besides the S. bonito ( Thynnus affinis, Gang.), the

Neohowii; such as the S. lineolata, kangewena, or unicorn fish {Ba-

Cuv. and Val. and the S. Iciogaster, listes ?), and a number of others,

Cuv. and Yal. xx. 270, which was are more or less in bad repute from

found by M. Eeynaud at Trinco- the same imputation,

malie. It occurs also off" the coast ^ qr^Q other species are found in

of Java. Another Ceylon fish of the Ceylon waters, P. cuspidatiis

the same group, a Clupea, is known and P. pectinatus.

Y 3

326 FISHES. [Chap. X.

the eastern coast of the island, where it attains a
length of from twelve to fifteen feet, including the ser-
rated rostrum from which its name is derived. This

HEAD OF THE SAW-FISH (PRISTIS ANTIQUORDM)

powerful weapon seems designed to compensate for the
inadequacy of the ordinary maxillary teeth which are
unusually small, obtuse, and insufficient to capture and
kill the animals which form the food of this predatory
shark. To remedy this, the fore part of the head and
its cartilages are prolonged into a flattened plate, the
length of which is nearly equal to one third of the
whole body; its edges being armed with formidable
teeth, that are never shed or renewed, but increase in
size with the growth of the creature.

The Rays form a large tribe of cartilaginous fishes
in which, although the skeleton is not osseous, the de-
veJopment of organs is so advanced that they would
appear to be the highest of the class, approaching nearest
to amphibians. They are easily distinguished from the
sharks by their broad and flat body, the pectoral fins
being expanded like wings on each side of the trunk.
They are all inhabitants of the ocean, and some grow
to a prodigious size. Specimens have been caught of
twenty feet in breadth. These, however, are of rare

Chap. X.] RAYS. 327

occurrence, as such huge monsters usually retreat into
the depths of the sea, where they are secure from the

THE RAY (ABTOBATES NAEINARI),

molestation of man. It is, generally speaking, only the
young and the smaller species that approach the coasts,
where they find a greater supply of those marine animals
which form their food. The Kays have been divided into
several generic groups, and the one of which a drawing
(Aetohcvtes narinari *) is given, has very marked charac-
teristics in its produced snout, pointed and winged-like
pectoral fins, and exceedingly long, flagelliform tail. The
latter is armed with a strong, serrated spine, which is
always broken off by the fishermen immediately on cap-
ture, under the impression that wounds inflicted by it
ai'e poisonous. Their fears, however, are utterly ground-

> Raja narinari, Bl. Schn. p. 361. Henle,, Plagiost. p. 179.
Aetobates narinari, Mtill, uud

Y 4

328 FISHES. [Chap. X.

less, as the ray has no gland for secreting any venomous
fluid. The apprehension ma}^, however, have originated
in the fact that a lacerated wound such as would be
produced by a serrated spine, is not unlikely to assume
a serious character, under the influence of a tropical
climate. The species figured on the last page is brownish-
olive on the upper surface, with numerous greenish-
white round spots, darkening towards the edges. The
anterior annulations of the tail are black and white, the
posterior entirely black. Its mouth is transverse and
paved with a band of flattened teeth calculated to crush
the hard shells of the animals on which it feeds. It
moves slowly along the bottom in search of its food,
which consists of Crustacea and mollusca, and seems
to be unable to catch fishes or other quickly moving
animals. Specimens have been taken near Ceylon, of
six feet in width. Like most deep-sea fishes, the ray
has a wide geographical range, and occurs not only in
all the Indian Ocean, but also in the tropical tracts of
the Atlantic.

Another armed fish, renowned since the times of
^lian and Pliny for its courage in attacking the whale,
and even a ship, is the sword-fish (Xiphias gladius),^
Like the thunny and bonito, it is an inhabitant of the
deeper seas, and, though known in the Mediterranean,
is chiefly confined to the tropics. The dangerous weapon
with which nature has equipped it is formed by the pro-
longation and intertexture of the bones of the upper jaw
into an exceedingly compact cylindrical protuberance,

* -/Elian tells a story of a ship similar accident on the coast of

in the Black Sea, the bottom of Mauritania. In the British Mu-

which was penetrated by the sword seum there is a specimen of a plank

of a Xiphias (L. xiv. c. 23); and of oak, pierced by a sword-fish, and

Plest (L. xxsii. c. 8) speaks of a still retaining the broken weapon.

Chap. X.] SWOKD-FISHES. 329

somewhat flattened at the base, but tapering to a sharp
point. In strange inconsistence with its possession of so
formidable an armature, the general disposition of the
sword-fish is represented to be gentle and inoffensive ;
and although the fact of its assaults upon the whale has
been incontestably established, yet the motive for such
conflicts, and the causes of its enmity, are beyond con-
jecture. Competition for food is out of the question, as
the Xiphias can find its own supplies without rivalry on
the part of its gigantic antagonist ; and as to converting
the whale itself into food, the sword-fish, from the con-
struction of its mouth and the small size of its teeth, is
quite incapable of feeding on animals of such dimen-
sions.

In the seas around Ceylon sword-fishes sometimes
attain to the length of twenty feet, and are distin-
guished by the unusual height of the dorsal fin. Those
both of the Atlantic and Mediterranean possess this
fin in its full proportions, only during the earlier
stages of their growth. Its dimensions even then are
much smaller than in the Indian species ; and it is a
curious fact that it gradually decreases as the fish ap-
proaches to maturity ; whereas in the seas around Ceylon,
it retains its full size throughout the entire period of
life. They raise it above the water, whilst dashing
along the surface in their rapid course ; and there is no
reason to doubt that it occasionally acts as a sail.

The Indian species (which are provided with two long
and filamentous ventral fins) have been formed into the
genus Histiojjlioriis ; to which belongs the individual
figured on the next page. It is distinguished from others
most closely allied to it, by having the immense dorsal
fin of one uniform dark violet colour ; whilst in its con-

330

FISHES.

[Chap. X.

geners, it is spotted with blue. The fish from which the
engraving has been made, was procured by Dr. Tem-

THE SWORD-FISH (HISTIOPHOEUS IMMACULATUS).

pleton, near Colombo. The species was previously
known only by a single specimen captured in the
Eed Sea, by Kiippell, who conferred upon it the specific
designation of " immaculatus.^^ ^

^LiAN, in his graphic account of the strange forms
presented by the fishes inhabiting the seas around
Ceylon, says that one in particular is so grotesque in
its configuration, that no painter would venture to
depict it ; its main peculiarity being that it has feet or
claws rather than fins.^ The annexed drawing^ may

15.

Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 71. PL

^ n({5os ye /xriv xv^^s ^ irTepvyia.
— Lib. xvi. c. 18.

^ The fish from which this draw-
ing of the Chcironcctes was made,
was taken near Colombo, and from
the pecnliai'ities which it presents it
is in all probability a new and nnde-
sciibed species. Dr. Ctunther has

remarked, that in it, whilst the first
and second dorsal spines are
situated as usual over the eye (and
form, one the angling bait of
the fish, the other the crest
above the nose), the third is at an
unusual distance from the second,
and is not separated, as in the
otlier species, from the soft fin by a
notch.

Chap. X.]

THE CHEIRONECTES.

331

probably represent the creature to which the informants
of ^lian referred. It is a cheironectes ; one of a group
in which the bones of the carpus form arms that support
the pectoral fins, and enable these fishes to walk along
the moist ground, almost like quadrupeds.

They belong to the family of Lophiads or " anglers,*'
not unfrequent on the English coast; which conceal

CHEIRONECTES.

themselves in the mud, displaying only the erectile
ray, situated on the head, which bears an excrescence
on its extremity resembling a worm ; by agitating
which, they attract the smaller fishes, that thus become
an easy prey.

On the rocks in Ceylon Avhich are washed by the surf

332 FISHES. [Chap. X.

there are quantities of the curious little fish, Salarias
alticus^, which possesses the faculty of darting along the
surface of the water, and running up the wet stones, with
the utmost ease and rapidity. By aid of the pectoral
and ventral fins and gill-cases, they move across the
damp sand, ascend the roots of the mangroves, and climb
up the smooth face of the rocks in search of flies ; ad-
hering so securely as not to be detached by repeated
assaults of the waves. These little creatures are so
nimble, that it is almost impossible to lay hold of them,
as they scramble to the edge, and plunge into the sea
on the slightest attempt to molest them. They are
from three to four inches in length, and of a dark brown
colour, almost undistinguishable from the rocks they
frequent.

But the most striking to the eye of a stranger are
those fishes whose brilliancy of colouring has won for
them the wonder even of the listless Singhalese. Some,
like the Eed Sea Perch (ffolocentrum ruhvimi, Forsk)
and the Grreat Fire Fish^, are of the deepest scarlet and
flame colour ; in others purple predominates, as in the
Serranus flavo-cceruleus ; in others yellow, as in the
Choetodon Brownriggii ^, and Acanthurus vittatus, of

* Cuv. and Valkn., Hist. Nat. des riggii, Bennett. A reiy small

Poissons, torn. xi. p. 249. It is fish about two inches long, called

identical with 8. tridactylus, Schn. Kaha hartikyha by the natives.

2 Fterois onuricata, Cut. and It is distinct from Choetodon, in

Val. iv. 363. Scorpcsna miles, which Bennett placed it. Nume-

Bennett ; named, by the Singha- rous species of this genus are scat-

lese, " Maharata-gini,^^ the Grreat tered throughout the Indian Ocean.

Eed Fire, a very brilliant red species It derives its name from the fine

spotted with black. It is very hair-like character of its teeth,

voracious, and is regarded on some They are found chiefly among coral

parts of the coast as edible, while reefs, and, though eaten, are not

on others it is rejected. much esteemed. In the French

^ Glyphisodon Brownriggii, Cuv. colonies they are called " ChauiFe-

and Val. v. 484 ; Choetodon Brown- soleil." One species is found on

Chap. X.] THE PTEKOIDS. 333

Bennett^, and numbers, from the lustrous green of their
scales, have obtained from the natives the appropriate
name of Giraway, or parrots, of which one, the Sparus
Hardwickii of Bennett, is called the " Flower Parrot,"
from its exquisite colouring, being barred with irregu-
lar bands of blue, crimson, and purple, green, yellow,
and grey, and crossed by perpendicular stripes of
black.

Of these richly coloured fishes the most familiar in
the Indian seas are the Pteroids, They are well known
on the coast of Africa, and thence eastward to Polynesia ;
but they do not extend to the west coast of America,
and are utterly absent from the Atlantic. The rays of
the dorsal and pectoral fins are so elongated, that when
specimens were first brought to Europe it was con-
jectured that these fishes have the faculty of flight, and
hence the specific name of " volitans.''^ But this is an
error, for, owing to the deep incisions between the pec-
toral rays, the pteroids are wholly unable to sustain them-
selves in the air. They are not even bold swimmers,
living close to the shore and never venturing into the
deep sea. Their head is ornamented mth a number of
filaments and cutaneous appendages, of which one over

the shores of the New World ( G. stripes on the back and sides ; the

saxatalis), and it is curious that belly is white, the tail and fins

Messrs. Quoy and G-aimaed found brownish green, edged with blue,
this fish at the Cape de Verde It is found in rocky places ; and

Islands in 1827. according to Bennett, who has

• This fish has a sharp round figured it in his second plate, it is

spine on the side of the body near named Seweya. It has been known,

the tail; a formidable weapon, however, to all the old ichthyolo-

which is generally partially con- gists, Valentyn, Eenard, Seba,

cealed within^ a scabbard-Kke in- Artedi, and has been named Chce-

cision. It raises or depresses this todon Uneatus, by Linne, It is

spine at pleasure. The fish is yellow, scarce on the southern coast of

with several nearly parallel blue Ceylon.

334

FISHES.

[Chap. X.

each eye and another at the angles of the mouth are the
most conspicuous. Sharp spines project on the crown and
on the side of the gill-apparatus, as in the other sea-
perches, Scorpcena, Serranus, &c., of which these are

PTEROIS VOLITANS.

only a modified and ornate form. The extraordinary ex-
pansion of their fins is not, however, accompanied by a
similar development of the bones to which they are
attached, simply because they appear to have no peculiar
function, as in flying fishes, or in those where the spines
of the fins are weapons of offence. They attain to the
length of twelve inches, and to a weight of about two
pounds ; they live on small marine animals, and by the
Singhalese the flesh (of some at least) is considered good
for table. Nine or ten species are known to occur in

Chap. X.]

THE SCAEUS HARID.

335

the East Indian Seas, and of these the one figured
above is, perhaps, the most common.

Another species known to occur on the coasts of Cey-
lon, is the Scorpcena miles, Bennett, or Pterois miles,
Griinther^, of which Bennett has given a figure^, but it is
not altogether correct in some particulars.

In the fishes of Ceylon, however, beauty is not con-
fined to the brilliancy of their tints. In some, as in the
Scarus harid, Forsk^, the arrangement of the scales is
so graceful, and the effect is so heightened by modi-
fications of colour, as to present the appearance of tes-
sellation, or mosaic work.

SCAEUS HAEID,
After Bennett,

Fresh-water Fishes, — Of the fresh-water fish, which
inhabit the rivers and tanks, so very little has hitherto
been known to naturalists'*, that of nineteen drawings

' The fish from the Sea of Pi-
nang, described by Dr. Cantor
with this name (Catal. Mai. Fish,
p. 42), is again different, and be-
longs to a third species.

^ Fishes of Ceylon, PI. ix.

* This is the fish figured by
Bennett as Sparus pepo. Fishes

of Ceylon, Plate xxviii.

* In extenuation of the little
that is knowai of the fresh-water
fishes of Ceylon, it may be ob-
served that very few oi them are
used at table by Europeans, and
there is therefore no stimulus on
the part of the natives to catch

336 FISHES. [Chap. X.

sent home by Major Skinner in 1852, although speci-
mens of well-known genera. Colonel Hamilton Smith
pronounced nearly the whole to be new and undescribed
species.

Of eio-ht of these, which were from the Mahawelli-
ganga, and caught in the vicinity of Kandy, five were
carps ; two were Leucisci, and one a Mastacetnbelus
(M, annatus, Lacep) ; one was an Ophiocephalus, and
one a Poly acanthus, wdth no serrae on the gills. Six
were from the Kalanyganga, close to Colombo, of which
two were Helostoma, in shape approaching the Chaeto-
don; two Ophiocephali, one a Silurus, and one an
Anahas, but the gills were without denticulation.
From the still water of the lake, close to the walls of
Colombo, there were two species of Eleotris, one Silurus
with barbels, and two Malacopterygians, which appear
to be BagrL

The fresh-water Perches of Europe and of the North
of America are represented in Ceylon and India by se-
veral genera, which bear to them a great external simi-
larity {Lates, Therapon). They have the same habits
as their European allies, and their flesh is considered
equally wholesome, but they appear to enter salt-water,
or at least brackish water, more freely. It is, however.

them. The biu-bot and grey mullet esteemed as a fish for table. As it

are occasionally eaten, but they belongs to a family which possesses

taste of mud, and are not in re- the faculty, hereafter alluded to, of

quest. surviving in the damp soil after

Some years ago the experiment the subsidence of the water in the

was made, with success, of intro- tanks and rivers, it might with

ducing into Mauritius the Ospkro- equal advantage be acclimated in

menus olfax of Java, which has Ceylon. It grows to 20 lbs. weight

also been taken to French Gruiana. and upwards.
In both places it is now highly

Chap. X.]

THE THERAPON.

337

in their internal organisation that they differ most from
the perches of Europe ; their skeletons are composed of

THERAPON QUADRILINSATUS.

fewer vertebrae, and the air bladder of the Therapon is
divided into two portions, as in the carps. Four species
at least of this genus inhabit the lakes and rivers of
Ceylon, and one of them, of which a figure is given above,
has been but imperfectly described in any ichthyo-
logical work^ ; it attains to the length of seven inches.
In addition to marine eels, in which the Indian coasts
abound, Ceylon has some true fresh-water eels, which
never enter the sea. These are known to the natives
under the name of Theliya, and to naturalists by that of
Mastacembelus. They have sometimes in ichthyological
systems been referred to the Scombridse and other ma-
rine families, from the circumstance that the dorsal fin
anteriorly is composed of spines. But, in addition to the

* Holocentrus quadrilineatus,
Block. It is allied to Helotes
jpolytcenia, Bleek., from Halma-
heira, from which it can be
readily distinguished by having
only fire or six blackish longitu-
dinal bands, the black humeral
spot being between the fii'st and
second ; another blackish blotch is

in the spinous dorsal fin. There
are two specimens in the British
Museum collection, one of which
has recently arrived from Amoy ;
of the other the locality is im-
known. See Guxther, Acanthopt.
Fishes, vol. i. p. 282, where mention
of the black humeral spot has been
omitted.

338 FISHES. [Chap. X.

general shape of the body, their affinity to the eel is at-
tested, by their confluent fins, by the absence of ventral
fins, by the structure of the mouth and its dentition, by
the apparatus of the gills, Avhich opens with an inferior
slit, and above all by the formation of the skeleton
itself.^

Their skin is covered with minute scales, coated by a
slimy exudation, and the upper jaw is produced into a
soft tripartite tentacle, with which they are enabled to
feel for their prey in the mud. They are very tenacious
of life, and belong, without doubt, to those fishes which in
Ceylon descend during the drought into the muddy soil.^
Their flesh very much resembles that of the eel, and is
highly esteemed.^ They were first made kno^vn to
European naturalists by Russell'*, who brought to Europe
from the rivers round Aleppo specimens, some of which
are still preserved in the collection of the British Mu-
seum. Aleppo is the most western point of their geo-
graphical range, the group being mainly confined to
the East-Indian continent and its islands.

MASTACElIBZLrs ARLIATUS.

In Ceylon only one species appears to occur, the

^ See Guntheb's AcantTwpt. ^ Cuv. and Yal., Hist. Poiss. vol.

Pishes, vol. iii. (Family Mastacem- iii. p. 459.

belidae). * Nat. Hist. Aleppo, 2nd edit.

• 2 See post, p. 351. Lond. 1794, vol. ii. p. 208, pL vi.

Chap. X.] MASTACEMBELUS AKMATUS. 339

Mastacemhelus aimatus.^ The back is armed with from
thirty-five to thirty-nine short, stout spines ; there being
three others before the anal fin. The ground colour of
the fish is brown, and the head has two rather irregular
longitudinal black bands ; deep-brown spots run along
the back as well as along the dorsal and anal fins ; and
the sides are ornamented "with irreo'ular and reticulated
brown lines. This eel attains to the leno-th of two feet.
The old females do not show any markings, being of a
uniform brown colour.

In the collection of Major Skinner, before alluded to,
brought together without premeditation, the naturalist
will be struck by the preponderance of those genera
which are adapted by nature to endure a temporary
privation of moisture; and this, taken in connection
with the vicissitudes affecting the waters they inhabit,
exhibits a surprising illustration of the wisdom of the
Creator in adapting the organisation of his creatures to
the peculiar circumstances under which they are destined
to exist.

So abundant are fish in all parts of the island, that
Knox says, not the running streams alone, but the reser-
voirs and ponds, " nay, every ditch and little plash of
water but ankle deep hath fish in it."^ But many of
these reservoirs and tanks are, twice in each year, liable

^ Macrognathus armatus, Lacep. ; sunk in line in the dii-ection in

Mastacembelus armatus, Cuv., Fed. which it is desired to lead a supply

- Ivxox's Historical Belation of of water, and these are connected

Ceylon, Part i. ch. rii. The oc- by channels, which are carefully

currence of fish in the most un- arched over to protect them fi-om

looked-for situations, is one of the eyaporation. These kanats, as

mysteries of other eastern countries they are called, are full offish,

as well as Ce^-lon and India. In although neither they nor the weUs

Persia in-igation is carried on to a they unite hare any connection

great extent by means of wells with streams or lakes.

z 2

340

FISHES.

[Chap. X.

to be evaporated to dryness till the mud of the bottom
is converted into dust, and the clay cleft by the heat
into gaping apertures ; yet within a very few days after
the change of the monsoon, the natives are busily en-
gaged in fishing in those very spots and in the hollows
contiguous to them, although the latter are entirely
unconnected with any pool or running streams. Here
they fish in the same way which Knox described nearly
200 years ago, with a funnel-shaped basket, open at
bottom and top, " which," as he says, " they jibb down,
and the end sticks in the mud, which often happens
upon a fish ; which, when they feel beating itself against
the sides, they put in their hands and take it out, and
reive a ratan through their gills, and so let them drag-
after them."^

FROM KNOX'S CEYLON, a. d. 1631

This operation may be seen in the lowlands, traversed

* Knox, Historical Belation of Ceylon, Part l ch. vi.

Cqap. X.] FALL OF FISHES FROM CLOUDS. 341

by the high road leading from Colombo to Kandy.
Before the change of the monsoon, the hollows on either
side of the highway are covered with dust or stunted
grass ; but when flooded by the rains, they are imme-
diately resorted to by the peasants with baskets, con-
structed precisely as Knox has stated, in which the
fish are entrapped and taken out by the hand.^

So singular a phenomenon as the sudden re-appear-
ance of full-grown fishes in places that a few days before
had been encrusted with hardened clay, has not failed
to attract attention ; but the European residents have
been content to explain it by hazarding conjectures,
either that the spawn must have lain imbedded in the
dried earth till released by the rains, or that the fish,
so unexpectedly discovered, fall from the clouds during
the deluge of the monsoon.

As to the latter conjecture ; the fall of fish during
show^ers, even v?ere it not so problematical in theory, is
too rare an event to account for the punctual appear-
ance of those found in the rice-fields, at stated periods
of the year. Both at Gralle and Colombo in the south-
west monsoon, fish are popularly believed to have fallen
from the clouds during violent showers, but those found
on the occasions that give rise to this belief, consist of
the smallest fry, such as could be caught up by water-
spouts, and vortices analogous to them, or otherwise
blown on shore from the surf; whereas those which

* As anglers, the natiye Singha- conducted into a series of enclo-

lese exhibit little expertness ; but sures from which retreat is im-

for fishing the rivers, they con- practicalile. Mr. Layard, in the

struct with singular ingenuity Magazine of Natural History for

fences formed of strong stakes. May, 1853, has given a diagram of

protected by screens of ratan, that one of these fish " corrals," as they

stretch diagonally across the cur- are called, of which a copy is shown

rent ; and along these the fish are on the next page.

z 3

342 FISHES. [Chap. X.

suddenly appear in the replenished tanks and in the
hollows which they overflow, are mature and well-grown
fish.^ Besides, the latter are found, under
the circumstances I have described, in all
parts of the interior, whilst the prodigy of
a supposed fall of fish from the sky has
been noticed, I apprehend, only in the vi-
cinity of the sea, or of some inland water.

The surmise of the buried spawn is one
sanctioned by the very highest authority.
Mr. Yarrell in his '' History of British
FisheSf^ adverting to the fact that ponds (in
\ India) which had been previously converted
into hardened mud, are replenished with
small fish in a very few days after the com-
mencement of each rainy season, ofiers this
^solution of the prolDlem as probably the true
one : " The impregnated ova of the fish of
one rainy season are left unhatched in the
mud through the dry season, and from their
' low state of organisation as ova, the vitality

is preserved till the recurrence, and contact

FISH COEEAi.

' I had an opportunity, on one nected with any ■watercourse or

occasion only, of witnessing the pool,

phenomenon which gives rise to Mi*. Whitixg, who was many

thLs popular belief. I was driving years resident in Trincomalie,

in the cinnamon gardens near the wTites me that he " had often been

fort of Colombo, and saw a violent told by the natives on that side of

but partial shower descend at no the island that it sometimes rained

great distance before me. On fishes; and on one occasion" (he

coming to the spot I found a multi- adds) "I was taken by them, in 1849,

tude of small silver}- fish from one to a field at the village of Karran-

and a half to two inches in length, cotta-tivo, near Eatticaloa, which

leaping on the gravel of the high was dry when I passed over it in

road, numbers of which I collected the morning, but had been covered

and brought away in my palankin. in two hours by sudden rain to the

The spot was about half a mile depth of three inches, in which

from the sea, and entirely uncon- there was then a quantity of small

Chap. X.] BUEIED SPAWX. 343

of the rain and oxygen in the next wet season, when
vivification takes place from their joint influence."^

This hypothesis, however, appears to have been
advanced upon imperfect data ; for although some fish,
like the salmon, scrape grooves in the sand and place
their spawn in inequalities and fissures ; yet as a general
rule spa^vn is deposited not beneath but on the surface
of the ground or sand over which the water flows, the
adhesive nature of each egg supplying the means of
attachment. But in the Ceylon tanks not only is the
surface of the soil dried to dust after the evaporation of
the water, but earth itself, twelve or eighteen inches
deep, is converted into sun-barnt clay, in which, although
the eggs of mollusca, in their calcareous covering, are
in some instances preserved, it would appear to be as
impossible for the ova of fish to be kept from decom-
position as for the fish themselves to sustain life. Be-
sides, moisture in such situations is only to be found at
a depth to which spawn could not be conveyed by the
parent fish, by any means with which we are yet
acquainted.

fish. The water had no connect- Bengal, found a fish in the ptdvio-
ion with any pond or stream what- meter at Calcutta, in 1838. — Journ.
soever." ^\x. Cripps, in like Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. vi. p. 465.
manner, in speaking of Gralle, says : A series of instances in which
" I have seen in the vicinity of the fishes have been found on the con-
fort, fish taken from rain-water tinent of India under circum-
that had accumulated in the hoUow stances which lead to the con-
parts of land that in the hot season elusion that they must have fallen
are perfectly dry and parched, from the clouds, have been col-
The place is accessible to no run- lected by the late Dr. Buist of
ning stream or tank ; and either the Bombay, and wiU be found in the
fish, or the spawn from which they appendix to this chapter,
were produced, must of necessity ' Yaerell, History of British
have fallen with the rain." Fishes, introd. vol, i. p. xxvi. This
Mr. J. Peixsep, the eminent too was the opinion of Aristotle,
secretary to the Asiatic Society of Be Fusinratione, c. ix.

£ 4

344 FISHES. [Chap. X.

But supposing it possible to carry the spawn suffi-
ciently deep, and to deposit it safely in the mud below,
which is still damp, whence it could be liberated on the
return of the rains, a considerable interval would still
be necessary after the replenishing of the ponds with
water to admit of vivification and growth. Yet so far
from this interval being allowed to elapse, the rains
have no sooner fallen than the taking of the fish com-
mences, and those captured by the natives in wicker
cages are mature and full grown instead of being
*' small fish " or fry, as supposed by Mr. Yarrell.

Even admitting the soundness of his theory, and the
probability that, under favourable circumstances, the
spawn in the tanks might be preserved during the dry
season so as to contribute to the perpetuation of their
breed, the fact is no longer doubtful, that adult fish in
Ceylon, like some of those that inhabit similar waters
both in the New and Old World, have been endowed by
the Creator with the singular faculty of providing against
the periodical droughts either by journeying overland in
search of still unexhausted water, or, on its utter disap-
pearance, by burying themselves in the mud to await
the return of the rains.

It is an illustration of the eagerness with which, after
the expedition of Alexander the G-reat, particulars con-
nected with the natural history of India were sought for
and arranged by the Greeks, that in the works both of
Akistotle and Theophrastus facts are recorded of
the fishes in the Indian rivers migrating in search of
water, of their burying themselves in the mud on its
failure, of their being dug out thence alive during
the dry season, and of their spontaneous reappearance
on the return of the rains. The earliest notice is

Chap. X.] OPINIONS OF THEOPHRASTUS. 345

in Aristotle's treatise De Respiratione^ , where he
mentions the strange discovery of living fish found be-
neath the surface of the soil, "rwz^ l')(6vwv ol iroWol
t/MCTiv sv rfi yfj, aKivr]TL^ovTSS /jLsvroLf fcal svplaKovrai opvr-
TOfievoL ;" and in his History of Animals he conjectures
that in ponds periodically dried the ova of the fish so
buried become vivified at the change of the season.^
Herodotus had previously hazarded a similar theory to
account for the sudden appearance of fry in the Egyptian
marshes on the rising of the Nile ; but the cases are not
parallel. Theophrastus, the friend and pupil of Aris-
totle, gave importance to the subject by devoting to it
his essay Yispl rrjs rcov l')(6v(ov sv ^ijpo) BLa/jLovr]9f De
Plscibus in sicco degentibus. In this, after adverting
to the fish called exoccetus, from its habit of going on
shore to sleep, " diro ttjs kolttjs,^'' he instances the small
fish {IxOvSia), that leave the rivers of India to wander
like frogs on the land ; and likewise a species found
near Babylon, which, when the Euphrates runs low,
leave the dry channels in search of food, "moving
themselves along by means of their fins and tail." He
proceeds to state that at Heraclea Pontica there are
places in which fish are dug out of the earth, " opvKTol
Twv l')(6vcov^^ and he accounts for their being found
under such circumstances by the subsidence of the
rivers, "when the water being evaporated the fish
gradually descend beneath the soil in search of mois-
ture ; and the surface becoming hard they are preserved
in the damp clay below it, in a state of torpor, but are
capable of vigorous movements when disturbed." " In
this manner, too," adds Theophrastus, " the buried fish

J Chap. is. 2 Lib. yi. eh. 15, 16, 17.

346 FISHES. [Chap. X,

propagate, leaving behind them their spawn, which be-
comes vivified on the return of the waters to their ac-
customed bed." This work of Theophrastus became the
great authority for all subsequent writers on this ques-
tion. Athen^us quotes it ^, and adds the further
testimony of Polybius, that in Gallia Narbonensis fish
are similarly dug out of the ground.^ Strabo repeats
the story ^, and the Grreek naturalists one and all re-
ceived the statement as founded on reliable authority.

Not so the Eomans. Livr mentions it as one of the
prodigies which were to be " expiated " on the approach
of a rupture with Macedon, that " in Grallico agro qua
induceretur aratrum sub giebis pisces emersisse," '^ thus
taking it out of the category of natural occurrences.
PoMPONius Mela, obliged to notice the matter in his
account of Narbon Graul, accompanies it with the inti-
mation that although asserted by both Grreek and
Koman authorities, the story was either a delusion or
a fraud. Juvenal has a sneer for the rustic —

" miranti sub aratro
Piscibus inyentis." — Sat. xiii. 63.

And Seneca, whilst he quotes Theophrastus, adds iron-
ically, that now we must go to fish with a hatchet in-
stead of a hook ; " non cum hamis, sed cum dolabra ire
piscatum." Pliny, who devotes the 35th chapter of
his 9th book to this subject, uses the narrative of
Theophrastus, but with obvious caution, and universally
the Latin writers treated the story as a fable.

In later times the subject received more enlightened
attention, and Beckman, who in 1736 published his

* Lib. viii. ch. 2. ^ Lib, iv. and xii.

2 3. ch. 4. * Lib. xlii. ch. 2.

Chap. X.] FISHES ON DRY LAXD. 347

commentary on the collection TIspl SavfMoo-tcov clkov-
(T/jLaTcov, ascribed to Aristotle, has given a list of the
authorities about his own times, — Gteorgius Agricola,

GrESNER, EoNDELET, DaLECHAMP, BoMARE, and GrRONO-

Yius, who not only gave credence to the assertions of
Theophrastus, but adduced modern instances in corro-
boration of his Indian authorities.

As regards the fresh-water fishes of India and Ceylon,
the fact is now established that certain of them possess
the power of leaving the rivers and returning to them
again after long migrations on dry land, and modern
observation has full}^ confirmed their statements. They
leave the pools and nullahs in the dry season, and led
by an instinct as yet unexplained, shape their course
through the grass towards the nearest pool of water. A
similar phenomenon is observable in countries similarly
circumstanced. The Doras of Gruiana ^ have been seen
travelling over land dm'ing the dry season in search of
their natural element ^, in such droves that the negroes
fill baskets wdth them, during these terrestrial excursions.
Pallegoix in his account of Siam, enumerates three
species of fishes which leave the tanks and channels

^ D. Hancockii, Cuv. et Vax. pines. — 'Kis.wz, Bridgewater Trea-
2 Sir R. Schombm'gk's Fishes of Use, vol. i. p. 143.
Guiana, vol. i. pp. 113, 151, 160. Eels kept in a garden, when
Another migratory fish was found August arrived (the period at
by Bose very numerous in the which instinct impels them to go
fresh waters of Carolina and in to the sea to spa^wTi) were in the
ponds liable to become dry in habit of leaving the pond, and
summer. "When captured and were invariably found moving east-
placed on the ground, "they always ward in the direction of the sea. —
directed themselves towards the Yaerell, vol. ii. p, 384, Anglers
nearest water, which they could not observe that fish newly caught,
possibly see, and which they must when placed out of sight of water,
have discovered by some internal always struggle towards it to
index. They belong to the genus escape.
Hydrargyra, and are called Swam-

348 FISHES. [Chap. X.

and traverse the damp grass ' ; and Sir John Bowring,
in his account of his embassy to the Siamese kings in
1855, states, that in ascending and descending the river
Meinam to Bankok, he was amused with the novel sight
of fish leaving the river, gliding over the wet banks,
and losing themselves amongst the trees of the jungle.^

The class of fishes endowed with this power are chiefly
those with labyrinthiform pharyngeal bones, so disposed
in plates and cells as to retain a supply of moisture,
which, whilst theyare crawling on land, gradually exudes
so as to keep the gills damp.^

The individual most frequently seen in these excur-
sions in Ceylon is a perch called by the Singhalese
Kavaya or Kawhy-ya, and by the Tamils Pannei-eri,
or Sennal. It is closely allied to the Anahas scandens
of Cuvier, the Perca scandens of Daldorf. It grows to
about six inches in length, the head round and covered
with scales, and the edges of the gill-covers strongly
denticulated. Aided by the apparatus already adverted
to in its head, this little creature issues boldly from its
native pools and addresses itself to its toilsome march
generally at night or in the early morning, whilst the
grass is still damp with the dew ; but in its distress it
is sometimes compelled to move by day, and Mr. E. L.
Layard on one occasion encountered a number of them
travelling along a hot and dusty road under the midday
sun.''

' Paxlegoix, vol. i. p. 144, the gOTernment-agent of Trinco-

2 Sir J. Bowring's Siain, ^v., malie, writing to me on this sub-

vol, 1. p. 10. ject in 1856, saj^s — "I was lately

•' Cuvier and Vaxenciexnes, on duty inspecting the bund of a

Hist. Nat. des Poissons, torn. vii. large tank at Nade-cadua, which,

p. 246. being out of repair, the remaining

* Annals and Maff. of Nat. Hist., water was confined in a small

May, 1853, p. 390. Mr. Morris, hollow in the otherwise dry bed.

Chap. X.]

CLIMBING FISH.

349

Referring to the Anabas scandens, Dk. Hamilton
Buchanan says, that of all the fish with which he was
acquainted it is the most tenacious of life ; and he has
known boatmen on the Ganges to keep them for five or
six days in an earthen pot without water, and daily to
use what they wanted, finding them as lively and fresh

as when caught.^

Two Danish naturalists

residing at

Whilst there heavy rain came on,
and, as we stood on the high
ground, we observed a peHcan on
the margin of the shallow pool
gorging himself; our people went
towards him and raised a cry of
fish ! fish ! We hui-ried down, and
found numbers of fish strugghng
upwards through the grass in the
rills formed by the trickling of the
rain. There was scarcely water
enough to cover them, but never-
theless they made rapid progress
up the bank, on which our fol-
lowers collected aboTit two bushels
of them at a distance of forty
yards from the tank. They were
forcing their way up the knoU, and,
had they not been intercepted first
by the pelican and afterwards by
ourselves, they wordd in a few
minutes have gained the highest
point and descended on the other
side into a pool which formed
another portion of the tank. They
were chub, the same as are found
in the mud after the tanks dry up."
In a subsequent communication in
July, 1857, the same gentleman
says — "As the tanks diy up the
fish congregate in the little pools
till at last you find them in thou-
sands in the moistest parts of the
beds, roUing in the blue mud
which is at that time about the
consistence of thick gruel."

" As the moisture further evapo-
rates the surface fish are left un-
covered, and they crawl away in

search of fresh pools. In one place
I saw hu.ndreds diverging in every
direction, from the tank they had
just abandoned to a distance of
fifty or sixty yards, and still travel-
ling onwards. In going this dis-
tance, however, they must have
used muscular exertion sufficient
to have taken them half a mile on
level ground, for at these places all
the cattle and wild animals of the
neighbourhood had latterly come
to drink; so that the sm'face M'as
everywhere indented with, foot-
marks in addition to the cracks in
the surrounding baked mud, into
which the fish tumbled in their
progress. In those holes which
were deep and the sides perpen-
diciilar they remained to die, and
were carried off by kites andcrows."

" My impression is that this mi-
gration takes place at night or
before sunrise, for it was only early
in the morning that I have seen
them progressing, and I found that
those I brought away "with me in
chatties appeared quiet by day,
but a large proportion managed to
get out of the chatties at night —
some escaped altogether, others
were trodden on and killed."

" One peculiarity is the large
size of the vertebral column, quite
disproportioned to the bulk of the
fish. I particularly noticed that all
in the act of migrating had their
gills expanded."

^ Fishes of the Ganges, 4to. 1822.

350

FISHES. [Chap. X.

Tranquebar, have contributed their authority to the fact
of this fish ascending trees on the coast of Coromandel,
an exploit from which it acquired its epithet of Perca
scandens, Daldorf, who was a Heutenant in the Danish
East India Company's service, communicated to Sir
Joseph Banks, that in the year 1791 he had taken this
fish from a moist cavity in the stem of a Palmyra palm,
that o-rew near a lake. He saw it when already five
feet above the ground struggling to ascend still higher ;

« suspending itself by its gill-covers, and bending its

tail to the left, it fixed its anal fin in the cavity of the
bark, and sought by expanding its body to urge its way
upwards, and its march was only arrested by the hand
Avith which he seized it." ^

There is considerable obscurity about the story of this
ascent, although corroborated by ]M. John. Its motive
for climbing is not apparent, since water being close at
hand it could not have gone for sake of the moisture
contained in the fissures of the palm ; nor could it be in
search of food, as it lives not on fruit but on aquatic
insects.^ The descent, too, is a question of difficulty.

1 Transactions Linn. Soc. toI. the sea. " On parle d'lm poisson

iii, p. 63. It is remarkable, how- de merqiii, sortant de Teau, monte

ever, that this discovery of Dal- sur la cocotier et boit le sue de la

dorf, which excited so great an plante ; ensuite il retourne a la

interest in 1791, had been antici- mer." See REiNArD, Belations

pated by an Arabian voyager a des Voyages faits jyar les Arahes et

thousand years before. Abou-zeyd, Persa^is dans le neuvieme siecle,

the compiler of the remarkable torn. i. p. 21, torn. ii. p. 93.

MS. known since Renaudot's trans- ^ Xirby says that it is "in pur-

lation by the title of the TVo i'c75 o/ suit of certain crustaceans that

the Two Mahometans, states that form its food" {Bridgnoater Trca-

Suleyman, one of his informants, tise, vol i. p. 144) ; but I am not

who*^ visited India at the close of aware of any crustaceans in the

the ninth century, was told there island which ascend the palmyra or

of a fish which, issuing from the feed upon its fruit. The Birgus

waters, ascended the coco-nut palms latro, which inhabits Mauritius,

to drink their sap, and returned to and is said to climb the coco-nut

Chap. X.] BURTIXG FISHES. 351

The position of its fins, and the spines on its gill-covers,
might assist its journey upwards, but the saroe apparatus
would prove anything but a facility in steadying its
journey down. The probability is, as suggested by Bu-
chanan, that the ascent which was witnessed by Daldorf
was accidental, and ought not to be regarded as the
habit of the animal. In Ceylon I heard of no instance
of the perch ascending trees^, but the fact is well esta-
blished that both it, the j^ullata (a species oi jpoly acan-
thus), and others, are capable of long journeys on the
level ground.^

Burying Fishes. — But a still more remarkable power
possessed by some of the Ceylon fishes, is that already
alluded to, of secreting themselves in the earth in the
dry season, at the bottom of the exhausted ponds, and
there awaitino: the renewal of the water at the chansfe of
the monsoon. The instinct of the crocodile to resort to
the same expedient has been already referred to^, and in
like manner the fish, when distressed by the evaporation
of the tanks, seek rehef by immersing first their heads,

ior this purpose, has not been baskets nor pockets in which to

observed in Ceylon. place what they catch, will seize a

* This assertion must be quali- fish in their teeth whilst putting
fied by a fact stated by Mr. E. A. fresh bait on their hook. In
Layard, who mentions that on August, 1853, a man was carried
visiting one of the fishing stations into the Pettah hospital at Colombo,
on a Singhalese river, where the having a climbing perch, which he
fish are caught in staked enclo- thus attempted to hold, firmly im-
sures, as described at p. 342, and bedded in his throat. The spines
observing that the chambers were of its dorsal fin prevented its de-
covered with netting, he asked the scent, whilst those of the giU-
reason, and was told '' that some of covers equally forbade its return.
the Jiskcli/nbed Hj) the sticks and got It was eventually extracted by
over.'' — Maff. Nat. Hist, for May the forceps through an incision in
1823, p. 390-1. the oesophagus, and the patient re-

2 Strange accidents have more covered. Other similar cases have

than once occurred at Ceylon proved fatal,
arising from the habit of the ^ See a7ite, p. 285.
native anglers; who, having neither

352 FISHES. [Chap. X.

and by degrees their whole bodies, in the mud ; sinking
to a depth at which they find sufficient moisture to pre-
serve life in a state of lethargy long after the bed of the
tank has been consolidated by the intense heat of the
sun. It is possible, too, that the cracks which reticulate
the surface may admit air to some extent to sustain their
faint respiration.

The same thing takes place in other tropical regions,
subject to vicissitudes of drought and moisture. The
Protopterus^, which inhabits the Grambia (and which
though demonstrated by Professor Owen to possess all
the essential organisation of fishes, is nevertheless pro-
vided with true lungs), is accustomed in the dry season,
when the river retires into its channel, to bury itself to
the depth of twelve or sixteen inches in the indurated
mud of the banks, and to remain in a state of torpor till
the rising of the stream after the rains enables it to re-
sume its active habits. At this period the natives of the
Grambia, like those of Ceylon, resort to the river, and
secure the fish in considerable numbers as they flounder
in the still shallow water. A parallel instance occurs
in Abyssinia in relation to the fish of the Mareb, one of
the sources of the Nile, the waters of which are partially
absorbed in traversing the plains of Taka. During the
summer its bed is dry, and in the slime at the depth of
more than six feet is found a species of fish without
scales, different from any known to inhabit the Nile.^

^ Lepidosiren anncctans, Owen, ritier presomptif du royaume

See Linn. Travis. 1839. d'Alouah, m'a assure que Ton

2 This statement will be found trouYe, dans la vase qui couvre le
in Quateemeee's Memoires sur fond de cette riviere, un grand
VEgyptp, torn. i. p. 17, on the poisson sans ecaiUes, qui ne res-
authority of Abdullah ben Ahmed semble en rien aux poissons du
ben Solaim Assouany, in his Nil, et que, pour 1' avoir, il faut
History of Nubia, " Simon, he- creuser a une toise et plus de pro-

Chap. X.]

BUEYIXG FISH.

353

In South America the "round-headed hassar " of
Gruiana, Callicthys littoralis, and the " yarrow," a species
of the family Esocidae, although they possess no specially
modified respiratory organs, are accustomed to bury
themselves in the mud on the subsidence of water in
the pools during the dry season.^ The Loricavia of
Suiinam, another Siluridan, exhibits a similar instinct,
and resorts to the same expedient. Sir E. Schomburgk,
in his account of the fishes of Gruiana, confirms this
account of the Callicthys, and says " they can exist in
muddy lakes without any water whatever, and great
numbers of them are sometimes dug up from such
situations."^

In those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat,
and small tanks are extremely numerous, the natives
are accustomed in the hot season to die: in the mud for

fondeur." To this passage there
is appended this note: — " Le pa-
triarche Mendes, cite par Legrand
{Belatio7i Hist. cC Ahyssinie, du P.
LoBO, p. 212-3) rapporte que le
fleuve Mareb, apr^s avoir arrose
une etendue de pays considerable,
se perd sous terre ; et que quand
les Portugais faisaient la guerre
dans ce pays, ils fouilloient dans le
sable, et y trouvoient de la bonne
eau et du bon poisson. Au rap-
port de I'auteur de V Ayin Akbery
(torn. ii. p. 146, ed. 1800), dans le
Soubah de Caschmir, pres du lieu
nomme Tilahmoidah, est une grande
pi^ce de terre qui est inondee pen-
dant la saison des pluies. Lorsque
les eaux se sont evapor^es, et que
la vase est presque seche, les habi-
tans prennent des batons d' environ
une aune de long, qu'ils enfoncent
dans la vase, et ils y trouvent
quantite de grands et petits pois-
sons." In the Library of the

British Museum there is an unique

MS. of MaKOEL de AiMEIDA,

written in the sixteenth century,
from which Balthasar Tellec com-
piled his Historia General de
Ethiopia alia, printed at Coimbra
in 1660, and in it the above state-
ment of Mendes is corroborated by
Almeida, who says that he was
told by Joao Gabriel, a Creole
Portuguese, born in Abyssinia, who
had visited the Mareb, and who
said that the "fish were to be
foimd everywhere eight or ten
palms down, and that he had eaten
of them."

' See Paper " on some Species of
Fishes and Beptiles in Demerara,'^
by J. HA?a)cocK, Esq., M.D., Zoo-
logical Journal, vol. iv. p. 243.

* A curious account of the bora-
chung or "ground fish" of Bhoo-
tan, will be found in Note (C.) ap-
pended to this chapter.

A A

3.54 FISHES. [Chap. X.

fish. Mr. Whitinor, the chief civil officer of the eastern
province, informs me that, on two occasions, he was pre-
sent accidentally when the villagers were so engaged,
once at the tank of Malliativoe, within a few miles of
Kottiar, near the bay of Trincomalie, and again at a
tank between Ellendetorre and Arnitivoe, on the bank
of the Vergel river. The clay was firm, but moist, and
as the men flung out lumps of it with a spade, it fell to
pieces, disclosing fish from nine to twelve inches long,
which were full grown and healthy, and jumped on the
bank when exposed to the sun light.

Being desirous of obtaining a specimen of fish so ex-
humed, I received from the Moodliar of Matura, A.B.
Wickremeratne, a fish taken along with others of the
same kind from a tank in which the water had dried
up ; it was found at a depth of a foot and a half where
the mud was still moist, whilst the surface was dry and
hard. The fish which the moodliar sent to me is an
Anabas, closely resembling the Perca scandens of Dal-
dorf ; but on minute examination it proves to be a

THE ANABAS OF THE DRY TANKS.

species unknown in India, and hitherto found only in
Borneo and China. It is the A. oligolepis of Bleek.

Chap. X.] BURYING FISH. 355

But the faculty of becoming torpid at such periods is
not confined in Ce3don to the crocodile sand fishes ; —
it is also possessed by some of the fresh-water mol-
lusca and aquatic coleoptera. One of the former, the
Ampullaria glauca, is found in still water in all parts
of the island, not alone in the tanks, but in rice-fields
and the watercourses by which they are irrigated.
When, during the dry season, the water is about to
evaporate, it burrows and conceals itself^ till the re-
turning rains restore it to activity, and reproduce its
accustomed food. There, at a considerable depth in the
soft mud, it deposits a bundle of eggs with a white
calcareous shell, to the number of one hundred or more
in each group. The Melania Paludina in the same
w^ay retires during the droughts into the muddy soil of
the rice lands ; and it can only be by such an instinct
that this and other mollusca are preserved when the tanks
evaporate, to re-appear in full growth and vigour imme-
diately on the return of the rains.^

' A knowledge of this fact was ^ For a similar fact relative to

turned to prompt account by Mr. the shells and water beetles in the

Edgar S. Layard, when holding pools near Eio Janeiro, see Dar-

a judicial office at Point Pedro in w-m's Nat. Journal, ch. v. p. 99.

1849. A native who had been de- Benson, in the first toI. of Glean-

frauded of his land complained ings of Scie7ice, published at Cal-

before him of his neighbour, who, cutta in 1829, describes a species

during his absence, had removed of Paludina found in pools, which

their common landmark, divert- are periodically dried up in the

ing the original watercourse and hot season but reappear with the

obliterating its traces by filling it rains, p. 363. And in the Journal

up to a level with the rest of the of the Asiatic Society of Bengal

field. JMr. Layard directed a for Sept. 1832, Lieut Huttox, in

trench to be sunk at the contested a singularly interesting paper, has

spot, and discovering numbers of followed up the same subject by a

the Ampullaria, the remains of the narrative of his own observations

eggs, and the li^^ng animal which at Mirzapore, wherein June, 1832,

had been buried for months, the after a few heavy showers of rain,

evidence was so resistless as to that formed pools on the siu'face

confound the wrong-doer, and ter- of the ground near a mango grove,

minate the suit. he saw the .Paludina issxiiug from

A A 2

316 FISHES. [Chap. X.

Dr. John Hunter^ has advanced an opinion that hy-
bernation, although a result of cold, is not its immediate
consequence, but is attributable to that deprivation of
food and other essentials which extreme cold occasions,
and against the recurrence of which nature makes a
timely provision by a suspension of her functions. Ex-
cessive heat in the tropics produces an effect upon ani-
mals and vegetables analogous to that of excessive cold
in northern regions, and hence it is reasonable to suppose
that the torpor induced by the one may be but the coun-
terpart of the hybernation which results from the other.
The frost that imprisons the alligator in the Mississippi
as effectually cuts it off from food and action as the
drouo-ht which incarcerates the crocodile in the sun-burnt
clay of a Ceylon tank. The hedgehog of Europe enters
on a period of absolute torpidity as soon as the incle-
mency of winter deprives it of its ordinary supply of
slugs and insects ; and the tenrec ^ of Madagascar, its
tropical representative, exhibits the same tendency
during the period when excessive heat produces in that
climate a like result.

the ground, "pusHng aside the nograph in the Camb. Phil. Trans.
moistened earth and coming forth vol. iv.). The fact is elsewhere
from their retreats ; but on the alluded to in the present work of
disappearance of the water not one the power possessed by the land
of them was to be seen above leech of Ceylon of retaining vitality
ground. "Wishing to ascertain what even after being parched to hard-
had become of them he turned up ness during the heat of the rainless
the earth at the base of several season. Lyell mentions the in-
trees, and invariably found the stance of some snails in Italy which,
shells buried from an inch to two when they hybernate, descend to
inches below the surface." Lieut, the depth of five feet and more
Hutton adds that the Ampullarice below the surface. Prhicip. of
and Planorbes, as well as the Palu- Geology, ^t. p. 373.
din<B are found in similar situa- ^ Hunter's Observations on parts
tious during the heats of the dry of the Animal (Economy, p. 88.
season. The British Pisidea ex- ^ Centetes ccaudatus, Illiger.
hibit the same faculty (see a mo-

Chap. X.] ^STIVATIOX OF MOLLUSCS. 357

The descent of the ArapuUaria, and other fresh-water
molluscs, into the mud of the tanks, has its parallel in
the conduct of the Bulimi and Helices on land. The
European snail, in the beginning of winter, either buries
itself in the earth or withdraws to some crevice or over-
arching stone to await the returning vegetation of spring.
So, in the season of intense heat, the Helix Waltoni of
Ceylon, and others of the same family, before retiring
under cover, close the aperture of their shells with an
impervious epiphragm, which effectually protects their
moisture and juices from evaporation during the period
of their sestivation. The Bulimi of Chili have been
found alive in England in a box packed in cotton after
an interval of two years, and the animal inhabiting a
land-shell from Suez, which was attached to a tablet
and deposited in the British Museum in 1846, was found
in 1850 to have formed a fresh epiphragm, and on being
immersed in tepid water, it emerged from its shell. It
became torpid again on the 15th November, 1851, and
was found dead and dried up in March, 1852.^ But
exceptions serve to prove the accuracy of Hunter's opi-
nion almost as strikingly as accordances, since the same
genera of animals that hybernate in Europe, where ex-
treme cold disarranges their oeconomy, evince no symp-
toms of lethargy in the tropics, provided their food be
not diminished by the heat. Ants, which are torpid in
Europe during winter, work all the year round in India,
where sustenance is uniform.^ The shrews of Ceylon
(Sorex niontanus and >S^. ferrugineus of Kelaart), like

* Annals of Natural History, in the Entomological Trans, the

1850. See Dr. Bated's Account of operations of an ant in India whicli

Helix desertorum ; Excelsior, Sfc, lays up a store of hay against the

ch. i. p. 345. rainy season.

