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diff --git a/13325-0.txt b/13325-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09cfd3c --- /dev/null +++ b/13325-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23404 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13325 *** + +SKETCHES +OF THE +NATURAL HISTORY OF CEYLON + +WITH + +NARRATIVES AND ANECDOTES +Illustrative of the Habits and Instincts of the +MAMMALIA, BIRDS, REPTILES, FISHES, INSECTS, &c. + +INCLUDING A MONOGRAPH OF + +THE ELEPHANT +AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE MODES OF CAPTURING AND TRAINING IT +WITH ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS + +BY + +SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT, K.C.S. LL.D. &c. + +1861 + + + + +[Illustration] + +INTRODUCTION. + + * * * * * + +A considerable portion 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.[1] 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Ceylon: An Account of the Island, Physical, Historical, +and Typographical; with Notices of its Natural History, Antiquities, and +Productions._ By Sir JAMES EMERSON TENNENT, K.C.S., LL.D., &c. +Illustrated by Maps. Plans, and Drawings. 2 vols. 8vo. Longman and Co., +1859.] + +A suggestion to re-publish these sections in an independent form has +afforded an opportunity for repairing some of these defects by revising +the entire, restoring omitted passages, and introducing fresh materials +collected in Ceylon; the additional matter occupying a very large +portion of the present volume. + +I have been enabled, at the same time, to avail myself 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:-- + +"Regarding the _fauna_ of Ceylon, little has been published in any +collective form, with the exception of a volume by Dr. KELAART entitled +_Prodromus Faunæ Zeilanicæ_; several valuable papers by Mr. EDGAR L. +LAYARD in the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_ for 1852 and +1853; and some very imperfect lists appended to PRIDHAM'S compiled +account of the island.[1] KNOX, in the charming narrative of his +captivity, published in the feign 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 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 in to Africa, Australia, +and the isles of the Eastern Archipelago. + +[Footnote 1: _An Historical, Political, and Statistical Account of +Ceylon and its Dependencies_, by C. PRIDHAM, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo., London, +1849.] + +"In the chapters that I have devoted to its elucidation, I have +endeavoured to interest others in the subject, by describing my own +observations and impressions, 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. GARDNER, 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-travellers, and established by the examination +of collections 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. + +"The sections descriptive of the several classes are accompanied by +lists, prepared with the assistance of scientific friends, showing the +extent to which each particular 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 trust, +stimulate others to engage in the same pursuit, by exhibiting chasms, +which it remains for future industry 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 possessing 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[1], 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-determined +specimens in the great national depositories before finally +incorporating them with the Singhalese catalogues. + +[Footnote 1: An exception occurs in the list of shells, prepared by Mr. +SYLVANUS HANLEY, in which some whose localities are doubtful have been +admitted for reasons adduced. (See p. 387.)] + +"In the labour of collecting and verifying the facts embodied in these +sections, I cannot too warmly express my thanks for the aid I have +received from gentlemen interested in similar studies in Ceylon: from +Dr. KELAART[1] and Mr. EDGAR L. LAYARD, as well as from officers of the +Ceylon Civil Service; the Hon. GERALD C. TALBOT, Mr. C.R. BULLER, Mr. +MERCER, Mr. MORRIS, Mr. WHITING, Major SKINNER, and Mr. MITFORD. + +[Footnote 1: It is with deep regret that I have to record the death of +this accomplished gentleman, which occurred in 1860.] + +"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. R. PATTERSON, +F.R.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. GRAY, F.R.S., for valuable additions and +corrections in the list of the Ceylon Reptilia; and to Professor FARADAY +for some notes on the nature and qualities of the "Serpent Stone,"[2] +submitted to him. + +[Footnote 2: See p. 312.] + +"The extent to which my observations on _the Elephant_ 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 arrival, I profited by every occasion afforded to me for observing +the elephant in a state of nature, and obtaining from hunters and +natives correct information as to its oeconomy 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 GALLWEY, Mr. FAIRHOLME, Mr. CRIPPS, and +Mr. MORRIS. 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. ALBERT GÜNTHER, of the British Museum, for the +communication of important facts in illustration of the ichthyology of +Ceylon, as well as of the reptiles of the island. + +Mr. BLYTH, 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 places, and +those relating to plants and vegetation will appear in a future edition +of my large work. + +To M. NIETNER, 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. RICHARD 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 learning 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 +"mémoire 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 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 undergone 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 observation and remark; and for the +investigation of these no country can possibly afford more inviting +opportunities than Ceylon. + +Concerning the _Reptilia_ a considerable amount of information has been +amassed. The Batrachians and smaller Lizards have, I apprehend, been +imperfectly investigated; 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. Günther, only one single specimen +proved to be new or previously unknown to belong to the island. + +Of the _Ichthyology_ of Ceylon I am obliged to speak ill very different +terms; for although the materials 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 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 +entitles 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 convergence in Ceylon of +characteristics heretofore supposed to have been kept distinct by the +broad lines of geographical distribution. + +Relative to the inferior classes of _Invertebrata_ very little has as +yet been ascertained. The Mollusca, especially 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 _Crustacea_. The jungle is +frequented by spiders, _phalangia_[1], and acarids, of which nothing is +known with certainty; and the sea-shore and sands have been equally +overlooked, so far as concerns the infinite variety of lobsters, +crayfish, crabs, and all their minor congeners. The _polypi, echini, +asterias_, and other _radiata_ of the coast, as well as the _acalephæ_ +of the deeper waters, have shared the same neglect: and literally +nothing has been done to collect and classify the infusoriæ and minuter +zoophytes, the labours of Dr. Kelaart amongst the Diatomaceæ being the +solitary exception. + +[Footnote 1: Commonly called "harvest-men."] + +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 knowledge with +him at setting out: and I am not without hope that the demonstration I +now venture to offer, of 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. EMERSON TENNENT + +London: November 1st, 1861. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + * * * * * + + +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 Rilawa, _Macacus pileatus_ + Wanderoos + Knox's account of them + Error regarding the _Silenus Veter (note)_ + Presbytes Cephalopterus + Fond of eating flowers + A white monkey + Method of the flight of monkeys + P. Ursinus in the Hills + P. Thersites in the Wanny + P. Priamus, Jaffna and Trincomalie + No dead monkey ever found + +Loris + +Bats + Flying Fox, _Pteropus Edwardsii_ + 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, _Scotophilus foromandelicus_ + Extraordinary parasite of the bat, the _Nycteribia_ + +_Carnivora_.--Bears + Their ferocity + +Singhalese belief in the efficacy of charms (_note_) + +Leopards + Erroneously confounded with the Indian _cheetah_ + Curious belief + Anecdotes of leopards + Their attraction by the smallpox + Native superstition + Encounter with a leopard + Monkeys killed by leopards + Alleged peculiarity of the claws + +Palm-cat + +Civet + +Dogs + Cruel mode of destroying dogs + Their republican instincts + +Jackal + Cunning, anecdotes of + The horn of the jackal + +Mungoos + Its fights with serpents + Theory of its antidote + +Squirrels + Flying squirrel + +Tree-rat + Story of a rat and a snake + +Coffee-rat + +Bandicoot + +Porcupine + +Pengolin + Its habits and gentleness + Its skeleton + +_Ruminantia_.--The Gaur + Oxen + Humped cattle + Encounter of a cow and a leopard + Draft oxen + Their treatment + A _Tavalam_ + Attempt to introduce the camel (note) + Buffaloes + Sporting buffaloes + Peculiar structure of the foot + +Deer + +Meminna + +Elk + +Wild-boar + +Elephants + Recent discovery of a new species + Geological speculations as to the island of Ceylon + Ancient tradition + Opinion of Professor Ansted + Peculiarities in Ceylon mammalia + The same in Ceylon birds and insects + Temminck's discovery of a new species of elephant in Sumatra + Points of distinction between it and the elephant of India + Professor Schlegel's description + +_Cetacea_ + Whales + The Dugong + Origin of the fable of the mermaid + 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 + +Mischief done by them to crops + +Ivory scarce in Ceylon + +Conjectures as to the absence of tusks + +Elephant a harmless animal + +Alleged antipathies to other animals + +Fights with each other + +The foot its chief weapon + +Use of the tusks in a wild state doubtful + +Anecdote of sagacity in an elephant 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 + + * * * * * + +_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 shuffle + +Power of climbing mountains + +Facilitated by the joint of the knee + +Mode of descending declivities + +A "herd" is a family + +Attachment to their young + +Suckled indifferently by the females + +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 Major Skinner + +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 curiosity + +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 killing in Africa + +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 elephants in escape + +Worthlessness of the carcass + +Singular recovery from a wound + + +CHAP. V. + +THE ELEPHANT. + + * * * * * + +_An Elephant Corral_. + +Early method of catching elephants + +Capture in pit-falls + +By means of decoys + +Panickeas--their courage and address + +Their sagacity in following the elephant + +Mode of capture by the noose + +Mode of taming + +Method of leading the elephants to the coast + +Process of embarking them at Manaar + +Method of capturing a whole herd + +The "keddah" in Bengal described + +Process of enclosing a herd + +Process of capture in Ceylon + +An elephant corral and its construction + +An elephant hunt in Ceylon, 1847 + +The town and district of Kornegalle + +The rock of Ætagalla + +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 + + +CHAP. VI. + +THE ELEPHANT. + + * * * * * + +_The Captives_. + +A night scene + +Morning in the corral + +Preparations for securing the captives + +The "cooroowe," or noosers + +The tame decoys + +First captive tied up + +Singular conduct of the wild elephants + +Furious attempts of the herd to escape + +Courageous conduct of the natives + +Variety of disposition exhibited by the herd + +Extraordinary contortions of the captives + +Water withdrawn from the stomach + +Instinct of the decoys + +Conduct of the noosers + +The young ones and their actions + +Noosing a "rogue." and his death + +Instinct of flies in search of carrion (_note_) + +Strange scene + +A second herd captured + +Their treatment of a solitary elephant + +A magnificent female elephant + +Her extraordinary attitudes + +Wonderful contortions + +Taking the captives out of the corral + +Their subsequent treatment and training + +Grandeur of the scene + +Story of young pet elephant + + +CHAP. VII. + +THE ELEPHANT. + + * * * * * + +_Conduct in Captivity_. + +Alleged superiority of the Indian to the African elephant--not true + +Ditto of Ceylon elephant to Indian + +Process of training in Ceylon + +Allowed to bathe + +Difference of disposition + +Sudden death of "broken heart" + +First employment treading clay + +Drawing a waggon + +Dragging timber + +Sagacity in labour + +Mode of raising stones + +Strength in throwing down trees exaggerated + +Piling timber + +Not uniform in habits of work + +Lazy if not watched + +Obedience to keeper from affection, not fear + +Change of keeper--story of child + +Ear for sounds and music + +_Hurra! (note)_ + +Endurance of pain + +Docility + +Working elephants, delicate + +Deaths in government stud + +Diseases + +Subject to tooth-ache + +Question of the value of labour of an elephant + +Food in captivity, and cost + +Breed in captivity + +Age + +Theory of M. Fleurens + +No dead elephants found + +Sindbad's story + +Passage from Ælian + + +CHAP. VIII. + +BIRDS. + +Their numbers + +Songsters + +Hornbills, the "bird with two heads" + +Pea fowl + +Sea birds, their number + +I. _Accipitres_.--Eagles + Falcons and hawks + Owls--the devil bird + +II. _Passeres_.--Swallows + Kingfishers--sunbirds + The cotton-thief + Bul-bul--tailor bird--and weaver + The mountain jay + Crows, anecdotes of + +III. _Scansores_.--Parroquets + +IV. _Columbidæ_.--Pigeons + +V. _Gallinæ_.--Jungle-fowl + +VI. _Grallæ_.--Ibis, stork, &c. + +VII. _Anseres_.--Flamingoes + Pelicans + Strange scene + Game--Partridges, &c. + +List of Ceylon birds + +List of birds peculiar to Ceylon + + +CHAP. IX. + +REPTILES. + +_Lizards_.--Iguana + Kabara-goya, barbarous custom in preparing the kabara-tel poison + Blood-suckers + The green calotes + The lyre-headed lizard + Chameleon + Ceratophora + Geckoes,--their power of reproducing limbs + +Crocodiles + Their sensitiveness to tickling + Anecdotes of crocodiles + Their power of burying themselves 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 capello + Legends concerning it + Instance of land snakes found at sea + Singular tradition regarding the robra de capello + Uropeltidæ.--New species discovered in Ceylon + Buddhist veneration for the cobra de capello + The Python + Tree snakes + Water snakes + Sea snakes + Snake stones + Analysis of one + Cæcilia + Frogs + Tree frogs + +List of Ceylon reptiles + + +CHAP. X. + +FISHES. + +Ichthyology of Ceylon, little known + +Fish for table, seir fish + +Sardines, poisonous? + +Sharks + +Saw-fish + +Fish of brilliant colours + +The ray + +The sword-fish + +Curious fish described by Ælian + +_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 preserved, not tenable + +Fish moving on dry land + Ancient authorities, Greek and Roman + Aristotle and Theophrastus + Athenæus and Polybius + Livy, Pompomus, Mela, and Juvenal + Seneca and Pliny + Georgius Agricola, Gesner, &c. + Instances in Guiana (_note_) + _Perca Scandens_, ascends trees + Doubts as to the story of Daldorf + +Fishes burying themselves daring 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 that so bury themselves in India + Analogous case of + Theory of æstivation and hybernation + +Fish in hot water in Ceylon + +List of Ceylon fishes + +Instances of fishes falling from the clouds + +_Note_ on Ceylon fishes by Professor Huxley + +Comparative note by Dr. Gray, Brit. Mus. + +_Note_ on the Bora-chung + + +CHAP. XI. + +MOLLUSCA, RADIATA, AND ACALEPHÆ. + +I. _Conchology_.--General character of Ceylon shells + Confusion regarding them in scientific works and collections + Ancient export of shells from Ceylon + Special forms confined to particular localities + The pearl fishery of Aripo + Frequent suspensions of + Experiment to create beds of the pearl oyster + Process of diving for pearls + Danger from sharks + The transparent pearl oyster (_Placuna placenta_) + The "musical fish" at Ballicaloa + A similar phenomenon at other places + Faculty of uttering sounds in fishes + Instance in the _Tritonia arborescens_ + Difficulty in forming a list of Ceylon shells + List of Ceylon shells + +II. _Radiata_.--Star fish + Sea slugs + Parasitic worms + Planaria + +III. _Acalephæ_, abundant + The Portuguese man-of-war + Red infusoria + _Note_ on the _Tritonia arborescens_ + + +CHAP. XII. + +INSECTS. + +Profusion of insects in Ceylon + Imperfect knowledge of + +I. _Coleoptera_.--Beetles + Scavenger beetles + Coco-nut beetles + Tortoise beetles + +II. _Orthoptera_.--Mantis and leaf-insects + Stick-insects + +III. _Neuroptera_.--Dragon flies + Ant-lion + White ants + Anecdotes of their instinct and ravages + +IV. _Hymenoptera_.--Mason wasps + Wasps + Bees + Carpenter Bee + Ants + Burrowing ants + +V. _Lepidoptera_.--Butterflies + The spectre + Lycænidæ + Moths + Silk worms + Stinging caterpillars + Wood-carrying moths + Pterophorus + +VI. _Homoptera_ + Cicada + +VII. _Hemiptera_ + Bugs + +VIII. _Aphaniptera_ + +IX. _Diptera_.--Mosquitoes + Mosquitoes the "plague of flies" + The coffee bug + +General character of Ceylon insects + +List of insects in Ceylon + + +CHAP. XIII. + +ARACHNIDÆ, MYRIOPODA, CRUSTACÆ, ETC. + +Spiders + Strange nets of the wood spiders + The mygale + Birds killed by it + _Olios Taprobanius_ + The galeodes + Gregarious spiders + Ticks + Mites.--_Trombidium tinctorum_ + +_Myriapods_.--Centipedes + Cermatia + Scolopendra crassa + S. pollippes + The fish insect + +_Millipeds_.--Julus + +_Crustacæ_ + Calling crabs + Sand crabs + Painted crabs + Paddling crabs + +_Annelidæ_, Leeches.--The land leech + Medicinal leech + Cattle leech + +List of Articulata, &c. + +_Note_.--On the revivification of the Rotifera and Paste-eels + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + Page + +View of an Elephant Corral Frontispiece + +Group of Ceylon Monkeys to face 5 + +The Loris (_Loris gracilis_) 12 + +Group of Flying Foxes (_Pteropus Edwardsii_) to face 14 + +Head of the Horse-shoe Bat (_Rhynulophus_) 19 + +Nycteribia 21 + +Indian Bear (_Prochylus labiatus_) 23 + +Ceylon Leopard and Indian Cheetah 26 + +Jackal's Skull and "Horn" 36 + +Mongoos of Neura-ellia (_Herpestes vitticollis_) 38 + +Flying Squirrel (_Pteromys oral_) 41 + +Coffee Rat (_Golunda Elliotti_) 44 + +Bandicoot Rat (_Mus bandicota_) 45 + +Pengolin (_Manis pentadactylus_) 47 + +Skeleton of the Pengolin 48 + +Moose-deer (_Moschus meminna_) 55 + +The Dugong (_Halicore dugung_) 69 + +The Mermaid, from Valentyn 72 + +Brain of the Elephant 95 + +Bones of the Fore-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 + +Medal of Numidia 212 + +Modern "Hendoo" ib. + +The Horn-bill (_Buceros pica_) 243 + +The "Devil-bird" (_Syrnium Indranec_) 247 + +The "Cotton-thief" (_Tchitrea paradisi_) 250 + +Layard Mountain Jay (_Cissa puella_) 252 + +The "Double-spur" (_Gallo-perdix bicalcaratus_) 260 + +The Flamingo (_Phoenicopterus roseus_) 261 + +The Kabara-goya Lizard (_Hydrosaurus salvator_) 273 + +The Green Calotes (_Calotes ophiomachus_) 276 + +Tongue of the Chameleon 278 + +_Ceratophora_ _to face_ 280 + +Skulls of the Crocodile and Alligator 283 + +Terrapin (_Emys trijuga_) 290 + +Shield-tailed Serpent (_Uropeltis grandis_) 302 + +Tree Snake (_Passerita fusca_) _to face_ 307 + +Sea Snake (_Hydrophis subloevisis_) _to face_ 311 + +Saw of the Saw-fish (_Pristis antiquorum_) _to face_ 326 + +Ray (_Aëtobates narinari_) 327 + +Sword-fish (_Histiophorus immaculatus_) 330 + +Cheironectes 331 + +_Pterois volitans_ 334 + +_Scarus harid_ 335 + +Perch (_Therapon quadrilineatus_) 337 + +Eel (_Mastacembelus armatus_) 338 + +Mode of Fishing, after Rain 340 + +Plan of a Fish Decoy 342 + +The Anabas of the dry Tanks 354 + +The Violet Ianthina and its Shell 370 + +_Bullia vittata_ ib. + +Pearl Oysters, in various Stages of Growth _to face_ 380 + +Pearl Oyster, full grown _to face_ 381 + +_Cerithium palustre_ ib. + +The Portuguese Man-of-war (_Physalus urticulus_) 399 + +Longicorn Beetle (_Batocera rubus_) 406 + +Leaf Insects, &c 409 + +Eggs of the Leaf Insect (_Phyllium siccifolium_) 410 + +The Carpenter Bee (_Xylocapa tenniscapa_) 419 + +Wood-carrying Moths 431 + +The "Knife, grinder" (_Cicada_) 432 + +Flata (_Elidiptera Emersoniana and Poeciloptera Tennentii_) 433 + +The "Coffee-bug" (_Lecanium caffeæ_) _to face_ 436 + +Spider (_Mygate fasciata_) _to face_ 465 + +Cermatia 473 + +The Calling Crab (_Gelusimus_) 477 + +Eyes and Teeth of the Leech 480 + +Land Leeches preparing to attack 481 + +Medicinal Leech of Ceylon 483 + + + + +CHAPTER 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 variety 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 circumstances. From the nature of their +avocations, the majority of the European residents, engaged in +planting 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 +staff[1] of the army from 1816 to 1820, and his example stimulated +some of the assistant-surgeons of Her Majesty's forces to make collections +in illustration of the productions of the colony. Of these the late +Dr. Kinnis was one of the most energetic and successful. He was +seconded by Dr. Templeton of the Royal Artillery, who engaged +assiduously in the investigation of various orders, and commenced an +interchange of specimens with Mr. Blyth[2], the distinguished +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 perseveringly 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 description in the Calcutta Journal. To him, and +to the gentlemen I have named, we are mainly indebted for whatever +accurate knowledge we now possess of the zoology of the colony. + +[Footnote 1: Dr. DAVY, brother to the illustrious Sir Humphry Davy, +published, in 1821, his _Account of the Interior of Ceylon and its +Inhabitants_, which contains the earliest notice of the Natural +History of the island, and especially of its ophidian reptiles.] + +[Footnote 2: _Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal_, vol. xv. p. 280, 314.] + +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[1], 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 ornithology and conchology. +The zoophytes and Crustacea have I believe been partially investigated +by Professor Harvey, who visited Ceylon in 1852, and more recently by +Professor Schmarda, 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Prodromus Faunæ Zeylanicæ; being Contributions to the +Zoology of Ceylon_, by F. KELAART, Esq., M.D., F.L.S., &c. &c. 2 +vols. Colombo and London, 1852.] + +[Illustration: CEYLON MONKEYS. + + 1. _Presbytes cephalopterus._ + 2. _P. thersites_ + 3. _P. Priamus_ + 4. _Macacus pileatus_] + +I. QUADRUMANA. 1. _Monkeys_.--To a stranger in the tropics, among +the most attractive creatures in the forests are the troops of +_monkeys_ that career in ceaseless 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_[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Macacus pileatus_, Shaw and Desmarest. The +"bonneted Macaque" is common in the south and west; it is replaced on +the neighbouring coast of the Peninsula of India by the Toque, _M. +radiatus_, which closely resembles it in size, habit, and form, and +in the peculiar appearance occasioned by the hairs radiating from the +crown of the head. A spectacled monkey is _said_ to inhabit the +low country near to Bintenne; but I have never seen one brought +thence. A paper by Dr. TEMPLETON, in the _Mag. Nat. Hist._ n. s. +xiv. p. 361, contains some interesting facts relative to the Rilawa of +Ceylon.] + +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 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: KNOX, _Historical Relation of Ceylon, an Island in the +East Indies_.--P. i. ch. vi. p. 25. Fol. Lond. 1681. See an account +of his captivity in SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT'S _Ceylon_, etc., Vol. +II. p. 66 n.] + +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 comparatively powerful species, _Presbytes ursinus_, +which inhabits the lofty forests, and which, as well as another of the +same group, _P. Thersites_, was, till recently, unknown to European +naturalists. The Singhalese word _Ouandura_ has a generic sense, and +being in every respect the equivalent fur 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 which is entitled to the name +of "wanderoo."[1] Each separate species has appropriated to itself a +different district of the wooded country, and seldom encroaches on the +domain of its neighbours. + +[Footnote 1: Down to a very late period, a large and somewhat +repulsive-looking monkey, common to the Malabar coast, the Silenus +veter, _Linn._, was, from the circumstance of his possessing a +"great white beard," incorrectly assumed to be the "wanderoo" of +Ceylon, described by KNOX; and under that usurped name it has figured +in every author from Buffon to the present time. Specimens of the true +Singhalese species were, however, received in Europe; but in the +absence of information in this country as to their actual habitat, +they were described, first by Zimmerman, on the continent, under the +name of, _Leucoprymnus cephalopterus_, and subsequently by Mr. E. +Bennett, under that of _Semnopithecus Nestor_ (_Proc. Zool. +Soc._ pt. i. p. 67: 1833); the generic and specific characters +being on this occasion most carefully pointed out by that eminent +naturalist. Eleven years later Dr. Templeton forwarded to the +Zoological Society a description, accompanied by drawings, of the +wanderoo of the western maritime districts of Ceylon, and noticed the +fact that the wanderoo of authors (_S. veter_) was not to be +found in the island except as an introduced species in the custody of +the Arab horse-dealers, who visit the port of Colombo at stated +periods. Mr. Waterhouse, at the meeting (_Proc. Zool. Soc._ p. 1: +1844) at which this communication was read, recognised the identity of +the subject of Dr. Templeton's description with that already laid +before them by Mr. Bennett; and from this period the species in +question was believed to truly represent the wanderoo of Knox. The +later discovery, however, of the _P. ursinus_ by Dr. Kelaart, in +the mountains amongst which we are assured that Knox spent so many +years of captivity, reopens the question, but at the same time appears +to me clearly to demonstrate that in this latter we have in reality +the animal to which his narrative refers.] + +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.[1] 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 plaintive cry when +its sympathies are excited. It is particularly 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. + +[Footnote 1: Leucoprymnus Nestor, _Bennett_.] + +Those which I kept at my house near Colombo were chiefly fed upon +plantains and bananas, but for nothing did they evince a greater +partiality than the rose-coloured flowers of the red hibiscus (H. +_rosa-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 +admixture of a few fresh leaves and flowers with their solid and +substantial dietary. + +A white monkey, taken between Ambepusse and Kornegalle, where they are +said to be numerous, was brought to me to Colombo. Except in colour, +it had all the characteristics of _Presbytes cephalopterus_. So +striking was its whiteness that it might have been conjectured 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 Ridi-galle +Wihara in Seven Korles and also at Tangalle; but I never saw another +specimen. The natives say they are not uncommon, and KNOX that they +are "milk-white both in body and face; but of this sort there is not +such plenty."[1] The Rev. R. SPENCE HARDY mentions, in his learned +work on _Eastern Monachism_, that on the occasion 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.[2] PLINY was aware of the fact that white monkeys are +occasionally found in India.[3] + +[Footnote 1: KNOX, pt. i.e. vi. p. 25.] + +[Footnote 2: _Eastern Monachism_. c: xix; p. 204.] + +[Footnote 3: PLINY, Nat. Hist. I. viii. c. xxxii.] + +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 +they may have descended to recover seeds or fruit which have fallen at +the foot of their favourite trees. When disturbed, their leaps are +prodigious: but, generally speaking, their progress 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 momentum acquired by their descent being sufficient +to cause a rebound of the branch, that carries them upwards 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 Great Wanderoo, to distinguish it +from the _Kaloo_, 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 of the sounds _how how!_ maybe 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Blyth quotes as authority for this trivial name a +passage from MAJOR FORBES' _Eleven Years in Ceylon;_ and I can +vouch for the graphic accuracy of the remark.--"A species of very +large monkey, that passed some distance before me, when resting on all +fours, looked so like a Ceylon bear, that I nearly took him for one."] + +3. The _P. Thersites_, 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. Templeton 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 +satisfaction 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 numerous, these monkeys 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 +European 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 believed that persons dwelling on the spot where a +hanumân 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 acknowledge his having seen a dead hanumân."[1] + +[Footnote 1: BUCHANAN'S _Survey of Bhagulpoor_, p. 142. At +Gibraltar it is believed that the body of a _dead monkey_ has +never been found on the rock.] + +The only other quadrumanous animal found in Ceylon is the little +loris[1], which, from its sluggish movements, nocturnal habits, and +consequent inaction during the day, has acquired the name of the +"Ceylon Sloth." + +[Footnote 1: Loris græilis, _Geof_.] + +[Illustration: THE LORIS.] + +There are two varieties in the island; one of the ordinary 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 vegetables. 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 approach its prey so stealthily 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 +represented 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 attention, 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 _thaxangu_, 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 _namam_, or mark worn by the worshippers of Vishnu; and, +from this peculiarity, it is distinguished as the _Nama-thavangu_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: There is an interesting notice of the Loris of Ceylon by +Dr. TEMPLETON, in the _Mag. Nat. Hist._ 1844, ch. xiv. p. 362.] + +II. CHEIROPTERA. _Bats_.--The multitude of _bats_ 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 through the twilight 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 +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 varieties 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 ferruginous brown inclining +to red.[1] + +[Footnote 1: + Rhinolophus affinis? _var_. rubidus, _Kelaart_. + Hipposideros murinus, _var_. fulvus, _Kelaart_. + Hipposideros speoris, _var_. aureus, _Kelaart_. + Kerivoula picta, _Pallas_. + Scotophilus Heathii, _Horsf_.] + +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[1];--the "flying fox," as it is called by Europeans, from the +similarity to that animal in its head and ears, its bright eyes, and +intelligent little face. In its aspect it has nothing of the +disagreeable and repulsive look so common amongst the ordinary +vespertilionidæ; 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 distended by a +"gaff." + +[Footnote 1: Pteropus Edwardsii, _Geoff_.] + +[Illustration: FLYING FOXES.] + +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. Whilst the function of +these metamorphosed limbs in sustaining flight entitles them to the +designation of "wings," they are endowed with another faculty, the +existence of which essentially distinguishes them from the feathery +wings of a bird, and vindicates the appropriateness of the term +_Cheiro-ptera_[1], or "winged 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.[2] +Spallanzani ascertained 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 +confidence, 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.[3] The face and head of the +_Pteropus_ are covered with brownish-grey hairs, the neck and chest are +dark ferruginous grey, and the rest of the body brown, inclining to +black. + +[Footnote 1: [Greek: cheir] the "hand," and [Greek: pteron] a "wing."] + +[Footnote 2: See BELL _On the Hand_, ch. iii. p. 70;] + +[Footnote 3: See article on _Cheiroptera_, in TODD'S +_Cyclopiadia of Anatomy and Physiology_, vol. i. p. 599.] + +These active and energetic creatures, though chiefly frugivorous, are +to some extent insectivorous also, as attested by their teeth[1], 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-imbul_[2], one of the +silk-cotton trees, is putting forth its flower-buds, of which they are +singularly fond. By day they suspend themselves from the highest +branches, hanging by the claws of the hind legs, with the head turned +upwards, 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. + +[Footnote 1: Those which I have examined have four minute incisors in +each jaw, with two canines and a very minute pointed tooth behind each +canine. They have six molars in the upper jaw and ten in the lower, +longitudinally grooved, and with a cutting edge directed backwards.] + +[Footnote 2: Eriodendron Orientale, _Stead_.] + +A favourite resort of these bats is to the lofty india-rubber trees, +which on one side overhang the Botanic Gardens 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 +_ficus 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 +11 A.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 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 divested 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 distance, 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 +upturned 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 have the spoil wrested from it by its intrusive +companions, 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 by 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.[1] It is strongly attracted to the coconut trees +during the period when toddy is drawn for distillation, and exhibits, +it is said, at such times, symptoms resembling intoxication. + +[Footnote 1: In Western India the native Portuguese eat the +flying-fox, and pronounce it delicate, and far from disagreeable in +flavour.] + +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. + +It has been suggested that the insectivorous bats, though nocturnal, +are deficient in that keen vision characteristic of animals which take +their prey by night. + +[Illustration: RINOLOPHUS.] + +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 singularly 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 insects, +touch is superadded, in its most sensitive development, to that of +sight. It is probable that the noseleaf, 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 sensitiveness of the organs of hearing and smell. + +One tiny little bat, not much larger than the humble +bee[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: It is a _very_ small Singhalese variety of +Scotophilus Coromandelicus, _F. Cuv._] + +Although not strictly in order, this seems not an inappropriate place +to notice one of the most curious peculiarities connected with the +bats--their singular parasite, the Nycteribia.[1] On cursory +observation this creature appears to have neither head, antennæ, eyes, +nor mouth; and the earlier observers of its structure satisfied +themselves that the place of the latter was supplied by a cylindrical +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 +compensate 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. + +[Footnote 1: This extraordinary creature had formerly been discovered +only on a few European bats. Joínville figured one which he found on +the large roussette (the flying-fox), and says he had seen another on +a bat of the same family. Dr. Templeton observed them in Ceylon in +great abundance on the fur of the _Scotophilus Coromandelicus_, +and they will, no doubt, be found on many others.] + +It moves, in fact, by rolling itself rapidly along, rotating 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[1], says its speed exceeds that of any +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 exceedingly grotesque as it tumbles through the fur of the bat. + +[Footnote 1: Celeripes vespertilionis, _Mont. Lin. Trans._ xi. p.11.] + +[Illustration: NYCTERBIA.] + +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 +_Hippoboscidæ_, or "spider flies," that infest birds and horses; +but, unlike them, the Nycteribia is unable to fly. + +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 being 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, antennæ, +and four eyes, two on each side. + +The organisation 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 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 accommodate 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[1], 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 attracted 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 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. + +[Footnote 1: Prochilus labiatus, _Blainville_.] + +[Illustration: INDIAN BEAR.] + +Although the structure of the bear shows him to be naturally omnivorous, +he rarely preys upon flesh in Ceylon, and his solitary habits whilst in +search of honey and fruits render him timid and retiring. 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 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 consist of honey, live +in dread of the bears, because, attracted 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 +enable them to shuffle out of the path.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Amongst the Singhalese there is a belief that certain +charms are efficacious in protecting them from the violence of bears, +and those whose avocations expose them to encounters of this kind are +accustomed to carry a talisman either attached to their neck or +enveloped in the folds of their luxuriant hair. A friend of mine, +writing of an adventure which occurred at Anarajapoora, thus describes +an occasion on which a Moor, who attended him, was somewhat, rudely +disabused of his belief in the efficacy of charms upon bears:--"Desiring +to change the position of a herd of deer, the Moorman (with his charm) +was sent across some swampy land to disturb them. As he was proceeding, +we saw him suddenly turn from an old tree and run back with all speed, +his hair becoming unfastened and like his clothes streaming in the wind. +It soon became evident that he was flying from some terrific object, for +he had thrown down his gun, and, in his panic, he was taking the +shortest line towards us, which lay across a swamp covered with sedge +and rushes that greatly impeded his progress, and prevented us +approaching him, or seeing what was the cause of his flight. Missing his +steps from one hard spot to another he repeatedly fell into the water, +but he rose and resumed his flight. I advanced as far as the sods would +bear my weight, 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 fall exhausted, and the bear being close upon him, I discharged +both barrels. The first broke the bear's shoulder, but this only made +her more savage, and rising on her hind legs she advanced with ferocious +prowls, when the second barrel, though I do not think it took effect, +served to frighten her, for turning round she retreated, followed by the +cubs. Some natives then waded through the mud to the Moorman, who was +just exhausted, and would have been drowned 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 turban, the bear would +not have ventured to attack him."] + +Leopards[1] are the only formidable members of the tiger race in +Ceylon[2], and they are neither very numerous nor very dangerous, as +they seldom attack man. By the Europeans, the Ceylon leopard is +erroneously called a _cheetah_, but the true "cheetah" (_felis +jubata_),' the hunting leopard of India, does not exist in the +island.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Felis pardus, _Linn._ What is called a leopard, or a +cheetah, in Ceylon, is in reality the true panther.] + +[Footnote 2: A belief is prevalent at Trincomalie 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. Officers of the Government state positively that they have +more than once come on it whilst hunting; and one gentleman of the +Royal 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.] + +[Footnote 3: Mr. BAKER, 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 identify any of them +with the true _felis jubata_.] + +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.[1] Leopards frequent the vicinity of pasture hinds in +quest of the deer and other peaceful animals which resort to them; and +the villagers often complain of the destruction of their cattle by these +formidable marauders. In relation to them, the natives have a curious +but firm conviction that when a bullock is killed by a leopard, and, in +expiring, falls so that _its right side is undermost_, 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 avenged, has assured them that it would be in vain, as +the beast having fallen on its right side, the leopard not return. + +[Footnote 1: F. melas, _Peron_ and _Leseur_.] + +[Illustration: LEOPARD AND CHEETAH.] + +The Singhalese hunt them for the sake of their extremely 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 when approached. Instances have, however, occurred of +individuals 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 +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 excused 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 vaccination 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 leopards are certain +to be allured; and the medical officers are obliged to resort to +increased precautions in consequence. 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 _par +excellence "maha ledda_," the great "sickness;" they look upon it +as a special manifestation 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 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 communication with him until a +ceremony shall have been performed by the capua, called +_awasara-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 SKINNER, 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 construction of roads, is strongly of opinion that the +disposition 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 adventure highly characteristic of this instinctive +timidity:-- + +"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 Range, 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 vast a wilderness of trees, had not long experience assured me that +good game tracks would be found leading to it, and by one of them I +reached it. It was in the afternoon, just after one of those tropical +sunshowers 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 drippings 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 +surveying instruments, to follow my track by the notches which I cut +in the bark of the trees. On leaving 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[1] 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. + +[Footnote 1: A species of one of the suffruticose _Acanthaccæ_ +(Strobilanthes), which grows, abundantly in the mountain ranges of +Ceylon.] + +"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 monkey, it falls a prey, +and not unfrequently, to the leopard. The latter, on approaching a tree +on which a troop 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 uncomfortable distance of the leopard, before he discovered the cause +of the unusual dismay amongst the monkeys 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 connexion with the +leopard. The natives assert that it devours the _kaolin_ clay +called by them _kiri-mattie_[1] 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 instantly devours it. + +[Footnote 1: See Sir J.E. TENNENT'S _Ceylon_, vol. i. p. 31.] + +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[1] 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 imperceptible. The +glossy genette[2], the "_Civet_" of Europeans, is common in the +northern province, where the Tamils confine it in cages for the sake +of its musk, which they collect from the wooden bars on which it rubs +itself. Edrisi, the Moorish geographer, writing in the twelfth +century, enumerates musk as one of the productions then exported from +Ceylon.