'^ Colonel Sktes has described

A A 3

358 FISHES. [Chap. X.

those at home, subsist upon insects, but as they inhabit
a region where the equable temperature admits of the
pursuit of their prey at all seasons of the year, unlike
those of Europe, they never hybernate. A similar ob-
servation applies to bats, which are dormant during a
northern winter when insects are rare, but never become
torpid in any part of the tropics. The bear, in like
manner, is nowhere deprived of its activity except when
the rigour of severe frost cuts off its access to its accus-
tomed food. On the other hand, the tortoise, which in
Venezuela immerses itself in indurated mud during the
hot months shows no tendency to torpor in Ceylon,
where its food is permanent; and yet it is subject to hy-
bernation when carried to the colder regions of Europe.

To the fish in the detached tanks and pools when the
heat, by exhausting the water, deprives them at once of
motion and sustenance, the practical effect must be the
same as when the frost of a northern winter encases
them in ice. Nor is it difficult to believe that they can
successfully undergo the one crisis when we know beyond
question that they may survive the other. ^

Hot-water Fishes. — Another incident is striking in
connection with the fresh- water fishes of Ceylon. I have
described elsewhere the hot springs of Kannea^, in the

' Yaeeell, vol. i. p, 364, quotes into one solid lump of ice, yet, ou

tlie authority of Dr. J. Hunter in the water being thawed, the fish

his Animal (Economy, that fish, became as liyely as usual. Dr.

"after being frozen still retain so Eichardson, in the third vol. of

much of life as when thawed to his Fauna Borealis Americana,

resume their vital actions ;" and says the grey sucking carp, found

in the same volume {Introd. vol. i. in the fur countries of North

p. xyii.) he relates from Jesse's America, may be frozen and thawed

Gleanings in I\atural History, the again without being killed in the

story of a gold fish {Cyprinus process.

auratus), which, together with the ^ See Sib J. Emerson Tennent's

water m a marble basin, was frozen Ceylon, &c., vol. ii. p. 496.

Chap. X ] LIST OF CEYLOX FISHES. 359

vicinity of Trincomalie, the water in which flows at a
temperature varying at different seasons from 85'^ to
115°. In the stream formed by these wells M. Eeynaud
found and forwarded to Cuvier two fishes which he took
from the water at a time when his thermometer indicated
a temperature of 37° Eeaumur, equal to 115° of Fahren-
heit. The one was an Apogon, the other an Ambassis,
and to each, from the heat of its habitat, he assigned the
specific name of " thermalis." ^

List of Ceylon Fishes.

In the following list, the Acanthopterj^gian fishes of
Ceylon has been prepared for me by Dr. GtUNTHee, and
will be found the most complete which has appeared of
this order. I am also indebted to him for the correction
of the list of ]Malacopterygians, which I hope ere long
to render still more extended, as well as that of the
Cartilao-inous fishes.

^ Cuv, and Val., vol. iii. p. 363. perature. — Journ. Asiatic Soc. of

In addition to the two fishes above Beng. vol. vi. p. 465. Fishes have

named, a loehe Cobitis thermalis, been observed in a hot spring at

and a carp, Nuria thermoicos, were ManiLa which raises the ther-

found in the hot-springs of Kan- mometer to 187°, and in another

nea, at a heat 40° Cent., 114° in Barbaiy, the xisual temperature

Fahr., and a roach, Leucisciis thcr- of which is 172° ; and Humboldt

malis, when the thermometer in- and Bonpland, when travelling in

dicated 50° Cent., 122° Fahr. — lb. South America, saw fishes thrown

xviii. p. 59, xvi. p. 182, xvii. p. up alive from a volcano, in water

94. Fish have been taken from a that raised the temperature to

hot spring at Pooree when the 210°, being two degrees below the

thermometer stood at 112° Fahr., boiling point. Pattersox's Zoo-

and as they belonged to a carnivo- logi/, Pt. ii. p. 211 ; Yajkeell's

rous genus, they must have found History of British Fishes, vol. i.

prey living in the same high tern- In. p. xvi.

A A 4

360

FISHES.

[Chap. X.

I. OSSEOUS.

ACAXTHOPTEEYGIL

BERYClDiE, Lowe.

Myripristis murdjan, Forsk.
Holocentrum rubrum, Forsk.
spiniferuni, Forsk.
diadema, Lacep.
Percid^, Gunther.

* Lates calcarifer, Bl.
Serranus louti, Forsk.

pachycentrum, C. Sf V.

guttatus, Bl.

Sonneratii, C. 8; V.

angularis, C. Sf V.

marginalis, Bl.

hexagonatus, Forsk.

flavocoeruleus, Lacep.

biguttatus, C. 8s V.

lemniscatus, C. Sf V.

Ainboinensis, Bleek.

bcenak, C. S^ V.
Gramtnistes orientalis, Bl,
Genyoroge Sebae, C. Sf V.

Benaalensis, C. Sf V.

marginata, C- Sf V.

rivuldta. C. ^ V.

gibba, Forsk.

spilura, Benn.
Mesoprion aurolineatus, C. % V.

rangus, C. Sf V.

quinquelineatus, Riipp.

Johnii, Bl.

annularis. C. Sf V.
? Priacanthus Blochii, Bleek.
Ambassis n. sp., Giinth.

Commersonii, C. S; V.

thermalis, C. Sf V.
Apogon Ceylonicus, C. & V.

thermalis, C. 8^ y.

annularis, Riipp. var. rosei-
pinnis.
Chilodipterus quinquelineatus, CSfJ'.

PkistipomatidjK, Gunther.
Dales Bennettii, Bleek.

* Therapon servus, Block.

* trivittatus, Buck. Ham,
quadrilineatus, Bl.

* Helotes polytaenia, Bleek.
Pristipoma hasta. Block.

maculatum, Bl.
Diagramma punctatum, Ehrenb.

orientale, Bl.

poecilopterum, C. Sf V.

Blochii, C. ^ V.

lineatum, Gm,

Radja, Bleek.
Lobotes auctorum, Gilntk.
Gerres oblongus, C Sf J'.
Scolopsis Japonicus. Bl.

bimaculatus, Riipp.

monogramma, A-. ^ v. H.
Synagris lurcosus, C. ^- V.
Pentapus aurolineatus, Lacip.
Smaris balteatus, C. 4' V-
CaEsio ccerulaureus, Lacep,

MuLLiD.E, Gray.

Upeneus tEeniopterus, C. 8^ V.
Indicus, Shaw.
cyclostoma Lacip,

Upe. trifasciatus, Lacep.

cinnabarinus, C, 8( V.
Upeneoides vittatus, forsk,

tragula.

sulphureus, C. Sf V.
Mulloides flavoiineatus, Lacep.

Ceylonicus, C ^ V.

SPARin^, Giinther.

Lethrinus frenatus, C. <§• V.
cinereus, C. 8s V.
fasciatus, C. 8s V,
? ramak, Forsk.
opercularjs, C. Sf V.
erythrurus, C. Sf V.
Pagrus spinifer, Forsk.
Crysophrys hasta, Bl.
? Pimelepterus Ternatensis, Bleek.

Squamipinnes, Giinther.

Chaetodon Layardi, Blyth.

oligacanthus, Bleek.

setifer, BL

vagabundus, L.

guttatissimus, Benn.

pictus, Forsk.

xanthocephalus, Benn.

Sebae, C. S; V.
Heniochus macrolepidotus, Artedi.
Holacanthus annularis, Bl.

xanthurus, Benn.

imperator, Bl.
Scatophagus argus, Gm.
Ephippus orbis, Bl.
Drepane punctata, Gm.

ClRRHiTiD^, Gray.

Cirrhites Forsteri, Schn.

Cataphracti, Cuv.

Scorpaena polyprion, Bleek.
Pterois volitans, L.

miles, Benn.
Tetraroge longispinis, C. Sf V.
Platycephalus insidiator, Forsk,

puuctatus, C. 4" V.

serratus, C. Sf V.

tuberculatus, C. 8f V. '

suppositus, Trosch,
Dactylopterus orientalis, C. Sf V.

TRACHiNiDiE, Giinther.
? Uranoscopus guttatus, C. 8s V,
Percis raillepunctata, Giinth.
Sillago siliama, Forsk.

SciiENiD^, Giinther.

Sciaena diacantha, Lacep.

maculata, Schn.

Dussumieri, C Sf V.
Corvina miles, C. Sf V.
Otolithus argenteus, k. Sf v. H.

PoLYNEMiD^, Giinther.

Polynemus heptadactylus, C. ^ V,
hexanemus, C. ^ V.
Indicus, Shaw.
plebeius, Gm.
tetradactylus, Shaw,
Sphyr^nid.e, Agass.

Sphyraena jello, C. Sf V.
obtusata, C. Sf V,
Trichiurid^, Giinther.
Trichiurus savala, Cuv.

Chap. X.]

LIST OF CEYLON FISHES.

361

ScoMBRiDiE, GUnther.
.? Thynnus affinis, Cant.

Cybium Commersonii, Lacip.

gutlatuin, Schn.
Naucrates doctor, L.
Elacate nigra, Bl.

? n. sp.
Echeneis remora, L.

scutata, Giinth.

naucrates, L.
Stromateus cinereus, Bl.

niger, Bl.
Coryphaena hippurus, L.
Mene maculata, Schn.
Carangid-e, GUnther.
Caranx Heberi, Benn.

Rottleri, Bl.

calla, C. ^ V.

xanthurus, K. 8( v. H.

talamparoides, Bleek,,^

Malabaricus, Schn.

speciosus, Forsk. ,

carangus, Bh

hippos, L.

armatus, Forsk.

ciliaris, Bl.

gallus, L.
Micropteryx chrysurus, L.
Seriola nigro-fasciata, Riipp.
Chorinemus Ivsan, Forsk.

Sancti Petri, C. ^ V.
Trachynotus oblongus, C. S( V.

ovatus, L.
Psettus argenteus, L.
Platax vesper tilio, Bl.

Raynaldi, C. 8( V.
Zanclus sp. n.

Lactarius dclicatulus, C. 8[ V.
Equula fasciata, Lacep.

edentula, Bl.

daura, Cuv.

interrupta.
Gazza minuta, Bl.

equulaeformis, EUpp.
Pempheris sp.
XiPHiiD^, Agass.

Histiophorus immaculatus, Rilpp.
Theutyid^, GUnther.
Theutys Javus, L.

stellata, Forsk.

nebulosa, A. ^ G.
AcRONORiD^, GUnther.

Acanthurus tviostegus, L.

nigrofuscus, Forsk.

lineatus, L.

Tennentii, Gthr.

leucosternon, Bennett,

ctenodon, C. 4r V-

rhombeus, Kittl.

xanthurus, Blyth.*
Acronurus melas, C. ^ V.

melanurus, C. S; V.
Naseus unicornis, Forsk.

brevirostris, C. ^ V.

tuberosus, Lacep.

lituratus, Forster.
ACLOSTOMATA, Ctivier.

Fistularia serrata, Bl.
BlenmidjE, MUU.

Salarias fasciatus, Bl.

Sal. marmoratus, Benn.'
tridactylus, Schn.
quadricornis, C. S[ V.

GOBIID.^, Mull.

Gobius ornatus, RUpp.

giuris. Buck. Ham.

albopunctatus, C. 8( V.

graramepomus, Bleek.
Apocryptes lanceolatus, Bl.
Periophthalmus Koelreuteri, Pall.
Eleotris ophiocephalus, K. S[ v. U.

fusca, Bl.

sexguttata, C. Sc V.

muralis, A. Sf G.

Mastacembelidb, GUnther.

Mastacembelus armatus, Lacep.

Pediculati, Cuv.

Antennarius marmoratus, GUntfi.
hispidus, Schn.
pinniceps, Commers.
Commersonii, Lacep.
multiocellatus. GUnth,
bigibbus, Lacep.

AxHERiNiDi;, GUnther.

Alherina Forskalii, RUpp.
duodecimalis, C. i^ V.

McGiLiD^, GUnther.

Mugil planiceps, C. 8; V.
Waigiensis, A. G.
Ceylonensis, GUnth.

Ophtocephalid^, GUnther.

Ophiocephalus punctatus, Bl.
Kelaartii, GUnth.
striatus, Bl.
marulius. Ham. Buck.
Channa orientalis, Schn.
Labyrinthici, Cuv.

Anabas oligolepis, Bleek.
Polyacanthus signatus, GUnth.

PHAEYNGOGNATHL

Amphiprion Clarkii, J. Benn,
Dascyllus aruanus, C. S( V,
trimaculatus, RUpp.
Glyphisodon septem-fasciatus, C. S; V.

Brownrigii, Benn.

ccelestinus, Sol.
Etroplus Suratensis, Bl.
Julis lunaris Linn.

decussatus, W Benn.

formosus, C. 8f V.

quadricolor. Lesson.

dorsalis, Quoy Ss Gaim.

aureomaculatus, W. Benn.

Ceilanicus, E. Benn.

Finlaysoni, C. §• V.

purpureo-lineatus, C. 8[. F,

cingulum, C. Sf V.
Gomphosus fuscus, C. ^ V,

coeruleus, Comm.

viridis, W. Benn.
Scarus pepo, TV. Benn.

harid, Forsk.
Tautoga fasciata, Thunb.
Hemirhamphus Reynaldi, C. Sf V.

Georgii C. Sg V.
Exoccetus evolans, Linn.
Belone annulata, C. S( V.

362

FISHES.

[Chap. X.

MALACOPTERYGII (ABDOMINAXES).

Bagrus gulio, Buck.

albilabris, C S; V.
Plotosus lineatus, C. Sf V.
Barbus tor, C. ^ V.
Niiria thermoicos, C. <Sr V-
Leuciscus dandia, C djr V.

scalpel I us, C. S[ V.

Ceylonicus, E. Benn.

thermalis, C. ^ V.
Cobitis thermalis, C. Sf V.
Chirocentrus dorab, Forsk.
Elops SHurus, /,.
Megalops cundinga, Buck.
Engraulis Brownii, Gm.
Sardinella leiogaster, ('. 8; V.

liiieolata, C. ^ V.

Neohowii.
Saurus myops, ^al.
baurida tombil, Bl,

MAXACOPTERYGTI (sXJB-BRANCHIATi).
Pleuronectes, L.

MAXACOPTEBYGn (aPODA).
Muraena.

LOPHOBBANCHI.
Syngnathus, L.

PLECTOGNATHn.

Tetraodon ocellatus, W. Benn.

tepa, Buck.

argyropleura, E. Bennett.

argHiitatus, Blytli.
Balistes biaculeatus, W. Benn.

lineatus, Bl,
Triacanthus biaculeatus, W. Benn.
Alutarius laevis, Bl.

II. CAETILAGINOUS.

Pristis antiquorum. Lath.

cuspidatus. Lath.

pectinatus. Lath.
Chiloscyllium plaaiosum, Benn.
Stegostoma fasciatum, Bl.
Carcharias acutus, Biipp.
Sphyrna zygaena. L.
Rhynchobatus laevis. Bl.
Trygon uarnak, Forsk.
Pteroplatea micrura, Bl.
Taeniura lymna, Fui'sk.
Myliobatis Nieuhofii, Bl.
Aetobates narinari, Bl.

NOTE (A.)

INSTANCES OF FISHES FALLING FEOM THE CLOUDS IN INDIA.

{From the Bombay Times, 1856.)
See Pase 343.

The late Dr. Buist, after enumerating cases in which fishes
were said to have been thro"\Yn out from volcanoes in South
America and precipitated from clouds in various parts of the
world, adduced the following instances of similar occurrences
in India. " In 1824," he says, " fishes fell at JNIeerut, on the
men of Her Majesty's 14th Regiment, then out at drill, and
were caught in numbers. In July, 1826, live fish were seen
to fall on the grass at INIoradabad during a storm. They were
the common cyprinus, so prevalent in our Indian waters. On
the 19th of February, 1830, at noon, a heavy fall of fish
occurred at the Nokulhatty factory, in the Daccah zillah ;

Chap. X.] SHOWERS OF FISPIES. 363

depositions on the subject were obtained from nine different
parties. The fish "were all dead ; most of them were large ;
some were fresh, others were rotten and mutilated. They
were seen at first in the skv, like a flock of birds, descendino:
rapidly to the ground; there was rain drizzKng, but no storm.
On the 16th and 17th of May, 1833, a fall offish occurred in
the zillah of Futtehpoor, about three miles north of the Jumna,
after a violent storm of wind and rain. The fish were fi^om a
pound and a lialf to three pounds in weight, and of the same
species as those found in the tanks in the neighbourhood.
They were all dead and dry. A fall of fish occm-red at Alla-
habad, during a storm in May, 1835 ; they were of the chowla
species, and were found dead and dry after the storm had
passed over the district. On the 20tli of September, 1839,
after a smart shower of rain, a quantity of live fish, about
three inches in length and all of the same kind, fell at the
Sunderbunds, about twenty miles south of Calcutta. On this
occasion it was remarked that the fish did not fall here and
there irregularly over the gromid, but in a continuous straight
line, not more than a span in breadth. The vast multitudes
of fish, with which the low gromids round Bombay are covered,
about a week or ten days after the first burst of the monsoon,
appear to be derived from the adjoining pools or rivulets, and
not to descend from the sky. They are not, so far as I know,
found in the higher parts of the island. I have never seen
them, (though I have watched carefully,) in casks collecting
water from the roofs of buildings, or heard of them on the
decks or awnings of vessels in the harbour, where they must
have appeared had they descended from the sky. One of the
most remarkable phenomena of this kind occurred dui"ing a
tremendous deluge of rain at Kattywar, on the 25 th of July,
1850, Avhen the ground around Eajkote was fomid literally
covered with fish ; some of them were found on the tops of
haystacks, where probably they had been drifted by the storm.
In the coui'se of twenty-four successive hours twenty-seven
inches of rain fell, thirtj^-five fell in twenty-six hours, seven

364 FISHES. [Cha.p. X.

inches within one hour and a half, being the heaviest fall on
record. At Poonah, on the 3rd of August, 1852, after a very-
heavy fall of rain, multitudes of fish were caught on the ground
in the cantonments, full half a mile from the nearest stream.
If showers of fish are to be explained on the assumption that
they are carried up by squalls or violent winds, from rivers or
spaces of water not far away from where they fall, it would be
nothing wonderfiil were they seen to descend from the air
during the furious squalls which occasionally occur in June."

NOTE (B.)

CEYLON FISHES.

{^Memorandum hy Professor Huxley.)

See Page 324.

The large series of beautifully coloured drawings of the
fishes of Ceylon, which has been submitted to my inspection,
possesses an unusual value for several reasons.

The fishes, it appears, were all captured at Colombo, and
even had those from other parts of Ceylon been added, the
geographical area would not have been very extended. Never-
theless there are more than 600 drawings, and though it is
possible that some of these represent varieties in different
stages of growth of the same species, I have not been able to
find definite evidence of the fact in any of those groups which
I have particularly tested. If, however, these drawings repre-
sent six hundred distinct species of fish, they constitute, so far
as I know, the largest collection of fish from one locality in
existence.

The number of known British fishes may be safely assumed
to be less than 250, and Mr. Yarrell enumerates only 226, Dr.
Cantor's valuable work on Malayan fishes enumerates not
more than 238, while Dr. Russell has figured only 200 from

Chap. X.] FISHES OF CEYLON. 365

Coromandel. Even the enormous area of tlie Chinese and
Japanese seas has as yet not yielded 800 species of fishes.

The large extent of the collection alone, then, renders it of
great importance : but its value is immeasurably enhanced by
the two circumstances, — -first, that every drawing was made
while the fish retained all that vividness of colouring which
becomes lost so soon after its removal fi'om its native element ;
and secondly, that when the sketch was finished its subject
was carefully labelled, preserved in spirits, and forwarded to
England, so that at the present moment the original of every
drawing can be subjected to anatomical examination, and
compared with ah-eady named species.

Under these circumstances, I do not hesitate to say that the
collection is one of the most valuable in existence, and might,
if properly worked out, become a large and secure foundation
for all future investigation into the ichthyology of the Indian
Ocean.

It would be very hazardous to express an opinion as to the
novelty or otherwise of the species and genera figui-ed without
the study of the specimens themselves, as the specific distinc-
tions of fish are for the most part based upon character — the
fin-rays, teeth, the operculum, &c., which can only be made
out by close and careful examination of the object, and cannot
be represented in ordinary drawings however accurate.

There are certain groups of fish, however, whose family
traits are so marked as to render it almost impossible to mis-
take even their portraits, and hence I may venture, without
fear of being far wrong, upon a few remarks as to the general
features of the ichthyological fauna of Ceylon.

In our own seas rather less than a tenth of the species of
fishes belong to the cod tribe. I have not found one repre-
sented in these dramngs, nor do either Eussell or Cantor men-
tion any in the surrounding seas, and the result is in general
harmony with the known laws of distribution of these most
useful of fishes.

On the other hand, the mackerel family, including the tun-

366 FISHES. [Chap. X.

nies, the bonitas, the dories, the horse-mackerels, &c., which
form not more than one sixteenth of our own fish fauna, but
which are known to increase their proportion in hot climates,
appear in wonderftil variety of form and colour, and constitute
not less than one fifth of the whole of the species of Ceylon
fish. In Eussell's catalogue they form less than one fifth, in
Cantor's less than one sixth.

Marine and other siluroid fishes, a group represented on the
continent of Europe, but doubtfully, if at all, in this country,
constitute one twentieth of the Ceylon fishes. In Russell's and
Cantor's lists they form about one thirtieth of the whole.

The sharks and rays form about one seventh of our own fish
fauna. They constitute about one tenth or one eleventh of
Russell's and Cantor's lists, while among these Ceylon draw-
ings I find not more than twenty, or about one thirtieth of the
whole, which can be referred to this group of fishes. It must
be extremely interesting to know whether this circumstance
is owing to accident, or to the local peculiarities of Colombo,
or whether the fauna of Ceylon really is deficient in such
fishes.

The like exceptional character is to be noticed in the propor-
tion of the tribe of flat fishes, or PleuronectidcB . Soles, turbots,
and the like, form nearly one twelfth of our own fishes. Both
Cantor and Russell give the flat fishes as making one twenty-
second part of their collection, while in the whole 600 Ceylon
drawings I can find but five Pleuronectidce.

When this great collection has been carefully studied, I
doubt not that many more interesting distributional facts will
be evolved.

Since receiving this note from Professor Huxley, the draw-
ings in question have been submitted -to Dr. Gray, of the
British Museum. That eminent naturalist, after a careful
analysis, has favoured me with the following memorandum of

Chap. X.j

GROUXD-FISH OF BHOOTA^^,

367

the fishes they represent, numerically contrasting them with
those of China and Japan, so far as we are acquainted with
the ichthyology of those seas : —

cartllagint:a.

China and

China and

Ceylon.

Japan.

Ceylon.

Japan.

Pe. cirrhitidas .

. 0 .

•J

Squali

. 12 .

. 15

nicenidite

. 37 .

. 25

Kiiiae .

. 19 .

. 20

sparidae

. 16 .

. 17

Stiiriones .

0 .

1

acanthuridas .

. 14 .

. 6

chaetodoniidae

. 25 .

. 21

OSTINOPTERYGII.

fistuiaridEe .
Periodopharyngi,

. 2 .

. 3

Plectognathi.

mugilidae

. 5 .

. 7

tetraodontidae

. 10 .

. 21

anabantidse .

. 6 .

. 15

balistidae

. 9 .

. 19

pomacentridse

. 10 .

. 11

Lophobranchii.

Pharj'ngognathi.

sytigiiathidae

. 2 .

. 2

labridae

. 16 .

. 35

pegasidae

. 0 .

. 3

scomberesocidae

13 .

. 6

Ctenobranchii.

blenniidce

. 3 .

8

lophidffl

. 1 .

. 3

Scomberina.

Cyclopodi.

zeidfe .

. 0 .

2

echeneidae .

0 .

. 1

sphyraenidae .

. 5 .

. 4

cyclopteridae

0 .

. I

scomberidae .

.lis .

. 62

gobidae

. 7 .

. 35

xiphiidse

. 0 .

. 1

Percini.

cepolidae

. 0 .

. 5

callionyinidae

. 0 .

/

Heterosomata.

uranoscopidse

. 0 .

7

platessoideze.

• •">

. 22

cottidze

, 0 .

. 13

siluridae

. 31 .

- 24

triglidae

11 .

. 37

cvprinidas

. 19 .

. 52

polynemidae .

12 .

. 3

scopelinidae .

. 2 .

. 7

muUidse

1 .

. 7

salmonidae .

0 .

. 1

percJdse

2t; .

. 12

ckipeids

. 43 .

. 22

berycidae

0 .

5

gadidje .

. 0 .

. . 2

sillaginidae .

3 .

. 1

macruridae .

. 1 .

. 0

sciaenidae

l[t .

. 13

Apodes.

lisemulinida2

G .

. 12

anguillida?

8

. 12

serranidae

31 .

. 38

muraenidse

8

. 6

therapoiiidae

8 .

. '20

sphagebranchida?

8

. 10

NOTE (C).

ON THE BORA-CHUNG, OR " GROUND-FISH " OF BHOOTAN.

See P. 353.

In Bhootan, at the south-eastern extremity of the Himalayas,
a fish is found, the scientific name of which is unknown to me,
biit it is called by the natives the Bora-chung, and by European
residents the " ground-fish of Bhootan." Tt is described in the
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1839, by a writer
(who had seen it alive), as being about two feet in length, and

368 FISHES. [Chap. X.

cylindrical, witli a thick body, somewhat shaped like a pike,
but rounder, the nose curved upwards, the colour olive-green,
^vith orange stripes, and the head speckled with crimson. ^
This fish, according to the native story, is caught not in the
rivers in whose vicinity it is found, but " in perfectly dry
places in the middle of grassy jungle, sometimes as far as two
miles from the banks." Here, on finding a hole four or five
inches in diameter, they commence to dig, and continue tiU
they come to water ; and presently the hora-chung rises to the
surface, sometimes fi-om a depth of nineteen feet. In these
extemporised wells these fishes are found always in pairs, and
when brought to the surface they glide rapidly over the ground
with a serpentine motion. This account appeared in 1839 ;
but some years later, Mr. Campbell, the Superintendent of
Darjeeling, in a communication to the same journal^, divested
the story of much of its exaggeration, by stating, as the result
of personal inquiry in Bhootan, that the hora-chung inhabits
the jheels and slow-running streams near the hills, but lives
principally on the banks, into which it penetrates from one to
five or six feet. The entrance to these retreats leading from
the river into the bank is generally a few inches below the
surface, so that the fish can return to the water at pleasure.
The mode of catching them is by introducing the hand into
these holes ; and the bora-chungs are found generally two in
each chamber, coiled concentrically like snakes. It is not
believed that they bore their own burrows, but that they take
possession of those made by land-crabs. Mr. Campbell denies
that they are more capable than other fish of moving on dry
ground. From the, particulars given, the hora-chung would
appear to be an Ophwcephalus, probably the 0. harka described
by Buchanan, as inhabiting holes in the banks of rivers tri-
• butary to the Ganges.

^ Paper by Mr. J. T. Peaeson, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. viii.
p. 551.

2 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xi. p. 963:

369

CHAP. XI.

SHELLS.

Mollusca. — Radiata, &c,

Ceylon has long been renowned for the beauty and
variety of the shells which abound in its seas and inland
waters, and in which an active trade has been organised
by the industrious Moors, who clean them with great
expertness, arrange them in satin-wood boxes, and send
them to Colombo and all parts of the island for sale.
In general, however, these specimens are more prized
for their beauty than valued for their rarit}^, though
some of the " Argus " cowries ^ have been sold as high
as foiLT guineas a pair.

One of the principal sources whence their supplies are
derived is the beautiful Bay of Venloos, to the north
of Batticaloa, formed by the embouchure of the Natoor
river. The scenery at this spot is enchanting. The sea
is overhung by gentle acclivities wooded to the summit ;
and in an opening between two of these eminences the
river flows through a cluster of little islands covered
with mangroves and acacias. A bar of rocks projects
across it, at a short distance from the shore ; and these
are frequented all day long by pelicans, that come at

* CyprcBa Argus.
B £

370

SHELLS.

[Chap. XI.

sunrise to fish, and at evening return to their solitary
breeding-places remote from the beach. The strand is
literally covered with beautiful shells in rich profusion,
and the dealers from Trincomalie know the proper season
to visit the bay for each particular description. The en-
tire coast, however, as far north as the Elephant Pass, is
indented by little rocky inlets, where shells of endless
variety may be collected in great abundance.^ Dur-
ing the north-east monsoon a formidable surf bursts
upon the shore, which is here piled high with mounds
of yellow sand; and the remains of shells upon the

water mark show how rich the
sea is in mollusca. Amongst them
are prodigious numbers of the
ubiquitous violet-coloured Ian-
thina^f which rises when the
ocean is calm, and by means of
its inflated vesicles floats lightly on the surface.

The trade in shells is one of extreme antiquity
in Ceylon. The Grulf of Manaar has been fished from
the earliest times for the large chank shell, Turbinella

lANTHIN^.

' In one of these beautiful little
"bays near Catchavelly, between
Trincomalie and Batticaloa, I found
the sand "within the wash of the
sea literally covered with mollusca
and shells, and amongst others a
species of Bullia (B. vittata, I
think), the inhabitant of which
has the faculty of mooring itself
firmly by sending down its mem-
branous foot into the wet sand,
"where, imbibing the water, this
organ expands horizontally into a
broad fleshy disc, by which the
animal anchors itself, and tlius
secured, collects its food in the

ripple of the waves. On the
slightest alarm, the water is dis-
charged, the disc collapses into its
original dimensions, and the shell
and its inhabitant disappear to-
gether beneath the sand.

BDLLIA VITTATA,

^ lantliina communis^ Kraiiss,
and /. 2)rolo7igata, Blainv.

Chap. XI.] TUEBINELLA RAPA. 371

rap a, to be exported to India, where it is still sawn
into rings and worn as anklets and bracelets by the
women of Hindustan. Another use for these shells
is their conversion into wind instruments, which are
sounded in the temples on all occasions of ceremony. A
chank, in which the whorls, instead of running from left
to right, as in the ordinary shell, are reversed, and run
from right to left, is regarded with such reverence that
a specimen formerly sold for its weight in gold, but one
may now be had for four or five pounds. Cosmas Indico-
PLEUSTES, writing in the fifth century, describes a place
on the west coast of Ceylon, which he calls Marallo, and
says it produced " KO')(kLovs,^^ which Thevenot translates
"oysters;" in which case Marallo might be conjectured
to be Bentotte, near Colombo, which yields the best
edible " oysters " in Ceylon. ^ But the shell in question
was most probably the chank, and Marallo was Mantotte,
off which it is found in great numbers.^ In fact, two
centuries later Abouzeyd, an Arab, who wrote an account
of the trade and productions of India, speaks of these
shells by the name they still bear, which he states to
be schenek ^ ; but " schenek " is not an Arabic word, and
is merely an attempt to spell the local term, chank, in
Arabic characters.

^ Cosmas Indico-pleustes, in dia they had found oysters a foot

Thevenot' s ed. t. i. p. 21. long. PLixTsays: " In Indieo mari

^ At Kottiar, near Trincomalie, Alexandri rerum auctores pedalia

I was struck with the prodigious inreniri prodidere." — Nat. Hist.

size of the edible oysters, which Lib. xxxii. ch, 31, Dak win says,

were brought to us at the rest- that amongst the fossils of Pata-

house. The shell of one of these gonia, he found "a massive gigantic

measured a little more than eleven oyster, sometimes even a foot in

inches in length, by half as many diameter." — Nat. Voy., ch. viii.

broad : thus unexpectedly attest- ^ Abouzeyd, Voyages Arabes,

ing the correctness of one of the £,0., t. i. p. 6 ; Eeixaud, Memoire

stories related by the historians of sur VInde, ^t. p. 222.
Alexander's expedition, that in In-

B B 2

372 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

Bertolacci mentions a curious local peculiarity^
observed by the fishermen in the natural history of the
chank. " All shells," he says, " found to the northward
of a line drawn from a point about midway from Ma-
naar to the opposite coast (of India) are of the kind
called patty, and are distinguished by a short flat head ;
and all those found to the southward of that line are
of the kind called pajel, and are known from having a
longer and more pointed head than the former. Nor is
there ever an instance of deviation from this singular
law of nature. The Wallampory, or * right-hand
chanks,' are found of both kinds."

This tendency of particular localities to re -produce
certain specialities of form and colour is not confined
to the sea or to the instance of the chank shell. In
the gardens which line the suburbs of Gralle in the
direction of Matura the stems of the coco-nut and jak
trees are profusely covered with the shells of the beau-
tiful striped Helix hceviastoma. Stopping frequently
to collect them, I was led to observe that each separate
garden seemed to possess a variety almost peculiar to
itself; in one the mouth of every individual shell was
red ; in another, separated from the first only by a wall,
black ; and in others (but less frequently) 'pure white ;
whilst the varieties of external colouring were equally
local. In one enclosure they were nearly all red, and
in an adjoining one brown. ^

' See also the Asiatic Journal borne about half of some of the

for 1827, p. 469. herds were mouse-coloxired, a tint

^ Dar"s\tn, in his Naturalist'' s not common anywhere else, — near

Voyage, mentions a parallel in- Mount Pleasant dark-broAvn pre-

stance of the localised propagation vailed ; whereas south of Choiseul

of coloiu'S amongst the cattle which Sound white beasts with black

range the pasturage of East Falk- heads and feet were common." —

land Island : " Bound Mount Os- Ch. ix. p. 192.

Chap. XI.] PEAKL FISHERIES. 373

A trade more ancient by far than that carried on in
chanks, and infinitely more renowned, is the fishery of
pearls on the west coast of Ceylon, bordering the Gulf
of Manaar. No scene in Ceylon presents so dreary an
aspect as the long sweep of desolate shore to which,
from time immemorial, adventurers have resorted from
the uttermost ends of the earth in search of the precious
pearls for which this gulf is renowned. On approaching
it from sea the only perceptible landmark is a building
erected by Lord Gruildford, as a temporary residence for
the Grovernor, and known by the name of the " Doric,"
from the style of its architecture. A few coco-nut
palms appear next above the low sandy beach, and pre-
sently are discovered the scattered houses which form
the villages of Aripo and Condatchy.

Between these two places, or rather between the
Kalaar and Arrive river, the shore is raised to a height
of many feet, by enormous mounds of shells, the accu-
mulations of ages, the millions of oysters ^, robbed of
their pearls, having been year after year flung into
heaps, that extend for a distance of many miles.

During the progress of a pearl-fishery, this singular
and dreary expanse becomes suddenly enlivened by the
crowds who congregate from distant parts of India ; a
town is improvised by the construction of temporary
dwellings, huts of timber and cajans"^, with tents of
palm leaves or canvas ; and bazaars spring up, to feed
the multitude on land, as well as the seamen and divers
in the fleets of boats that cover the bay.

' It is almost unnecessary to say grina. It is the Meleagrina Mar-

tliat the sheU fish which produces garitifcra of Lamarck,
the true Oriental pearls is not an ^ Cajan is the local term for the

oyster, but belongs to the genus plaited fronds of a coco-nut.
Avicula, or more correctly, Melea-

B B 3

374 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

I visited the pearl banks officially in 1848 in com-
pany with Capt. Steuart, the official inspector. My
immediate object was to inquire into the causes of the
suspension of the fisheries, and to ascertain the proba-
biKty of reviving a source of revenue, the gross receipts
from which had failed for several years to defray the
cost of conservancy. In fact, between 1837 and 1854,
the pearl banks were an annual charge, instead of pro-
ducing an annual income, to the colony. The conjecture,
hastily adopted, to account for the disappearance of ma-
ture shells, had reference to mechanical causes; the
received hypothesis being that the young broods had
been swept off their accustomed feeding grounds, by the
establishment of unusual currents, occasioned by deepen-
ing the narrow passage between Ceylon and India at
Paumbam. It was also suggested, that a previous Gover-
nor, in his eagerness to replenish the colonial treasury,
had so " scraped " and impoverished the beds as to
exterminate the oysters. To me, neither of these suppo-
sitions appeared worthy of acceptance; for, in the
frequent disruptions of Adam's Bridge, there was ample
evidence that the currents in the G-ulf of Manaar had
been changed at former times mthout destroying the
pearl beds : and moreover the oysters had disappeared
on many former occasions, without any imputation of
improper management on the part of the conser-
vators ; and returned after much longer intervals of
absence than that which fell under my own notice, and
which was then creating serious apprehension in the
colony.

A similar interruption had been experienced between
1820 and 1828 : the Dutch had had no fishing for

Chap. XI.] PEARL FISHERIES. 375

twenty-seven years, from 1768 till 1796 ^ ; and they had
been equally unsuccessful from 1732 till 1746. The
Arabs were well acquainted with similar vicissitudes,
and x\lbyrouni (a contemporary of Avicenna), who served
under Mahmoud of Grhuznee, and wrote in the eleventh
century, says that the pearl fishery, which formerly
existed in the Grulf of Serendib, had become exhausted
in his time, simultaneously Avith the appearance of a
fishery at Sofala, in the country of the Zends, where
pearls were unknown before ; and hence, he says, arose
the conjecture that the pearl oyster of Serendib had
migrated to Sofala.^

It appeared to me that the explanation of the pheno-
menon was to be sought, not merely in external causes,
but also in the instincts and faculties of the animals
themselves, and, on my return to Colombo, I ventured
to renew a recommendation, which had been made
years before, that a scientific inspector should be ap-
pointed to study the habits and the natural history of the
pearl-oyster, and that his investigations.should be facili-
tated by the means at the disposal of the Government.

Dr. Kelaart was appointed to this office, by Sir H. Gr.
Ward, in 1857, and his researches speedily developed
results of great interest. In opposition to the received
opinion that the pearl-oyster is incapable of voluntary

1 This suspension was in some temps. D'lm autre cote il s'est
degree attributable to disputes with forme uue peeherie a Sofala dans le
the Nabob of Arcot and other pays des Zends, la ou il n'en exis-
chiefs, and the proprietors of temples tait pas auparavant — on dit que
on the opposite coast of India, who c'est la peeherie de Serendyb qui
claimed a right to participate in s'est transportee a Sofiila." —
the fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar. Albyeouxi, in Eeikaud's Frag-

2 "II y ayait autrefois dans le mens Arabes, ^'C, p. 125; see also
Golfe de Serendyb, une peeherie de Eeinaud's Memoire sur VIncle, p.
perles qui s'est epuisee de notre 228.

B B 4

376 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

movement, and unable of itself to quit the place to
which it is originally attached', he demonstrated, not
only that it possesses locomotive powers, but also that
their exercise is indispensable to its ceconomy when
obliged to search for food, or compelled to escape from
local impurities. He showed that, for this purpose, it
can sever its byssus, and re-form it at pleasure, so as to
miofrate and moor itself in favourable situations.^ The
establishment of this important fact may tend to solve
the mystery of the occasional disappearances of the
oyster ; and if coupled with the further discovery that
it is susceptible of translation from place to place, and
even from salt to brackish water, it seems reasonable
to expect that beds may be formed with advantage in
positions suitable for its growth and protection. Thus,
like the edible oyster of our own shores, the pearl-oyster
may be brought within the domain of pisciculture, and
banks may be created in suitable places, just as the
southern shores of France are now being colonised with
oysters, under the direction of M. Coste.^ The operation
of sowing the sea with pearl, should the experiment
succeed, would be as gorgeous in reality, as it is grand
in conception ; and the wealth of Ceylon, in her " trea-
sures of the deep," might eclipse the renown of her
gems when she merited the title of the " Island of
Eubies."

On my arrival at Aripo, the pearl-divers, under the
orders of their Adapanaar, put to sea, and commenced

^ Steu art's Pearl Fisheries of Calendar for 1858. — Appendix,

Ceylon, p. 27 ; Coediner's Ceylon, p. 14.
cfc, vol. ii. p. 45. 3 Bapport de M. Coste, Pro-

^ See Dr. Kelaart's Eeport on fesseiir d'Embryogenie, &c., Paris,

the Pearl Oyster in the Ceylon 1858,

Chap. XI.] PEARL-DIVERS. 377

the examination of the banks. ^ The persons engaged
in this calling are chiefly Tamils and Moors, who are
trained for the service by diving for chanks. The pieces
of apparatus emplo3^ed to assist the diver in his opera-
tions are exceedingly simple in their character: they
consist merely of a stone, about thirty pounds' weight,
(to accelerate the rapidity of his descent,) which is sus-
pended over the side of the boat, with a loop attached
to it for receiving the foot ; and of a net-work basket,
which he takes do^vn to the bottom and fills with the
oysters as he collects them. Massoudi, one of the
earliest Arabian geographers, describing, in the ninth
century, the habits of the pearl-divers in the Persian
Grulf, says that, before descending, each filled his ears
with cotton steeped in oil, and compressed his nostrils
by a piece of tortoise-shell.^ This practice continues
there to the present day^ ; but the diver of Ceylon
rejects all such expedients ; he inserts his foot in the
" sinking stone" and inhales a full breath ; presses his
nostrils with his left hand ; raises his body as high

^ Detailed accounts of the pearl se fendaient la racine de Voreille

fishery of Ceylon and the conduct 'pour respirer ; en effet, ils ne

of the divers, will be found in peurent se servir pour cet objet des

Peecivax's Ceylon, eh. iii. ; and in narines, vu qu'ils se les bouchent

Cordixer's Ceylon, vol. ii. ch. xvi. avec des morceaux; d'ecailles de

There is also a valuable paper on tortue marine ou bien avec des

the same subject by INIr. Le Beck, morceaux de corne ay ant la forme

in the Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. d'un far de lance. En meme temps

993 ; but by far the most able and ils se mettent dans I'oreille du

intelligent description is contained coton trempe dans de I'huile." —

in the Account of the Pearl Moroudj-al-Dzeheb, ^-c, Eeixaud,

Fisheries of Ceylon, by James Memoire sur VInde, p. 228.
Steuart, Esq., Inspector of the ^ Colonel Wilson says they com-

Pearl Banks, 4to. Colombo, 1843. press the nose with horn, and close

- Massoxjdi says that the Persian the ears with beeswax. See Memo-

divers, as they could not breathe randum on the Pearl Fisheries in

through their nostrils, cleft the root Persian Gulf. — Journ. Geogr. Soc.

of the ear for that purpose: ^' lis 1833, vol. iii. p. 283.

378 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

as possible above water, to give force to his descent ;
and, liberating the stone from its fastenings, he sinks
rapidly below the surface. As soon as he has reached
the bottom, the stone is drawn up, and the diver,
throwing himself on his face, commences with alacrity
to fill his basket with oysters. This, on a concerted
signal, is hauled rapidly to the surface ; the diver
assisting his own ascent by springing on the rope as it
rises.

Improbable tales have been told of the capacity which
these men acquire of remaining for prolonged periods
under water. The divers who attended on this occasion
were amongst the most expert on the coast, yet not one
of them was able to complete a full minute below.
Captain Steuart, who filled for many years the ofiice of
Inspector of the Pearl Banks, assured me that he had
never known a diver to continue at the bottom longer
than eighty-seven seconds, nor to attain a greater depth
than thirteen fathoms ; and on ordinary occasions they
seldom exceeded fifty-five seconds in nine fathom water. ^

The only precaution to which the Ceylon diver de-
votedly resorts, is the mystic ceremony of the shark-
charmer, whose exorcism is an indispensable preliminary
to every fishery. His power is believed to be hereditary ;
nor is it supposed that the value of his incantations is at
all dependent upon the religious faith professed by the
operator, for the present head of the family happens to

* Rtbeybo says that a diver that some divers stayed four or

could remain below whilst two jive, and one six minutes. — Ceylon,

credos were being repeated: "II p. 91 ; Le Beck says that in 1797

s'y tient I'espacede deuxcrffZo." — he saw a Cafire boy from Karical,

Lib. i, eh. xxii. p. 169. Percfval remain dowii for the space of seven

says the usual time for them to be minutes. — Asiat. Bes. vol. v. p.

under water was two minutes, but 402.

Chap. XI.] SHARK-CHAKMER. 379

be a Eomaii Catholic. At the time of our visit this
mysterious functionary was ill and unable to attend ; but
he sent an accredited substitute, who assured me that
although he himself was ignorant of the grand and
mystic secret, the mere fact of his presence, as a repre-
sentative of the higher authority, would be recognised
and respected by the sharks.

Strange to say, though the Grulf of Manaar abounds
with these hideous creatures, not more than one well
authenticated accident ^ is known to have occurred from
this source during any pearl fishery since the British
have had possession of Ceylon. In all probability the
reason is that the sharks are alarmed by the unusual
number of boats, the multitude of divers, the noise of
the crews, the incessant plunging of the sinking stones,
and the descent and ascent of the baskets filled with
shells. The dark colour of the divers themselves may
also be a protection ; whiter skins might not experience
an equal impunity. Massoudi relates that the divers of
the Persian Grulf were so conscious of this advantao-e of
colour, that they were accustomed to blacken their limbs,
in order to baffle the sea monsters.^

The result of our examination of the pearl banks, on
this occasion, was such as to discourage the hope of an
early fishery. The oysters in point of number were
abundant, but in size they were little more than " spat,"
the largest being barely a fourth of an inch in diameter.
As at least seven years are required to furnish the
growth at which pearls may be sought with advantage^

^ Cohdineb's Ceylon, vol ii. p. marins, que, sans cela, seraient

52. tentes de les devorer." — Muroudj-

2 "lis s'enduisaient les pieds et al-Dzeheb, Reixaud, Mem. sur

les jambes d'une substance noiratre, VInde, p. 228.

afin de faire peur aux monstres ' Along -with this two plates are

380 SHELLS. [Chap. XL

the inspection served only to suggest the prospect (which
has since been realised) that in time the income from
this source might be expected to revive; — and, forced
to content ourselves with this anticipation, we weighed
anchor from Condatchy, on the 30th March, and arrived
on the following day at Colombo.

The banks of Aripo are not the only localities, nor is
the avicula the only mollusc, by which pearls are fur-
nished. The Bay of Tamblegam, connected wdth the
magnificent harbour of Trincomalie, is the seat of
another pearl fishery, and the shell which produces them
is the thin transparent oyster {Placuna ^placenta), whose
clear white shells are used, in China and elsewhere, as
a substitute for window glass. They are also collected
annually for the sake of the diminutive pearls contained
in them. These are exported to the coast of India, to
be calcined for lime, which the luxurious affect to chew
with their betel. These pearls are also burned in the
mouths of the dead. So prolific are the mollusca of the
Placuna, that the quantity of shells taken by the
licensed renter in the three years prior to 1858, could
not have been less than eighteen millions.^ They de-
light in brackish water, and on more than one recent
occasion, an excess of either salt water or fresh has
proved fatal to great nrunbers of them.

On the occasion of a visit which I made to Batticaloa,
in September, 1848, I made some inquiries relative to a
story which had reached me of musical sounds, said to be

giren from drawings made for the at four months old, No. 3. No. 4,

Official Inspector, and exhibiting six months. No. 5, one year. No.

the ascertained size of the pearl 6, two years. The second plate

oyster at every period of its growth, exhibits the shell at its full growth.

from the "spat" to the mature ^ Report of Vv. Kelaart, Oct.

shell. The young "brood" are 1857.
shown at Nos. 1 and 2. The shell

f/o Jcd'Oly

PEAKL UYSTI-.U.

1. 2. The j"ouiip hrooil or tpal.
.1. r<iui' niiiiitljs (>l<i.
•1. 8ix nioiitli." old.

5. One year old.
tl. T«o years old.

THE PEARL OYSTER.
Full Growth.

Chap. XI.]

MUSICAL SEA-SOUNDS.

381

often heard issuing from the bottom of the lake, at several
places, both above and below tlie ferry opposite the old
Dutch Fort ; and which the natives suppose to proceed
from some fish peculiar to the locality. The report was
confirmed in all its particulars, and one of the spots
whence the sounds proceed was pointed out between the
pier and a rock that intersects the channel, two or three
hundred yards to the eastward. They were said to be
heard at night, and most distinctly when the moon was
nearest the full, and they were described as resembling
the faint sweet notes of an ^olian harp. I sent for
some of the fishermen, who said they were perfectly
aware of the fact, and that their fathers had always
known of the existence of the musical sounds, heard, they
said, at the spot alluded to, but only during the dry
season, as they cease when the lake is swollen by the
freshes after the rain. They believed them to proceed
not from a fish, but from a shell, which is known by the
Tamil name of {oorie cooleeroo cradoo, or) the " crying
shell," a name in which the sound seems to have been
adopted as an echo to the sense. I sent them in search
of the shell, and they returned bringing me some living
specimens of different shells, chiefly littorina and ceri-
thium.^

* Littorina IcBvis. Ceritkium pa-
lustre. Of tlie latter the specimens
brought to me were dwarfed and
solid, exhibiting in this particular
the usual peculiarities that distin-
guish (1) shells inhabiting a rocky
locality from (2) their congeners in
a sandy bottom. Their longitu-
dinal development was less, with
greater breadth, and increased
strength and weight.

cerithium; paldstre.

382 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

In the evening when the moon rose, I took a boat and
accompanied the fishermen to the spot. We rowed
about two hundred yards north-east of the jetty by the
fort gate ; there was not a breath of wind, nor a ripple
except those caused by the dip of our oars. On coming
to the point mentioned, I distinctly heard the sounds in
question. They came up from the water like the gentle
thrills of a musical chord, or the faint vibrations of a
wine-glass when its rim is rubbed by a moistened finger.
It was not one sustained note, but a multitude of tiny
sounds, each clear and distinct in itself; the sweetest
treble mingling with the lowest bass. On applying the
ear to the woodwork of the boat, the vibration was
greatly increased in volume. The sounds varied con-
siderably at different points, as we moved across the
lake, as if the number of the animals from which they
proceeded was greatest in particular spots ; and occasion-
ally we rowed out of hearing of them altogether, until
on returning to the original locality the sounds were at
once renewed.

This fact seems to indicate that the causes of the
sounds, whatever they may be, are stationary at several
points; and this agrees with the statement of the
natives, that they are produced by moUusca, and not by
fish. They came evidently and sensibly from the depth
of the lake, and there was nothing in the surrounding
circumstances to support the conjecture that they could
be the reverberation of noises made by insects on the
shore conveyed along the surface of the water ; for they
were loudest and most distinct at points where the na-
ture of the land, and the intervention of the fort and
its buildings, forbade the possibility of this kind of con-
duction.

Chap. Xl.J

MUSICAL SEA-SOUNDS.

383

Sounds somewhat similar are heard under water at
some places on the western coast of India, especially
in the harbour of Bombay.^ At Caldera, in Chili, mu-
sical cadences are stated to issue from the sea near the
landing-place ; they are described as rising and falling
fully four notes, resembling the tones of harp strings,
and mingling like those at Batticaloa, till they produce
a musical discord of great delicacy and sweetness. The

' These sounds are thus de-
scribed by Dr. BuisT in the
Bombay Times of January 1847:

" A party lately crossing from the
promontory in Salsette called the
'Neat's Tongue,' to near Sewree,
were, about sunset, struck by hear-
ing long distinct sounds like the
protracted booming of a distant
bell, the dying cadence of an
-S^olian harp, the note of a pitch-
pipe or pitch-fork, or any other
long-dra'wn-out musical note. It
was, at first, supposed to be music
from Parell floating at intervals on
the breeze ; then it was perceived
to come from all directions, almost
in equal strength, and to arise from
the surface of the water all aroxmd
the vessel. The boatmen at once
intimated that the sounds were
produced by fish, abounding in the
muddy creeks and shoals around
Bombay and Salsette ; they were
perfectly weU known, and very
often heard. Accordingly, on in-
clining the ear towards the surface
of the water ; or, better still, by
placing it close to the planks of the
vessel, the notes appeared loud and
distinct, and followed each other in
constant succession. The boatmen
next day produced specimens of
the fish — a creature closely re-
sembling in size and shape the
fresh-water perch of the north of
Europe — and spoke of them as
plentiful and perfectly well known.

It is hoped they may be procured
aHve, and the means afforded of
determining how the musical sounds
are produced and emitted, with
other particulars of interest sup-
posed new in Ichthyology. We
shaU be thankful to receive from
our readers any information they
can give us in regard to a phe-
nomenon which does not appear
to have been heretofore noticed,
and which cannot fail to attract
the attention of the naturalist.
Of the perfect accuracy with wliich
the singular facts above related
have been given, no doubt ^vill be
entertained when it is mentioned
that the writer was one of a party
of five intelligent persons, by all
of whom they were most carefully
observed, and the impressions of
all of whom in regard to them
were uniform. It is supposed that
the fish are confined to particular
localities — shallows, estuaries, and
muddy creeks, rarely visited by
Europeans; and that this is the
reason why hitherto no mention,
so far as we know, has been made
of the peculiarity in any work on
Natural History."

This communication elicited one
from Vizagapatam, relative to
" musical sounds like the prolonged
notes on the harp " heard to pro-
ceed from under water at that
station. It appeared in the Bom-
hay Times of Feb. 13, 1849.

384

SHELLS.

[Chap. XI.

same interesting phenomenon has been observed at the
mouth of the Pascagoula, in the State of Mississippi, and
of another river called the " Bayon coq del Inde," on
the northern shore of the Grulf of Mexico. The animals
from which they proceed have not been identified at
either of these places, and the mystery remains unsolved,
whether the sounds at Batticaloa are given forth by fishes
or by molluscs.

Certain fishes are known to utter sounds when removed
from the water^, and some are capable of making noises
when under it^ ; but all the circumstances connected
with the sounds which I heard at Batticaloa are un-
favourable to the conjecture that they were produced by
either.

Organs of hearing have been clearly ascertained to

• The Cuckoo Gurnard {Triglia
cttculus) and the maigre (Scicena
aquila) iitter sounds when taken
out of the water (Yareell, vol. i.
p. 44, 107); and herrings when
the net has just been drawn have
been observed to do the same.
This efifect has been attributed to
the escape of air from the air
bladder, but no air bladder has
been found in the Cottus, which
makes a similar noise.

^ The fishermen assert that a
fish about five inches in length,
found in the lake at Colombo, and
called by them " magoora" makes
a grunt when disturbed under
water. Paxlegoix, in his account
of Siam, speaks of a fish resembling
a sole, but of brilliant colouring
with black spots, which the natives
call the " dog's tongue," that
attaches itself to the bottom of a
boat, " et fait entendre uu bruit
tres-sonore et meme harmonieux."
— Tom, i. p. 194. A Silurus,

found in the Rio Parana, and called
the " armado," is remarkable for
making a harsh grating noise when
caught by hook or line, which can
be distinctly heard when the fish
is beneath the water. Daewtn,
Nat. Journ. ch. vii. Aristotle
and -^lian were aware of the ex-
istence of this faculty in some of
the fishes of the Mediterranean.
Aristotle, Be Anim., lib. iv. ch.
ix. ; ^LiAN, Be Nat. Anim., lib.
X. ch. xi. ; see also Pliny, Hb. ix.
ch. vii., lib. xi. ch. cxiii. ; Athe-
N^us, lib. vii. ch. iii. vi. I have
heard of sounds produced under
water at Baltimore, and supposed
to be produced by the " cat-fish;"
and at Swan River, in Australia,
where they are ascribed to the
"trumpeter." A similar noise heard
in the Tagus is attributed by the
Lisbon fishermen to the " Corvina'"
— but what fish is meant by that
name, I am unable to tell.

Chap. XI.] MUSICAL SEA-SOUNDS. 385

exist, not only in fishes^, but in mollusca. In the oyster
the presence of an acoustic apparatus of the simplest
possible construction has been established by the disco-
veries of Siebold^, and from our knowledge of the reci-
procal relations existing between the faculties of hearing
and of producing sounds, the ascertained existence of
the one affords legitimate grounds for inferring the co-
existence of the other in animals of the same class.^

Besides, it has been clearly established, that one at
least of the gasteropoda is furnished with the power of
producing sounds. Dr. Grant, in 1826, communicated to
the Edinburgh Philosophical Society the fact, that on
placing some specimens of the Tritonia arborescens in
a glass vessel filled with sea water, his attention was
attracted by a noise which he ascertained to proceed
from these mollusca. It resembled the " clink " of a
steel wire on the side of the jar, one stroke only being
given at a time, and repeated at short intervals.^

The affinity of structure between the Tritonia and
the mollusca inhabiting the shells brought to me at
Batticaloa, might justify the belief of the natives of
Ceylon, that the latter are the authors of the sounds I
heard; and the description of those emitted by the
former as given by Dr. Grant, so nearly resemble them,
that I have always regretted my inability, on the occa-

^ Agassiz, Comparative Physio- ^ I am informed that Professor

logy, sec. ii. 158. Mui^lek read a paper on " Musical

'^ It consists of two round vesicles fishes " before the Academy of Ber-

containing fluid, and crystalline or lin, in 1856. It will probably be

elliptical calcareous particles or found in the volume of Mulleb's

otolites, remarkable for their oscil- Archiv. fur Physiologie for that

latory action in the living or re- year; but I have not had an op-

cently killed animal. Owen's portunity of reading it.

Lectures on the Comxjarative Ana- * EdiyiburghPhilosophicalJourn.,

tomy and Physiology of the Inver- vol. xiv. p. i88. See also the Ap-

tehrate Animals, 1855, p. 511-552. pendix to this chapter.

C C

386 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

sion of my visits to Batticaloa, to investigate the subject
more narrowly. At subsequent periods I have since re-
newed my efforts, but without success, to obtain speci-
mens or observations of the habits of the living mollusca.

The only species afterwards sent to me were Cerithia;
but no vigilance sufficed to catch the desired sounds, and
I still hesitate to accept the dictum of the fishermen, as
the same mollusc abounds in all the other brackish
estuaries on the coast; and it would be singular, if
true, that the phenomenon of its uttering a musical
note should be confined to a single spot in the lagoon
of Batticaloa.^

Although naturalists have long been familiar with the
marine testacea of Ceylon, no successful attempt has
yet been made to form a classified catalogue of the
species ; and I am indebted to the eminent conchologist,
Mr. Sylvanus Hanley, for the list which accompanies
this notice.

In drawing it up, Mr. Hanley observes that he found it
a task of more difficulty than would at first be surmised,
owing to the almost total absence of reliable data from
which to construct it. Three sources were available :
collections formed by resident naturalists, the contents
of the well-known satin-wood boxes prepared at Trin-
comalie, and the laborious elimination of locality from
the habitats ascribed to all the known species in the
multitude of works on conchology in general.

But, unfortunately, the first resource proved fallacious.
There is no large collection in this country composed ex-
clusively of Ceylon shells ; — and as the very few cabinets

^ The letter which I received from stimulate some other inquirer in

Dr. Grant on this subject, I have Ceylon to prosecute the investi-

placed in a note to the present gation which I was unable to carry

chapter, in the hope that it may out successfully.

Chap. XI.] IMPERFECT CLASSIFICATION OF SHELLS. 387

rich in the marine treasures of the island have been
filled as much by purchase as by personal exertion, there
is an absence of the requisite confidence that all pro-
fessing to be Singhalese have been actually captured in
the island and its waters.

The cabinets arranged by the native dealers, though
professing to contain the productions of Ceylon, include
shells which have been obtained from other islands in
the Indian seas : and the information contained in books,
probably from these very circumstances, is either obscure
or deceptive. The old writers content themselves with
assigning to any particular shell the too-comprehensive
habitat of " the Indian Ocean," and seldom discrimiuate
between a specimen from Ceylon and one from the
Eastern Archipelago or Hindustan. In a very few in-
stances, Ceylon has been indicated with precision as the
habitat of particular shells, but even here the views
of specific essentials adopted by modern conchologists,
and the subdivisions established in consequence, leave
us in doubt for which of the described forms the col-
lective locality should be retained.

Valuable notices of Ceylon shells are to be found in
detached papers, in periodicals, and in the scientific
surveys of exploring voyages. The authentic facts em-
bodied in the monographs of Eeeve, Kusteb, Sowerby,
and KiENER, have greatly enlarged our knowledge of the
marine testacea ; and the land and fresh-water mollusca
have been similarly illustrated by the contributions of
Benson and Layard to the Annals of Natural Histoinj.

The dredge has been used, but only in a few insulated
spots along the coasts of Ceylon ; European explorers
have been rare ; and the natives, anxious only to secure
the showy and saleable shells of the sea, have neglected

c c 2

S88 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

the less attractive ones of the land and the lakes.
Hence Mr. Hanley finds it necessary to premise that
the list appended, although the result of infinite labour
and research, is less satisfactory than could have been
mshed. " It is offered," he says, " with diffidence, not
pretending to the merit of completeness as a shell-fauna
of the island, but rather as a form, which the zeal of
other collectors may hereafter elaborate and fill up."

Looking at the little that has yet been done, compared
with the vast and almost untried field which invites
explorers, an assiduous collector may quadruple the
species hitherto described. The minute shells especially
may be said to be unknown ; a vigilant examination of
the corals and excrescences upon the spondyli and pearl-
oysters would signally increase our knowledge of the
Eissoae, Chemnitzise, and other perforating testacea,
whilst the dredge from the deep water will astonish the
amateur by the wholly new forms it can scarcely fail to
display.

List of Ceylon Shells,

The arrangement here adopted is a modified Lamarck-
ian one, very similar to that used by Eeeve and Sowerby,
and by Mr. Hanley, in his Illustrated Catalogue of
Recent Shells.^

' Below will be foimd a general Zeitsch. Malahoz. 1853. 'Anton,

reference to the Works or Papers in Wiegm. Arch. Nat. 1837; Ver-

whicli are ^iven descriptiye notices zeichn. Conch. Beck in Pfeijfer,

of the shells contained in the fol- Si/mhol. Helic. Bensox, Ann. Nat.

lowing list; the names of the Hist. vii. 1851; xii. 1853; xviii.

authors (in full or abbreviated) 1856. Blainville, Diet. 8c. Nat. ;

being, as usual, annexed to each Nouv. Ann. Mus. His. Nat. i.

species, Bolten, Miis. Bokn, Test. Mus.

Adams, Proceed. Zool. 8oc. 1853, Ccees. Vind. Beoderip, Zool.

54, 56 ; Thesaur. Conch. Axbees, Journ, i. iii. Bexjgcjiebe, Encyc.

Chap. XI.]

LIST OF CEYLON SHELLS.

389

Aspergillum Javanum. Brug. Enc, Met.

sparsum, Sowerbij, Geu. Shells.'

clavatiim, Cficnu, lUust. Conch.
Teredo nucivorus. Sp Skr. Nat. Sels.2
Solen truncatus. Wood. Gen. Conch.

linearis, U'uod, Gen. Conih.

cultellus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

radiatus, Lmn. Syst. Nat.
Anatina subrostrata. Lam. Ani. s. Vert.
Anatinella Nicobarica, Gm. Syst. Nat.
Lutraria EL-yptiaca, Chemn. Conch. Cab.
Blainvillea vitiea, Chemn. Conch. Cab.3
Scrobicularia angulata, Chem. Con. Cab ^
Wactra complanara, D^aA. Proc. Zl. Soc.''

tumida, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

antiquata, tteeve (as of Spengl.), C. Icon.

cygnea, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

Corbiculoides, Beshayes, Pr. Zl. S. 1854.
Mesodesma

Layardi, Deshat/es, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1854.

striata, Chemn. Conch. Cab.**
Crasatella rostrata. Lam. Anira. s. Vert.

sulcata. Lam Anira. s. Vert.
Amphiiie^ma

duplicatum, Soirerby. Species Conch.
Pandora Ceylanica, Sowerby, Conch. Mis.
Galeommn Layardi. Desh. Pr. Zl. S. 18.56.
Keliia peculiaris, Adams. Pr. Zl. S. 18-56.
Petricola cultellus, Desh. Pr. Zl. S. 1853.
Sangunioiaria ros^a. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Psanimobi^ rostrata, Lam. \\\\m. s. Vert.

occidens. Gm. Systema Naturae.

Skinneri, Reeve, Conch. Icon.7

Layardi, Desh. P. Z. Soc. 1854.

1 A. dichotomum, Chenu.

2 Fistulana gregata. Lam.

3 Blainvillea. Hupe.

■* Latraria tellinoides. Lam.

^ I have also seen M. hians of Philippi
in a Ceylon collection,

6 M. Taprobanensis, Index Test. Suppl.

7 Psammotella Skinneri, Reeve,

Method. Vers. Carpexter, Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1856. Chem>-itz, Conch.
Cab. Chentj, Ulus. Conch. Des-
HATES, Encyc. Meth. Vers. ; Mag.
Zool. 1831; Voy. Belanger ; Edit.
Lam. An. s. Vert. ; Proceed. Zool.
Soc. 1853, 54, 55. Dillwyn,
Descr. Cat. Shells. Dohrn, Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1857, 58; Malak.
Blatter; Land and Fhiviatde Shells
of Ceylon. Duclos, Monog of
Oliva. Fabricius, in Pfeiffer
Monog. Helic. ; in Dohr^i's MSS.
Ferussac, Hist. Mollusques. Fors-
KAL, Anim. Orient. Gmelin, Si^st.
Nat. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834,
52 ; Lndex Testaceologicus Suppl. ;
Spicilegia Zool. ; Zool. Journ. i. ;
Zool. Beechey Voy. Gratelolp,
Act. Linn. Bordeaux, xi. Guerin,
Eev. Zool. 1847. Hanlet, Thesaur.
Conch, i. ; Recent Bivalves ; Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1858. Hinds, Zool. Voy.
Sulphur; Proc. Zool. Soc. Huttox,
Journ. As. Soc. Karstex, Mu^.
Lesk. KiEXER, CoquiUes Vivantes.
Krauss, Sud-Afrik Mollusk. La-
marck, An. sans Verteh. Layard,
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854, Lea, Pro-
ceed. Zool. Soc. 1850. LiNx^us,
Syst. Nat. IMartixi, Conch. Cab.

^Iawe, hitrod. Linn. Conch.; Lidex
Test. Suppl. ]Mexjschex, in Gronov.
Zoophylac. Mexke, Synop. Mollus.
MuLLER, Hist. Verm. Terrest.
Petit, Pro. Zool. Soc. 1842.
Pfeiffer, Monog. Helic. ; Monog.
Pneumon. ; Proceed. Zool. Soc.
1852, 53, 54, 55, 5Q; Zeitschr.
Malacoz. 1853. Philippi, Zeitsch.
Mai. 1846, 47 ; Abbild. Ncuer
Conch. PoTiEz et Micilyud, Galerie
Bouai. Raxg, Mag. Zool. ser. i. p.
100. Eecluz, Proceed. Zool. Soc.
1845; Bevue Zool. Cuv. 1841;
Mag. Conch. Eeeve, Conch.
Icon.; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1842, 52.
Schumacher, Syst. Shuttle-
worth. SoLAXT)ER, in Billwyn's
Besc. Cat. Shells; Sowerby, Genera
Shells ; Species Co7ich. ; Conch.
Misc. ; Thesaur. Conch. ; Conch,
lllus. ; Proc. Zool. Soc. ; App. to
Tankerville Cat. Spexgler, Skrivt.
Nat. Selsk. Kiobenhav. 1792.
Stvatnsox, Zool. Illust. ser. ii.
Templetox, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1858.
Troschel, in Pfeiffer, Mon.
Pneum; Zeitschr. Mcdak. 1847;
Wiegm. Arch. Nat. 1837. Wood,
General Conch.

C C 3

390

SHELLS.

[Chap. XI.

lunulata, Desk. P. Z. Soc. 1854.

amethystus, t'Vood, Gen. Conch.^

rugosa. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.'^
Tellina virgata, Linn. Syst. Nat.3

rugosa, Born, Test. Mus. Caes. Vind.

ostracea, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

ala, Hartley. Thesaur. Conch, i,

inaequalis, Hanley, Thesaur, Conch, i.

Layardi, Deshayes, P. Z. Soc. 1854.

caliosa, Deshayes. P. Z. Soc. 1854.

rubra, Deshayes, P. Z. Soc. 1854.

abbreviaia, Deiihayes, P Z. Soc. 1854.

foliacea, Linn. Systema Nature.

lingua-felis, Linn. Systema Naturae.

vulsella, Chemn. Conch. Cab."*
Lucina interrupta. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 5

Layardi, Da-hayts, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1855.
Donax scortum, Linn, Syst. Nat.

cuneata, Linn. Syst. Nat.

faba, Chem. Conch. Cab.

spinnsa, Gtn. Syst. Nat.

paxillus, Rerve, Conch. Icon.
Cyrena Ceylanica, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

Tennentii, Hanley, P. Z. Soc. 1858,
Cytherea Erycina, Linn. Syst. Nat.^

meretrix, Linn. Syst. Nat."

castanea. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

castrensls, Linn. Sy^t. Nat.

casta, Gm. Syst. Nat.

costata, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

l*ta, Gm, Syst. Nat.

trimaculata, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

Hebraea, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

rugifera. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

scripta, Linn, Syst. Nat.

gibbia. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

Meroe, Linn. Syst. Nat.

testudinalis. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

seminuda, Jfwtow.Wiepm. A.Nat. 1837.^
Venus reticulata, Linn. Syst. Nat.^

pinguis, Chemn. ('onch. Cab.

recens, Philippi. Abbild. Neuer Conch.

thiara, DUlw. Descriptive Cat. Shells.

Malabarica, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

Brnguieri, Hanley, Recent Bivalves.

papilionacea, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

Indica, Sowrrby, Thesa\ir. Conch, ii.

inflata, Deshayes, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853.10

Ceylonensis. Sowerby, Thes. Conch, ii.

literata, Linn. Systema Naturas.

textrix, Chetnn. Conch. Cab."
Cardium unedo, Linn. Syst. Nat.

maculosum. Wood, Gen. Con.

leucostomura, Born, Tt. M. Cjes. Vind.

rugosum, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

biradiatum, Bruguiere, En. Meth. Vers.

attenuatiim, Sowerby, Conch. lUust.

enode, Soiverby, Conch. Illust.

papyraceum, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

ringiculum, Sowerby, Conch. Illust.

subrugo^um, S<)V>erby, Conch. Illust.

latum, Born, Test. Mus. Caes. Vind.

Asiaticum, Chemn Conch. Cab.
Cardita variejiata, Brug. Enc. Meth. Vers.

bicolor, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Area rhomb^a. Born, Test. Mus.

vellicata, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

cruciata, Phihppi, Ab. Neur Conch.

decussat.i. Reeve (as of Sowerby), C. I.'^

scapha, Meuschen, in Gronov. Zoo.
Pectunculus nodnsus, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

pertiniformis. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Nucula mitralis, Hinds, Zool. voy. Sul.

Layardi, Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1856.

Mauritii {Hanley as of Hinds), Rec. Biv.
Unio

corrugatus, Mii/ler, Hist. Verm. Ter.l^

marginalis, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Lithodomus

cinnamoneus. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Mytiius viridis, Linn. Syst. Nat.^^

bilocularis, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Pinna inflata, Chamn. Conch. Cab.

cancellata, Mawe, Intr. Lin. Conch.
Malleus vulgaris. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

albus, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Meleagrina margaritifera, Lmn. Syst. Nat.

vexiilum, Reeve, Conch. Icon.'^
Avicula macroptera. Reeve, Conch. Icon.
Lima squamosa, I^am, Anim. s. Vert.
Pecten plica, Linn. -S^-st. Nat.

radula, Linn. Syst. Nat.

pleuronec es. Linn. Syst. Nat.

pallium, Linn. Syst. Nat.

senator, O'tw. Syst. Nat.

histrionicus, Gm. Syst. Nat.

Indlcus, Deshayes, Voyage Belanger.

Layardi, Reeve, Conch, Icon.
Spondylus Layardi, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

candidus. Reeve {as of Lam.) C. Icon.
Ostrea hyotis, Linn. Syst. Nat.

glauciiia. Lam Anim. s. Vert.

Mytiloides, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

cucullata? \ar. Born Test. M. Vind.'^
Vulsella

Pholadiformis, Reeve, C. Ion. (immat.)
Placuna placenta, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Lingula anatina, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

* P. caerulescens, Lam.

2 Sanguinolaria rugosa. Lam.

3 T. striatula of Lamarck is also sup-
posed to be indigenous to Ceylon.

4 T. rostrata, La?>i.

5 L. divaricata is found, also, in mixed
Ceylon collections.

6 C. dispar of Chemnitz is occasionally
found in Ceylon collections.

7 C. impudica. Lam.

8 As Donax.

9 V. corbis, Lam.
>o As Tapes.

'1 V. textile, Lam,

12 ? Area Helblingii, Chemn.

13 Mr. Cuming informs me that he has
forwarded no less than six distinct Uni-
ones from Ceylon to Isaac Lea, of Phila-
delphia, tor determination or description.

'4 M. smaragdinus, Chemn,

1'' As Avicula.

16 1 he specimens are not in a fitting
state for positive determination. They
are strong, extremely narrow, with the
beak of the lower valve much produced,
and the inner edge of the upper valve den-
ticulated throughout. The muscular im-
pressions are dusky brown.

Chap. XI.]

LIST OF CEYLON SHELLS.

391

Hyalaea tridentata. For. Anim. Orient.'

Chiton, 2 species {Lnyard).

Patella Reynaudii, Deshat/es, Voy. Be.

testudinaria, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Emarginula fissurata, C/i. C. Cab.2 Lam.
Calypiraea (Crucibulum) violascens, Car-
penter, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1856.
Dentalium

octogonum, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

aprinum, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Bulla soliita, Chemn. Conch. Cab. 3

vex ilium, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

Bruguieri, Adams, Thes. Conch.

elongata, Adams, Thes. Conch.

ampulla, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Lamellaria (as Marsenia Indica, Leach.
in Brit. Mus.) allied to L. Mauri-
tiana, if not it.
Vaginula maculata, Tempi. An. Nat.
Limax, 2 sp.

Parmacella Tennentii, Tempi.'*
Vitrina irradians, Pjeiffer, Mon. Helic.

Edgariana, Ben. Ann. N. H. 1853 (xii.)

membranacea, Ben. A. N. H. 1853 (xii.)
Helix haemastoma, Linn. Syst. Nat.

vittata, MUller, Vermium Terrestrium.

bistrialis. Beck, in Pfeiff. Symb. Helic.

Tranquebarica, Fabricius, in Pfeiff".
Monog. Helic.

Juliana, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834.

Waltoni, Heeve, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1842.

Skinneri, Eeeve. Conch. Icon. vii.

corylus, Reeve, Conch. Icon. vii.

\xmby\wBL{Reeve, as oi Pfeiff-), C. Ic. vii.

fallaciosa, Ferussai , Hist. IVIollus.

Rivolii, Deshayes. Enc. Meth. Vers. ii.

Charpentieri, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

erronea, Alters. Zeitschr. Mai. 1853.

carneola, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

convexiuscula, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

gnoma, Pfeiff". Monog. Helic.

Chenui, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic

semidecussata, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

phoenix, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

superba, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

Ceylanica, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

Gardnerii, I'Jeiff Monog. Helic.

coridria, Pfeiff'. Monog. Helic.

Layardi, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

concavospira, Pfeiff: Monog. Helic.

novella, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

verrucula, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

hyphasma, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

Emiliana, Pfeijff. Monog. Helic.

Woodiana, Pteiff. Monog. Helic.

partita, PJeiff. Monog. Helic.

biciliata, Pfeff. Monog. Helic.

I.-abellina, Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. Soc.

trifilosa, Pfeff. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.

politissiraa, Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. Sc. 1854.

Thwaitesii, Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.

nepos, Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1855.

subopaca. Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853.

subconoidea, Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. S. 18.54.

ceraria, Benson, An. Nat. H. 185'^ (xii.)

vilipensa, Benson, An. N. H. 18.53 (xii.)

pertucata, Benson, A. N. H. 1853 (xii.)

puteolus, Berisoti, An. N. H. 18-53 (xii.)

mononema, Benson, A. N. H. 1853 (xii.)

marcida, Benson, An. N. H. 1853 (xii.)

galerus, Benson, A. N. H. 18.56 (xviii.)

albizonata, Dohrn, Proc. Zoo. Soc. 1858.

Ni.tneri, Dohrn, MS.^

Grevillei, Pfeiff.Vroc. Zool. Soc. 1856.
Streptaxis Layardi, Pfeiff. Mon. Helic.

Cingalensis, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.
Pupa

iruscerda, Benson, A. N. H. 1853 (xii.)

mimula, Benson, A. N. H. 18.56 (xviii.)

Ceylanica, PJeiff. Monog. Helic.
Bulimus

trifasciatus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

pullus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834.

gracilis, Hutton, Journ. Asiat. Soc.iii.

punctatus. Anion, Verzeichn. Conch.

Ceylanicus, Pfeiff. (?Blaevis, Gray, in
Index Testaceologicus.)

adumbratus, Pfeiff, Monog. Helic.

intermedius, Pfiff. Monog. Helic.

proletarius, Pfeiff'. Monog. Helic.

albizonatus, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

Mavortius, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

luscoventris, Ben. A. N. H. 1856 (xviii.)

rufopictus, Ben. A. N H. 1856 (xviii.)

panos, Benson, Ann. Nat. H. 1853 (xii.)
Achatina nitens, Gray, Spicilegia Zool.

inornata, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

capillacea, Pfeff. Monog. Helic.

Ceylanica, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

Punctogallana, Pfeiff. Monog. Helic.

pachycheila, Benson.

veruina, Bens, A. Nat. Hist. 1853 (xii.)

parabilis Bens. A. N. Hist. 1856 (xviii.)
Succinea Ceylanica, P/e/^ Monog. Helic.
Auricula

Ceylanica, Adams, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1854.6

Ceylanica, Petit, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1842.7

Layardi, Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.8

pellucens, Menke, Synopsis Moll.
Pythia

Ceylanica, Pfeiff. Zeits. Malacoz. 1853.

ovata, Pfeiff: Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.
Truncatella

Ceylanica, Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. Soc. 18.'i6.
Cyclostoma ( Cyclophorus) Ceylanicum,
Sowerby, Thes. Conch.

involvulum, Miil/er, Verm. Terrest.

Menkeanum, Philippi, Zeit. Mai. 1847.

punctatum, Gratel. A.L. Bordeaux (xi.)

loxostoma, Pfeiff. Monog. Pneumon.

1 As Anomia.

2 The fissurata of Humphreys and Da-
costa, pi. 4 — E. rubra, Lamarck,

3 B. Ceylanica, Brug.

* P. Tennentii. " Greyish brown, with
longitudinal rows of rufous spots, forming
interrupted bands along the sides. A
singularly handsome species, having simi-
lar habits to Limax. Found in the vallevs

of the Kalany Ganga, near Ruanwelle." —
TempletonMS^.

^ Not far from bistriali.'* and Ceylanica.
The manuscript species of Mr. Dohrn
will shortly appear in his intended work
upon the "land and fluviatile shells of
Ceylon.

6 As EUobiura.

7 As Melampus.

8 As Ophicardelis.

C C 4

392

SHELLS.

[Chap. XI.

alabastrum, Tfeiff, Monogr. Pneumon.

Bairdii. Fjeiff. Moni g. Pneumon.

Thwaitesii. Pfeiff. Monog. Pneumon.

annulatum.7;t).<rc/i. in PfeifF. M. Pneum.

parapsis, Bens. An. Nat Hist. 1853 (xii.)

parm .Bens. An. Nat. His. 18.W(xviii.)

cratera, ^t-ns. An. N. Hist. IS-^G (xviii.)
{Leptopoma) halopliiluin, Benson, Ann.
Nat. Hist. (ser. 2 vii.) 1851.

orophilum, Bens. A. N. H. fser. 2. xi.)

apicatum. Bens. A. N. H. 18-56 (xviii.)

conuius, Pfeiff. Pioc. Zool. See. 1854.

flammeum, Pfeiff. Monog. Pneumon.

semiciausum, Pfeiff. .Monog. Pneumon.

poecilum. Pfeiff Monog. Pneumon.

datum, Pfeiff. M^nog. PneumoH.
Cyclostoma {Aulopoma).

Iter], Guerin, Rev. Zool. 1847.

heliciniim, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

HofTmeisteri, Troschel, Zeit. Mai. 1847.

grande. Pfeiff". Monoir. J'neumon.

€Pheroideum, Do/irn, Malak. Blatter.

(?) gradatura, Pfeiff Monog. Pneumon.
Cyclostoma {Pterucyclos).

Cingalense, Bens. A. N. H. (ser. 2. xi.)

Troscheli, Bens. Ann. Nat. Hist. 1851.

Curaingii, Pfeiff. Monog. Pneumon.

bifrons, Pfeiff .Monog. Pneumon.
Cataulus Temi>lemani, Pfeff. Mon. Pneu.

eurytrema, Pfeiff. Proc. Zool. Soc. 18.52.

margin^tus, Pfoff- Proc. Zool. .Soc. 1853.

duplicatus, P/c/^.Proc. Zool. Soc. H54.

aureus, Ffeiff. Proc. Zool. Soc. 18='5.

Lavardi, Gray. Proc. Zool Soc. 1852.

Austenianrs. Bens. A. N. H. 1853 (xii.)

Thwaitesii. Pfeiff.Vroc Zo. Soc. 18.52.

Cumingii. Pfeiff. Proc Zool. Soc. 1856.

decorus, Bens. Ann. Nat. Hist. 18.53.

haemastoma, Pfeiff. Proc. Zo. Soc. 18.56.
Planorbis

Coromandelianus, ^ab. in Dorhn's MS.

Stelzeneri. Oohrn. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

elegantulus, Dohrn, Proc. Z. Soc. 1858.
Limnaea

tigrina, Dohrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

pinguis, Dohrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.
Jlelania

tuberculata, M'uller, Verm. Ter.'

spinulosa. Lam, Anim. s. Vert.

corrugata, Lam .Anim. s. Vert.

rudis. La, Proc. Zool. Soc 1«50.

acanthica. Lea, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850.

Zeylanica, Lea. Proc. Z.«ol. Soc. 18-50.

corrfusa, Dohrn. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

datura, Duhrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

Lavardi, Duhrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.
Paludoraus

abbreviatus. Reeve, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1852.

clavatus, Beeve, Proc. Zool. Soc. 18-52.

dilatatus, Beeve, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852.

globulosus, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

decussatus, Reeve. Proc Zool. Soc. 1852.

nigricans. Reeve. Conch. Icon.

constrictus. Reeve. Proc Zo. Soc. 1852.

bicinctus. Reeve, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852.

phasianinus, Beeve, Proc.Zo Soc. 1852.

Isevls, Loyard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854,

palustris, Layard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 18-54.

lulguratus, Dohrn, Proc. Zo. Soc. 1857.

nasutiis, Dohrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857.

sphHpricus, Dohrn, Proc. Zo. Soc. 18.57.

solidus, Dohrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857.

distinnuendus, Dohrn, Proc. Z. S. 18-57.

Cumingianus, Dohrn, Proc. Z. S. 1857.

dromedarius. Dohrn, Proc. Z. S. 1857.

Skinneri, Dohrn, Proc Zool. Soc. 1857.

Swamsoni, Dohrn, Proc. Zo. Soc. 18-57.

nodulo>us, Dohrn. Proc. Zo. Soc. 1857.
Paludomus (Tunalia).

loricatus. Reeve, Conch. Icon.

erinaceus. Reeve, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852.

aereus. Reeve, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852.

Lnyardi, Reeve, Proc. Zool. Soc. J 852.

undatus, Beeve, Conch. Icon.

Gardner!, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

Tennentii, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

Reevei, Layard. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.

violaceus, Layard, Proc. Zool. S c. 1854.

similis, Layard. Proc. Z"ol. Soc. 1854.

fmrculatus, Layard. Pr. Z. Soc. 1854.
Paludomus ( Philopotamis^.

sulcatus. Reeve, Conch. Icon.

regalis, Layard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 18.54.

Thwaitesii. Layard, P. Zool. Soc. 1854.
Pirena aira, Linn. Systema Naturae.
Paludma melanostoma, Bens.

Ceylanica, Dohrn. Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857.
Bythinia i^tenoihyroides, Dohrn, Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1''57.

mode.'ta, Dohrn. MS.

inconspicua, Dohrn, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857.
Ampullaria La\ardi, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

moesta, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

cinerea, Beeve. Conch. Icon.

Woodward!, Dohrn, Pr. Zool. Soc. 18-58.

Tischbeini, Duhrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

cariiiata, Swainson. Zool. lUus. ser. 2.

paliidinnides, Cat. Cristofori 8$ Jan.-

Malabarica, I hitippi, monog. Ampul.2

Lnzonica, Reeve, Conch. Icon.^

Sumatrensis, Philippi, monog. AmpuL*
Navicella eximia. Reeve, Conch. Icon.

reticulata, Reeve, < onch. Icon.

Livesayi, Dohrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

squamata, Dohrn, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.

depresia, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Neritina

crepidularia. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

melanostoma, Trosch. W. A. Nat. 1837.

triserialis, Sowerby, Conch. lUustr.

Colornbaria, Recluz, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1845.

Perottetiana, Reclux,^c^. Z. Cuv. 1841.

Ceylanensis, Recluz. Mag. Conch. 1851.

Lavardi, Reeve, Conch. Icon.

rostrata. Reeve, Conch. Icon.

reticulata, Sowerby, Conch. Illustr.
Nerita plicata, Linn. Systema Natures.

costata, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

plexa, Chemn. Conch. Cab.^
Natica aurantia. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

mammilla, Linn. Systema Naturae.

picta. Reeve (as ot Reclux), C. Icon.

arachnoidea, Gm. Systema Naturae.

lineata, Lam. Anim'. s. Vert,

> M. fasciolata, Olivier. authority of Mr. Dohrn.

8 These four species are included on the ^ N. exuvia, Lain, not Linn.

Chap. XI.]

LIST OF CEYLON SHELLS.

393

adusta, Ch. C. C. f. 192R-7, & Karsten.^

pellis-tigrina, Karsten, Mus. Lesk.'^

did \ ma, Bolten, Mus.^
lanthina prolongara, Blainv. D. S. N.xxiv.

communis, Kr. (as oi L. in part) S.A. M.
Sigaretus, sp.^
Stomateila

calliostoma, Adams, Thesaur. Conch.
Haliotis varia, Linn. Systema Naturse.

striata. Martini (as of Linn.), C. Cao. i.

semistriata. Reeve, Concii. Icon.
Tornatella solidula, Linn. Systema Nat.
Pyramidella

maculosa. Lam. Anira. s. Vert.
Eulima Martini, Adams, Thes. Conch, ii.
Siliquaria

muricata, Born. Test. Mus. Cses. Vind.
Scalaria raricostata, Lain. Anim. s. Vert.
Dc^lphinula laciniata. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

distorta, Linn. Syst. Nat.^
Solarium perdix, Hinds. Proc. Zool. Soc.

Layardi, Adams. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.6
Rotelia vestiaria, Linn, Syst. Nat.
Phorus pallidulus, Reeve, Conch. Icon. i.
Trochus

elegantulus, Gray, Index Tes. Suppl.

Niloticus, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Monodoiita laOio, Linn. Syst. Nat.

canaliculata, Latn. Anim. s. Vert.
Turbo versicolor, Gm. Syst. Nat.

princeps. Philippi.^
Planaxis undtilauis, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. '^
Littorina angulit'era. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

melanostoma, Gray, Zool., Beech. Voy.^
Cliemiutzia

trilineata, Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853.

lirata, Ada?ns, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853.
Phasianella

lineolata, Gray, Index Test. Suppl.
Turritella

bacillum, ^/ewe;-, Coquilles Vivantes,

coluninaris, Kiener, Coquilles Vivantes.

duplicata, Linn. Syst. Nat.

attenuata. Reeve, Syst. Nat.
Cerithium fluviatile, Potiez 4" Michaud,
Galerie Duuai.

Layardi (Curithidea), Adams, Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1854.

palustre, Linn. Syst. Nat.

aluco, Linn. Syst. Nat.

asperu II, Linn, ^yst. Nat.

telescopium, Linn. Syst. Nat.

palustre obeliscus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

fasciatum, Brag. Em yd. Meth. Vers.

rubus, Sower, (as ot'J/ar/.;,Thes. C, ii.

Sowerbyi, Kiener, Coquilles Vivantes
(teste Sir E. Tennent).
Pleurotoma Indica, Deshayes, Voyage
Belanger.

virgo. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Turbinella pyrum, Linn. Syst. Nat.

rapa, La?« Anim.s Vert.,(the Chank.)

cornigera, I. am. Anim. s. Vert.

spirilius, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Cancellaria

triyonostoma. Lam. .^nim. s. Vert.'"

scalata, Soverby, Thesaur. Conch.

articularis, Sowerby, Thesaur. Conch.

Littoriniformis, Soirerby, Thes. Conch.

contabulaia, Sowerby, 1 hes. Conch.
Fasciolaria

fiiamentosa, Latn. Anim. s. Vert.

trapezium, Lmn. Syst. Nat.
Fusus longissimus, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

colus, Linn. Mus. Lud. Ulricas.

toreomA,Deshayes (AS, Mur. i.Martyii).^^

laticostntus, Deshayes, Mag. Zool. 1831.

Blosvillei, Deshayes. E. Meth. Vers., ii.
Pyrula rapa, Linn. Syst. Nat.l2

citrina. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

pugilina, Born, Test. Mus. Vind.'^

ficus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

ficoides, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Ranella crumena, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

spin )sa. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

rana. Linn. Syst. Nat.'^

margaritula, Deshayes, Voy. Belanger.
Murex haustellum, Linn. Syst. Nat.

adustus, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

micropbyllus, Lam. .Aiiim. s. Vert.

angulilerus, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

palinarosae. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

ternispina, Kiener (as of Lam.), Co-
quilles Vivantes.

tenuispina. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

ferrugo, Mawe, Index. Test. Suppl. i^

B.ee\ e.anui, Shuttleii'urth (teste Cuming)
Tricon anus, Linn. Syst. Nat '^

mukis, Dilluyn. Descript. Cat. Shells.

retusus, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

pyrum, Linn. Syst. Nat.

clavator, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

Ceylonensis, Sowerby, Proc. Zool. Soc.

lotoriuni, Lam. (not Linn.) An. s. Vert.

lampas, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Pterocera lambis, Linn. Syst. Nat.

millepeda, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Strombus canarium, Linn. Syst. Nat.'''

succiiutus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

fasciatus, Born, Test. Mus. Caes. Vind.

1 Conch. Cab. f. 1926-7, and N, raelan-
ostoma, Lam. in part.

2 Chemn. Conch. Cab. 1892-3.

3 N. glaucina, Lam. not Linn.

■1 A species (possibly Javanicus) is
known to have been collected. 1 have not
seen it.

5 Not of Lamarck. D. atrata, Reeve.

6 Philippia L.

7 Zeit. Mai. 1846 for T. argyrostoma,
Lam not Linn.

8 Buccinum pyramidatum, Gm. in part :
B. sulcatum, var. C. oi Urug.

9 Teste Cuming.

10 As Delphinulat.

1' Ed. Lam. .Anim. s. Vert. " "
i'-^ F. papyracea, Lam. In mixed collec-
tions I have seen the Chinese P. bezoar of
Lamarck as from Ceylon.
13 P. vespertilio, Gm,

11 R. albivaricosa. Reeve.

15 M. anguliferus var. Latn.

16 T. cymcephalus of Lamarck is also
met with in Ceylon collections.

17 S. incisus of the Index Testaceologi-
cus (urceus, var. Soi/k Thesaur.) is found
in mixed Ceylon collections.

394

SHELLS.

[Chap. XI.

Sibbaldii, Somerby, Thesaur. Conch, t.

lentiginosus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

marginatus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

Lamarckii, Sowerby, Thesaur. Conch.
Cassis glauca, Linn. Syst. Nat.'

canaliculata, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

Zeylariica, Lam. Aniin. s. Vert.

areola, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Ricinula albo'.abris, Blainv. Nouv. Ann.
Mus. H. N.i.2

horrida. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

morus, Lam. Anim. s. Vi-rt.
Purpura fiscella, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

Persica, Linn. Syst. Nat.

hystrix. Lam. (not Linn.) An. s. Vert.

granatina, Deshayes, Voy Belanger.

mancineUa, Lam. {a.^ o^ Linn.) An. s.V.

bufo, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

carinifera, Lnm. Anim. s. Vert.
Harpa conoidalis, Lam. Anim, s. Vert.

minor, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Dolium pomum, Linn. Syst. Nat.

olearium, Linn. Syst. Nat.

perdix, Linn. Syst. Nat.

maculatum, I. am. Anim. s. Vert.
iJassa ornata, Kiener, Coq. Vivantes.3

verrucosa, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

crenulata, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

olivacea, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

glans, Linn. Syst. Nat.

arcularia, Linn. Syst Nat,

papillosa, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Phos virgatus, Hinds, Zool. Sul. Moll.

retecosus. Hinds, Zool. Sulphur, Moll.

senticosus, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Buccinum melanostoma, Sowerby, App.
to Tankerv. Cat.

erythrosttma, Beeve, Conch. Icon.

Proteus, Beeve, Conch. Icon.

rubiginosum, Beeve, Conch. Icon.
Eburna spirata, Linn. Syst. Nat.'*

canaliculata, Schumacher, S. A. s. V.5

Ceylanica, Bmguiere, En. Meth. Vers.
BuUia vittata, Linn. Syst. Nat.

lineolata, Sowerby, Tankerv. Cat.6

Melanoides, Deshayes, Voy. Belan.
Terebra chlorata, Lam. Anim, s. Vert.

muscaria, Lam. Anim. s. Vert,

laevigata. Gray, Proc, Zool. Soc. 1834,

maculata, Linn. Syst. Nat.

subulata, Linn. Syst. Nat.

concinna, Deshayes, ed. Lam. A. S.V.

myurus, La7n. Anim. s. Vert.

tigrina, Gm. Syst, Nat.

cerithina. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Columbella flavida. Lam. Anim.s. Vert.

fulgurans. Lam. Amm. s. Vert.

mendicaria, Linn. Syst. Nat,

scripta, Lam. Anim. 8.Vert.( Teste Jay}.
Mitra

episcopalis, Dilhnyn, Des. Cat. Shells.

cardinalis. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

crebrilirata, Beeve, Conch. Icon.

punctostriata,y4<fflws,Proc. Zool. So. 18.54.

insculpta, Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864.
Layardi, Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854, ?
Voluta vexillum, Chemn. Conch. Cab,

Lapponica, Linn. Syst. Nat.
Melo Indicus, Gin. Syst. Nat.
Marginella Sarda, Kiener, Coq. Vivantes.
Ovulum ovum, Linn. Syst. Nat.

verrucosum, LAnn. Syst. Nat.

pudicum, Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.
Cypraea Argus, lAnn. Syst. Nat,

Arabica, Linn. Syst. Nat,

Mauritiana. Linn. Syst. Nat.

hirundo, Linn. Syst. Nat.

Lynx, Linn. Syst. Nat.

asellus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

erosa, Linn. Syst. Nat.

vitellus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

stolida, Linn. Syst. Nat.

mappa, Linn. Syst, Nat,

helvola, LAnn. Syst. Nat.

errones, Linn. Syst. Nat.

cribraria, Linn. Syst. Nat.

globulus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

clandestina, Linn. Syst. Nat.

ocellata, LAnn. Syst. Nat.

caurica, Linn. Syst. Nat.

tabescens. So/and. in Dillwyn Des. C. Sh.

gangrenosa, Solund- in Dillw. D. C. Sh.

interrupta, Gray, Zool. Journ. i.

lentiginosa, Gray, Zool. Journ. i.

pyriformis, Gray, Zool. Journ. i.

nivosa. Broderip, Zool. Journ. iii.

poraria, Linn. Syst. Nat,

testudinaria, Linn. Syst. Nat,
Terebellum

subulatum. Lam,. Anim. s. Vert.
Ancillaria glabrata, Linn. Syst. Nat.

Candida, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
Oliva Maura, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

erythrostoma. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

gibbosa, Born, Test. Mus. Caes.^

nebulosa, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

Macieayana, Duclos, Monogr. of Oliva.

episcopalis, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

elt'gans. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

ispidiila, Linn. Syst. Nat, ( partly ).9

Zeiianica, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

undata, Lam,. Anim. s. Vert,

irisans, Lam. Anim. s. Vert, (teste
Duclos).
Conus miles, Linn. Syst, Nat.

generalis, Linn. Sysi, Nat.

betulinus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

stercus-muscarum', Linn. Syst. Nat.

Hebraeus, Linn. Syst. Nat. ^

virgo, Linn. Syst. Nat,

geographicus, Linn. Syst, Nat.

aulicus, Linn. Syst. Nat,

figuiinus, Linn. Syst, Nat.

striatus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

senator, Linn. Syst. Nat.''*

literatus, Linn. Syst. Nat.

1 C, plicaria of Lamarck, and C. coro-
nulata of Sowerby, are also said to be found
in Ceylon.

2 As Purpura.

3 N. suturalis, Beeve (as of Lam.), is
met with in mixed Ceylon collections.

* E, areolata, Lam.

* E, spirata, Lam. not Linn.
^ B. Belangeri, Kiener.

7 As Turricula L,

8 O. utriculus, Dillwyn,

9 C. planorbis, .Bo/n; C. vulpinu8,Za»i.

10 Conus ermineus, Born, in part.

Chap. XI.]

LIST OF CEYLON SHELLS.

395

imperialis. Linn. Syst. Nat.
textile, Linn. S_vst. Nat.
terebra, Born, Test. Must. Caes. Vind.
tessellatus. Born, Test. Mus. Caes. Vind.
augur, Biuguiere, Encycl. Meth. Vers,
obesus, Bruguiere, Encycl. Meth. Vers,
araneosus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers,
gubernator, Brug, Encycl. Meth. Vers,
monile, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers,
nimbosus, Brug. Encrcl. M^th. Vers,
eburnetis, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.
vitulinus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers,
quercinus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers,
lividus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.
Omaria, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.
Maldivus, Brug. Encycl. M^th. Vers,
noctiirnus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.
Ceylonensis, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers,
arenatus. Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.
Nicobaricus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

glans, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Amadis, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

pnnctatiis, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

minimus, Reeve (as of Linn.), C. Icon.

terminus, Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

lineatus, Chemn. Conch. Cab.

episcopus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

verriculum, Reeve, Conch. Cab.

zonatus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

rattus, Brug. En. Mth. V. (teste Chemn.)

pertusus, Brug. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Nussatella, Linn. Syst. Nat.

lithoglyphus, Brug. En. Meth. Vers."*

tulipa, Linn. Syst. Nat.

Ammiralis, var. Linn, teste Brug.
Spirula Peronii, Lain. Anim. s. Vert.
Sepia Hieredda, Rang. M, Z. ser.i. p. 100.
Sepioteuthis, Sp.
Loligo, Sp.

A conclusion not unworthy of observation may be
deduced from this catalogue ; namely, that Ceylon was
the unknown, and hence unacknowledged, source of
almost every extra-European shell which has been
described by Linnsus without a recorded habitat. This
fact gives to Ceylon specimens an importance which can
only be appreciated by collectors and the students of
Mollusca.

2. RADIATA.

The eastern seas are profusely stocked with radiated
animals, but it is to be regretted that they have as yet
received but little attention from English naturalists.
Recently, however. Dr. Kelaart has devoted himself to
the investigation of some of the Singhalese species, and
has published his discoveries in the Journal of the
Ceylon Branch of the Asiatic Society for 1856-8. Our
information respecting the radiata on the confines of the
island is, therefore, very scanty ; with the exception of
the genera ^ examined by him. Hence the notice of this
extensive class of animals must be limited to indicating

^ Actinia, 9 sp. ; Anthea, 4 sp. ; 1 sp. ; Peechea, 1 sp. ; Zoanthura,
Actinodendron, 3 sp. ; Dioscosoma, 1 sp.

396 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

a few of those which exhibit striking peculiarities, or
which admit of the most common observation.

Star Fish. — Very large species of Ophiuridce are to be
met with at Trincomalie, crawling busily about, and in-
sinuating their long serpentine arms into the irregulari-
ties and perforations in the rocks. To these they attach
themselves with such a firm grasp, especially when they
perceive that they have attracted attention, that it is
almost impossible to procure un mutilated specimens
without previously depriving them of life, or at least
modifying their muscular tenacity. The upper surface
is of a dark purple colour, and coarsely spined; the
arms of the largest specimens are more than a foot in
length, and very fragile.

The star fishes, with immovable rays ^, are by no
means rare ; many kinds are brought up in the nets, or
may be extracted from the stomachs of the larger market
fish. One very large species^, figured by Joinville in
the manuscript volume in the library at the India House,
is not uncommon ; it has thick arms, from which and
the disc numerous large fleshy cirrhi of a bright crimson
colour project downwards, giving the creature a remark-
able aspect. No description of it, so far as I am aware,
has appeared in any systematic work on zoology.

Sea Slugs. — There are a few species of Holothiirice,
of which the trepang is the best known example. It is
largely collected in the Grulf of Manaar, and dried in the
sun to prepare it for export to China. A good descrip-
tion and figures of its varieties are still desiderata.

Parasitic Woii^is. — Of these entozoa, the Filaria
medinensis, or Gruinea-worm, which burrows in the

^ Asterias, Linn. , 2 Pentaceros?

Chap. XI.] PARASITIC WORMS. 397

cellular tissue under the skin, is well known in the north
of the island, but rarely found in the damper districts of
the south and west. In Ceylon, as elsewhere, the natives
attribute its occurrence to drinking the waters of par-
ticular wells; but this belief is inconsistent with the
fact that its lodgment in the human body is almost
always effected just above the ankle. This shows that
the minute parasites are transferred to the skin of the
leg from the moist vegetation bordering the footpaths
leading to wells. At this period the creatures are very
small, and the process of insinuation is painless and
imperceptible. It is only when they attain to consider-
able size, a foot or more in length, that the operation of
extracting them is resorted to, when exercise may have
given rise to inconvenience and inflammation.

These pests in all probability received their popular
name of Guinea-worms, from the narrative of Bruno
or Braun, a citizen and surgeon of Basle, who about the
year 1611 made several voyages to that part of the
African coast, and on his return published, amongst
other things, an account of the local diseases.^ But
Linschoten, the Dutch navigator, had previously ob-
served the same worms at Ormus in 1584, and they are
thus described, together with the method of removing
them, in the English version of his voyage.

" There is in Ormus a sickenesse or common plague
of wormes, which growe in their legges, it is thought
that they proceede of the water that they drink. These
wormes are like unto lute strings, and about two or
three fadomes longe, which they must plucke out and
winde them aboute a straw or a feather, everie day some

^ In De Bey's Collect, toI. i. p. 49.