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Paradoxurus typus, _F. Cuv._] + +[Footnote 2: Viverra Indica, _Geoffr., Hodgs._] + +[Footnote 3: EDRISI, _Géogr._ sec. vii. Jauberts's translation, +t. ii. p. 72. In connexion with cats, a Singhalese gentleman has +described to me a plant in Ceylon, called _Cuppa-mayniya_ by the +natives; by which he says cats are so enchanted, that they play with +it as they would with, a captured mouse; throwing if into the air, +watching it till it falls, and crouching to see if it will move. It +would be worth inquiring into the truth of this; and the explanation +of the attraction.] + +_Dogs_.--There is no native wild dog in Ceylon, but every village +and town is haunted by mongrels of European descent, that are known by +the generic description of _Pariahs_. They are a miserable race, +lean, wretched, and mangy, acknowledged by no owners, living on the +garbage of the streets and sewers, and if spoken to unexpectedly they +shrink with an almost involuntary 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, attempted 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 drowning of puppies; whereas +there is reason to believe that dogs 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 islands at the mouth of +the Nile. But the streets, thus deprived of their habitual patroles, +were speedily infested 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 appropriates 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 intrusion? + +_Jackal_.--The Jackal[1] 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 down a deer. The small number of hares in the +districts 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 adroitness 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." + +[Footnote 1: Canis Aureus, _Linn._] + +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 numbers. 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[1], 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 to +observe whether anything more powerful than himself 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. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. D. de Silva Gooneratné.] + +They are subject to hydrophobia, and instances are frequent in Ceylon +of cattle being bitten by them and dying in consequence. + +[Illustration: JACKAL'S SKULL AND HORN] + +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 _narrie-comboo_; and they aver that +this "Jackal's Horn" only grows on the head of the leader of the +pack.[1] Both the Singhalese and the Tamils regard it as a talisman, and +believe that its fortunate 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 security if along with them they can deposit a +narri-comboo, fully convinced that its presence is an effectual +safeguard against robbers. + +[Footnote 1: In the Museum of the College of Surgeons, London (No. +4362 A), there is a cranium of a jackal which exhibits this strange +osseous process on the super-occipital; and I have placed along with +it a specimen of the horny sheath, which was presented to me by Mr. +Lavalliere, the late district judge of Kandy.] + +One fabulous virtue ascribed to the _narrie-comboo_ by the Singhalese is +absurdly characteristic of their passion for litigation, as well as of +their perceptions of the "glorious uncertainty of the law." It is the +popular 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 defeats, 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 +_narrie-comboo!_ + +_The Mongoos_.--Of the Mongoos or Ichneumon four species have been +described; and one, that frequents the hills near Neuera-ellia[1], is so +remarkable from its bushy fur, that the invalid soldiers in the +sanatarium there, to whom it is familiar, have given it the name of the +"Ceylon Badger." + +[Footnote 1: _Herpestes vitticollis_. Mr. W. ELLIOTT, in his _Catalogue +of Mammalia found in the Southern Maharata Country_, Madras, 1840, says, +that "One specimen of this Herpestes was procured by accident in the +Ghât forests in 1829, and is now deposited in the British Museum; it is +very rare, inhabiting only the thickest woods, and its habits are very +little known," p. 9. In Ceylon it is comparatively common.] + +[Illustration: HERPESTES VITTICOLLIS.] + +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 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 jungle, and, it is added, to eat some vegetable; but a +gentleman, who has been a frequent observer of its exploits, assures me +that most usually the herb it resorted to was 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 mungos_, the _Aristolochia +Indica_, 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 ichneumon inspired by +that courage which would result from the consciousness of security, it +would be so indifferent to the bite of the serpent that we might +conclude 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[1] +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 caudâ solertior hostis + Ludit, et iratas incertâ provocat umbrâ: + + * * * * * + +[Footnote 1: The passage in Lucan is a versification of the same +narrative related by Pliny, lib. viii. ch. 53; and Ælian, lib. iii. ch. +22.] + + Obliquusque caput vanas serpentis in auras + Effuse toto comprendit guttura morsu + Letiferam citra saniem; tunc irrita pestis + Exprimitur, faucesque fluunt pereunte veneno." + _Pharsalia_, lib. iv. v. 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 +future 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 strychnos; 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Dr. LIVINGSTONE, _Tour in S. Africa_, p. 80. Is it a fact +that, in America, pigs extirpate the rattlesnakes with impunity?] + +The Singhalese distinguish one species of mongoos, which they designate +"_Hotambeya_" 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: This is possibly the "musbilai" or mouse-cat of Behar, +which preys upon birds and fish. Can it be the Urva of the Nepalese +(_Urva cancrivora_, Hodgson), which Mr. Hodgson describes as dwelling in +burrows, and being carnivorous and ranivorous?--Vide _Journ. As. Soc. +Beng._ vol. vi. p. 56.] + +[Illustration: FLYING SQUIRREL.] + +IV. RODENTIA. _Squirrels_.--Smaller animals in great numbers enliven the +forests and lowland plains with their graceful movements. Squirrels[1], +of which there are a great variety, make their shrill metallic call +heard 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. + +[Footnote 1: Of two kinds which frequent the mountains, one which is +peculiar to Ceylon was discovered by Mr. Edgar L. Layard, who has done +me the honour to call it the _Sciurus Tennentii_. Its dimensions are +large, measuring upwards of two feet from head to tail. It is +distinguished from the _S. macrurus_ by the predominant black colour of +the upper surface of the body, with the exception of a rusty spot at the +base of the ears.] + +One of the largest, belonging to a closely allied subgenus, is known as +the "Flying Squirrel,"[1] 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. + +[Footnote 1: Pteromys oral., _Tickel_. P. petaurista, _Pallas_.] + +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[1], 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[2], whose +domestication is encouraged by the servants, 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 return to them the snake was as +before in the same attitude 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. + +[Footnote 1: There are two species of the tree rat in Ceylon: M. +rufescens, _Gray_; (M. flavescens, _Elliot_;) and Mus nemoralis, +_Blyth_.] + +[Footnote 2: Coryphodon Blumenbachii, _Merr_.] + +Another indigenous variety of the rat is that which made its appearance +for the first time in the coffee plantations 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[1] is an insular variety of the _Mus hirsutus_ of W. +Elliot, found in Southern India. They inhabit 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, 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. + +[Footnote 1: Golunda Ellioti, _Gray_.] + +[Illustration: COFFEE RAT.] + +_Bandicoot_.--Another favourite article of food with the coolies is the +pig-rat or Bandicoot[1], 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 +resembling young pork. + +[Footnote 1: Mus bandicota, _Beckst._ The English term bandicoot is a +corruption of the Telinga name _pandikoku_, literally _pig-rat_.] + +Its nests, when rifled, are frequently found to contain considerable +quantities of rice, stored up against the dry season. + +[Illustration: BANDICOOT.] + +_Porcupine_.--The Porcupine[1] is another of the _rodentia_ which has +drawn down upon itself the hostility of the planters, from its +destruction of the young coconut 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 alluring, as to lead +to its capture. The usual expedient in Ceylon is to place some of its +favourite food at the extremity of a trench, so narrow as to prevent the +porcupine turning, whilst the direction of his quills effectually bars +his retreat backwards. On a newly planted coconut tope, at Hang-welle, +within a few miles of Colombo, 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 +Superintendent of the Horticultural Gardens; placing them so as to sweep +the runs of the porcupines. The flesh is esteemed a delicacy in Ceylon, +and in consistency, colour, and flavour it very much resembles young +pork. + +[Footnote 1: Hystrix leucurus, _Sykes_.] + +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_[1], 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 decaying wood. When at liberty, +they burrow in the dry ground to a depth of seven or eight feet, where +they reside in pairs, and produce annually one or two young.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Manis pentadactyla, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 2: I am assured that there is a hedge-hog in Ceylon; but as I +have never seen it, I cannot tell whether it belongs to either of the +two species known in India (_Erinaceus mentalis_ and _E. collaris_)--nor +can I vouch for its existence there at all. But the fact was told to me, +in connexion with the statement, that its favourite dwelling is in the +same burrow with the pengolin. The popular belief in this is attested by +a Singhalese proverb, in relation to an intrusive personage; the import +of which is that he is like "_a hedge-hog in the den of a pengolin_."] + +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, 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 ascended 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 extending 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 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. + +[Illustration: THE PENGOLIN.] + +[Illustration: SKELETON OF PENGOLIN.] + +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 hollows 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, resting 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 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 vertebræ 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. RUMINANTIA. _The Gaur_.--Besides the deer, and some varieties of the +humped ox, that have been introduced from the opposite continent of +India, Ceylon has probably but one other indigenous bovine _ruminant_, +the buffalo.[1] 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[2], 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 "Gowra-ellia," and it is not impossible that the animal may +yet be discovered in some of the imperfectly explored regions of the +island.[3] 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, dark brown in colour, and +very scantily provided with hair. + +[Footnote 1: Bubalus buffelus, _Gray_.] + +[Footnote 2: KNOX, _Historical Relation of Ceylon, &c._, A.D. 1681. Book +i. c. 6.] + +[Footnote 3: KELAART, _Fauna Zeylan_., p. 87.] + +_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 +immemorial 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 dependents 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 contribution of this portion +of the labour serves to render the dependence of the peasantry on the +chiefs and headmen 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 procure in a Kandyan village. From their constant +exposure 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 interests of the colony, by +reducing the facilities of agriculture, and augmenting the cost of +carriage during the most critical periods of the coffee harvest. + +A similar disorder, probably peripneumonia, frequently 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 eruptive appearances, seem to +indicate that the disease is a feverish influenza, attributable to +neglect and exposure in a moist and variable climate; and that its +prevention might be hoped for, and the cattle preserved, 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, belonging 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 with 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 thousand. The bandy to which they are +yoked is a barbarous 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 annually imported for +draught; but the vast majority of those in use are small and +dark-coloured, with a graceful 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 hundred 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.[1] 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: A pair of these little bullocks carry up about twenty +bushels of rice to the hills, and bring down from fifty to sixty bushels +of coffee to Colombo.] + +[Footnote 2: WOLF says that, in the year 1763, he saw in Ceylon two +white oxen, each of which measured upwards of eight feet high. They were +sent as a present from the King of Atchin.--_Life and Adventures_, p. +172.] + +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 +condition and treatment of those in use. Their food is indifferent, +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 the interior, carrying light loads as pack-oxen in +what is called a "_tavalam_"--a term which, substituting bullocks for +camels, is equivalent to a "caravan."[1] The class of persons engaged in +this traffic in Ceylon resemble 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 practice still continues. When 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. + +[Footnote 1: Attempts have been made to domesticate the camel in Ceylon; +but, I am told, they died of ulcers in the feet, attributed to the too +great moisture of the roads at certain seasons. This explanation seems +insufficient if taken in connection with the fact of the camel living in +perfect health in climates equally, if not more, exposed to rain. I +apprehend that sufficient justice has not been done to the experiment.] + +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 quantities round +every house, but without systematic cultivation. 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 interior. + +_The Buffalo_.--Buffaloes abound in all parts of Ceylon, but they are +only to be seen in their native wildness 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, enveloped 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 brown surface of which, unprotected by hair, shines with an +unpleasant 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 uncertain, and such is its +strength and courage that in the Hindu epic of the Ramayana its +onslaught is compared to that of the tiger.[1] 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 display 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 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. + +[Footnote 1: CAREY and MARSHMAN'S Transl. vol. i. p. 430, 447.] + +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 wild 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 +making an ingenious 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 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 assured, 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 antelope. 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 sustaining 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 difficulty of its sinking in the snow. + +A formation precisely analogous in the buffalo seems to point to a +corresponding design. The ox, whose life 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, with 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 give extraordinary +breadth to the foot, and not only prevents the buffalo from sinking +inconveniently in soft ground[1], but at the same time presents no +obstacle to the withdrawal of its foot from the mud. + +[Footnote 1: PROFESSOR OWEN has noticed a similar fact regarding the +rudiments of the second and fifth digits in the instance of the elk and +bison, which have them largely expanded where they inhabit swampy +ground; whilst they are nearly obliterated in the camel and dromedary, +that traverse arid deserts.--OWEN _on Limbs_, p. 34; see also BELL _on +the Hand_, ch. iii.] + +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, Robert 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."[1] The +little creature which thus dwelt in the recollection of the old man, as +one of the memorials of his long captivity, is the small "musk deer"[2] +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 "_muis_," or "mouse" deer, a name particularly applicable to +the timid and crouching attitudes 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 white_ meminna in 1847, +which he designed to send home as an acceptable present to Her Majesty, +but it was unfortunately killed by an accident.[3] + +[Footnote 1: KNOX'S _Relation, &c._, book i. c. 6.] + +[Footnote 2: Moschus meminna.] + +[Footnote 3: When the English look possession of Kandy, in 1803, they +found "five beautiful milk-white deer in the palace, which was noted as +a very extraordinary thing."--_Letter_ in Appendix to PERCIVAL'S +_Ceylon_, p. 428. The writer does not say of what species they were.] + +[Illustration: "MOOSE" DEER (MOSCHUS MEMINNA)] + +_Ceylon Elk_.--In the mountains, the Ceylon elk[1], 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 precarious supply of the +table, we found the flesh of the Axis[2] and the Muntjac[3] 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 considerable quantities +are annually sent to the United Kingdom. + +[Footnote 1: Rusa Aristotelis. Dr. GRAY has lately shown that this is +the great _axis_ of Cuvier.--_Oss. Foss._ 502. t. 39; f. 10: The +Singhalese, on following the elk, frequently effect their approaches by +so imitating the call of the animal as to induce them to respond. An +instance occurred during my residence in Ceylon, in which two natives, +whose mimicry had mutually deceived them, crept so close together in the +jungle that one shot the other, supposing the cry to proceed from the +game.] + +[Footnote 2: Axis maculata, _H. Smith_.] + +[Footnote 3: Stylocerus muntjac, _Horss_.] + +VII. PACHYDERMATA.--_The Elephant_.--The elephant, and the wild boar, +the Singhalese "waloora,"[1] are the only representatives of the +_pachydermatous_ order. The latter, which differs somewhat from the wild +boar of India, is found in droves in all parts of the island where +vegetation and water are abundant. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. BLYTH of Calcutta has distinguished, from the hog, +common in India, a specimen sent to him from Ceylon, the skull of which +approaches in form, that of a species from Borneo, the _susbarbatus_ of +S. Müller.] + +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 twilight 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[1], relative to the isolation of Ceylon and its +distinctness, in many remarkable particulars, from the great continent +of India. Every writer who previously treated of the island, including +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 was alleged to bear the same relation as Sicily presents to +the peninsula of Italy. MALTE BRUN[2] 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 examination of +its geological conformation and of its botanical and zoological +characteristics I came to the conclusion 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 affinity, and occasionally an actual +identity, with those of the Malayan countries and some of the islands of +the Eastern Archipelago. Startling as this conclusion appeared 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 continent, known in the mythical epics of the Brahmans by the +designation of "_Lanka_;" so immense that its southern 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Ceylon, &c._, by Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT, vol. i. pp. 7, +13, 85, 160, 183, n., 205, 270, &c.] + +[Footnote 2: MALTE BRUN, _Geogr. Univ._, l. xlix.] + +Dim as is this ancient tradition, it is in consistency with the +conclusions of modern geology, that at the commencement 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 +become 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 indicated by the Coral islands, the +Laccadives, the Maldives, and the Chagos group, underwent simultaneous +depression by a counteracting movement.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _The Ancient World_, by D.T. ANSTED, M.A., &c., pp. +322-324.] + +But divested of oriental mystery and geologic conjecture, and brought to +the test of "geographical distribution," 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 between 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 +resemblance 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[1] as large +as the Axis, but differing from it in the number and arrangement of its +spots, has been described by Dr. Kelaart, to whose vigilance the natural +history of Ceylon is indebted, amongst others, for the identification of +two new species of monkeys[2], a number of curious shrews[3], and an +orange-coloured ichneumon[4], before unknown. There are also two +squirrels[5] that have not as yet been discovered elsewhere, (one of +them belonging to those equipped with a parachute[6],) as well as some +local varieties of the palm squirrel (Sciurus penicillatus, _Leach_).[7] + +[Footnote 1: Cervus orizus, KELAART, _Prod. F. Zeyl.,_ p. 83.] + +[Footnote 2: Presbytes ursinus, _Blyth_, and P. Thersites, _Elliot_.] + +[Footnote 3: Sorex montanus, S. ferrugineus, and Feroculus macropus.] + +[Footnote 4: Herpestes fulvescens, KELAART, _Prod. Faun. Zeylan_.. App. +p. 42.] + +[Footnote 5: Sciurus Tennentii, _Layard_.] + +[Footnote 6: Sciuropterus Layardi, _Kelaart_.] + +[Footnote 7: There is a rat found only in the Cinnamon Gardens at +Colombo, Mus Ceylonus, _Kelaart_; and a mouse which Dr. Kelaart +discovered at Trincomalie, M. fulvidiventris, _Blyth_, both peculiar to +Ceylon. Dr. TEMPLETON has noticed a little shrew (Corsira purpurascens, +_Mag. Nat. Hist_. 1855, p. 238) at Neuera-ellia, not as yet observed +elsewhere.] + +But the Ceylon Mammalia, besides wanting a number of minor animals found +in the Indian peninsula, cannot boast such a ruminant as the majestic +Gaur[1], 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 Hindustan. The Hyena and +Cheetah[2], common in Southern India, are unknown in Ceylon; and, though +abundant in deer, the island possesses no example of the Antelope or the +Gazelle. + +[Footnote 1: Bos cavifrons, _Hodgs_.; B. frontalis, _Lamb_.] + +[Footnote 2: Felis jubata, _Schreb_.] + +Amongst the Birds of Ceylon, the same abnormity is apparent. About +thirty-eight species will be presently particularised[1], which, +although some of them may hereafter 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 including 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 _Falco bido_ of +Horsfield, known to us by specimens obtained from Java and Sumatra. + +[Footnote 1: See Chapter on the Birds of Ceylon.] + +As to the Fishes of Ceylon, they are of course less distinct; and +besides they have hitherto been very imperfectly compared. But the +Insects afford a remarkable confirmation 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 entomology of India than to that of +Australia.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Chapter on the Insects of Ceylon.] + +But more conclusive than all, is the discovery to which I have alluded, +in relation to the elephant of Ceylon. Down to a very recent period it +was universally believed that only two species of the elephant are now +in existence, the African and the Asiatic; distinguished by certain +peculiarities in the shape of the cranium, the size of the ears, the +ridges of the teeth, the number of vertebræ, and, according to Cuvier, +in the number of nails on the hind feet. The elephant 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 +Archipelago[1], 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_. + +[Footnote 1: _Coup d'Oeil Général sur les Possessions Néerlandaises dans +l'Inde Archipélagique_.] + +The points which entitle it to this distinction he enumerated minutely +in the work[1] before alluded to, but they have been summarized as +follows by Prince Lucien Bonaparte. + +[Footnote 1: TEMMINCK, _Coup-d'oeil, &c_., t. i. c. iv. p. 328.; t. ii. +c. iii. p. 91.] + +"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 anatomical genus; since although the crowns of the teeth of _E. +Sumatranus_ 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 fourteen, one less than +in the _Africanus_, _one_ more than in the _Indicus_; and so it is with +the dorsal vertebræ, which are twenty in the _Sumatranus_ (_twenty-one_ +and _nineteen_, in the others), whilst the new species agrees with +_Africanus_ in the number of sacral vertebræ (_four_), and with +_Indicus_ in that of the caudal ones, which are _thirty-four_."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Proceed. Zool. Soc. London_, 1849. p. 144, _note_. The +original description of TEMMINCK is as follows: + +"Elephas Sumatranus, _Nob_. ressemble, par la forme générale du crâne à +l'éléphant du continent de l'Asie; mais la partie libre des +intermaxillaires est beaucoup plus courte et plus étroite; les cavités +nasales sont beaucoup moins larges; l'espace entre les orbites des yeux +est plus étroit; la partie postérieur du crâne au contraire est plus +large que dans l'espèce du continent. + +"Les machelières se rapprochent, par la forme de leur couronne, plutòt +de l'espèce Asíatique que do celle qui est propre à l'Afrique; +c'est-à-dire que leur couronne offre la forme de rubans ondoyés et non +pas en losange; mais ces rubans sont de la largeur de ceux qu'on voit à +la couronne des dents de l'éléphant d'Afrique; ils sont conséquemment +moins nombreux que dans celuí du continent de l'Asie. Les dimensions de +ces rubans, dans la direction d'avant en arrière, comparées à celle +prises dans la direction transversale et latérale, sont en raison de 3 +ou 4 à 1; tandis que dans l'éléphant du continent elles sont comme 4 ou +6 à 1. La longueur totale de six de ces rubans, dans l'espèce nouvelle +de Sumatra, ainsi que dans celle d'Afrique, est d'environ 12 +centimètres, tandis que cette longueur n'est que de 8 à 10 centimètres +dans l'espèce du continent de l'Asie. + +"Les autres formes ostéologiques sont à peu près les mêmes dans les +trois espèces; mais il y a différence dans le nombre des os dont le +squelette se compose, ainsi que le tableau comparatif ci-joint +l'éprouve. + +"_L'elephas Africanus_ a 7 vertèbres du cou, 21 vert. dorsales, 3 +lombaires, 4 sacrées, et 26 caudales; 21 paires de côtes, dont 6 vraies, +et 15 fausses. _L'elephas Indicus_ a 7 vertèbres du cou, 19 dorsales, 3 +lombaires, 5 sacrées, et 34 caudales, 19 paires de côtes, dont 6 vraies, +et 3 fausses. _L'elephas Sumatranus_ a 7 vertèbres du cou, 20 dorsales, +3 lombaires, 4 sacrées, et 34 caudales; 20 paires du côtes, dont 6 +vraies, et 14 fausses. + +"Ces caractères ont été constatés sur trois squelettes de l'espèce +nouvelle, un mâle et une femelle adultes et un jeune mâle. Nous n'avons +pas encore été à même de nous procurer la dépouille de cette espèce."] + +PROFESSOR SCHLEGEL of Leyden, in a paper lately submitted by him to the +Royal Academy of Sciences of Holland, (the substance of which he has +obligingly communicated to me, through Baron Bentinck the Netherlands +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, +conducted 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 +divergence. The Indian species is more robust and powerful: the +proboscis longer and more slender; and the extremity, (a point, in which +the elephant of Sumatra resembles 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 +elephants they examine are really natives of the mainland, or whether +they have been brought to it from the islands.[1] "The extraordinary +fact," he observes in his letter to me, "of the identity thus +established between the elephants of Ceylon and Sumatra; and the points +in which they are found to differ from that of Bengal, leads to the +question whether all the elephants of the Asiatic continent belong to +one single species; or whether these vast regions may not produce in +some quarter as yet unexplored 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 themselves 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." + +[Footnote 1: A further inquiry suggests itself, how far the intermixture +of the breed may have served to confound specific differences, in the +case of elephants bred on the continent of India, from stock partially +imported from Ceylon?] + +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 remarkable that the distinction should not long +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 +Gibbon, 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 which of the two was the "Taprobane" of +antiquity. GEMMA 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 century. + +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 lighthouse, 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[1], 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 algæ in these parts of the gulf. One +which was killed at Manaar and sent to me to Colombo[2] 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Halicore dugung_, F. Cuv.] + +[Footnote 2: The skeleton is now in the Museum of the Natural History +Society of Belfast.] + +[Illustration: THE DUGONG.] + +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 of +mythical physiology may be traced to the Arab seamen 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, with the aspect of a woman[1]; and Ælian, 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 Ælian and Megasthenes both +particularise, from their resemblance to the hair of a woman: "[Greek: +kai gynaikôn opsin echousin aisper anti plokamôn akanthai +prosêrtêntai"][2] + +[Footnote 1: MEGASTHENES, _Indica_, fragm. lix. 34,] + +[Footnote 2: ÆLIAN, _Nat. Hist._, lib. xvi. ch. xviii.] + +The Portuguese cherished the belief in the mermaid, 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 Goa, 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Hist, de la Compagnie de Jésus_, quoted in the _Asiat. +Journ._ vol. xiv. p. 461; and in FORBES' _Orient. Memoirs_, vol. i. p. +421.] + +The Dutch were no less inclined to the marvellous, and they propagated +the belief in the mermaid with earnestness and particularity. VALENTYN, +one of their chaplains, in his account of the Natural History of +Amboina, embodied in his great work on the Netherlands' Possessions in +India, published so late as 1727[1], has devoted the first section of +his chapter on the Fishes of that island to a minute description of the +"Zee-Menschen, Zee-Wyven," 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. + +[Footnote 1: FRAN. VALENTYN, _Beschryving van Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, +&c. 5 vol. fol. Dordrecht and Amsterdam, MDCCXXVII. vol. iii. p. 330.] + +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 between gray and +green--and six weeks afterwards, the creatures were again seen by him +and more than fifty witnesses, at the same place, by clear daylight.[1] + +[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Beschryving, &c._, vol. iii. p. 331.] + +"If any narrative in the world," adds VALENTYN, "deserves credit, it is +this; since _not only one but two mermen_ 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[1], 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." + +[Footnote 1: Probably the _Itinerarium Indicum_ of ALBRECHT HERPORT. +Berne, 1669.] + +Valentyn, in support of his own faith in the mermaid, 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[1], +by whom it was surrendered to the Governor Vanderstel. + +[Footnote 1: A "krank-bezoeker" or visitant of the sick.] + +Of this well-authenticated specimen he gives an elaborate engraving +amongst those of the authentic fishes of the island--together with a +minute ichthyological description of each for the satisfaction of men of +science. + +[Illustration: THE MERMAID (From VALENTYN)] + +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 Russia, was his guest at Amsterdam; to communicate +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," +says the pious Calvinistic chaplain, "in no way militates against the +truth of her story."[1] + +[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Beschryving, &c_., p. 333.] + +Finally Valentyn winds up his proofs, by the accumulated testimony of +Pliny [1], Theodore Gaza, George of Trebisond, and Alexander ab +Alexandro, to show that mermaids had in all ages been known in Gaul, +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 himself had seen, what grounds in reason are there to doubt +that there may also be "sea-maidens" and "sea-men!" + +[Footnote 1: _Nat. Hist_. l. ix. c. 5, where Pliny speaks of the +Nereids.] + +_List of Ceylon Mammalia._ + +A list of the Mammalia of Ceylon is subjoined. In framing it, as well as +the lists appended to the other chapters on the Fauna of the island, the +principal object in view has been to exhibit the extent to which the +Natural History of the island had been investigated, and collections +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 +advantage of a direct comparison with authentic specimens, either at +Calcutta or in England. This will account for the omission 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 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. Horsfield. This work +cannot be too highly extolled, not alone for the scrupulous fidelity +with which the description 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 inquirers,) such incidents and traits as +are calculated to illustrate characteristics and habits. + +QUADRUMANA. + +Presbytes + cephalopterus, _Zimm_. + ursinus, _Blyth_. + Priamus, _Elliot & Blyth_. + Thersites, _Blyth_. +Macacus pileatus, _Shaw & Desm_. +Loris gracilis, _Geoff_. + + +CHEIROPTERA. + +Pteropus Edwardsii, _Geoff_. + Leschenaultii, _Dum_. +Cynopterus + marginatus, _Ham_. +Megaderma spasma, _Linn._ + lyra, _Geoff_. +Rhinolophus _affinis_, _Horsf_. +Hipposideros + murinus, _Elliot_. + speoris, _Elliot_. + armiger, _Hodgs_. + vulgaris, _Horsf_. +Kerivoula picta, _Pall_. +Taphozous + longimanus, _Har_. +Scotophilus Coromandelicus, _F. Cuv._ + _adversus_, _Horsf_. + Temminkii, _Horsf_. + Tickelli, _Blyth_. + Heathii. + + +CARNIVORA. + +Sorex coerulescens, _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 vitticollis, _Benn_. + griseus, _Gm_. + 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, _Bechst_. + Kok, _Gray_. +Mus rufescens. _Gray_. + nemoralis, _Blyth_. + Indicus, _Geoff_. + fulvidiventris, _Blyth_. +Nesoki _Hardwickii_, _Gray_. +Golunda Neuera, _Kelaart_. + Ellioti, _Gray_. +Gerbillus Indicus, _Hardw_. +Lepus nigricollis, _F. Cuv._ +Hystrix leucurus, _Sykes_. + + +EDENTATA. + +Manis pentadactyla, _Linn._ + + +PACHYDERMATA. + +Elephas Sumatranus, _Linn._ +Sus Indicus, _Gray_. + _Zeylonicus_, _Blyth_. + + +RUMINANTIA. + +Moschus meminna, _Eral_. +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 opportunity of witnessing +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 popularly received regarding 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 progress of the elephant hunts in the district of the Seven +Korles, at which I was present in 1846, and again in 1847. + +With the exception of the narrow but densely inhabited belt of +cultivated land, that extends along the seaborde of the island from +Chilaw on the western coast to Tangalle on the south-east, there is no +part of Ceylon 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[1], allure +them, alike on the summits of the loftiest mountains, and on the borders +of the tanks and lowland streams. + +[Footnote 1: 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 dialect of the West, is scarcely +to be traced in any language of Asia. The Greek [Greek: elephas], 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 signified _ivory_. BOCHART has sought for a Semitic origin, +and seizing on the Arabic _fil_, and prefixing the article _al_, +suggests _alfil_, akin to [Greek: eleph]; but rejecting this, BOCHART +himself resorts to the Hebrew _eleph_, an "ox"--and this conjecture +derives a certain degree of countenance from the fact that the Romans, +when they obtained their first sight of the elephant in the army of +Pyrrhus, in Lucania, called it the _Luca bos_. But the [Greek: antos] is +still unaccounted for; and POTT has sought to remove the difficulty by +introducing the Arabic _hindi_, Indian, s thus making _eleph-hindi_, +"_bos Indicus_." The conversion of _hindi_ into [Greek: antos] is an +obstacle, but here the example of "tamarind" comes to aid; _tamar +hindi_, the "Indian date," which in mediæval Greek forms [Greek: +tamarenti]. A theory of Benary, that helhephas might be compounded of +the Arabic _al_, and _ibha_, a Sanskrit name for the elephant, 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 _airarata_ or +_airavana_, a modification of _airavanta_, "son of the ocean," which +again comes from _iravat_, "abounding in water." "Nous aurions done +ainsi, comme corrélatif du gree [Greek: elephanto], une ancienne forme, +_âirâvanta_ ou _âilâvanta_, affaiblie plus tard en _âirâvata_ ou +_âirâvana_.... On connaît la prédilection de l'éléphant pour le +voisinage des fleuves, et son amour pour l'eau, dont l'abondance est +nécessaire à son bien-être." This Sanskrit name, PICTET supposes, may +have been carried to the West by the Phoenicians, who were the purveyors +of ivory from India; and, from the Greek, the Latins derived _elephas_, +which passed into the modern languages of Italy, Germany, and France. +But it is curious that the Spaniards acquired from the Moors their +Arabic term for ivory, _marfil_, and the Portuguese _marfim_; and that +the Scandinavians, probably from their early expeditions to the +Mediterranean, adopted _fill_ 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 macrocarpa_) _Palma de +marfil_, and the nut itself, _marfil vegetal_. + +Since the above was written Gooneratné Modliar, the Singhalese +Interpreter to the Supreme Court at Colombo, has supplied me with +another conjecture, that the word elephant may possibly be traced to the +Singhalese name of the animal, _alia_, which means literally, "the huge +one." _Alia_, he adds, is not a derivation from Sanskrit or Pali, but +belongs to a dialect more ancient than either.] + +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 interruption from the period of the first Punic War.[1] In later +times all elephants were the property of the Kandyan crown; and their +capture or slaughter without the royal permission was classed amongst +the gravest offences in the criminal code. + +[Footnote 1: ÆLIAN, _de Nat. Anim._ lib. xvi. c. 18; COSMAS INDICOPL., +p. 128.] + +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[1]; 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.[2] The +opening of roads and the clearing of the mountain forests of Kandy for +the cultivation of coffee, 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, being more freely +provided with arms than in former times, have assisted in swelling the +annual slaughter.[3] + +[Footnote 1: LE BRUN, who visited Ceylon A.D. 1705, says that in the +district round Colombo, where elephants are now never seen, they were +then so abundant, that 160 had been taken in a single corral. (_Voyage_, +&c., tom. ii. ch. lxiii. p. 331.)] + +[Footnote 2: In some parts of Bengal, where elephants were formerly +troublesome (especially near the wilds of Ramgur), the natives got rid +of them by mixing a preparation of the poisonous Nepal root called +_dakra_ in balls of grain, and other materials, of which the animal is +fond. In Cuttack, above fifty years ago, mineral poison was laid for +them in the same way, and the carcases of eighty were found which had +been killed by it. (_Asiat. Res._, xv. 183.)] + +[Footnote 3: The number of elephants has been similarly reduced +throughout the south of India.] + +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 long since have been annihilated for the +sake of their ivory.[1] But it is a curious fact that, whilst in Africa +and India both sexes have tusks[2], 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 processes called +_tushes_, about ten or twelve inches in length and one or two in +diameter. These I have observed them to use in loosening earth, +stripping off bark, and snapping asunder small branches and climbing +plants; and hence tushes are seldom seen without a groove worn into them +near their extremities.[3] + +[Footnote 1: The annual importation of ivory into Great Britain alone, +for the last few years, has been about _one million_ pounds; which, +taking the average weight of a tusk at sixty pounds, would require the +slaughter of 8,333 male elephants. + +But of this quantity the importation from Ceylon has generally averaged +only five or six hundred weight; which, making allowance for the +lightness of the tusks, would not involve the destruction of more than +seven or eight in each year. At the same time, this does not fairly +represent the annual number of tuskers shot in Ceylon, not only because +a portion of the ivory finds its way to China and to other places, but +because the chiefs and Buddhist priests have a passion for collecting +tusks, and the finest and largest are to be found ornamenting their +temples and private dwellings. The Chinese profess that for their +exquisite carvings the ivory of Ceylon excels all other, both in density +of texture and in delicacy of tint; but in the European market, the +ivory of Africa, from its more distinct graining and other causes, +obtains a higher price.] + +[Footnote 2: A writer in the _India Sporting Review_ for October 1857 +says, "In Malabar a tuskless male elephant is rare; I have seen but +two."