398 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

part thereof, so longe as they feele them creepe ; and
when they hold still, letting it rest in that sort till the
next daye, they bind it fast and annoynt the hole, and
the swelling from whence it commeth foorth, with fresh
butter, and so in ten or twelve dayes, they winde them
out without any let, in the meanetime they must sit still
with their legges, for if it should breake, they should not
without great paine get it out of their legge, as I have
seen some men doe." ^

The worm is of a whitish colour, sometimes inclining
to brown. Its thickness is from a half to two-thirds of
a line, and its length has sometimes reached to ten or
twelve feet. Small specimens have been found beneath
the tunica conjunctiva of the eye ; and one species of the
same genus of Nematoidea infests the cavity of the eye
itself.2

Planaria. — In the journal already mentioned. Dr. Ke-
laart has given descriptions of fifteen species of planaria,
and four of a new genus, instituted by him for the
reception of those differing from the normal kinds by
some peculiarities which they exhibit in common. At
Point Pedro, Mr. Edgar Layard met with one on the
bark of trees, after heavy rain, which would appear to
belong to the subgenus geoplana,^

Accdephce. — AcalephaB"* are plentiful, so much so,
indeed, that they occasionally tempt the larger cetacea
into the Grulf of Manaar. In the calmer months of the
year, when the sea is glassy, and for hours together

' John Htjighen Van Lin- of a light brown above, white un-

SCHOTEN his Discours of Voyages derneath; very broad and thin,

into the Easte and West Indies, and has a peculiarly shaped tail,

London, 1599, p. 16. half-moon-shaped in fact, like a

^ Owen's Lectures on the Inver- grocer's cheese knife."

tebrata, p. 96. ^ * Jelly-fish.

' "A ciu'ious species, which is

Chap. XI.]

ACALEPKE.

399

undisturbed by a ripple, the minute descriptions are
rendered perceptible by their beautiful prismatic tint-
ing. So great is their transparency that they are only
to be distinguished from the water by the return to the
eye of the reflected light that glances from their delicate
and polished surfaces. Less frequently they are traced
by the faint hues of their tiny peduncles, arms, or ten-
taculse ; and it has been well observed that they often
give the seas in which they abound the appearance of
being crowded with flakes of half-melted snow. The
larger kinds, when undisturbed in their native haunts,

PHYSALUS URTICULUS,

attain to considerable size. A faintly blue medusa.

400 SHELLS. [Chap. XT.

nearly a foot across, may be seen in the Gulf of Manaar,
where, no doubt, others of still larger growth are to be
found.

Occasionally after storms, the beach at Colombo is
strewn mth the thin transparent globes of the " Portu-
guese Man of War," Physcdus urticulus, which are piled
upon the lines left by the waves, like globules of glass
delicately tinted with purple and blue. They sting, as
their trivial name indicates, like a nettle when in-
cautiously touched.

Bed infusoria. — On both sides of the island (but
most frequently on the west), during the south-west
monsoon, a broad expanse of the sea assumes a red
tinge, considerably brighter than brick-dust; and this
is confined to a space so distinct that a line seems to
separate it from the green water which flows on either
side. Observing at Colombo that the whole area so
tinged changed its position without parting with any
portion of its colouring, I had some of the water brought
on shore, and, on examination with the microscope,
found it to be filled with infusoria, probably similar to
those which have been noticed near the shores of South
America, and whose abundance has imparted a name to
the " Vermilion Sea" off the coast of California.*

The remaining orders, including the corals, madre-

^ The late Dr. BnsT, of Bom- giving us the seas of milk as well

bay, ill commenting on this state- as those of blood. The coloured

ment, writes to the Athenceum that : water at times is to be seen all

"The red colour with which the along the coast north to Kurrachee,

sea is tinged, round the shores of and far out, and of a much more in-

Ceylon, during a part of the S.W. tense tint in the Ai'abian Sea.

monsoon is due to the Proto-coccus The frequency of its appearance in

nivalis, or the Himatta-coccus, the Red Sea has conferred on it its

which presents different coloui's at name."
different periods of the year —

Chap. XI.] TRITOXIA ARBORESCEXS. 401

pores, and other polypi, have yet to find a naturalist to
undertake their investigation, but in all probability the
new species are not very numerous.

NOTE.

TRITOXIA ARBORESCEXS.

The following is the letter of Dr. Grant, referred to at j)age
385 :—

Sir, — I have perused, with much interest, your remarkable
communication received yesterday, respecting the musical
soimds which you heard proceeding from under water, on the
east coast of Ceylon. I cannot parallel the phenomenon you
witnessed at Batticaloa, as produced by marine animals, "\\dth
anything "with which my past experience has made me ac-
quainted in marine zoology. Excepting the faint clink of the
Tritonia arhorescens, repeated only once every minute or two,
and apparently produced by the mouth armed with two dense
horny laminse, I am not aware of any sounds produced in the
sea by branchiated invertebrata. It is to be regretted that in
the memorandum you have not mentioned your observations
on the hving specimens brought you by the sailors as the
animals wliich produced the sounds. Your authentication of
the hitherto unknown fact, would probably lead to the disco-
very of the same phenomenon in other common accessible
paludinffi, and other aUied branchiated animals, and to the
solution of a problem, which is still to me a mystery, even
rerrardino; the tritonia.

My two living tritonia, contained in a large clear colourless
glass cylinder, fdled Avith pure sea water, and placed on the
central table of the Wernerian Natural History Society of
Edinburgh, around which many members were sitting, con-

D D

402 SHELLS. [Chap. XI.

tinned to clink audibly within tlie distance of twelve feet
dui'ing the whole meeting. These small animals were indivi-
dually not half the size of the last joint of my little finger.
Wliat eifect the mellow sounds of millions of these, covering
the shalloAv bottom of a tranquil estuary, in the silence of
night, might produce, I can scarcely conjecture.

In the absence of your authentication, and of all geological
explanation of the continuous sounds, and of all source of fal-
lacy from the hum and buzz of living creatures in the air or
on the land, or swimming on the waters, I must say that I
should be inclined to seek for the source of sounds so audible
as those you describe rather among the pulmonated vertebrata,
which swarm in the depths of these seas — as fishes, serpents
(of which my friend Dr. Cantor has described about twelve
species he found in the Bay of Bengal), turtles, palmated birds,
pinnipedous and cetaceous mammalia, &c.

The publication of your memorandum in its present form,
though not quite satisfactory, will, I think, be eminently cal-
culated to excite useful inquiry into a neglected and curious
part of the economy of nature.

I remain. Sir,

Yours most respectftilly,

Egbert E. Grant.

Sir J. Emerson T^ennentj ^-c. ^'C.

403

CHAP. XII.

INSECTS.

Owing to the favourable combination of heat, moisture,
and vegetation, the myriads of insects in Ceylon form
one of the characteristic features of the island. In the
solitude of the forests there is a perpetual music from
their soothing and melodious hum, which frequently
swells to a startling sound as the cicada trills his sonor-
ous drum on the sunny bark of some tall tree. At
morning the dew hangs in diamond drops on the threads
and gossamer which the spiders suspend across every
pathway ; and above the pool dragon-flies, of more than
metallic lustre, flash in the early sunbeams. The earth
teems with countless ants, which emerge from beneath
its surface, or make their devious highways to ascend to
their nests in the trees. Lustrous beetles, ^^dth their
golden elytra, bask on the leaves, whilst minuter species
dash through the air in circles, which the ear can follow
by the booming of their tiny wings. Butterflies of
large size and gorgeous colouring, flutter over the
endless expanse of flowers, and at times the extra-
ordinary sight presents itself of flights of these delicate
creatures, generally of a white or pale yellow hue, ap-
parently miles in breadth, and of such prodigious
extension as to occupy hours, and even days, unin-
terruptedly in their passage — whence coming no one

D D 2

404 INSECTS. [Chap. XH.

knows ; whither going no one can tell.^ As day declines,
the moths issue from their retreats, the crickets add
their shrill voices to swell the din ; and when darkness
descends, the eye is charmed with the millions of
emerald lamps lighted up by the fire-flies amidst the
surrounding gloom.

As yet no attempt has been made to describe the
insects of Ceylon systematically, much less to enumerate
the prodigous number of species that abound in every
locality. Occasional observers have, from time to time,
contributed notices of particular families to the Scientific
Associations of Europe, but their papers remain un-
digested, and the time has not yet arrived for the pre-
paration of an Entomology of the island.

AMiat Darwin remarks of the Coleoptera of Brazil is
nearly as applicable to the same order of insects in
Ceylon: "The number of minute and obscurely co-
loured beetles is exceedingly great; the cabinets of
Europe can as yet, with partial exceptions, boast only
of the larger species from tropical climates, and it is
sufficient to disturb the composure of an entomologist
to look forward to the future dimensions of a catalogue
with any pretensions to completeness."^ M. Metner, a
German entomologist, who has spent some years in
Ceylon, has recently published, in one of the local

* The butterflies I have seen in their flight is ultimately directed

these wonderful migrations in Cey- to Adam's Peak, and that their

lowwereviostlj Callidri/as Hilai'ioe, pilgrimage ends on reach "iig the

C. Alcmeone, and C. Tyranthe, with sacred momitain. A friend of

straggling individuals of the genus mine travelling from Kandy to

Eupl(xa, E. Coras, and E. Pruthoe. Kornegalle, di'ove for nine miles

Their passage took place in April tlirough a cloud of white butter-

and May, generally in a north- flies, which were passing across

easterly direction. The natives the road by which he went,

liave a superstitious belief that ^ ^at. Journal, p. 39.

Chap. XII.] GOLDEN BEETLES, ETC. 405

periodicals, a series of papers on the Coleoptera of the
island, in which every species introduced is stated to be
previously undescribed.^

CoLEOPTEEA. — BiijjrestidcB ; Golden Beetles. — In the
morning the herbaceous plants, especially on the eastern
side of the island, are studded with these gorgeous beetles,
whose golden winof-cases ^ are used to enrich the em-
broidery of the Indian zenana, whilst the lustrous joints
of the legs are strung on silken threads, and form neck-
laces and bracelets of singular brilliancy.

These exquisite colours are not confined to one order,
and some of the Elateridse ^ and Lamellicorns exhibit
hues of green and blue, that rival the deepest tints of
the emerald and sapphire.

Scavenger Beetles. — Scavenger beetles ^ are to be
seen wherever the presence of putrescent and offensive
matter affords opportunity for the display of their re-
pulsive but most curious instincts ; fastening on it with
eagerness, severing it into lumps proportionate to their
strength, and rolling it along in search of some place
sufficiently soft in which to bury it, after having de-
posited their eggs in the centre. I had frequent op-
portunities, especially in traversing the sandy jungles in
the level plains to the north of the island, of observing
the unfailing appearance of these creatures instantly on
the dropping of horse dung, or any other substance

* Eepublished in the Ann. Nat. and figured by Mr. West^vood in

Hist. liis Cabinet of Oriental Entomology,

2 Sternoccra Chrysis ; S. sterni- pi. 35, f, 1). In the same \\-ork is

cornis. figured another species of large

^ Of the family of Elateridce, one size, also from Ceylon, this is the

of the finest is a Singhalese species, Alans sordidus. — Westwood, L e.

the Caiupsosternus Templetonii, of pi. 35, f. 9.

an exquisite golden green colour, * Ateuchus saeer ; Copris sagaj: ;

with blue reflections (described C. capudntcs, &c. &c.

D D 3

406

IXSECTS.

[Chap. XU.

LONGICOEN BEETLE (.BATOCERA BDBUS).

suitable for their pur-
pose ; although not
one was visible but
a moment before.
Their approach on
the wing is announced
by a loud and joyous
booming sound, as
they dash in rapid
circles in search of
the desired object,
led by their sense of
smell, and evidently
little assisted by the
eye in shaping their
course towards it. In
these excursions they
exhibit a strength of
wing and sustained
power of flight, such
as is possessed by no
other class of beetles
with which I am ac-
quainted, but which
is obviously indis-

Chap. XH.] THE COCO-XUT BEETLE. 407

pensable for the due performance of the useful func-
tions they discharge.

The Coco-nut Beetle. — In the luxuriant forests of Ceylon
the extensive family of Longicorns ^ and Passalidce
live in destructive abundance. To the coco-nut plan-
ters the ravages committed by beetles are painfully
familiar.^ The larva of one species of Dynastidce,
the Oryctes rhinoceros, called by the Singhalese " Gas-
cooroominiya,^^ makes its way into the younger trees,
descending from the top, and after perforating them
in all directions, forms a cocoon of the gnawed wood
and sawdust, in which it reposes during its sleep as a
pupa, till the arrival of the period when it emerges as a
perfect beetle. Notwithstanding the repulsive aspect of
the large pulpy larvae of these beetles, they are esteemed
a luxury by the Malabar coolies, who so far avail them-
selves of the privilege accorded by the Levitical law,
which permitted the Hebrews to eat "the beetle after
his kind." ^

Amongst the superstitions of the Singhalese arising
out of their belief in demonology, one remarkable one
is connected with the appearance of a beetle when ob-
served on the floor of a dwelling-house after nightfall.
The popular belief is that in obedience to a certain
form of incantation (called cooroominiya-pilli) sl demon

' The engraving on the pre- beetles. The writer had recently

ceding page represents in its va- passed through several coco-nut

rious transformations one of the plantations, "varpng in extent

most familiar and graceful of the from 20 to 150 acres, and about

longicorn beetles of Ceylon, the two to three years old; and in

Batocera ruhus. these he did not discover a single

2 There is a paper in the Journ. young tree untouched by the coo-

of the Asiat. Society of Ceylon, roominiya." — P. 49.

May, 1845, by Mr. Capper, on the ' Leviticus, xi. 22.
ravages perpetrated by these

l> D 4

408 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

in the shape of a beetle is sent to the house of some
person or family whose destruction it is intended to
compass, and who presently falls sick and dies. The only
means of averting this catastrophe is, that some one,
himself an adept in necromancy, should perform a
counter-charm, the effect of which is to send back the
disguised beetle to destroy his original employer ; for
in such a conjuncture the death of one or the other is
essential to appease the demon whose intervention has
been invoked. Hence the discomfort of a Singhalese
on finding a beetle in his house after sunset, and his
anxiety to expel but not to kill it.

Tortoise Beetles.— There is one family of insects, the
members of which cannot fail to strike the traveller by
their singular beauty, the Cassididce or tortoise beetles,
in which the outer shell overlaps the body, and the
limbs are susceptible of being drawn entirely within it.
The rim is frequently of a different tint from the centre,
and one species which I have seen is quite startling
from the brilliancy of its colouring, which gives it the
appearance of a ruby enclosed in a frame of pearl ; but
this wonderful effect disappears immediately on the
death of the insect.

Orthoptera. Leaf -insects. — But in relation to
the insects of Ceylon the admiration of their colours is
still less exciting than the astonishment created by the
forms in which some of the families present themselves ;
especially the " soothsayers " (^Mantidce) and " walking
leaves." The latter ^, exhibiting the most cunning of
all nature's devices for the preservation of her creatures,
are found in the jungle in all varieties of hues, from
the pale yellow of an opening bud to the rich green of
^ Fhyllium siccifolium.

Chap. XII.]

LEAF-IXSECTS.

409

the full - blown
leaf, and the
withered tint of
decay. So per-
fect is the imita-
tion of a leaf in
structure and ar-
ticulation, that
this amazing in-
sect when at rest
is almost un-
distinguishable
from the foliage
around; not only
are the wings
modelled to re-
semble ribbed
and fibrous fol-
licles, but every
joint of the legs
is expanded into
a broad plait like
a half-opened
leaflet.

STICK INSECT AND MAXTI3

410 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

It rests on its abdomen, the legs serving to drag it
slowly along, and thus the flatness of its attitude serves
still further to add to the appearance of a leaf. One of
the most marvellous incidents connected with its organi-
sation was exhibited by one which I kept under a glass
shade on my table ; it laid a quantity of eggs, that, in
colour and shape, were not to be distinguished from seeds.
They were brown and pentangular, with a short stem,
and slightly punctured at the intersections.

EGGS OF THE LEAF-IN SEQT,

The ^^ soothsayer," on the other hand {Mantis super-
stitiosa, Fab.^), little justifies by its propensities the
appearance of gentleness, and the attitudes of sanctity,
which have obtained for it the title of the " prapng
mantis." Its habits are carnivorous, and degenerate
into cannibalism, as it preys on the weaker individuals
of its own species. Two which I enclosed in a box
were both found dead a few hours after, literally severed
limb from limb in their encounter. The formation of
the foreleg enables the tibia to be so closed on the
sharp edge of the thigh as to amputate any slender
substance grasped within it.

The Stick-insect. — The Phasmiclce or spectres, another
class of orthoptera, present as close a resemblance to
small branches or leafless twigs as their congeners do
to green leaves. The wing-covers, where they exist,
instead of being expanded, are applied so closely to the
body as to detract nothing from its rounded form, and

^ M. aridifolia and M. extensi- like head, and dilatations on the
collis, as well as Empusa gongy- posterior thighs, are common in
lodes, remarkable for the long leaf- the island.

Chap. XH.] DRAGON-FLIES. — THE WHITE AXT. 411

hence the name which they have acquired of " tualking-
sticks,^'' Like the Phyllium, the Phasma lives exclu-
sively on vegetables, and some attain the length of
several inches.

Of all the other tribes of the Orthoptera Ceylon pos-
sesses many representatives ; in swarms of cockroaches,
grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets.

Neuroptera. Dragon-flies. — Of the Neuroptera,
some of the dragon-flies are pre-eminently beautiful ;
one species, mth rich brown-coloured spots upon its
gauzy wings, is to be seen near every pool.^ Another^,
which dances above the mountain streams in Oovah,
and amongst the hills descending towards Kandy, gleams
in the sun as if each of its green enamelled wings had
been sliced from an emerald.

The Ant-lion. — Of the ant-lion, whose larvae have
earned a bad renowTi from their predaceous ingenuity,
Ceylon has, at least, four species, which seem peculiar
to the island.^ This singular creature, preparatory to
its pupal transformation, contrives to excavate a conical
pitfall in the dust to the depth of about an inch, in the
bottom of which it conceals itself, exposing only its
open mandibles above the surface ; and here every ant
and soft-bodied insect which curiosity tempts to descend,
or accident may precipitate into the trap, is ruthlessly
seized and devoured by its ambushed inhabitant.

The WJiite Ant. — But of the insects of this order
the most noted are the ivhite ants or termites (which
are ants only by a misnomer). They are, unfortunately,
at once ubiquitous and innumerable in every spot where

' Lihelhda pulcheUa, Myrmeleon gravis, WaUcer; M.

* Euphcea sphndens. dirus, "Walker; M. barbarus,

' Falpares contrarius, Walker; Walker.

412

INSECTS.

[Chap. XII.

the climate is not too chilly, or the soil too sandy, for
them to construct their domed edifices.

These they raise from a considerable depth under
ground, excavating the clay with their mandibles, and
moistening it with tenacious saliva ^ until it assume the
appearance, and almost the consistency, of sandstone.
So delicate is the trituration to which they subject this
material, that the goldsmiths of Ceylon employ the
powdered clay of the ant hills in preference to all other
substances in the preparation of crucibles and moulds
for their finer castings ; and Knox says, " the people
use this finer clay to make their earthen gods of, it is so
pure and fine."^ These structures the termites erect
with such perseverance and durability that they fre-
quently rise to the height of ten or twelve feet from

^ It becomes an interesting
question whence the termites derive
the large supplies of moisture with
which they not only temper the
clay for the construction of their
long covered-ways above ground,
but for keeping their passages uni-
formly damp and cool below the
surface. Yet their habits in this
particular are unvarying, in the
seasons of droughts as well as
after rain ; in the driest and least
promising positions, in situations
inaccessible to drainage from above,
and cut off by rocks and imper-
vious strata from springs from
below. Dr. Livingstone, struck
with this phenomenon in Southern
Africa, asks : " Can the white ants
possess the power of combining
the oxygen and hydrogen of their
vegetable food by vital force so as
to form water?" — Travels, p. 22.
And he describes at Angola, an

insect^ resembling the Aphrophora
sj)umaria ; seven or eight indi-
viduals of which distil several pints
of water every night. — P. 414.
It is highly probable that the ter-
mites are endowed with some such
faculty : nor is it more remarkable
that an insect should combine the
gases of its food to produce water,
than that a fish thonld decompose
water in order to provide itself
with gas. FouRCROix fovmd the
contents of the air-bladder in a carp
to be pure nitrogen. — Yarrell, vol.
i. p. 42. And the aquatic larva of
the dragon-fly extracts air for its
respiration from the water in which
it is submerged, A similar mystery
pervades the inquiry whence plants
under peculiar circumstances derive
the water essential to vegetation.

- Knox's Ceylon, Parti, eh. vi.
p. 24.

* A. goudottif Bennett.

Chap. XH.] THE WHITE ANT. 413

the ground, with a corresponding diameter. They are
so firm in their texture that the weight of a horse
makes no apparent indentation on their solidity ; and
even the intense rains of the monsoon, which no cement
or mortar can long resist, fail to penetrate the surface
or substance of an ant hill.^ In their earlier stasres the
termites proceed with such energetic rapidity, that I
have seen a pinnacle of moist clay, six inches in height
and twice as large in diameter, constructed underneath
a table between sitting down to dinner and the removal
of the cloth.

As these lofty mounds of earth have all been carried
up from beneath the surface, a cave of correspondino-
dimensions is necessarily scooped out below, and here,
under the multitude of miniature cupolas and pinnacles
which canopy it above, the termites hollow out the royal
chamber for their queen, with spacious nurseries sur-
rounding it on all sides ; and all are connected by arched
galleries, long passages, and doorways of the most in-
tricate and elaborate construction. In the centre and
underneath the spacious dome is the recess for the
queen — a hideous creature, with the head and thorax of
an ordinary termite, but a body swollen to a hundred

* Dr. HooKEB, in his Himalayan on the closely cemented clay of the

Journal (vol. i. p. 20) is of opinion white ants' nest, they may be daily

that the nests of the termites are seen constructing their edifices in

not independent structures, but the very form of a cone, which

that their nucleus is " the debris they ever after retain. Besides

of clumps of bamboos or the trunks which, they appear in the midst of

of large trees which these insects terraces and fields where no trees

have destroyed." He supposes are to be seen; and Dr. Hooker

that the dead tree falls leaving the seems to overlook the fact that the

stump coated with sand, which the termites rarely attack a living tree;

action of the weather soon fashions and although their nests may be

ijito a cone. But independently of built against one, it continues to

the fact that the " action of the flourish not the less for their pre-

weather" produces little or no effect sence.

414 IXSECTS. CChap. XH.

times its usual and proportionate bulk, and presenting
the appearance of a mass of shapeless pulp. From this
great progenitrix proceed the myriads that people the
subterranean hive, consisting, like the communities of
the genuine ants, of labourers and soldiers, which are
destined never to acquire a fuller development than
that of larvae, and the perfect insects which in due time
become invested with wings and take their departing
flight from the cave. But their new equipment seems
only destined to facilitate their dispersion from the
parent nest, which takes place at dusk ; and almost as
quickly as they leave it they divest themselves of their
ineffectual wings, waving them impatiently and twisting
them in every direction till they become detached and
drop off, and the swarm, within a few hours of their
emancipation, become a prey to the night-jars and bats,
which are instantly attracted to them as they issue in a
cloud from the ground. I am not prepared to say that
the other insectivorous birds would not gladly make
a meal of the termites, but, seeing that in Ceylon their
numbers are chiefly kept in check by the crepuscular
birds, it is observable, at least as a coincidence, that
the dispersion of the swarm generally takes place at
twilight. Those that escape the caprimulgi fall a
prey to the crows, on the morning succeeding their
flight.

The strange peculiarity of the omnivorous ravages of
the white ants is that they shrink from the light ; in all
their expeditions for providing food they construct a
covered pathway of moistened clay, and their galleries
above ground extend to an incredible distance from the
central nest. No timber, except ebony and iron wood,
which are too hard, and those which are strongly im-

Chap. Xn.] THE WHITE AXT. 415

pregnated with camphor or aromatic oils, which they
dislike, presents any obstacle to their ingress. I have
had a case of wine filled, in the course of two days,
with almost solid clay, and only discovered the pre-
sence of the white ants by the escape from the corks.
I have had a portmanteau in my tent so peopled with
them in the course of a single night that the contents
were found worthless in the morning. In an incredibly
short time a detachment of these pests will destroy a
press full of records, reducing the paper to fragments ;
and a shelf of books will be tunnelled into a gallery if
it happen to be in their line of march. The timbers of
a house when fairly attacked are eaten from within till
the beams are reduced to an absolute shell, so thin that
it may be punched through with the point of the finger :
and even kyanized wood, unless impregnated with an
extra quantity of corrosive sublimate, appears to occasion
them no inconvenience. The only effectual precaution
for the protection of furniture is incessant vigilance —
the constant watching of every article, and its daily
removal from place to place, in order to baffle their
assaults.

They do not appear in the hills above the elevation of
4000 or 5000 feet. One species of white ant, the
Termes Taprobanes, was at one time believed by Mr.
Walker to be peculiar to the island, but it has recently
been found in Sumatra and Borneo, and in some parts
of Hindustan.

There is a species of Termes in Ceylon (T. monoceros),
which always builds its nest in the hollow of an old tree ;
and, unlike the others, carries on its labours without
the secrecy and protection of a covered way. A march-
ing column of these creatures may be observed at early

416 INSECTS. [Chap. Xll.

morning in the vicinity of their nest, returning laden
with the spoils collected during their foraging excursions.
These consist of comminuted vegetable matter, derived,
it may be, from a thatched roof, if one happens to be
within reach, or from the decaying leaves of a coco-nut.
Each little worker in the column carries its tiny load in
its jaws ; and the number of individuals in one of these
lines of march must be immense, for the column is
generally about two inches' in width, and very densely
crowded. One was measured which had most likely
been in motion for hours, moving in the direction of the
nest, and was found to be upwards of sixty paces in
length. If attention be directed to the mass in motion,
it will be observed that flanking it on each side through-
out its whole length are stationed a number of horned
soldier termites, whose duty it is to protect the
labourers, and to give notice of any danger threatening
them. This latter duty they perform by a peculiar quiver-
ing motion of the whole body, which is rapidly commu-
nicated from one to the other for a considerable distance ;
a portion of the column is then thrown into confusion
for a short time, but confidence soon returns, and the
progress of the little creatures goes on with steadiness
and order as before. The nest is of a black colour, and
resembles a mass of scoriae ; the insects themselves are
of a pitchy brown. ^

Htmenopteka. Mason Wasp. — In Ceylon as in all
other countries, the order of hjnnenopterous insects
arrests us less by the beauty of their forms than the
marvels of their sagacity and the achievements of their

^ For these particulars of the Mr. Thwaites, of the Eot. Botanic
iermes mo7ioceros, I am indebted to Garden at Kandy.

Chap. XII.]

THE MASON WASP.

417

instinct. A fossorial wasp of the family of Sphegidce ^,
which is distinguished by its metallic lustre, enters by
the open windows, and converts irritation at its move-
ments into admiration of the graceful industry with
which it stops up the keyholes and similar apertures
with clay in order to build in them a cell. Into this it
thrusts the pupa of some other insect, within whose
body it has previously introduced its own eggs. The
whole is surrounded with moistened earth, through
which the young parasite, after undergoing its trans-
formations, gnaws its way into light, to emerge as a four-
winged fly.^

A formidable species (Sphex ferruginea of St. Far-
geau), which is common to India and most of the
eastern islands, is regarded with the utmost dread by
the unclad natives, who fly precipitately on finding them-

' It belongs to the genus Peio-
pcsus, P. Sjnnolcs, of St. Fargeau.
The Ampulex compressa, which
drags about the larvae of cock-
roaches into which it has implanted
its eggs, belongs to the same family.

^ Mr. E. L. Layard has given an
interesting account of this Mason
wasp in the Annals and Magazme
of Nat. History for May, 1853.

" I have frequently," he says,
" selected one of these flies for
observation, and have seen their
labours extend over a period of a
fortnight or twenty days ; some-
times only half a cell was com-
pleted in a day, at others as much
as two. I never saw more than
twenty cells in one nest, seldom
indeed that number, and whence
the caterpillars were procured was
always to me a mystery. I have
seen thirty or forty brought in of a
species which I knew to be very
rare in the perfect state, and which

I had sought for in vain, although
I knew on what plant they fed.

" Then again how are they dis-
abled by the wasp, and yet not in-
jured so as to cause their imme-
diate death ? Die they all do, at
least all that I have ever tried to
rear, after taking them from the nest.

" The perfected fly never effects
its egress from the closed aperture,
through which the caterpillars were
inserted, and when cells are placed
end to end, as they are in many in-
stances, the outward end of each
is always selected. I cannot de-
tect any difference in the thickness
in the crust of the ceU. to cause
this uniformity of practice. It is
often as much as half an inch
through, of great hardness, and as
far as I can see impervious to air
and light. How then does the en-
closed fly always select the right end,
and with what secretion is it sup-
plied to decompose this mortar?"
E

418 INSECTS. [CHAr. XII.

selves in the vicinity ^ of its nests. These are of such
ample dimensions, that when suspended from a branch,
they often measure upwards of six feet in length.^

Bees, — Bees of several species and genera, some un-
provided with stings, and some in size scarcely exceed-
ing a house-fly, deposit their honey in hollow trees, or
suspend their combs from a branch. The spoils of their
industry form one of the chief resources of the uncivi-
lised Veddahs, who collect the wax in the upland forests,
to be bartered for arrow points and clothes in the low-
lands.^ I have never heard of an instance of persons
being attacked by the bees of Ceylon, and hence the
natives assert, that those most productive of honey are
destitute of stings.

The Carpenter Bee. — The operations of one of the
most interesting of the tribe, the Carpenter bee '*, I have
watched with admiration from the window of the Colo-

* It ought to be remembered in the bases of several together,

travelling in the forests of Ceylon whereby they assume the hexagonal

that sal volatile applied imme- shape, whereas, if constructed

diately is a specific for the sting of separately, he thought each single

a wasp. cell would be circular. See Proc.

2 At the January (1839) meet- Ent Soc. vol. iii. p. 16.

ing of the Entomological Society, ^ A gentleman connected with

Mr. Whitehouse exhibited portions the department of the Surveyor-

of a wasps' nest from Ceylon, be- Greneral writes to me that he

tween seven and eight teet long measured a honey-comb which he

andtwofeetin diameter, and showed found fastened to the overhanging

that the construction of the cells branch of a small tree in the forest

was perfectly analogous to those of near Adam's Peak, and found it

the hive bee, and that when con- nine links of his chain or about

nected each has a tendency to six feet in length and a foot in

assume a circular outline. In one breadth where it was attached to

specimen where there were three the branch, but tapering towards

cells united the outer part was cir- the other extremity. " It was a

cidar, whilst the portions common single comb with a layer of cells

to the three formed straight walls, on either side, but so weighty that

From this Singhalese nest Mr. the branch broke by the strain."

Whitehouse demonstrated that the * Xylocofa tinuiscapa, Westw. ;

wasps at the commencement of Another species found in Ceylon is

their comb proceed slowly, forming the X. latipes, Drury.

Chap. XII.] THE CARPENTER BEE. 419

nial Secretary's official residence at Kandy. So soon as
the day grew warm, these active creatures were at work
perforating the wooden columns which supported the
verandah. They poised themselves on their shining
purple wings, as they made the first lodgment in the

THE CARPENTER B3E.

wood, enlivening the work with an uninterrupted hum
of delight, which was audible to a considerable distance.
When the excavation had proceeded so far that the
insect could descend into it, the music was suspended,
but renewed from time to time, as the little creature
came to the orifice to throw out the chips, to rest, or to
enjoy the fresh air. By degrees, a mound of saw-dust
was formed at the base of the pillar, consisting of par-
ticles abraded by the mandibles of the bee. These,
when the hollow was completed to the depth of several
inches, were partially replaced in the excavation after
being agglutinated to form partitions between the eggs,
as they were deposited within. The mandibles ^ of these
bees are admirably formed for the purpose of work-
ing out the tunnels required, being short, stout, and
usually furnished at the tip with two teeth which are
rounded somewhat into the form of cheese-cutters.

* See figure above.

E E 2

420 IXSECTS. [Chap. XH.

These when brought into operation cut out the wood
in the same way as a carpenter's double gouge, the teeth
being more or less hollowed out within. The female alone
is furnished with these powerful instruments. In the
males the mandibles are slender as compared with those
of the females. The bores of some of these bees are de-
scribed as being from twelve to fourteen inches in length.
Ants. — As to ants, I apprehend that, notwithstand-
ing their numbers and familiarity, information is very
imperfect relative to the varieties and habits of these
marvellous insects in Ceylon.^ In point of multitude
it is scarcely an exaggeration to apply to them the
figure of " the sands of the sea." They are every-
where ; in the earth, in the houses, and on the trees ;
they are to be seen in every room and cupboard, and
almost on every plant in the jungle. To some of the
latter they are, perhaps, attracted by the sweet juices
secreted by the aphides and coccidsB.^ Such is the pas-

* Mr. Jerdan, in a series of by the mill — be exposed to tlie air,
papers in the thirteenth volume of it gradually evaporates, jdelding a
the Annals of Natural History, light-brown residue, like the ordi-
has described forty-seven species of nary muscovado sugar of the best
ants in Southern India. But M. quality. If not protected, it is
Nietner has recently forwarded to presently attacked by ants, and in
the Berlin Museum upwards of a short time is, as it were, con-
seventy species taken by him in verted into white crystalline sugar,
Ceylon, chiefly in the western pro- the ants having refined it by re-
vince and the vicinity of Colombo, moving the darker portion, pro-
Of these many are identical with bably preferring that part from its
those noted by Mr. Jerdan as be- containing azotized matter. The
longing to the Indian continent, negroes, I may remark, prefer
One (probably Dn^Mnognathus sal- brown sugar to white ; they say
tator of Jerdan) is described byM. its sweetening power is greater ;
Nietner as occasionally "moving by no doubt its nourishing quality is
jumps of several inches at a spring." gi'eater, and therefore as an article

2 Dr. Davy, in a paper on Tro- of diet deserving of preference,

pical Plants, has introduced the In refining sugar as in refining salt

following passage relative to the (coarse bay salt containing a little

purification of sugar by ants : iodine), an error may be committed

" If the juice of the sugar-cane in abstracting matter designed by

— the common syrup as expressed nature for a useftd purpose."

Chap. XII.] AJS^TS. 421

sion of the ants for sugar, and their wonderful faculty
of discovering it, that the smallest particle of a sub-
stance containing it is quickly covered with them,
though placed in the least conspicuous position, where
not a single one may have been visible a moment
before. But it is not sweet substances alone that they
attack ; no animal or vegetable matter comes amiss to
them ; no aperture appears too small to admit them ;
it is necessary to place everything which it may be de-
sirable to keep free from their invasion, under the
closest cover, or on tables with cups of water under
every foot. As scavengers, they are invaluable ; and as
ants never sleep, but work without cessation during the
night as well as by day, every particle of decaying
vegetable or putrid animal matter is removed with in-
conceiveable speed and certainty. In collecting shells,
I have been able to turn this propensity to good
account ; by placing them within their reach, the ants
in a few days removed every vestige of the mollusc
from the innermost and otherwise inaccessible whorls ;
thus avoiding all risk of injuring the enamel by any
mechanical process.

But the assaults of the ants are not confined to dead
animals alone, they attack equally such small insects as
they can overcome, or find disabled by accidents or
wounds ; and it is not unusual to see some hundreds of
them surrounding a maimed beetle, or a bruised cock-
roach, and hurrying it along in spite of its struggles. I
have, on more than one occasion, seen a contest between
them and one of the viscous ophidians, Coecilia gluti-
nosa^, a reptile resembling an enormous earthworm,
common in the Kandyan hills, of an inch in diameter,

* See ajite, p. 317.
E E 3

422 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

and nearly two feet in length. On these occasions it
would seem as if the whole community had been sum-
moned and turned out for such a prodigious effort ; they
surround their victim literally in tens of thousands,
inflicting wounds on all parts, and forcing it along to-
wai'ds their nest in spite of resistance. In one instance
to which I was a witness, the conflict lasted for the latter
part of a day, but towards evening the Coecilia was com-
pletely exhausted, and in the morning it had totally
disappeared, having been carried away either whole or
piecemeal by its assailants.

The species I here allude to is a very small ant, which
the Singhalese call by the generic name of Koombiya.
There is a species still more minute, and evidently dis-
tinct, which frequents the caraffes and toilet vessels. A
third, probably the Formica nidificans of Jerdan, is
black, of the same size as that last mentioned, and, from
its colour, called the Kalu koombiya by the natives. In
the houses its propensities and habits are the same as
those of the others ; but I have observed that it fre-
quents the trees more profusely, forming small paper
cells for its young, like miniature wasps' nests, in which
it deposits its eggs, suspending them from a twig.

The most formidable of all is the great red ant or
Dimiya.^ It is particularly abundant in gardens, and
on fruit trees ; it constructs its dwellings by glueing the
leaves of such species as are suitable from their shape
and pliancy into hollow balls, and these it lines with a
kind of transparent paper, like that manufactured by
the wasp. I have watched them at the interesting oper-
ation of forming these dwellings ; — a line of ants stand-
ing on the edge of one leaf bring another into contact

* Formica smaragdina^ Fab.

Chap. Xn.] AXIS. 423

with it, and hold both together with their mandibles till
their companions within attach them firmly by means
of their adhesive paper, the assistants outside moving
along as the work proceeds. If it be necessary to draw
closer a leaf too distant to be laid hold of by the imme-
diate workers, they form a chain by depending one from
the other till the object is reached, when it is at length
brought into contact, and made fast by cement.

Like all their race, these ants are in perpetual
motion, formincf lines on the OTound alonor which thev
pass, in continual procession to and from the trees on
which they reside. They are the most irritable of the
whole order in Ceylon, biting with such intense ferocity
as to render it difficult for the unclad natives to collect
the fruit from the mango trees, which the red ants
especially frequent. They drop from the branches upon
travellers in the jungle, attacking them with venom and
fury, and inflicting intolerable pain both upon animals
and man. On examining the structure of the head
through a microscope, I found that the mandibles, in-
stead of merely meeting in contact, are so hooked as to
cross each other at the points, whilst the inner line is
sharply serrated throughout its entire length ; thus occa-
sioning the intense pain of their bite, as compared with
that of the ordinary ant.

To check the ravages of the coffee bug ^ (Lecanium
coffece, Walker), which for some years past has devast-
ated some of the plantations in Ceylon, the experiment
was made of introducing the red ants, who feed greedily
on the Coccus. But the remedy threatened to be at-
tended with some inconvenience, for the Malabar
Coolies, with bare and oiled skins, were so frequently

^ For an account of this pest, see p. 437-

E E 4

424 Ds'SECTS. [Chap. XII.

and fiercely assaulted by the ants as to endanger their
stay on the estates.

The ants which burrow in the ground in Ceylon are
generally, but not invariably, black, and some of them
are of considerable size. One species, about the third
of an inch in length, is abundant in the hills, and espe-
cially about the roots of trees, where they pile up the
earth in circular heaps round the entrance to their
nests, and in doing this I have observed a singular
illustration of their instinct. To carry up each particle
of sand by itself would be an endless waste of labour,
and to carry two or more loose ones securely would be
to them embarrassing, if not impossible. To overcome
the difficulty they glue together with their saliva so
much earth or sand as is sufficient for a burden, and
each ant may be seen hurrying up from below with his
load, carrying it to the top of the circular heap outside,
and throwing it over, the mass being so strongly attached
as to roll to the bottom without breaking asunder.

The ants I have been here describing are inoffensive,
differing in this particular from the Dimiya and another
of similar size and ferocity, which is called by the Sing-
halese Kaddiya, The}^ have a legend illustrative of
their alarm for the bites of the latter, to the effect that
the cobra de capello invested the Kaddiya with her o^vn
venom in admiration of the singular courage displayed
by these little creatures.^

Lepidopteea. Butterflies. — In the interior of the
island butterflies are comparatively rare, and, contrary
to the ordinary belief, they are seldom to be seen in the
sunshine. They frequent the neighbourhood of the
jungle, and especially the vicinity of the rivers and

' Knox's Historical Relation of Ceylon, pt. i. ch. vi, p. 23.

Chap. XII.] BUTTERFLIES. 425

waterfalls, living mainly in the shade of the moist
foliage, and returning to it in haste after the shortest
flights, as if their slender bodies were speedily dried up
and exhausted by exposure to the intense heat.

Among the largest and most gaudy of the Ceylon
Lepidoptera is the great black and yellow butterfly
{Omithoptera darskis, G-ray) ; the upper wings of
which measure six inches across, and are of deep velvet
black, the lower ornamented by large particles of satiny
yellow, through which the sunlight passes. Few insects
can compare with it in beauty, as it hovers over the
flowers of the heliotrope, which furnish the favourite
food of the perfect fly, although the caterpillar feeds on
the aristolochia and the betel leaf, and suspends its
chrysalis from its drooping tendrils.

Next in size as to expanse of wing, though often
exceeding it in breadth, is the black and blue Papilio
Polyinnestor, which darts rapidly through the air,
alighting on the ruddy flowers of the hibiscus, or the
dark green foliage of the citrus, on which it deposits
its eggs. The larvae of this species are green with
white bands, and have a hump on the fourth or fifth
segment. From this hump the caterpillar, on being
irritated, protrudes a singular horn of an orange colour,
bifurcate at the extremity, and covered with a pungent
mucilaginous secretion. This is evidently intended as
a weapon of defence against the attack of the ichneumon
flies, that deposit their eggs in its soft body, for when
the grub is pricked, either by the ovipositor of the
ichneumon, or by any other sharp instrument, the horn
is at once protruded, and struck upon the offending
object with unerring aim.

Amongst the more common of the larger butterflies

426 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

is the P. Hector, with gorgeous crimson spots set in the
black velvet of the inferior Avings ; these, when fresh,
are shot with a purple blush, equalling in splendour the
azure of the European " Emperor.^^

The Spectre Butterfly. — Another butterfly, but be-
longing to a widely different group, is the " sylph "
{^Hestia Jasonia), called by the Europeans by the
various names of Floater, Spectre, and Silver-pciper-
fly, as indicative of its graceful flight. It is found
only in the deep shade of the damp forest, usually
frequenting the vicinity of pools of water and cas-
cades, about which it sails heedless of the spray, the
moisture of which may even be beneficial in preserving
the elasticity of its thin and delicate wings, that bend
and undulate in the act of flight.

The LyccenidcB^, a particularly attractive group,
abound near the enclosures of cultivated grounds, and
amongst the low shrubs edging the patenas, flitting
from flower to flower, inspecting each in turn, as if
attracted by their beauty, in the full blaze of sun-light ;
and shunning exposure less sedulously than the other
diurnals. Some of the more robust kinds ^ are magnifi-
cent in the bright light, from the splendour of their
metallic blues and glowing purples, but they yield in
elegance of form and variety to their tinier and more
delicately-coloured congeners.

Short as is the eastern twilight, it has its own peculiar
forms, and the naturalist marks with interest the small,
but strong, Hesperidce^, hurrying, by abrupt and jerk-
ing flights, to the scented blossoms of the champac or

^ Jjycmna polyommatus, ^c. ' Pamphila hesperia, ^c.

^ Amblypodia pseudocentauruSy

Chap. XII.] MOTHS. 427

the sweet night-blowing moon-flower ; and, when dark-
ness gathers around, we can hear, though hardly distin-
guish amid the gloom, the humming of the powerful
wings of innumerable hawk moths, which hover with
their loDg proboscides inserted into the starry petals of
the periwinkle.

Conspicuous amidst these nocturnal moths is the
richly-coloured Acherontia Satanas, one of the Singha-
lese representatives of our Death's-head moth, which
utters a sharp and stridulous cry when seized. This
sound has been conjectured to be produced by the friction
of its thorax against the abdomen ; — Eeaumur believed
it to be caused by the rubbing of the palpi against the
tongue. I have never been able to observe either mo-
tion, and Mr. E. L. Layard is of opinion that the sound
is emitted from two apertures concealed by tufts of wiry
bristles thrown out from each side of the inferior portion
of the thorax.^

Moths. — Among the strictly nocturnal Lepidoptera
are some gigantic species. Of these the cinnamon-
eating Atlas, often attains the dimensions of nearly a
foot in the stretch of its superior wings. It is very com-
mon in the gardens about Colombo, and its size, and
the transparent talc-like spots in its wings, cannot fail
to strike even the most careless saunterer. But little
inferior to it in size is the famed Tusseh silk moth 2,
which feeds on the country almond {Teiminalia
catappa) and the palma Christi or Castor-oil plant ; it

' There is another rariety of the night, attracted by the lights ; but

same moth in Ceylon which closely I haye not found its laryfe, although

resembles it in its markings, but in that of the other species is com-

which I have never detected the ut- mon on several widely different

termg of this curious cry. It is plants.

smaller than the A. Satanas, and, 2 jinthercea mylitta, Drviry.
like it, often enters dwellings at

428 INSECTS. [Chap. XH.

is easily distinguishable from the Atlas, which has a
triangular wing, whilst its is falcated, and the transpa-
rent spots are covered with a curious thread-like division
drawn across them.

Towards the northern portions of the island this valu-
able species entirely displaces the other, owing to the
fact that the almond and pahna Christi abound there.
The latter plant springs up spontaneously on every
manure-heap or neglected spot of ground ; and might
be cultivated, as in India, with great advantage, the
leaf to be used as food for the caterpillar, the stalk as
fodder for cattle, and the seed for the expression of
castor-oil. The Dutch took advantage of this facility,
and gave every encouragement to the cultivation of silk
at Jaffna 1, but it never attained such a development as
to become an article of commercial importance. Ceylon
now cultivates no silkworms whatever, notwithstanding
this abundance of the favourite food of one species ; and
the rich silken robes sometimes worn by the Buddhist
priesthood are imported from China and the continent
of India.

In addition to the Atlas moth and the Mylitta, there
are many other Bomhycidce in Ceylon ; and, though the

^ The Portuguese had made the Palace a trial has been undertaken

attempt previous to the arrival of to feed sillcworms, and to ascertain

the Dutch, and a strip of land on whether silk may be reared at that

the banks of the Kalany river near station. I have planted a quantity

Colombo, still bears the name of of mulberry trees, which grow

Orta Seda, the silk garden. The well there, and they ought to be

attempt of the Dutch to introduce planted in other directions." — Va-

the true silkworm, the Borahyx lextyn, chap. xiii. The growth of

nnori, took place under the gover- the mulberry trees is noticed the

norship of Ryklof Van Goens, year after in a report to the

who, on handing over the adminis- governor-general of India, but the

tration to his successor in A.D. 1663, subject afterwards ceased to be

thus apprises him of the initiation attended to.
of the experiment: — "At Jafliia

Chap. XH.] STIIS^GING CATERPILLARS. 429

silk of some of them, were it susceptible of being un-
wound from the cocoon, would not bear a comparison
with that of the Bomhyx miori, or even of the Tusseh
moth, it might still prove to be valuable when carded
and spun. If the European residents in the colony
would rear the larvae of these Lepidoptera, and make
drawings of their various changes, they would render a
possible service to commerce, and a certain one to ento-
mological knowledge.

Stinging Caterpillars. — The Dutch carried to their
Eastern settlements two of their home propensities,
which distinguish and embellish the towns of the Low
Countries ; they indulged in the excavation of canals,
and they planted long lines of trees to diffuse shade
over the sultry passages in their Indian fortresses. For
the latter purpose they employed the Suriya {Hibiscus
populneus), whose broad umbrageous leaves and deli-
cate yellow flowers impart a delicious coolness, and give
to the streets of Gralle and Colombo the fresh and enli-
vening aspect of walks in a garden.

In the towns, however, the suri^-a trees are produc-
tive of one serious inconvenience. They are the resort
of a hairy greenish caterpillar i, longitudinally striped,
great numbers of which frequent them, and at a certain
stage of growth descend by a silken thread to the ground
and hurry away, probably in search of a suitable
spot in which to pass through their metamorphoses.
Should they happen to alight, as they often do, upon
some lounger below, and find their way to his unpro-
tected skin, they inflict, if molested, a sting as pungent,
but far more lasting, than that of a nettle or a star-fish.

» The species of moth vdth. which longs to a section of BoisduYal's
it is identified has not yet been de- genus Bomhyx allied to Onethocam-
termined, but it most probably be- ^a, Stephens.

430 IJs^SECTS. [Chap. XII.

Attention being thus directed to the quarter whence
an assailant has lowered himself down, the caterpillars
above will be found in clusters, sometimes amounting to
hundreds, clinging to the branches and the bark, with a
few straggling over the leaves or suspended from them
by lines. These pests are so annoying to children as
well as destructive to the foliage, that it is often neces-
sary to singe them off the trees by a flambeau fixed on
the extremity of a pole ; and as they fall to the ground
they are eagerly devoured by the crows and domestic
fowls.^

The Wood-carrying Moth. — There is another family
of insects, the singular habits of which will not fail to
attract the traveller in the cultivated tracts of Ceylon
— these are moths of the genus Oiketicus^, of which
the females are devoid of wings, and some possess no
articulated feet. Their larvae construct for themselves
cases, which they suspend to a branch frequently of the
pomegranate^, surrounding them with the stems of
leaves, and thorns or pieces of twigs bound together by
threads, till the whole presents the appearance of a
bundle of rods about an inch and a half long; and,
from the resemblance of this to a Roman fasces, one

^ Another caterpillar whicli feeds traversed by a broad green band,
on the jasmine flowering Carissa, It is common in the western side of
stings with such fury that I have Ceylon. The larvae of the genus
knowTi a gentleman to shed tears Adolia are also hairy, and sting
while the pain was at its height, with virulence.
It is short and broad, of a pale - Eumeta, AVlk.
green, with fleshy spines on the ^ The singular instincts of a
upper surface, each of which seems species of Thecla, Dipsas Isocratcs,
to be charged with the venom that Fab., in connection "with the fruit
occasions this acute suffering. The of the pomegranate, were fully de-
moth which this catei'pillar pro- scribed by Mr. Westwood, in a
duces, Necera lepida, Cramer; paper read before the Entomo-
Limacodes graciosa, "Westw., has logical Society of London in 1835.
dark brown wings, the primary

Chap. XIL] THE WOOD- CARRYING MOTH.

431

African species has ob-
tained the name of " Lie-
tor." The Grerman en-
tomologists denominated
the group Sacktrdger, the
Singhalese call them Da-
ra-kattea or "billets of
firewood," and regard the
inmates as human beings,
who, as a punishment for
stealing wood in some
former state of existence,
have been condemned to
undergo a metempsychosis
under the form of these
insects.

The male, at the close
of the pupal rest, escapes
from one end of this sin-
gular covering, but the
female makes it her dwel-
ling for life; moving about
with it at pleasure, and
entrenching herself within
it, when alarmed, by
drawing together the
purse-like aperture at the
open end. Of these re-
markable creatures there
are five ascertained spe-
cies in Ceylon : Psyche
Douhledaii, Westw. ; Me-
tisa plana. Walker ; Eu^

THE WOOD-CAKRYING MOTH.

432 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

meta Cramei^ii, Westw. ; E. Templetonii, Westw. ; and
Cryptothelea consorta, Temp.

All the other tribes of minute Lepitoptera have abun-
dant representatives in Ceylon ; some of them most
attractive from the great beauty of their markings and
colouring. The curious little split-winged moth {Ptero-
phorus) is frequently seen in the cinnamon gardens and
in the vicinity of the fort, hid from the noon-day heat
among the cool grass shaded by the coco-nut topes.
Three species have been captured, all characterised by
the same singular feature of having the wings fan-like,
separated nearly their entire length into detached sec-
tions, resembling feathers in the pinions of a bird
expanded for flight.

HoMOPTERA. Cicada. — Of the Homoptera, the one
which will most frequently arrest attention is the cicada,
which, resting high up on the bark of a tree, makes the
forest re-echo with a long-sustained noise so curiously
resembling that of a cutler's wheel that the creature
producing it has acquired the highly-appropriate name
of the "knife-grinder."

CICADA—" THE KNIFE GKINDEE."

In the jungle which adjoined the grounds attached
to my official residence at Kandy, the shrubs were fre-
quented by an insect covered profusely with a snow-white
powder, arranged in delicate filaments that curl like

Chap. XII.]

BUGS. — FLEAS.

433

v/o

a head of dressed celery. These it moves without dis-
persing the powder : but when dead they fall rapidly to
dust. I regret that I did not preserve specimens, but
I have reason to think that they are the larvae of the
Flata Iwibata, or of some other closely allied species ^,
though I have not seen in Ceylon any of the wax pro-
duced by th.^ flata.

Hemiptera. Bugs. — On the shrubs in his compound
the newly-arrived traveller will be attracted by an insect
of a pale green hue and delicately-thin configuration,
which, resting from its recent flight, composes its scanty
wings, and moves languidly along the leaf. But ex-
perience will teach him to limit his examination to a
respectful view of its attitudes ; it is one of a numerous
family of bugs, (some of them most attractive^ in their
colouring,) which are inoffensive if unmolested, but if
touched or irritated, exhale an odour that, once endured,
is never afterwards forgotten.

Aphanipteea. Fleas. — Fleas are equally numerous,
and may be seen in myriads in the dust of the streets or
skipping in the sunbeams which fall on the clay floors of
the cottages. The dogs, to escape them, select for their
sleeping places spots where a wood fire has been pre-
viously kindled; and here prone on the white ashes,

* Amongst the specimens of this
order which I brought from
Ceylon, two proved to be new
and undescribed, andiJiave been
named by Mr. A-.^wiTpElidiptera
Emersoniana and Poeciloptera Ten- ^ a
nentina.

^ Such as Cantuo ocellatus, Lejp-
toscelis Marginalis, Callidca Stoc-
kerius, &c. &c. Of the aquatic
species, the gigantic JBehstoma In-
dicum cannot escape notice, attain-
ing a size of nearly tliree inches.

ELIDIPTEKA EMERdONIANA.

FCECILOPIEHA lENNENTINA.

434

INSECTS.

[Chap. XII.

their stomachs close to the earth, and their hind legs
extended behind, they repose in comparative coolness,
and bid defiance to their persecutors.

DiPTERA. Mosquitoes. — But of all the insect pests
that beset an unseasoned European the most provoking
by far is the truculent mosquito.^ Next to the torture
which it inflicts, its most annoying peculiarities are the
booming hum of its approach, its cunning, its audacity,
and the perseverance with which it renews its attacks
however frequently repulsed. These characteristics are
so remarkable as fully to justify the conjecture that
the mosquito, and not the ordinary fly, constituted the
plague inflicted upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians.^

^ CidexIamgerJWied. InKandy
]\Ir. Thwaites finds C. fuscanus,
C. circiimvolens, &c., and one with
a most formidable hooked proboscis,
to which he has assigned the ap-
propriate name C. Regius.

2 The precise species of insect
by means of which the Almighty
signalised the plague of flies, re-
mains uncertain, as the Hebrew
term arob or orov, which has been
rendered in one place, " Divers
sorts of flies," Ps. cy. 31 ; and in
another, "swarms of flies," Exod.
yiii. 21, &c., means merely " an
assemblage," a " mixture," or a
" swarm," and the expletive " of
flies " is an interpolation of the
translators. This, however, serves
to show that the fly implied was
one easily recognisable by its habit
of swarming ; and the further fact
that it bites, or rather stings, is
elicited from the expression of the
Psalmist, Ps. Ixxviii. 45, that the
insects by which the Egj-ptians
were tormented " devoured them,"
so that here are two peculiarities
inapplicable to the domestic fly,
but strongly characteristic of gnats
and mosquitoes.

Bruce thought that the fly of
the fourth plague was the " zimb"
of Abyssinia which he so graphi-
cally describes ; and Westwood, in
an ingenious passage in his Ento-
mologisfs Text-hook, p. 17, combats
the strange idea of one of the
bishops, that it was a cockroach !
and argues in favour of the mos-
quito. This view he sustains by a
reference to the habits of the crea-
ture, the swarms in which it invades
a locality, and the audacity with
which it enters the houses ; and he
accounts for the exemption of " the
land of Goshen in which the Israe-
lites dwelt," by the fact of its being
sandy pasture above the level of the
river ; whilst the mosquitoes were
produced freely in the rest of Egj-pt,
the soil of which was submerged by
the rising of the Nile.

In all the passages in the Old
Testament in which flies are alluded
to, otherwise than in connection
with the Egj-jDtian infliction, the
word used in the Hebrew is zcvov,
which the Septuagint renders by
the ordinary generic term for flies
in general, fivla, '^musca" (Eccles.
X. 1, Isaiah vii. 10) ; but in every

PROPERTY OF

Chap. XIL] ^' MOSQUITOES. 435

Even in the midst of endurance from their onslaughts
one cannot but be amused by the ingenuity of their
movements ; as if aware of the risk incident to an open
assault, a favourite mode of attack is, when concealed
by a table, to assail the ankles through the meshes of
the stocking, or the knees which are ineffectually pro-
tected by a fold of Eussian duck. When you are
reading, a mosquito will rarely settle on that portion of
your hand which is within range of your eyes, but
cunningly stealing by the underside of the book fastens
on the wrist or little finger, and noiselessly inserts his
proboscis there. I have tested the classical expedient
recorded by Herodotus, who states that the fishermen
inhabiting the fens of Egjrpt, cover their beds with their
nets, knowing that the mosquitoes, although they bite
through linen robes, will not venture through a net.*
But, notwithstanding the opinion of Spence ^, that nets
with meshes an inch square will effectually exclude
them, I have been satisfied by painful experience that
(if the theory be not altogether fallacious) at least the
modern mosquitoes of Ceylon are uninfluenced by the

instance in which mention is made mals, the fly and the dog, exhi-

of the miracle of Moses, the Sep- biting the courage and the cunning

tuagint saj's that the fly produced of both, and fastening on its victim

was the kvpo/xvIu, the " dog-fl}'." with the noise and rapidity of

What insect was meant by this an arrow " — fiera poi^ou Kaddnep

name it is not now easy to determine, jSeAos. This seems to identify the

but ^LiAjx intimates that the dog- dog-fly of the Septuagint with the

fly both inflicts a wound and emits description of the Psalmist, Ps.

a booming sound, in both of which Lsxviii. 45, and to vindicate the

particulars it accords with the conjecture that the tormenting

mosquito (lib. iv. 51) ; and Philo- mosquito, and not the house-fly,

JuD^rs, in his Vita Mosis, lib. i. was commissioned by the Lord to

ch. xxiii., descanting on the plague humble the obstinacy of the

of flies, and using the term of the Egyptian tjTant.

Septuagint, Kwofj-vla, describes it ^ Herodotus, Euterpe, xcv.

as combining the characteristic of ^ Xirby and Spence's Etiio-

" the most impudent of all ani- raology^ letter iv.

F F 2

436 INSECTS. [Chap. XII,

same considerations which restrained those of the Nile
under the successors of Cambyses.

The Coffee-Bug. — Allusion has been made in a previous
passage to the coccus known in Ceylon as the " Coffee-
Bug (Lecanium Gaffeoe, Wlk.), which of late years has
made such destructive ravages in the plantations in the
Mountain Zone.^ The first thing that attracts attention
on looking at a coffee tree infested by it, is the number
of brownish wart-like bodies that stud the young shoots
and occasionally the margins on the underside of the
leaves,^ Each of these warts or scales is a transformed
female, containing a large number of eggs which are
hatched within it.

When the young ones come out from their nest, they
run about over the plant like diminutive wood-lice,
and at this period there is no apparent distinction be-
tween male and female. Shortly after being hatched
the males seek the underside of the leaves, while the
females prefer the young shoots as a place of abode. If
the under surface of a leaf be examined, it will be found
to be studded, particularly on its basil half, with minute
yellowish-white specks of an oblong form.^ These are
the larvae of the males undergoing transformation into
pupae, beneath their own skins ; some of these specks
are always in a more advanced state than the others,
the full-grown ones being whitish and scarcely a line

' The following notice of the coffee districts, until it had estab-

" coffee-bug," and of the singularly lished itself more or less perma-

destructive effects produced by it nently in all the estates in fidl

on the plants, has been prepared cultivation throughout the island,

chiefly from a memoir presented to '^ See the annexed drawing. Fig. 1.

the Ceylon Government by the ^ Figs. 2, and 3 and 5 in the

late Dr. Gardner, in which he engraving, where these and all the

traces the history of the insect other figures are considerably en-

from its first appearance in the larged.

Chap. XII.] THE COFFEE-BUG. 437

long. Some of this size are translucent, the insect
having escaped ; the darker ones still retain it within,
of an oblong form, with the rudiment of a wing on each
side attached to the lower part of the thorax and closely
applied to the sides ; the legs are six in number, the
four hind ones being directed backwards, the anterior
forwards (a peculiarity not common in other insects) ;
the two antennae are also inclined backwards, and from
the tail protrude three short bristles, the middle one
thinner and longer than the rest.

When the transformation is complete, the mature
insect makes its way from beneath the pellucid case ',
all its organs having then attained their full size : the
head is sub-globular, with two rather prominent black
eyes, and two antennae, each with eleven joints, hairy
throughout, and a tuft of rather longer hairs at the
apices ; the legs are also covered with hairs, the wino-s
are horizontal, of an obovate oblong shape,, membranous,
and extending a little farther than the bristles of the
tail. They have only two nerves, neither of which
reaches so far as the tips ; one of them runs close to the
costal margin, and is much thicker than the other,
which branches off from its base and skirts alono- the
inner margin ; behind the wings is attached a pair of
minute halteres of peculiar form. The possession of
wings would appear to be the cause why the full-grown
male is more rarely seen on the coffee bushes than the
female.

The female, like the male, attaches herself to the
surface of the plant, the place selected being usually

' Fig. 4. INIr. Westwood, who backwards, the wings being ex-
observed the operation in one tended flatly oyer the head.
Hpeeies, states that they escape

!• F 3

438 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

the young shoots ; but she is also to be met with on the
margins of the undersides of the leaves (on the upper
surface neither the male nor female ever attach them-
selves) ; but, unlike the male, which derives no nourish-
ment from the juices of the tree (the mouth being
obsolete in the perfect state), she punctures the cuticle
with a proboscis (a very short three-jointed ^romi^scis),
sprino-ing as it were from the breast, but capable of
being greatly porrected, and inserted in the cuticle of
the plant, and through this she abstracts her nutriment.
In the early pupa state the female is easily distinguish-
able from the male, by being more elliptical and much
more convex. As she increases in size her skin distends
and she becomes smooth and dry; the rings of the
body become effaced ; and losing entirely the form of
an insect, she presents, for some time, a yellowish
pustular shape, but ultimately assumes a roundish
conical form, of a dark brown colour.^

Until she has nearly reached her full size, she still
possesses the power of locomotion, and her six legs are
easily distinguishable in the under surface of her cor-
pulent body ; but at no period of her existence has she
wings. It is about the time of her obtaining full size
that impregnation takes place ^ ; after which the scale
becomes somewhat more conical, assumes a darker

* Figs. 6 and 7. There are many and others with milky juices :

other species of the Coccus tribe another subgenus (Ceroplastes ?),

in Ceylon, some (Pseudococcus ?) the female of which produces a

never appearing as a scale, the protecting waxy material, infests

female wrapping herself up in a the Gendurassa Vulgaris, the Furr-

white cottony exudation ; many csea Gigantea, the Jak tree, Mango,

species nearly allied to the true and other common trees.

Coccus infest common plants about ^ Keaumur has described the

gardens, such as the Nerium singular manner in which this

Oleander, Plumeria Acuminata, occurs. Mem. tom. iv.

WR^ 10

THE COFFEE BUG.
Lccanium Caffeoe.

Chap. XII.] THE COFFEE-BUG. 439

colour, and at length is permanently fixed to the surface
of the plant, by means of a cottony substance interposed
between it and the vegetable cuticle to which it adheres.
The scale, when full grown, exactly resembles in minia-
ture the hat of a Cornish miner ^, there being a narrow
rim at the base, which gives increased surface of attach-
ment. It is about ^ inch in diameter, by about ^V
deep, and it appears perfectly smooth to the naked eye ;
but it is in reality studded over with a multitude
of very minute warts, giving it a dotted appearance.
Except the margin, which is ciliated, it is entirely des-
titute of hairs. The number of eggs contained in one
of the scales is enormous, amounting in a single one to
691. The eggs are of an oblong shape, of a pale flesh
colour, and perfectly smooth.^ In some of the scales,
the eggs when laid on the field of the microscope re-
semble those masses of life sometimes seen in decayed
cheese.^ A few small yellowish maggots are sometimes
found with them, and these are the larvae "^ of insects,
the eggs of which have been deposited in the female
while the scale was soft. They escape when mature by
cuttincr a small round hole in the dorsum of the scale.

o

It is not till after this pest has been on an estate for
two or three years that it shows itself to an alarming-
extent. During the first year a few only of the ripe
scales are seen scattered over the bushes, generally on
the younger shoots ; but that year's crop does not suffer
much, and the appearance of the tree is little altered.

* Fig. 8. soft Coccus, viz. : Encystus, Cocco-

* Fig. 9. phagus, Pteromalus, Mesosela,
' Figs. 10, 11. Agonioneurus ; besides Aphidius, a

* Of the parasitic Chalcididise, minutely sized genus of Ickneu-
many genera of which are well monidse. Most, if not aU, of these
known to deposit their eggs in the genera are Singhalese.

F F 4

4->0 INSECTS. [Chap. Xn.

The second year, however, brings a change for the worse ;
if the young shoots and the underside of the leaves be
now examined, the scales will be found to have become
much more numerous, and with them appear a multitude
of white specks, which are the young scales in a more
or less forward state. The clusters of berries now assume
a black sooty look, and a great number of them fall off
before coming to maturity ; the general health of the
tree also begins to fail, and it acquires a blighted ap-
pearance. A loss of crop is this year sustained, but to
no great extent.

The third year brings about a more serious change,
the whole plant acquires a black hue, appearing as if
soot had been thrown over it in great quantities ; this
is caused by the growth of a parasitic fungus ' over the
shoots and the upper surface of the leaves, forming
a fibrous coating, somewhat resembling velvet or felt.
This never makes its appearance till the insect has been
a considerable time on the bush, and probably owes its
existence there to an unhealthy condition of the juices
of the leaf, consequent on the irritation produced by the
coccus, since it never visits the upper surface of the
leaf until the latter has fully established itself on the
lower. At this period the young shoots have an ex-
ceedingly disgusting look from the dense mass of yellow
pustular bodies forming on them, the leaves get shrivel-
led, and the infected trees become conspicuous in the
row. The black ants are assiduous in their visits to

* Racodium'i Species of this dense interlaced mesh of fibres,

genus are not confined to the coffee each made up of a single series of

plant alone in Ceylon, but follow minute oblong vesicles applied end

the " bugs " in their attacks on to end.
other bushes. It appears like a

Chap. XIL] THE COFFEE-BUG. 441

them. Two-thirds of the crop is lost, and on many
trees not a single berry forms.

This Lecanium, or a very closely allied species, has
been observed in the Botanic Grarden at Peradenia, on
the Citrus acida, Psidium joomiferum, MyrtiLs Zey-
lanica, Rosa Indica, Careya arborea, Viiex Negundo,
and other plants. The coffee coccus has generally been
first observed in moist, hollow places sheltered from the
wind ; and thence it has spread itself even over the
driest and most exposed parts of the island. On some
estates, after attaining a maximum, it has generally
declined, but has shown a liability to reappear, espe-
cially in low sheltered situations, and it is believed to
prevail most extensively in wet seasons. MTiile in its
earlier stages, it is easily transmitted from one estate
to another, on the clothes of human beings, and in
various other ways, which will readily suggest them-
selves. Dr. Gardner, after a careful consideration and
minute examination of estates, arrived at the conclusion,
that all remedies suggested up to that time had utterly
failed, and that none at once cheap and effectual was
likely to be discovered. He seems also to have been of
opinion that the insect was not under human control ;
and that even if it should disappear, it would only be
when it should have worn itself out as other blio-hts
have been known to do in some mysterious way. Whe-
ther this may prove to be the case or not, is still very
uncertain, but every thing observed by Dr. Gardner
tends to indicate the permanency of the pest.

442

INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

List of Ceylon Insects.

For the following list of the insects of the island,
and the remarks prefixed to it, I am indebted to Mr. F.
Walker, by whom it has been prepared after a careful
inspection of the collections made by Dr. Templeton,
Mr. E. L. Layard, and others: as well as of those in the
British Museum and in the Museum of the East India
Company.*

" A short notice of the aspect of the island will afford the
best means of accounting, in some degree, for its entomological
Fauna : first, as it is an island, and has a mountainous central
region, the tropical character of its productions, as in most
other cases, rather diminishes, and somewhat approaches that
of higher latitudes.

" The coast-region of Ceylon, and fiilly one-third of its
northern part, have a much drier atmosphere than that of the
rest of its surface ; and their climate and vegetation are nearly
similar to those of the Carnatic, with which this island may
have been connected at no very remote period.^ But if, on
the contrary, the land in Ceylon is gradually rising, the dif-
ference of its Fauna from that of Central Hindustan is less
remarkable. The peninsula of the Dekkan might then be
conjectured to have been nearly or wholly separated fi-om the
central part of Hindustan, and confined to the range of
mountains along the eastern coast ; the insect-fauna of which
is as yet almost unknoAvn, but will probably be found to have
more resemblance to that of Ceylon than to the insects of

* The entire of the new species scriptions have been taken, have
contained in this list have been been at his desire transferred to
described in a series of papers by the British Museum for future re-
Mr. Walker in successive numbers ferenee and comparison,
of the Annals of Natural History ^ On the subject of this conjec-
(1858 — 61) : those from Dr. Tem- ture see ante, p. 60.
pleton's collection of which de-

Chap. XI I.] LIST OF CEYLOX INSECTS. 443

nortliern and western India — just as tiie insect-fauna of
Malaya appears more to resemble the similar productions of
Australasia than those of the more northern continent.

" Mr. Layard's collection was partly formed in the dry
northern province of Ceylon ; and among them more Hin-
dustan insects are to be observed than among those collected
by Dr. Templeton, and found wholly in the district between
Colombo and Kandy. According to this view the faunas of
the Xilgherry Mountains, of Central Ceylon, of the peninsula
of Malacca, and of Australasia would be found to form one
group; — while those of Northern Ceylon, of the western
Dekkan, and of the level parts of Central Hindustan would
form another of more recent origin. The insect-fauna of the
Carnatic is also probably similar to that of the lowlands of
Ceylon ; but it is still unexplored. The regions of Hindustan
in which species have been chiefly collected, such as Bengal,
Silliet, and the Punjaub, are at the distance of from 1300 to
1600 miles from Ceylon, and therefore the insects of the latter
are fully as different from those of the above regions as they
are from those of Australasia, to which Ceylon is as near in
point of distance, and agrees more with regard to latitude,

" Dr.Hagen has remarked that he believes the fauna of the
mountains of Ceylon to be quite different from that of the
plains and of the shores. The south and west districts have a
very moist climate, and as their vegetation is like that of
Malabar, their insect-fauna will probably also resemble that of
the latter region.

" The insects mentioned in the following list are thus dis-
tributed : — i

'' Order Coleoptera.

" The recorded species of Cicindelidce inhabit the plains or
the coast country of Ceylon, and several of them are also
found in Hindustan.

" Many of the species of Carahidce and of Staphylinidce,
especially those collected by Mr. Thwaites, near Kandy, and
by M. Nietner at Colombo, have much resemblance to the

444 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

insects of these two families in North Europe ; in the Scyd-
mcenidce, Ptiliadce, Phalacridce, Nitidulidce, Coh/diadcB, and
Lathridiadce the northern form is still more striking, and
strongly contrasts with the tropical forms of the gigantic
CopridcB^ Bupref<tidcB, and Ceramhi/cidoe, and with the Ela-
teridcB, Lampyridce, Tenebrionidce, Helopidce, Meloidce, Curcu-
lionidce, PriomdcB, Ceramhycidce^ Lamiidce^ and EndomychidcB.

" The Copridce, Dynastidce^ Melolonthidce^ Cetoniadce^ and
Passalidce are well represented on the plains and on the coast,
and the species are mostly of a tropical character.

" The Hydrophilidce have a more northern aspect, as is gene-
rally the case with aquatic species.

" The order Strepsiptera is here considered as belonging to
the MordellidcE^ and is represented by the genus Myrmecolax,
which is peculiar, as yet, to Ceylon.

" In the CurculionidcB the single species of Apion will recall
to mind the great abundance of that genus in North Europe.

" The Prionidce and the two following families have been
investigated by Mr. Pascoe, and the HispidcB^ with the five
following families, by Mr. Baly ; these two gentlemen are weU
acquainted with the above tribes of beetles, and kindly supplied
me Avith the names of the Ceylon species.

Order Orthoptera.

" These insects in Ceylon have mostly a tropical aspect.
The Physapoda^ which will probably be soon incorporated
with them, are likely to be numerous, though only one species
has as yet been noticed.

Order Neuroptera.

" The list here given is chiefly taken from the catalogue pub-
lished by Dr. Hagen, and containing descriptions of the species
named by him or by M. Nietner. They were found in the
most elevated parts of the island, near Eangbodde, and Dr.
Hagen informs me that not less than 500 species have been
noticed in Ceylon, but that they are not yet recorded, with

Chap. XII.] LIST OF CEYLOX IXSECTS. 445

the exception of tlie species here enumerated. It has been
remarked that the Trichoptera and other aquatic Neuroptera
are less local than the land species, owing to the more equable
temperature of the habitation of their larvae, and on account
of their being often conveyed along the whole length of rivers.
The species of Fsocus in the list are far more numerous than
those yet observed in any other country, with the exception of
Europe.

Order Hymenoptera.

" In this order the Formicidce and the Poneridce are very
numerous, as they are in other damp and woody tropical coun-
tries. Seventy species of ants have been observed, but as yet
few of them have been named. The various other families of
aculeate Hymenoptera are doubtless more abundant than the
species recorded indicate, and it may be safely reckoned that
the parasitic Hymenoptera in Ceylon far exceed one thousand
species in number, though they are yet only kno^vn by means
of about two dozen kinds collected at Kandy by Mr. Thwaites.

Order Lepidoptera.

" The fauna of Ceylon is much better known in this order
than in any other of the insect tribes, but as yet the Lepidop-
tera alone in their class afford materials for a comparison of
the productions of Ceylon with those of Hindustan and of
Australasia ; nine hundred and thirty-two species have been
collected by Dr. Templeton and by Mr. Layard in the central,
western, and northern parts of the island. All the families,
from the Papilionidce to the Tineidoe^ abound, and numerous
species and several genera appear, as yet, to be pecuhar to the
island. As Ceylon is situate at the entrance to the eastern
regions, the list in this volume will suitably precede the
descriptive catalogues of the heterocerous Lepidoptera of Hin-
dustan, Java, Borneo, and of other parts of Australasia, which
are being prepared for publication. In some of the heteroce-
rous families several species are common to Ceylon and to
Australasia, and in various cases the faunas of Ceylon and of

446 INSECTS. [Chap. XII.

Australasia seem to be more similar than those of Ceylon and
of Hindustan. The long intercourse between those two regions
may have been the means of conveying some species from one
to the other. Among the Pyralites^ Hynunia recurvalis in-
habits also the West Indies, South America, "West Africa,
Hindustan, China, Australasia, Australia, and New Zealand ;
and its food-plant is probably some vegetable Avhich is culti-
vated in all those regions ; so also Desmia afflictalis is found in
Sierra Leone, Abyssinia, Ceylon, and China.

Order Diptera.

" About fifty species were observed by Dr. Templeton, but
most of those here recorded were collected by Mr. Thwaites at
Kandy, and have a great likeness to North European species.
The mosquitoes are very annoying on account of their num-
bers, as might be expected from the moisture and heat of the
climate. Cidex laniger is the coast species, and the other
kinds here mentioned are from Kandy. Humboldt observed
that in some parts of South America each stream had its
peculiar mosquitoes, and it yet remains to be seen whether
the gnats in Ceylon are also thus restricted in their habitation.
The genera Sciara, Cecidomyia, and Sh?iidium, which abound
so exceedingly in temperate countries, have each one represen-
tative species in the collection made by Mr. Thwaites. Thus
an almost new field remains for the Entomologist in the study
of the yet unknown Singhalese DijDtera, which must be very
numerous.

Order Hemiptera.

" The species of this order in the list are too few and too
similar to those of Hindustan to need any particular mention.
Lecaniiim coffece may be noticed, on account of its infesting
the coffee plant, as its name indicates, and the ravages of other
species of the genus will be remembered, from the fact that
one of them, in other regions, has put a stop to the cultivation
of the orange as an article of commerce.

Chap. XI I.] LIST OF CEYLOX mSECTS.

447

" In conclusion, it may be observed that the species of in-
sects in Ceylon may be estimated as exceeding 10,000 in
number, of which about 2000 are enumerated in this volume.

Class Aeachnida.

" Four or five species of spiders, of which the specimens
cannot be satisfiictorily described; one Ixodes and one Che-
lifer have been forwarded to England from Ceylon by Mr.
Thwaites."

Note.— The asterisk prefixed denotes the species discovered in Ceylon since Sir J. E
Tennent's departure from the Island in 1849.

Order Coleopteea,
Linn.

Fam. CiciNDELiDiE, Steph.
Cicindela, Linn.

flavopuiictata, Aud.

discrepans, Wlk.

aurnfasciaca, Guer.

quadrilineata, labr.

biramosa. Fabr.

catena, Fubr.

*insigniticans, Dohrn.
Trinond} la, Lair.

feme at a, Wlk.

*tumidula, IV'lk.

*siitiscabra. Wlk.

*conciima, Dohrn.

Fam. CarabiDjE, Leach.
Casnonia, Latr.

*punctata, Niet,

*pilifera. Niet.
Ophionea, Kli/g.

*cyanocephala, Fabr.
Euplviies, Xiel.

Dohriiii, Niet.
Heteroglofisa, Niet.

*elegans, Niet.

*nificollis, Niet.

*bimaculata, Niet.
Zuphium, latr.

*piibesceiis, Niet.
Phero|isophns, Soiier.

Catoiiei, Dej.

bimaculatus, Fabr.
Cymindis, Latr.

rufiveiitris, Wlk.
Anchisia, N/et.

*m()desta, Niet.
Dromius, Bon.

margiiiiier, Wlk.

repandens, Wlk.
Lebia, Latr.

bipars, Wlk.

Creagris, Niet.

labrosa, Niet.
Elliotia, N/et.

pallipt"-^, Niet.
Maraga. Wlk.

planigeia. Wlk.
Catascopus, Kn-by.
facialis, Wied.
reductus, Wlk.
Scarites, Fabr.

obliterans, Wlk.
subsignans, 'i Ik.
designans, Wlk.
*minor, Niet.
Clivina, Latr.

*rugosifrons, Niet,
*el(ingatula. Niet.
*maculata, Niet.
recta, Wlk.
Leistus, Ficehl.

linearis, Wlk.
Isotarsus, Lafcrte.

quadrimactiiatus, Oliv.
Panagseus, Latr.

retractus, Wlk.
Chlffinius, Bon,

bimaculatus, Hej.
diffinis Bciche.
*Cey]anicus, Niet.
*quinque-maculatus,

Niet.
pulcher, Niet.
cupricoUis, Niet.
nigulosus, Niet.
Anchomenus, Bon.
illoiatus, Wlk.
Agonum, Bon.

placiiiulum, Wlk.
Col pedes ? Macl.

marginicullis, Wlk.
.^rgutor, Mep.
degener, Wlk.
relinquens, Wlk.
Simphyus. Niet.

*Lmicolor, Niet.
Brady t us, Steph.

stolidus, Wlk.
Curtonotiis, Steph.

compositus, Wlk.
Harpalus, Latr.
*aiivolans, Niet.
dispf liens. l\ Ik.
Calodromiis, Niet.

*exornatus, Niet.
Megaristerus, Niet.

*man(iibu]aris. Niet.
*stenolophoides, Niet.
•IndicLi-i. Niet.
Platysma. Bun.

retinens, Wlk.
Morio, Latr.

trogositoides, Wlk,
cucnjoides, Wlk.
Barysomus, DeJ.

*Gyllenhalii, Bej.
Oodes, Bon.

*piceiis, Niel.
Seleiiopiioru-, Dej.

intixus, Wlk.
Orthogoniiis, Dej.

fenioratus, Dej.
Helhiodes, Wesiw.

Taprob.mae, Wisfw.
Physotrotaphus, Parry.
Ceyloniciis. Parry.
*minax. West.
Physodera, Esch.

Eschschnlizii, Parry.
Omphra, Latr.

*ovipennis, Beiche.
Planetes. Macl.

bmiaculatus, Macleay,
Cardiaderus, Dej,

scitus, Wlk.
Distrigus, Dej.

*co>tatus, Niet.
*siibme allicus, Niet.
rufopiceus, Niet.
*ceneus, Niet.
*Dejeani, Niet.
Drimostoma, Dej.

*Ceylanicum, Niet.

448

I^S-SECTS.

[Chaf. XII.

*margina1e, Wlk.
Cyclosonius, Latr.

flexuo^us, Fnbr,
Ochthepliilus, Niet.

*Ceylaiiicus, Hiet,
Spathinus, Siet.

•nigriceps, AVrf.
Acupa pus, J^air.

derosiatiis, fVlk.

extremiis, Wlk.
Bembidiiim, Lntr.

finitimnm. Wlk.

*opulentum, Niet.

*trimcatiiin, Niet.

*tropicum, Niet.

*tri;m-.'ulare, Niet.

*Ceylaniciim, Niet.

Kliieii. Niet.

*ebeniuum, Niet.

*orieniHle, Niet,

*einarginatuin, Niet,

*oniatiim, Niet.

*sc}dm3enoides, Niet.

Fam, PaussidjE, Westw.
Cerapterus, Swed.

)aripes, Stred.
Pleuroptt-Mis, West.

Westprm mni, West.
Paussus, Linn.

pacificus, West.

Fam. Dytiscid^, Mad.
Cybister, Curt.

liiiibatiis, Fabr.
Dytisciis, Linn.

extei'uans, Wlk.
Eunecies, Erich.

giiseus. Fibr.
Hydaticus, Leach.

fpstiviis, ///.

vittat- s. Fnbr.

disloc;in<, Wlk.

fra.-tifer, Wlk.
Colymbetfs, Clairv.

interclusus, Wlk,
Hydroporus, Clairv.

interpnlsus, Wlk.

intermixtus. Wlk.

)8et:-bilis, Wlh.

*inrfficiens, Wlk.

Fam. Gyrinid^, Leach.
Dineutes. Mad.

spinosus, Fabr.
Porrorhyiichus, Lap.

indicans, Wlk.
Gyn-tes Bndle.

dscife'. Wlk.
Gyrinns, L^inn.

nitidnhis, Fnbr.

obi quus, Wlk.
Orectochilus, Eich.

*lenocinium, Dohrn.

Fam. STAPHILINIDiB,

Lench.
Ocypus, Kirby.

longipeniiis, Wlk.
congruus, Wlk.

punctilinea, Wlk.

*iineatus Wlk.
Philontl'us, Lea^h.

*pedestris. Wlk.
Xantlioliims i)a/il.

cinrtus, Wlk.

*imlman«, Wlk.
Sunius, LjCach.

*iibliquus, Wlk.
Q2di<hiriis, Erich.

*alati.is. Niet.
Poe<1erus Fnbr.

alternan<, Wlk.
Steims. Lair.

*l)arb;itUN Niet.

*lacertoidrs. Niet.
Osoriiis ? Liach.

*compa(tiis, Wlk.
Prognatha, Lntr.

decis,t, Wlk.

*ceniiis, Hlk.
Leptochirus. Perty.

*tiisiinus, Erich.
Oxytelus, Grav.

r« dis, Wlk

prodiictus, Wlk.

*bicnlor, Wlk.
Trognphloens, Mann.

*Tai)roban£e, Wlk.
Omalium, 'jrav.

filiiurine. Wlk.
Aleochara, Grnv.

postica, Wlk.

*translata, Wlk,

*snhjecia. Wlk.
Dinarda, Leach.

serricnrnis, Wlk.

Fam. PsELAPHiD^, Leach.
Pselaphanax, Wlk.
setosus, Wlk.

Fam. ScYDM^NiD^, ieacA.
Erinms, Wlk.

monstrosns, Wlk.
Scyiimaeniis, Latr.

*megamelas, Wlk.

*al;itns, Niet.

*fe'i oralis, NiH.

*Ceylan1cMS, N>ct.

*internnediiis, Niet.

*pseUiphoides. Niet.

*advolans, Niet.

*pubes('ens. Niet.

*pyguifeiis, A7('^.

*gl;in(luliferus, Niet.

*graminicnla, Niet.

*pyrirormis:, Niet.

*angiisticpi>s, Niet.

*ovatus, Niet.

Fam. Ptiliad^, Wo .
Trichopteryx, Kirby.

*ciirsitans, Nitt.

*iinm;riira, Nift,

*invi.<ibili«, Niet.
Ptiliuin. Schlinp.

*snbqiiai(ratum, Niet.
Ptenidium, Erich.

*macrocephalum, Niet.

Fam. Phalacuid^, Leach.
Phalacrus, Payk.

conjicieiis, Wlk.

confectus, Wlk.

Fam. NitidulidjE, Leach.
Nitidula, Fabr.

roniieens, Wlk.

intendens, Wlk.

sigiiificaiis. Wlk.

fomentit'era, Wlk.

*sul>iracnlata. Hlk.

*glabricula, Dohrn.
Nitidiilopsis. M Ik.

sequaiis. Wlk.
Meligpthes, Kirby.

*oripi)talis, Niet.

*rpspondpns, Wlk.
Rhizophagiis, He^bst.

paralielus, Wlk.

F^m COLYDIADJE, Woll.

Lyctus. Fabr

rptractus, Wlk.

disputans, H Ik.
Ditoma, Illig.

rugiccjUis, Wlk.

Fam. Tkogositid^, Kirby.
Trogosita, Oliv.

insinuans. Wlk.

*Th) zophagoides, Wlk.

Fam. CucuJiD^, Steph.
Loemophlopus, Dej.

fprniginens, Wlk.
Cucujus ? Fabr.

*incom modus, Wlk.
Silvaniis, Latr

rptraheiv, Wlk

*sciiticollls, Wlk,

*norreftus, Wlk.
Brontes Fnbr.

*orientalis, Dej.

Fam. LATHRIDIANiE, Woll.

Lathridius. Herbst.

pprpusillns, Wlk.
Corticaria. Mirsh.

reserta, Wlk
Monotoma, Herbst.

concinnula, Wlk.

Fam. DERMESTiDi;, L.each.
Dermestps, Linn.

viilpinus. Fnbr,
Attagemis. Lair.

delectus. Wlk.

riifipes, Wlk.
Trinode-i, Meg.

hirtellus, Wlk.

Fam. BYRRHiDiE, L.each.
Inc ica. Wilt.
solida, Wlk.

Fam. HisTERiDiE, Leach.
Hister, Linn.

Bengalensis, Weid.

Chap. XII.] LIST OF CEYLOX INSECTS.

449

encaustus, Mars.

orieiitalis, Pai/k.

bipustulatus, Fabr.

*mundissimus, IVlk.
Saprinus, Erich.

semipunctatus, Fabr.
Platysoma, Leach.

atratum ? Erichs.

desinens, Wlk.

restorntuin, Wlk.
Dendrophilus, Leach.

finitimus, Wlk.

Fam. Aphodiad^, MacL

Aphodins, IlUf[.

robustus, Wlk.

dynastoides, Wlk.

pallidicornis, Wlk,

mutans, Wik.

sequens, Wlk.
Psammodius, Gyll.

inscitus, Wlk.

Fam. Trogid^, Mad.

Trox, Fabr.

inclusus, Wlk.
cornutus, Fabr.

Fam. C0PRID.E, Leach.
Ateuchus, Weber.

sacer, Linn.
Gymnopleurus, LlUg.

smaragdiier, Wlk.

Koenlgii, Fabr.
Sisyphus, Lair.

setosulus, Wlk.

subsidens, Wlk..

prominens, Wlk.
Orepanocenis, Kirby.

Taprobanae, West.
Copris, Geoffr.

Pirmal, Fabr.

sagax. Quens.

capucinus, Fabr.

cribricoUis. Wlk.

repertus, Wlk.

sodalis, Wlk.

signatus, Wlk.

diminiitivus, Wlk.
Onthophagiis, Lntr.

Bonassus, Fahr.

cervicornis, Fabr.

prolixus, Wlk.

gravis. Wlk.

difficilis, Wlk.

lucens, Wlk.

negligens, Wlk.

mcerens, Wlk.

turbatus, Wlk.
Onitis, Fabr.

Philemon, Fabr.

Fam. Dynastid^, Mad.

Oryctes, Lllig.

rhinoceros, Linn.
Xylotrupes, Hope.

Gideon, Linn.

reductus, Wlk.

solidipes, Wlk.
Phileurus, Latr.

detractus, Wlk.
Orphnus, Mad.
detegeiis, Wlk.
scitissimus, Wlk.

Fam. Gectrupidje, Leach.
Bolboceras, Kirby.
lineatus, Wentw.

Fam. MELOLONTHIDJi,

Mad.
Melolontha, Fabr.

nummiciidens, Newm.

rubiginosa, Wlk.

ferruginosa. Wlk.

seriata, Hope.

pinguis. Wlk.

setosa, Wlk.
Rhizotrogus, Lafr.

hirtipectns, Wlk.

squalls, Tf'lk.

costatus, Wlk.

inductus, Wlk.

exactus, Ji'lk.

suicifer, If'lk.
Phyllopertha, Kirby.

transversa. Burin.
Silphodes, Westio.

Indica, WestuK
Trigonostoma, Dej.

assimile, Hope.

compressum ? Weid.

nanum, Wlk,
Serica, Mad,

pruinosa. Hope.
Popilia, Leach.

marginicotlis, Newm,

cyanella, Hope.

discalis, Wlk.
Sericesthis, Dej.

rotundata, Wlk.

subsignata, Wlk.

mollis, Wlk.

coiifirmata, Wlk.
Plectris, Lep. S; Serv.

solida, Wlk.

punctiiiera, Wlk.

glabrilinea, Wlk,
Isonychus, Mann,

ventraiis, Wlk.

pectoralis, Wlk.
Omaloplia, Meg.

fracta, Wlk.

interrupta, Wlk.

semicincta, Wlk.

*hamit'era, Wlk.

*picta, Dohrn,

*nana, Dohrn.
Apogonia, Kirby.

nigricans, Hope.
Phy talus, Erich.

eurystomus, Burm,
Ancylon\cha, Dej.

Reynauiiii, Blanch.
Leuc -pholis, Drj.

Mellei, Guer,

pinguis, Burm.
Anomala, Meg.

data, Fabr.

humeralis, IVlk,

discalis, Wlk.

G a

varicolor, Sch.

conformis, Wlk.

similis, Hope.

punctatissima, Wlk.

infixa. Wlk.
Mimela, Kirhy.

varieg'aia. Wlk.

mundi>sima, Wlk.
Parastasia, Westw.

rufopica, Westw.
Euchlora, Mad,

viridis, Fabr,

perplexa, Hope.

Fam. CETONIAD.E, Kirbi/.
Glycyphana, Bu)m,

versicolor, Fiibr.

luctuosa. Gory.

variegata, Fabr,

marginicollis. Gory.
Clinteria, Burm.

imperalis, Schaum.

incerta. Parry.

chloroiiota, Blanch.
Tfeniodera, Burm.

Malabariensis, Gory.

quadrivittata, White.

alboguttata, I'igors.
Protaetia, Burm.

maculata, Fabr.

Whitehousii, Parry.
Agestrata, Erich.

uigrita, Fabr.

orichalcea, Linn.
Coryphocera, Burm.

elegans, Fabr.
Nacronota, Hoffm.

quadrivittata, Sch.

Fam. TRICHIAD.E, Leach.
Valgus, Scriba.
addendus, Wlk.

Fam. LucANiDzE, Leach.
Odontolabis, Burm,

Bt ngalensis, Parry,

emarginatus, Dej.
iEgus, Mad.

acuminatus, Fabr.

lunatus, Fabr.
Singhala. Blanch.

tenella, Blanch.

Fam. Passalid^, Mad.
Passalus, Fabr,

transversus Dohrn.
inteistitialis, Perch.
punctiger ? Lefeb.
bicolor, Fabr,

Fam. Sph.eridiad^, Leach
Sphferidiiim, Fabr.

tricolor, Wlk.
Cercyon, Leach.

*vicinale, Wlk. •

Fam. HYDROPHILID.E,
Leach,
Hydrous, Leach.

*rufiventris, Niet.

450

INSECTS.

[Chap. XII.

*inconspicuus, Niet.
Hydrobius, I. each.

stultus Wlk.
Philydrus, Solier.

esurieiis, JVlh.
Berosiis, Leach.

*decrescens, Wlk.
Hydroclius. Gem.

*lacustris, Niet.
Georvjsus, Latr.

*Kemma. ]<^iet.

*iti5ularis, BJirn.
Dastarciis, IVlk.

porosus, " Ik.

Fam, Bdprestid^, Steph.
Sternocera, Esch.

chrysis, Linn.

sternicorni<, Linn.
Chrysochroa, Solier.

io;nita, Linn.

Chinensis, Ijop.

Rajah, Lap.

*cyaneocev)hala, Fabr.
Chrysodpma, Lap.

sulcata, Thunb.
Belionota, Esch.

sciit'-llari*. Fabr.

*Peti'i, Gory.
Chrvsobothris, Esch.

siituralis, Wlk.
Agriliis, Meg.

sulcicollis, IVlk.

*cupreiceps, Wlk.

*cupreic(>ilis, Wlk.

*armatus, Fabr.

Fam. Elatfrid^, Leach.
Campsosteriifis, Latr.

Tt-mpletonii, Westw.

aureolus, Hope.

Bohemannii, Ca>id.

veniismlus, Cand.

pall dipes, Cand.
Agrypnus, Esch.

fuscipes, Fabr.
Alaus, Esch.

speciosiis, Linn.

sordidus, Westw.
Cardioiihoriis, Esch.

hnmerifer, Wlk,
Corymbites, Latr.

dividtns, Wlk.

divi-a, Wlk.

♦bivitlava, Wlk.
Lacon, Lap.

*obesus, Cand.
Atbous, Esch.

piin(tosu>, Wlk.

inapertus, Wlk.

d-'cretus, Wlk.

inpfficiens, Wlk.
Ampedus, Meg.m

*acutifer, Wlk.

*discicollis, Wlk,
Legna, Wlk.

idonea, Wlk.

Fam. Lampyridje, Leach.
Lycus, Fabr.

triangularis. Hope.

geminus, Wlk

astiitns. Wlk.

fall IX, Wlk.

planicornis, IMk.

melanopteriis. Wlk.

pubicornis, Wlk.

duplex, Wlk.

costifer, Wlk.

revocans, Wlk.

dispellens, Wlk.

*piibipeniiis, Wlk.

*iumierifer, Wlk.

exnansicnrnis, Wlk.

divisus, Wlk.
Dicty pteriis, Latr.

internexus. Wlk,
Lampyris. Geoff.

tenebro-a, iMk.

diffiiiis, Wlk.

liite^rens, Wlk.

*vitrifera. Wlk.
Colophotia, Dej.

humpraiis, Wlk.

[vespertina, Fabr.

perplexa, Wlk. ?]

intritata, Wlk.

extricans, l\ Ik,

promelas. Wlk.
Harm HI el ia, Wlk,

discalis, Wlk,

biliuea, Wlk.

Fam. TELEPHORiDia,
Leach,

Telephorns, Schaff.

ditu'diacus, Fabr.

mailhinoides, Wlk.
Eugeusis, Wesliv.

palpator, Westw.

grvphus, Hope.

olivaceus, Hope.

Fam. CEBRIONID.E, S/qoA.
Callirhipis, Latr,

Teinpletonii, Westw.

Championii, Westw,

Fam. Melyrii)*, Leach.
Malachius, Fabr.

plagiatus. Wlk,
Malthinus, Latr.

*foiticornis, Wlk.

*retractus, Wlk.

fragili<. Dohrn.
Enic"pus, Stepli.

proficiens, Wlk.
Honosca, Wlk.

necrobioides, Wlk.

Fam. Cler'd^, Kirby.
Cylidrus, Lap.

sobriniis, Dnhrn.
Stigmatium, Gray.

elaphroides, Westw.
Necrohia, Lair.

rufipes. Fabr.

aspera, Wlk.

Fam. PriNiD^ffi, Leach.
Ptinus, Linn.

*nigerrimus, Boield.

Fam. DiAPERiD^, Leach.
Diaperis, Geoff

velutina, Wlk.

fragilis, Dohrn,

Fam. TenebrionidjE,
Leach.
Zophobas, Dej.

errans ? Dej.

clavipes, Wlk.

? solidus, Wlk.
Pseudoblaps, Giier,

nigrita, Fabr.
Tenebrio, Linn.

ruhrip"s, Hope,

retenta. Wlk.
Trachyscelis, Latr.

bruniiea, Dohrn.

Fam. OPATRID.E, Shuck.
Opatrum, Fabr.

contrahens, Wlk.

bilineatum, Wlk.

planatum, Wlk.

serricolle, Wlk.
Asida, Latr.

horrida, Wlk.
Crypticus, Latr.

detersus, Wlk.

longipeniiis, Wlk.
Phaleria, Latr,

rufipes. Wlk.
Toxiciim, Latr.

oppugnaiis, Wlk.

biliina. Wlk.
Boletophagiis, ///.

*inorosus, Dohrn,

*exasperaius, Dohrn.
Uloma, Meg.

scita. jyik.
Alphitophagus. Steph.

subfascia, Wlk,

Fam. HELOPiDiE, Steph,
Osdara, Wlk.

picipes. Wlk.
Cholipus. Dej.

brevicornis, Dej.

paral)olicus, Wlk.

laeviuscnlus, Wlk.
Hel. ps, Fabr.

ebeninus, THk.
Carnaria, Lep. S( Serv.

amethystina. L. ^ S.
Amarygmus, Dalin,

chrysomeloides, Dej.

Fam. MELOiDi;, Wall.
Epicauta, Dej.

nijirifinis, Wlk.
Cissites, Latr,

testaceuv, Fabr.
Mylabris, Fabr.

humeralis, Wlk.

alterna. Wlk.

*recognita, Wlk.
Atractocerus, Pal., Bv.

debilis, Wlk.

reversus, Wlk,

Chap. XII.] LIST OF CEYLOX IXSECTS.

451

Fam. (Edemerid;e, Steph.
Ci stela, Fabr.

congrna, Wlk.

*ialjifica, Wlk.
AUecula, Fabr.

fusit'oimis, Wlk.

elegans, Wlk.

*fl;.viiemur, Wlk.
Sora, Wlk.

*marginata, Wlk.
Thaccona, Wlk.

dimelas, Wlk.

Fam. MoRDELLiDJE, Sleph.
Acosmus, Dej.

languidus, Wlk.
Rhipiphoru*, Fabr.

*iropii"us, Kiel.
Mordella, Linn.

composita, Wlk.

*deiectiva, Wlk.
Myrinecolax, Westw.

*Nietneri, WeUw.

Fam. Anthicid£, Wlk.
Anthicus, Payk.

*quisqiiUarius, 'Siet.
*iiisiil irius, A>W.
*sticticollis, Wlk.

Fam. CissiDJE, LeacA.
Cis, Latr.

contendens, Wlk.

Fam. ToMiciDi, Shuck.
Apate, Fabr.

subnipdia, Wlk.
Bostrichus, Geaff-

mutilatus. Wlk.

*verten>. Wlk.

*moderatus, Wlk.

*testaceus, Wlk.

*exiguns, Wlk.
Platypus, Herhst.

min .X, Wlk.

solidus, Wlk.

*latifinis, Wlk.
Hylurgus. Latr-

determinans, Wlk.

*concinimlus, Wlk.
Hylesinus, Fabr.

curvitVr, Wlk.

despectus, Wlk.

irresolutus, Wlk.

Fam. CuRcuLioNiD^,
Leach.
Bruchus, Linn.

scutellaris, Fabr.
Spermophagus, Steven.

convolviili, Thunb.

figuratus, Wlk.

Cisti, Fabr.

incertus, W!k.

decretu^, Wlk.
Dendropemon, Schon.

*melancholicus, Dohrn.
Dendrotrogus. Jek.

Di)hrnii, Jek.

discrepans, Dohrn.

Eucorynus, Schon.
colligendus. Wlk.
colligen^. Wlk.
Basirropis. Jek.

*disconotatus, Jek.
Litocerus, Schon.

punctulatus, Dohrn.
Tropiileres, Sch.

punotniifer. Dohrn.
Iragilis. W/k.
Cedus, Walerh.

♦cancellatiis, Dohrn.
Xylinades. Latr-

sobrinulus, Dohrn.
indignus, Wlk.
Xenocenis, Germ.
angiilii'erus, Wlk.
revocans, Wlk.
*anchoiali5, Dohrn.
Callist"cenis, Dohrn.
*Xiptneri, Dohrn.
Anthribus, Genff.

longicornis, Fabr.
apical's. Wlk.
facilis, Wlk.
Araecerus, Schon.
coffeae, Fabr.
*insidiosiis, Fabr.
*mu';ciilus, Dohrn.
*intangens, Wlk.
*bifovea, Wlk.
Dipieza, Fuse.

*insignis, Dohrn.
Apolecta, Pasc.

*Niftneri, Dohrn.
*musciilus, Dohrn.
Arrhenodes, Steven.
miles, Sch.
pil:cornis, Sch.
dentirosiris, Jek.
approximans. Wlk.
Veneris, Dohrn.
Cerobates, Schon.
thrasc<\ Dohrn.
aciculatus, Wlk.
Ceocepiialus. Schon.
cavus, Wlk.
*reticulatus, Fabr.
Nemocephalus, Latr.

siilcirostri-;, l)e Haan.
planicollis, Wlk.
spinirostris, Wlk.
Apofierus, Oliv.

longicollis ? Fabr.
Tranquebaricus, Fabr
cygneus, Fabr. ?
scitulus, Wlk.
*triangularis, Fabr.
*echinatu-, Sch.
Rhynchites, Herbst.
suff'indens, Wlk.
*restituens, Wlk.
Apion, Herbst.

*Cingaieiise. Wlk.
Stroph<)Somu>, Bilbug.

*sutnralis. M Ik.
Piazomias, Schon.
aequalis. Wlk.
Astycus, Schon.

lateralis, Fabr. ?
ebeninus, Wlk.

*immrinis, Wlk.
Cleonus, Schon.

induceiis, Wlk.
Myllocerus, Schon.

transinariiiiis, Hc7bst.?
spiircatus, W/k.
*retrahens, Wlk.
^posticus, Wlk.
Phyllobiiis, Schon.

*mimicus, Wlk.
Episomus, Schon.

pauppratus, Fabr.
Lixiis, Fabr.

nebulifa«cia, Wlk.
Aclees, Schon.

cribratiis, Dej.
Alcides, Dalm.
signatus. Boh.
obliquus, Wlk.
transversiis. jyik.
*clausus. Wlk.
Acicn^'mis, Fairm.