--p. 157.] + +[Footnote 3: The old fallacy is still renewed, that the elephant sheds +his tusks. ÆLIAN says he drops them once in ten years (lib. xiv. c. 5): +and PLINY repeats the story, adding that, when dropped, the elephants +hide them under ground (lib. viii.) whence SHAW says, in his _Zoology_, +"they are frequently found in the woods," and exported from Africa (vol. +i. p. 213): and Sir W. JARDINE in the _Naturalist's Library_ (vol. ix. +p. 110), says, "the tusks are shed about the twelfth or thirteenth +year." This is erroneous: after losing the first pair, or, as they are +called, the "milk tusks," which drop in consequence of the absorption of +their roots, when the animal is extremely young, the second pair acquire +their full size, and become the "permanent tusks," which are never +shed.] + +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 exceeding fifty or sixty pounds' weight, those of the +African elephant are straight and thick, weighing occasionally one +hundred and fifty, and even three hundred pounds.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Notwithstanding the inferiority in weight of the Ceylon +tusks, as compared with those of the elephant of India, it would, I +think, be precipitate to draw the inference that the size of the former +was uniformly and naturally less than that of the latter. The truth, I +believe to be, that if permitted to grow to maturity, the tusks of the +one would, in all probability, equal those of the other; but, so eager +is the search for ivory in Ceylon, that a tusker, when once observed in +a herd, is followed up with such vigilant impatience, that he is almost +invariably shot before attaining his full growth. General DE LIMA, when +returning from the governorship of the Portuguese settlements at +Mozambique, told me, in 1848, that he had been requested to procure two +tusks of the largest size, and straightest possible shape, which were to +be formed into a cross to surmount the high altar of the cathedral at +Goa: he succeeded in his commission, and sent two, one of which was 180 +pounds, and the other 170 pounds' weight, with the slightest possible +curve. In a periodical, entitled _The Friend_, published in Ceylon, it +is stated in the volume for 1837 that the officers belonging to the +ships Quorrah and Alburhak, engaged in the Niger Expedition, were shown +by a native king two tusks, each two feet and a half in circumference at +the base, eight feet long, and weighing upwards of 200 pounds. (Vol. i. +p. 225.) BRODERIP, in his _Zoological Recreations_, p. 255, says a tusk +of 350 pounds' weight was sold at Amsterdam, but he does not quote his +authority.] + +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 conjecture, 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 provided +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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c._, published by the Society for the +Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, vol. i. p. 68: "The Elephant," ch. iii. +It will be seen that I have quoted repeatedly from this volume, because +it is the most compendious and careful compilation with which I am +acquainted of the information previously existing regarding the +elephant. The author incorporates no speculations of his own, but has +most diligently and agreeably arranged all the facts collected by his +predecessors. The story of antipathy between the elephant and rhinoceros +is probably borrowed from ÆLIAN _de Nat._, lib. xvii. c. 44.] + +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 "_défenses_"), 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 numbers; 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 contest, 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 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 elephants +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 _must_, in Ceylon _mudda_,--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.[1] 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 most attached +flourishes in such abundance that it is obtained without an effort. 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 wild 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.[2] When 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 +assailing a horse. A horse, belonging to the late Major Rogers[3], 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 Cambay_;" 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.[4] But the display was avowedly an artificial one, and the +creature must have been cruelly tutored for the occasion. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c._, "The Elephant," ch. iii.] + +[Footnote 2: This peculiarity was noticed by the ancients, and is +recorded by Herodotus: [Greek: "kamêlon hippos phobeetai, kai ouk +anechetai oute tên ideên autês oreôn oute tên odmên osphrainomenos"] +(Herod. ch. 80). Camels have long been bred by the Grand Duke of +Tuscany, at his establishment near Pisa, and even there the same +instinctive dislike to them is manifested by the horse, which it is +necessary to train and accustom to their presence in order to avoid +accidents. Mr. BRODERIP mentions, that, "when the precaution of such +training has not been adopted, the sudden and dangerous terror with +which a horse is seized in coming unexpectedly upon one of them is +excessive."--_Note-book of a Naturalist_, ch. iv. p. 113.] + +[Footnote 3: Major ROGERS was many years the chief civil officer of +Government in the district of Oovah, where he was killed by lightning, +1845.] + +[Footnote 4: "Quidam etiam cum equis silvestribus pugnant. Sæpe unus +elephas cum sex equis committitur; atque ipse adeo interfui cum unus +elephas duos equos cum primo impetu protinus prosternerit;--injecta enim +jugulis ipsorum longa proboscide, ad se protractos, dentibus porro +comminuit ac protrivit." _Angli Cujusdam in Cambayam Navigatio_. DE BRY, +_Coll., &c._, vol. iii. ch. xvi. p. 31.] + +Pigs are constantly to be seen feeding about the stables of the tame +elephants, which manifest no repugnance 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.[1] The truth I apprehend to be that, when they meet, the +impudence and impertinences of the dog are offensive to 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. + +[Footnote 1: To account for the impatience manifested by the elephant at +the presence of a dog, it has been suggested that he is alarmed lest the +latter should attack _his feet_, a portion of his body of which the +elephant is peculiarly careful. A tame elephant has been observed to +regard with indifference a spear directed towards his head, but to +shrink timidly from the same weapon when pointed at his foot.] + +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 sufficient 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 Ælian 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 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 occasions 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 wounded by the downward pressure of the +tusks, which in any other position it would be almost impossible to use +offensively.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A writer in the _India Sporting Review_ for October 1857 +says a male elephant was killed by two others close to his camp: "the +head was completely smashed in; there was a large hole in the side, and +the abdomen was ripped open. The latter wound was given probably after +it had fallen."--P. 175.] + +Mr. Mercer, who in 1846 was the principal civil officer of Government 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 question, 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 ponderous 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, enabling 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In the Third Book of Maccabees, which is not printed in our +Apocrypha, but appears in the series in the Greek Septuagint, the +author, in describing the persecution of the Jews by Ptolemy Philopater, +B.C. 210, states that the king swore vehemently that he would send them +into the other world, "foully trampled to death by the knees and feet of +elephants" ([Greek: pempsein eis hadên en gonasi kai posi thêrion +hêkismenous.] 3 Mac. v. 42). ÆLIAN makes the remark, that elephants on +such occasions use their _knees_ as well as their feet to crush their +victims.--_Hist Anim._ viii. 10.] + +A sportsman who had partially undergone this operation, 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 attempted to trample +him at each concussion, and abandoned 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 run their teeth (_tusks_) +through the body, and then tear it in pieces and throw it limb from +limb;" but a Kandyan chief, who was witness 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 sportsmen 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The _Hastisilpe_, a Singhalese work which treats of the +"Science of Elephants," enumerates amongst those which it is not +desirable to possess, "the elephant which will fight with a stone or a +stick in his trunk."] + +Placed as the 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 with 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. Whilst the tuskless elephant crushes the +latter under foot, thereby soiling it and wasting its moisture; 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 advantages: on the +other hand, owing to irregularities in their growth, the tusks are +sometimes an impediment in feeding[1]; and in more than one instance in +the Government 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 prevent the animal from conveying branches to its mouth.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Among other eccentric forms, an elephant was seen in 1844, +in the district of Bintenne, near Friar's-Hood Mountain, one of whose +tusks was so bent that it took what sailors term a "round turn," and +resumed its curved direction as before. In the Museum of the College of +Surgeons, London, there is a specimen, No. 2757, of a _spira_ tusk.] + +[Footnote 2: Since the foregoing remarks were written relative to the +undefined use of tusks to the elephant, I have seen a speculation on the +same subject in Dr. HOLLAND'S "_Constitution of the Animal Creation, as +expressed in structural Appendages_;" but the conjecture of the author +leaves the problem scarcely less obscure than before. Struck with the +mere _supplemental_ presence of the tusks, the absence of all apparent +use serving to distinguish them from the essential organs of the +creature, Dr. HOLLAND concludes that their production is a process +incident, but not ancillary, to other important ends, especially +connected with the vital functions of the trunk and the marvellous +motive powers inherent to it; his conjecture is, that they are "a +species of safety valve of the animal oeconomy,"--and that "they owe +their development to the predominance of the senses of touch and smell, +conjointly with the muscular motions of which the exercise of these is +accompanied." "Had there been no proboscis," he thinks, "there would +have been no supplementary appendages,--the former creates the +latter."--Pp. 246, 271.] + +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 +repetition of the ejaculation _urmph! urmph!_ 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 disturbed 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 voluntarily forced himself backwards +among the brushwood so as to leave a passage, of which he expected us to +avail 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 trembled; 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Chapter on Mammalia, p. 60.] + +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 distinctive excellences and defects. In the +_Hastisilpe_, a 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 +tongue 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 perfection 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 hind quarter plump, and five nails on each foot, all smooth, +polished, and round.[1] An elephant with these perfections," 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 excellences +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. + +[Footnote 1: A native of rank informed me, that "the tail of a +high-caste elephant will sometimes touch the ground, but such are very +rare."] + +The colour of the animal's skin in a state of nature is generally of a +lighter brown than that of those in captivity; 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 rubbing their +skins with a soft stone, a lump of burnt clay, or the coarse husk of a +coco-nut. This kind of attention, 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 pink. These are not natural; nor are they +hereditary, for they are seldom exhibited by the younger individuals in +a herd, but appear to be the result of some eruptive affection, the +irritation 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This is confirmed by the fact that the scar of the ancle +wound, occasioned by the rope on the legs of those which have been +captured by noosing, presents precisely the same tint in the healed +parts.] + +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 notwithstanding 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 which it is sparsely +covered. A white elephant is mentioned in the _Mahawanso_ as forming +part of the retinue attached to the "Temple of the Tooth" at +Anarajapoora, in the fifth century after Christ[1]; 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[2]; the sovereign of Ceylon +being addressed as the "Lord of Elephants."[3] In 1633 a white elephant +was exhibited in Holland[4]; 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxviii. p. 254, A.D. 433.] + +[Footnote 2: PALLEGOIX, _Siam, &c._, vol. i. p. 152.] + +[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xviii. p. 111. The Hindu sovereigns of +Orissa, in the middle ages, bore the style of _Gaja-pati_, "powerful in +elephants."--_Asiat. Res_. xv. 253.] + +[Footnote 4: ARMANDI, _Hist. Milit. des Elephants_, lib. ii. c. x. p. +380. HORACE mentions a white elephant as having been exhibited at Rome: +"Sive elephas albus vulgi converteret ora."--HOR. _Ep_. II. 196.] + + + + +CHAP. III. + +THE ELEPHANT. + + * * * * * + +_Habits when Wild_. + +Although found generally in warm and sunny climates, it is a mistake to +suppose that the 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 doubtless ascribable to the animal's love of coolness and +solitude; 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. + +All the elephant hunters and natives to whom I have spoken on the +subject, concur in opinion that its range 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: After writing the above, I was permitted by the late Dr. +HARRISON, of Dublin, to see some accurate drawings of the brain of an +elephant, which he had the opportunity 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 ganglion of the fifth nerve, showing the small +motor and large sensitive portion. + +[Illustration] + +The _olfactory lobes_, from which the olfactory nerves proceed, are +large, whilst the _optic 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 +portion of the seventh, which supplies the same organ with its power of +movement and action.] + +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 objects and incidents which, imperfectly +discerned, excite suspicions for its safety.[1] In 1841 an officer[2] +was chased by an elephant that he had slightly wounded. Seizing him near +the dry bed of a river, the animal had its forefoot 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 elephant. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c._, "The Elephant," p. 27.] + +[Footnote 2: Major ROGERS. An account of this singular adventure will be +found in the _Ceylon Miscellany_ for 1842, vol. i. p. 221.] + +On the other hand, the power of smell is so remarkable as almost to +compensate for the deficiency of sight. A herd is not only apprised of +the approach of danger 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 of 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."[1] 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 from +being regarded as an indication of "pleasure," is the well-known cry of +rage with which he rushes to encounter an assailant. ARISTOTLE describes +it as resembling the hoarse sound of a "trumpet."[2] 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c._, "The Elephant," ch. iii. p. 68.] + +[Footnote 2: ARISTOTLE, _De Anim_., lib. iv. c. 9. "[Greek: homoion +salpingi]." See also PLINY, lib. x. ch. cxiii. A manuscript in the +British Museum, containing the romance of "_Alexander_" which is +probably of the fifteenth century, is interspersed with drawings +illustrative of the strange animals of the East. Amongst them are two +elephants, whose trunks are literally in form of _trumpets with expanded +mouths_. See WRIGHT'S _Archæological Album_, p. 176.] + +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 twittering of a bird, and described by the hunters by the +word "_prut_." + +A very remarkable noise has been described to me by more than one +individual, who has come unexpectedly upon a herd during the night, when +the alarm of the elephants was apparently too great to be satisfied 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 cooper hammering a cask;" and Major SKINNER is of +opinion that it must be produced by the elephant striking 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 bellowing 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 intruders.[1] + +[Footnote 1: PALLEGOIX, in his _Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam_, +adverts to a sound produced by the elephant when weary: "quand il est +fatigué, _il frappe la terre avec sa_ trompe, et en tire un son +semblable à celui du cor."--Tom. i. p. 151.] + +Elephants are subject to deafness; and the Singhalese regard as the most +formidable of all wild animals, a "rogue"[1] afflicted with this +infirmity. + +[Footnote 1: For an explanation of the term "rogue" as applied to an +elephant, see p. 115.] + +Extravagant estimates are recorded of the height of the elephant. In an +age when popular fallacies in relation 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 history, the elephant, when full +grown, was said to measure from seventeen to twenty feet from the ground +to the shoulder.[1] At a still later period, so imperfectly had the +facts been collated, that the elephant of Ceylon was believed "to excel +that of Africa in size and strength."[2] 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 +Ceylon elephant[3], 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 animals which we are +accustomed to see daily, that the imagination 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 +elephant 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 the largest when killed was found to measure +nine feet six, from the foot to the hip-bone.[4] + +[Footnote 1: _Natural History of Animals_. By Sir JOHN HILL, M.D. +London, 1748-52, p. 565. A probable source of these false estimates is +mentioned by a writer in the _Indian Sporting Review_ for Oct. 1857. +"Elephants were measured formerly, and even now, by natives, as to their +height, by throwing a rope over them, the ends brought to the ground on +each side, and half the length taken as the true height. Hence the +origin of elephants fifteen and sixteen feet high. A rod held at right +angles to the measuring rod, and parallel to the ground, will rarely +give more than ten feet, the majority being under nine."--P. 159.] + +[Footnote 2: SHAW'S _Zoology_. Lond. 1806. vol. i. p. 216; ARMANDI, +_Hist. Milit. des Eléphans_, liv. i. ch. i. p. 2.] + +[Footnote 3: WOLF'S _Life and Adventures, &c_., p. 164. Wolf was a +native of Mecklenburg, who arrived in Ceylon about 1750, as chaplain in +one of the Dutch East Indiamen, and having been taken into the +government employment, he served for twenty years at Jaffna, first as +Secretary to the Governor, and afterwards in an office the duties of +which he describes to be the examination and signature of the "writings +which served to commence a suit in any of the Courts of justice." His +book embodies a truthful and generally accurate account of the northern +portion of the island, with which alone he was conversant, and his +narrative gives a curious insight into the policy of the Dutch +Government, and of the condition of the natives under their dominion.] + +[Footnote 4: DENHAM'S _Travels, &c_., 4to p. 220. The fossil remains of +the Indian elephant have been discovered at Jabalpur, showing a height +of fifteen feet.--_Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng_. vi. Professor ANSTED in his +_Ancient World_, p. 197, says he was informed by Dr. Falconer "that out +of eleven hundred elephants from which the tallest were selected and +measured with care, on one occasion in India, there was not one whose +height equalled eleven feet."] + +For a creature of such extraordinary weight it is astonishing how +noiselessly and stealthily the elephant can escape from a pursuer. When +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."[1] +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 +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 resembling a horse, which he calls a +"machlis,"[2] and that CÆSAR in describing the wild animals in the +Hercynian forests, enumerates the _alce_, "in colour and configuration +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 accident it should fall, but using the trees for a +resting-place, the hunters by loosening their roots bring the _alce_ to +the ground, so soon as it is tempted to lean on them."[3] 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 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 Progressive Motions of Animals_, that in reality he approached the +question with some hesitation, and has not only left it doubtful in one +passage whether the elephant has joints _in his knee_, although he +demonstrates that it has joints in the shoulders[4]; 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.[5] + +[Footnote 1: _Vulgar Errors_, book iii. chap. 1.] + +[Footnote 2: Machlis (said to be derived from _a_, priv., and [Greek: +klinô], _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 therefore he never lieth down, but +sleepeth 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. ch. xv. p. 200.] + +[Footnote 3: "Sunt item quæ appellantur _Alces_. Harum est consimilis +capreis figura, et varietas pellium; sed magnitudine paulo antecedunt, +mutilæque sunt cornibus, _et crura sine nodis articulisque habent_; +neque quietis causa procumbunt; neque, si quo afflictæ casu considerunt, +erigere sese aut sublevare possunt. His sunt arbores pro cubilibus; ad +eas sese applicant, atque ita, paulum modo reclinatæ, quietem capiunt, +quarum ex vestigiis cum est animadversum a venatoribus, quo se recipere +consueverint, omnes eo loco, aut a radicibus subruunt aut accidunt +arbores tantum, ut summa species earum stantium relinquatur. Huc cum se +consuetudine reclinaverint, infirmas arbores pondere affligunt, atque +una ipsæ concidunt."--CÆSAR, _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 à la main."--_Relations des Voyages, &c._, Paris, 1845, vol. i. +p. 29.] + +[Footnote 4: When an animal moves progressively an hypothenuse is +produced, which is equal in power to the magnitude that is quiescent, +and to that which is intermediate. But since the members are equal, it +is necessary that the member which is quiescent should be inflected +either in the knee or in the incurvation, _if the animal that walks is +without knees_. It is possible, however, for the leg to be moved, when +not inflected, in the same manner as infants creep; and there is an +ancient report of this kind about elephants, which is not true, for such +animals as these, _are moved in consequence of an inflection taking +place either in their shoulders or hips_."--ARISTOTLE, _De Ingressu +Anim._, ch. ix. Taylor's Transl.] + +[Footnote 5: ARISTOTLE, _De Animal_., lib. ii. ch. i. It is curious that +Taylor, in his translation of this passage, was so strongly imbued with +the "grey-headed errour," that in order to elucidate the somewhat +obscure meaning of Aristotle, he has actually interpolated the text with +the exploded fallacy of Ctesias, and after the word reclining to sleep, +has inserted the words "_leaning against some wall or tree_," which are +not to be found in the original.] + +So great was the authority of ARISTOTLE, that ÆLIAN, 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 expression +of his surprise, that an animal without joints ([Greek: anarthron]) +should yet be able to dance.[1] The fiction was too agreeable to be +readily abandoned by the poets of the Lower Empire and the Romancers 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 Emperor Andronicus II., untaught by the exposition +of ARISTOTLE, still clung to the old delusion, + +[Greek: + "Podes de toutps thauma kai saphes teras, + Ous, ou kathaper talla tôn zôôn genê, + Eiôthe kinein ex anarthrôn klasmatôn, + Kai gar stibarois syntethentes osteois, + Kai tê pladara tôn sphyrôn katastasei, + Kai tê pros arthra tôn skelôn hypokrisei, + Nyn eis tonous agousi, nyn eis hypheseis, + Tas pantodapas ekdromas tou thêriou. + + * * * * * + + Brachyterous ontas de ton opisthiôn + 'Anamphilektôs oida tous emprosthious + Toutois elephas entatheis osper stylois + 'Orthostadên akamptos hypnôttôn menei."] + v. 106, &c. + +[Footnote 1: [Greek: "Zpson de anarthron sunienai kai rhuthmou kai +melous, kai phylattein schêma physeôs dôra tauta hama kai idiotês kath' +ekaston ekplêktikê]."--ÆLIAN, _De Nat. Anim_., lib. ii. cap. xi.] + +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[1] in +the year 802, corrects the error, and attributes its perpetuation to the +circumstance that the joints in the elephant's leg are not very +apparent, except when he lies down.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, c. xvi. and _Annales Francorum_, +A.D. 810.] + +[Footnote 2: "Sed idem Julius, unum de elephantibus mentions, falso +loquitur; dicens elephantem nunquam jacere; dum ille sicut bos +certissime jacet, ut populi communiter regni Francorum elephantem, in +tempore Imperatoris Karoli viderunt. Sed, forsitan, ideo hoc de +elephante ficte æstimando scriptum est, eo quod genua et suffragines sui +nisi quando jacet, non palam apparent."--DICUILUS, _De Mensura Orbis +Terræ_, c. vii.] + +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 thirteenth; and stranger still, that Matthew not only saw +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 +without joints.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Cotton MSS_. NERO. D. 1. fol. 168, b.] + +In the numerous mediæval treatises on natural history, known 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 +_Physiologus_ of THEOBALDUS, amongst the Arundel Manuscripts in the +British Museum.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Arundel MSS_. No. 292, fol. 4, &c. It has been printed in +the _Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, vol. i. p. 208, by Mr. WRIGHT, to whom I am +indebted for the following rendering of the passage referred to:-- + + in water ge sal stonden + in water to mid side + that wanne hire harde tide + that ge ne falle nither nogt + that it most in hire thogt + for he ne haven no lith + that he mugen risen with, 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 resteth 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 it strong and stedfast, + and leans confidently against 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, + many 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 I have told you."] + +With the Provençal song writers, the helplessness of the fallen elephant +was a favourite simile, and amongst others RICHARD DE BARBEZIEUX, in the +latter half of the twelfth century, sung[1], + + "Atressi cum l'olifans + Que quan chai no s'pot levar." + +[Footnote 1: One of the most venerable authorities by whom the fallacy +was transmitted to modern times was PHILIP de THAUN, who wrote, about +the year 1121, A.D., his _Livre des Créatures_, dedicated to Adelaide of +Louvaine, Queen of Henry I. of England. In the copy of it printed by the +Historical Society of Science in 1841, and edited by Mr. WRIGHT, the +following passage occurs:-- + + "Et Ysidre nus dit ki le elefant descrit, + + * * * * * + + Es jambes par nature nen ad que une jointure, + Il ne pot pas gesir quant il se volt dormir, + Ke si cuchet estait par sei nen leveraît; + Pur ceo li stot apuier, el lui del cucher, + U à arbre u à mur, idunc dort aseur. + + E le gent de la terre, ki li volent conquere, + Li mur enfunderunt, u le arbre encíserunt; + Quant li elefant vendrat, ki s'i apuierat, + La arbre u le mur carrat, e il tribucherat; + Issi faiterement le parnent cele gent." + P. 100.] + +As elephants were but rarely seen in Europe prior to the seventeenth +century, there were but few opportunities of correcting the popular +fallacy by ocular demonstration. Hence SHAKSPEARE still believed that, + + "The elephant hath joints; but none for courtesy: + His legs are for necessity, not flexure:"[1] + +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."[2] + +[Footnote 1: _Troilus and Cressida_, act ii. sc. 3. A.D. 1609.] + +[Footnote 2: _Progress of the Soul_, A.D. 1633.] + +Sir THOMAS BROWNE, 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 +fruitful recurrence of errour, it was not improbable it might revive in +the next generation;"[1]--an anticipation which has proved singularly +correct; for the heralds still continued to explain that the elephant is +the emblem of watchfulness, "_nec jacet in somno,"_[2] and poets almost +of our own times paint the scene when + + "Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast + Their ample shade on Niger's yellow stream, + Or where the Ganges rolls his sacred waves, + _Leans_ the huge Elephant."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Sir T. BROWNE, _Vulgar Errors_, A.D. 1646.] + +[Footnote 2: RANDAL HOME'S _Academy of Armory_, A.D. 1671. HOME +only perpetuated the error of GUILLAM, who wrote his _Display of +Heraldry_ in A.D. 1610; wherein he explains that the elephant is +"so proud of his strength that he never bows himself to any +(_neither indeed can he_), and when he is once down he cannot +rise up again."--Sec. III. ch. xii. p. 147.] + +[Footnote 3: THOMSON'S _Seasons_, A.D. 1728.] + +It is not difficult to see whence this antiquated delusion took its +origin; nor is it, as Sir THOMAS BROWNE imagined, to be traced +exclusively "to the grosse and cylindricall 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 height 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 months together to sleep without lying +down.[1] So distinctive is this formation, and so self-sustaining the +configuration of the limbs, that an elephant shot in the brain, by Major +Rogers in 1836, was killed so instantaneously that it died literally _on +its knees_, and remained resting on them. About the year 1826, Captain +Dawson, the engineer of the great road to Kandy, over the Kaduganava +pass, shot an elephant at Hangwelle on the banks of the Kalany Ganga; +_it remained 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. + +[Footnote 1: So little is the elephant inclined to lie down in +captivity, and even after hard labour, that the keepers are generally +disposed to suspect illness when he betakes himself to this posture. +PHILE, in his poem _De Animalium Proprietate_, attributes the propensity +of the elephant to sleep on his legs, to the difficulty he experiences +in rising to his feet: + + [Greek: + 'Orthostadên de kai katheudei panychos + 'HOt ouk anastêsai men eucherôs pelei.] + +But this is a misapprehension.] + +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 +purpose 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 +arrangement, which by enabling him to draw the hind feet gradually under +him, assists him to rise without a perceptible effort. + +The same construction renders his gait not a "gallop," as it has been +somewhat loosely described[1], 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 +maintain for any considerable distance. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c_. "The elephant," ch. i. Sir CHARLES BELL, +in his essay on _The Hand and its Mechanism_, which forms one of the +"Bridgewater Treatises," has exhibited the reasons deducible 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 solidify 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 shoulder.] + +[Illustration] + +It is to the structure of the knee-joint that the elephant is indebted +for his singular facility in ascending and descending steep activities, +climbing rocks and traversing precipitous ledges, where even a mule dare +not venture; and this again leads to the correction of another generally +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 necessity of ascending or descending great acclivities."[1] +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. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c_., "The Elephant," ch. ii.] + +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 range 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 difficulty, 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 generally keep along the +_backbone_ of a chain of hills, avoiding steep gradients: and one +curious observation was not lost upon the government surveyors, that in +crossing 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 ford_.[1] So sure-footed are they, that +there are few places where man can go that an elephant cannot follow, +provided there be space to admit his bulk, and solidity to sustain his +weight. + +[Footnote 1: Dr. HOOKER, in describing the ascent of the Himalayas, +says, the natives in making their paths despise all zigzags, and run in +straight lines up the steepest hill faces; whilst "the elephant's path +is an excellent specimen of engineering--the opposite of the native +track,--for it winds judiciously."--_Himalayan Journal_, vol. i. ch. +iv.] + +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 projects 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 +portions, which would otherwise overbalance and force him headlong.[1] +It is by the same arrangement that he is 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. + +[Footnote 1: 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 attempt, his +huge tody, soon disarranging 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 cautiously passed a short way down the slope; and if +there is no natural protection to afford a firm footing, 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 brought 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, however, in such precipitous ground is not +straight from top to bottom, but slopes along the face of the bank, +descending till the animal gains the level below. This an elephant has +done, at an angle of 45 degrees, carrying a _howdah_, its occupant, his +attendant, and sporting apparatus; and in a much less time than it takes +to describe the operation." I have observed that an elephant in +descending a declivity uses his knees, on the side next the bank; and +his feet on the lower side only. + +[Illustration]] + +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 +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 detected in the majority of the same +group. + +In the forest several herds will browse in close contiguity, 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 frequented by elephants, +observe that the numbers of the same herd fluctuate very slightly; and +hunters in pursuit 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 proportion 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 members 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 of their own."[1] 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 strength of parental +attachment individually, is, perhaps, somewhat inconsistent with the +existence of such a passion to any extraordinary degree.[2] 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 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. + +[Footnote 1: A correspondent of Buffon, M. MARCELLUS BLES, Seigneur de +Moergestal, who resided eleven years in Ceylon in the time of the Dutch, +says in one of his communications, that in herds of forty or fifty, +enclosed in a single corral, there were frequently very young calves; +and that "on ne pouvoit pas reconnaître quelles étoient les mères de +chacun de ces petits éléphans, car tous ces jeunes animaux paroissent +faire manse commune; ils têtent indistinctement celles des femelles de +toute la troupe qui ont du lait, soit qu'elles aient elles-mêmes un +petit en propre, soit qu'elles n'en aient point."--BUFFON, _Suppl. à +l'Hist. des Anim._, vol. vi. p. 25.] + +[Footnote 2: WHITE, in his _Natural History of Selborne_, philosophising +on the fact which had fallen under his own notice of this indiscriminate +suckling of the young of one animal by the parent of another, is +disposed to ascribe it to a selfish feeling; the pleasure and relief of +having 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 distended 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 exposed children being sometimes nurtured by female +wild beasts that probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit +more marvellous that Romulus and Remus 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 _Selborne_, +lett. xx.] + +In an interesting paper on the habits of the Indian elephant, published +in the _Philosophical Transactions 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 conventional footing, and no +familiarity or intimate association 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 _mêlée_ and confusion, +has been driven into the enclosure with 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 within the circle which they had formed for common security. +There can be no reasonable 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 their vicious propensities and predatory habits +are called _Hora_, or _Rogues_, in Ceylon.[1] + +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 +universally males, the death or capture of particular females may have +detached them from their former companions in search of fresh +alliances.[2] 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 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. + +[Footnote 1: The term "rogue" is scarcely sufficiently accounted for by +supposing it to be the English equivalent for the Singhalese word +_Hora_. In that very curious book, the _Life and Adventures of_ JOHN +CHRISTOPHER WOLF, _late principal Secretary at Jaffnapatam in Ceylon_, +the author says, when a male elephant in a quarrel about the females "is +beat out of the field and obliged to go without a consort, he becomes +furious and mad, killing every living creature, be it man or beast: and +in this state is called _ronkedor_, an object of greater terror to a +traveller than a hundred wild ones."--P. 142. In another passage, p. +164, he is called _runkedor_, and I have seen it spelt elsewhere +_ronquedue_, WOLF does not give "_ronkedor_" as a term peculiar to that +section of the island; but both there and elsewhere, it is obsolete at +the present day, unless it be open to conjecture that the modern term +"rogue" is a modification of _ronquedue._] + +[Footnote 2: BUCHANAN, in his _Survey of Bhagulpore_, p. 503, says that +solitary males of the wild buffalo, "when driven from the herd by +stronger competitors for female society, are reckoned very dangerous to +meet with; for they are apt to wreak their vengeance on whatever they +meet, and are said to kill annually three or four people." LIVINGSTONE +relates the same of the solitary hippopotamus which becomes soured in +temper, and wantonly attacks the passing canoes.--_Travels in South +Africa_, p. 231.] + +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 dwellings, +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 frequently 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 +constant 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 great mountain 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 remarkable. 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 +ROGERS, was promptly surrounded by his companions, who supported him +between 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 the +latter to communicate with distinctness, orders which are observed with +the most implicit obedience by their followers. The following narrative +of an adventure in the great central forest toward the north of the +island, communicated to me by Major SKINNER, 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 approached 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 +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 +movements of the herd, which had already manifested some uneasiness at +our presence. The locality was very favourable for my purpose, and an +enormous tree projecting 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 +within 100 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 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 exercised by the patriarch leader. + +"When 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 +frightened deer, each of the smaller calves being apparently shouldered +and carried along between two of the older ones."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter from Major SKINNER.] + +In drinking, the elephant, like the camel, although preferring water +pure, shows no decided aversion to it when discoloured with mud[1]; 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.[2] 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 the +water with his trunk without disturbing the surrounding sand. + +[Footnote 1: This peculiarity was known in the middle ages, and PHILE, +writing in the fourteenth century, says, that such is his _preference_, +for muddy water that the elephant _stirs it_ before he drinks. + +[Greek: + + "Ydor de pineisynchythen prin anpinoi + To gar dieides akribos diaptuei."] + + --PHILE _de Eleph_., i. 144.] + +[Footnote 2: A tame elephant, when taken by his keepers to be bathed, +and to have his skin washed and rubbed, lies down on his side, pressing +his head to the bottom under water, with only the top of his trunk +protruded, to breathe.] + +[Illustration] + +I have reason to believe, although the fact has not been authoritatively +stated by naturalists, that the stomach of the elephant will 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,"[1] 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[2], and, although some peculiarities +of his stomach were observed at an early period, and even their +configuration described, the function of the abnormal portion remained +undetermined, and has been only recently 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 +_Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire 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."[3] + +[Footnote 1: BRODERIP'S _Zoological Recreations_, p. 259.] + +[Footnote 2: For observing the osteology of the elephant, materials are +of course abundant in the indestructible remains of the animal: but the +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 difficulties. These arise not alone from the rarity of subjects, but +even in cases where elephants have died in these countries, +decomposition interposes, and before the thorough examination of so vast +a body can be satisfactorily completed, the great mass falls into +putrefaction. + +The principal English 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, Dublin, 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. BLAIR, who had an opportunity of dissecting an elephant +which died at Dundee in 1708. The latter writer observes that, +"notwithstanding the vast interest 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 subject he was so fortunate as to find access to. + +In 1723 Dr. WM. STUCKLEY published _Some Anatomical Observations 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 contributions to the +subjects, is a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, on the 18th of +Feb., 1847, by Professor HARRISON, who had the opportunity 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 proboscis, the larynx, trachea, and oesophagus. 