Ceyloiiicus, Jek.
Apotomorhinus. Schon,
signatus, W'k.
alboater, Wlk.
Cryptorbynchus, Illig.
ineffectus, Wlk.
asfimilans, Wlk.
declaratus, Wlk.
notabilis, JVlk.
vexatus, Wlk.
Camptorhinu-. Schon. ?
revt-rsus, JVlk
*indijcietus, Wlk.
De^midophorus, Chevr.
hebes, Fabr.
communican«, Wlk.
stremiiis, Wlk.
*discriminans, Wlk.
inexpertus, IMk.
fasciculicoUis, Wlk.
Sipalus, Schon.

granulatus, Fabr.
porosus, U'lk.
tinctus, mk.
Mecopus, Dalm.

*\Vaterhousei, Dohrn.
Rhynchophorus, Herbst.
ferrugineus, Fabr.
introducens. Wlk.
Protocerus, Schon.

molossiis ? Oliv.
Sphaenophorus, Schon,
glabriniscus, Wlk.
exquisitiis, Wlk.
Dehaani ? Jek.
cribricoUis. Wlk.
? panops, Wlk.
Cossonus. Clairv.

*qiiadrjmacula, Wlk.
? hebes, Wlk.
ambiguus, Sch. ?
Scitophilus. Schon.
orizae, Linn.
disciferiis, Wlk.
Mecinus. Germ.

* ? relictus, Wlk.

Fam. Prionid^e, Leach.
Trictenotoma, G. R. Gray.

G G 2

452

INSECTS.

[Chap. XH.

Templetoni, Westw.
Prionomma, White.

orientals, Oliv.
Acanthophorus, Serv.

serraticornis, Oliv.
Cnemoplites, Newm.

Rhesus, blotch.
^gosoma, Serv.

Cingalense, White.

Fam. Cerambycidje,
Ktrhy.
Cerambyx, Linn.

indutus, Newm.

vernicosiis. Pasc.

consocius, Pasc.

versutus, Pasc.

nitidus, Pasc.

macilentus, Pasc.

venustus, Pasc.

torticollis, Dohrn.
Sebasmia, Pasc.

Templetoni, Pasc.
Calljchroma, Latr.

trogoiiiniim, Pasc.

telephoroides, Westw,
Homalomelas, White.

gracilipes. Parry.

zonatiis', Pa-sc.
Colobus, Serv.

Cingalensis, White.
Thranius, Pasc.

gibbosDs, Pasc.
Deuteromma, Pasc.

mutica, Pasc.
Obrium, Meg

laterale, Pasc,

mcestiun, Pasc,
Psilomerus, Blanch.

■macilentus, Pasc.
Clytus, Fabr.

vicinus, Hope.
. ascendens, Pasc.

Walkeri, Pasc.

annularis, Fabr.

*aurilinea. Dohrn.
Khaphum^, Pasc.

leucoscutellata, Hope.
Ceresium, Newm.

cretatuin. White.

Zeylanicum, White.
Stromatium, Serv.

barbatum, Fabr.

maculatum, White.
Hespherophanes. Muls.

simplex, Gyll,

Fam. Lamiid^, Kirby.
Nyphona, Muls.

cylindrarea, White.
Mesosa, Se7-v.

columba, Pasc,
Coptops, Serv.

bidens, Fabr,
Xylorhizii, Dej.

adusta, Wied.
Cacia, Newm.

triloba, Pasc. '
Batocera, Blanch.

rubus, Fabr.

ferruginea, Blanch.

Monohammus, Meg.

fistulator. Germ.

crucifer, Fabr.

nivosus, White.

commixtus, Pasc.
Cereopsius, Dup.

patronus, Pasc.
Pelargoderns, Serv.

tigrinus, Chevr.
Olenocamptus, Chevr,

bilobus, Fabr.
Praonetha, Dej.

annulfita, Chevr.

posticalis, Pasc.
Apomecyna, Serv.

histrio, Fabr. var. ?
Ropica, Pasc.

praeusta, Pasc.
Hathlin, Serv.

procera, Pasc.
lolea, Pasc.

proxima, Pasc,

histrio, Pasc.
Glenea, Newm.

sulphurella, White.

commissa, Pasc.

scapifera, Pasc.

vexator, Pasc.
Stibara. Hope.

nigricornis, Fabr.

Fam. HispiDiE, Kirby.
Oncocephala, Dohrn.

deltoides, Dohrn.
Leptispa, Baly.

pygmaea, Haly.
Ampiisba, Baly.

Dohrnii, Baly.
Estigmena, Hope.

Chinensis, Hope.
Hispa, Linn.

hystrix, Fabr.

erinacea, Fabr.

nigrina, Dohrn.

*Walkeri, Baly.
Platypria, Guer.

echidna, GuSr.

Fam. Cassidtd^, Westw.
Epistictia, Boh.

matronula. Boh.
Hoplionota, Hope.

tetiaspilota, Baly.

rubromarginata, Boh.

horririca, Boh.
Aspidomorpha, Hope.

St crucis, Fabr.

miliaris. Fahr.

pallidimarginata, Baly,

dorsata, Fahr.

calligera, Buh.

mi cans, Fabr.
Cassid;i, Linn,

clathrata, Fabr.

timefacta, Boh.

farinnsa, Bih.
Lacroplera, Boh.

1-1-notata, Boh.
Coptcycla. Chevr.

sex-notata, Fabr.

13-siguata, Boh.

13-notata, Boh.
ornata, Fabr.
Cevlonica, Boh,
Baiyi. Boh.
trivittata, Fabr.
lo.punctuata. Boh.
catenata, Dej.

Fam. SAGRiDiE, Kirby.
Sagra, Fabr.
nigrita, Oliv.

Fam. DoNACiDiE, Lacord,
Donacia, Fabr.

Delesserti, Guer.
Coptocephala, Chev.

Templetoni, Baly.

Fam. EuMOLPiD^E, Baly.
Corynodes, Hope.

cyaneus, Hope.

asneus, JSaly.
Glyptoscelis, Chevr.

Templetoni, Baly.

pyrospilotus, Baly.

micans, Baly.

cupreus, Baly.
Eumolpus, Fabr.

lemoides, Wlk.

Fam. Cr'vptocephaiid^,

Kirby.
Cryptocephalus, Geoff".
spx-punctatus, Fabr.
Walkeri, Baly.
Diapromorpha, Lac.
Turcica, Fabr.

Fam, CHRYSOMELlDiE,

Leach.
Chalcolampa, Bait/.

Templetoni, Baly.
Lin a, Meg.

convexa, Baly.
Chrysoniela, Linn.

Templetoni, Baly,

Fam. Galerucid^, Steph.
Galeruca, Geoff.

*pectinata, Dohrn.
Graptodera, Chevr.

cyanea, Fabr.
Monolepta, Chevr.

pulchella, Baly. •

Thyamis, Steph.

Ceylonicus, Baly.

Fam. CocciNELLiD^, Latr.
Epilachna, Chevr.

28-1 unctata, Fabr.

Delessortii, Guer.

pubescens, Hope.

innuba, Oliv.
Coccinella, Linn.

tricincta, Fabr.

*repanda, Muls.

tenuilinea, Wlk.

rejiciens, Wlk.

interrumpens, Wlk.

Chap. XII.] LIST OF CEYLOX INSECTS.

4!; 3

quiiiqueplaea, Wlk.

simplex, IV/k.

antica, U'/U.

flaviceps, lUk.
Neda, Muls.

tricolor, Fnbr.
t oel iphora, Muls.

9-matulata, Fabr. ?
Chilocorus, Leach.

opponens, IVlk.
Scymnus, Kug.

variabilis, JVlk.

Fam. Erotylid.e, Leach.
Fatua, DeJ.

Nepalensis, Hope.
Trip! ax, Pat/k.

decorus, IVlk.
Tritoma, Fabr.

*bilacies, Wlk.

*preposita, W2k.
Ischyrus, Cherz.

grandis, Fabr.

Fam. ENDOMYCHIDiE,

Leach.
Eugonius, Gerst.

annularis, Gerst.

lunulatus, Gerst.
Eumorphus, IVeber.

pulchripes, Gerst.

*tener, Dohrn.
Stenotarsus, Perly.

Nietneri, Gerst.

*castaneus, Gerst.

*comentosus, Gerst.

*vallatus, Gerst.
Lycoperdina, Latr.

glabrata, IVlk.
Ancylopiis, Gerst.

melanocephalus, Oliv.
Saula, Gerst.

*nigripes, Gerst.

*ferruginea, Gerst,
Myceiina, Gerst.

castanea, Gerst.

Order Orthopteba,
Linn.

Fam. FoRFicuLiD^, Steph.
Forficula, Linn.

Fam. Blattid.e, Steph.

Panesthia, Serv.

Javanica, Serv.

pJagiata, Wlk.
Polyzosteria, Burm.

larva.
Corydia, Serv.

Fetiveriana, Linn.

Fara. Mantid.e, Leach.

Empiisa, Illig.

gongylodes, Linn.
Ilarpax, Serv.

signifer, Wlk.

Schizocephala, Serv.

bicornis, Linn.
Mantis, Linn.

superstitiosa, Fabr.

aridifolia. Stall.

extensicollis ? Serv.

Fam. Phasmioje, Serv,
Acropliylla, Gray.

systropedon, Westiv.
Phasm;i, Ltchl.

sordidum, De Haan.
Phyllium, Illig.

siccil'olium, Linn.

Fam. Gryllii)^, Steph.
Acheta, Linn.

bimaeulata, Deg.

supplicans, Wlk.

seqjialis, ]Vlk.

confirmata, Wlk.
Platydactyliis, Brull.

crassipes, Jf7/t.
Steirodon, Serv.

lanceohitum, Wlk.
Phyllophora, Thunb.

falsi folia, Wlk.
Acaiithodis, Serv.

rugosa, Wlk.
Phaneroptera, Serv.

atteniiata, Wlk.
Phymatens, Thunb.

miliaris, Linn.
Truxalis, Linn.

exaltata, Wlk.

porrecta, Wlk.
Acridium, Geoffr.

extensum, Wlk.

deponens, Wlk.

rutiti'ola. Wlk.

cinctifemur, Wlk.

respondens, Wlk.

nigrifascia, Wlk.

Order Phtsapoda,
Bum.

Thrips, Linn.

steaonieias,. Wlk,

Order NErROPTEEA,

Linn..

Fam. SERicosTOMin^,
Steph.
Mormon la. Curt.
*ursina, Hagen,

Fam. LeptoceriDvE,
Leach.

Macronema, Pict.

multifarium, Wlk.
*splendidum, Hagen.
*nebiilosum, Hagen.
*obliquum, Hagen.
*Ceylanicum, }iiet.
*annulicorne, isiet.

G G 3

Molanna, Curt.

mixta, Hagen,
Setodes, Ramb.

*Iris, Hagen.

*Ino, Hagen.

Fam. PsYCHOMiD.E, Curt,
Chimarra, Leach

*auriceps, Hagen.
*luiiesta, Hagtu.
*sepulcralis, Hagen.

Fam. Hydropsychid^,
Curt.
Hydropsyche, Pict.

* I'aprobanes, Hagen,
*mitis, Hagen.

Fam. Rhyacophilid^,
Steph.
Rhyacophila, Pict.
*castanea, Hagen.

Fam. Perlid/E, Leach..
Perla, Geoffr.

angulata, Wlk.
*testacea, Hagen.
*limosa, Hagen. I

Fam. SiLiADiE, Westw.
Dilar, Ramb.

*Nietneri, Hagen.

Fam. HemerobidjE, Leach,
Mantispa, Illig.

*Indica, Westw.

mutata, Wlk.
Chrysopa, Leach.

invaria, Wlk,

*tropica, Hagen,

aurilera, Wlk.

*punctata, Hagen.
Micromerus, Ramb.

•linearis, Hagen.

*australis, Hagen.
Hemerobius, Lmn.

*frontalis, Hagen.
Coniopteryx, Hal.

*cerata, Hagen.

Fam. MYRMELEONIDiE,

Leach.
Palpares, Ramb.

contrarius, Wlk.
Acanthoclisis. Ramb.

* — n. s. Hagen.

*molestus. Wlk.
Myrmeleon, Linn.

gravis, Wlk.

aims, Wlk.

barbariis, Wlk.
Ascalaphus, Fabr.

nugax, Wlk.

incusans, Wlk.

*cervinus, Niet.

Fam. PsociD.i:, Leach.
Psocus, Latr.

454

INSECTS.

[Chap. XII.

*Taprobanes, Hagen.
*oblitus, Ha<ren.
*consitus, Hiigen.
*trimaculatus, Hagen.
*obtusus, Hasen.
*elongatus, Hngen.
*chlorotinus. Hagen.
*aridus. Hagen.
*coleoptratus. Hagen.
*dolabratus, Hagen.
*infelix, Hagen.

Fam. Termitid.?;, Leach.

Termes, Linn.

'J'aprobanes, Wlk.
fatalis, Keen.
Ttionocpros, Keen.
*umbilicatus, Hagen.
*n. s. Jouv.
*a. s. Jouv.

Fam. Embid^, Hagen,

Oligntoma. Westv.

*Saundersii, IVestw.

Fam. Ephemerid^, Leach.

Baetis, Leach.

Taorobanes, Wlk.
Potamanthns, Pict.

*fasciatus, Hasen.

*annulatus, Hagen.

*femoraiis, Hagen.
Cloe. 'Burm.

*tristis, Hagen.

*consueta, Hagen.

*solida, Hagen.

*sigmata, Hagen.

*marginalis, Hagen.
Caenis, Steph.

perpusilla, IVlk.

Fam. LlBELLULID^.

Calopteryx, Leach.

Chinensis, Linn.
Euphoea, Scli/s.

splendens. Hagen.
Micromerus, Ramb.
lineatus, Burm.
Trichocnemys, Seli/s.
*serapica, Hagen.
Lestes, Leach.
*elata, Hagen.
♦gracilis, Hagen.
Agrion, Fabr.

*Coromandelianura, F.
*tenax, Ha^en.
*hilare, Hagen.
*velare. Hagen.
*delicatum, Hagen.
Gynacantlia, fiarnh.

subinterrupta, Ramb.
Epophthalmia, Burm.

vittata, Burm.
Zyxomma, Ramb.

petiolatum, Ramb.
Acisoma. Ramb.

panorpoides, Ra?nb.
Libelliila, Linn.
Marcia, Drury.
Tillarga, Fabr.
variegata, Linn.

flavescens, Fabr.
Sabina. Drury.
viridula. Pal, Beauv.
congener, Uamb.
soror, Ramb.
Aurora, Ihirm.
violacea, Niet.
perla, Hagen.
sanguinea. Burm.
trivialis, Ramb.
contaminata, Fabr.
equestris, Fabr.
nebulosa, Fabr.

Order Stimenopteea,
Linn.

Fam.FoRMiciDJ,, Leach.

Formica, Linn,

smaragdina, Fabr.

miti«. Smith.

*Taprobanp, Smith.

*variegata. Smith.

*exeicita, Wlk.

*exundans, Wlb.

*meritans, Wlk,

*la:ebrosa. Wlk.

*pangens, Wlk.

*ingriiens, Wlk.

*detorquens, Wlk.

*diffidens, Wlk.

*obscurans, Wlk.

*indeflexa, Wlk.

consultans, Wlk.
Polyrhachis, Smith,

*illaudatus, Wlk.

Fam. PoNERiUiE, Stnith.
Odontoma' bus, Latr.
simillimus. Smith.
Typhlopone, Westw.
Cnrtisii, Shuck.
Myrmica, La'r.
basalis. Smith.
contigiia. Smith.
glyciphila. Smith.
*eonsternens, Wlk,
Crematogaster. Lund.
*peliens, Wlk.
*deponciis, Wlk.
j^forticiiUis, Wlk.
Pseudomyrma, Gure.
*atrata, Smith.
allaborans, Wlk.
Atta, St. Farg.

didita, Wlk.
Pheidole, Westw.
Janus, Smith.
* Taprobanae, Smith.
*rugi>sa, Smith.
Meramiplus, Smith.
*diinicins, Wlk.
Catavilacus, Smith.
Tajirobaiiae, Smith.

Fam. MuTiLLiD^, Leach.
Mutilla, Linn,

«Sibvlla, Smith.
Tiphia, Fabr.

*decre»cens, Wlk.

Fam. EuMENiD^, Westw.
Odynerus. Latr.

*tiiictipenuis, Wlk.

*intendens, Wlk.

*intendens, Wlk.
Scolia, Fabr.

auricollis, St. Farg,

Fam. CRABRONiDiE, Leach.
Philanthus, Fabr.

basalis. Smith.
Stigmus, Jur.

*jongruus, Wilk.

Fam. Sphegid^, Steph.
Ammopbila, Kirby.

atiipes. Smith.
Pelopajus. Latr.

Spinolae, St. Farg.
Sphex, Fabr.

ferruginea, St, Farg.
Ampulex, Jur.

compressa, Fabr.

Fam. Larrid^, Steph.
Larrada, Smith.
*exteusa, Wlk.

Fam. PoMPiLiD^, Leach.
Pompilns, Fabr.
analis, Fabr.

Fam. Apid^, Leach.
Andrena, Fabr.

*exagens, lllk.
Nomia, Latr.

rustica, Westw.

*vincta. nik.
AHodaps. Smith.

*margiriata. Smith.
Ceratina. Latr.

viiidis, Guer.

picta. Smith.

*similliina, Smith.
Ccelioxys, Latr.

capitata. Smith.
Croeisa, Jur.

*ramosa, St. Farg.
Stelis, Panz.

carboiiaria. Smith.
Anthophora, Latr.

zonata. Smith,
Xylocopa, Latr.

tenuiscapa, Westw.

latipes. Drury.
Apis, Linn.

Indica, Smith.
Trigona. Jur.

iridipennis. Smith.

*praBterita, Wlk.

Fam. Chrysid^, Wlk.
Stilbum, Spin.

splendidiim, Dahl.

Fam. DoRYLiDiE, Shuck.

Enictus, Shuck.

porizonoides, IVlk.

Chap. XIT.] LIST OF CEYLON INSECTS.

455

Fam. IcHNEO monid^,
Leach.

Cryptus, Fabr.

*oniistus, IVlk.
Hemiteles? Grav.

*va ius, IVlk.
Porizon, Fall.

*dominans, Wlk.
Pimpla, Fabr.

albopicta, Wlk.

Fam. Braconid^, Hal.
Microgaster, Latr.

*recu<an!., IVlk.

*significans, IVlk.

*subducens, IVlk.

*detrHcta, Wlk.
Spathius, Nees.

*bisignatus, Wlk.

*signipennis, Wlk.
Heratemis, Wlk.

*tilosa, Wlk.
Nebartha, Wik.

*macropoides, Wlk.
Psyttalia, Wlk.

*tebtacea, Wlk.

Fam. Chalcidi^, Spin.
Chalcis, Fabr.

*divideiis, Wlk.

*pandens, Wlk.
Halticella, Spin.

*rufimaiius, Wlk.

*iiificiens, Wlk,
Dirrhinus. Dalm.

*anthracia, Wlk.
Eurytuina, ///.

*contraria, Wlk.

indefensa, Wlk.
Eucharis, Lair.

*convergens, IVlk.

*dp|irivatH, H'lk.
Pteromalus, Swcd.

*mHgniceps, Wlk.
Encyrtus, Latr.

*obstructus, Wlk.

Fam. DiAPRiDiE, Hal.
Diapria. Latr.
apicalis, Wlk.

Order Lepidopteea,
Linn.

Fam. Pahiliosid^, Leach.
Ornithoptera, Boisd.

Dar^ius, G. R. Gray.
Papilio. Linn.

Diphilus, Esp.

Joplion, G. H. Gray.

HfCt r, Linn.

Romulus, Cram.

Polymnestor, Cram.

Crino, Fabr.

Helenas, Linn.

Pammon, Linn.

Polytes, Linn.

Eriihoiiius, Cram.

Antipathis, Cram.

Agamemnon, Linn.

Euryp.lus, Linn.

Bathycles, Zinck-Som.

Sarpedon, Linn.

dis>im>lis, Linn.
Pontia, Fabr.

Nina, Fabr.
Pieris, Schr.

Eucliaris, Drtiry.

Coronis, Cram,

Epicharis, Godt.

Mama, Doubl.

Reiiiba, Muore.

Mesentiiia, Godt.

Severina, Cram.

Namouna, Doubl,

Phryne, Fabr.

Paulina, Goit.

Tiiestylis, Doubl.
Callosune, Duubl.

Eucharis, Fabr.

Daiiae, Fabr.

Etrida, Boisd.
Idmais, Boisd.

Calais, Cram.
Thestias, Boisd.

JVIariamiie, Cram,

Pirene, Li tin.
Heboinoia, Hiibn.

Gli'icippe, Linn,
Eronia, Hiibn,

Valeria, Cram,
Callidryas, Boisd.

Pliilippiiia, Boisd,

Pyrautlie, Linn.

Hilai la. Cram.

Alcmeone, Cram.

'Ihi orelia. Boisd.
Terias, Swain.

Drona, Horsf.

Hecabe, Linn.

Fam. Nymphalid^, Swain.
Euploea, Fabr.

Proihoe, Godt.

Core, Cram.

Alcathue, Godt.
Danais, Latr.

Chrysippus, Linn.

Piexippus, Linn.

Aglae, Cram.

Melijsa. Cram.

LimiiiaiEe, Cram,

Juveiita. Cram.
Hestia, Hiibn.

Jasonia, JVestw.
Telchuiia. Hiibn.

violffi, Fabr,
Cethosia, Fabr.

I yaue, Fabr,
Messarus, Doubl.

Ery man this, Drury.
MeW-A, Doubl.

Piialaiita, Drury.
Argy nis, tabr.

Niphe, Linn.

Clagia, Godt.
Ergolis, Buisd.

Taprobana, West.
Vanessa, F\tbr.

G G 4

Charonia, Drury,
Libvthea, Fabr-

'Medhavina, Wlk.

Pushcara. Wlk.
Pyramfis, Hilbti.

Charonia, Drury,

Cardui, Liyin.

Callirhoe, Hiibn,
Junonia, Hiibn.

Limonuis, Linn.

CEnnne, Linn.

Oiithyia, Linn.

Laomedia, Linn. ]

Asterie, Linn.
Precis, Hiibn.

Iphita, Cram,
Cynthia, Fabr.

Arsinoe, Cram.
Paithenos, Hiibn.

Gamurisius, Fabr.
Limenitis, Fabr.

Calidusa, Moore.
Neptis, Fabr,

Heliodore, Fabr.

Columella. Cram,

aceris, Fabr.

J u Hi bah, Moore.

Hordonia, Sloll,
Diadema, boisd.

Auge, Cram.

Bolina, Linn.
Symphaedra. Hiibn.

Thyelia, Fabr.
Adolias, Boisd.

Evelina, Stoll.

Lubentina, Fabr.

Vasauta, Moore.

Garuda, Moore.
Nymphalis, Latr.

Fsaphon, Westw.

Bernardus, Fabr.

Aihauias, Cram.

Fabiui, Fabr.

Kalliina, Doubl.

Pnilarchus Westw.

Melaiiitis, Fabr.

Banksia, Fabr.

Leda, Linn.

Casiphoue, G. R.Gray.

undularis. Boisd.
Ypththima, Hiibn.

Lvsauora, Cram,

Pdrthaiis, Wlk.
Cyllo, Boisd.

Gorya, Wlk.

Cathana, Wlk.

Embolima, Wlk.

Neilghernensis, Guer.

Purunata, H Ik.

Pusiipatnitra, Wlk.
Mycalesis, Hiibn.

Patnia, Moore.

Ganialiba, Wlk.

Do>aron, Ulk.

Samba, Moore.
Caenon)mpha, Hiibn,

Euaspla, Wlk.
Emesis, J abr.

Echerius, Stoll.

Fam. LYCiFNiD^, Leach,
An ops, Boisd.

456

INSECTS.

[Chap. XII.

Bulls. Boisd.

Thetys, Drury.
Loxura, Horsf.

Atymnus, Cram.
Myrina, Godt.

Selimnus, Doubled.

Triopas, Cram.
Amblypoiiia, Horsf.

Longinus, Fabr.

Narada, Horsf.

pseudocentaurus, Do.

quercetorum, Boisd.
Aphnaeus, Hiibn.

Pindarus, Fabr.

Etolus, Cra?n.

Hepliaestos, Doubled.

Crotus, Doubled.
Dipsas, Doubled.

chrysiimallus, Hiibn.

Isocrates, Fabr.
Lycaena, Fabr.

Alexis, Stall.

Boetica, Linn.

Cnejus, Horsf.

Rosimon, Fabr.

Theophrastus, Fabr.

Pluto, Fabr.

Parana, Horsf.

Nyseus, Guer.

Ethion, Boisd.

Celeno, Cram.

Kandarpa, Horsf.

Elpis, Godt.

Chimonas, Wlk.

Gandara, Wlk.

Chorienis, Wlk.

Geria, Wlk.

Doanas. Wlk.

Sunva, Wlk.

Audhra, Wlk.
Polyommatus, Latr,

Akasa, Horsf.

Puspa, Horsf.

Laius, Cram.

Ethion, Boisd.

Cattigara, Wlk.

Gorpippia, Wlk.
Lucia, Westw.

Epius, Westw.
Pithecops, Horsf.

Hylax, Fabr.

Fam. Hesperid^, Steph.
Goniloba, Westw.

lapetus. Cram.
Pjrgus, Hdbn.

Superna, Moore.

Danna, Moore.

Genta, Wlk.

Sydrus, Wlk.
Nisoniades, Hdbn.

Diodes, Boisd.

Salsala, Moore.

Toides, Wlk.
Pamphila, Fabr.

Aiigias, Linn.
Achylodes, Hiibn.]

Teinala, f^f'lk!
Hesperia, Fabr.

Indrani, Moore.

Chaya, Moore.

Cinnara, Moore.
gremius, Latr.
Ceiidochates, Wlk.
Tiagara, Wlk.
Cotiaris, Wlk.
Sigala, Wlk.

Fam. SPHING1DJ2, Leach.
Sesia, Fabr.

Hylas, Linn.
Macroglossa, Oclis.

Stellatarum, Linn.

gyrans, Boisd.

Corytlius, Boisd.

divergens, Wlk.
Calymnia, Boisd.

Panopus, Cram.
Choerocampa, Dup.

Tiiyelia, Linn.

Nyssus, Drury.

Clotho, Drury.

Oldenlandiae, Fabr.

Lycetus, Cram.

Silhetensis, Boisd,
Pergesa, Wlk.

Acteus, Cram.
Panacra, Wlk.

vigil, Guer.
Daplinis, hdbn.

Nerii, Linn.
Zonilia, Boisd.

Morplieus, Cram.
Macrosila, Boisd.

obliqua, Wlk.

discistriga, Wlk.
Sphinx, Linn.

convolvuli, Linn.
Acherontia, Ochs.

Satanas, Boisd.
Smeriiitlius, Latr.

Dry as, Boisd.

Fam. Castniid^, Wlk.
Eusemia, Dalm.

bellatrix, Westw,
^Egocera, Latr.

Veiiuiia, Cram,

bimacuia, H Ik.

Fam. Zyg^nid^, Leach.
Syntomis, Ochs.

Sci cenherri, Boisd,

Creusa, Linn,

Imaon, Cram,
Glaucopis, Fabr.

subaurata, Wlk.
Enchrnmia, HUhn.

Polymelia. Cram.

diminuta, Wlk.

Fam. LiTHOsiiDiE, Steph.
Scaptesyle, Wlk.

bicoli.r, Wlk.
NycteiTiera, Hiibn.

lacticinia, Cra?n.

latistriga, Wlk.

Coleta, Cra7n.
Euschema, Hiibn.

subrepleta, Wlk.

transversa, Wlk.

vilis, Wlk.

Chalrosia, Hiibn.

Tiberina, Cram.

venosa. Anon.
Eterusia, Hope.

JEdea, Linn.
Trypanophora, KoU.

Taprobanes, Wlk.
Hcteropan, Wlk.

scintillans, Wlk.
Hypsa, Hiibn.

plana, If^'lk.

caricae, Fabr.

ficus, Fabr.
Vitessa, Moor.

Zemire, Cram.
Lithosia, Fabr.

antica, Wlk.

brevipenuis, Wlk.
Setina, Schr.

semilascia, Wlk.

solita. If lie.
Doliche, Wlk.

hilaris tVlk.
Pitane, Wlk.]

conserta, Wlk.
iEmene, Wlk.

Taprobanes, Wlk.
Dirade-, Wlk.

attacoidi'S, Wlk.
Cyllene, Wlk.

transversa, Wlk.

*spoliata, Wlk.
Bizone, Wlk.

subornata, Wlk.

peregrina, Wlk.
Deiopeia, Steph.

piilcella, Linn.

Astrea, Drury.

Argus, Kollar.

Fam. Arctiidje, Leach.

Alope, Wlk.

ocelli fera, Wlk,

Sangaiida, Cram,
Tinolius, Wlk.

eburneigutta, Wlk.
Creatonotos, Hiibn.

interrupta, Linn.

emittens, Wlk.
Acmonia, Wlk.

lithosioides, Wlk.
Spilosoma, Steph,

subfascia, Wlk,
Cycnia, Hiibn.

rubida, Wlk.

sparsigutta, Wlk,
Antlieua, Wlk,

diicalis, Wlk,
Aloa, Wlk,

lactinea, Cram,

candidula, M'lk.

erosa, Wlk.
Amerila, Wlk.

Melmthus, Cram.
Ammatho, Wlh.

cunionotatus, Wlk,

Fam. LiPARiD^, Wlk

Artaxa, Wlk,
guttata, JF/A.

Chap. XII.] LIST OF CEYLON mSECTS.

457

*varians, Wlk.

atomaria, Wlk.
Acyphas, JV/k.

viridescens, JVlk.
Lacida, H'/k.

rotundata, Wlk.

antica, Wlk.

subnotata, Wlk.

complens, Wlk.

promittens, Wlk.

strigulit'era, Wlk.
Amsacta ? Wlk.

tenebrosa, Wlk.
Antipha. Wlk.

costal is. Wlk.
Anaxila, Wlk.

notata, Wlk.
Procodera, Jl'lk.

angulifera, Wlk.
Redoa, nik.

submarginata, Wlk.
Euproctis Hiibn.

virguncula, Wlk.

bimaculata. Wlk.

lunata, Wlk.

tinctifera, Wlk.
Cispia, Wlk.

plagiata. Wlk.
Dasychira, Hiibn.

pudibunda, Linn.
Lymantria, Hiibn.

grandis, IVlk.

marginata, Wlk.
Enome, H'lk.

ampla, Wlk.
Dreala, Wlk.

plumipes, Wlk.

geminata. Wlk.

mutans, Wlk.

mollifera, Wlk.
Pandala, Wlk.

dolosa, Wlk.
Charnidas, Wlk.

junctifera, Wlk.

Fam. PsYCHiD^, B)-u.
Psyche, Schr.

Doubledaii, Westw.
Metisa, Wlk.

plana, Wlk.
Eumeta, Wlk.

Cramerii, Westw.

Templetonii, Westw.
Cryptothelea, Tempi.

consorta, Tempi.

Fam. NoTODONTIDvE, St.
Cerura, Schr.

liturata, Wlk.
Stauropus, Germ.

alternans, Wlk.
Nioda, Wlk.

fusiformis, Til.k,

transversa, Wlk.
Rilia, Wlk.

lanceolata, Wlk.

basivitta, Wlk.
Ptilomacra, Wlk.

juvenis, Wlk.
Elavja, Wlk.

metapheea, Wlk.

Notodonta, Ochs.

ejecta, Wlk.
Ichthyma, Hiibn.

restituens, Wlk.

Fam. LiMACODiDiE, Dup.

Scopelodes, Westia.

unicolor, Westw.
Messata, Wlk.

rubiginosa, Wlk.
Miresa, Wlk.

argeiitifera, Wlk.

aperiens, Wlk.
Nyssia, Hcrr. Sch.

l£eta, Westw.
Neaera, Herr. Sch.

graciosa, Westw.
Narosa, Wlk.

coiispersa, Wlk.
Naprepa, Wlk.

varians, Wlk.

Fam. Drepanulid^, Wlk.
Oreta, Wlk.

suflfusa, Wlk.

extensa, Wlk.
Arna, Wlk.

apical is, Wlk.
Ganisa, Wlk.

postica, Wlk.

Fam. Saturinid.e, Wlk.
Attaciis, Linn.

Atlas, Linn.

lunula, Anon.
Antheraga, Hiibn.

Mylitta, Drvry.

Assama, Westw.
Tropaea, Hiibn.

Selene, Hiibn.

Fam. BoMBYCiD^, Steph.
Trabala, Wlk.

basal is, Wlk.

prasina, Wlk.
Lasiocampa, Schr.

tri fascia. Wlk.
Megasoma, Boisd.

venustnm, Wlk.
Lebeda, Wlk.

repanda, JVlk.

plagiata, Wlk.

bimaculata, Wlk.

scriptiplaga, Wlk.

Fam. CossiD^, Newm.
Cossus, Fabr.

quadrinotatus, Wlk.
Zeuzera, Latr.

leuconota, Steph.

pusilla, Wlk.

Fam. Hepialid^, Steph.
Phassus, Steph.
signifer, Wlk.

Fam. Cymatophorid^,
Herr. Sch.
Thyatira, Ochs.

repugnans, Wlk.

Fam. BRY0PHILIDJ2, Guen.
Bryophila, Treit.
semipars, Wlk.

Fam. BoMBYcoiu.E, Guen.
Diphtera, Ochs.

deceptura, Wlk.

Fam. Leucanid.e, Guen.
Leucania, Ochs.

confusa, Wlk.

exempts, Wlk.

inferens, Wlk.

collecta, Wlk.
Brada, Wlk.

truncata, Wlk.
Crambopsis, Wlk.

excludens, Wlk,

Fam. G1.0TTLLID.E, Guen.
Poly tela. Guen.

gioriosa, Fabr.
Glottula, Guen.

Dominica, Cram.
Chasm ina, Wlk.

pavo, Wlk.

cygnus, Wlk.

Fam. Apamid,e, Guen.
Laphygma, Guen.

obstans, Wlk.

trajiciens, Wlk.
Prodenia, Guen.

retina, Friv.

glaucistriga, Wlk.

apertura, Wlk.
Calograuima, Wlk.

festiva, Don.
Heliophobus, Boisd.

discrepans, Wlk.
Hydraecia, Guen.

lampadifera, Wlk.
Apamea, Ochs.

undecilia, Wlk,
Celasna, Steph.

serva, Wlk.

Fam. Caradrinid^, Guen.
Amj-na, Guen.

selenampha, Guen.

Fam. NocTuiD^, Guen.
Agrotis, Ochs.

aristifera, Guer.
congrua, Wlk.
punctipes, Wlk.
mundata, Wlk.
transducta, Wlk.
plagiata, Wlk.
plagifera, Wlk.

Fam. Hadenid^, Guen.
Eurois, Hiibn.

auriplena, Wlk.

inclusa. Wlk.
Epiceia, Wlk,

subsignata, Wlk.
Hadena, Treit.

subcurva, Wlk. ,

postica, Wlk.

458

INSECTS.

[Chap. XII.

retrahens, Wlk.~
confnndeiis, Wlk.
congressa, Wlk.
ruptistriga, Wik.
Ansa, fVli.

filipalpis, Wlk.

Fam. Xylinid^^e, Guen,

Ragada, IVlk.

pyrorchroma, Wlk.
Cryassa, Wlk

bifacips Wlk.
Egelista, Wlk.

rudivitta, Wlk.
Xylina. Ochs.

deflexa, Wlk.

inchoans, Wlk.

Fatn. Heliothid^, Guen.
Heliothis, Ochs.

armigera, Hiibn.

Fam. H,EMEROsiDJE, Gtcdn.

Ariol^, W/k.

ccelisigna, Wlk.
dilectissima, Wlk.
saturata, W/k.

Fam. AcoNTiD^E, Guen.

Xanthodes, Guen.

intersepta, GueUt
AcontJa, Ov/is.

tropica, Guen.

olivacea, Wlk.

fasciculosa, Wlk.

signilera. Wlk.

turpis, Wlk.

mianciides, Wlk.

approxiinans, Wlk.

divulsa, Wlk.

*egpn6, H'lk.

plenii'dsta, Wlk.

determinata, Wlk.

hvpaetroides, Wlk.
Chluiiietia, Wlk.

multilinea, Wlk.

Fam. Anthophilid^,
Guen.
Micra, Gnen.

destituta, Wlk.
derogata, Wlk.
simplex, Wlk.

Fam. Eriopid^, Guen.
Callopistiia, H'dbn.
exotica, Guen.
rlvularis, l\ Ik.
duplicans, Wlk.

Fam. EuRHiPioaE, Guen.

Penicillaria, GuSn.

nugatrix, Guen.

resoluta, Wlk.

solida, W/k.

ludatrix, Wlk.
Rhesala, Wlk.

impaiata, Wlk,
Eutelia, Hiibn.

favillalrix, Wlk.

thermesiides, Wlk.

Fam. Plus;id^, Boisd.
Abrostola, Ochs.

transfixa, Wlk.
Plusi.i, Ochs.

aurifera, Hiibn.

verticillata, Guen.

agramma, Guen.

obtiisisigna, Wlk.

nigriluna. Wlk,

signata, Wlk.

disppllens, Wlk.

propulsa, Wlk.

Fam. Calpid^, Guen.
Calpe, Treit.

rrinuticornis, Guen.
Orcesia, Guen.

emarginaia, Fabr.
Deva, Wlk.

conducens, Wlk.

Fam. Hemicerid*, Guen.
Westermannia, Hiibn.
superba, Hiibn.

Fam. Hybl^id^, Guen.
Hyblaea, Guen.

Puera, Cram.

con&telb\a, Guen.
Nolasena, Wlk.

ferrifervens, W/k.

Fam. GoNOPTERiDiE, Guen.
Cosmiphila, Boisd.

Indica, Guen.

xanthindyma, Boisd.
Anomis, Hiibn.

fulvida, Guen.

iconica, Wlk.
Gonitis, Guen.

combinans, Wlk.

alhitibia, Wlk.

mesogona, W/k.

gnttanivls, Wlk.

involuta, Wlk.

basalts, Wlk.
Eporeda, Pf'lk.

damni' ennis, Wlk.
Rusicada, W/k.

nigritarsis, Wlk.
Pasipeda, Wlk.

rufipalpis, Wlk.

Fam. ToxocAMPiD^,
Guen.
Toxocampa, Guen.
metaspila, Wlk.
sexlinea, Wlk.
qiiinquplina, Wlk.
Albonica, Wlk.
reversa, W/k.

Fam. POLYDESMID.E,G«^W.

Polydesma, Boisd.
boarmoides, Wlk.
erubescens, (ilk.

Fam. HoMOPTERiD^, Bois.
Alamis, Guen.
spoliata, Wlk.

Homoptera, Boisd.

basipallens, Wlk.

retrahens, Wlk.

costifera, Wlk.

divisistriga, Wlk.

procumhpns, Wlk.
Diacuista, Wlk.

homontproides, Wlk.
Daxata, Wlk.

bijungeiis, Wlk.

Fam. Hypogrammid*,
Guen.
Briarda, Wlk.

precedens, Wlk.
Brana, Wlk.

calopasa, Wlk.
Corsa, Wlk.

lignicolor, Wlk.
Avatha, Wlk.

iiK-ludpns, Wlk.
Gadirtha, W/k.

decrescens, Wlk.

impiiigens, Wlk.

spiircata, Wlk.

recti fera, Wlk.

duplicans, If'lk.

intrusa, Wlk.
Erchtia, W/k.

diversippnnis, Wlk.
Plotheia, Wlk.

frontalis, Wlk.
Diomea, Wlk.

rotundata, Wlk.

chloromela, Wlk.

orbicularis, Ulk.

mu-icosa. Wlk.
Dinumma, W/k.

placens, Wlk.
Lusia, Wlk.

geometroides, Wlk.

perficita, Wlk.

repulsa, Wlk.
Abunis, Wlk.

trimesa, Wlk.

Fam. Catephid^, Guen.
Cocytodes, Guen.

coerula, Guen.

modesta, Wlk,
Catephia, Ochs.

linteola, Guin.
Anophia, Guen.

acionyctoides, Guen.
Steiria, Wlk.

sut'obliqua, Wlk.

trajiciens, Wlk.
Aucha, Wlk.

velaiis, Wlk.
^gilia, W/k.

descnb'^ns, Wlk.
Maceda, Wlk.

mansueta, Wlk.

Fam. HvpocALiDiE, Guen.
H\pocala, Guen.

efBorescens. Guin.

subsatura, Guen.

Fam. Catocalid^. Boisd.
Blenina, Wlk.

Chap. XII.] LIST OF CEYLOIS' INSECTS.

459

donans, Wllr.
accipiens, lyik.

Fam. Ophiderid^, Guen.
Ophideres, Boisd.

Materna, Linn.

fuUonica, Linn,

Cajeta, Cram.

Aiicilla, Cram.

Salaminia, Cram.

Hypermnestra, Crafn.

muitiscripia, tVlk.

bilineosa, H'lk.
Potamophera, Guen.

Manila, Ctam.
Lygniocies, Guen.

rediicens, If'lk.

disparans, W/k.

hypoleuca, Guen.

Fam. Frebid*, Guen.
Oxyodes, Guen.
Clytia, Cram.

Fam. Ommatophorid*,
Guen.

Speiredonia, Hilbn.

retraheiis, H'lk.
Sericia, Guen..

anops, Guen.

parvipeniiis, Wlk.
Patula, Guen.

macrops, Linn.
Argiva, Hiibn.

hleroglyphica, Drury.
Beregra, Wlk.

replenens, Wlk.

Fam. HYPOPYRID.E, Guen.

Spiramia, Guen.

Hel conia, Hiibn.

triloba, Guen.
Hypopyra, Guen.

vesfiertil o, Fabr.
Ortospana, Wlk.

connectens. Wlk.
Entomogramm I, Guen.

fautrix, Guen.

Fam. Bendid^, Guen.
Homffia, Guen.

clathrum, Guen.
Hulodt-s, Guen.

caranea, Cram.

palumba, Guen.

Fam. OpHiusiDiE, Guen.
Sphingomorpha, Guen.

Chlorea, Cram.
Lagopteia, Guen.

honesta. Hiibn.

magica, Hiibn.

dotata, Fabr.
Ophiodes, Guen.

discriminans, Wlk.

basi-tigma, IVlk.
Cerbi<, Wlk

fugitiva, JVlk.
Ophisma, Guen.

lEBtabilis, Gven.

deficiens, Wlk.

gravata, Wlk.

circiimierens, Wlk.

terminans, Wlk.
Achaea, Hiibn.

Melicerra. Drury.

Mezentia, Cram.

Cyllota, Guen.

Cyllaria, Cram.

fusiiera, Wlk.

signivitta, IVlk.

reversa, Wlk.

combinaiis, IVlk.

expectans, Wlk.
Serrodes, Guen.

canipana, Guen.
Naxia, Guen.

abseutiiiiaciila, Guen.

Ouelia. Guen.

caiefariens, If'lk.

caiorifica, Wlk.
Calt'sia, Guen.

hcemorrlioda, Guen,
Hypjetra, Guen.

trig nil'era, Wlk.

curvilera, Wlk.

condita, Wik.

complacens, Wlk.

divisa, Wlk.
Ophiusa, Ochs.

myops, Guen.

albivitta, Guen.

Achaiina, Sulz.

fulvotaeiiia, Guen.

similiima, Guen.

festinata, Wlk.

pallidilinea, Wlk.

liiteipaipis, Wlk.
Fedina, Guen.

stola, Guen.
Grainmodes, Guen.

Ammonia, Cram.

Mygdon, Cram.

stolida, Fabr.

mundicolor, Wlk.

Fam. EucLiDin.?:, Guen.
Trigonodes, Gtcen.
Hippasia, Cram.

Fam. Remigid^, Guen,
Remigia, Guen.

Archesia, Cram.
frugal is, Fabr.
pertendeiis, Wlk.
cungregata. Wlk.
opturata, Wlk.

Fam. FociLLiDiE, Guen.
Foci I la, Guen.

submemorans, Wlk.

Fam. Amphiganid^,
Guen.

Lacera, Guen.

capella, Guen.
Amphigonia, Guen.

hepatizans, Guen.

Fam. THERMISID.E, Guen.
Sympis, Guen.

rulibajis, Guen.
Thermesia. Hiibn.

finipalpis, Wlk.

soluta, Wlk.
Azazia, W/k.

rubricans, Boisd.
Selenis, Guen.

nivisapex, Wlk.

muki^'iutata, Wlk.

semilux, Wlk.
Ephyroeies, Guen.

excipiens, Jf'lk.

cristi>rera, Wlk.

lineilera, Wlk.
Capnodes, Guen.

*maculiC')Sta, Wlk,
Ballatha, IVlk.

atrotumens, Wlk.
Daraiiissa, Wlk.

digramma, Wlk.
Darsa, Wlk.

defectisslma, Wlk.

Fam. URAPTERYD.E, Guen.
Lagyra, H Ik.
Talaca, Wlk.

Fam. ENNOMiDi;, Guen.
Hyperythra, Guen.

limbolaria. Gain.
Orson oba, Wlk.

Rajaca, Wlk.
Fasceliina, Wlk.

chromataria, Wlk.
Laginia, Wlk.

bractiaria, Wlk.

Fam. BoARMiDiE, Guen.
Amblychia, Guen.

angeronia, Guen,

poststrigaria, Wlk.
Boarmia, Treit.

suiilavaria, Guen.

admissaria, Guen,

raptana, Wlk.

Medasina, 'I Ik.

Bhurniitra, Wlk.

Suiasasa. Wlk.

diffluaria, Wlk.

caritari^, M Ik.

exclusaria, Wlk.
Hypochroma, Guen.

minimaria, Guen,
Gnophos, Treit.

Piilinda, Wlk.

Culataria, Wlk.
HemeroptiUa, Steph.

vidhisara, Wlk.
Agaihia, Guen.

blandiaria, Wlk.
Bulonga, Wik.

Ajaia, Wlk.

Chacoraca, Wlk.

Chandubija, Wlk,

Fam. Geometrid^, Guen.
Georaetra, Linn.

460

IXSECTS.

[Chap. Xn.

specularia. Guin,

Nanda, Wik.
Nemoria, HiiOn.

caudularia, Guen.

solidaria, Guen.
Thalassodes, Guen.

quadraria, Guen.

catenaria, Wlk.

immissaria, Wlk.

Sisunaga, JV/k.

adornataria, JVlk.

meritaria, fV/k.

ccelataria, W/k.

gratularia, H'lk,

chlorozonaria, Wlk.

laesaria, If^'lk.

simpliciaria, Wlk.

immissaria, Wlk.
Comibjena, JHk.

Divapala, J\'lk.

impulsaria, Wik.
Celeniia, W/k

saturaturia, JVlk.
Pseudoterpna, Wlk.

Vivilaca, Wlk.
Amaurinia, Guen.

rubrolimbaria, Wlk.

Fam. Palyad^, Guen.
Eumelea, Dune.

ludovicata, Guin.
aureliata, Guen.
carnearia, Wlk.

Fam. Ephyrid^, Guen.
EphjTa, Di'p.

obrinaria, W/k.
decursaria, Wlk.
Cacavena, JVlk.
abhadraca, Wlk.
Vasudeva, W/k.
Siisarmana, Wlk.
Vutumana, JVlk.
inaequata, Wlk.

Fam. AcidaudjE, Guen.
Drapetodes, Guen.

mitaria. Guen.
Pomasia, Gudn.

Psylaria, Guen.

Sunandaria, Wlk.
Acidalia, Trtit.

Dbliviaria, Wlk.

adeptaria, Wlk.

nexiaria, Wlk.

addictaria, Wlk.

actiosaria. Wlk.

defamataria. Wlk.

negataria, Wlk.

actuaiia, Wlk.

caBsaria, Wlk.
Cabera, S/>ph.

faharia, Wlk.

decussaria, Wlk.

famularia, Wlk.

nigrarenaria, Wlk.
Hyria, Sleph.

elataria, Wlk.

marcidaria, Wlk.

oblataria, Wlk.

grataria, Wlk.

rhodinaria, Wlk.
Timandra, Dup.

Ajuia, H'lk.

Vijuia, Wlk.
Agyris, Guen.

deliar^a, Guen.
Zanclopteryx, Herr. Sch.

saponaria, Herr. Sch.

Fam. MicRONiD^, Guen.
Micronia, Guen.
ca'idata, Fabr.
aculeata, Guen

Fam. Macarid.e, Guen.
Macaria, Curt.

Eleonora, Cram.

Varisara, Wlk.

Rhai^ivata. Wlk.

Palaca, Wlk.

honestaria, Wlk.

Sangata, Wlk.

honoraria, Wlk.

cessaria, U'lk.

subcaudaria, Wlk.
Doava, Wlk.

adjutaria, Wlk.

figiiraria. Wlk.

Fam. Larentid-e, Guen.
Sauris, Gteen.

hinidinata, Guen.
Camptogramma, Sleph.

baccata, Guen.
Blemvia, Wlk.

Bataca, IVlk.

blitiaria, Wlk.
Coremia, Guen.

(iomatina, Wlk.
Lobophora, Curt.

Salisuca, Wlk.

Ghoslia, IVlk.

contributaria, Wlk.
Mesogramma, Steph.

lactularia, Wlk.

scitaria, Wlk.
Eupithecia, Curt.

recensitaria, Wlk.

admixtaria, Wlk.

immixtaria, Wlk.
Gathynia, Wlk.

miraria, Wlk.

Fam. PLATYDiD.ffi, Guen.
Trigonia, Guen.

Cydonialis, Cram.

Fam. Hypenid^ He7-r.
Dichromia, Guen.

Orosialis, Cram.
Hypeiia, Schr.

rhombatis, Guen.

jocosalis, Wlk.

mandatalis, Wlk.

qusesitalis, Wlk.

laceratalis, Wlk.

iconicalis, Wlk.

labatalis, Wlk.

obacer talis, Wlk.
pactalis, Wlk.
raralis, Wlk.
paritalis, Wlk.
surreptalis, Wlk.
dftersalis, Wlk.
ineffectalis, Wlk. ■
incoiigrualis, Wlk.
rubripunctum, Wlk.
Gesonia, Wlk.

*obeditalis, Wlk.
duplex, Wlk.

Fam. Herminid^, Bup.
Herminia, I^alr.

Tinioiialis, Wlk.

diff^isalis, Wlk.

interstans, Wlk.
Adrapsa, Wlk.

ablualis, Wlk.
Bertula, Wlk.

abjudicalis, Wlk.

raptatalis, Wlk.

contigens, Wlk.
Bocana, Wlk.

jutalis, Wlk.

manifestalis, Wlk.

ophiiisalis, Wlk.

vagalis, Wlk.

turpatalis, Wlk.

hypernalis,. Wlk.

grayaralis, Wlk.

tumidalis, Wlk.
Orthaga, Wlk.

Euadrusalis, Wlk.
Hipoepa, Wlk.

lapsalis, Wlk.
Lamura, Wlk.

oberratalis, JVlk.
Echana, Wlk.

abavalis, JMk.
Dragana, Wlk.

pansalis. Wlk.
Pingrasa, Wlk.

accural is, Wlk.
Egnas.a, Wlk.

ephvradalis. WV:.

accingalis, Wlk.

participalis, Wlk.

usLirpatalis, Wlk.
Berresa, Wlk.

natalis, Wlk.
Imma, Wlk.

rugosalis, Wlk.
Chusaris, Wlk.

retalalis, Wlk.
Corgatha, Wlk. \

zonal is, Wlk.
Catada, Wlk.

glomeralis, Wlk.

captiosalis, Wlk.

Fam. PYRALiDiE, Guen.
Pyralis, Linn.

igniflualis, Wlk.

Palesali^, Wlk.

reconditalis, Wlk.

Idaliaiis, Wlk.

Janassalis, Wlk.
Aglossa, Lair.

Gnidusalis, Wlk.

Chap. XII.] LIST OF CEYLON INSECTS.

4G1

Labanda, JVlk.
herbealis, JFlk.

Fam. Ennychid^, Dup.

Pyrausta, Sckr.

*absistalis, W7A-.

Fam. AsopiD^, Guen.

Desmia, JVesiw.

afflictalis, Guen.

coucisalis. Jl'l/c.
.SIdiodes, Guen.

flavibasalis. Guen,

effertalis, JVlk.
Samea, Guen.

pratiosalis, TVlk.
Asopia, Guen.

vulgalis, Guen.

falsidicalis. JVlk.

abruptali>, Jl'lk.

latimarginalis. JVlk.

prasteritalis, IVlk.

Ervxalis, !Hk.

roridalis. JVlk.
Agathndes, Guen.

osteiitalis, Geyer.
Leucinades, Guen.

orbonalis. Guen.
Hymeiiia, Uiibn.

recurvalis, Pabr.
Agrotera, Schj-.

suffusalis, JVlk.

decessalis, JVlk.
Isopteryx, Guen.

*m"elaleuialis, JJlk.

*impulsalis, JVlk

*spilomelalis. JVlk.

acclaralis, JVlk.

abnegatalis, JVlk.

Fam. Hydrocampid^,
Guen.
Oligostigma, Guen.

obi talis, JVlk.

votalis, JVlk.
Cataclysia, Hen: Srh.

diliicidalis, Guer.

bisectalis, JVlk.

blaiidialis. JVlk.

el u talis, JVlk.

Fam. Spilomelid.^, Guen.
Lepyrodes, Guen.

geomet rails, Guen.

lepidalis, JVlk.

peritalis, JVlk.
Phalangiodes, Guen.

Neptisalis, Cram.
Spilomela, Guen.

meritalis, JVlk.

abdicalis, JVlk.

deciissalis, JVlk.

aurolinealis, Wlk.
Nistra, JVlk.

ccelatalis, JVlk.
Pagyda. lllk.

salvalis, JVlk.
Massepha, JJ'lk.

absolutalis, JVlk.

Fam. MARGARODiD^jGwew.
Glyphodes, Guen.

diurnalis, Guen.

decretalis, Guen.

coesalis, JVlk.

univocalts, JVlk.
Phakellura, L. Guild.

gazoiialis, Guen.
Margarodes, Guen.

psittacalis, Hilhn.

pomnnalis. Guen.

bilaralis, JJ'lk.
Pygospila, Guen.

Tyresalis, Cram.
Neurina, Guen.

Prncop'alis, C^am.

ignibasalis, Wlk.
llurgia, JVlk.

delamalis, JVlk.
Maruca, JJ'lk.

riiptaiis, JJ'lk.

caritalis, IVlk.

Fam. BoTYDi, Guen.
Botys, Latr.

marginalis. Cram.

s^llalis, Guen.

multilinealis, Guen.

admeiisalis, JVlk.

abjiingalis, JJ'lk.

rutilalis, JJ'lk.

admixtalis. JJ'lk.

c^latalis, JJlh.

dediutalis. JVlk.

celsalis, JJ'lk.

vulsalis JVlk.

ultimalis, IJ'lk.

tropicalis, JJ'lk.

abstriisalis, JVlk.

ruralis, JJ'lk.

adhcesalis, JJ'lk.

illisalis, JVlk.

stultalis, JVlk.

adductalis, JJ'lk.

histricalis, JJ'lk.

illectalis, JJ'lk.

suspicalis, JJ'lk.

Janassalis, JJ'lk.

Nepheaiis, JJ'lk.

Cvnaralis. JVlk.

Dial is, JJlk.

Thaisalis, JJ'lk.

Dryopealis, JVlk.

Myrinalis, JVlk.

phycidalis, JVlk.

annulalis, JJ'lk.

brevilinealis. JVlk.

plagiatalis, JVlk.
Ebulea, Guen.

aberratalis, JJ'lk.

Camillalis, JVlk.
Pionea. Guen.

actiialis, JJ'lk

Optiletalis, JVlk.

Jubesalis, JJ'lk.

brevialis, JVlk.

suff.isalis, JVlk.
Scopula, Schr.

revocatalis, JJ'lk.
turgidalis, JJ'lk.
volutatalis, IVlk.

Godara, JJlk.

pervasalis, Wlk.
Herculia, JJ'lk.

bractialis, JVlk.
Mecyna, Guen.

deprivalis, JJ'lk.

Fam. ScoPARiD^E, Guen.

Scoparia, Haw.

murificalis, JJ'lk.

congestalis, JJlk.

Alconalis, JVlk.
Davana, JJ'lk.

Phaiantalis, Wlk.
Darsania, JJ'lk.

Niobfsalis, JJ'lk.
Dosara, JJ'lk.

ccelatella. JJ'lk.

lapsalis, JVlk.

immeritalis, TVlk.

Fam. CHOREUTID.E,

St a int.

Niaccaba. JJ'lk.

sumptialis, JJlk.
Simaethis, Leach

Clatella, JVlk.

Dimonella, JJ'lk.

Bathusella, JVlk.

Fam. Phycid-e, Staint.

Myelois, Hilbn.

actiosella, JJ'lk.

bractlatella, JVlk.

caiitella, JVlk.

adaptella, JJ'lk.

illusella. JVlk.

basifuscella, JJ'lk.

Ligeralis, JVlk.

Marsyasalis, JJ'lk.
Dasctisa, "/fYA".

Valensalis, JJ'lk.
Daroraa, JJlk.

Zeiixoalis, JVlk.

Epulusalis, JJ'lk.

Timeusalis. JJ'lk.
Homcesoma, Curt.

gratella, JJ'lk.

Getiisella, JVlk.
Nephopte-yx, H'uhn.

Etolusalis, JJ'lk.

Cvllusalis, JVlk.

Hylasalis. JVlk.

Acisalis, JVlk.

Harpaxalis. IJ'lk.

^olusali>, JJ'lk.

Argiadesalis, JJ'lk.

Philia.-alis, JVlk.
Pempelia, Hdbn.

laiidatella, JJ'lk.
Prionapteryx, Steph.

Lincusalis, JVlk.
Pindicitora, JJlk.

Acreonalis. Wlk.

Aniiiisrtlis, JJ'lk.

Tliysbesalis, JVlk,
Linceu-alis, JJ'lk.
Lacipea, JJ'lk.

muscosella, JJ'lk.
Araxes, Steph.

462

INSECTS.

[Chap. XII.

admotella, Wlk.
decusella, Wlk.
celsella. It Ik.
admigratella, H'lk.
ccBsella, Wlk.
candidatella, Wlk.
Catagfla, nik.
adjurella, Wlk.
acricuella, H'lk.
lunulella, Wlk.

Tarn. Crambid^, Dup.
Crambus Fubr.

concinellns. Wlk.
Darbhaca, JTlk.

inceptella. Wlk.
Jartheza, Wlk.

hono'elia, Wlk.
Bulina, Wlk.

solitellii. Wlk.
Bembina, Wlk.

Cya usalis, Wlk.
Chilo, Zinck.

dodalell=i. Wlk.

gratiosells, Wlk.

aditella, Wlk.

blirella, fflk.
Dariausa, Wlk.

Eubusalis, Wlk.
Arrhade, IVlk.

Ematheonalis, Wlk.
Darnensis, Wlk.

Strephonella, Wlk.

Fam. Chlcephorid^,
Stai'nt.
Thagora, Wlk.

figurans, Wlk.
Earias, HUlm.

chromatana, Wlk.

Fam. TiiRTRiciD^, Steph.
Lozotsenia, Steph.

retractana, Wlk.
Peronea, Curt.

divisana, Wlk.
LUhoi;rainma, Sttph.

flt'xilineana, Wlk.
Dictyopte'-yx. Steph.

punctana. Wlk.
HoinonH, Wlk

fasciculaiia, Wlk.
Hemonia, IVlk

obiferana, Wlk.
Achroia. HUhn.

tricingulana, Wlk.

Fam. Yponomeutid^,
Steph.

Atteva, Wlk.

niveigutta, Wlk.

Fam. GELICHID.E, Staint,
Depressaria, Hatr.

obligatella, Wlk.

fimliriella, Wlk.
Decuaria, Wlk.

mendicella, Wlk.
Gelechia, Hiibn.

nugatella, Wlk.

calatella, Wlk.

deductella, Wlk.

Perionella, Wlk.
Gizama, Wlk.

blanciiella, Wlk.
Enisipia, Wlk.

fal sella. Ulk.
Gapharia, Wlk.

recita ella, Wlk.
Goesa, WVc

decusella, Wlk.
Cimitra, Wlk.

secJusella, Wlk.
Ficulea, Wlk.

blandulella, Wlk.
Fresilia, Wlk.

nesciatella, Wlk.
Gesontlia. Wlk.

captinsella, Wlk.
Aginis, Wlk.

hilariella, Wlk.
Cadra, Wlk.

defectella, JVlk.

Fam.GLYPHYPTiDJJ, Staint.
Glyphyteryx, HUhn.

scitulella, Wlk.
Hybele, Wlk.

mansuetella, Wlk.

Fam. TiNEiDiE, Leach.

Tinea, Linn.

tapetzella, Linn.
receptella, Wlk.
pelionella, L)nn.
plagiferella, Wlk.

Fam. Lyonetidje, Staint.
Cachura, Wlk.

objectella, Wlk.

Fam. PTEROPH0RID.E, Zell.
Pterophoriis, Geoffr.

leucadactylus, Wlk.

oxydactylus, Wlk.

anisodactylus, Wlk.

Order DrPTERA, Linn.

Fam. Mycetophilid^,
Hal.
Sciara, Meig.
*valida, Wlk.

Fam. Cecidomyzid^, Hal.
Cecidomyia, Latr.
*primaria, Wlk.

Fam. SiMULiDiE, Hal.
Simiiliiim, Lair.

*destmalum, Wlk.

Fam, Chironomid^, Hal.
Ceratopogon, Meig.
*albocinctus, Wlk.

Fam. CULICID.E, Steph.
Culex, Linn.

regius, Thwaites.
fuscanus, Wied.
circumvolans. Wlk.
coutrahens, Wlk.

Fam. T1PULID.E, Hal.

Ctenopiiora, Fnbr.

Taprobanes, Wlk.
Gymnoplistia ? Westw,

hebes, Wlk.

Fam. Stratiomid^, Latr.
Ptilocera, Wied.

qiiadiidentata, Fabr.

fastuosa, Gtist.
PachygHster, Meig.

rufitarsis, Macq.
Acanthina, Wird.
■ azurea, Geist.

Fam. Tabanidjs, Leach.
Paiigonia, Latr.

Taprobanes, Wlk.

Fam. AsiLiD^, Leach.
Trupanea, Macq.

Ceylanica, Macq.
Asilus, Linn.

flavicornis, Macq.

Barium, Wlk.

Fam. DoLiCHOPiD^.ieac^.
Psilopus, Meig.

*procuratus, Wlk.

Fam. MusciD^, Latr.
Tachina ? Fain:

*tenebrosa, Wlk.
Musca, Linn.

domestica, Linn.
Dacus, Fabr.

*int^■rclusus, Wlk.

*nigroaneus. Wlk.

*detentus, Wlk.
Ortalis, Fall.

*confundens, Wlk.
Sciomyza, Fall.

♦lencoielns. WUc.
Drosophila, Fall.

*restituens, Wlk.

Fam. Nycteribids, Leach.

Nycteribia, Latr.

? a species

parasitic onScatophi-
liis Coromandelicus,
Bligh.

Order Hejiipteea,
Linn.

Fam. Pachycorid^, HalL

Cantuo, Amyot Sf Serv.

ocellatiis, Thunb.
Callidea, Lap.

superba, Dull.

Stockerus, Linn.

Chap. XU.] LIST OF CEYLOIN" INSECTS.

463

Fam. EURYGASTERID^,

Dall.
Trigonosom;!, Lap,
Desfontainii, Fabr.

Fam. Plataspid^, Dall-
Coptosoma, Lap.
laiiceps, Dall.

Fam. Halydid^, Dall.
Halys, Fabr.

dentata, Fabr.

Fam. PENTATOMIDiE, Stepk,

Pentatoma, Oliv.

Timorensis, Hope.

Taprobanensis, Dall.
Catacanthus, Spin.

incarnatus, Drury. .
Rhaptiigaster, 1 ap.

congrua, Wlk.

Fam. EDESS1D.E, Dall.
Aspongopiis, Lap.

anus, Fabr.
Tesseratoina, Lep. ^ Serv.

papulosa, Drury.
Cyclopelta, Am. 8f Serv.

sictilolid, Hope.

Fam. PhyllocephalidjE,
Dall.

Phyllocephala, Lap.
iEgyptiaca, Lefeb.

Fam. Miction, Dall.
Mictis, Leach.

Castanet, Dall.

valida, Dall.

punctum, Hope.
Crinocerus, BurTn.

ponderosus, Wlk.

Fam. Anisoscelid^, Dall.
Leptoscelis, Lap.

ventralis, Dall.

turpis, JVlk.

marfjinalis, TVlk,
Serinetha, Spin.

Tapi ob inensis, Dall.

abdominalis, Fabr.

Fam. ALYDiDiE, Dall.
Alydus, Fabr.
linearis, Fabr.

Fam. Stenocephalid^,
Dall.
Leptocorisa, Latr.
Chinensis, Dall.

Fam.CoREiD^, Steph.
Rhopalus, Schill.
interruptus, Wlk.

Fam. Lyg^id^, Westw.
Lygaeus, Fabr.
lutescens. Wlk.

figuratns, Wlk.
discifer, Wlk.
Rhyparochromus, Curt.
testaceipe.i, Wlk.

Fam. ARADiDiE, JVlk.
Piestosoma, Lap.
picipes, Wlk.

Fam. TiNGiD^, Wlk.
Calloniana, Wlk.
*elegans, Wlk.

Fam. C1MICID.E, Wlk.
Cimex, Linn.

lectularius, Linn.?

Fam. Reduviid^, Steph.
Pirates, Burm.

marginatus, Wlk.
Acanthaspis, Am. ^ Serv.

sanguiiiipes, Wik.

fulvispina, Wlk.

Fam. Hydkometrid^,
Leach.
Ptilomera, Am. <§• Serv.
laticauda, Hardw.

Fam. Nepid^, Leach.
Belostoma, Lair.

Indicum, St. Farg.
Nepa, Linn.

minor, Wlk.

Fam. NoTONECTii)^, Steph.
Notonecta, Linn.

abbreviata, Wlk.

simplex, Wlk.
Corixa, Geoff.

*subjacens, Wlk.

Order Homoptera,
Latr.

Fam. CiCADiD^, Westw.
Dundubia, Aiii. Sf Serv.

stipata, Wlk.

Clonia, Wlk.

Larus. Wlk.
Cicada, Linn.

limitaris, Wlk.

nubifurca, Wlk.

Fam. FuLGORiD^, Schaum.
Hotinus, Am. Sf Serv.

macnlatus, Oliv.

fulvirostris, Wlk.

coccineus, Wlk.
Pyrops, Spin.

))unctata, Oliv.
Aph^na, Guer.

sangiiinalis, Westw.
Elidiptera, Spin.

EmersoQiana, White.

Fam. CixiiD*, Wlk.
Eurybrachys, Guer.

tomentosa, Fabr.

dilatata, Wlk.

crudelis, If-'esiw.
Cixius, La/r.

*uubilus, Wlk.

Fam. Issioa;, Wlk.
HemisphEBiius, Schaum.
*Schaumi, Sial.
*bipustulatns, Wlk.

Fam. Derbid^, Schaum.
Tliracia, Westw.

pterophorides, Westw.
Derbe, Fabr.

*furcato-vittata, Stal.

Fam. Flattid^, Schaum.
Flatoides. Guer.

hyalinus, Fabr.

tenebrosus, Wlk.
Ricaiiia, Germ.

Hemerobii. Wlk.
Pceciloptera, Latr.

pulverulenta. Guer.

stellaris, Wlk.

Tennentina, White.

Fam. MEMBRAciOiE, Wlk.
Oxyrhachis, Geim.

*iiidicans, Wlk.
Centrotus, Fabr.

*re])onens, Wlk.

*malleiis, Wlk.

substitutus, Wlk.

*decipiens, Wlk.

*reliiiquens, Wlk.

*imitator, Wlk.

*repressus, Wlk.

*teiminalis, Wlk.

Fam. CERCopiDiE, Leach.
Cercopis, Fabr.

iiiclusa, IMk.
Ptyelus. Lep. 4- Serv.

costalis, Wlk.

Fam. Tettigoniidje, Wlk.
Tettigonia, Lntr.
paulula, Wlk.

Fam. ScARiDiE, Wlk.
Ledra. Fabr.

rugosa, Wlk.

coiiica, Wlk.
Gypona, Gertn.

prasina, Wlk.

Fam. lAssiDiE, Wlk. \
Acocephalus, Germ.
porrectus, Wlk.

Fam. PsYLLiD.E, Latr.

Psylla, Gaff.

*marginalis, Wlk.

Fam. CocciD^, Leach.
Lecanium, Illig.
Coffeae, Wlk.

464 AUTICULATA. [Chap. XIII.

CHAP. XIII.

AETICULATA.

Arachnida — Myriopoda — Crustacea, etc.

With a few striking exceptions, the true spiders of
Ceylon resemble in oeconomy and appearance those we
are accustomed to see at home; — they frequent the
houses, the gardens, the rocks and the stems of trees,
and along the sunny paths, where the forest meets the
open country, the Epeira and her congeners, the true
net-weaving spiders, extend their lacework, the gi'ace of
the designs being even less attractive than the beauty
of the creatures that elaborate them.

Such of them as live in the woods select with sin-
gular sagacity the bridle-paths and narrow passages for
expanding their nets ; perceiving no doubt that the
larger insects frequent these openings for facility of
movement through the jungle; and that the smaller
ones are carried towards them by currents of air. Their
nets are stretched across the path from four to eight
feet above the ground, suspended from projecting shoots,
and attached, if possible, to thorny shrubs ; and they
sometimes exhibit the most remarkable scenes of carnage
and destruction. I have taken down a ball as large as a
man's head consisting of successive layers rolled together,
in the heart of which was the original den of the family,

,.j.jlip!::y*.

Chap. Xin.] SPIDEES. 465

whilst the envelope was formed, sheet after sheet, by
coils of the old web filled with the wings and limbs of
..insects of all descriptions, from large moths and butter-
flies to mosquitoes and minute coleoptera. Each layer
appeared to have been originally hung across the passage
to intercept the expected prey ; and, when it had be-
come surcharged with carcases, to have been loosened,
tossed over by the wind or its own weight, and wrapped
round the nucleus in the centre, the spider replacing it
by a fresh sheet, to be in turn detached and added to
the mass within.

Separated by marked peculiarities both of structure
and instinct, from the spiders which live in the open
air, and busy themselves in providing food during the
day, the Mygale fasciata is not only sluggish in its
habits, but disgusting in its form and dimensions. Its
colour is a gloomy brown, interrupted by irregular
blotches and faint bands (whence its trivial name) ; it is
sparingly sprinkled with hairs, and its limbs, when ex-
panded, stretch over an area of six to eight inches in
diameter. It is familiar to Europeans in Ceylon, who
have given it the name, and ascribed to it the fabulous
propensities, of the Tarentula.^

The Mygale is found abundantly in the northern and
eastern parts of the island, and occasionally in dark
unfrequented apartments in the western province ; but
its inclinations are solitary, and it shuns the busy traffic
of towns.

The largest specimens I have seen were at Grampola,
in the viciuity of Kandy, and one taken in the store-

' Species of the true Tarentula are all of very small size, and per-
are not uncommon in Ceylon ; tliey fectly harmless.

H H

466 ARTICULATA. [Chap. XIII.

room of the rest-house there, nearly covered with its
legs an ordinary-sized breakfast plate. ^

This hideous creature does not weave a broad web or
spin a net like other spiders, but nevertheless it forms a
comfortable mansion in the wall of a neglected building,
the hollow of a tree, or under the eave of an overhang-
ing stone. This it lines throughout with a tapestry of
silk of a tubular form ; and of a texture so exquisitely
fine and closely woven, that no moisture can penetrate
it. The extremity of the tube is carried out to the
entrance, where it expands into a little platform, stayed
by braces to the nearest objects that afford a firm hold.
In particular situations, where the entrance is exposed
to the wind, the mygale, on the approach of the mon-
soon, extends the strong tissue above it so as to serve
as an awning to prevent the access of rain.

The construction of this silken dwelling is exclusively
designed for the domestic luxury of the spider ; it serves
no purpose in trapping or securing prey, and no external
disturbance of the web tempts the creature to sally out
to surprise an intruder, as the epeira and its congeners
would.

By day it remains concealed in its den, whence it
issues at night to feed on larvae and worms, devouring
cockroaches and their pupse, and attacking the millepeds;,
gryllotalpae, and other fleshy insects.

Mr. Edgar L. Layard has described^ an encounter
between a Mygale and a cockroach, which he witnessed
in the madua of a temple at Alittane, between Anaraja-
poora and Dambool. When about a yard apart, each

^ See Plate opposite, ^ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist

May, 1853.

Chap. XILI.] SPIDEES. 467

discerned the other and stood still, the spider with his
legs slightly bent and his body raised, the cockroach
confronting him and directing his antennae with a rest-
less undulation towards his enenay. The spider, by
stealthy movements, approached to within a few inches
and paused, both parties eyeing each other intently ;
then suddenly a rush, a scujffle, and both fell to the
ground, when the blatta's wings closed, the spider seized
it under the throat with his claws, and dragged it into
a corner, when the action of his jaws was distinctly
audible. Next morning Mr. Layard found that the
soft parts of the body had been eaten, nothing but the
head, thorax, and elytra remaining.

But, in addition to minor and ignoble prey, the Mygale
rests under the imputation of seizing small birds and
feasting on their blood. The author who first gave
popular currency to this story was ]Madame Merian, a
zoological artist of the last century, many of whose
drawings are still preserved in the Museums of St. Pe-
tersburg, Holland, and England. In a work on the
Insects of Surinam, published in 1705^, she figured the
Mygale avicularia, in the act of devouring a humming
bird. The accuracy of her statement has since been
impugned^ by a correspondent of the Zoological Society
of London, on the ground that the mygale makes no
net, but lives in recesses, to which no humming-bird
would resort ; and hence, the ^vriter somewhat illogically
declares, that he " disbelieves the existence of any bird-
catching spider."

* Bissertatio de Generatione et communicated to the Zoological

Metatnorphosibus Insectorum Suri- Society of Loudon, Proc. 1834, p.

namensiurn, Amst. 1701, Fol. 12.

2 By Mr. jMacLeay in a paper

H H 2

468 ARTICULATA. [Chap. Xni.

Some years later, however, the same writer felt it
incumbent on him to qualify this hasty conclusion ^,
in consequence of having seen at Sydney an enormous
spider, the E'peira diadema, in the act of sucking the
juices of a bird (the Zosterops dorsalis of Vigors and
Horsfield), which it had caught in the meshes of its
geometrical net. This circumstance, however, did not
in his opinion affect the case of the Mygcde ; and even
as regards the Epeira, Mr. MacLeay, who witnessed the
occurrence, was inclined to believe the instance to be
accidental and exceptional; " an exception indeed so rare,
that no other person had ever witnessed the fact."

Subsequent observation has, however, served to sustain
the story of Madame Merian.^ Baron Walckenaer and
Latreille both corroborated it by other authorities ; and
M. Moreau da Jonnes, who studied the habits of the
Mygale in Martinique, says it hunts far and wide in
search of its prey, conceals itself beneath leaves for the
purpose of surprising them, and climbs the branches of
trees to devour the young of the humming bird, and of
the Certhia flaveola. As to its mode of attack, M.
Jonnes says that when it throws itself on its victim it
clings to it by the double hooks of its tarsi, and strives
to reach the back of the head, to insert its jaws between
the skull and the vertebrse.^

^ See Ann. and Mag. of Nat. "by a ciirious movement of the

Hist, for 1842, vol. viii. p. 324. large grayish brown Mygale on the

^ See authorities quoted by Mr. trunk of a vast tree : it was close

Shuck A RD in the Ann. and Mag. beneath a deep crevice or chink in

of Nat. Hist. 1842, voL viii. p. the tree, across which this species

436, &c. weaves a dense web, at one end

^ At a meeting of the Entomo- open for its exit and entrance. In

logical Society, July 20, 1855, a the present instance the lower part

paper was read by Mr. H. W. of the web was broken, and two

Bates, who stated that in 1849 at small finches were entangled in

Cameta in Brazil, he "was attracted its folds. The finch was about

Chap. Xin.] SPIDEES. 4G9

For my owti part, no instance came to my knowledge
in Ceylon of a mygale attacking a bird ; but Perciyal,
who wrote his account of the island in 1805, describes
an enormous spider (possibly an Epeirid) thinly covered
with hair which " makes webs strong enough to entangle
and hold even small birds that form its usual food." ^

The fact of its living on millepeds, blattae, and
crickets, is universally known ; and a lady who lived at
Marandahn, near Colombo, told me that she had, on
one occasion, seen a little house-lizard {gecko) seized
and devoured by one of these ugly spiders.

Walckenaer has described a spider of large size, under
the name of Olios Taprobanius, which is very common
in Ceylon, and conspicuous from the fiery hue of the
tinder surface, the remainder being covered with gray
hair so short and fine that the body seems almost
denuded. It spins a moderate-sized web, hung verti-
cally between two sets of strong lines, stretched one
above the other athwart the pathways. Some of the
threads thus carried horizontally from tree to tree at a
considerable height from the ground are so strong as to
cause a painful check across the face when moving
quickly against them ; and more than once in riding I
have had my hat lifted off my head by one of these
cords.^

tte size of the common Siskin of gray brown colour, and clothed

ETirope, and he judged the two to ^vith coarse pile." " If the My-

he male and female ; one of them gales," he adds, " did not prey

was quite dead, but secured in the upon vertebrated animals, I do not

broken web ; the other was under see how they coidd find sufficient

the body of the spider, not quite subsistence." — The Zoologist, toL

dead, and was covered in parts xiii. p. 480.

with a filthy liquor or saliva * Percival's Ceylon, p. 313.

exuded by the monster. " The ^ Over the country generally are

•species of spider," Mr. Bates says, scattered species of GasUracantha^

" I cannot name ; it is wholly of a remarkable for their firm shell-

H H 3

470 AKTICULATA. [Chap. Xni.

An officer in the East India Company's Service ^, in a
communication to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, describes
the gigantic web of a black and red spider six inches in
diameter, (his description of which, both in colour and
size, seems to point to some species closely allied to
the Olios Tajprohanins,^ which he saw near Monghyr
on the Granges ; in this web " a bird was entangled, and
the young spiders, eight in number, and entirely of a
brick red colour, were feeding on the carcase.^

The voracious Galeodes has not yet been noticed in
Ceylon ; but its carnivorous propensities are well known
in those parts of Hindustan, where it is found, and
where it lives upon crickets, coleoptera, and other
insects, as well as small lizards and birds. This " tiger of
the insect world," as it has aptly been designated by a
gentleman who was a mtness to its ferocity ^, was seen
to attack a young sparrow half grown, and seize it by
the thigh, which it saived through. The " savage then
caught the bird by the throat, and put an end to its
sufferings by cutting off its head." " On another occa-
sion," says the same authority, " Dr. Baddeley confined
one of these spiders under a glass wall-shade with two
young musk-rats (Sorex Indicus), both of which it
destroyed." It must be added, however, that neither in
the instance of the bird, of the lizard, or the rats, did
the galeodes devour its prey after killing it.

covered bodies, witli projecting spines, arcliing obliquely backwards.

knobs arranged in pairs. In habit These abnormal kinds are not so

these anomalous-looking EpeiridcB handsomely colom'ed as the smaller

appear to differ in no respect from species of typical form.

the rest of the family, -o-aylaying ' Capt. Sherwill.

their prey in similar situations and ^ Jour. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1850,.

in the same manner. vol. xix. p. 475.

Another very singular subgenus, ^ Capt. Hutton. See a paper

met with in Ceylon, is distinguished on the Galeodes vorax in the

by the abdomen being dilated be- Journal of the Asiatic Society of

hind, and armed with two long Bengal, vol. xi. Part n. p. 860.

Chap. Xni.] TICKS. 471

In the hills around Pusilawa, I have seen the haunts
of a curious species of long-legged spiders^, popularly
called " harvest-men," which congregate in hollow trees
and in holes in the banks by the roadside, in groups of
from fifty to a hundred, that to a casual observer look
like bunches of horse-hair. This appearance is produced
by the long and slender legs of these creatures, which
are of a shining black, whilst their bodies, so small as
to be mere specks, are concealed beneath them. The
same spider is found in the low country near Gralle,
but there it shows no tendency to become gregarious.
Can it be that they thus assemble in groups in the hills
for the sake of accumulated warmth at the cool altitude
of 4000 feet ?

Ticks. — Ticks are to be classed among the intolerable
nuisances to the Ceylon traveller. They live in immense
numbers in the jungle ^, and attaching themselves to the

^ Phalangium hisignatum. responding instinct I have always
- Dr. Hooker, in his Himalayan observed in the gambols of the
Journal, vol. i. p. 279, in speaking Pariah dogs, that they invariably
of the multitude of these ereatiu-es commence their attentions by
in the mountains of Nepal, won- mutually gnawing each other's ears
ders what they find to feed on, as and necks, as if in pursuit of ticks
in these humid forests in which from places from which each is un-
they literally swarmed, there was able to expel them for himself,
neither pathway nor animal life. Horses have a similar instinct ;
In Ceylon they abound everywhere and when they meet, they apply-
in the plains on the low brush- their teeth to the roots of the ears
wood; and in the very driest of their companions, to the neck
seasons they are quite as numerous and the crown of the head. The
as at other times. In the mountain buffaloes and oxen are relieved of
zone, which is more humid, they ticks by the crows which rest on
are less prevalent. Dogs are tor- their backs as they browse, and
meuted by them : and they display free them from these pests. In the
something closely allied to cunning low country the same acceptable
in always fastening on an animal office is performed by the ''cattle-
in those parts where they cannot keeper heron" {Arclea hubulcus),
be torn off by his paws ; on his which is " sure to be found in
eye-brows, the tips of his ears, and attendance on them while grazing ;
the back of his neck. With a cor- and the animals seem to know their

H H 4

472 AETICULATA. [Chap. XIII.

plants by tlie two forelegs, lie in wait to catch at unwary
animals as they pass. A shower of these diminutive
vermin will sometimes drop from a branch, if unluckily
shaken, and disperse themselves over the body, each
fastening on the neck, the ears, and eyelids, and insert-
ing a barbed proboscis. They burrow, with their heads
pressed as far as practicable under the skin, causing a
sensation of smarting, as if particles of red hot sand
had been scattered over the flesh. If torn from their
hold, the suckers remain behind and form an ulcer.
The only safe expedient is to tolerate the agony of their
penetration till a drop of coco-nut oil or the juice of a
lime can be applied, when these little furies drop off
without further ill consequences. One very large species,
dappled Avith grey, attaches itself to the buffaloes.

Mites. — The Trombidium tinctoriun of Hermann is
found about Aripo, and generally over the northern pro-
vinces,— where after a shower of rain or heavy night's
dew, they appear in countless myriads. It is about half
an inch long, like a tuft of crimson velvet, and imparts
its colouring matter readily to any fluid in which it may
be immersed. It feeds on vegetable juices, and is per-
fectly innocuous. Its European representative, similarly
tinted, and found in garden mould, is commonly called
the "Little red pillion."

Myriapods. — The certainty with which an accidental
pressure or unguarded touch is resented and retorted by
a bite, makes the centipede, when it has taken up its
temporary abode within a sleeve or the fold of a dress,
by far the most unwelcome of all the Singhalese assail-
ants. The great size, too (little short of a foot in length),

benefactors, and stand quietly, mentors from their flanks. " — Magf.
while the birds peck their tor- Nat. Hist. p. Ill, 1844.

Chap. XIII.] CEEMATIA. 473

to which it sometimes attains, renders it formidable, and,
apart from the apprehension of unpleasant consequences
from a wound, one shudders at the bare idea of such
a hideous creature crawling over the skin, beneath the
innermost folds of one's garments.

At the head of the Myriapods, and pre-eminent from
a superiorly-developed organisation, stands the genus
Cermatia: singular-looking objects; mounted upon

slender legs, of gradually increasing length from front
to rear, the hind ones in some species being amazingly
prolonged, and all handsomely marked with brown annuli
in concentric arches. These myrlapods are harmless,
excepting to woodlice, spiders, and young cockroaches,
which form their ordinary prey. They are rarely to be
seen ; but occasionally at daybreak, after a more than
usually abundant repast, they may be observed motion-
less, and resting with their regularly extended limbs
nearly flat against the walls. On being disturbed they
dart away with a surprising velocity, to conceal them-
selves in chinks until the return of night.

But the species to be really dreaded are the true
ScolopenclrcB, which are active and carnivorous, living
in holes in old walls and other gloomy dens. One

474 ARTICULATA. [Chap. Xni.

species * attains to nearly the length of a foot, with cor-
responding breadth ; it is of a dark purple colour, ap-
proaching black, with yellowish legs and antennae, and
in its whole aspect rej)ulsive and frightful. It is strong
and active, and evinces an eager disposition to fight
when molested. The Scolopendrce are gifted by nature
with a rigid coriaceous armour, which does not yield to
common pressure, or even to a moderate blow ; so that
they often escape the most well-deserved and well-
directed attempts to destroy them, seeking refuge in
retreats which effectually conceal them from sight.

There is a smaller species^, that frequents dwelling-
houses ; it is about one quarter the size of the preceding,
and of a dirty olive colour, with pale ferruginous legs.
It is this species that generally inflicts the wound, when
persons complain of being bitten by a scorpion ; and it
has a mischievous propensity for insinuating itself into
the folds of dress. The bite at first does not occasion
more suffering than would arise from the penetration of
two coarsely-pointed needles ; but after a little time the
wound swells, becomes acutely painful, and if it be over
a bone or any other resisting part, the sensation is so
intolerable as to produce fever. The agony subsides
after a few hours' duration. In some cases the bite is
unattended by any particular degree of annoyance, and
in these instances it is to be supposed that the contents
of the poison gland had become exhausted by previous
efforts, since, if much tasked, the organ requires rest to
enable it to resume its accustomed functions and to
secrete a supply of venom.

The Fish-insect — The chief inconvenience of a

' Scolo^endra crassa, Temp. - Scolopendra pallipes.

Chap. XIII.] THE FISH-IXSECT. 475

residence in Ceylon, both on the coast and in the
mountains, is the prevalence of damp, and the difficulty
of protecting articles liable to injury from this cause.
Books, papers, and manuscripts rapidly decay ; especially
diuing the south-west monsoon, when the atmosphere is
saturated with moisture. Unless great precautions are
taken, the binding fades and yields, the leaves grow
mouldy and stained, and letter-paper, in an incredibly
short time, becomes so spotted and spongy as to be
unfit for use. After a very few seasons of neglect, a
book falls to pieces, and its decomposition attracts
hordes of minute insects, that swarm to assist in the
work of destruction. The concealment of these tiny
creatures during daylight renders it difficult to watch
their proceedings, or to discriminate the precise species
most actively engaged; but there is every reason to
believe that the larvae of the death-watch and numerous
acari are amongst the most active. As nature seldom
peoples a region supplied with abundance of suitable
food, without, at the same time, taking measures of
precaution against the disproportionate increase of in-
dividuals; so have these vegetable depredators been
provided with foes who pursue and feed greedily upon
them. These are of widely different genera ; but in-
stead of their services being gratefully recognised, they
are popularly branded as accomplices in the work of
destruction. One of these ill-used creatures is a tiny,
tail-less scorpion {Chelifer^), and another is the pretty

^ Of the first of these, three claw. They are

species have been noticed in Ceylon, Chelifer Librorum, Temp

all with the common characteristics „ oblong vs Temp

of being nocturnal, ver^^ active, very „ acaroidel, Hermann,

minute, of a pale chesnut colour, Dr. Templeton appears to have

and each armed with a crab-like been puzzled to account for the

476 ARTICULATA. [Chap. Xin.

little silvery creature (^Lepisvia), called by Europeans
the " fish-insect." ^

The latter, which is a familiar genus, comprises
several species, of which only two have as yet been
described ; one is of a large size, most graceful in its
movements, and singularly beautiful in appearance,
owing to the whiteness of the pearly scales from which
its name is derived. These, contrasted with the dark
hue of the other parts, and its tri-partite tail, attract
the eye as the insect darts rapidly along. Like the
chelifer, it shuns the light, hiding in chinks till sunset,
but is actively engaged throughout the night feasting
on the acari and soft-bodied insects which assail books
and papers. '

Millejpeds. — In the hot dry season, and more
especially in the northern portions of the island, the
eye is attracted along the edges of the sandy roads by
fragments of the dislocated rings of a huge species of
millepede^, lying in short curved tubes, the cavity ad-
mitting the tip of the little finger. When perfect the
creature is two-thirds of a foot long, of a brilliant jet
black, and with above a hundred yellow legs, which,
when moving onward, present the appearance of a
series of undulations from rear to front, bearing the

appearance of the latter species in central one, LrsTsr^us states that
Ceylon, so far from its native the European species, with which
country, but it has most certamly book collectors are familiar, was
been introduced from Europe, in first brought in sugar ships from
Dutch or Portuguese books. America. Hence, possibly, these
^ Lepisma niveo-fasciata, Tern- are more common in seaport towns
pleton, and L. oiiger, Temp. It in the South of England and else-
was called "Lepisma" by Fabri- where, and it is almost certain that,
cius, from its fish-like scales. It like the chelifer, one of the species
has six legs, filiform antennae, and found on book-shelves in Ceylon,
the al)domen terminated by three has been brought thither ^from
elongated setse, two of which are Europe,
placed nearly at right angles to the * Julus ater.

Chap. XIII.] THE CALLING CRAB. 477

animal gently forwards. This Jidus is harmless, and
may be handled with perfect impunity. Its food con-
sists chiefly of fruits and the roots and stems of suc-
culent vegetables, its jaws not being framed for any
more formidable purpose. Another and a very pretty
species ^, quite as black, but with a bright crimson band
down the back, and the legs similarly tinted, is common
in the gardens about Colombo and throughout the
western province.

Crustacea. — The seas around Ceylon abound with
marine articulata ; but a knowledge of the Crustacea of
the island is at present a desideratum; and with the
exception of the few commoner species that frequent
the shores, or are offered in the markets, we are literally
without information, excepting the little that can be
gleaned from already published systematic works.

In the bazaars several species of edible crabs are ex-
posed for sale ; and amongst the deKcacies at the tables
of Europeans, curries made from prawns and lobsters are
the triumphs of the Ceylon cuisine. Of these latter
the fishermen sometimes exhibit specimens ^ of extra-
ordinary dimensions and of
a beautiful purple hue,
variegated with white.
Along the level shore north
and south of Colombo, and
in no less profusion else-

CALLING CKAB OF CEYLON, i ,■, • ii ti,i

where, the nimble little
Calling Crabs ^ scamper over the moist sands, carrying
aloft the enormous hand (sometimes larger than the

' Jidics carnifex, Fab. ^ Gelasimus tetragonon ? Edw. ;

- Palmicrus ornatus, Fab. G. annuUpes ? Edw. ; G. Dussu-

P — n, s. mieri ? Edw.

478 ARTICULATA. [Chap. XIII.

rest of the body), which is their peculiar characteristic,
and which, from its beckoning gesture has suggested
their popular name. They hurry to conceal themselves
in the deep retreats which they hollow out in the banks
that border the sea.

Sand Grabs. — In the same localities, or a little farther
inland, the Ocypode ^ burrows in the dry soil, making
deep excavations, bringing up literally armfulls of sand ;
which with a spring in the air, and employing its other
limbs, it jerks far from its burrows, distributing it in
a circle to the distance of several feet.^ So inconve-
nient are the operations of these industrious pests that
men are kept regularly employed at Colombo in filling
up the holes formed by them on the surface of the
Gralle face. This, the only equestrian promenade of the
capital, is so infested by these active little creatures
that accidents often occur through horses stumbling in
their troublesome excavations.

Painted Crabs. — On the reef of rocks which lies to
the south of the harbour at Colombo, the beautiful little
painted crabs ^, distinguished by dark red markings on a
yellowgroiind, may be seen all day long running nimbly
in the spray, and ascending and descending in securit}^
the almost perpendicular sides of the rocks which are
washed by the waves. Paddling Crabs'^, with the hind
pair of legs terminated by flattened plates to assist them
in swimming, are brought up in the fishermen's nets.
Hermit Crabs take possession of the deserted shells of
the univalves, and crawl in pursuit of garbage along
the moist beach. Prawns and shrimps furnish deli-

^ Ocypode ceratopJitkahmcs, Pall. ^ Grapsus strigosus, Herbst.
"^ Ann. Nat. Hist. April, 1852. Nep>tunus pelagicus, JAnn. ; N.

Paper by ]\Ir. Edgae L. Layard. sanguinolentus, Herbst, &c. &c.

Chap. XHI.] AJs^ELIDES. — LEECHES. 479

cacies for the breakfast table; and the delicate little
pea crab, Pontonia inflata^, recalls its Mediterranean
congener'^, which attracted the attention of Aristotle,
from taking up its habitation in the shell of the living
pinna.

A]S'NELID^. - — The marine Annelides of the island
have not as yet been investigated; a cursory glance,
however, amongst the stones, on the beach at Trinco-
malie and in the pools that afford convenient basins for
examining them, would lead to the belief that the marine
species are not numerous ; tubicole genera, as well as
some nereids, are found, but there seems to be little
diversity, though it is not impossible that a closer scrutiny
might be repaid by the discovery of some interesting
forms.

Leeches. — Of all the plagues which beset the traveller
in the rising grounds of Ceylon, the most detested are
the land leeches.^ They are not frequent in the plains.

* Mllne Ed-w., Hist. Nat. Crust, It is very doubtful, ho^rerer,
vol. ii. p. 360, whettier all these are to be referred
^ Pinnotheres veterum. to one species. M. De Blaixvtlle,
^ Hcemadipsa Ceylanica, Bosc. under H. Ceylanica, in the Diet.
Blainv. These pests are not, how- de Scie7i. Kat. vol. xlvii. p. 271,
ever, confined to Ceylon; they quotes M. Bosc as authority for
infest the lower ranges of the the kind which that naturalist de-
Himalaya. — HooKEE, vol. i. p. scribes being "rouges ettachetees;"
107 ; vol. ii. p. 54. Thlts^beeg, which is scarcely applicable to the
who records (Travels, voi. iv. p. Singhalese species. It is more
232) having seen them in Ceylon, than probable therefore, consider-
likewise met with them in the ing the period at which M. Bosc
forests and slopes of Batavia. wrote, that he obtained his infor-
Marsden (^/szf. p. 311) complains mationfromtravellersto the further
of them dropping on travellers in east, and has connected with the
Sumatra. Knorr found them at habitat universally ascribed to
Japan ; and it is affirmed that them from old Kxox's work (Part
they abound in islands farther to i. chap, vi.) a meagre description,
the eastward. M. Gay encoun- more properly belonging to the
tered them in Chili. — (Moquin'- land leech of Batavia or Japan.
Tandon, Hirudinees, p. 211, 346). In all likelihood, therefore, there

480

ARTICULATA.

[Chap. Xin.

which are too hot and dry for them ; but amongst the
rank vegetation in the lower ranges of the hill country.

may be a H. Boscii, distinct
from the H. Ceylanica. That
which is found in Ceylon is round,

ETES AND TEETH OF THE LAND
LEECH OF CEYLON.

a little flattened on the inferior
surface, largest at the anal ex-
tremity, thence gradually tapering
forward, and with the anal sucker
composed of four rings, and wider
in proportion than in other species.
It is of a clear brown colour, with
a yellow stripe the entire length
of each side, and a greenish dorsal
one. The body is formed of 100
rings ; the eyes, of which there
are fire pairs, are placed in an arch
on the dorsal siirface ; the first four
pairs occupying contiguous rings
(thus differing from the water-
leeches, which have an unoccupied
ring betwixt the third and fourth) ;
the fifth pair are located on the
seventh ring, two vacant rings in-
tervening. To Mr. Thwaites, Di-
rector of the Botanic Garden at
Peradenia, who at my request ex-
amined their structure minutely, I
am indebted for the following most
interesting particulars respecting
them. " I have been giving a
little time to the examination of
the land leech. I find it to have
five pairs of oceUi, the first four
seated on corresponding segments,
and the posterior pair on the
seventh segment or ring, the fifth
and sixth rings being eyeless {fig.
A). The mouth is very retractile,

and the aperture is shaped as in
ordinary leeches. The serratures
of the teeth, or rather the teeth
themselves, are very beautiful.
Each of the three 'teeth,' or cut-
ting instruments, is principally
muscidar, the muscular body being
very clearly seen. The rounded
edge in which the teeth are set ap-
pears to be cartilaginous in struc-
ture ; the teeth are very numerous,
{fig. B); but some near the base
have a curious appendage, appa-
rently (I have not yet made this
out quite satisfactorily) set upon
one side. I have not yet been
able to detect the anal or sexual
pores. The anal sucker seems to
be formed of four rings, and on
each side above is a sort of crenated
flesh-Kke appendage. The tint of
the common species is yellowish-
brown or snuiF-coloured, streaked
with black, with a yellow-greenish
dorsal, and another lateral line
along its whole length. There is
a larger species to be found in this
garden with a broad green dorsal
fascia; but I have not been able
to procure one although I have
offered a small reward to any
coolie who will bring me one." In
a subsequent communication Mr.
Thwaites remarks " that the dorsal
longitudinal fascia is of the same
width as the lateral ones, and
differs only in being perhaps
slightly more green ; the colour of
the three fasciae varies from
brownish-yellow to bright green,"
He likewise states " that the
rings which compose the body are
just 100, and the teeth 70 to 80
in each set, in a single row, except
to one end, where they are in a
double row,"

Chap. XIH.]

LEECHES.

481

which is kept damp by frequent showers, they are found
in tormenting profusion. They are terrestrial, never
visiting ponds or streams. In size they are about an
inch in length, and as fine as a common knitting needle ;
but they are capable of distension till they equal a quill
in thickness, and attain a length of nearly two inches.
Their structure is so flexible that they can insinuate
themselves through the meshes of the finest stocking,
not only seizing on the feet and ankles, but ascending
to the back and throat and fastening on the tenderest
parts of the body. In order to exclude them, the coffee
planters, who live amongst these pests, are obliged to

-A^"D LEECHES IX

envelope their legs in " leech gaiters " made of closely
woven cloth. The natives smear their bodies with oil,
tobacco ashes, or lemon juice ^: the latter serving not
only to stop the flow of blood, but to expedite the
healing of the wounds. In moving, the land leeches
have the power of planting one extremity on the earth
and raising the other perpendicularly to watch for their
victim. Such is their vigilance and instinct, that on

* The Minorite friar, Odoeic of peel, Huointing themselves with

Portenau. -writing in a.d. 1320, the juice thereof, so that the

says that the gem-finders who leeches may not be able to hurt

sought the jewels around Adam's them." — Haxluyt, Vo^/. vol. ii.

Peak, " take lemons which they p. 58.

I I

482 ARTICULATA. [CnAr. XIII.

the approach of a passer-by to a spot which they infest,
they may be seen amongst the grass and fallen leaves
on the edge of a native path, poised erect, and preparing
for their attack on man and horse. On descrying their
prey they advance rapidly by semi-circular strides,
fixing one end firmly and arching the other forwards,
till by successive advances they can lay hold of the
traveller's foot, when they disengage themselves from
the ground and ascend his dress in search of an aperture
to enter. In these encounters the individuals in the
rear of a party of travellers in the jungle invariably
fare worst, as the leeches, once warned of their approach,
cono-recrate with sing-ular celerity. Their size is so in-
significant, and the wound they make is so skilfully
punctured, that both are generally imperceptible, and
the first intimation of their onslaught is the trickling of
the blood or a chill feeling of the leech when it begins
to hang heavily on the skin from being distended by
its repast. Horses are driven wild by them, and stamp
the ground in fury to shake them from their fetlocks,
to which they hang in bloody tassels. The bare legs
of the palankin bearers and coolies are a favourite re-
sort ; and, as their hands are too much engaged to be
spared to pull them off, the leeches hang like bunches
of grapes round their ankles ; and I have seen the blood
literally flowing over the edge of a European's shoe
from their innumerable bites. In healthy constitutions
the wounds, if not irritated, generally heal, occasioning
no other inconvenience than a slight inflammation and
itching; but in those with a bad state of body, the
punctures, if rubbed, are liable to degenerate into
ulcers, which may lead to the loss of limb or even
of life. Both Marshall and Davy mention, that during

Chap. XIH.]

LEECHES.

483

the march of troojDs in the mountains, when the Kan-
djans were in rebellion, in 1818, the soldiers, and
especially the Madras sepoys, with the pioneers and
coolies, suffered so severely from this cause that numbers
perished.^

One circumstance regarding these land leeches is re-
markable and unexplained ; they are helpless without
moisture, and in the hills where they abound at all other

times, they entirely disappear during long droughts ;

yet re-appear instantaneously on the very first fall of
rain ; and in spots previously parched, where not one
was visible an hour before, a single shower is sufficient
to reproduce them in thousands, lurking beneath the
decaying leaves, or striding with rapid movements
across the gravel. Whence do they re-appear? Do
they, too, take a " summer sleep," like the reptiles,
molluscs, and tank fishes ? or may they, like the Roti-
fera, be dried up and preserved for an indefinite period,
resuming their vital activity on the mere recurrence of
moisture ? ^

Besides a species of the medicinal leech, which ^ is

* Davy's Ceylon, p. 104 ; Mae-
shall' s Ceylon^ p. 15.

■^ See an account of the Motif tra
and their faculty of repeated vivi-
faction, in the note appended to
this chapter.

^ Hirudo sanguisorba. The
paddi-field leech of Cejdon, used
for surgical purposes, has the
dorsal surface of blackish oHye,
■w-ith several Iongitudinalstripe,more
or less defined: the crenated
margin yellow. The ventral sur-
face is fulvous, bordered laterally
with olive ; the extreme margin
yellow. The eyes are ranged as
in. the common medicinal leech of

Europe ; the four anterior ones
rather larger than the others. The
teet]i are 140 in each series, ap-
pearing as a single row; in size

i

diminishing gradually from one
end, very close set. and about half
She width of a tooth apart. A\Tien
liill grown, these leeches are about

I I 2

484

AKTICULATA.

[Chap. XIH.

found in Ceylon, nearly double the size of the European
one, and with a prodigious faculty of engorging blood,
there is another pest in the low country, which is a
source of considerable annoyance, and often of loss, to
the husbandman. This is the cattle leech ^, which
infests the stagnant pools, chiefly in the alluvial lands
around the base of the mountain zone, whither the
cattle resort by day, and the wild animals by night, to
quench their thirst and to bathe. Lurking amongst
the rank vegetation that fringes these deep pools, and
hid by the broad leaves, or concealed among the stems
and roots covered by the water, there are quantities of
these pests in wait to attack the animals on their ap-
proach to drink. Their natural food consists of the
juices of lumbrici and other invertebrata ; but they

two inches long, but reaching to
six inches when extended. Mr.
Thwaites, to whom I am indebted
for tliese particidars, adds that he
saw in a tank at Kolona Korle
leeches which appeared to him
flatter and of a darker colour than
those described above, but that he
had not an opportunity of ex-
amining them partieuhirly.