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, and +forwarded to Prof. Owen, of the British Museum, by the joint exertions +of M. DIARD and Major SKINNER. An opportunity has thus been afforded +from which science will reap advantage, of devoting a patient attention +to the internal structure of this interesting animal.] + +[Footnote 3: The passage as quoted by BUFFON from the _Mémoires_ is as +follows: + +--"L'estomac avoit peu de diamètre; il en avoit moins que le colon, car +son diamètre n'étoit que de quatorze pouces dans la partie la plus +large; il avoit trois pieds et demi de longueur: l'orifice supérieur +étoit à-peu-près aussi éloigné du pylore que du fond du grand cul-de-sac +qui se terminoit en une pointe composée de tuniques beaucoup plus +épaisses que celles du reste de l'estomac; il y avoit au fond du grand +cul-de-sac plusieurs feuillets épais d'une ligne, larges d'un pouce et +demi, et disposés irrégulierement; le reste de parois intérieures étoit +percé de plusieurs petits trous et par de plus grands qui +correspondoîent à des grains glanduleux."--BUFFON, _Hist. Nat_., vol. +xi. p. 109.] + +A writer in the _Quarterly Review_ 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 espèce de +division particulière."[1] 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_.[2] + +[Footnote 1: "L'extrémité voisine du cardia se termine par une poche +très-considérable et doublée à l'intérieure du quatorze valvules +orbiculaires que semblent en faire une espèce de division +particulière."--CAMPER, _Description Anatomique d'un Eléphant Mâle_, p. +37, tabl. IX.] + +[Footnote 2: "The elephant has another peculiarity in the internal +structure of the stomach. It is longer and narrower than that of most +animals. The cuticular membrane of the oesophagus terminates at the +orifice of the stomach. At the cardiac end, which is very narrow and +pointed at the extremity, the lining is thick and glandular, and is +thrown into transverse folds, of which five are broad and nine narrow. +That nearest the orifice of the oesophagus is the broadest, and appears +to act occasionally as a valve, so that the part beyond may be +considered as an appendage similar to that of the peccary and the hog. +The membrane of the cardiac portion is uniformly smooth; that of the +pyloric is thicker and more vascular."--_Lectures on Comparative +Anatomy_, by Sir EVERARD HOME, Bart. 4to. Lond. vol. i. p. 155. The +figure of the elephant's stomach is given, in his _Lectures_, vol. ii. +plate xviii.] + +[Illustration: ELEPANT'S STOMACH.] + +The appendage thus alluded to by Sir EVERARD HOME is the grand +"cul-de-sac," noticed by the Académic des Sciences, and the "division +particulière," 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 process of +digestion. Professor OWEN is probably the first who, not from an +autopsy, but from the mere inspection 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 the preparation of food.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A similar arrangement, with some modifications, has more +recently been found in the llama of the Andes, which, like the camel, is +used as a beast of burden in the Cordilleras of Chili and Peru; but both +these and the camel are _ruminants_, whilst the elephants belongs to the +Pachydermata.] + +[Illustration] + +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 course 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 fibres descend +and can be distinctly traced to the cardiac orifice of the stomach. +Imperfectly acquainted with 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 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, +viewing 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_."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Proceed. Roy. Irish Acad_., vol. iv. p. 133.] + +Dr. HARRISON, on the reflection that "we have no satisfactory 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 hypothesis was the more correct one. I have elsewhere described +the occurrence to which I was myself a witness[1], 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 remarkable habit of the elephant, had been +made by the author of the _Ayeen Akbery_, in his account of the _Feel_ +_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 with it, and it is not in the least offensive."[2] +FORBES, in his Oriental Memoirs, quotes this passage of the _Ayeen +Akbery_, but without a remark; nor does any European writer with whose +works I am acquainted appear to have been cognisant of the peculiarity +in question. + +[Footnote 1: In the account of an elephant corral, chap. vi.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ayeen Akbery_, transl. by GLADWIN, vol i. pt. i, p. 147.] + +[Illustration: WATER-CELLS IN THE STOMACH OF THE CAMEL.] + +It is to be hoped that Professor OWEN'S dissection of the young +elephant, recently arrived, may serve to decide this highly interesting +point.[1] Should scientific investigation hereafter more clearly +establish the fact that, in this particular, the structure of the +elephant is assimilated to that of the llama and the camel, it will be +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.[2] +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. + +[Footnote 1: One of the Indian names for the elephant is _duipa_, which +signifies "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 before +transferring the water to his mouth.] + +[Footnote 2: The buffalo and the humped cattle of India, which are used +for draught and burden, have, I believe, a development of the +organisation of the reticulum which enables the ruminants generally, to +endure thirst, and abstain from water, somewhat more conspicuous than in +the rest of their congeners; but nothing that approaches in singularity +of character to the distinct cavities in the stomach exhibited by the +three animals above alluded to.] + +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 from 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 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 cultivating 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 cultivators of this class, will predict their appearance +with almost unerring 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 mysterious 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 +elephants, who wait patiently till the rice and _coracan_ 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 ascertained 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 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 remaining in the tank. Night after night these open +pathways are frequented by immense 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 enraged 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 consciousness, that owing +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 similar +apprehension is apparent in the deer, which shrinks from attempting a +fence of wire, although it will clear without hesitation a solid wall of +greater height. + +At the same time, the caution with which the elephant is supposed to +approach insecure ground and places of doubtful[1] solidity, appears to +me, so far as my own observation 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, exhibit all the wariness attributed to +them; yet, in a state of liberty, and whilst unaccustomed to such +artificial appliances, their instincts are not sufficient to ensure +their safety. Besides, the fact is adverted to elsewhere[2], 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. + +[Footnote 1: "One of the strongest instincts which the elephant +possesses, is this which impels him to experiment upon the solidity of +every surface which he is required to cross."--_Menageries, &c._ "The +Elephant," vol. i. pp. 17, 19, 66.] + +[Footnote 2: WOLF'S _Life and Adventures_, p. 151. See p. 115, _note_.] + +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Private Letter_ from Dr. DAVY, author of _An Account of +the Interior of Ceylon_.] + +Colonel HARDY, formerly Deputy Quarter-Master-General in Ceylon, when +proceeding, about the year 1820, to a military out-post in the +south-east of the island, imprudently landed in an uninhabited part of +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 carrying. The device was +successful; the elephant halted and minutely examined its contents, and +thus gave the colonel time to effect his escape.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The _Colombo Observer_ for March 1858, contains an offer of +a reward of twenty-five guineas for the destruction of an elephant which +infested the Rajawallé coffee plantation, in the vicinity of Kandy. Its +object seemed to be less the search for food, than the satisfying of its +curiosity and the gratification of its passion for mischief. Mr. TYTLER, +the proprietor, states that it frequented the jungle near the estate, +whence it was its custom to sally forth at night for the pleasure of +pulling down buildings and trees, "and it seemed to have taken a spite +at the pipes of the water-works, the pillars of which it several times +broke down--its latest fancy being to wrench off the taps." This +elephant has since been shot.] + +As regards the general sagacity of the elephant, although it has not +been over-rated in the instances of those whose powers have been largely +developed in captivity, an undue estimate has been formed in relation 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[1] 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 higher degree of development +consequent on his more intimate domestication and association with man. + +[Footnote 1: CUVIER, _Règne Animal_. "Les Mammiferes," p. 280.] + +One remarkable fact was called to my attention by a gentleman who +resided on a coffee plantation at Rassawé, 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 +observed 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.[1] 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. + +[Footnote 1: The elephant is believed by the Singhalese to express his +uneasiness by his voice, on the approach of _rain_; and the Tamils have +a proverb.--"_Listen to the elephant, rain is coming._"] + +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 subsistence; 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 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 +sagacity. + +Mr. CRIPPS 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 already +proceeded far towards its destination; when night closing in, and the +torches being lighted, it refused to go on, and finally sank to the +ground, apparently 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 abandoned. 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. + + + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III. + + * * * * * + +NARRATIVES OF THE NATIVES OF CEYLON RELATIVE TO ENCOUNTERS 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 was 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 pingoes[1] our +merchandize, which consisted 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 encouragement addressed to them, +and a prayer or two offered up to _Saman dewiyo_[2], we resumed our +journey. I also took the further precaution of hanging up a few +leaves.[3] 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 was 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, when a rustling of leaves and a crackling of dry brushwood +were heard on our right, followed immediately by the trumpeting of a +_hora allia_[4], 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 +concealment 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 down on the ground, 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 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_[5], _camb[=a]yas_[6], 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 returned 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 journey, 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 which were quite uninjured. 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 killed by +an Englishman. The incidents I have mentioned above, took place about +twenty years ago." + +[Footnote 1: Yokes borne on the shoulder, with a package at each end.] + +[Footnote 2: The tutelary spirit of the sacred mountain, Adam's Peak.] + +[Footnote 3: The Singhalese hold the belief, that twigs taken from one +bush and placed on another growing close to a pathway, ensure protection +to travellers from the attacks of wild animals, and especially of +elephants. Can it be that the latter avoid the path, on discovering this +evidence of the proximity of recent passengers?] + +[Footnote 4: A rogue elephant.] + +[Footnote 5: Woman's robe.] + +[Footnote 6: The figured cloth worn by men.] + +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 thirty years ago. We were quietly 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. Where +he had been before I can't say; I believe he must have been lying in +wait for travellers. In a moment he 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 striking him against the ground. 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 +_Cahata_ tree, whose branches caught me and prevented my falling to the +ground. 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 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 returning to the corpse of my +companion, 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 was proprietor of the adjoining +property, and myself, accompanied 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 followed his example. The +elephant did not see us until we had run some fifteen or twenty paces +from the spot where 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, which 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 up 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 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." + + + + +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 way +may be regarded as evidence of the multitudes abounding in those parts +of Ceylon to which they resort. One officer, Major ROGERS, killed +upwards of 1400; another, Captain GALLWEY, 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: To persons like myself, who are not addicted to what is +called "sport," the statement of these wholesale slaughters is +calculated to excite surprise and curiosity as to the nature of a +passion that impels men to self-exposure and privation, in a pursuit +which presents nothing but the monotonous recurrence of scenes of blood +and suffering. Mr. BAKER, who has recently published, under the title of +"_The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon_" an account of his exploits in the +forest, gives us the assurance that "_all real sportsmen are +tender-hearted men, who shun cruelty to an animal, and are easily moved +by a tale of distress_;" and that although man is naturally +bloodthirsty, and a beast of prey by instinct, yet that the true +sportsman is distinguished from the rest of the human race by his "_love +of nature, and of noble scenery_." In support of this pretension to a +gentler nature than the rest of mankind, the author proceeds to attest +his own abhorrence of cruelty by narrating the sufferings of an old +hound, which, although "toothless," he cheered on to assail a boar at +bay, but the poor dog recoiled "covered with blood, cut nearly in half, +with a wound fourteen inches in length, from the lower part of the +belly, passing up the flank, completely severing the muscles of the hind +leg, and extending up the spine; his hind leg having the appearance of +being nearly off." In this state, forgetful of the character he had so +lately given of the true sportsman, 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 comparison with them +one is disposed to regard almost with favour the exploits of a hunter +like Major ROGERS, who is said to have applied the value of the ivory +obtained from his encounters towards the purchase of his successive +regimental commissions, and had, therefore, an object, however +disproportionate, 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 elephants, 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 speculations of Vicesimus +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 support existence in +a state of nature, and which, though rendered dormant 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.] + +But notwithstanding this prodigious destruction, a reward of a few +shillings per head offered by the Government 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 province, between Galle +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 with the slaughterhouse details +chronicled with revolting minuteness in some recent accounts of 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.[1] 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 Royal 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 communicate 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 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." + +[Footnote 1: The vulnerability of the elephant in this region of the +head was known to the ancients, and PLINY, describing a combat of +elephants in the amphitheatre at Rome, says, that one was slain by a +single blow, "pilum sub oculo adactum, in vitalia capitis venerat" (Lib. +viii. c. 7.) Notwithstanding the comparative facility of access to the +brain afforded at this spot, an ordinary leaden bullet is not certain to +penetrate, and frequently becomes flattened. The hunters, to counteract +this, are accustomed to harden the ball, by the introduction of a small +portion of type-metal along with the lead.] + +[Illustration: SECTION OF ELEPHANT'S HEAD.] + +Generally 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 +occasionally an elephant will not fall before several shots have been +lodged in his head.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "There is a wide difference of opinion as to the most +deadly shot. I think the temple the most certain, but authority in +Ceylon says the '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 +MACREADY, late Military Secretary at Colombo.] + +Contrasted with this, one reads with a shudder the sickening details of +the African huntsman approaching _behind_ the retiring animal, and of +the torture inflicted by the shower of bullets which tear up its flesh +and lacerate its flank and shoulders.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In Mr. GORDON CUMMING'S account 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 _boil +his coffee_, and observe its sufferings. The story is continued as +follows:--"Having admired him for a considerable time, _I resolved to +make experiments 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 striking 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 accordingly 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 +now trickled 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 detailing the manner in which he assailed a poor +animal--he says, "I was loading and firing as fast as could be, +sometimes at the head, sometimes 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. * * * Having fired _thirty-five rounds_ 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 +water into his bloody mouth until he died, when he pitched heavily +forward with the whole weight of his fore-quarters resting on the points +of his tusks. The strain was fair, and the tusks did not yield; but the +portion of his head in which the tusks were embedded, extending a long +way above the eye, yielded and burst with a muffled crash."--(_Ib_., +vol. ii. pp. 4, 5.)] + +The shooting of elephants in Ceylon has been described 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 apparently tried to exalt their own prowess, +by misrepresenting the ordinary character of the elephant, describing +him as "savage, wary, and revengeful."[1] + +These epithets may undoubtedly apply to the outcasts from the herd, the +"Rogues" 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."[2] 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 evince on the approach of man, they exhibit no indication of +hostility or thirst for blood. + +[Footnote 1: _The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon_; by S.W. BAKER, Esq., +pp. 8, 9. "Next to a rogue," says Mr. BAKER, "in ferocity, and even more +persevering in the pursuit of her victim, is a female elephant." But he +appends the significant qualification, "_when her young one has been +killed_."--_Ibid_., p. 13.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_.] + +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 lassitude 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 +amusement. 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 captivity, it has been conjectured to arise from some +morbid habit contracted during the length of a voyage by sea[1], or from +an instinctive impulse to substitute a motion of this kind in lieu of +their wonted exercise; but this supposition 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 employment 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 +elephant. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries_, &c., "The Elephant," ch. i. p. 21.] + +They evince the strongest love of retirement and a corresponding dislike +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 +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 together in a group, whilst one or two, more +adventurous than the rest, advance a few steps to reconnoitre. Elephants +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 themselves 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[1], he shows an instinct for hunting, and +exhibits in the pursuit of the elephant a courage and adroitness far +surpassing in interest the mere handling of the rifle, which is the +principal share of the proceeding that falls to his European companions. + +[Footnote 1: _System of Phrenology_, by GEO. COMBE, vol. i. p. 256.] + +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 sportsman describes "this light and active creature, with +his long glossy hair hanging down his shoulders, every 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Private letter from Capt. PHILIP PAYNE GALLWEY.] + +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 themselves together like swine, and allow their assailant to +come within a few yards before they break away in 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[1]; but, so unaccustomed 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 +advancing 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. + +[Footnote 1: Some years ago an elephant which had been wounded by a +native, near Hambangtotte, pursued the man into the town, followed him +along the street, trampled him to death in the bazaar before a crowd of +spectators, and succeeded in making good its retreat to the jungle.] + +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 elephant, 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: SHAW, in his _Zoology_, asserts that an elephant can run as +swiftly as a horse can gallop. London, 1800-6, vol. i. p. 216.] + +The incessant slaughter of elephants by sportsmen in Ceylon, appears to +be merely in subordination to the influence of the organ of +destructiveness, since the carcase is never applied to any useful +purpose, but left to decompose 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 Caffres 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 convert 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 Galle (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." + + + + +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 through 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 impracticable; but, strange to +tell, after the inflammation subsided, Mr. FRETZ recovered rapidly; his +general health was unimpaired, and he returned to his regiment with +this, singular appendage 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. + +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 2-3/4 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. + + + + +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 princes, 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 become expedient to take advantage of the +strength and intelligence of these creatures in clearing forests and +making roads and other works, establishments were organised 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 +enclosures 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The device of taking them by means of pitfalls still +prevails in India: but in addition to the difficulty of providing +against that caution with which the elephant is supposed to reconnoitre +suspicious ground, it has the further disadvantage of exposing him to +injury from bruises and dislocations in his fall. Still it was the mode +of capture employed by the Singhalese, and so late as 1750 WOLF relates +that the native chiefs of the Wanny, when capturing elephants for the +Dutch, made "pits some fathoms deep in those places whither the elephant +is wont to go in search of food, across which were laid poles covered +with branches and baited with the food of which he is fondest, making +towards which he finds himself taken unawares. Thereafter being subdued +by fright and exhaustion, he was assisted to raise himself to the +surface by means of hurdles and earth, which he placed underfoot as they +were thrown down to him, till he was enabled to step out on solid +ground, when the noosers and decoys were in readiness to tie him up to +the nearest tree."--See WOLF'S _Life and Adventures_, p. 152. Shakspeare +appears to have been acquainted with the plan of taking elephants in +pitfalls: Decius, encouraging the conspirators, reminds them of Cæsar's +taste for anecdotes of animals, by which he would undertake to lure him +to his fate: + + "For he loves to hear + That unicorns may be betrayed with trees. + And bears with glasses; _elephants with holes_." + +JULIUS CÆSAR, Act ii. Scene I.] + +Knox 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 countries, 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: KNOX'S _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, A.D. 1681, part i. +ch. vi. p. 21.] + +In Nepaul and Burmah, and throughout the Chin-Indian Peninsula, when in +pursuit of single elephants, either _rogues_ detached from the herd, or +individuals 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 opportunity of casting a noose over the foot of +the destined captive. All accounts concur in expressing high admiration +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 immemorial 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 purchases 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 pressure of a +tooth may be detected. If at fault, they fetch a circuit like a setter, +till lighting on some fresh marks, they go a-head again with renewed +vigour. So delicate is the sense of smell in the elephant, and so +indispensable 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.[1] + +On overtaking the game their courage is as conspicuous as their +sagacity. If they have confidence in the sportsman 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Previous to the death of the female elephant in the +Zoological Gardens, in the Regent's Park, in 1851, Mr. MITCHELL, the +Secretary, caused measurements to be accurately made, and found the +statement of the Singhalese hunters to be strictly correct, the height +at the shoulders being precisely twice the circumference of the fore +foot.] + +[Footnote 2: Major SKINNER, the Chief Officer at the head of the +Commission of Roads, in Ceylon, in writing to me, mentions an anecdote +illustrative of the daring of the Panickeas. "I once saw," he says, "a +very beautiful example of the confidence with which these fellows, from +their knowledge of the elephants, meet their worst defiance. It was in +Neuera-Kalawa; I was bivouacking on the bank of a river, and had been +kept out so late that I did not get to my tent until between 9 and 10 at +night. On our return towards it we passed several single elephants +making their way to the nearest water, but at length we came upon a +large herd that had taken possession of the only road by which we could +pass, and which no intimidation would induce to move off. I had some +Panickeas with me; they knew the herd, and counselled extreme caution. +After trying every device we could think of for a length of time, a +little old Moorman of the party came to me and requested we should all +retire to a distance. He then took a couple of chules (flambeaux of +dried wood, or coco-nut leaves), one in each hand, and waving them above +his head till they flamed out fiercely, he advanced at a deliberate pace +to within a few yards of the elephant who was acting as leader of the +party, and who was growling and trumpeting in his rage, and flourished +the flaming torches in his face. The effect was instantaneous: the whole +herd dashed away in a panic, bellowing, screaming, and crushing through +the underwood, whilst we availed ourselves of the open path to make our +way to our tents."] + +So fearless and confident are they that two men, without aid or +attendants, will boldly attempt to capture 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 stationed, 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 pursued 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 who is engaged in making fast the rope, a movement which it is +the duty of his colleague to present by running up close to the +elephant's head and provoking the animal to confront him by irritating +gesticulations and taunting shouts of _dah! dah!_ a monosyllable, the +sound of which the elephant peculiarly dislikes. Meanwhile the first +assailant, having secured one noose, comes up from behind with 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 wigwam for themselves in +front of him, kindling their fires for cooking, and making all the +necessary arrangements for remaining day and night on the spot to await +the process of subduing and taming his rage. In my journeys through the +forest I have come unexpectedly 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 annoyance of smoke which he detests, in a very +short time, a few weeks at the most, his spirit becomes subdued; and +being plentifully supplied with plantains and fresh food, and indulged +with water, in which he luxuriates, he grows so far reconciled to his +keepers 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 patience 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 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 commences 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1701, there is "An +Account of the taking of Elephants in Ceylon, by Mr. STRACHAN, a +Physician who lived seventeen years there," in which the author +describes the manner in which they were shipped by the Dutch, at Matura, +Galle, and Negombo. A piece of strong sail-cloth having been wrapped +round the elephant's chest and stomach, he was forced into the sea +between two tame ones, and there made fast to a boat. The tame ones then +returned to land, and he swam after the boat to the ship, where tackle +was reeved to the sail-cloth, and he was hoisted on board. + +"But a better way has been invented lately," says Mr. Strachan; "a large +flat-bottomed vessel is prepared, covered with planks like a floor; so +that this floor is almost of a height with the key. Then the sides of +the key and the vessel are adorned with green branches, so that the +elephant sees no water till he is in the ship."--_Phil. Trans._, vol. +xxiii. No. 227, p. 1051.] + +But the feat of ensnaring and subduing a single 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 +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: VALENTYN. _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, ch. xv. p. 272.] + +The custom in Bengal is to construct a strong enclosure (called a +_keddah_), in the heart of the forest, formed of the trunks of trees +firmly secured by transverse beams and buttresses, and leaving the gate +for the entrance of the elephants. A second enclosure, opening from the +first, contains water (if possible a rivulet): this, again, communicates +with a third, which terminates 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 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 impossible. + +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 systematic 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_[1] (from +the 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 exhaustion of the captives, it has been found that a pond or +rivulet within the corral itself adds to the difficulty of leading them +out, and increases their reluctance to leave it; besides which, the +smaller ones are often smothered by the others in their eagerness to +crowd into the water. The funnel-shaped outlet is also dispensed 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 Ceylon 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. + +[Footnote 1: It is thus spelled by WOLF, in his _Life and Adventures_, +p. 144. _Corral_ is at the present day a household word in South +America, and especially in La Plata, to designate an _enclosure for +cattle_.] + +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 years 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 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 River, 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.[1] The +dwelling-house of the principal civil officer in charge of the district +now occupies 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. + +[Footnote 1: See SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT'S _Ceylon_, Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. +xii. p. 415.] + +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 Ætagalla, the Rock of the Tusker.[1] But Ætagalla 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 wrought by the action of the +atmosphere, are called by the names of the Tortoise Rock, the Eel Rock, +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 +Ætagalla and Andagalla shall endure."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Another enormous mass of gneiss is called the +Kuruminiagalla, or the Beetle-rock, from its resemblance in shape to the +back of that insect, and hence is said to have been derived the name of +the town, _Kuruna-galle_ or Kornegalle.] + +[Footnote 2: FORBES quotes a Tamil conveyance of land, the purchaser of +which is to "possess and enjoy it as long as the sun and the moon, the +earth and its vegetables, the mountains and the River Cauvery +exist."--_Oriental Memoirs_, vol. ii. chap. ii. It will not fail to be +observed, that the same figure was employed in Hebrew literature as a +type of duration--" They shall fear thee, _so long as the sun and moon +endure_; throughout all generations."--Psalm lxxii. 5, 17.] + +Kornegalle is the resort of Buddhists from the remotest 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 +Ætagalla. + +At times the heat at Kornegalle is intense, in consequence 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 into the town to drink at the wells. +The soil is prolific in the extreme; rice, cotton, and dry grain are +cultivated largely in the valley. Every cottage is surrounded 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 Government 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 +untilled, 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 +Governor 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 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[1], 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 puswæl bean[2], the sheath of which measures six feet +long by five or six inches broad. + +[Footnote 1: _Pentaptera paniculata_.] + +[Footnote 2: _Entada pursætha_.] + +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 structures +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 storerooms, +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 Raja-kariya was extorted from the +Singhalese 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 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, however, no difficulty 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 involves 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, gunpowder, and other +necessaries for the occasion. + +The period of the year selected is that which least interferes with 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 occupied for many weeks in +putting up the stockades, cutting 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 animals, 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 during 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. + +[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF A CORRAL, AND METHOD OF FENCING IT.] + +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 +conceal the stockade as much as possible by the density of the foliage. +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 sufficiently 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 flexible climbing plants, or as they are called +"jungle ropes," and the whole is steadied by means of forked 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 length 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, instead 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 Governor'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 happened 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 themselves to drive in +the elephants. For this purpose it is often necessary to fetch a circuit +of many miles in 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 +return slowly in the direction which it is desired they should take. +Several herds are by this means concentrated 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 headmen 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 +wings of the corral, the whole forming a 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 multitude 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 watchers 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. + +At length the breaking of the branches and the crackling of the +brushwood announced their close approach, and the leader bursting from +the jungle rushed wildly forward to within twenty yards of the entrance +followed by the rest of the herd. Another 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[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: Fire, the sound of a horn, and the grunting of a boar are +the three things which the Greeks, in the middle ages, believed the +elephant specially to dislike: + + [Greek: + Pyr de ptoeitai kai krion kerasphoron, + Kai tôn moniôn tên boên tên athroan.] + + --PHILE, _Expositio de Elephante_, 1. 177.] + +After sunset the scene exhibited was of extraordinary interest; the low +fires, which had apparently only smouldered 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 perceptible beyond the hum of an +insect. On a sudden the stillness was broken by the distant roll of a +drum, followed by a discharge of musketry. This was the signal for the +renewed assault, and the hunters entered the circle with shouts and +clamour; dry leaves and sticks were flung upon the watch-fires till they +blazed aloft, and formed a line of flame on every side, except in the +direction of the corral, which was studiously kept dark; and thither the +terrified elephants betook themselves, followed by the yells and racket +of their pursuers. + +The elephants approached at a rapid pace, trampling down the brushwood +and crushing the dry branches; the leader emerged in front of the +corral, paused for an instant, stared wildly round, and then rushed +headlong through the open gate, followed by the rest of the herd. +Instantly, as if by magic, the entire circuit of the corral, which up to +this moment had been kept in profound darkness, blazed with thousands of +lights, every hunter on the instant that the elephants entered, rushing +forward to the stockade with a torch kindled at the nearest watch-fire. + +The elephants first dashed to the very extremity of the enclosure, and +being brought up by the fence, retreated to regain the gate, but found +it closed. Their terror was sublime: they hurried round the corral at a +rapid pace, but saw it now girt by fire on every side; they attempted to +force the stockade, but were driven back by the guards with spears and +flambeaux; and on whichever side they approached they were repulsed with +shouts and volleys of musketry. Collecting into one group, they would +pause for a moment in apparent bewilderment, then burst off in another +direction, as if it had suddenly occurred to them to try some point +which they had before overlooked; but again baffled, they 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The other elephant, a fine tusker, which belonged to +Dehigam Ratamahatmeya, continued in extreme excitement throughout all +the subsequent operations of the capture, and at last, after attempting +to break its way into the corral, shaking the bars with its forehead and +tusks, it went off in a state of frenzy into the jungle. A few days +after the Aratchy went in search of it with a female decoy, and watching +its approach, sprang fairly on the infuriated beast, with a pair of +sharp hooks in his hands, which he pressed into tender parts in front of +the shoulder, and thus held the elephant firmly till chains were passed +over its legs, and it permitted itself to be led quietly away.] + +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 +stunned and bewildered. By degrees 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 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. + + + + +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, no 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[1], of which 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. + +[Footnote 1: In some of the elephant hunts conducted in the southern +provinces of Ceylon by the earlier British Governors, as many as 170 and +200 elephants were secured in a single corral, of which a portion only +were taken out for the public service, and the rest shot, the motive +being to rid the neighbourhood of them, and thus protect the crops from +destruction. In the present instance, the object being to secure only as +many as were required for the Government stud, it was not sought to +entrap more than could conveniently be attended to and trained after +capture.] + +Meanwhile, preparations were making outside to conduct 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 +Rodiyas, the only tribe who 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 _ponnekella_, 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 "_cooroowe_," 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 accompanied by his son, named Ranghanie, equally +renowned for his courage and dexterity. + +On this occasion ten tame elephants were in attendance; two were the +property of an adjoining temple (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, including 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 Governments in succession for upwards of a century.[1] +The other, called by her keeper "Siribeddi," 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, +having 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 affording 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 wounded, was helped out of the +corral, and his son, Ranghanie, took his place. + +[Footnote 1: This elephant is since dead; she grew infirm and diseased, +and died at Colombo in 1848. Her skeleton is now in the Museum of the +Natural History Society at Belfast.] + +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. Ranghanie 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 beneath 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 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 together 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. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +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 +surprising efforts to set himself free and rejoin his companions. 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 forelegs, +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 some sudden impulse; but at last the vain strife subsided, and the +poor animal remained perfectly motionless, the image of exhaustion and +despair. + +Meanwhile Ranghanie 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, +converted 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[1]; and, on catching the derisive +shouts of the 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. + +[Footnote 1: The fact of the elephant exhibiting timidity, on having a +long rod pointed towards him, was known to the Romans; and PLINY, +quoting from the annals of PISO, relates, that in order to inculcate +contempt for want of courage in the elephant, they were introduced into +the circus during the triumph of METELLUS, after the conquest of the +Carthaginians in Sicily, and _driven round the area by workmen holding +blunted spears_,--"Ab operariis hastas præpilatas habentibus, per circum +totam actos."--Lib. viii. c. 6.] + +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 _whoop! whoop!_ 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 +Ranghanie stooped under them and attached the fatal noose, and Siribeddi +dragged her out amidst unavailing 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 elephant 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 elephants 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "In a corral, to be on a tame elephant, seems to insure +perfect immunity from the attacks of the wild ones. I once saw the old +chief Mollegodde ride in amongst a herd of wild elephants, on a small +elephant; so small that the Adigar's head was on a level 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 SKINNER.] + +[Illustration] + +As one after another their leaders wore entrapped and forced away from +them, the remainder of the group evinced increased emotion and +excitement; but whatever may have been their sympathy for their lost +companions, 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. + +[Illustration] + +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 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 motionless 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 delicacy of touch in the +foot, which was very remarkable 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 imposition 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, repeating +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 elephant is capable of +containing in the receptacle attached to his stomach must be very +considerable. + +The conduct of the tame ones during all these proceedings 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. + +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 contusion, 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 +addressed 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 himself again; upon which the rope was hauled +tight and made fast. More than once, when a wild one was extending 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 prevented 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 drawn tight. + +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 wild 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 secured. + +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, indulged in the luxury of dusting themselves with sand, +by flinging it from their trunks; but it was a curious 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 +Rata-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 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 _pícador_ 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. + +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 largest +female remaining 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 troublesome 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 within 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 +greater growth, their contortions were quite wonderful. The most amusing +thing was, that in the midst of all their 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 ground, 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.[1] The Rodiyas were called 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. + +[Footnote 1: The surprising faculty of vultures for discovering carrion, +has been a subject of much speculation, as to whether it be dependent on +their power of sight or of scent. It is not, however, more mysterious +than the unerring certainty and rapidity with which some of the minor +animals, and more especially insects, in warm climates congregate around +the offal on which they feed. Circumstanced as they are, they must be +guided towards their object mainly if not exclusively by the sense of +smell; but that which excites astonishment is the small degree of odour +which seems to suffice for the purpose; the subtlety and rapidity with +which it traverses and impregnates the air; and the keen and quick +perception with which it is taken up by the organs of those creatures. +The instance of the scavenger beetles has been already alluded to; the +promptitude with which they discern the existence of matter suited to +their purposes, and the speed with which they hurry to it from all +directions; often from distances as extraordinary, proportionably, as +those traversed by the eye of the vulture. 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 decomposition; 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 summoned them to the feast. Ants exhibit an instinct equally +surprising. 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 +invariably march in the direction of the nearest water, and even when +captured, and placed on the floor of a room, their efforts to escape are +always made towards the same point. Is the sense of smell sufficient to +account for this display of instinct in them? or is it aided by special +organs in the case of the others? Dr. MCGEE, formerly of the Royal Navy, +writing to me on the subject of the instant appearance of flies in the +vicinity of dead bodies, says: "In warm climates they do not wait for +death to invite 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 saying. 'Here are these flies coming to eat +me ere I am dead.' At times they have enabled the doctor, when otherwise +he would have been in doubt as to his prognosis, to determine whether +the strange apyretic interval occasionally present in the last stage of +yellow fever was the fatal lull or the lull of recovery; and 'What say +the flies?' has been the settling question. Among many, many cases +during a long period I have seen but one recovery after the assembling +of the flies. I consider the foregoing as a confirmation of smell being +the guide even to the attendants, a cadaverous smell has been perceived +to arise from the body of a patient twenty-four hours before death."] + +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 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 +uncovered. + +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 haughtily away. A few, however, as +they became more composed, 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 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 persecutors, 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 distress had their capture been effected by the +needless infliction of pain, or had they been destined to ill-treatment +afterwards. + +It was now about two hours after noon, and the first elephants that had +entered the corral having been disposed 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 enclosure 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 frequent charges of +the last herd, and as it was to be apprehended that the others might be +earlier alarmed and retrace their steps, before the barricades could be +replaced, 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 with tom-toms +and discordant noises; a hedge-fire of musketry was kept up in the 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 helplessness. + +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 _mêlée_ when the latter effected their escape, and, as usual, his +new companions in misfortune drove him off indignantly as often as he +attempted to approach them. + +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 occasion, their courageous leader, undaunted by the +multitude 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, who +were now relieved from duty in the forest, and the spectators retired to +their bungalows for the night. The business of the _third day_ 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 +Rata-Mahatmeya succeeded in attaching 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 decoys; +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. +When finally secured, her writhings were extraordinary. She doubled in +her head under her chest, till she lay as round as a hedgehog, 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 obstructed 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, 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. + +[Illustration of elephant resisting capture.] + +Amongst the last that was secured was the solitary individual belonging +to the fugitive herd. When 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 required the combined efforts of the three +elephants to force him along. When 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. + +[Illustration of elephant lying on ground after capture.] + +When 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 then, connecting the three +collars together, the prisoner was effectually made safe between his two +guards. During 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 privilege of which all availed +themselves eagerly. Each was then made fast to a tree in the forest, and +keepers being assigned to him, with 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 cautiously 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 +voluntary 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. + +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 plantains, 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 +air of gravity that was highly amusing, showing 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 Government stud, where he was affectionately received and adopted by +Siribeddi, and he now takes his turn of public duty in the department of +the Commissioner of Roads. + + + + +CHAP. VII. + +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 Greeks 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 elephants brought to Greece 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 Cæsar; but from inexperienced and deficient training, they +proved less effective than the elephants of India[1], and the historians +of these times ascribed to inferiority of race, that which was but the +result of insufficient education. + +[Footnote 1: ARMANDI, _Hist. Milit. des Eléphants_, liv. i. ch. i. p. 2. +It is an interesting fact, noticed by ARMANDI, that the elephants +figured on the coins of Alexander, and the Seleucidæ invariably exhibit +the characteristics of the Indian type, whilst those on Roman medals can +at once be pronounced African, from the peculiarities of the convex +forehead and expansive ears.--_Ibid_. liv. i. cap. i. p. 3. + +[Illustration] + +ARMANDI has, with infinite industry, collected from original sources a +mass of curious informations relative to the employment of elephants in +ancient warfare, which he has published under the title of _Histoire +Militaire des Eléphants depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu' à +l'introduction des armes a feu_. Paris. 1843.] + +It must, however, be remembered that the elephants which, at a later +period, astonished the Romans by their sagacity, and whose performances +in the amphitheatre have been described by Ælian and Pliny, were brought +from Africa, and acquired their accomplishments from European +instructors[1]; 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 camelopard, the lion, and even +the hippopotamus are represented. 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 Mediterranean, it admits of +no doubt that it was communicated by the more accomplished natives of +India who had settled there.[2] + +[Footnote 1: ÆLIAN, lib. ii. cap. ii.] + +[Footnote 2: See SCHLEGEL'S Essay on the Elephant and the Sphynx. +_Classical Journal_, No. lx. Although the trained elephant nowhere +appears upon the monuments of the Egyptians, the animal was not unknown +to them, and ivory and elephants are figured on the walls of Thebes and +Karnac amongst the spoils of Thothmes III., and the tribute paid to +Rameses I. The Island of Elephantine, in the Nile, near Assouan (Syene) +is styled in hieroglyphical writing "The Land of the Elephant;" but as +it is a mere rock, it probably owes its designation to its form. See Sir +GARDNER WILKINSON'S _Ancient Egyptians_, vol. i. pl. iv.; vol. v. p. +176. Above the first cataract of the Nile are two small islands, each +bearing the name of Phylæ;--quære, is the derivation of this word at all +connected with the Arabic term _fil_? See ante, p. 76, note. The +elephant figured in the sculptures of Nineveh is universally as wild, +not domesticated.] + +Another favourite doctrine of the earlier visitors to the East seems to +me to be equally fallacious; PYRARD, BERNIER, PHILLIPE, THEVENOT, 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[1]; 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; although a reference to the original shows that +Tavernier's observations are not only fanciful in themselves, but are +restricted to the supposed excellence of the Ceylon animal _in war_.[2] +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.[3] I have had no opportunity of +testing 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 not +imaginary, is exceptional, and must have arisen in particular and +individual instances, from more judicious or elaborate instruction. + +[Footnote 1: This is merely a reiteration of the statement of ÆLIAN, who +ascribes to the elephants of Taprobane a vast superiority in size, +strength, and intelligence, above, those of continental India,--[Greek: +"Kai oide ge næsiotai elephantes ton hæpiroton halkimoteroi te tæn +rhomæn kai meixous idein eisi, kai thumosophoteroi de panta pantæ +krinointo han."]--ÆLIAN, _De Nat. Anim_., lib. Xvi. Cap. xviii. + +ÆLIAN also, in the same chapter, states the fact of the shipment of +elephants in large boats from Ceylon to the opposite continent of India, +for sale to the king of Kalinga; so that the export from Manaar, +described in a former passage, has been going on apparently without +interruption since the time of the Romans.] + +[Footnote 2: The expression of TAVERNIER is to the effect that as +compared with all others, the elephants of Ceylon are "plus courageux _à +la guerre_." The rest of the passage is a curiosity:-- + +"Il faut remarquer ici une chose qu'on aura peut-être de la peine à +croire main quit est toutefois très-véritable: c'est que lorsque quelque +roi on quelque seigneur a quelqu'un de ces éléphants de Ceylan, et qu'on +en amène quelqu'autre des lieux où les marchands vont les prendre, comme +d'Achen, de Siam, d'Arakan, de Pegu, du royáume de Boutan, d'Assam, des +terres de Cochin et de la coste du Mélinde, dés que les éléphants en +voient un de Ceylan, par un instinct de nature, ils lui font la +révérence, portant le bout de leur trompe à la terre et la relevant. Il +est vrai que les éléphants que les grand seigneurs entretiennent, quand +en les amine devant eux, pour voir s'ils sent en bon point, font troi +fois une espére de révérence avec leur troupe, _a que j'ai en souvent_, +mais ils sont stylés à cela, et leurs maitres le leur enseignent de +bonne heure."--_Les Six Voyages de_ J.B. TAVERNIER, lib. iii. ch. 20.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ramayana_, sec. vi.: CAREY and MARSHMAN, i. 105: FAUCHE, +t. i. p. 66.] + +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.[1] It is more than probable that the earliest attempts +to take and train the elephant, were with a view to military 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. + +[Footnote 1: The only mention of the elephant in Sacred History in the +account given in _Maccabees_ of the invasion of Egypt by Antiochus, who +entered it 170 B.C., "with chariots and elephants, and horsemen, and a +great navy."--1 _Macc_. 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 elephants to fight they showed them the blood of +grapes and of mulberries." The term showed, "[Greek: edeixan]," 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 Elephante_, i. 145. + +There is a very curious account of the mode in which the Arab conquerors +of Seinde, 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:--from a larger account of his journeys he compiled a summary +under the title of "_Moroudj al-dzeheb," or the "Golden Meadows_," the +MS. of which is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. M. REINAUD, in +describing this manuscript says on its authority, "The Prince of +Mensura, whose dominions lay south of the Indus, maintained eighty +elephants trained for war, each of which bore in his trunk a bent +cymeter (carthel), with which he was taught to cut and thrust at all +confronting him. The trunk itself was effectually 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 performance of all +bespoke the utmost intelligence and docility."--REINAUD, _Mèmoires sur +l'Inde, antérieurement au milieu du XIe siècle, d'après les écrivains +arabes, persans et chinois_. Paris, M.D.CCC. XLIX. p. 215. See +SPRENGER'S English Translation of Massoudi, vol. i. p. 383.] + +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.[1] 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 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 holding 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[2] towards the wild one's trunk, whilst +one or two others rub their hands over his back, keeping up all the +while a soothing and plaintive chaunt, interlarded with endearing +epithets, such as "ho! my son," or "ho! 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 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 process 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. + +[Footnote 1: BRODERIP, _Zoological Recreations_, p. 226.] + +[Footnote 2: The iron goad with which the keeper directs the movements +of the elephants, called a _hendoo_ in Ceylon and _hawkus_ in Bengal, +appears to have retained the present shape from the remotest antiquity. +It is figured in the medals of Caracalla in the identical form in which +it is in use at the present day in India. + +The Greeks called it [Greek: harpê], and the Romans _cuspis_. + +[Illustration: Medal of Numidia.] + +[Illustration: Modern Hendoo.]] + +For many days the roaring and resistance which attend the operation are +considerable, and it often requires 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 disposition 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 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 instance 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 Government 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.[1] There is none so obstinate, not even a _rogue_, +that may not, when kindly and patiently treated, be conciliated and +reconciled. + +[Footnote 1: This was the largest elephant that had been tamed in +Ceylon; he measured upwards of nine feet at the shoulders and belonged +to the caste so highly prized for the temples. He was gentle after his +first capture, but his removal from the corral to the stables, though +only a distance of six miles, was a matter of the extremest difficulty; +his extraordinary strength rendering him more than a match for the +attendant decoys. He, on one occasion, escaped, but was recaptured in +the forest; and he afterwards became so docile as to perform a variety +of tricks. He was at length ordered to be removed to Colombo; but such +was his terror on approaching the gate, that on coaxing him to enter the +gate, he became paralysed in the extraordinary way elsewhere alluded to, +and _died on the spot_.] + +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 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: 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 correspondent 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 (génisse), covered with +hair, and insusceptible of being tamed. (BUFFON, _Supp._ vol. vi. p. +29.) Bishop HEBER, in the account of his journey from Bareilly towards +the Himalayas, describes the Raja Gourman Sing, "mounted on a little +female elephant, hardly bigger than a Durham ox, and almost as shaggy as +a poodle."--_Journx._, ch. xvii. It will be remembered that the mammoth +discovered in 1803 embedded in icy soil in Siberia, was covered with a +coat of long hair, with a sort of wool at the roots. Hence there arose +the question whether that northern region had been formerly inhabited by +a race of elephants, so fortified by nature against cold; or whether the +individual 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 in the +young, which when captured are frequently covered with a woolly fleece, +especially about the head and shoulders. In the older individuals 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. FAIRHOLME.] + +But whatever may be its natural gentleness and docility, the temper of +an elephant is seldom to be implicitly 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, irritability 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 +productive of no demonstration whatever, may lead, in moments of +temporary illness, to fretfulness and anger. The knowledge of this +infirmity led to the popular belief recorded by PHILE, that the elephant +had _two hearts_, under the respective influences of which it evinced +ferocity of gentleness; subdued by the one to habitual tractability and +obedience, but occasionally roused by the other to displays of rage and +resistance.[1] + +[Footnote 1: + [Greek: + "Diplês de phasin euporêsai kardias + Kai tê men einai thumikon to thêrion + Eis akratê kinêsin êrethismenon, + Tê de prosênes kai thrasytêtos xenon. + Kai pê men autôn akroasthai ton logôn + Ous an tis Indos eu tithaseuôn legoi, + Pê de pros autous tous nomeis epitrechein + Eis tas palaias ektrapen kakoupgias."] + PHILE, _Expos. de Eleph._, l. 126, &c.] + +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 undesirable, 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.[1] It is observable, that 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. + +[Footnote 1: Captain YULE, in his _Narrative of an Embassy to Ava in_ +1855, records an illustration of this tendency of the elephant to sudden +death; one newly captured, the process of taming which was exhibited to +the British Envoy, "made vigorous resistance to the placing of a collar +on its neck, and the people were proceeding to tighten it, when the +elephant, which had lain down as if quite exhausted, reared suddenly on +the hind quarters, and fell on its side--_dead_!"--P. 104. + +Mr. STRACHAN noticed the same liability of the elephants to sudden death +from very slight causes; "of the fall." he says, "at any time, though on +plain ground, they either die immediately, or languish till they die; +their great weight occasioning them so much hurt by the fall."--_Phil. +Trans._ A.D. 1701, vol. xxiii. p. 1052.] + +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 with 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 heavy +materials; and hence in dragging and piling timber, or moving stones[1] +for the construction of retaining walls and the approaches to bridges, +his services in an unopened country are of the utmost importance. When +roads are to be constructed along the face of steep declivities, and the +space is so contracted that risk is incurred 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 appears on all occasions to comprehend the purpose and object +that he is expected to promote, and hence he voluntarily executes a +variety of details without any guidance whatever from his keeper. This +is one characteristic 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. + +[Footnote 1: A correspondent informs me that on the Malabar coast of +India, the elephant, when employed in dragging stones, moves them by +means of a rope, which he either draws with his forehead, or manages by +seizing it in his teeth.] + +His minute motions when engrossed by such operations, 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 +instrument 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 +proportionate 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[1] or heard of them in +India. + +[Footnote 1: "Here the trees were large and handsome, but not strong +enough to resist the inconceivable strength of the mighty monarch of +these forests; almost every tree had half its branches broken short by +them and at every hundred yards I came upon entire trees, and these, +_the largest in the forest_, uprooted clean out of the ground, and +_broken short across their stems_."--_A Hunter's Life in South Africa_. +By R. GORDON CUMMING, vol. ii. p. 305.-- + +"Spreading out from one another, they smash and destroy all the finest +trees in the forest which happen to be in their course.... I have rode +through forests where the trees thus broken lay so thick across one +another, that it was almost impossible to ride through the +district."--_Ibid_., p. 310. + +Mr. Gordon Cumming does not name the trees which he saw thus "uprooted" +and "broken across," nor has he given any idea of their size and weight; +but Major DENHAM, who observed like traces of the elephant in Africa, +saw only small trees overthrown by them; and Mr. PRINGLE, who had an +opportunity of observing similar practices of the animals in the neutral +territory of the Eastern frontier of the Cape of Good Hope, describes +their ravages as being confined to the mimosas, "immense numbers of +which had been torn out of the ground, and placed in an inverted +position, in order to enable the animals to browse at their ease on the +soft and juicy roots, which form a favourite part of their food. Many of +the _larger mimosas had resisted all their efforts; and indeed, it is +only after heavy rain, when the soil is soft and loose, that they ever +successfully attempt this operation._"--Pringle's _Sketches of South +Africa._] + +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 movement 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 anything 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 surprising to a stranger, because the sameness of the operation +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 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 with 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 +inclined plane of which they gently rolled the remaining logs, and +placed them trimly on the top. + +It has been asserted that in their occupations "elephants are to a +surprising extent the creatures of habit,"[1] that their movements are +altogether mechanical, and that "they are annoyed by any deviation from +their accustomed practice, and resent any constrained departure 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries_, &c., "The Elephant," vol. ii. p. 23.] + +At one point, 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[1] 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, he will stroll +away lazily, to browse or enjoy the luxury of fanning himself and +blowing dust over his back. + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, ch. vi. p. 138.] + +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 nature of +his food or withholding it altogether for a time. Ou 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 with offenders, to stop their allowance of sugar canes or of +jaggery; or to restrain them from eating 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 attachment becomes so strong that an +elephant in Ceylon has been known 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."[1] In the extensive establishments of the Ceylon Government, +the keepers are changed without hesitation, and the animals, when +equally kindly treated, are usually found to be as tractable 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 superintendent. + +[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c._, "The Elephant," vol. i. p. 19.] + +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.[1] Sir EVERARD 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 modulation and destitute of a musical ear.[2] But Professor +HARRISON, in a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy in 1847, has +stated that on a careful examination of the head of an elephant which he +had dissected, he could "see no evidence of the muscular structure of +the _membrana tympani_ so accurately described by Sir E. HOME." Sir +EVERARD'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 unequal.[3] + +[Footnote 1: The principal sound by which the mahouts in Ceylon direct +the motions of the elephants is a repetition, with various modulations, +of the words _ur-re! ur-re!_ This is one of those interjections in which +the sound is so expressive of the sense that persons in charge of +animals of almost every description throughout the world appear to have +adopted it with a concurrence that is very curious. The drivers of +camels in Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt encourage them to speed by +shouting _ar-ré! ar-ré!_ The Arabs in Algeria cry _eirich!_ to their +mules. The Moors seem to have carried the custom with them into Spain, +where mules are still driven with cries of _arré_ (whence the muleteers +derive their Spanish appellation of "arrieros"). In France the Sportsman +excites the hound by shouts of _hare! hare!_ and the waggoner there +turns his horses by his voice, and the use of the word _hurhaut!_ In the +North, "_Hurs_ was a word used by the old Germans in urging their horses +to speed;" and to the present day, the herdsmen in Ireland, and parts of +Scotland, drive their pigs with shouts of _hurrish!_ a sound closely +resembling that used by the mahouts in Ceylon.] + +[Footnote 2: _On the Difference between the Human Membrana Tympani and +that of the Elephant_. By Sir EVERARD HOME, Bart., Philos. Trans., 1823. +Paper by Prof. HARRISON. Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. iii. p. 386.] + +[Footnote 3: I have already noticed the striking effect produced on the +captive elephants in the corral, by the harmonious notes of an ivory +flute; and on looking to the graphic description which is given by ÆLIAN +of the exploits which he witnessed as performed by the elephants +exhibited at Rome, it is remarkable how very large a share of their +training appears to have been ascribed to the employment of music. + +PHILE, in the account which he has given of the elephant's fondness for +music, would almost seem to have versified the prose narrative of ÆLIAN, +as he describes its excitement at the more animated portions, its step +being regulated to the time and movements of the harmony: the whole +"_surprising in a creature whose limbs are without joints!_ + + [Greek: + "Kainon ti poiôn ex anarthrôn organôn."] + PHILE, _Expos. de Eleph_, 1. 216. + +For an account of the training and performances of the elephants at +Rome, as narrated by ÆLIAN see the appendix to this chapter.] + +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 impossible 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 subject, without conceiving a vivid impression +of his gentleness 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 believe he was), that the operation was for his good, and the pain +unavoidable."[1] + +[Footnote 1: The _Angler in the Lake District_, p. 23.] + +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A shocking account of the death of this poor animal is +given in HONE'S _Every-Day Book_, March, 1830, p. 337.] + +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 protection 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 elephant-doctors, +which has been renowned since the time of Ælian, is nowhere more +strikingly displayed than in the successful treatment of such +attacks.[1] In Ceylon, the 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 carefully tended in the government +stables. Out of a stud of about 40 attached to the department of the +Commission of Roads, the deaths between 1841 and 1849 were on an average +_four_ in each year, and this was nearly doubled in those years when +murrain prevailed. + +[Footnote 1: ÆLIAN, lib. xiii. c. 7.] + +Of 240 elephants, employed in the public departments of the Ceylon +Government, 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 . + " 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 + +Of the 72 who died in one year's servitude, 35 expired within the first +six months of their captivity. During training, many elephants die in +the unaccountable 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The elephant which was dissected by DR. HARRISON of Dublin, +in 1847, died of a febrile attack, after four or five days' illness, +which, as Dr. H. tells me in a private letter, was "very like +scarlatina, at that time a prevailing disease; its skin in some places +became almost scarlet."] + + From these causes there died, between 1841 and 1849 9 + Of cattle murrain 10 + Sore feet 1 + Colds and inflammation 6 + Diarrhoea 1 + Worms 1 + Of diseased liver 1 + Injuries from a fall 1 + General debility 1 + 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 symptoms of internal perforation by some +parasite, and the natives assert that, in their agony, the animals have +been known to break them off short.[1] I have never heard of the teeth +themselves being so affected, and it is just possible 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. + +[Footnote 1: See a paper entitled "_Recollections of Ceylon_," in +_Fraser's Magazine_ for December, 1860.] + +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[1]; and hence, by inference, that they would be +devoid of sensation. + +[Footnote 1: _Annales du Muséum_ F. viii. 1805. p. 94, and _Ossemens +Fossiles_, quoted by OWEN, in the article on "Teeth," in TODD'S _Cyclop. +of Anatomy, &c_., vol. iv. p. 929.] + +But independently of the fact that ivory in permeated by tubes so fine +that at their origin from the pulpy cavity they do not exceed 1/15000th +part of an inch in diameter, OWEN had the tusk and pulp of the great +elephant which died at the Zoological Gardens 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 filamentary 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 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 apprehend that the services of elephants might, with +advantage, 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. Besides, 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 to the roads would be such that the wear and 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 enhanced. 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.[1] Taking the average at three shillings and 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 +calculation 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 Commissioner of Roads, 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. + +[Footnote 1: An ordinary-sized elephant engrosses the undivided +attention of _three_ men. One, as his mahout or superintendent, and two +as leaf-cutters, who bring him branches and grass for his daily +supplies. An animal of larger growth would probably require a third +leaf-cutter. The daily consumption is two cwt. of green food with about +half a bushel of grain. When in the vicinity of towns and villages, the +attendants have no difficulty in procuring an abundant supply of the +branches of the trees to which elephants are partial; and in journeys +through the forests and unopened country, the leaf-cutters are +sufficiently expert in the knowledge of those particular plants with +which the elephant is satisfied. Those that would be likely to disagree +with him he unerringly rejects. His favourites are the palms, especially +the cluster of rich, unopened leaves, known as the "cabbage," of the +coco-nut, and areca; and he delights to tear open the young trunks of +the palmyra and jaggery (_Caryota urens_) in search of the farinaceous +matter contained in the spongy pith. Next to these come the varieties of +fig-trees. particularly the sacred _Bo_ (_F. religiosa_) which is found +near every temple, and the _na gaha_ (_Messua ferrea_), with thick dark +leaves and a scarlet flower. The leaves of the Jak-tree and bread-fruit +(_Artocarpus integrifolia_, and _A. incisa_), the Wood apple (_Ægle +Marmelos_), Palu (_Mimusops Indica_), and a number of others well known +to their attendants, are all consumed in turn. The stems of the +plaintain, the stalks of the sugar-cane, and the feathery tops of the +bamboos, are irresistible luxuries. Pine-apples, water-melons, and +fruits of every description, are voraciously devoured, and a coco-nut +when found is first rolled under foot to detach it from the husk and +fibre, and then raised in his trunk and crushed, almost without an +effort, by his ponderous jaws. + +The grasses are not found in sufficient quantity to be an item of daily +fodder; the Mauritius or the Guinea grass is seized with avidity; lemon +grass is rejected from its overpowering perfume, but rice in the straw, +and every description of grain, whether growing or dry; gram (_Cicer +arietinum_), Indian Corn, and millet are his natural food. Of such of +these as can be found, it is the duty of the leaf-cutters, when in the +jungle and on march, to provide a daily supply.] + +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 Rome, as mentioned by +ÆLIAN, the only instances that I am aware of their actually producing +young under such circumstances, took place in Ceylon. Both parents had +been for several years attached 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 elephant 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[1], and modern zoologists have +assigned to it an age very little less; CUVIER[2] allots two hundred and +DE BLAINVILLE one hundred and twenty. The only attempt which I know of +to establish a period historically or physiologically is that of +FLEURENS, who has advanced an ingenious theory on the subject in his +treatise "_De la Longévité Humaine_." 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 consolidation +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 consummation takes place at 20 years +of age, in the horse at 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_.[3] + +[Footnote 1: ARISTOTELES _de Anim. l. viii._ c. 9.] + +[Footnote 2: _Menag. de Mus. Nat._ p. 107.] + +[Footnote 3: FLEURENS, _De la Longévité Humaine_, pp. 82, 89.] + +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 immediate 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 arrival 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 Robertson +(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 said +to have been found in the 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 discovered 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 assurances 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 European 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 +penetrating valleys in tracing 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 in +all possible situations, he had never yet found a single skeleton of a +dead one, except of those which had fallen by the rifle.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This remark regarding the elephant of Ceylon does not +appear to extend to that of Africa, as I observe that BEAVER, in his +_African Memoranda,_ says that "the skeletons of old ones that have died +in the woods are frequently found."--_African Memoranda relative to an +attempt to establish British Settlements at the Island of Bulama_. Lond. +1815, p. 353.] + +It has been suggested that the bones of the elephant, may be so porous +and spongy as to disappear in consequence of an early decomposition; but +this remark would not apply to the grinders or to the tusks; besides +which, the inference is at variance with the fact, that not only the +horns and teeth, but entire skeletons of deer, are frequently found in +the districts inhabited by the elephant. + +The natives, to account for this popular belief, declare that the +survivors of the herd bury such of their companions as die a natural +death.[1] It is curious that this belief was current also amongst the +Greeks 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: + +[Greek: "Otan d' epistê tês teleutês o chronos Koinou telous amunan o +xenos pherei]."[2] + +[Footnote 1: A corral was organised near Putlam in 1846, by Mr. Morris, +the chief officer of the district. It was constructed across one of the +paths which the elephants frequent in their frequent marches, and during +the course of the proceedings two of the captured elephants died. Their +carcases were left of course within the enclosure, which was abandoned +as soon as the capture was complete. The wild elephants resumed their +path through it, and a few days afterwards the headman reported to Mr. +Morris that the bodies had been removed and carried outside the corral +to a spot to which nothing but the elephants could have borne them.] + +[Footnote 2: PHILE, _Expositio de Eleph._ l. 243.] + +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 which the elephants come to die_," +but that it was so mysteriously concealed, that although every one +believed in its existence, no one had ever succeeded in penetrating to +it. At the corral which I have described at Kornegalle, in 1847, +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.[1] 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 return 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 senseless 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, _he found himself amongst the bones +of elephants, and knew that this was their burial place_.[2] 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 +evidently embodies the romantic recitals of the sailors returning from +the navigation of the Indian Seas, in the middle ages[3], which were +current amongst the Mussulmans, and are reproduced in various forms +throughout the tales of the _Arabian Nights_. + +[Footnote 1: The selection by animals of a _place to die_, is not +confined to the elephant, DARWIN says, that in South America "the +guanacos (llamas) appear to have favourite spots for lying down to die; +on the banks of the Santa Cruz river, in certain circumscribed spaces +which were generally bushy and all near the water, the ground was +actually white with their bones; on one such spot I counted between ten +and twenty heads."