Mr. Thwaites states that there
is a smaller tank leech of an olive-
green coloin-, with some indistinct
longitudinal strise on the upper
surface ; the crenated margin of a
pale yellowish-green ; ocelli as in
the paddi-field leech ; lengtli, one
inch at rest, three inches when ex-
tended.

Mr. E. L. Layard informs us,
Mag. Nat. Hist. p. 225, 1853, that
a bubbling spring at the village of
Tonniotoo, three miles S. W. of
Moeletivoe, supplies most of the
leeches used in the island. _ Those
in use at Colombo are obtained in

the immediate vicinity.

• HcBmopsis paludum. In size
the cattle leech of Ceylon is some-
what larger than the medicinal
leech of Europe ; in colour it is of a
uniform brown without bands, un-
less a rufous margin may be so con-
sidered. It has dark stride. The
body is somewhat rounded, flat
when swimming, and composed of
rather more than ninety rings.
The greatest dimension is a little
in advance of the anal sucker ; the
body thence tapers to the other
extremity, which ends in an upper
lip projecting considerably beyond
the mouth. The eyes, ten in
number, are disposed as in the
common leech. The mouth is oval,
the biting apparatus with difficulty
seen, and the teeth not very
numerous. The bite is so little
acute that the moment of attach-
ment, and the incision of the mem-
brane is scarcely perceived by the
sufferer from its attack.

Chap. XUI.]

LEECHES.

485

generally avail themselves of the opportunity afforded
by the dipping of the muzzles of the animals in the
water to fasten on their nostrils, and by degrees to
make their way to the deeper recesses of the nasal pas-
saofes, and the mucous membranes of the throat and
gullet. As many as a dozen have been found attached
to the epiglottis and pharynx of a bullock, producing
such irritation and submucous effusion that death has
eventually ensued ; and so tenacious are the leeches that
even after death they retain their hold for some hours. ^

Articulata.

APTEBA.

THYSANUKA.

Podura alhicollis.

atricollis.

viduata.

pilot, a.
ArchoreiitPS coccinea.
Lepisma nigrofasciata, Temp.

nigra,

ARACHNID A.

Buthus afer, Linn.

Ceylonicus, Koch.
Scnrpio linearis.
Chelifer libroriim.

ohlongus.
Obi slum craasifemttr.
Phrynus lunatus, Pall.
Thelyphontis caudatas, Linn.
Phalangium bisignatuni.
Mygale fasciata, IValck.
Olios taprobanius, Walck.
Nephila ?

Trombidium tinctorum, Herm.

Oribata ?

Ixodes ?

MYRIAPODA.

Cermatia dt'xpar.
Litbobius ujnbratilis.
Scolopf^ndra crassa.

spiiiosa, Newp.

pnUiprs.

Grayii? Neirp.

tuberculideiis, Netvp.

Ceyi.jnensis, Newp.

flnva, Newp.

oUvacea,

abdotninalis.
Cryptops soriiidus.

assimilix.
Geophilus tegularius.

speciosus.
Julus a'er.

earn ilex, Fabr.

pallipes.

Jiaviceps.

pallidus.

^ Even men, when stooping to
drink at a pool, are not safe from
the assault of the cattle leeches.
They cannot penetrate the human
skin, but the delicate membrane of
the mucous passages is easily rup-

tured by their serrated jaws. In-
stances have come to my knowledge
of Europeans into whose nostrils
they had gained admission and
caused serious disturbance.

113

486

AETICULATA.

[Chap. XIII.

Craspedosoma juloides.

prceusta.
Polydesmus granulatus.
Caiiibala cntenulata.
Zephronia conspicua.

CRUSTACEA.

DECAPODA BRACHYUEA.
Polybius.
Neplunus pelagicus, Linn.

sa iguinoJentus, Herbst.

Thalamita ?

Tlielphnsa Indica, Lair.

Cardisoma ?

Ocypoda cpratophrhalmus, Pall.

macrocera. Ediu.
Gelasimtis tetranonon, Edw.

annulipes, Ediv.
Macrophtlialmus carinimanus. Lair.
Grapsus messor, Forsk.

strigosus. Herbal.
Plagusia iiepressa, Fahr.
Calappa philargug, Linn.

tuberculala, labr.
Matuta victor, Fahr.
Leucosia fugax, Fabr.
Dorijjpe.

DECAPODA ANOMUEA.

Droniia . . . . ?
Hippa Asiatica, Edw.

Pagnrns affinis, Edw.
punctulatus, Oliv.
Porcellana . . . . f

DECAPODA MACRURA.

Scyllarus orientalis, Fubr.
Palinurus ornatus, Fabr.

affinis, N.S.
Crnn<ion . . . . ?
Alpheus . . . . ?
Pontoni-i inflata, Ediv.
Palaemon ^arcinus, Fabr.
Steiiopus . . . . ?
Peneus . . . . ?

STOilATOPODA.

Sqixilla . . . . ?
Gonodactylus chiragra, Fabr.

CmUHIPEDIA.

Lepas .
Balanus,

ANNELIDA.

Tutaicola".

Dorsibiancliiata.

Abranchia.

Hi r lido sanguisorba.
Thwaitesii.

Haemopsis puludnm.

Haemadipsa Ce^lana, Blainv.
Lumbricus . . . . ?

NOTE

ON THE FACUI.TY OF REPEATED EE-VIVIFICATION POSSESSED BY
THE ROTIFER A J ETC.

The Rotifer., a singular creature, altliougli it can only
truly live in water, inhabits the moss on house-tops, dying
each time the sun dries up its place of retreat, to revive as
often as a shoAver of rain supj^lies it with the moisture essential
to its existence ; thus employing several years to exhaust the
eighteen days of life which nature has allotted to it. These
creatures were discovered by Leuwenhoeck, and have become
the types of a class already numerous, which undergo the
same conditions of life, and possess the same faculty. Besides
the Rotifera, the Tardicjrades, (which belong to the Acari,)
and certain paste-eels, all exhibit a similar phenomenon.

Chap. XIII.] ROTIFERA AND PASTE-EELS. 487

But although these different species may die and be re-
suscitated several times in succession, this power has its
limits, and each successive experiment generally proves fatal
to one or more individuals. Spallanzani, in his experiments
on the Rotifera, did not find that any survived after the six-
teenth alternation of desiccation and damping, but paste-eels
bore seventeen of these vicissitudes.

Spallanzaxi, after thoroughly drying sand rich in Rotiferay
kept it for more than three years, moistening portions taken
from it every five or six months. Baker went further still
in his experiments on paste-eels, for he kept the paste from
which they had been taken, without moistening it in any
way, for twenty-seven years, and at the end of that time the
eels revived on being immersed in a di-op of water. If they
had exhausted their lives all at once and icithout these inter-
missions, these Rotifera and paste-eels ivould not have lived
beyond sixteen or eighteen consecutive days.

To remove all doubt as to the complete desiccation of the
animalcules experimented on by Spallaxzani and BakePc, M.
DoYERE has published, in the Annales des Sciences Naturales
for 1842, the results of his own observation, in cases in
which the mosses containing the insects were dried under the
receiver of an air-pump and left there for a Aveek ; after which
they were placed in a stove heated to 267° Fahr., and yet,
when again immersed in water, a number of the Rotifera be-
came as lively as ever.

Further particulars of these experiments will be found in
the Appendix to the Rambles of a Naturalist, &c., by M.
Quartrefage.

II 4

INDEX.

Abou-zeyd, his account of fish on dry land,
350 n.

Abyssinia, fishes of, 352.

Acalephce, 398. See Radiata.

Acanthopterygii, 360.

Accipitres, 245.

Acherontia Sathanas, 427.

Adam's Peak, elephants on the summit,
109.

.Elian's account of the mermaid, 69.

— — his s'^atement as to the export of ele-
phants from Ceylon, 77 n., 209 n.

—^ error as to the shedding of the elephant's
tusks, 79 n.

— — describes elephants killing criminah
with their kiiees: 87 n.

error as to elephants' joints, 102.

his account of Ceylon tortoises, 293.

— — his account of the superiority of the

elephants of Ceylon, 201) n.
■ his description of the performances of

the trained elephants at Rome, 237.

his account of the sword-fi-h, 328.

describes a Cheironectes, 331.

African elephant, its peculiarities, &5.

not inferior to the Indian in tractabi-

lity, 208.
Albino buffalo, 57.
■ deer, 59.

Albyrouni, on the pearl oyster, 375.
Alee, described by Pliny and Casar, 101 n.
Alexandria, story of the dogs at, 34.
Alligator. 283. See Crocodile.
Almeida, Manoel de, on burying fishes,

a.'iS n.
Amboina, mermaids at, 70.
AmpuUaria, its faculty of burying itself,

355.
Anabas. 3.54.

- DaldorFs account of, doubted, 349,

350.

accidents from, 351 w.

Angling bad in Ceylon, oS5 n., 341.
Annelii1<e, leeches, 479.

land-leech, its varieties, 482.

Annelida, land leech, its teeth and eyes,

480.
— ^ its tormenting bite, 482.

list of, 485.

Ansercs, 260

Ansted, Prof., on the geology of Ceylon,
61.

his statement as to the height of Indian

ele|)hants, 100 w.

Antiochus, elephants u.«ed by, 208.

Antipater, the first to bring the Indian ele-
phant to Europe, 207.

Ant-lion, 411. See Insects.

Ants, 420 See Insects.

red, 4'20, 422.

white, 412. See Termites.

their faculty in discovering food, 421.

Armandl's work on the use of elephants in

war, 208 n.
Aphaniptera, 4.33.
A}-ack?iidce, spiders, 464.

extraordinnry webs, I'b.

0/ios Tap}-uhanius, 470.

Mygale fasciatn , 465.

erroneously called " tarentula," ib.

anecdote of, 466.

spiders, the Mygale, 465.

birds killed by it, 468.

Galeodes, 470.

ticks, their multitude, 471.

mites, 472.

TrombidiuTn tinctorum, 472.

list of, 485.

Argus cowrie, .369.
Aripo, the sea-shore, 373.

Aristotle, account of fishes migrating over-
land, 344.

sounds made by elephants. 97.

his error as to the elephant's knees,

101.
Armitage, Mr., story of an elephant on his

estate, 139.
Articulata, list of, 485.
Athenjeus, anecdotes of fishes on dryland,

346.

490

INDEX.

Avicula, 373. See Pearl Fishery.
Avitchia, story of, 24i. See Jackdaw.
Ayeen Akbery, elephant stomach described
in, 128.

Baker, Mr., his theory of the passion for

sporting, 142 n.
—^ its accuracy questionable, 142 n.
Badger, the Ceylon, 38. See Mongoos.
Bandicoot rat, 44.
Barbezieux, on the elephant, 104.
Batocera rubus, 406.
Batrachia, 318.

Bats, 13. See Mammalia and Cheiroptera.
•— orange-coloured bats, 14.

bats do not liybernate in Ceylon, 18.

horse-shoe bat, 19.

sense of smell and touch, 19.

- small bat, Scotophilus Coromandelicus,

20.

their parasite (Nycteribia), 20-22.

Batticaloa, musical fish, 380.

Bears, 22. See Mammalia.

— — ferocity of, 23.

■ charm to protect from, 25 n.

Beaters for elephants, 150.

Beaver, on Africaii elephant, 234.

Beckman's account of fishes on dry land,

346.
Bees, 419. See Insects.
Beetles, 405. See Insects.

instincts of the scavenger beetle, 405.

— ^ coco-nut beetle, 4U7.

— ^ tortoise beetle, 408.

Bell, Sir Charles, on the elephant's shoulder,
108.

Benary, his derivation of the word ele-
phant, 76 n.

Bengal mode of taking elephants, 164.

Bennett's account of Ceylon, Introd.

work on its Ichthyology, 22o.

Bernier, on the Ceylon elpphant, 209.
Bertolacci, on form of chank shell, 372.
Bestiaries, 104.

Bicho de Mar. See Holothuria.
Birdsof Ceylon, 241.

their number and character, ib.

few songsters, 242.

pea-fowl. 244.

eagles and hawks, 245.

owls, devil bird, 246, 247.

swallows, 248.

edible birds' nests, 248.

- kingfisher, sun birds, 249.

— — bulbul, tailor bird, weaver bird, 251.
crows, anecdotes of, 253.

- paroquets, 2."6.

pigeons, 257.

jungle-fowl, 259.

grallce, flamingoes, 260.

list of Ceylon birds, 265.

Bird-eating spiders, 468.

Birds' nests, edible, 248.

Blainville, De, on the age of the elephant,

232.
Blair, on the anatomy of the elephant, 123 n.
Bles, Marcelkis, on the elephants of Cey-
lon. 113 n., 215 n.
Blood-suckers, 275.
Blyth, Mr., of Calcutta, his cultivation of

zoology, 4.

his revision of this work, Introd.

Boa, 303. See Python.

Boar, wild, 59.

Bochart, 68.

his derivation of the word " elephant,"

76 n.
Bora.chung, a curious fish, 367-
Bosquez, Demas, account of a mermaid, 70.
Bowring, Sir .John, on the fishes of Siam,S48.
Broderip, on the elephant, 122.
Browne, Sir Thomas, vulgar errors, 100, 105.

error as to elephains' joints, 102.

Brun, Le, account of the elephants at

Colombo, 77 n.
Bruno or Braun, his account of the Guinea

worm, 397.
Buchanan, story of buffalo" rogues," 115 n.
Buffalo, 54. See Mammalia.

its temper, 54.

sporting buffaloe, 55.

peculiar structure of its foot, 56.

rogue buffalo, 115 n.

buffalo's stomach and its water-cells,

129 n.
Buffon, on the elephant, 113 «., 215.
Bugs, 433. See Insects and Coffee-bug.
Buist, Dr., account of fish fallen from

clouds, 36'2.
Bulbul, 251. See Birds.
Bttlltni, their vitality, 357.
Bnllia, curious property of, 370.
Bullocks for draught, 50.
Burying fishes, S51.
Butterflies, 403, 425. See Insects.

migration of, 403 n.

— — the spectre butterfly, 426.

Caecilia, 317. See Reptiles.

Caesar's description of the " alee,'" 100 n.

(^ajan, 373 n.

Caldera, in Chili, musical sounds under

water, 383.
Calotes, the green, 276.
Camel, attempt to domesticate in Ceylon,

5i n.

stomach of, 128.

antipathy to the horse, 83 n.

Camper, on the anatomy of the elephant's

stomach, 125.
Carawala, 296. See Reptiles.
Carnivora, 74.

IXDEX.

491

Carpenter bee, 418. See Insects.

Caterpillars, stings of, 429.

Cats attracted by the Ciippa-may-niya,

33.
Centipede, 474. See Myriapoda and Scolo-

pendrae.
Ceratop flora, 279.
Cerithia, SSl.

probably musical, 381 n.

Cermatia. 473. See Myriapoda.
Cetacea, hS, 74.

described by Megasthenes and ^lian,

69.
Chameleon, 278. See Reptiles.
Chank shell, Turbinella rapa, 371. See

Kox^iou; and Schenck.
Cheetah, 26. See Leopard.
Cheironectes, described by MY\ax\, 331.
Cheiroptera, 13, 74.
Chellfer, il5.
Chelonia, 322.
Chena cultivation, 130.
Cicada, 4.S2. See Insects.
Cirrhijieda, 486.
Cissa, 252.

Civet, 32. See Genette.
Climbing fish {Anabas scandens), 349.
Cluverius, 68.
Cobra de Capello, anecdotes of, 297-

legena of, 297 n.

— — a white cobra, 298 n.

a tame cobra, 299 n.

.— cobra crossing the sea, 300.
- — curious belief as to the cobra, 300,
3UI.

worship of, 303.

Cobra-tel, poison, 272. See Kabara-tel.
Coecilia glu^inosa, 317.

attacked and killed by ants, 422.

Coco-nut beetle, 407.

CofFee-bug, Lecanium Caffece, 436.

Coffee rat, 43.

Coleoptera, 405.
Columbidas, 257.
Conchnlogy. See Shells.
Cooroowe, elephant catchers, 181.
Corral for taking elephants, 1-56, 164. See
Elephant.

- process of its construction, 170.

.— mode of conducting the capture, 156,
169.

Corse, Mr., account of elephants, 114.

Cosmas Indico pleustes, his reference to
chanks at Marallo, 371.

Cotton. thief, 250. See Tchitrea.

Crabs, 477. See Crustacea.

Cripps, Mr., on sounds produced by ele-
phants, 98. *

. his story of an elephant which feigned

death, 135.

his account of fishes after rain, 343.

Crocodile, 282. See Reptiles.

its sensibility to tickling, 285.

habit of the crocodile to bury itself in

the mud, 286.

its flesh eaten. 284 n.

their vitality, 288 n.

one killed at Batticaloa, 287.

Crows, 253. See Birds.
anecdotes of, 254.

story of a crow and a dog, 255.

Cruelty to turtle, &c., 291.
Crustacea, calling crabs, 477.

Sand crabs (ocypode), 478.

- Painted crabs, 478.
Paddling crabs. 478.

Hermit crabs, 478.

Pea crabs, 479.

List of Ceylon Crustacea, 486.

Ctesias' error as to the elephant's knee, 101.
Cumming, Mr. Gordon, on the power of the

elephant in overturning trees, 218 n.
Cuppa-may niya plant, its attraction for

cats. So n.
Cuvier, on the elephant, 133.

on the structure of its tusks, 228.

on the elephant's age, 232.

Daldorf's account of climbing fish, 250.

his story doubted, 3.50.

Darwin, bur>ing-place of llamas and goats,

236 n.

on the coleoptera of Brazil, 405.

Davy, Dr. John, describes the reptiles of

Ceylon, 3.

stimulates study of natural history, 3.

operation on a diseased elephant, 224.

Dawson, Captain, story of an elephant, 107.
Deafness frequent in elephants, 98.
Death's-head moth, 427.
Decoy elephants, 157.
Decapoda brachyura, 486.

anomura, 486.

macrura, 486.

Deer, 57.

meminna, 58.

Ceylon elk, 59.

milk-white, 59 n.

Demon-worship, anecdote of, 408.
Denham, error as to height of elephants,

99.
Devil-bird, 246. See Owls.

Mr. Mitford's account of, 247 n.

Diard, M., sends home an elephant for dis-
section, 123 n.
Dicuil on the elephant, 103.
Diptera, 434.
Dogs, 33.

device of, to escape fleas, 433, 434.

dog- tax, SS.

republican instincts, 34.

disliked by elephants, 82, 84.

492

INDEX.

Donne, on the elephant, 105.
Doras, fish of Guiana, 347.
Dragon-flies, 411. See Insects.
Dugong, 68, 69.

abunciant at Manaar, 69.

' origin of Ihe fable of the mermaid,

69.
Dutch belief in the mermaid, 70.

Eagles, 245. See Birds.

Edentata, 46, 74.

Edrisi, the Arabian geographer, his account

of musk, 32 n.
Eels, 337, 347 n.

Eginhard, life of Charlemagne, 103.
Elephant, 64, 75
~— Sumatran species, 64.

points of distinction, 65.

those of Ceylon extolled, 209.

— — elephants on Adam's Peak, 109.
numbers in Ceylon, 76.

— EKi(pct;, derivation of the word, 76 n.
—^ antiquity of the trade in, 77.

— ^ numbers diminishing, 77.
— — mode of poisoning, 77 n.
tusks and their uses, 78.

— disposition gentle, 81.
accidents from, 81.

. antipathy to other animals, 82 ; to the

horse, 83.

jealousy of each other, 86.

mode of attacking man, 87.

anecdote of a tame elephant, 89.

— — African elephant differs from that of

Ceylon, 64.

. skin, 91.

white elephant, 92.

love of shade. 94.

— water, not heat, essential to them, 94.
sight limited — smell acute, 95.

—— anatomy of the brain, 95.

i power of smell, 96.

sounds uttered by, 96.

— subject to deafness, 98.
exaggeration as to size, 98.

— source of this mistake, 98 n.

— stealthy motions, 100.

— error as to the elephant's want of joints,

100.

— probable origin of this mistake, 106.
mode of lying down. 107.

ability to climb acclivities, 108.

mode of descnding a mountain, 110.

a herd is a family. 111.

attachment to young. 112.

young suckled by all the females in a

herd, 113.
theory of this, according to White,

113w.
a rogue, what, 114.

— savage attacks of rogues, 116.

Elephants, character of the rogues, 116,
147.

habits of the herd, 117.

anecdote of, 118.

elephant's mode of drinking, 120.

their method of swimming, 121.

wells sunk by, 122.

receptacle in the stomach, 122.

stomach, anatomy of, 124.

food of the elephant, 129.

— instinct in search of food, 130.
dread of fences, 131.

their caution exaggerated, 132.

spirit of curiosity in elephant.«, 132.

anecdote of Col. Hardy, 132, 133.

sagacity in freedom over-estimated,

134.
leave the forests during thunder, 134.

— cunning, fe:gn death, 135.

stories of encounters with wild ele-
phants, 136.

sporting, numbers shot, 142.

butchery by expert shots, 142 n.

fatal spots in the head, 144, 145.

peculiar actions of elephants, 148.

love of retirement, 149.

elephant-trackers, 150.

herd charging, 151.

carcase useless 153.

remarkable recovery from a wound,

154. See Lieut. Fretz.

mode of taking in India, 157-162.

height measured by the circumference

of the foot, 159.

mode of shipping elephants at Manaar,

162.

mode of shipping elephants at Galle, in

1701, 163 re.

keddah for taking elephants in Bengal,

164.

a corral (kraal) described, 165, 166.

derivation of the word corral, 165 n.

corral, its construction, 167, 172.

corral, driving in the elephants, 173.

the capture, 177.

mode of securing, 181.

the " cooroowe," or noosers, 181.

tame elephants, their conduct, 182,

191.

captives, their resistance and demea-
nour, 184.

dread of white rods, 186.

their contortions, 190

—— a young one, 206.

conduct in captivity, 207.

mode of training, 211.

— their employment in ancient warfare,

207.

superiority of Ceylon, a fallacy, 209.

elephant driver's crook (hendoo), 212.

hairy elephants in Ceylon, 215 n.

IXDEX.

493

Elephants, capricious disposition of, 215.

first labour intrusted to them, 217.

— — his comprehension of his duties, 218.
exaggeration of his strength in uproot-
ing trees, 218 n.

Mahouts and their duties, 221.

— — tl eir cry of urre! 222 n.

elephant's sense of musical notes, 223.

— its endurance of pain, 'J24.

diseases in captivity. 225.

subject to tooth -ache, 227.

— questionable economy of keeping

trained elephants for labour, 229.

their cost, 2o0.

— - their food, 230 n.

fallacy of their alleged reluctance to

breed in captivity, 131.
— - duration of life in the elephant, 232.

— theory of M. Fleurens, 232.

instances of very old elephants in

Ceylon, 233.

— dead elephant never found, 234.
Sinbad's story, 236.

^— passage from .Slian regarding the, 237.
Elk, 59. See Deer ; Mammalia.
Emydosauri, 321.
Emys trijuga, 290.

Englishman, anonymous, his story of a
fight between elephants and horses, 84.

Falconer, Dr., height of Indian elephant,

99 w.
Falkland Islands, peculiarity in the cattle

there, 372 ».
Fauna of Ceylon, not common to India,

Jntrod. 62.

peculiar and independent, Introd. 62.

'— have received insutficieni attention, 3.
first studv due to Ur. Davy, 3.

— subsequent, due to Templeton, Layard,

and Kelaart, 3, 4.

Fishes of Ceylon, little known, 323.

seir fish, and others for table, 324.

abinidance of perch, soles, and sar-
dines, 324.

.— ^ explanation of Odoric's statement, 324 n.

• sardines, said to be poisonous, 324.

shark, and sawfish, 325.

sawtish, 325.

—^ ray, 326.

swordfish, 328.

cheironectes of .S^lian, 331.

fishes of rare forms, and of beautiful

colours, 332-

— — fresh- water fishes, their peculiarities,
335.

. fresh.water, little known, tb. ; reason,

335 ra.

— eels, 337.

— reappearance of fishes after the dry

season, 340.

Fishes, similar mysterious re-appearances
elsewhere, 342 n

method of taking them by hand, 340.

a fish decoy, 342.

fish filling from clouds, 342 n., 362.

buried alive in mud, 347.

Mr. Yarrell's theory controverted, 344.

travelling overland, 545.

the fact was known to the Greeks

and Romans, 345.

instances in Guiana and Siam, 347.

faculty of all migratory fish for disco-
vering water, 347 n.

on dry land in Ceylon, 348.

fish ascendmg trees, 349.

— excer()t from letter by Mr. Morris, 348 ?i.

Anabas tcandens, 349, 3.50.

Daldorf's statement, anticipated by

Abou-zeyd. 350 n.

■ accidents when fishing, 351 n

burying fishes and travelling fish, 351.

occurrence of similar fish in Abys-
sinia and elsewhere, 352.

statement of the patriarch Mendes,

553 n.

knowledge of habits of Melania era-
ployed judicially by E. L. Layard,
S55 n.

— illustrations of asstivating fish and

animals, 356.

a;stivating shell-fish and water-beetles,

351.

fish in hot water, 358.

list of Ceylon fishes, 359.

• Professor Huxley's memorandum on

the fishes of Ceylon, 364.

Dr. Gray's memorandum, 366.

Note on the Bora-chung,S67.

Fishing, native mode of, 340.

Fish insect, 47.5.

Flamingoes, 261. See Birds.

Fleas, '\S3. See Insects.

Fleurens, on the duration of life in the ele-
phant, 232.

Flies, their instinct in discovering carrion,
196 n.

mosquitoes, the plague of, 434.

Flowers, fondness of monkeys for, 7.

Flying Fox. Pleropus Edwardsii, 14. See
Mammalia.

its sizes, 14.

skeleton of, 15.

food, 16.

habits, 16.

numbers, 16.

strange attitudes, 17.

• food and habits, 18.

drinking toddy, 18.

Fly'ng squirrels, 41.

Fresh-water fishes, 33-5.

Fretz, Lieut., his singular wound, 154.

494

IXDEX.

Frogs, 318.

-= — tree frogs, 319, 320.

Galle, elephants shipped In 1701, 163 n,

Gallinse, 259.

Galloperdix bicalcaratu?, 259.

Gallwey, Capt. P. P., great number of
elephants shot by him, 142.

Game birds, 265.

Gardner, Dr., his account of the coffee
bug, 436-441.

Gaur, 49 See Mammalia.

— — Knox's account of the gaur, 49.

Geckoes, 281.

Gemma Frisius, 68.

Genette, 32.

Geology of Ceylon, errors as to, 60.

• previous accounts, 61.

traditions of ancient submprsion,61, 67.

Ceylon has a fauna distinct from

India, 62.

*' Golden Meadows" 211 n. See Massoude.

Golunda rat, 43.

Goonda/i, 114. See Rogue.

Gooneratne, Mr., Introd.

his story of the jackal, So.

Gordon Gumming, his butchery of ele-
phants in Africa, 146 n.

Gowra-ellia, 49.

Grallse, 260.

Gray, Dr. J. E., Brit. Mus., Introd.

notice of Ceylon fishes, 366.

Great fire-fish, 332.

Guinea worm, 397.

Giinther, Dr. A., on Ceylon reptiles, 275 n.,
304.

Gwillim's Heraldry, error as to elephants,
105 ».

Hambangtotte, elephants of, 99.

Hardy, Col , anecdote of, when chased by

an elephant, 133.
Hardy, Rev. Spence, describes a white

monkey, 8.
Haroun Alraschid, sends an elephant to

Charlemagne, 103.
Harrison, Dr., 95.

—^ his anatomy of the elephant, 123 n., 126.
■ his account of elephant's head, 142.

of the elephant's ear, 2J3.

Hastisilpe, a work on elephants, 87 n., 91.
Hawking. 246.

Hawks. 5^6- Birds, 246.

Hedge-hog, 46.

Helix haemastoma, its colouring, 372.

Hemiptera, 433, 462.

Hendoo, crook for driving elephants, 212.

Herd, a, of elephants, is a faiiiiiy, 111.

its mode of electing a leader, 117.

Herodotus, on mosquitoes, 435.

Herodotus, antipathy of the elephant to the
camel, 83 n.

Herpestes, 38.

Herport, Albrecht, his work on India, 71 n.

Hesperidce, 426.

Hill, Sir John, error as to elephants, 98.

Hippopotamus rogues, 115 n.

Histiophorus, 330. See Sword-fi.'-h.

Holland, Dr., his theory as to the forma-
tion of tusks, 89 n.

Holothuria, sea-slug and Trepang, 396.

Home, Sir Everard, on the elephant's
stomach, 124.

error as to the elephant's ear, 223.

Home, Randal, error as to elephant, 105 n.
Homojjtera, 4 32, 463 .

Honey-comb, great size of, 418.
Hooker, Dr. J. D.. on the elephants of the
Himalaya, 110 n.

error as to white ants' nests, 413.

on ticks in Nepal, 471 w., 472.

Hora, 115. See Rogue.

Horace, alludes to a white elephant, 92 n,
Hornl)ill, Buceros, 242, 243.
Horse, alleged antipathy to the elephant,
83.

to the camel, 83 n.

story of, and an elephant, 89,

horses taught to fight with elephants,

84.

Hotambeya, 40. See Mongoos.

Hot-water fishes, 358.

Hunt, mode of conducting an elephant-
hunt, 1.57.

Hunter, Dr. John, his theory of aestivation,
556.

Hurra! 223 «.

Huxley, Prof., Introd.

his memorandum on the fishes of

Ceylon, 364.
Hydrophobia in jackals, 36.
Hymenoptera, 416.

lantlnna, 370.

Ichneumon, 39. iS(?^ Mongoos.

Iguana, 271. See Reptiles.

Infusoria, Red, in the Ceylon seas, 400.

Insects of Ceylon, 403.

their prolusion and beauty, 403.

hitherto imperfectly described, 404.

coleoptera, "105.

Beetles, scavengers, 405.

coco-nut beetle, tortoise beetle, 407.

tortoise beetle, 408.

Orthoptera, 408.

the soothsayer, leaf-insect, 410.

Neurnptera, 411.

dragon-flies, 411.

ant-lion, 411.

white ant, termites, 411.

INDEX.

495

Insects, Ht/menoptera, mason-wasp, 416.
— — wasps, bees, wasps' nest, 418.
^— carpenter bee, 418.

ants, 420.

value of scavenger ants toconchologists,

421.
— dimiya or red ant, 422,

introduced to destroy cofFee-bug, 423.

Lepif/opWrn, buiterflies, 424.

. lyc(Enida\ hesperida:, 426.

acherontia sathnnas, 427.

moths, silk-worm, 427.

stinging caterpillars, 429.

oiketicus, 430.

Homoptera, cicada, the" knife-grinder,"

4.32.

Plata, 433.

Aphaniptera — fleas, 433.

Diptera — mosquitoes, 434.

Coffee bug, 436-441.

Mr. Walker's memorandum on Ceylon

insects, 442.

. list, 447.

Ivory, annual consumption, 78 n.
superiority of Chinese, ib.

Jackal, o5.

its cunning, S5.

probably the " fox " of Scripture, 55.

—— its sagacity in liunting, o(y.

subject to hydrophobia, SQ.

jackal's horn, the narriccornboo, 37.

— — superstitions connected with, 37.
Jackdaw, fab'e of, 244. See Avitchia.
Jardine, .Sir W., error as to elephants shed-
ding their tusks, 79 n.
Jay, the mountain, 252. See Cissa.
Joinville, on the parasite of the bat, 20.
Jnlus, 477.

Jungle fowl, 259 See Birds.
Juvenal's allusion to fishes on land, 346.

Kabragoya, 272, 273. See Iguana.

Kabara-tel, poison, 274.

Kanats in Persia, 339 n.

Keddah, for taking elephants, 164.

Kelaart, Dr., work on the Zoology of Cey-
lon, 4.

'— examination of the Radiata, o95.

discoveries as to the pearl oyster, 375.

Kingfisher, 249- See Birds.

Kinnis, Dr., cultivates zoology. 4.

Kite, on Egyptian sculpture, £46 n.

Knife-grinder, 432. See Cicada

Knox, R.. arconnt of Ceylon fauna, Introd.

his description of the VVanderoo, 5.

of elephants executing criminals, 87.

— — of the mode of catching elephants,
157.

Knox, his description of natives fishing, 340.

Kox^">'j?^ 371.

Kombook tree, its bark, 170.

Korahl, 165. See Kraal and Corral.

derivation of the word, 165 n.

Kornegalle, beauty of the place, 167.
Kottiar, immense oysters, 371 n. See Cottiar.
Kraal, 165. See Corral and Korahl.
Krank-bezoeker, 71 h.

Layard, E. A., his knowledge of Ceylon

zoology, 4.

his collections of Ceylon birds, 241.

story of fish on dry land, 348.

anecdote of burying molluscs, 355.

Leaf inset-t, 408-410. See Insects.
Leaping fish, 33-2. See Salarias alticus.
Lecanimn Caffece, 436.
Leeches, 479. See Annelida.

land leech, 479.

medicinal leech, 483.

cattle leech, 844.

Leopard, 25.

in Ceylon confounded with the cheetah,

26.

superstitions regarding, 26.

anecdotes of their ferocity, 27.

attracted by the small-pox, 28.

- story of ^lajor Skinner, 29.

monkeys killed by leopards, 31.

Lepidoptera, 424.

Lepisni'r, the fish insect, 474.

Lima, General de, his account of the weight
of elephants' tusks at Mozambique,
79 m.

Livingstone's account of the " rogue " hip-
popotamus, 115 n.

Llama of the Anders, its stomach, 128 n.

Livy, account of fishes on dry land, 346.

Lizards, 271. See Reptiles.

Lophobranchi, 3o2

Loris, 12. See Mammalia.

two varieties in Ceylon, 12.

torture indicted on it, 13.

Lucan, description of the ichneumon, 39.
Lyccenidce, 426.
Lyre-headed lizard, 277.

Macabbees iii. Book, allusion to elephants,

87 n., 211 Ti.
Macacus monkey, 5.
Machlis described by Csesar, 101.
Macready, Major, account of a noise made

by elephants, 97.

his opinion as to the vulnerable point

in the elephant's head. l4o «.
Mahawanso, mentions a white elephant, 93.
Mahout, an elephant driver, 181. See Pon-

nekella.

496

INDEX.

Mahout, alleged short life, 222.
Malacopterygii abdominales, 362.

sub-brunchiatif 362.

apod a, o62.

Mammalia, 3.

- Monkeys, 5.
— — Rilawa, 5.

Wanderoo, 6.

error as to the Ceylon Wanderoo, 6. n.

Wanderoo, mode of flight among trees, 9

— ^ monkeys never (ound dead, 11.

— • Lor is, I'i.

tortures inflicted on it, 13.

- Bat, flying fox, 11.
ske'eton of, 14.

attracted by toddy to the coco-nut

pahns, 18.
• horse-shoe bat, 18.

- parasite of the bat, Nyctcribia, 20, 21.
~— bears, 22.

.— bears dreaded in Ceylon, 24.

leopards, 25.

attracted by the odour of small pox, 28.

- anecdote of a leopard, 29.

lesser felines, 32.

dogs. Pariah, 34.

jackal, 34.

the jackal's horn, 36.

— — Moiigoos, 37.

assaults of Mongoos on the serpent, 38.

squirrels, 41.

the flying squirrel, 41.

- rats, the rat snake, 42.
.^— coffee rat, 43, 44.

- bandicoot, 44, 45.
— — porcupine, 4o.

pengnlin, 46-48.

- the gaur, 49.
— — the ox, .W.
—— anecdote of, 51.

draft oxen, 61-53.

the buffalo, .54.

■^— sporting buffaloes, 55.

peculiarity of the buffalo's foot, 56.

.— deer, .57.

. meminna, 51, 58.

Ceylon elk. 59.

wild boar, 59.

_ elephant, -59, 75.

whale and dugong, 68, 69.

peculiarities of Ceylon mammalia, 73.

list of, 73.

Manaar, mermaid taken at, 69.
,— elephants shipped at, 162.
^— pearl fishery, 373.
Manis. See Pengolin, 46.
Mantis, 410.

Massoudi, on the use of elephants in war,
211 n.

his account of pearl-diving, 377 ».

Mastacembeltis, 338. See Eels,

Megasthenes' account of the mermaid, 69.

Mehemet Ali, story of, 34.

Melania Paludina, its habit of burying itself,
355.

its hybernation, 355.

Melania. story of a law suit decided by, 355 ».

Meleagrina, 373 n. See Pearl fishery.

Meminna deer, 58.

M creator, 68.

Mercer, Mr., his story of an elephant fight,86«

Mermaid, 68. See Dugong.

Mermaids, at Manaar, 69.

at Amhoina, 70.

at Booro, 71.

.^— at Edam, 72.

Millipeds, Juliis, ilT.

Mites, 472.

Mollusca. See Shells.

Molyneux, on the anatomy of the elephant,
122 n.

Mongoos, 38. See Ichneumon.

species at Neuera-ellia, Herpestes Vitti-

colUs, 38.

'— story of its antidote against the bite of
serpents, 39.

its mode of killing snakes, 39.

Monkeys, ,'>.

never found dead, 11.

a white monkey, 8.

Moors of Galle. make ornaments of the ele-
phant's teeth, 153.

Moors, as caravan drivers, 53.

Moose deer, 58. S^e Mem nna.

Morris, '^'r., account of fishes on land, 348.

Mosquitoes, their cunning, 434.

Herodotus, account of, 436.

probably the plague of flies, 434 n.

Moths, 427. See Insects.

Munster, Sebastian, 68.

Musical fishes, 380.

account of, at Batticaloa, 380.

.^^ similar phenomena at other places,
383 n.

fishes known to utter sounds, 384.

Tntonia arborescens, 385.

Musk. 32.

Mygale, spider, 465.

Myriapods, 472.

Narric-comboo, 37. See Jackal's Horn.
Natural history neglected in Ceylon, 3.
Neela-cobeya, pigeon, 258.
Neuroptera, 41 i.

Nietner, on Ceylon insects, Introd.
Nt/cteribia, parasite of the bat, 20, 21.
its extraordinary structure, 22.

Odoric of Portenau, his cure for leech bites,
481.

his account of birds with two heads, 243.

his account of fishes in Ceylon, 324 n.

INDEX.

497

Oiketicus, 430.

Oil-bird, 269.

Ophidia, 321.

Ortelius, 68.

Orthoptera, 408.

Ouaiideroo. See Wanderoo.

Owen, Professor, on the structure of the

elephant's tusk, 228.

on the Protopterus of the Gambia, 352.

Owls. See Birds.

Oxen, their uses and diseases, .'50.

anecdote of a cow and a leopard, 51.

white, eight feet high, seen by Wolf,

52 n.
Oysters at Bentotte, 371.
immense, at Kottiar, 371 n.

Pachydermata, 59, 74.

Padivil, the great tank, 262.

Pallegoix, on the elephants of Siam, 98 n.

on the fishes of Siam, 347.

Palm-cat, 32.

Panickeas, elephant catchers, 150, 158.

their skill, 159.

Pariah dogs, 33.

Paris, Matthew, on the elephant, 103.

Paroquets, their habits ; anecdote of, 256.

Passeres, i:48.

Patterson, R., Esq., Introd.

Pea-fowl. 244. See Birds.

fable of the jackdaw, 244.

Pearl fishery of Ceylon, its antiquity, 373.

— .— dreary scenery of Aripo, 373.

— disappearances of the pearl-oyster,

374.
— — capable of transplantation, 376.

operation of diving, 377-

endurance of the divers under water,

377.
^— growth of the pearl-oyster, 379.

pearls of Tamblegam, 380.

Pelicans, 262.

•^— strange scene at their breeding place,

263.
Pengolin, 46.

its habits and food, 47.

skeleton of, 48.

Phile, his account of the elephant, 103.
—— error as to its joints, 1U7.

describes its drinking, 121 n.

its dispositions, 216 n.

on the elephant's ear, 224.

on elephants burying their dead, 235.

Phillipe, on the elephant of Ceylon, 209.

Phyllium, 410. See Leaf Insect.

Physalus urticulus, 400. See Portuguese

Man-of-war.
Pictet, Mon., his derivation of the word

" elephant," 76 n.
Pigeons, 257. See Birds.

Pigeons, Lady Torrington's pigeon, 258.

Placuna placenta, pearls of, 380.

Planaria, 398. See Radiata.

Pliny's nereids, 72 n.

error as to elephants shedding their

tusks, 79 n.
error as to their antipathy to other

animals, 85.

error as to elephant's joints, 100.

account of the 7nach/is, 101 n.

his knowledge of the vulnerability of

the elephant's head, 144 n.

of fishes on dry land, 346.

Ponnekella. See Mahout.

Polybius' account of fishes on dry land, 346.
Pomponius, Mela, account of fishes on land,

346.
Porcupine, 45.
Portuguese belief in the mermaid, 69.

Man-of-war, 400.

Pott, his derivation of the word elephant,

76 n.
Presbytes cephalopterus, 7.
ursinus, 6, 9.

Thersites, 6. 10.

its fondness of attention, 10.

Prianius, 10.

its curiosity, 11.

Protopterus of the Gambia, 352.
P.seudophidia, 322.

Pterois volitans, 333.

Pteruphorus, 430. See Insects.

Pteropus, 14. See Flying Fox.

Pyrard de Laval, on the Ceylon elephant,

2C9.
Python, its great size, 303.

Quadrumana, 5, 74.
Quatrefdge on the Rotifera, 487.

Radiata, star-fish, 395.

sea-slugs, holothuria, 396.

parasitic worms, 396.

Guinea worm, 397.

planaria, 398.

acalephie, 398.

Portuguese Man-of-war, 400.

Red itifusoria, 400.

Raja-kariya, forced labour, in elephant

hunts, 170.
Raja-welle estate, story of an elephant at,

133 w.
Ramavana, Ceylon elephants mentioned in,

210.
Rat«, 42.
eaten as food in Oovah and Bintenne,

43.

liable to hydrophobia, 43.

ccfFee rat, 43.

bandicoot, 44.

Rat-snake, anecdote of^ 43.

K K

498

INDEX.

Rat-snake, domesticated, 299 n.

Ray, 3J6, 327.

Reinaudj on the ancient use of the ele-
phant in Indian wars, 205 m.

Reptiles of Ceylon described by Dr. Davy,
Jntrod.

.— lizards, iguana, 271.

kabara-tel, poison, 272.

blood-suckers, 275.

^— calotes, the green, 276.

lyre-headed lizard, 277.

chameleon, 27S.

— - ceratophora, 279.

gecko, anecdotes of, 281, 282.

crocoilile, anecdotes of, 282,283.

crocodile and alligator, skulls of, 283.

tortoises, 289.

parasites of the tortoise, 289.

Terrapins, '290.

cruel mode of cutting up turtle, 291.

.— — turtle, said to be poisonous, 292.

hawk's-bill turtle, 293.

cruel mode of takuig tortoise-shell, 293.

snakes, few poisonous, 294.

— tic-polonga, 296.

cobra de capello, 297.

legends of the cobra, 297—298 «.

uropeltis, 301.

the pyihon, ,'303.

haplocercus, 304.

tree-snakes, 305.

water snakes, 308.

sea snakes, 308.

the snake-stone and its composition,

312-317.

ccecilia, 317.

frogs, 318.

tree frogs, 319.

— -list of Ceylon reptiles, 321.

— ^ snakes peculiar to Ceylon, 322.

Rhinolophus, 19. See Horse-shoe Bat.

Ribeyro's account of pearl-diving, 378.

Rilawa monkey, 5.

Rodentia, il, 74:.

Rogers, Major, story of his horse, SI.

his death by lightning, 84 n.

— — anecdote of an elephant killed by him,
107.

great numbers of elephants shot by him,

142.

" A Rogue " elephant. See Elephant, 114.

— — derivation of the term " Rogue," 114.

Hon kedor, 114 . See " Rogue "

Ronquedue, 114. See " liogue."

dangerous encounters with, 136.

Rotifera, marvellous fact Ity in, 486.

Rousette. See Flying-fox and Pteropus, 14.

Ruminantia, 49, 74.

Salarias Alticus, 332.
almas ius, 68.

Sardines, said to be poisonous, 324.

Saw fish, 325. See Fishes.

Scaliger, Julius, 68.

Scansores, 256.

Scnrus knri'd, 335.

Schenek, 371. See Chank.

Schlegel's essay on the elephant, 208 n.

Schlegel, Prof., of Leyden, his account of

the Sumatran elephant, 66.
Schmarda, Prof, 5.
Schoml)urgk, Sir R., on the tishes of

Guiana, 347.
Sciurus Tetinentii, 41 re.
Scolopendrce, centipede, 474.
Scorpions. 474.
Sea slugs, holofhuria, 397.
Sea snakes, 508.
Seir-fish, 324.

Seneca, account of fishes on dry land, 346.
Septuagint, allusion to elephants in, 87,

210 M.
Serpents, 294. See Reptiles.
Shakspeare, on the elephant, 105.

describes its capture in pit-falls, 157 n.

Sharks, 3^5.

Shark charmer, 378.

Shaw, error as to elephants shedding their

tusks, 79 n.
Shells of Ceylon, 369.
lanlhina, 370.

Bullia viiiata, 370.

chanks, 371.

oysters, immense, 371 n.

Helix haemaNtoma, 372.

Pearl fishery, 373.

Musical shells, 381.

Mr. Henley's memorandum, 386.

.— uncertainty as to SDecies, 387.

list of Ceylon shells. 388.

Siam, fishes on dry land, 347.

Silk, cultivated by the Dutch, 429.

Silkworm. See Insects-

Sindbad's story of the elephants' burying-
place, 236.

Skinner, Major, knowledge of Ceylon. In-
trod. n.

adventure with a leopard, 30.

great number of elephants killed by

him, 142.

description of the Panickeas or ele-
phant catchers, 15S, 159 ».

- — anecdotes of elephants, 118.

collection of Ceylon fish, 339.

Small-pox attracts the leopard, 28.

native supeistition, 29.

Snakes, 294. See Reptiles,

lew venomous, 296.

tic-polonga, 296.

cobra de capello, 297.

legends of, "297 n.

stories of, 298.

INDEX.

499

Snakes, tamed snakes, 299 n.

snakes crossing the sea, 300.

curious tradition of the cobra-de-

capello, 300.

uropeltis, and explanation of the popu-
lar belief, 302.

- reluctance of Buddhists to kill snakes,

303.

python or " boa," 303.

tree snakes, 305.

the Passeritafusca, 306.

water snakes, 308.

sea snakes, 308.

their geographical distribution, 309.

their habits, 310.

— ^ caecilia, 317-

Snake-stone, its alleged virtue, 312.

anecdotes of its use, 31'2.

—— analysis of, by Professor Faraday,
315. '

Sofala, pearls at, 375 n.

Solinus, on the elephant, 103. .

Soothsayer insect, 410.

Spectre butterfly, 426.

Spiders. See Arachnida, 464. '.

at Gampola, 465.

. at Pusilawa, 471.

Squirrel, 41.

the flying squirrel, 41.

Star- fish, 396. See Radiata.

Stick insect, 410. See Insects.

Stinging caterpillars, 429.

Strabo, his account of fishes on dry land,
346.

Strachan, Mr., account of the elephants
shipped at Ceylon, 163 n, 210 n.

Stucklev, on the anatomy of the elephant,
123 n.

Sumatra confounded with Ceylon, 67.

ele|)hant of, 64.

points in which it differs from that of

India, 65.

Sun bird, 249. See Birds.

Superstitions : — Singhalese folk-lore regard-
ing bears, 24 n.

—— leopards, 27, 29.

. mongoos, 38.

kabra-goya, 273.

—^ cubra-de-capello, 300.

use of snake-stones, 315.

— — • elephants' burial-place, 236.
Suriya trees, caterpillars on, 429.
Syrnum ludranee, 246. See Devil-bird.
Swallows, 248. See Birds.
Sword-fish, 328.

Tailor-bird, 251. S^-e Birds.
Tamblegam, lake of, 380 .

pearls, 380.

Tarentula, Mygalejasciata, 465.

Tarentula, fight with a cockroach, 467.

numerous at Gampola, 465.

Tavalam, a caravan of bullocks, 53.
Tavernier, error as to Ceylon elephants, 203,

214.
Taylor, the translator of Aristotle, his error

as to elephants' joints, 102.
Tchitrea paradisi, 250.
Temminck, his discovery of the Sumatran

elephant, 64.

his account of it, 65.

Templeton, Dr. R. A., his knowledge of

Ceylon, Introd.

his valuable aid in the present work, U).

his cultivation of zoology, 4.

— — notice of Ceylon monkeys, 6.
Termites, white ants, their ravages, 412.

whence comes their moisture, 412 n.

Terrapins, 290.

Terrier, attacks an elephant, 85.

Testudinata, 289.

Thaun, Philip de, on the elephant, 104.

Theobaldus' Physiologus, 104.

Theophrastus' account of fishes on dry

land, 344, 345.
Thevenot, on the Ceylon elephant, 203.
Thomson's " Seasons,"" error as to the ele-
phant, 106.
Thunberg, account of the snake-stone, 317.
Tkysanura, 484.
Ticks, 475.

Tic-polonga, 296. See Reptiles.
Tiger at Trincomalie, 25 n.
Toad, 319.
Torrington, Viscount, his tax on dogs,

33.
Tortoises, 289, 291. See Turtla

parasite of, 289.

• fresh-water tortoises, 290. See Terra-

pins.
Tortoise-shell, cruel mode of taking, 293.
Tree frogs, 320.
Tree snakes, 304.
Trepang, 396. See Sea-slug.
Tritonin arboresceits, 385. See Musical

Fish.

letter on, 401.

Trombidium tinctorum. See Mites.

Trumpeting of elephants, 97, 201.

Trunk, elephant's, origin of the name,

97 re.
Tsetse fly of Africa, 40.
Turbinelia rapa, 571. See Chank.
Turtle, 291. See Reptiles.

barbarous treatment of, 291.

Tushes, 79.

Tusks, 79. See Elephant ; Ivory.

fallacy that they are shed, 79.

— weight of, 80.
— — their uses, 80.
singular shapes of, 88 ».

500

INDEX.

Tusks, Dr. Holland's theory of their forma-
tion, 88 n.
Tytler, Mr., story of an elephant, 133 n.

Uropeliis, 301.

Urre ! cry of the elephant drivers, 222.

Valentyn's account of the mermaid, 70.

Dutch mode of taking elephants. 164.

Venloos Bay, its profusion of shells, 369.
Vossius, Isaac, 68.

Waloora. See Wild-boar, 59.

dreaded by the Singhalese, 59.

Wanderoo monkey, 5.
Wasps, wasps' nest, 418.

mason-wasp, 416.

Water-fowl, 260,262.

Water snakes, 308.

Weaver-bird, 251.

Whales, 68. See Cetacea.

White, Adam, £8q., Brit Mus., Introd.

White, of Selboume, his theory of animals
suckled by strange mothers, 113 n.

White ants, 411. Se? Termites.

Whiting, Mr., account of buried fishes, 342
n., 354.

Wild-boar, 59.

Wolf, Jo. Christian, travels in Ceylon, 99 n..
115 w.

his account of elephants there, 99.

describes pitfalls for elephants, 157 n.

Wood-carrying moth, 430. See Insects.

Worms, parasite, 396. See Radiata.

Wound when elephant shooting, 1.54.

Wright, Thomas, Esq., F.S.A., 104.

Yarrell's theory of buried fish, 342.
Yule's embassy to Ava, 216 n.

Zimb fly,434.

Zoology neglected in Ceylon, 3. See Natural
History.

partial extent to which it has been

cultivated, Introd.

THE END.

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THE ALPS;

OK, SKETCHES OP LIFE ATSTD NATURE IN THE

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