--_Nat. Voy._ ch. viii. The same has been remarked in +the Rio Gallegos; and at St. Jago in the Cape de Verde Islands, DARWIN +saw a retired corner similarly covered with the bones of the goat, as if +it were "the burial-ground of all the goats in the island."] + +[Footnote 2: _Arabian Nights' Entertainment_, LANE'S edition, vol. iii. +p. 77.] + +[Footnote 3: See a disquisition on the origin of the story of Sinbad, by +M. REINAUD, in the introduction prefixed to his translation of the +_Arabian Geography of Aboulfeda_, vol. i. p. lxxvi.] + + * * * * * + + + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII. + + * * * * * + +As Ælian's work on the _Nature of Animals_ has never, I believe, been +republished in any English version, and the passage in relation to the +training and performance of elephants is so pertinent 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 feeling, 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 walk with a measured gait; to listen 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 elephant +learns and understands, and is accurate withal, and makes no mistake. +Thus has Nature formed him not only the greatest in size, but the most +gentle and the most easily taught. Now if I were going to write about +the tractability and aptitude to learn amongst those of India, Æthiopia, +and Libya, I should probably appear to be concocting a tale and acting +the braggart, or to be telling a falsehood respecting the nature 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 having 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. Cæsar Germanicus, the nephew of Tiberius, +exhibited once a public 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 kindness, 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 civilisation, 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 although 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, 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 walking with a mincing gait 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 line and went round in a circle, and if it were requisite to +deploy they did so. They ornamented the floor of the stage by throwing +flowers upon it, and this they did in moderation and sparingly, and +straightway they beat a measure with their feet and kept time together. + +"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 ([Greek: anarthron]) should understand rhythm +and melody, and preserve a gesture, and not deviate from a measured +movement, and fulfil the requirements of those who laid down +instructions, these are gifts of nature, I think, and a peculiarity in +every way astounding. Added to these there were things enough to drive +the spectator out of his senses; when the strewn rushes and other +materials for beds on the ground 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 +abundant, the banqueters came forward, six male and an 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 appeared to be gluttonous greedy, or to snatch at a greater +portion, 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 Roman tablets with their trunks, neither looking awry nor +turning 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 accomplished and scholarlike +manner." + + + + +CHAP. VIII. + +BIRDS. + + +Of 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. Templeton, Dr. Kelaart, and Mr. Layard; but +many yet remain to be identified. In fact, to the eye of a stranger, +their prodigious numbers, and especially the myriads of waterfowl which, +notwithstanding the presence 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 interior 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 modulated harmony by the rich and melodious +tones of their clear and musical calls. In the elevations of the Kandyan +country there are a few, such as the robin of Neuera-ellia[1] and the +long-tailed thrush[2], whose song rivals that of their European +namesakes; but, far beyond the attraction of their notes, the traveller +rejoices in the flute-like voices of the Oriole, the Dayal-bird[3], and +some others equally charming; when at the first dawn of day, they wake +the forest with their clear _réveil_. + +[Footnote 1: Pratincola atrata, _Kelaart_.] + +[Footnote 2: Kittacincla macrura, _Gm_.] + +[Footnote 3: Copsychussaularis, _Linn._. Called by the Europeans in +Ceylon the "Magpie Robin." This is not to be confounded with the other +popular favourite the "Indian Robin" (Thamnobia fulicata, _Linn._), +which is "never seen in the unfrequented jungle, but, like the coco-nut +palm, which the Singhalese assert will only flourish within the sound of +the human voice, it is always found near the habitations of men."--E.L. +LAYARD.] + +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 quantities. In the close jungle one occasionally hears the call +of the copper-smith[1], or the strokes of the great orange-coloured +woodpecker[2] 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 hornbill[3] (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.[4] The remarkable excrescence on the beak of this 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 brought suspicion on the veracity of his narrative by asserting that +he had there seen "_birds with two heads_."[5] + +[Footnote 1: The greater red-headed Barbet (Megalaima indica, _Lath_.; +M. Philippensis, _var. A. Lath_.), the incessant din of which resembles +the blows of a smith hammering a cauldron.] + +[Footnote 2: Brachypternus aurantius, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 3: Buceros pica, _Scop_.; B. Malaharicus, _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 observed the same habit in a species of Buceros in Java. (See +HORSFIELD and MOORE'S _Catal. Birds_, E.I. Comp. Mus. vol. ii.) It is +curious that a similar trait, though necessarily from very different +instincts, is exhibited by the termites, who literally build a cell +round the great progenitrix of the community, and feed her through +apertures.] + +[Footnote 4: The hornbill is also frugivorous, 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 pressure of his beak. The hornbill abounds +in Cuttack, and bears there the name of "Kuchila-Kai," or Kuchila-eater, +from its partiality for the fruit of the Strychnus nuxvomica. The +natives regard its flesh as a sovereign specific for rheumatic +affections.--_Asiat. Res._ ch. xv. p. 184.] + +[Footnote 5: _Itinerarius_ FRATRIS ODORICI, de Foro Julii de +Portu-vahonis, &c.--HAKLUYT, vol. ii. p. 39.] + +[Illustration: THE HORNBILL.] + +The Singhalese have a belief that the hornbill never resorts to the +water to drink; but that it subsists exclusively by what it catches in +its prodigious bill while 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 themselves on the +branches of the surrounding trees. Nothing 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 number 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 runs 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 this name; but it +utters a cry resembling the word _matkiang!_ which in Singhalese means, +"I _will_ 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 multitude, 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[1], which haunts the mountain provinces and the lower hills, +disquieting the peasantry by its ravages amongst their poultry; and the +gloomy serpent eagle[2], which, descending from its eyrie 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[3], seen on the northern coasts +and the salt lakes of the eastern provinces, particularly when the +receding tide leaves bare an expanse of beach, over which it hunts, in +company with the fishing eagle[4], 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.[5] + +[Footnote 1: Spizaëtuslimnaëtus, _Horsf_. The race of these birds in the +Deccan and Ceylon are rather more crested, originating the Sp. +Cristatellus, _Auct_.] + +[Footnote 2: Which Gould believes to be the _Hæmatornis Bacha_, Daud.] + +[Footnote 3: Pontoaëtus leucogaster, _Gmel_.] + +[Footnote 4: Haliastur Indus, _Bodd._] + +[Footnote 5: E.L. Layard. Europeans have given this bird the name of the +"Brahminy Kite," probably from observing the superstitious feeling of +the natives regarding it, who believe that when two armies are about to +engage, its appearance prognosticates victory to the party over whom it +hovers.] + +_Hawks_.--The beautiful Peregrine Falcon[1] is rare, but the Kestrel[2] +is found almost universally; and the bold and daring Goshawk[3] wherever +wild crags and precipices 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[4], keep +close by the shore, and hover round the returning boats of the fishermen +to feast on the fry rejected from their nets. + +[Footnote 1: Falco peregrinus, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 2: Tinnunculus alaudarius, _Briss._] + +[Footnote 3: Astur trivirgatus, _Temm._] + +[Footnote 4: Milvus govinda, _Sykes._ Dr. Hamilton Buchanan remarks that +when gorged this bird delights to sit on the entablature of buildings, +exposing its back to the hottest rays of the sun, placing its breast +against the wall, and stretching out its wings _exactly as the Egyptian +Hawk is represented on the monuments_.] + +_Owls_.--Of the nocturnal accipitres the most remarkable is the brown +owl, which, from its hideous yell, has acquired the name of the +"Devil-Bird."[1] The Singhalese regard it literally with horror, and its +scream by night in the vicinity of a village is bewailed as the +harbinger of impending calamity.[2] There is a popular legend in +connection with it, to the effect that a morose 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. + +[Footnote 1: Syrnium Indranee, _Sykes._ Mr. Blyth writes to me from +Calcutta that there are some doubts about this bird. There would appear +to be three or four distinguishable races, the Ceylon bird approximating +most nearly to that of the Malayan Peninsula.] + +[Illustration: THE "DEVIL BIRD."] + +[Footnote 2: The horror of this nocturnal scream was equally prevalent +in the West as in the East. Ovid introduces it in his _Fasti_, L. vi. l. +139; and Tibullus in his Elegies, L. i. El. 5. Statius says-- + + Nocturnæque gemunt striges, et feralla bubo + _Damna canens_. Theb. iii. l. 511. + +But Pliny, l. xi. c. 93, doubts as to what bird produced the sound;--and +the details of Ovid's description 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 doubt: he +says--"The Devil-Bird is not an owl. I never heard it until I came to +Kornegalle, where it haunts the rocky hill at the back of +Government-house. Its ordinary note is a magnificent clear shout like +that of a human being, and which can be heard at a great distance, and +has a fine effect in the silence of the closing night. It has another +cry like that of a hen just caught, but the sounds which have earned for +it its bad name, and which I have heard but once to perfection, are +indescribable, the most appalling that can be imagined, and scarcely to +be heard without shuddering; I can only compare it to a boy in torture, +whose screams are being stopped by being strangled. I have offered +rewards for a specimen, but without success. The only European who had +seen and fired at one agreed with the natives that it is of the size of +a pigeon, with a long tail. I believe it is a Podargus or Night Hawk." +In a subsequent note he further says--"I have since seen two birds by +moonlight, one of the size and shape of a cuckoo, the other a large +black bird, which I imagine to be the one which gives these calls."] + +II. PASSERES. _Swallows_.--Within thirty-five miles of Caltura, on the +western coast, are inland caves, to which the Esculent Swift[1] 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 containing 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 algæ.[2] In the nests brought 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. + +[Footnote 1: Collocalia brevirostris, _McClell_.; C. nidifica, _Gray_.] + +[Footnote 2: An epitome of what has been written on this subject will be +found in _Dr. Horsfield's Catalogue_ of the Birds in the E.I. Comp. +Museum, vol. i. p. 101, &c. Mr. Morris assures me, that he has found the +nests of the Esculent Swallow eighty miles distant from the sea.] + +_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 +overhanging 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[1] (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. + +[Footnote 1: Nectarina Zeylanica, _Linn._] + +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 Paradise,"[1] and 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 protect +them from injury." + +[Footnote 1: Tchitrea paradisi, _Linn._] + +[Illustration: TCHITREA PARADISI.] + +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 alternate years. The fact of the variety of plumage +is no doubt true, but this story as to the alternation of colours in the +same individual requires confirmation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The engraving of the Tchitrea given on page 244 is copied +by permission from one of the splendid drawings in. MR. GOULD'S _Birds +of India_.] + +_The Bulbul_.--The _Condatchee Bulbul_[1], 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 purpose 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,"[2] of which, poets say that its +delicate passion for the rose gives a plaintive character to its note. + +[Footnote 1: Pycnonotus hæmorrhous, _Gmel_.] + +[Footnote 2: "Hazardasitaum" the Persian name for the bulbul. "The +Persians," according to Zakary ben Mohamed al Caswini, "say the bulbul +has a passion for the rose, and laments and cries when he sees it +pulled."--OUSELEY'S _Oriental Collections_, vol. i. p. 16. According to +Pallas it is the true nightingale of Europe, Sylvia luscinia, which the +Armenians call _boulboul_, and the Crim-Tartars _byl-byl-i_.] + +_Tailor-Bird_.--_The Weaver-Bird_.--The tailor-bird[1] 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 a clear and merry note; and the Indian weaver[2], a still more +ingenious artist, hangs its pendulous dwelling 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 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 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 substances are +often substituted, and some nests which I brought from Ceylon proved to +be formed with delicate strips from the fronds of the dwarf date-palm, +_Phoenix paludosa_, which happened to grow near the breeding place. + +[Footnote 1: Orthotomus longicauda, _Gmel_.] + +[Footnote 2: Ploceus baya, _Blyth_.; P. Philippinus, _Auct_.] + +[Illustration: "CISSA PUELLA."] + +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The engraving above is taken by permission of Mr. Gould +from one of his drawings for his _Birds of India_.] + +_Crows_.--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 suggested the title of _Corvus splendens_.[1] 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 growth of cinnamon by feeding on the +fruit, and thus disseminating the undigested seed.[2] + +[Footnote 1: There is another species, the _C. culminatus_, so called +from the convexity of its bill; but though seen in the towns, it lives +chiefly in the open country, and may be constantly observed wherever +there are buffaloes, perched on their backs and engaged, in company with +the small Minah (_Acridotheres tristis_), in freeing them from ticks.] + +[Footnote 2: WOLF'S _Life and Adventures_, p. 117.] + +So accustomed are the natives to their presence and exploits, that, like +the Greeks and Romans, 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 croaking, 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 necessarily opened to relieve the heat, nothing is more +common 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 mystery was explained on learning that a crow, +which had been watching the cook chopping mince-meat, had seized the +moment when his head was turned to carry off the knife. + +One of these ingenious marauders, after vainly attitudinising 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 freshwater 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 arranging their +plumage decorously, after which they disperse, each taking the direction +of his accustomed quarters for the night.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A similar habit has been noticed in the damask Parrots of +Africa (_Palæornis fuscus_) which daily resort at the same hour to their +accustomed pools to bathe.] + +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-Galle, +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Similar instances are recorded in other countries of sudden +and prodigious mortality amongst crows; but whether occasioned by +lightning seems uncertain. In 1839 thirty-three thousand dead crows were +found on the shores of a lake in the county Westmeath in Ireland after a +storm.--THOMPSON'S _Nat. Hist. Ireland_, vol. i. p. 319. PATTERSON in +his _Zoology_, p. 356, mentions other cases.] + +III. SCANSORES. _Parroquets_.--Of the Psittacidæ the only examples are +the parroquets, of which the most renowned is the _Palæornis 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 bazaar, that their noise drowned the Babel of +tongues 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, +straggling 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 abruptly +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 commenced 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 +Government Rest House."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Annals of Nat. Hist._ vol. xiii. p. 263.] + +IV. COLUMBIDÆ. _Pigeons_.--Of pigeons and doves there are at least a +dozen species. Some live entirely on trees[1], never alighting on the +ground; others, notwithstanding the abundance of food and warmth, are +migratory[2], 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 marvellous +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 Torringtoniæ_. + +[Footnote 1: Treron bicincta. _Jerd_.] + +[Footnote 2: _Alsocomus puniceus_, the "Season Pigeon" of Ceylon, so +called from its periodical arrival and departure.] + +Another, called by the natives _neela-cobeya_[1], 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." + +[Footnote 1: Chalcophaps Indicus, _Linn._] + +V. GALLINÆ. _The Ceylon Jungle-fowl_.--The jungle-fowl of Ceylon[1] 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 "George +Joyce,"[2] and rises at early morning amidst mist and dew, giving life +to the scenery, that has scarcely yet been touched by the sun-light. + +[Footnote 1: Gallus Lafayetti, _Lesson_.] + +[Footnote 2: I apprehend that in the particular of the peculiar cry the +Ceylon jungle fowl differs from that of the Dekkan, where _I am told_ +that it crows like a bantam cock.] + +The female of this handsome bird was figured many years ago by Dr. GRAY +in his illustrations of "_Indian Zoology_," under the name of _G. +Stanleyi_. 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. +BLYTH recognised it as the long-sought-for male of Dr. Gray's specimen. + +Another of the Gallinæ of Ceylon, remarkable for the delicate +pencillings of its plumage, as well as for the peculiarity of the double +spur, from which it has acquired its trivial name, is the _Galloperdix +bicalcaratus_, of which a figure is given from a drawing by Mr. Gould. + +[Illustration: GALLOPERDIX BICALCARATUS.] + +VI. GRALLÆ.--On reaching the marshy plains and shallow lagoons on either +side of the island, the astonishment of the stranger is excited by the +endless multitudes of stilt-birds and waders which stand in long array +within the wash of the water, or sweep in vast clouds above it. +Ibises[1], storks[2], egrets, spoonbills[3], herons[4], and the smaller +races of sand larks and plovers, are seen busily traversing the wet +sand, in search of the red worm 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. + +[Footnote 1: Tantalus leucocephalus, and Ibis falcinellus.] + +[Footnote 2: The violet-headed Stork (Ciconia leticocephala).] + +[Footnote 3: Platalea leucorodia, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 4: Ardea cinerea. A. purpurea.] + +VII. ANSERES.--Preeminent in size and beauty, the tall _flamingoes_[1], +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 merits, as a striking illustration +of creative wisdom in adapting the organs of animals to their local +necessities. + +[Illustration: FLAMINGO.] + +[Footnote 1: Phoenicopterus roseus, _Pallas_.] + +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 opportunity 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 Anatidæ, +the Coromandel teal[1], the Indian hooded gull[2], the Caspian tern, and +a countless variety of ducks and smaller fowl--pintails[3], teal[4], +red-crested pochards[5], shovellers[6], and terns.[7] Pelicans[8] in +great numbers resort to the mouths of the rivers, taking up their +position 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 overshadow some solitary river or deserted tank. + +[Footnote 1: Nettapus coromandelianus, _Gm_.] + +[Footnote 2: Larus brunnicephalus, _Jerd_.] + +[Footnote 3: Dafila acuta, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 4: Querquedula creeca, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 5: Fuligula rufina, _Pallas_.] + +[Footnote 6: Spatula clypeata, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 7: Sterna minuta, _Linn._] + +[Footnote 8: Pelicanus Philippensis, _Gmel_.] + +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. + +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 retaining 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 +difficult now to determine 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 +elephants 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 +earthworm, common in Ceylon, nearly two feet in length, and as thick as +a small snake. Through these inequalities 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, and slowly soared away in the direction of the +seashore. + +The pelicans were apparently later in their movements; 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 altogether a very remarkable sight. + +Of the birds familiar to European sportsmen, partridges and quails are +to be had at all times; the woodcock has occasionally been shot in the +hills, and the ubiquitous snipe, which arrives in September from +Southern India, is identified not alone by the eccentricity 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 contents is mainly due to the +untiring 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 extending 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 +specimens, the errors which had previously prevailed as to imperfectly +described species. The whole of Mr. Layard's fine collection is at +present in England. + + + ACCIPITRES. + + Aquila + Bonelli, _Temm_. + pennata, _Gm_. + Spizaëtus + Nipalensis, _Hodgs_. + limnæëtus, _Horsf_. + Ictinaëtus + Malayensis, _Reinw_. + Hæmatornis + Bacha, _Daud_. + spilogaster, _Blyth_. + Pontoaëtus + leucogaster, _Gm_. + ichthyaëtus, _Horsf_. + Haliastur + Indus, _Bodd_. + Falco + peregrinus, _Linn._ + peregrinator, _Sund_. + Tinnunculus + alaudarius, _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, _Gm_. + _æruginosus, Linn_. + Athene + castonatus, _Blyth_. + scutulata, _Raffles_. + Ephialtes + scops, _Linn._ + lempijii, _Horsf_. + sunia, _Hodgs_. + Ketupa + Ceylonensis, _Gm_. + Syrnium + Indranee, _Sykes_. + Strix + Javanica, _Gm_. + + + PASSERES. + + Batrachostomus + moniliger, _Layard_. + Caprimulgus + _Mahrattensis, Sykes_. + Kelaarti, _Blyth_. + Asiaticus, _Lath_. + Cypselus + batassiensis, _Gray_. + melba, _Linn._ + affinis, _Gray_. + Macropteryx + coronatus, _Tickell_. + Collocalia + brevirostris, _McClel_. + Acanthylis + caudacuta, _Lath_. + Hirundo + panayana, _Gm_. + daurica, _Linn._ + hyperythra, _Layard_. + domicola, _Jerdon_. + Coracias + Indica, _Linn._ + Harpactes + fasciatus, _Gm_. + Eurystomus + orientalis, _Linn._ + Halcyon + Capensis, _Linn._ + atricapillus, _Gm_. + Smyrnensis, _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._ + Dicæum + minimum, _Tickell_. + Phyllornis + Malabarica, _Lath_. + Jerdoni, _Blyth_. + Dendrophila + frontalis, _Horsf_. + Piprisoma + agile, _Blyth_. + Orthotomus + longicauda, _Gm_. + Cisticola + cursitans, _Frankl_. + omalura, _Blyth_. + Drymoica + valida, _Blyth_. + inornata, _Sykes_. + Prinia + socialis, _Sykes_. + Acrocephalus + dumetorum, _Blyth_. + Phyllopneuste + nitidus, _Blyth_. + montanus, _Blyth_. + viridanus, _Blyth_. + Copsychus + saularis, _Linn._ + Kittacincla + macrura, _Gm_. + Pratincola + caprata, _Linn._ + atrata, _Kelaart_. + Calliope + cyanea, _Hodgs_. + Thamnobia + fulicata, _Linn._ + Cyanecula + Suecica, _Linn._ + Sylvia + affinis, _Blyth_. + Parus + cinereus, _Vieill_. + Zosterops + palpebrosus, _Temm_. + Iöra + Zeylanica, _Gm_. + typhia, _Linn._ + Motacilla + sulphurea, _Becks_. + Indica, _Gm_. + Madraspatana, _Briss_. + Budytes + viridis, _Gm_. + Anthus + rutulus, _Vieill_. + Richardii, _Vieill_. + striolatus, _Blyth_. + Brachypteryx + Palliseri, _Kelaart_. + Alcippe + nigrifrons, _Blyth_. + Pitta + brachyura, _Jerd_. + Oreocincla + spiloptera, _Blyth_. + Merula + Wardii, _Jerd_. + Kinnisii, _Kelaart_. + Zoothera + imbricata, _Layard_. + Garrulax + cinereifrons, _Blyth_. + Pormatorhinus + melanurus, _Blyth_. + Malacocercus + rufescens, _Blyth_. + griseus, _Gm_. + striatus, _Swains_. + Pellorneum + fuscocapillum, _Blyth_. + Dumetia + albogularis, _Blyth_. + Chrysomma + Sinense, _Gm_. + Oriolus + melanocephalus, _Linn._ + _Indicus, Briss_. + Criniger + ictericus, _Stickl_. + Pycnonotus + pencillatus, _Kelaart_. + flavirictus, _Strickl_. + hæmorrhous, _Gm_. + atricapillus, _Vieill_. + Hemipus + picatus, _Sykes_. + Hypsipetes + Nilgherriensis, _Jerd_. + Cyornis + rubeculoïdes, _Vig_. + Myiagra + azurea, _Bodd_. + Cryptolopha + cinereocapilla, _Vieill_. + Leucocerca + _compressirostris, Blyth_. + Tchitrea + paradisi, _Linn._ + *Butalis + latirostris, _Raffles_. + Muttui, _Layard_. + Stoparola + melanops, _Vig_. + Pericrocotus + flammeus, _Forst_. + peregrinus, _Linn._ + Campephaga + Macei, _Less_. + Sykesii, _Strickl_. + Artamus + fuscus, _Vieill_. + Edolius + paradiseus, _Gm_. + Dicrurus + macrocereus, _Vieill_. + edoliformis, _Blyth_. + longicaudatus, _A. Hoy_. + leucopygialis, _Blyth_. + _cærulescens_, _Linn._ + Irena + puella, _Lath_. + Lanius + superciliosus, _Lath_. + _erythronotus, Vig_. + Tephrodornis + affinis, _Blyth_. + Cissa + puella, _Blyth & Layard_. + Corvus + splendens, _Vieill_. + culminatus, _Sykes_. + Eulabes + religiosa, _Linn._ + ptilogenys, _Blyth_. + Pastor + roseus, _Linn._ + Hetærornis + pagodarum, _Gm_. + _albifrontata, Layard_. + Acridotheres + tristis, _Linn._ + Ploceus + manyar, _Horsf_. + baya, _Blyth_. + Munia + undulata, _Latr_. + _Malabarica, Linn_. + Malacca, _Linn._ + rubronigra, _Hodgs_. + striata, _Linn._ + Kelaarti, _Blyth_. + Passer + Indicus, _Jard. & Selb._ + Alauda + gulgula, _Frank_. + _Malabarica, Scop_. + Pyrrhulauda + grisea, _Scop_. + Mirafra + affinis, _Jerd_. + Buceros + gingalensis, _Shaw_. + Malabaricus, _Jerd_. + + + SCANSORES. + + Loriculus + Asiaticus, _Lath_. + Palæcornis + Alexandri, _Linn._ + torquatus, _Briss_. + cyanocephalus, _Linn._ + Calthropæ, _Layard_. + Megalaima + Indica, _Latr_. + Zeylanica, _Gmel_. + flavifrons, _Cuv_. + rubicapilla, _Gm_. + Picus + gymnophthalmus, Blth. + Mahrattensis, _Lath_. + _Macei, Vieill_. + Gecinus + chlorophanes, _Vieill_. + Brachypternus + aurantius, _Linn._ + Ceylonus, _Forst_. + _rubescens, Vieill_. + Stricklandi, _Layard_. + Micropternus + gularis, _Jerd_. + Centropus + rufipennis, _Illiger_. + chlororhynchos, _Blyth_. + Oxylophus + melanoleucos, _Gm_. + Coromandus, _Linn._ + Endynamys + orientalis, _Linn._ + Cuculus + Poliocephalus, _Lath_. + striatus, _Drapiex_. + canorus, _Linn._ + Polyphasia + tenuirostris, _Gray_. + Sonneratii, _Lath_. + Hierococcyx + varius, _Vahl_. + Surniculus + dicruroïdes, _Hodgs_. + Phoenicophaus + pyrrhocephalus, _Forst_. + Zanclostomus + viridirostris, _Jerd_. + + + COLUMBÆ. + + Treron + bicincta, _Jerd_. + flavogularis, _Blyth_. + Pompadoura, _Gm_. + chlorogaster, _Blyth_. + Carpophaga + pusilla, _Blyth_. + Torringtoniæ, _Kelaart_. + Alsocomus + puniceus, _Tickel_. + Columba + intermedia, _Strickl_. + Turtur + risorius, _Linn._ + Suratensis, _Lath_. + humilis, _Temm_. + orientalis, _Lath_. + Chalcophaps + Indicus, _Linn._ + + + GALLINÆ. + + Pavo + cristatus, _Linn._ + Gallus + Lafayetti, _Lesson_. + Galloperdix + bicalcaratus, _Linn._ + Francolinus + Ponticerianus, _Gm_. + Perdicula + agoondah, _Sykes_. + Coturnix + Chinensis, _Linn._ + Turnix ocellatus + _var._ Bengalensis, _Blyth_. + _var._ taigoor, _Sykes_. + + + GRALLÆ. + + Esacus + recurvirostris, _Cuv_. + Oedienemus + crepitans, _Temm_. + Cursorius + Coromandelicus, _Gm_. + Lobivanellus + bilobus, _Gm_. + Göensis, _Gm_. + Charadrius + virginicus, _Bechs_. + Hiaticula + Philippensis, _Scop_. + Cantiana, _Lath_. + Leschenaultii, _Less_. + Strepsilas + Interpres, _Linn._ + Ardea + purpurea, _Linn._ + cinerea, _Linn._ + asha, _Sykes_. + intermedia, _Wagler_. + garzetta, _Linn._ + _alba, Linn_. + bubulcus, _Savig_. + Ardeola + leucoptera, _Bodd_. + Ardetta + cinnamomea, _Gm_. + flavicollis, _Lath_. + Sinensis, _Gm_. + Butoroides + Javanica, _Horsf_. + Platalea + leucorodia, _Linn._ + Nycticorax + griseus, _Linn._ + Tigrisoma + melanolopha, _Raffl_. + Mycteria + australis, _Shaw_. + Leptophilus + Javanica, _Horsf_. + Ciconia + leucocephala, _Gm_. + Anastomus + oscitans, _Bodd_. + Tantalus + leucocephalus, _Gm_. + Geronticus + melanocephalus, _Lath_. + Falcinellus + igneus, _Gm_. + Numenias + arquatus, _Linn._ + phæopus, _Linn._ + Totanus + fuscus, _Linn._ + calidris, _Linn._ + glottis, _Linn._ + stagnalis, _Bechst_. + Actitis + glareola, _Gm_. + ochropus, _Linn._ + hypoleucos, _Linn._ + Tringa + minuta, _Leist_. + subarquata, _Gm_. + Limicola + platyrhyncha, _Temm_. + Limosa + ægocephala, _Linn._ + Himantopus + candidus, _Bon_. + Recurvirostra + avocetta, _Linn._ + Hæmatopus + ostralegus, _Linn._ + Rhynchoea + Bengalensis, _Linn._ + Scolopax + rusticola, _Linn._ + Gallinago + stenura, _Temm_. + _scolopacina, Bon_. + _gallinula, Linn_. + Hydrophasianus + Sinensis, _Gm_. + Ortygometra + rubiginosa, _Temm_. + Corethura + Zeylanica, _Gm_. + Rallus + striatus, _Linn._ + Indicus, _Blyth_. + Porphyrio + poliocephalus, _Lath_. + Porzana + pygmæa, _Nan_. + Gallinula + phoenicura, _Penn_. + chloropus, _Linn._ + cristata, _Lath_. + + + ANSERES. + + Phoenicopterus + ruber, _Linn._ + Sarkidiornis + melanonotos, _Penn_. + Nettapus + Coromandelianus, _Gm_. + Anas + poecilorhyncha, _Penn_. + Dendrocygnus + arcuatus, _Cuv_. + Dafila + acuta, _Linn._ + Querquedula + crecca, _Linn._ + circia, _Linn._ + _Fuligula + rufina, Pall_. + Spatula + clypeata, _Linn._ + Podiceps + Philippensis, _Gm_. + Larus + brunnicephalus, _Jerd_. + ichthyaëtus, _Pall_. + Sylochelidon + Caspius, _Lath_. + Hydrochelidon + Indicus, _Steph_. + Gelochelidon + Anglicus, _Mont_. + Onychoprion + anasthætus, _Scop_. + Sterna + Javanica, _Horsf_. + melanogaster, _Temm_. + minuta, _Linn._ + Seena + aurantia, _Gray_. + Thalasseus + Bengalensis, _Less_. + cristata, _Stepth_. + Dromas + ardeola, _Payk_. + Atagen + ariel, _Gould_. + Thalassidroma + _melanogaster, Gould_. + Plotus + melanogaster, _Gm_. + Pelicanus + Philippensis, _Gm_. + Graculus + Sinensis, _Shaw_. + pygmæus, _Pallas_. + + + + + +NOTE. + + +The following 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 geographical range. + +Hæmatornis spilogaster. The "Ceylon eagle;" was discovered by Mr. Layard +in the 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. Blyth is at +present of opinion that this bird is identical with Ath. Castanopterus, +_Horsf_. of Java as figured by Temminck: _P. Col._ + +Batrachostomus 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 Emerson Tennent from +Avisavelle. Mr. Mitford has met with it at Ratnapoora. + +Caprimulgus Kelaarti. Kelaart's nightjar; 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 Peradenia, and hatched their young, undisturbed by the daily +trimming and lighting of the lamp. + +Cisticola omalura. Layard's mountain grass warbler; is found in +abundance on Horton Plain and Neuera-ellia, among the long Patena grass. + +Drymoica valida. Layard's wren-warbler; frequents tufts of grass and low +bushes, feeding on insects. + +Pratincola atrata. The 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 fuscocapillum. Mr. Layard found two specimens of this rare +thrush creeping about shrubs and bushes, feeding on insects. + +Alcippe nigrifrons. 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. + +Merula Kinnisii. The Neuera-ellia blackbird; was added by Dr. Kelaart. + +Garrulax cinereifrons. The ashy-headed babbler; was found by Mr. Layard +near Ratnapoora. + +Pomatorhinus melanurus. Mr. Layard states that the mountain babbler +frequents 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 bulbul; was found by Dr. +Kelaart at Neuera-ellia. + +Butalis Muttui. This very handsome flycatcher was procured at Point +Pedro, by Mr. Layard. + +Dicrurus edoliformis. Dr. Templeton found this kingcrow at the Bibloo +Oya. Mr. Layard has since got it at Ambogammoa. + +Dicrurus leucopygialis. The Ceylon kingcrow was sent to Mr. Blyth from +the vicinity of Colombo, by Dr. Templeton. A species very closely allied +to D. coerulescens of the Indian continent. + +Tephrodornis affinis. The Ceylon butcher-bird. A migatory species found +in the wooded grass lands in October. + +Cissa puella. 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 previously assumed to be M. pectoralls of +Jerdon; is most probably peculiar to Ceylon. + +Loriculus asiaticus. The small parroquet, abundant in various districts. + +Palæornis Calthropæ. 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 barbet, is not uncommon. + +Megalaima rubricapilla, is found in most parts of the island. + +Picus gymnophthalmus. Layard's woodpecker. The smallest of the species, +was discovered near Colombo, amongst jak-trees. + +Brachypternus Ceylonus. The Ceylon woodpecker, is found in abundance +near Neuera-ellia. + +Brachypternus rubescens. The red woodpecker. + +Centropus chlororhynchus. The yellow-billed cuckoo, was detected by Mr. +Layard in dense jungle near Colombo and Avisavelle. + +Phoenicophaus pyrrhocephalus. The malkoha, is confined to the southern +highlands. + +Treron Pompadoura. The Pompadour pigeon. "The Prince of Canino has shown +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. Nat. +Hist._ p. 514: 1857. + +Carpophaga Torringtoniæ. Lady Torrington'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 loftiest 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, banyan, &c., on which they feed. + +Gallus Lafayetti.--The Ceylon jungle fowl. The female of this handsome +bird was figured by Mr. GRAY (_Ill. Ind. Zool._) under the name of G. +Stanleyi. The cock bird had long been lost to naturalists, until a +specimen was forwarded 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 afterwards +termed G. Lafayetti. + +Galloperdix bicalcaratus. Not uncommon in suitable situations. + + + + +CHAP. IX. + +REPTILES. + + +LIZARDS. _Iguana_.--One of the earliest, if not the first remarkable +animal to startle a stranger on arriving in Ceylon, whilst wending his +way from Point-de-Galle to Colombo, is a huge lizard of from four to +five feet in length, the _Talla-goy[=a]_ of the Singhalese, and +Iguana[1] of the Europeans. It may be seen at noonday 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 returns again +to the occupation in which it had been interrupted. Repulsive as it is +in appearance, it is perfectly harmless, and is hunted down by dogs in +the maritime provinces, and its delicate flesh, which is believed to be +a specific in dysentery, is converted into curry, and its skin into +shoes. When seized, it has the power of inflicting a smart blow with its +tail. The Talla-goy[=a] 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 frequented my garden at Colombo, made their retreat in the +heart of a decayed tree. + +[Footnote 1: Monitor dracæna, _Linn._ Among the barbarous nostrums of +the uneducated natives, both Singhalese and Tamil, is the tongue of the +iguana, which they regard as a specific for consumption, if plucked from +the living animal and swallowed whole.] + +A still larger species, the _Kabara-goy[=a]_[1], 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 +obtained amongst naturalists the name of _Monitor exanthematicus_, and +it is curious that the native appellation of this one, _kabara_[2], 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 unfortunately 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 sometimes corrupt into _cobra-tel_, implying that the venom is +obtained from the hooded-snake; whereas it professes to be extracted +from the "kabara-goy[=a]." Such is the bad renown of this formidable +poison, that an individual suspected of having it in his possession, is +cautiously shunned by his neighbours. Those especially who are on +doubtful terms with him, suspect their servants lest they should be +suborned to mix kabara-tel in the curry. So subtle is the virus supposed +to be, that one method of administering it, is to introduce it within +the midrib of a leaf of betel, and close the orifice with chunam; and, +as it is an habitual act of courtesy for one Singhalese on meeting +another to offer the compliment of a betel-leaf, which it would be +rudeness to refuse, facilities are thus afforded for presenting 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. + +[Footnote 1: Hydrosaurus salvator, _Laur_. Tail compressed; fingers +long; nostrils near the extremity of the snout. A black band on each +temple; round yellow spots disposed in transverse series on the back. +Teeth with the crown compressed and notched.] + +[Footnote 2: In the _Mahawanso_ the hero Tissa, is said to have been +"afflicted with a cutaneous complaint which made his skin scaly like +that of the _godho_."--Ch. xxiv. p. 148. "Godho" is the Pali name for +the Kabara-goy[=a].] + +[Illustration: THE KABARA-GOYA.] + +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 _Macbeth'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 _kabara-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[1] and his wife, which had been +committed with the _kabara-tel_, and was then under investigation. +Before commencing the operation of preparing the poison, a cock has to +be sacrificed to the _yakhos_ or demons. + +[Footnote 1: A native head-man of low rank.] + +This ugly lizard is itself regarded with such aversion by the +Singhalese, that if a _kabara_ 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 d[=o]sey + Ada palayan e d[=o]sey. + +"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 geography, that this lizard, though +found to the eastward in Burmah[1], has not hitherto been discovered in +the Dekkan or Hindustan. + +[Footnote 1: In corroboration of the view propounded elsewhere (see pp. +7, 84, &c), and opposed to the popular belief that Ceylon, at some +remote period, was detached from the continent of India by the +interposition of the sea, a list of reptiles will be found at p. 319, +including not only individual species, but whole genera peculiar to the +island, and not to be found on the mainland. See a paper by Dr. A. +GÜNTHER on _The Geog. Distribution of Reptiles_. Magaz. Nat. Hist. for +March, 1859, p. 230.] + +[Illustration: CALOTES OPHIOMACHUS] + +_Blood-suckers_.--The lizards already mentioned, however, 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 limited power of respiration, which +justifies the accurate picture of-- + + "The green lizard, rustling thro' the grass, + And up the fluted shaft, _with short, quick, spring_ + To vanish in the chinks which time has made."[1] + +[Footnote 1: ROGERS' _Pæstum._] + +The most beautiful of the race is the _green calotes_[1], 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 in a less degree, the power, like +the chameleon, of exchanging their ordinary colours for others less +conspicuous. 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, with a gular sac or +throat-pouch, capable of inflation when in a state of high excitement. +The tail, too, is rounded, not compressed, thus clearly indicating that +its habits are those of a land-animal. + +[Footnote 1: Calotes sp.] + +The _Calotes versicolor_; and another, the _Calotes ophioimachus_, 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, become 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.[1] The _sitana_[2], and a number of others, +exhibit similar phenomena. + +[Footnote 1: The characteristics by which the _Calotes ophiomachus_ may +be readily recognised, are a small crest formed by long spines running +on each side of the neck to above the ear, coupled with a green +ground-colour of the scales. Many specimens are uniform, others banded +transversely with white, and others again have a black band on each side +of the neck.] + +[Footnote 2: Sitana Ponticereana, _Cuv_.] + +The lyre-headed lizard[1], which 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 movements. + +[Footnote 1: Lyriocephalus scutatus, _Linn._] + +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 vermilion 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[1] 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 distinguishable in colour; and there patiently awaits +the approach of the insects on which it feeds. Instantly on their +appearance its wonderful tongue comes into play. + +[Footnote 1: Chameleo vulgaris, _Daud_.] + +[Illustration: 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 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Prof. RYMER JONES, art. _Reptilia_, in TODD'S _Cyclop. of +Anat_. vol. iv. pt. i. p. 292.] + +Whilst the faculty of this creature to assume all the colours of the +rainbow has attracted the wonder of all ages, sufficient attention has +hardly been given to the imperfect 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 incapacity 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 larvæ. The first specimen brought to +Europe was called _Ceratophora Stoddartii_, 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. Günther, 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 curious horn-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 anatomical or a physiological point of view. For, whilst +the horn of the rhinoceros is merely a dermal production, 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 +_ceratophora_ 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 +moments 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 rudimentary 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. + +[Illustration: CERATOPHORA TENNENTII and C. STODDARTII] + +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 appendage. Dr. Günther pronounced it to be a new species; +and Dr. Gray concurring in this opinion, they have done me the honour to +call it _Ceratophora Tennentii_. 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 _Lyriocephalus_, and the differences of the new species +from the latter lizard may be easily seen from the annexed drawing and +the notes given below.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The specimen in the British Museum is apparently an adult +male, ten inches long, and is, with regard to the distribution of the +scales and the form of the head very similar to _C. Stoddartii_. The +posterior angles of the orbit are not projecting, but there is a small +tubercle behind them; and a pair of somewhat larger tubercles on the +neck. The gular sac is absent. There are five longitudinal quadrangular, +imbricate scales on each side of the throat; and the sides of the body +present a nearly horizontal series of similar scales. The scales on the +median line of the back scarcely form a crest; it is, however distinct +on the nape of the neck. The scales on the belly, on the extremities, +and on the tail are slightly keeled. Tail nearly round. This species is +more uniformly coloured than _C. Stoddartii_; it is greenish, darker on +the sides.] + +_Geckoes_.--The most familiar and attractive of the lizard class are the +_Geckoes_[1], 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 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 reiterated 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 +reproduced 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 uniform scales placed in a cross +series, and the scuta below being seldom so distinct as in the original +member.[2] 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, during 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. + +[Footnote 1: Hemidactylus maculatus, _Dum_. et _Bib_., H. Leschenaultii, +_Dum_, et _Bib_; H. frenatus, _Schlegel_. Of these the last is very +common in the houses of Colombo. Colour, grey; sides with small +granules; thumb short; chin-shields four; tail rounded with transverse +series of small spines; femoral and preanal pores in a continuous line. +GRAY, _Lizard_, p. 155.] + +[Footnote 2: _Brit. Mus. Cat._ p. 143; KELAART's _Prod. Faun. Zeylan.,_ +p. 183.] + +_Crocodile._--The Portuguese in India, like the Spaniards 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. + +[Illustration: SKULLS OF ALLIGATOR AND CROCODILE] + +The instincts of the crocodiles in Ceylon do not lead to any variation +from the habits of those found in other countries. There would appear to +be two well-distinguished species found in the island, the +_Eli-kimboola_[1], the Indian crocodile, inhabiting the rivers and +estuaries throughout the low countries of the coasts, attaining the +length of sixteen or eighteen feet, and ready to assail man when pressed +by hunger; and the marsh-crocodile[2], which lives exclusively in fresh +water, frequenting the tanks in the northern and central provinces, and +confining its attacks to the smaller animals: in length it seldom +exceeds twelve or thirteen feet. Sportsmen complain that their dogs are +constantly seized by both species; and water-fowl, when shot, frequently +disappear before they can be secured by the fowler.[3] It is generally +believed in Ceylon that, in the case of larger animals, the crocodile +abstains from devouring them till the commencement 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. + +[Footnote 1: Crocodilus biporcatus. _Cuvier_.] + +[Footnote 2: Crododilus palustris, _Less_.] + +[Footnote 3: In Siam the flesh of the crocodile is sold for food in the +markets and bazaars, "Un jour je vis plus de cinquante crocodiles, +petits et grands, attachés aux colonnes de leurs maisons. Ils es vendent +la chair comme on vendrait de la chair de porc, mais à bien meilleur +marché."-PALLEGOIX, _Siam_, vol. i. p. 174.] + +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.[1] An incident indicative of some reality in this piece of +folklore, once came under my own observation. One morning, 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 +condition to exert it, but consternation completely paralysed 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 accidentally 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 great 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, +leaving the crocodile to make its way to the adjoining lake. + +[Footnote 1: A native gentleman who resided for a long time at Caltura +tells me that in the rivers which flow into the sea, both there and at +Bentotte, crocodiles are frequently caught in corrals, formed of stakes +driven into the ground in shallow water, and so constructed, that when +the reptile enters to seize the bait placed within, the aperture closes +behind and secures him. A professional "crocodile charmer" then enters +muttering a spell, and with one end of a stick pats the creature gently +on the head for a time. The operator then boldly mounts astride upon its +shoulders, and continues to soothe it with his one hand, whilst with the +other he contrives to pass a rope under its body, by which it is at last +dragged on shore. This story serves to corroborate the narrative of Mr. +Waterton and his alligator.] + +The Singhalese believe that the crocodile can only move swiftly 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.[1] 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-General, 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: HERODOTUS records the observations of the Egyptians that +the crocodile of the Nile abstains from food during the four winter +months.--_Euterpe_, lviii.] + +[Footnote 2: HUMBOLDT relates a similar story as occurring at Calabazo, +in Venezuela.--_Personal Narrative_, c, xvi.] + +The fresh water species that inhabits the tanks is essentially cowardly +in it instincts, and hastens to conceal itself on the appearance of man. +A gentleman (who told me the circumstance), when riding in the jungle, +overtook 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 perfect concealment. In 1833, during the progress of the Pearl +Fishery, Sir Robert 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 exceeding 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 Governor'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 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 tried 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.[1] It feigned death and lay +motionless, with its eye closed; 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. + +[Footnote 1: A remarkable instance of the vitality of the common +crocodile, _C. biporcatus_, was related to me by a gentleman at Galle: +he had caught on a baited hook an unusually large one, which his coolies +disembowelled, the aperture in the stomach being left expanded by a +stick placed across it. On returning in the afternoon with a view to +secure the head, they found that the creature had crawled for some +distance, and made its escape into the water. + +"A curious incident occurred some years ago on the Maguruganga, a stream +which flows through the Pasdun Corle, to join the Bentolle river. A man +was fishing seated on the branch of a tree that overhung the water; and +to shelter himself from the drizzling rain, he covered his head and +shoulder with a bag folded into a shape common with the natives. While +in this attitude, a leopard sprang upon him from the jungle, but missing +its aim, seized the bag and not the man, and fell with it into the +river. Here a crocodile, which had been eyeing the angler is despair, +seized the leopard as it fell, and sunk with it to the +bottom."--_Letter_ from GOONE-RATNE Modliar, interpreter of the Supreme +Court, 10th Jany., 1861.] + +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[1], 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 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Testudo stellata.] + +[Illustration: THE THREE-RIDGED TORTOISE (EMYS TRIJUGA)] + +[Footnote 2: HOOKER'S _Himalayan Journals_, vol. i. p. 37.] + +The marshes and pools of the interior are frequented by _terrapins_[1], +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 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 flattest shells. + +[Footnote 1: _Cryptopus granum_, SCHÖPF; DR. KELAART, in his _Prodromus_ +(p. 179), refers this to the common Indian species, _C. punctata_; but +it is distinct. It is generally distributed 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_.] + +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 arrangements 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Of the _Emys trijuga_, the fresh water tortoise figured on +preceding page, the technical characteristics are;--vertical plates +lozenge-shaped; shell convex and oval; with three more or less distinct +longitudinal keels; shields corrugated; with areola situated in the +upper posterior corner. Shell brown, with the areolæ and the keels +yellowish; head brown, with a yellow streak over each eye.] + +The edible turtle[1] is found on all the coasts of the island, and sells +for a few shillings or a few pence, according 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 mutilation; 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 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[2] 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. + +[Footnote 1: Chelonia virgata, _Schweig_.] + +[Footnote 2: ARISTOTLE was aware of the fact that the turtle will live +after the removal of the heart.--_De Vita et Morte_, ch. ii.] + +At certain seasons the flesh of turtle on the south-western coast of +Ceylon is 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 during the night. 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 exclusively 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 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 Ælian, that in the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so +large that several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single +shell.[1] + +[Footnote 1: [Greek: "Tiktontai de ara en tautê tê thalattê, kai +chelônai megistai, ônper oun ta elytra orophoi ginontai kai gar esti kai +pentekaideka pêchôn en chelôneion, ôs hypoikein ouk oligous, kai tous +hêlious pyrodestatous apostegei, kai skian asmenois parechei."]--Lib. +xvi. c. 17. Ælian copied this statement literatim from MEGASTHESES, +_Indica Frag._ lix. 31. May not Megasthenes have referred to some +tradition connected with the gigantic fossilised species discovered on +the Sewalik Hills, the remains of which are now in the Museum at the +East India House?] + +The hawksbill-turtle[1], which supplies the tortoise-shell of commerce, +was at former times taken in great numbers 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 Galle, where +it is still manufactured into articles of ornament by the Moors; but the +shell they employ is almost entirely imported from the Maldives. + +[Footnote 1: Caretta imbricata, _Linn._] + +If taken from the animal after death and decomposition, 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.[1] In +illustration of the resistless influence of instinct at the period of +breeding, it may be mentioned 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: At Celebes, whence the finest tortoise-shell is exported to +China, the natives kill the turtle by blows on the head, and immerse the +shell in boiling water to detach the plates. Dry heat is only resorted +to by the unskilful, who frequently destroy the tortoise-shell in the +operation--_Journal Indian Archipel_. vol. iii. p. 227, 1849.] + +[Footnote 2: BENNETT'S _Ceylon, &c._, c. xxxiv.] + +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 discovered +at its farthest extremity, she resorts to the expedient 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[1], that exaggerated ideas prevail both as to their +numbers in Ceylon, and the danger to be apprehended from encountering +them. The Singhalese profess to distinguish a great many kinds, of which +they say not more than one half have as yet been scientifically +identified[2]; 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 +returned 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, DR. DAVY, whose +attention was carefully directed to the poisonous serpents of Ceylon[3], +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_[4] +and _cobra de capello_[5]) were capable of inflicting a wound likely to +be fatal to man. The third is the _carawala_[6], 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 _mal_-carawala; the +second being the largest and the most dreaded. + +[Footnote 1: Genesis iii. 15.] + +[Footnote 2: This is not likely to be true: in a very large collection +of snakes made in Ceylon by Mr. C.R. Butler, and recently examined by +Dr. Günther, of the British Museum, only a single-specimen proved to be +new. + +There is, however, one venomous snake, of the existence of which I am +assured by a native correspondent in Ceylon, no mention has yet been +made by European naturalists. It is called M[=a]pil[=a] by the +Singhalese; it is described to me as being about four feet in length, of +the diameter of the little finger, and of a uniform dark brown colour. +It is said to be often seen in company with another snake called in +Singhalese _Lay Medilla_, a name which implies its deep red hue. The +latter is believed to be venomous. It would be well if some collector in +Ceylon would send home for examination the species which respectively +bear these names.] + +[Footnote 3: See DAVY'S _Ceylon_, ch. xiv.] + +[Footnote 4: Daboia elegans, _Daud._] + +[Footnote 5: Naja tripudians, _Merr._] + +[Footnote 6: Trigonocephalus hypnale, _Merr._] + +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 +"sleeping" polonga, is so called from the fact that a person bitten by +it is soon prostrated by a lethargy from which he never awakes.[1] These +formidable serpents so infested the official residence of the District +Judge of Trincomalie in 1858, as to compel his family to abandon it. In +another 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 occupied 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.[2] For +these reasons the Singhalese, when obliged to leave their houses in the +dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the noise[3] of which as they +strike it on the ground is sufficient to warn the snakes to leave their +path. + +[Footnote 1: The other varieties are the _getta, lay, alu, kunu,_ and +_nil-polongas._ I have heard of an eighth, the _palla-polonga_. + +Amongst the numerous pieces of folk-lore in Ceylon in connexion with +snakes, is the belief that a deadly enmity subsists between the polonga +and the cobra de capello, and that the latter, which is naturally shy +and retiring, is provoked to conflicts by the audacity of its rival. +Hence the proverb applied to persons at enmity, that "they hate like the +polonga and cobra." + +The Singhalese believe the polonga to be by far the most savage and +wanton of the two, and they illustrate this by a popular legend, that +once upon a time a child, in the absence of its mother, was playing +beside a tub of water, which a cobra, impelled by thirst during a +long-continued drought, approached to drink, the unconscious child all +the while striking it with its hands to prevent the intrusion. The +cobra, on returning, was met by a tic-polonga, which seeing its scales +dripping with delicious moisture, entreated to be told the way to the +well. The cobra, knowing the vicious habits of the other snake, and +anticipating that it would kill the innocent child which it had so +recently spared, at first refused, and only yielded on condition that +the infant was not to be molested. But the polonga, on reaching the tub, +was no sooner obstructed by the little one, than it stung him to death.] + +[Footnote 2: In a return of 112 coroners' inquests, in cases of death +from wild animals, held in Ceylon in five years, from 1851 to 1855 +inclusive, 68 are ascribed to the bites of serpents; and in almost every +instance the assault is set down as having taken place _at night_. The +majority of the sufferers were children and women.] + +[Footnote 3: PLINY notices that the serpent has the sense of hearing +more acute than that of sight; and that it is more frequently put in +motion by the sound of footsteps than by the appearance of the intruder, +"excitatur pede sæpius."--Lib, viii. c. 36.] + +_Cobra de Capello._--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 +availing 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 Governor 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 repeatedly 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A Singhalese work, the _Sarpados[=a]_, enumerates four +castes of the cobra;--the _raja_, or king: the _bamunu_, or Brahman; the +_velanda_, or trader; and the _gori_, or agriculturist. Of these the +raja, or "king of the cobras," is said to have the head and the anterior +half of the body of so light a colour, that at a distance it seems like +a silvery white. The work is quoted, but not correctly, in the _Ceylon +Times_ for January, 1857. It is more than probable, as the division +represents the four castes of the Hindus, Chastriyas, Brahmans Vaisyas, +and Sudras; that the insertion of the _gori_ instead of the latter was a +pious fraud of some copyist to confer rank upon the Vellales, the +agricultural caste of Ceylon.] + +A gentleman who held a civil appointment at Kornegalle, had a servant +who was bitten by a snake and he informed me that on enlarging a hole +near the foot of the tree under which the accident occurred, he +unearthed a cobra of upwards of three feet long, and so purely white as +to induce him to believe that it was an albino. With the exception of +the _rat-snake_[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Coryphodon Blumenbachii._ There is a belief in Ceylon that +the bite of the rat-snake, though harmless to man, is fatal to black +cattle. The Singhalese add that it would be equally so to man were the +wound to be touched by cow-dung. WOLF, in the interesting story of his +_Life and Adventures in Ceylon_, mentions that rat-snakes were often so +domesticated by the native as to feed at their table. He says: "I once +saw an example of this in the house of a native. It being meal time, he +called his snake, which immediately came forth from the roof under which +he and I were sitting. He gave it victuals from his own dish, which the +snake took of itself from off a fig-leaf that was laid for it, and ate +along with its host. When it had eaten its fill, he gave it a kiss, and +bade it go to its hole." Major SKINNER, writing to me 12th Dec., 1858, +mentions the still more remarkable case of the domestication of the +cobra de capello in Ceylon. "Did you ever hear," he says, "of tame +cobras being kept and domesticated about a house, going in and out at +pleasure, and in common with the rest of the inmates? In one family, +near Negombo, cobras are kept as protectors, in the place of dogs, by a +wealthy man who has always large sums of money in his house. But this is +not a solitary case of the kind. I heard of it only the other day, but +from undoubtedly good authority. The snakes glide about the house, a +terror to thieves, but never attempting to harm the inmates."] + +The young cobras, it is said, in the _Sarpa-dosa_, are not venomous till +after the thirteenth 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 discovered 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 killed in a bath of +the Government 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.[1] 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 Koodremalé, 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. + +[Footnote 1: PLINY notices the affection that subsists between the male +and female asp; and that if one of them happens to be killed, the other +seeks to avenge its death.--Lib. viii. c. 37.] + +One curious tradition in Ceylon embodies the popular legend, that the +stomach of the cobra de capello occasionally contains a precious stone +of such unapproachable brilliancy as to surpass all known jewels. This +inestimable stone is called the _n[=a]ga-m[=a]nik-kya_; 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 enamoured of +the priceless jewel than even its most ardent pursuers. + +In BENNETT'S account of "_Ceylon and its Capabilities_," 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 _Slow-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 Professor Peters of +Berlin[1], 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 keels. The reptile assists its own +movements by pressing the rough end to the ground, and from this +peculiar form of the tail, the family has received the name of +_Uropeltidæ_, 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 appended to this chapter. One of these, the _Uropeltis grandis_ +of Kelaart[2], is distinguished by its dark brown colour, shot with a +bluish metallic lustre, closely approaching 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 accompanying 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. + +[Illustration: THE UROPELTIS PHILIPPINUS.] + +[Footnote 1: PETERS, _De Serpentum familia Uropeltaceorum_. Berol, 4. +1861.] + +[Footnote 2: The _Uropeltis grandis_ of Kelaart, which was at first +supposed to be a new species, proves to be identical with _U. +Phillippinus_ of Cuvier. It is doubtful, however, whether this species +be found in the Phillippine Islands, as stated by Cuvier; and it is more +than, probable that the typical specimen came from Ceylon--a further +illustration of the affinity of the fauna of Ceylon to that of the +Eastern Archipelago. The characteristics of this reptile, as given by +Dr. GRAY, are as follows:--"Caudal disc subcircular, with large +scattered tubercles; snout subacute, slightly produced. Dark brown, +lighter below, with some of the scales dark brown in the centre near the +posterior edge. GRAY, _Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1858, p. 262.] + +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[1] (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 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. + +[Footnote 1: Python reticulatus, _Gray_.] + +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 perpendicularly 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 +_Calamariæ_, 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 _Aspidura_ and _Haplocercus_, These latter have +only one series of shields below the tail, whilst most other harmless +snakes (_Calamaria_ included) have a double series of sub-candals. The +_Aspidura_ has been known to naturalists for many years[1]; the +_Haplocercus_ of Ceylon has only recently been described by Dr. Günther, +and of it not more than three existing specimens are known: hence its +habits and the extent of its distribution over the island are still left +in uncertainty.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Boie in Isis 1827 p. 517.] + +[Footnote 2: GÜNTH. _Col. Snakes_, p. 14. In the hope that some inquirer +in Ceylon will be able to furnish such information as may fill up this +blank in the history of the haplocercus, the following particulars are +here appended. The largest of the specimens in the British Museum is +about twenty-five inches in length; the body thin, and much elongated; +the head narrow, and not distinct from the neck, the tail of moderate +length. Forehead covered by three shields, one anterior and two +posterior frontals; no loreal shield; one small shield before, two +behind the eye; seven shields along the upper lip, the eye being above +the fourth. The scales are disposed in seventeen longitudinal series; +they are lanceolate and strongly keeled. The upper parts are uniform +blackish or brown, with two dorsal rows of small indistinct black spots; +occiput with a whitish collar, edged with darker. The lower parts +uniform yellowish.] + +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 _carawala_, and 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, 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 "_whip-snakes_." The Siamese, to denote these +combinations of grace and splendour, call them "Sun-beams." A +naturalist[1], describing a bright green species in Brazil (_Philodryas +viridissimus_), writes: "I am always delighted 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." + +[Footnote 1: Dr. WUCHERER of Bahia.] + +[Illustration: TREE SNAKE. Passerita fusca.] + +Ceylon has several species of Tree-snakes, and one of the most common is +the green _Passerita_, easily recognized from its bright colour and from +the pointed moveable 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 confinement, provided that +some green plants are placed in their cage. + +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 connection 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 prehensile 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 remarkable species +is the _Passerita fusca_ or _Dryinus fuscus_, of which a figure is +annexed. It closely resembles the green Passerita in form, so that +naturalists 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 does not +appear to be found in Hindostan: no intermediate forms have been +observed in Ceylon. + +_Water-Snakes._--The fresh-water snakes, of which several species[1] +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 schistosus_), 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. + +[Footnote 1: Chersydrus granulatus, _Merr_.; Cerberus cinereus. _Daud._; +Tropidophis schistosus, _Daud._] + +The _sea-snakes_ of the Indian tropics did not escape the notice of the +early Greek mariners who navigated those seas; and amongst the facts +collected by them, Ælian has briefly recorded that the Indian Ocean +produces serpents _with flattened tails_[1], whose bite, he adds, is to +be dreaded less for its venom than the laceration of its teeth. The +first statement is accurate, but the latter is incorrect, as there is an +all but unanimous concurrence of opinion that every species of this +family of serpents is more or less poisonous. The compression of the +tail noticed by Ælian 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. + +[Footnote 1: "[Greek: Plateis tas ouras]." ÆLIAN, L. xvi. c. 8. + +Ælian speaks elsewhere of fresh-water snakes. His remark on the +compression of the tail shows that his informants were aware of this +speciality in those that inhabit the sea.] + +Sea-snakes (_Hydrophis_) are found on all the coasts of Ceylon. I have +sailed through large shoals of them in the Gulf 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 recently made to place a lighthouse on +the great rocks of the south-east coast, known by seamen as the +Basses[1], or _Baxos_, the workmen who first landed found the portion of +the surface liable to be covered by the tides, honeycombed, 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 themselves 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."[2] + +[Footnote 1: The Basses are believed to be the remnants of the great +island of Giri, swallowed up by the sea.--_Mahawanso_, ch. i. p. 4. They +may possibly be the _Bassæ_ of Ptolemy's map of _Taprobane_.] + +[Footnote 2: Official Report to the Governor of Ceylon.] + +Still, sea-snakes, though well-known to the natives, are not abundant +round Ceylon, as compared with their numbers in other places. Their +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 on the +western shores of tropical America. And if, as has been stated[1], 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 +freshwater-snakes, although they can catch frogs or fishes while +swimming. But in the _hydrophids_, 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 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858.] + +[Footnote 2: _Catal. Mal. Rept_. p. 136.] + +[Illustration: SEA SNAKE Hydrophis subloevis] + +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 accompanying drawing is the _Hydrophis +subloevis_ of Gray; or _Hydrus cyanocinctus_ of Boie.[1] The specimen +from which the drawing is taken, was obtained by Dr. Templeton at +Colombo. + +[Footnote 1: Its technical characteristics are as follows,--Body rather +slender; ground colour yellowish with irregular black rings. Scales +nearly smooth; ventral plates broad, six-sided, smooth, some divided +into two, by a slight central groove. Occipital shields large, +triangular, and produced, with a small central shield behind them; a +series of four large temporal shields; chin shields in two pairs; eyes +very small, over the fourth and fifth labials; one ante-and two +post-oculars; the second upper labial shield elongated.] + +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 +Singhalese 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-witnesses to what they described. On one occasion, in March, +1854, a friend of mine was riding, with some other civil officers of the +Government, along 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 doing this, he +handled it so inexpertly that it seized him by the finger, and retained +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 sufferer 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 adhered 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 accord; 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 resembled 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 _Naya-thalic +Kalanga_ (the root of the snake-plant), protected by which he professed +his ability to approach 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 _Pamboo-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. Lavalliere 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 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. +serpentaria_ of North America, are supposed to act as specifics in the +cure of snakebites; and the _A. indica_ is the plant to which the +ichneumon is popularly believed to resort as an antidote when bitten[1]; +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[2], and not by the +influence of any secondary appliance. In other words, the confidence +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 popularly believed to be the result of charms and +stupefaction. 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[3]; 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 certain 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. + +[Footnote 1: For an account of the encounter between the ichneumon and +the venomous snakes of Ceylon, see Ch. I. p. 39.] + +[Footnote 2: The following narrative of the operations of a +snake-charmer in Ceylon is contained in a note from Mr. Reyne, of the +department of public works: "A snake-charmer came to my bungalow in +1851, requesting me to allow him to show me his snakes dancing. As I had +frequently seen them, I told him I would give him a rupee if he would +accompany me to the jungle, and catch a cobra, that I knew frequented +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 until 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 persevering for some time out came a large +cobra from an ant hill, which I knew it occupied. 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 before 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 up 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 operation, which was also witnessed by my +clerk and two or three other persons. _Colombo, 13th January_ +1860.--H.E. REYNE."] + +[Footnote 3: Hasselquist.] + +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 afforded, 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 structure 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 toany +vegetable substance, for it is almost entirely composed 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 treatment 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 submitted 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 composition a secret. Dr. Davy[1], 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 confirms 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 (except the first, which possessed a +slight absorbent power) were quite inert, and incapable of having any +effect except on the imagination of the patient. Thunberg was shown the +snake-stone used by the boers at the 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 themselves 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: _Account of the Interior of Ceylon_, ch. iii. p. 101.] + +[Footnote 2: _Thunberg_, vol. i. p. 155. Since the foregoing account was +published, I have received a note from Mr. HARDY, relative to the +_piedra ponsona_, the snake-stone of Mexico, in which he gives the +following account of the method of preparing and applying it: "Take a +piece of hart's horn of any convenient size and shape; cover it well +round with grass or hay, enclose both in a thin piece of sheet copper +well wrapped round them, and place the parcel in a charcoal fire till +the bone is sufficiently charred. + +"When cold, remove the calcined horn from its envelope, when it will be +ready for immediate use. In this state it will resemble a solid black +fibrous substance, of the same shape and size as before it was subjected +to this treatment. + +"USE.--The wound being slightly punctured, apply the bone to the +opening, to which it will adhere firmly for the space of two minutes; +and when it falls, it should be received into a basin of water. It +should then be dried in a cloth, and again applied to the wound. But it +will not adhere longer than about one minute. In like manner it may be +applied a third time; but now it will fall almost immediately, and +nothing will cause it to adhere any more. + +"These effects I witnessed in the case of a bite of a rattle-snake at +Oposura, a town in the province of Sonora, in Mexico, from whence I +obtained my recipe; and I have given other particulars respecting it in +my Travels in the Interior of Mexico, published in 1830. R.W.H. HARDY. +_Bath_, 30_th January_, 1860."] + +_Coecilia_.--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 Linnæus, who +gave it the name _Coecilia 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 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 +circular 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 metamorphoses of this +creature should be carefully ascertained, 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 +calculated to excite the surprise of a stranger. In the lakes around +Colombo and the still water near Trincomalie, there are huge creatures +of this family, from six to eight inches in length[1], of an olive hue, +deepening 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[2]. + +[Footnote 1: A Singhalese variety of the _Rana cutipora?_ and the +Malabar bull-frog, _Hylarana Malabarica_. A frog named by BLYTH _Rana +robusta_ proves to be a Ceylon specimen of the _R. cutipora_.] + +[Footnote 2: _R. Kandiana_, Kelaart.] + +In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the graceful little +tree-frogs[1] were to be found in great 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Polypedates maculatus,_ Gray.] + +In the gardens and grounds toads[1] 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.[2] 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Bufo melanostictus_, Schneid.] + +[Footnote 2: In Ceylon this error is as old as the third century, B.C., +when, as the _Mahawanso_ tells us, the wife of "King Asoka attempted to +destroy the great bo-tree (at Magadha) _with, the poisoned fang of a +toad._"--Ch. xx. p. 122.] + +In the class of Reptiles, those only are included in the order of +Batrachians which undergo a metamorphosis before attaining maturity; and +as they offer the only example amongst Vertebrate animals of this +marvellous 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. + +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 process 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A few Batrachians, such as the _Siren_ of Carolina, the +_Proteus_ of Illyria, the _Axolotl_ of Mexico, and the _Menobranchus_ of +the North American Lakes, retain their gills during life; but although +provided with lungs in mature age, they are not capable of living out of +the water. Such batrachians form an intermediate link between reptiles +and fishes.] + +The change in the digestive functions during metamorphosis is scarcely +less extraordinary; frogs, for example, which feed on animal substances +at maturity, subsist entirely upon vegetable when in the condition of +larvæ, 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 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. Gray and Dr. Günther, 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 Fauna +Zeylanicæ_ and its appendices, as well as in the 13th vol. _Magaz. Nat. +Hist._ (1854). + + + + SAURA. + + Hydrosaurus + salvator, _Wagler._ + Monitor + dracæna, _Linn._ + Riopa + punctata, _Linn._ + Hardwickii, _Gray._ + Brachymeles + Bonitæ, _Dum. & Bib._ + Tiliqua + rufescens, _Shaw._ + Eumeces + Taprobanius, _Kel._ + Nessia + Burtoni, _Gray._ + Acontias + Layardi, _Kelaart._ + Argyrophis + bramicus, _Daud._ + Lygosoma + fallax, _Peters._ + Rhinophis + oxyrhynchus, _Schn._ + punctatus, _J. Müll_ + philippinus, _J. Müll_ + homolepis, _Hempr._ + planiceps, _Peters._ + Blythii, _Kelaart._ + melanogaster, _Gray._ + Uropeltis + grandis, _Kelaart._ + _saffragamus, Kelaart._ + Silybura + Ceylonica, _Cuv._ + Hemidactylus + frenatus, _Schleg._ + Leschenaultii, _Dum. & Bib._ + trihedrus, _Daud._ + maculatus, _Dum. & Bib._ + Piresii, _Kelaart._ + Coctoei, _Dum. & Bib._ + pustulatus, _Dum._ + sublævis, _Cantor._ + Peripia + Peronii, _Dum. & Bib._ + Gymnodactylus + Kandianus, _Kelaart._ + Sitana + Ponticereana, _Cuv._ + Lyriocephalus + scutatus, _Linn._ + Ceratophora + Stoddartii, _Gray._ + Tennentii, _Günther._ + Otocryptis + bivittata, _Wiegm._ + _Salea Jerdoni, Gray._ + Calotes + ophiomachus, _Merr._ + nigrilabris, _Peters._ + versicolor, _Daud._ + Rouxii, _Dum. & Bib._ + mystaceus, _Dum._ + Chameleo + vulgaris, _Daud._ + + + OPHIDIA. + + Megæra + trigonocephala, _Latr._ + Trigonocephalus + hypnalis, _Merr._ + Daboia + elegans, _Daud._ + _Pelamys_ + _bicolor, Daud._ + _Aturia_ + _lapemoides, Gray._ + Hydrophis + sublævis, _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, _Günth._ + Oligodon + subquadratus, _Dum. & Bib._ + subgriseus, _Dum. & Bib._ + sublineatus, _Dum. & Bib._ + Simotes + Russellii, _Daud._ + purpurascens, _Schleg._ + Ablabes + collaris, _Gray._ + Tropidonotus + quincunciatus, _Schleg._ + var. funebris. + var. carinatus. + stolatus, _Linn._ + chrysargus, _Boie._ + Cynophis + Helena, _Daud._ + Coryphodon + Blumenbachii, _Merr._ + Cyclophis + calamaria, _Günth._ + Chrysopelea + ornata, _Shaw._ + Dendrophis + picta, _Gm._ + Passerita + mycterizans, _Linn._ + fusca. + Dipsadomorphus + Ceylonensis, _Günth._ + Lycodon + aulicus, _Linn._ + Cercaspis + carinata, _Kuhl._ + Bungarus + fasciatus, _Schneid._ + var. Ceylonensis, _Gthr._ + Naja + tripudians, _Merr._ + + + CHELONIA. + + Testudo + stellata, _Schweig._ + Emys + Sebæ, _Gray._ + trijuga, _Schweigg._ + Caretta + imbricata, _Linn._ + Chelonia + virgata, _Schweigg._ + + + EMYDOSAURI. + + Crocodilus + biporcatus. _Cuv._ + palustris, _Less._ + + + BATRACHIA. + + Rana + hexadactyla, _Less._ + Kuhlii, _Schleg._ + cutipora, _Dum. & Bib._ + tigrina, _Daud._ + vittigera, _Wiegm._ + Malabarica, _Dum. & Bib._ + Kandiana, _Kelaart._ + Neuera-elliana, _Kel._ + Bufo + melanostictus, _Schneid._ + Kelaartii, _Günth._ + Ixalus + variabilis, _Günth._ + leucorhinus, _Martens._ + poecilopleurus, _Mart._ + aurifasciatus, _Schleg._ + schmardanus, _Kelaart._ + Polypedates + maculatus, _Gray._ + microtympanum, _Gth._ + eques, _Günth._ + Limnodytes + lividus, _Blyth._ + macularis, _Blyth._ + mutabilis, _Kelaart._ + maculatus, _Kelaart._ + Kaloula + pulchra, _Gray._ + balteata, var. _Günth._ + stellata, _Kelaart._ + Adenomus + badioflavus, _Copr._ + Pyxicephalus + fodiens, _Jerd._ + Engystoma + rubrum, _Jerd._ + + + PSEUDOPHIDIA. + + Cæcilia + 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 restricted);--Lygosoma fallax; Trimesurus +Ceylonensis, T. nigromarginatus; Megæra Trigonocephala; Trigonocephalus +hypnalis; Daboia elegans; Rhinophis punctatus, Rh. homolepis, Rh. +planiceps, Rh. Blythii, Rh. melanogaster; Uropeltis grandis; Silybura +Ceylonica; Cylindrophis maculata; Aspidura brachyorrhos; Haplocercus +Ceylonensis; Oligodon sublineatus; Cynophis Helena; Cyclophis calamaria; +Dipsadomorphus Ceylonensis; Cercaspis carinata; Ixalus variabilis, I. +leucorhinus, I. poecilopleurus; Polypedates microtympanum. P. eques. + + + + +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[1], but it never proceeded beyond the description of +thirty individuals. The great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes[2] +particularises about one hundred species, specimens of which were +procured from Ceylon by Reynard, Leschenault and other correspondents; +but of these not more than half a dozen belong to fresh water. + +[Footnote 1: _A Selection of the most Remarkable and Interesting Fishes +found on the Coast of Ceylon._ By J.W. BENNETT, Esp. London, 1830.] + +[Footnote 2: _Histoire Naturelle des Poissons._] + +The fishes of the coast, as far as they have been examined, 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, +have been submitted to Professor Huxley, and a notice of their general +characteristics forms an interesting appendix to the present chapter.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See note B appended to this chapter.] + +Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far is the +Seir-fish[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Cybium_ (_Scomber_, Linn.) _guttatum_.] + +Mackerel, carp, whitings, mullet both red and striped, perches and soles +are abundant, and a sardine (_Sardinella 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 Goyapanna, east of +Point-de-Galle. 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: These facts serve to explain the story told by the friar +ODORIC of Friuli, who visited Ceylon about the year 1320 A.D., and says +there are "fishes in those seas that come swimming towards the said +country in such abundance that for a great distance into the sea nothing +can be seen but the backs of fishes, which casting themselves on the +shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come and to take as +many of them as they please, and then they return again into the +sea."--_Hakluyt_, vol. ii. p. 57.] + +_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 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, deferred 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 Government 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: There are other species of Sardine found at Ceylon besides +the _S. Neohowii_; such as the _S. lineolata_, Cuv. and Val. and the _S. +leiogaster_, Cuv. and Val. xx. 270, which was found by M. Reynaud at +Trincomalie. It occurs also off the coast of Java. Another Ceylon fish +of the same group, a Clupea, is known as the "poisonous sprat;" the +bonito (_Thynnus affinis_, Cang.), the kangewena, or unicorn fish +(_Balistes?_), and a number of others, are more or less in bad repute +from the same imputation.] + +_Sharks._--Sharks appear on all parts of the coast, and instances +continually occur of persons being seized by them whilst bathing even in +the harbours of Trincomalie and Colombo. In the Gulf of Manaar they are +taken for the sake of their oil, of which they yield 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. + +_Saw Fish._--The huge _Pristis antiquorum_[1] infests the eastern coast +of the island, where it attains a length of from twelve to fifteen feet, +including the serrated rostrum from which its name is derived. This +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. + +[Footnote 1: Two other species are found in the Ceylon waters, _P. +cuspidatus_ and _P. pectinatus_.] + +[Illustration: HEAD OF THE SAWFISH (PRISTIS ANTIQUORUM)] + +The _Rays_ form a large tribe of cartilaginous fishes in which, although +the skeleton is not osseous, the development 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 occurrence, as such huge +monsters usually retreat into the depths of the sea, where they are +secure from the 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 Rays +have been divided into several generic groups, and the one of which a +drawing (_Aëtobates narinari_[1]) is given, has very marked +characteristics 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 capture, under the impression that wounds inflicted by it +are poisonous. Their fears, however, are utterly groundless, as the ray +has no gland for secreting any venomous fluid. The apprehension may, +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. + +[Illustration: THE RAY (AËTOBATES NARINARI).] + +[Footnote 1: _Raja narinari_, Bl. Schn. p. 361. _Aëtobates narinari_, +Müll. und Henle., Plagiost. p. 179.] + +Another armed fish, renowned since the times of Ælian and Pliny for its +courage in attacking the whale, and even a ship, is the sword-fish +(_Xiphias gladius_).[1] 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 prolongation and intertexture of the bones +of the upper jaw into an exceedingly compact cylindrical protuberance, +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 conjecture. 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 +construction of its mouth and the small size of its teeth, is quite +incapable of feeding on animals of such dimensions. + +[Footnote 1: ÆLIAN tells a story of a ship in the Black Sea, the bottom +of which was penetrated by the sword of a _Xiphias_ (L. xiv. c. 23); and +PLINY (L. xxxii. c. 8) speaks of a similar accident on the coast of +Mauritania. In the British Museum there is a specimen of a plank of oak, +pierced by a sword-fish, and still retaining the broken weapon.] + +In the seas around Ceylon sword-fishes sometimes attain to the length of +twenty feet, and are distinguished 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 +approaches 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 _Histiophorus_; 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 congeners, it is +spotted with blue. The fish from which the engraving has been made, was +procured by Dr. Templeton, near Colombo. The species was previously +known only by a single specimen captured in the Red Sea, by Rüppell, who +conferred upon it the specific designation of "_immaculatus_."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 71. Pl. 15.] + +[Illustration: THE SWORD FISH (MISMOPHORUS IMMACULATUS).] + +Ælian, 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.[1] The annexed drawing[2] may probably represent the creature +to which the informants of Ælian 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. + +[Footnote 1: [Greek: Podas ge mên chêlas ê pterygia.]--Lib. xvi. c. 18.] + +[Footnote 2: The fish from which this drawing of the _Cheironectes_ was +made, was taken near Colombo, and from the peculiarities which it +presents it is in all probability a new and undescribed species. Dr. +GÜNTHER 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 +other species, from the soft fin by a notch.] + +They belong to the family of _Lophiads_ or "anglers," not unfrequent on +the English coast; which conceal 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. + +[Illustration: CHEIRONECTES] + +On the rocks in Ceylon which are washed by the surf there are quantities +of the curious little fish, _Salarius alticus_[1], 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; adhering 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. + +[Footnote 1: Cuv. and VALEN., _Hist. Nat. des Poissons_, tom. xi. p. +249. It is identical with _S. tridactylus,_ Schn.] + +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 Red Sea Perch (_Holocentrum rubrum_, Forsk) +and the Great Fire Fish[1], are of the deepest scarlet and flame colour; +in others purple predominates, as in the _Serranus flavo-cæruleus_; in +others yellow, as in the _Choetodon Brownriggii_[2], and _Acanthurus +vittatus_, of Bennett[3], 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 irregular bands of blue, crimson, and purple, green, +yellow, and grey, and crossed by perpendicular stripes of black. + +[Footnote 1: _Pterois muricata_, Cuv. and Val. iv. 363. _Scarpæna +miles_, Bennett; named, by the Singhalese, "_Maharata-gini_," the Great +Red Fire, a very brilliant red species spotted with black. It is very +voracious, and is regarded on some parts of the coast as edible, while +on others it is rejected.] + +[Footnote 2: _Glyphisodon Brownriggii_, Cuv. and Val. v. 484; _Choetodon +Brownriggii_, Bennett. A very small fish about two inches long, called +_Kaha hartikyha_ by the natives. It is distinct from Choetodon, in which +BENNETT placed it. Numerous species of this genus are scattered +throughout the Indian Ocean. It derives its name from the fine hair-like +character of its teeth. They are found chiefly among coral reefs, and, +though eaten, are not much esteemed. In the French colonies they are +called "Chauffe-soleil." One species is found on the shores of the New +World (_G. saxatalis_), and it is curious that Messrs. QUOY and GAIMARD +found this fish at the Cape de Verde Islands in 1827.] + +[Footnote 3: This fish has a sharp round spine on the side of the body +near the tail; a formidable weapon, which is generally partially +concealed within a scabbard-like incision. It raises or depresses this +spine at pleasure. The fish is yellow, with several nearly parallel blue +stripes on the back and sides; the belly is white, the tail and fins +brownish green, edged with blue. + +It is found in rocky places; and according to BENNETT, who has figured +it in his second plate, it is named _Seweya_. It has been known, +however, to all the old ichthyologists, Valentyn, Renard, Seba, Artedi, +and has been named _Chætodon lineatus_, by Linné. It is scarce on the +southern coast of Ceylon.] + +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 conjectured 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 pectoral rays, +the pteroids are wholly unable to sustain themselves 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 with a number of +filaments and cutaneous appendages, of which one over 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, _Scorpæna, Serranus_, &c., of which these are +only a modified and ornate form. The extraordinary expansion 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 the +East Indian Seas, and of these the one figured above is, perhaps, the +most common. + +[Illustration: PTEROIS VOLITANS.] + +Another species known to occur on the coasts of Ceylon is the _Scorpæna +miles_, Bennett, or _Pterois miles_, Günther[1], of which Bennett has +given a figure[2], but it is not altogether correct in some particulars. + +[Footnote 1: The fish from the Sea of Pinang, described by Dr. CANTOR +with this name (Catal. Mal. Fish. p. 42), is again different, and +belongs to a third species.] + +[Footnote 2: _Fishes of Ceylon_, Pl. ix.] + +In the fishes of Ceylon, however, beauty is not confined to the +brilliancy of their tints. In some, as in the _/Scarus harid_, Forsk[1], +the arrangement of the scales is so graceful, and the effect is so +heightened by modifications of colour, as to present the appearance of +tessellation, or mosaic work. + +[Footnote 1: This is the fish figured by BENNETT as _Sparus pepo_. +_Fishes of Ceylon_, Plate xxviii.] + +[Illustration: SCARUS HARID. 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[1], +that of nineteen drawings sent home by Major Skinner in 1852, although +specimens of well-known genera, Colonel Hamilton Smith pronounced nearly +the whole to be new and undescribed species. + +[Footnote 1: In extenuation of the little that is known of the +fresh-water fishes of Ceylon, it may be observed that very few of them +are used at table by Europeans, and there is therefore no stimulus on +the part of the natives to catch them. The burbot and grey mullet are +occasionally eaten, but they taste of mud, and are not in request. + +Some years ago the experiment was made, with success, of introducing +into Mauritius the _Osphromenus olfax_ of Java, which has also been +taken to French Guiana. In both places it is now highly esteemed as a +fish for table. As it belongs to a family which possesses the faculty, +hereafter alluded to, of surviving in the damp soil after the subsidence +of the water in the tanks and rivers, it might with equal advantage be +acclimated in Ceylon. It grows to 20 lbs. weight and upwards.] + +Of eight of these, which were from the Mahawelliganga, and caught in the +vicinity of Kandy, five were carps; two were _Leucisci_, and one a +_Mastacembelus_ (_M. armatus_, Lacep); one was an _Ophiocephalus_, and +one a _Polyacanthus_, with no serræ on the gills. Six were from the +Kalanyganga, close to Colombo, of which two were _Helostoma_, in shape +approaching the Chætodon; two _Ophiocephali_, one a _Silurus_, and one +an _Anabas_, 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 _Bagri_. + +The _fresh-water Perches_ of Europe and of the North of America are +represented in Ceylon and India by several genera, which bear to them a +great external similarity (_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, in their internal organisation that +they differ most from the perches of Europe; their skeletons are +composed of fewer vertebræ, 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 +ichthyological work[1]; it attains to the length of seven inches. + +[Footnote 1: Holocentrus quadrilineatus, _Bloch_. It is allied to +_Helotes polytoenia_, Bleek., from Halmaheira which it can be readily +distinguished by having only five or six blackish longitudinal bands, +the black humeral spot being between the first 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 unknown. See GÜNTHER, _Acanthopt. +Fishes_, vol. i. p. 282, where mention of the black humeral spot has +been omitted.] + +[Illustration: THERAPON QUADRILINEATUS.] + +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 Scombridæ and other marine families, from the +circumstance that the dorsal fin anteriorly is composed of spines. But, +in addition to the general shape of the body, their affinity to the eel +is attested, 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, which opens with an inferior slit, and above all by the formation +of the skeleton itself.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See GÜNTHER'S _Acanthopt. Fishes_, vol. iii. (Family +Mastacembelidæ).] + +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.[1] Their flesh +very much resembles that of the eel; and is highly esteemed.[2] They +were first made known to European naturalists by Russell[3], who brought +to Europe from the rivers round Aleppo specimens, some of which are +still preserved in the collection of the British Museum. Aleppo is the +most western point of their geographical range, the group being mainly +confined to the East-Indian continent and its islands. + +In Ceylon only one species appears to occur, the + +[Footnote 1: See post, p. 351.] + +[Footnote 2: CUV. and VAL., _Hist. Poiss._ vol. iii. p. 459.] + +[Footnote 3: _Nat. Hist. Aleppo_, 2nd edit. Lond. 1794, vol. ii. p. 208, +pl. vi.] + +[Illustration: MASTACEMBELUS ARMATUS] + +_Mastacembelus armatus_.[1] 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 irregular and reticulated brown lines. This eel attains +to the length of two feet. The old females do not show any markings, +being of a uniform brown colour. + +[Footnote 1: Macrognathus armatus, _Lacép._; Mastacembelus armatus, +_Cuv., Val._] + +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 reservoirs and ponds, "nay, every ditch +and little plash of water but ankle deep hath fish in it."[1] But many +of these reservoirs and tanks are, twice in each year, liable 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 engaged +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."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Knox's _Historical Relation of Ceylon,_ Part i. ch. vii. +The occurrence of fish in the most unlooked-for situations, is one of +the mysteries of other eastern countries as well as Ceylon and India. In +Persia irrigation is carried on to a great extent by means of wells sunk +in line in the direction in which it is desired to lead a supply of +water, and these are connected by channels, which are carefully arched +over to protect them from evaporation. These _kanats,_ as they are +called, are full of fish, although neither they nor the wells they unite +have any connection with streams or lakes.] + +[Footnote 2: Knox, _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, Part i. ch vi.] + +[Illustration: FROM KNOX'S CEYLON, A.D. 1681] + +This operation may be seen in the lowlands, traversed 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 immediately resorted to +by the peasants with baskets, constructed precisely as Knox has stated, +in which the fish are entrapped and taken out by the hand.[1] + +[Footnote 1: As anglers, the native Singhalese exhibit little +expertness; but for fishing the rivers, they construct with singular +ingenuity fences formed of strong stakes, protected by screens of ratan, +that stretch diagonally across the current; and along these the fish are +conducted into a series of enclosures from which retreat is +impracticable. MR. LAYARD, in the _Magazine of Natural History_ for May, +1853, has given a diagram of one of these fish "corrals," as they are +called, of which a copy is shown on the next page.] + +So singular a phenomenon as the sudden re-appearance 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 showers, even were +it not so problematical in theory, is too rare an event to account for +the punctual appearance of those found in the rice-fields, at stated +periods of the year. Both at Galle 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 waterspouts, and vortices analogous to them, or otherwise blown on +shore from the surf; whereas those which suddenly appear in the +replenished tanks and in the hollows which they overflow, are mature and +well-grown fish.[1] 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 vicinity of the sea, or of some inland water. + +[Footnote 1: I had an opportunity, on one occasion only, of witnessing +the phenomenon which gives rise to this popular belief. I was driving in +the cinnamon gardens near the fort of Colombo, and saw a violent but +partial shower descend at no great distance before me. On coming to the +spot I found a multitude of small silvery fish from one and a half to +two inches in length, leaping on the gravel of the high road, numbers of +which I collected and brought away in my palankin. The spot was about +half a mile from the sea, and entirely unconnected with any watercourse +or pool. + +Mr. Whiting, who was many years resident in Trincomadie, writes me that +he "had often been told by the natives on that side of the island that +it sometimes rained fishes; and on one occasion" (he adds) "I was taken +by them, in 1849, to a field at the village of Karrancotta-tivo, near +Batticaloa, which was dry when I passed over it in the morning, but, had +been covered in two hours by sudden rain to the depth of three inches, +in which there was then a quantity of small fish. The water had no +connection with any pond or stream whatsoever." Mr. Cripps, in like +manner, in speaking of Galle, says: "I have seen in the vicinity of the +fort, fish taken from rain-water that had accumulated in the hollow +parts of land that in the hot season are perfectly dry and parched. The +place is accessible to no running stream or tank; and either the fish or +the spawn from which they were produced, must of necessity have fallen +with the rain." + +Mr. J. PRINSEP, the eminent secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, +found a fish in the pulviometer at Calcutta, in 1838.--_Journ. Asiat. +Soc. Bengal_, vol. vi. p. 465. + +A series of instances in which fishes have been found on the continent +of India under circumstances which lead to the conclusion that they must +have fallen from the clouds, have been collected by the late Dr. BUIST +of Bombay, and will be found in the appendix to this chapter.] + +[Illustration: FISH CORRAL] + +The surmise of the buried spawn is one sanctioned by the very highest +authority. Mr. Yarrell in his "_History of British Fishes_," 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 commencement of each rainy season, offers this solution of the +problem 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 of the rain and oxygen in the +next wet season, when vivification takes place from their joint +influence."[1] + +[Footnote 1: YARRELL, _History of British Fishes_, introd. vol. i. p. +xxvi. This too was the opinion of Aristotle, _De Respiratione_, c. ix.] + +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 spawn 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-burnt 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 decomposition as +for the fish themselves to sustain life. Besides, 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. + +But supposing it possible to carry the spawn sufficiently 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 commences, 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 disappearance, 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 Great, particulars connected with the natural history +of India were sought for and arranged by the Greeks, that in the works +both of ARISTOTLE 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 in ARISTOTLE'S treatise +_De Respiratione_[1], where he mentions the strange discovery of living +fish found beneath the surface of the soil, "[Greek: tôn ichthyôn oi +polloi zôsin en tê gê, akinêtizontes mentoi, kai euriskontai +oryttomenoi?]" 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.[2] 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 Aristotle, gave +importance to the subject by devoting to it his essay [Greek: Peri tês +tôn ichthyôn en zêrô diamonês], _De Piscibus in sicco degentibus_. In +this, after adverting to the fish called _exocoetus_, from its habit of +going on shore to sleep, "[Greek: apo tês koitês,]" he instances the +small fish ([Greek: ichthydia]), 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, "[Greek: oryktoi tôn ichthyôn]," +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 moisture; 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 propagate, +leaving behind them their spawn, which becomes vivified on the return of +the waters to their accustomed bed." This work of Theophrastus became +the great authority for all subsequent writers on this question. +ATHENÆUS quotes it[3], and adds the further testimony of POLYBIUS, that +in Gallia Narbonensis fish are similarly dug out of the ground.[4] +STRABO repeats the story[5], and the Greek naturalists one and all +received the statement as founded on reliable authority. + +[Footnote 1: Chap. ix.] + +[Footnote 2: Lib. vi. ch. 15, 16, 17.] + +[Footnote 3: Lib. viii. ch. 2.] + +[Footnote 4: _Ib._ ch. 4.] + +[Footnote 5: Lib. iv. and xii.] + +Not so the Romans. LIVY mentions it as one of the prodigies which were +to be "expiated" on the approach of a rupture with Macedon, that "in +Gallico agro qua induceretur aratrum sub glebis pisces emersisse,"[1] +thus taking it out of the category of natural occurrences. POMPONIUS +MELA, obliged to notice the matter in his account of Narbon Gaul, +accompanies it with the intimation that although asserted by both Greek +and Roman authorities, the story was either a delusion or a fraud, +JUVENAL has a sneer for the rustic-- + + "miranti sub aratro + Piscibus inventis."--_Sat_. xiii. 63. + +[Footnote 1: Lib. xlii. ch. 2.] + +And SENECA, whilst he quotes Theophrastus, adds ironically, that now we +must go to fish with a _hatchet_ instead 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 +Beekman, who in 1736 published his commentary on the collection [Greek: +Peri Thaumasiôn akousmatôn], ascribed to Aristotle, has given a list of +the authorities about his own times,--GEORGIUS AGRICOLA, GESNER, +RONDELET, DALECHAMP, BOMARE, and GRONOVIUS, who not only gave credence +to the assertions of Theophrastus, but adduced modern instances in +corroboration 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 fully 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 Guiana[1] have been seen travelling over +land during the dry season in search of their natural element[2], in +such droves that the negroes fill baskets with them during these +terrestrial excursions. PALLEGOIX in his account of Siam, enumerates +three species of fishes which leave the tanks and channels and traverse +the damp grass[3]; 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.[4] + +[Footnote 1: _D. Hancockii_, CUV. et VAL.] + +[Footnote 2: Sir R. Schomburgk's _Fishes of Guiana_, vol. i. pp. 113, +151, 160. Another migratory fish was found by Bose very numerous in the +fresh waters of Carolina and in ponds liable to become dry in summer. +When captured and placed on the ground, "they _always, directed +themselves towards the nearest water, which they could not possibly +see_, and which they must have discovered by some internal index. They +belong to the genus _Hydrargyra_ and are called Swampines.--KIRBY, +_Bridgewater Treatise_, vol. i. p. 143. + +Eels kept in a garden, when August arrived (the period at which instinct +impels them to go to the sea to spawn) were in the habit of leaving the +pond, and were invariably found moving eastward _in the direction of the +sea_.--YARRELL, vol. ii. p. 384. Anglers observe that fish newly caught, +when placed out of sight of water, always struggle towards it to +escape.] + +[Footnote 3: PALLEGOIX, vol. i. p. 144.] + +[Footnote 4: Sir J. BOWERING'S _Siam,_ &c., vol. i. p. 10.] + +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 they are crawling on land, +gradually exudes so as to keep the gills damp.[1] + +[Footnote 1: CUVIER and VALENCIENNES, _Hist. Nat. des Poissons_, tom. +vii. p. 246.] + +The individual most frequently seen in these excursions 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 _Anabas 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist_., May, 1853, p. 390. Mr. +Morris, the government-agent of Trincomalie, writing to me on this +subject in 1856, says--"I was lately on duty inspecting the kind of a +large tank at Nade-cadua, which, being out of repair, the remaining +water was confined in a small hollow in the otherwise dry bed. Whilst +there heavy rain came on, and, as we stood on the high ground, we, +observed a pelican on the margin of the shallow pool gorging himself; +our people went towards him and raised a cry of fish! fish! We hurried +down, and found numbers of fish struggling upwards through the grass in +the rills formed by the trickling of the rain. There was scarcely water +enough to cover them, but nevertheless they made rapid progress up the +bank, on which our followers collected about two bushels of them at a +distance of forty yards from the tank. They were forcing their way up +the knoll, and, had they not been intercepted first by the pelican and +afterwards by ourselves, they would 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 dry up the fish congregate +in the little pools till at last you find them in thousands in the +moistest parts of the beds, rolling in the blue mud which is at that +time about the consistence of thick gruel." + +"As the moisture further evaporates the surface fish are left uncovered, +and they crawl away in search of fresh pools. In one place I saw +hundreds diverging in every direction, from the tank they had just +abandoned to a distance of fifty or sixty yards, and still travelling +onwards. In going this distance, 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 surface was everywhere indented with +footmarks 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 perpendicular they remained to die, and were carried off +by kites and crows." + +"My impression is that this migration 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."] + +Referring to the _Anabas scandens_, DR. HAMILTON BUCHANAN says, that of +all the fish with which he was acquainted it is the most teliacious 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.[1] Two Danish +naturalists residing at 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 lieutenant 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 grew +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 with which he +seized it."[2] + +[Footnote 1: _Fishes of the Ganges_, 4to. 1822.] + +[Footnote 2: _Transactions Linn. Soc._ vol. iii. p. 63. It is +remarkable, however, that this discovery of Daldorf, which excited so +great an interest in 1791, had been anticipated by an Arabian voyager a +thousand years before. Abou-zeyd, the compiler of the remarkable MS. +known since Renaudot's translation by the title of the _Travels of the +Two Mahometans_, states that Suleyman, one of his informants, who +visited India at the close of the ninth century, was told there of a +fish which, issuing from the waters, ascended the coco-nut palms to +drink their sap, and returned to the sea. "On parle d'un poisson de mer +qui, sortant de l'eau, monte sur la cocotier et boit le suc de la +plante; ensuite il retourne á la mer." See REINAUD, _Rélations des +Voyages faits par les Arabes et Persans dans le neuvième siècle_, tom. +i. p, 21, tom. ii. p. 93.] + +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.[1] The +descent, too, is a question of difficulty. + +[Footnote 1: Kirby says that it is "in pursuit of certain crustaceans +that form its food" (_Bridgewater Treatise_, vol i. p. 144); but I am +not aware of any crustaceans in the island which ascend the palmyra or +feed upon its fruit. The _Birgus latro_, which inhabits Mauritius, and +is said to climb the coco-nut for this purpose, has not been observed in +Ceylon.] + +The position of its fins, and the spines on its gill-covers, might +assist its journey upwards, but the same apparatus would prove anything +but a facility in steadying its journey down. The probability is, as +suggested by Buchanan, 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[1], but +the fact is well established that both it, the _pullata_ (a species of +_polyacanthus_), and others, are capable of long journeys on the level +ground.[2] + +[Footnote 1: This assertion must be qualified by a fact stated by Mr. +E.A. Layard, who mentions that on visiting one of the fishing stations +on a Singhalese river, where the fish are caught in staked enclosures, +as described at p. 342, and observing that the chambers were covered +with netting, he asked the reason, and was told "_that some of the fish +climbed up the sticks and got over._"--Mag. Nat. Hist, for May 1823, p. +390-1.] + +[Footnote 2: Strange accidents have more than once occurred at Ceylon +arising from the habit of the native anglers; who, having neither +baskets nor pockets in which to place what they catch, will seize a fish +in their teeth whilst putting fresh bait on their hook. In August, 1853, +a man was carried into the Pettah hospital at Colombo, having a climbing +perch, which he thus attempted to hold, firmly imbedded in his throat. +The spines of its dorsal fin prevented its descent, whilst those of the +gill-covers equally forbade its return. It was eventually extracted by +the forceps through an incision in the oesophagus, and the patient +recovered. Other similar cases have proved fatal.] + +_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 awaiting the renewal of the water at the +change of the monsoon. The instinct of the crocodile to resort to the +same expedient has been already referred to[1], and in like manner the +fish, when distressed by the evaporation of the tanks, seek relief by +immersing first their heads, and by degrees their whole bodies, in the +mud; sinking to a depth at which they find sufficient moisture to +preserve 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. + +[Footnote 1: See _ante_, p. 285.] + +The same thing takes place in other tropical regions, subject to +vicissitudes of drought and moisture. The Protopterus[1], which inhabits +the Gambia (and which though demonstrated by Professor Owen to possess +all the essential organisation of fishes, is nevertheless provided 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 +resume its active habits. At this period the natives of the Gambia, 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: _Lepidosiren annectans_, Owen. See _Linn. Trans._ 1839.] + +[Footnote 2: This statement will be found in QUATREMERE'S Mémoires sur +l'Egypte, tom. i. p. 17, on the authority of Abdullah ben Ahmed ben +Solaim Assouany, in his _History of Nubia_, "Simon, héritier présomptif +du royanme d'Alouah, m'a assuré que l'on trouve, dans la vase qui couvre +fond de cette rivière, un grand poisson sans écailles, qui ne ressemble +en rien aux poissons du Nil, et que, pour l'avoir, il faut creuser à une +toise et plus de profondeur." To this passage, there is appended this +note:--"Le patriarche Mendes, cité par Legrand (_Relation Hist. d' +Abyssinie_, du P. LOBO, p. 212-3) rapporte que le fleuve Mareb, après +avoir arrosé une étendue de pays considérable, 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 ban +poisson. An rapport de l'auteur de _l' Ayin Akbery_ (tom. ii, p. 146, +ed. 1800), dans le Soubah do Caschmir, pres du lieu nommé Tilahmoulah, +est une grande pièce de terre qui est inondée pendant la saison des +pluies. Lorsque les eaux se sont évaporées, et que la vase est presque +séche, les habitans prennant des bâtons d'environ une aune do long, +qu'ils enfoncent dans la vase, et ils y trouvent quantité de grands et +petits poissons." In the library of the British Museum there is an +unique MS. of MANOEL DE ALMEIDA, written in the sixteenth century, from +which Balthasar Tellec compiled his _Historia General de Ethiopia alta_, +printed at Coimbra in 1660, and in it the above statement of Mendes is +corroborated by Almeida, who says that he was told by João Gabriel, a +Creole Portuguese, born in Abyssinia, who had visited the Mareb, and who +said that the "fish were to be found everywhere eight or ten palms down, +and that he had eaten of them."] + +In South America the "round-headed hassar" of Guiana, _Callicthys +littoralis_, and the "yarrow," a species of the family Esocidæ, 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.[1] The _Loricaria_ of Surinam, another Siluridan, +exhibits a similar instinct, and resorts to the same expedient. Sir R. +Schomburgk, in his account of the fishes of Guiana, 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."[2] + +[Footnote 1: See Paper "_on some Species of Fishes and Reptiles in +Demerara_," by J. HANDCOCK, Esq., M.D., _Zoological Journal_, vol. iv. +p. 243.] + +[Footnote 2: A curious account of the _borachung_ or "ground fish" of +Bhootan, will be found in Note (C.) appended to this chapter.] + +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 +dig in the mud for fish. Mr. Whiting, the chief civil officer of the +eastern province, informs me that, on two occasions, he was present +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. + +[Illustration: THE ANABAS OF THE DRY TANKS.] + +Being desirous of obtaining a specimen of fish so exhumed, 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 Daldorf; but +on minute examination it proves to be a species unknown in India, and +hitherto found only in Boreno and China. It is the _A. oligolepis_ of +Bleek. + +But the faculty of becoming torpid at such periods is not confined in +Ceylon to the crocodile sand fishes;--it is also possessed by some of +the fresh-water mollusca 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[1] till the returning 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 way 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 immediately on +the return of the rains.[2] + +[Footnote 1: A knowledge of this fact was turned to prompt account by +Mr. Edgar S. Layard, when holding a judicial office at Point Pedro in +1849. A native who had been defrauded of his land complained before him +of his neighbour, who, during his absence, had removed their common +landmark, diverting the original watercourse and obliterating its traces +by filling it up to a level with the rest of the field. Mr. Layard +directed a trench to be sunk at the contested spot, and discovering +numbers of the Ampullaria, the remains of the eggs, and the living +animal which had been buried for months, the evidence was so resistless +as to confound the wrong-doer, and terminate the suit.] + +[Footnote 2: For a similar fact relative to the shells and water beetles +in the pools near Rio Janeiro, see DARWIN'S _Nat. Journal_, ch. v. p. +99. BENSON, in the first vol. of _Gleanings of Science_, published at +Calcutta in 1829, describes a species of _Paludina_ found in pools, +which are periodically dried up in the hot season but reappear with the +rains, p. 363. And in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ for +Sept. 1832, Lieut. HUTTON, in a singularly interesting paper, has +followed up the same subject by a narrative of his own observations at +Mirzapore, wherein June, 1832, after a few heavy showers of rain, that +formed pools on the surface of the ground near a mango grove, he saw the +_Paludinæ_ issuing from the ground, "pushing aside the moistened earth +and coming forth from their retreats; but on the disappearance of the +water not one of them was to be seen above ground. Wishing to ascertain +what had become of them he turned up the earth at the base of several +trees, and invariably found the shells buried from an inch to two inches +below the surface." Lieut. Hutton adds that the _Ampullariæ_ and +_Planorbes_, as well as the _Paludinæ_ are found in similar situations +during the heats of the dry season. The British _Pisidea_ exibit the +same faculty (see a monograph in the _Camb. Phil. Trans._ vol. iv.). The +fact is elsewhere alluded to in the present work of the power possessed +by the land leech of Ceylon of retaining vitality even after being +parched to hardness during the heat of the rainless season. LYELL +mentions the instance of some snails in Italy which, when they +hybernate, descend to the depth of five feet and more below the surface. +_Princip. of Geology,_ &c, p. 373.] + +Dr. John Hunter[1] has advanced an opinion that hybernation, 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. Excessive heat in the +tropics produces an effect upon animals 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 counterpart 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 drought 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 inclemency of winter +deprives it of its ordinary supply of slugs and insects; and the +_tenrec_[2] of Madagascar, its tropical representative, exhibits the +same tendency during the period when excessive heat produces in that +climate a like result. + +[Footnote 1: HUNTER'S _Observations on parts of the Animal oeconomy_, p. +88.] + +[Footnote 2: _Centetes ecaudatus_, Illiger.] + +The descent of the _Ampullaria_, 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 +overarching 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 +æstivation. 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.[1] But exceptions +serve to prove the accuracy of Hunter's opinion almost as strikingly as +accordances, since the same genera of animals that hybernate in Europe, +where extreme cold disarranges their oeconomy, evince no symptoms 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.[2] The shrews of Ceylon +(_Sorex montanus_ and _S. ferrugineus_ of Kelaart), like 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 +observation 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 +accustomed 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 hybernation when carried to the colder regions of Europe. + +[Footnote 1: _Annals of Natural History_, 1860. See Dr. BAIRD'S _Account +of Helix desertorum; Excelsior,_ &c., ch. i. p. 345.] + +[Footnote 2: Colonel SKYES has described in the _Entomological Trans._ +the operations of an ant in India which lays up a store of hay against +the rainy season.] + +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: YARRELL, vol. i. p. 364, quotes the authority of Dr. J. +Hunter in his _Animal oeconomy_, that fish, "after being frozen still +retain so much of life as when thawed to resume their vital actions;" +and in-the same volume (_Introd_. vol. i. p. xvii.) he relates from +JESSE'S _Gleanings in Natural History_, the story of a gold fish +(_Cyprinus auratus_), which, together with the a marble basin, was +frozen into one solid lump of ice, yet, on the water being thawed, the +fish became as lively as usual. Dr. RICHARDSON in the third vol of his +_Fauna Borealis Americana_, says the grey sucking carp, found in the fur +countries of North America, may be frozen and thawed again without being +killed in the process.] + +_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[1], in the 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. Reynaud found and forwarded to Cuvier +two fishes which he took from the water at a time when his thermometer +indicated a temperature of 37° Reaumur, equal to 115° of Fahrenheit. 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."[2] + +[Footnote 1: See SIR J. EMERSON TENNET's _Ceylon_, &c., vol. ii. p. +496.] + +[Footnote 2: CUV. and VAL., vol. iii. p. 363. In addition to the two +fishes above named, a loche _Cobitis thermalis_, and a carp, _Nuria +thermoicos_, were found in the hot-springs of Kannea, at a heat 40° +Cent., 114° Fahr., and a roach, _Leuciscus thermalis_, when the +thermometer indicated 50° Cent, 122° Fahr.--_Ib_. xviii. p. 59, xvi. p. +182, xvii. p. 94. Fish have been taken from a hot spring at Pooree when +the thermometer stood at 112° Fahr., and as they belonged to a +carnivorous genus, they must have found prey living in the same high +temperature.--_Journ. Asiatic Soc. of Beng._ vol. vi. p. 465. Fishes +have been observed in a hot spring at Manila which raises the +thermometer to 187°, and in another in Barbary, the usual temperature of +which is 172°; and Humboldt and Bonpland, when travelling in South +America, saw fishes thrown up alive from a volcano, in water that raised +the temperature to 210°, being two degrees below the boiling point. +PATTERSON'S _Zoology_, Pt. ii. p. 211; YARRELL'S _History of British +Fishes_, vol. i. In. p. xvi.] + + * * * * * + +_List of Ceylon Fishes._ + +In the following list, the Acanthopterygian fishes of Ceylon has been +prepared for me by Dr. GÜNTHER, 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 Cartilaginous fishes. + + +I. OSSEOUS. + +ACANTHOPTERYGII + +BERYCIDÆ, _Lowe_. + Myripristis murdjan, _Forsk_. + Holocentrum rubrum, _Forsk_. + spiniferum, _Forsk_. + diadema, _Lacép_. + +PERCIDÆ, _Günther_. + *Lates calcarifer, _Bl._ + Serranus louti, _Forsk_. + pachycentrum, _C. & V._ + guttatus, _Bl._ + Sonneratii, _C. & V._ + angularis, _C.& V._ + marginalis, _Bl._ + hexagonatis, _Forsk_. + flavocoeruleus, _Lacép_. + biguttatus, _C. & V._ + lemniscatus, _C. & V._ + Amboinensis, _Bleek_. + boenak, _C. & V._ + Grammistes orientalis, _Bl._ + Genyoroge Sebæ, _C. & V._ + Bengalensis, _C. & V._ + marginata, _C. & V._ + rivulata, _C. & V._ + gibba, _Forsk_. + spilura, _Benn_. + Mesoprion aurolineatus, _C. & V._ + rangus, _C. & V._ + quinquelineatus, _Rüpp_. + Johnii, _Bl._ + annularis, _C. & V._ + ?Priacanthus Blochii, _Bleek_. + Ambassis n. sp., _Günth_. + Commersonii, _C. & V._ + thermalis, _C. & V._ + Apogon Ceylonicus, _C. & V._ + thermalis, _C. & V._ + annularis, _Rüpp_. Var. roseipinnis. + Chilodipterus quinquelineatus, _C. & V._ + +PRISTIPOMATIDÆ, _Günther_. + Dules Bennettii, _Bleek_. + *Therapon servus, _Bloch_. + *trivittatus, _Buch. Ham_. + quadrilineatus, _Bl._ + *Helotes polytænia, _Bleek_. + Pristipoma hasta, _Bloch_. + maculatum, _Bl._ + Diagramma punctatum, _Ehrenb_. + orientale, _Bl._ + poecilopterum, _C. & V._ + Blochii, _C. & V._ + lineatum, _Gm_. + Radja, _Bleek_. + Lobotes auctorum, _Günth_. + Gerres oblongus, _C & V._ + Scolopsia Japonicus, _Bl._ + bimaculatus, _Rüpp_. + monogramma, _k. & v. H._ + Synagris furcosus, _C. & V._ + Pentapus aurolineatus, _Lacép_. + Smaris balteatus, _C. & V._ + Cæsio coerulaureus, _Lacép_. + +MULLIDÆ, _Gray_. + Upeneus tæniopterus, _C. & V._ + Indicus, _Shaw_. + cyclostoma, _Lacép_. + Upe. trifasciatus, _Lacép_. + cinnabarinus, _C. & V._ + Upeneoides vittatus, _Forsk._ + tragula. + sulphureus, _C. & V._ + Mulloides flavolineatus, _Lacép_. + Ceylonicus, _C. & V._ + +SPARIDÆ, _Günther_. + Lethrinus frenatus, _C. & V._ + cinereus, _C. & V._ + fasciatus, _C. & V._ + ?ramak, _Forsk._ + opercularis, _C. & V._ + erythrurus, _C. & V._ + Pagrus spinifer, _Forsk_. + Crysophrys hasta, _Bl._ + ?Pimelepterus Ternatensis, _Bleek_. + +SQUAMIPINNES, _Günthier_. + Chætodon Layardi, _Blyth_. + oligacanthus, _Bleek_. + setifer, _Bl._ + vagabundus, _L._ + guttatissimus, _Benn_. + pictus, _Forsk_. + xanthocephalus, _Benn_. + Sebæ, _C. & V._ + Heniochus macrolepidotus, _Artedi_. + Holacanthus annularis, _Bl._ + xanthurus, _Benn_. + imperator, _B1_. + Scatophagus argus, _Gm_. + Ephippus orbis, _Bl._ + Drepane punctata, _Gm_. + +CIRRHITIDÆ, _Gray_. + Cirrhites Forsteri, _Schn_. + +CATAPHRACTI, _Cuv_. + Scorpæna polyprion, _Bleek_. + Pterois volitans, _L._ + miles, _Benn_. + Tetraroge longispinis, _C. & V._ + Platycephalus insidiator, _Forsk_. + punctatus, _C. & V._ + serratus, _C. & V._ + tuberculatus, _C. & V._ + suppositus, _Trosch_. + Dactylopterus orientalis, _C. & V._ + +TRACHINIDÆ, _Günther_. + ?Uranoscopus guttatus, _C. & V._ + Percis millepunctata, _Günth_. + Sillago siliama, _Forsk_. + +SCIÆNIDÆ, _Günther_. + Sciæna diacantha, _Lacép_. + maculata, _Schn_. + Dussumieri, _C & V._ + Corvina miles, _C. & V._ + Otolithus argenteus, _k. & v. H._ + +POLYNEMIDÆ, _Günther_. + Polynemus heptadactylus, _C. & V._ + hexanemus, _C. & V._ + Indicus, _Shaw_. + plebeius, _Gm._ + tetradactylus, _Shaw_. + +SPHYRÆNIDÆ, _Agass_. + Sphyræna jello, _C. & V._ + obtusata, _C. & V._ + +TRICHIURIDÆ, _Günther_. + Trichiurus savala, _Cuv._ + +SCOMBRIDÆ, _Günther_. + ?Thynnus affinis, _Cant._ + Cybium Commersonii, _Lacép._ + guttatum, _Schn._ + Naucrates ductor, _L._ + Elacate nigra, _Bl._ + ?n. sp. + Echeneis remora, _L._ + scutata, _Günth._ + naucrates, _L._ + Stromateus cinereus, _Bl._ + niger, _Bl._ + Coryphæna hippurus, _L._ + Mene maculata, _Schn._ + +CARANGIDÆ, _Günther._ + Caranx Heberi, _Benn._ + Rottleri, _Bl._ + calla, _C.&V._ + xanthurus, _K.&v.H._ + talamparoides, _Bleek._ + Malabaricus, _Schn._ + speciosus, _Forsk._ + carangus, _Bl._ + hippos, _L._ + armatus, _Forsk._ + ciliaris, _Bl._ + gallus, _L._ + Micropteryx chrysurus, _L._ + Seriola nigro-fasciata, _Rüpp._ + Chorinemus lysan, _Forsk._ + Sancti Petri, _C. & V._ + Trachynotus oblongus, _C. & V._ + ovatus, _L._ + Psettus argenteus, _L._ + Platax vespertilio, _Bl._ + Raynaldi, _C.&V._ + Zanclus sp. n. + Lactarius delicatulus, _C. & V._ + Equula fasciata, _Lacép._ + edentula, _Bl._ + daura, _Cuv._ + inlerrupta. + Gazza minuta, _Bl._ + equulæformis, _Rüpp._ + Pempheris sp. + +XIPHIIDÆ, _Agass._ + Histiophorus immaculatus, _Rüpp._ + +THEUTYIDÆ, _Günther._ + Theutys Javus, _L._ + stellata, _Forsk._ + nebulosa, _A. & G._ + +ACRONURIDÆ, _Günther._ + Acanthurus triostegus, _L._ + nigrofuscus, _Forsk._ + lineatus, _L._ + Tennentii, _Gthr._ + leucosternon, _Bennett._ + ctenodon, _C.&V._ + rhombeus, _Kittl._ + xanthurus, _Blyth._ + Acronurus melas, _C. & V._ + melanurus, _C. & V._ + Naseus unicornis, _Forsk,_ + brevirostris, _C. & V._ + tuberosus, _Lacép._ + lituratus, _Forster._ + +AULOSTOMATA, _Cuvier._ + Fistularia serrata, _Bl._ + +BLENNIIDÆ, _Müll._ + Salarias fasclatus, _Bl._ + Sal. marmoratus, _Benn._ + tridactylus, _Schn._ + quadricornis, _C.&V._ + +GOBIIDÆ, _Müll._ + Gobius ornatus, _Rüpp._ + giuris, _Buch. Ham._ + albopunctatus, _C. & V._ + grammepomus, _Bleek._ + Apocryptes lanceolatus, _Bl._ + Periophthalmus Koelreuteri, _Pall._ + Eleotris ophiocephalus, _K. & v.H._ + fusca, _Bl._ + sexguttata, _C. & V._ + muralis, _A. & G._ + +MASTACEMBELIDÆ. _Günther._ + Mastacembelus armatus, _Lacép._ + +PEDICULATI, _Cuv._ + Antennarius marmoratus, _Günth._ + hispidus, _Schn._ + pinniceps, _Commers._ + Commersonii, _Lacép._ + multiocellatus _Günth._ + bigibbus, _Lacép._ + +ATHERINIDÆ, _Günther._ + Atherina Forskalii, _Rüpp._ + duodecimalis, _C. & V._ + +MUGILIDÆ, _Günther._ + Mugil planiceps, _C. & V._ + Waigiensis, _A.G._ + Ceylonensis, _Günth._ + +OPHIOCEPHALIDÆ, _Günther._ + Ophiocephalus punctatus, _Bl._ + Kelaartii, _Günth._ + striatus, _Bl._ + marulius, _Ham. Buch._ + Channa orientalis, _Schn._ + +LABYRINTHICI, _Cuv._ + Anabas oligolepis, _Bleek._ + Polyacanthus signatus, _Günth._ + +PHARYNGOGNATHI. + Amphiprion Clarkii, _J. Benn._ + Dascyllus aruanus, _C. & V._ + trimaculatus, _Rüpp._ + Glyphisodon septem-fasciatus, _C. & V._ + Brownrigii, _Benn,_ + coelestinus, _Sol._ + Etroplus Suratensis, _Bl._ + Julis lunaris _Linn._ + decussatus, _W Benn._ + formosus, _C.&V._ + quadricolor. _Lesson._ + dorsalis, _Quoy & Gaim._ + aureomaculatus, _W. Benn._ + Cellanicus, _E. Benn._ + Finlaysoni, _C. & V._ + purpureo-lineatus, _C. & V._ + cingulum, _C. & V._ + Gomphosus fuscus, _C. & V._ + coeruleus, _Comm._ + viridis, _W. Benn._ + Scarus pepo, _W. Benn._ + harid. _Forsk._ + Tautoga fasciata, _Thunb._ + Hemirhamphus Reynaldi, _C. & V._ + Georgii _C.& V._ + Exocoetus evolans. _Linn._ + Belone annulata, _C. & V._ + +MALACOPTERYGII (ABDOMINALES). + Bagrus gulio, _Buch_. + albilabris, _C. & V._ + Plotosus lineatus, _C. & V._ + Barbus tor, _C. & V._ + Nuria thermoicos, _C. & V._ + Leuciscus dandia, _C. & V._ + scalpellus, _C. & V._ + Ceylonicus, _E. Benn_. + thermalis, _C. & V._ + Cobitis thermalis, _C. & V._ + Chirocentrus dorab, _Forsk_. + Elops saurus, _L._ + Megalops cundinga, _Buch_. + Engraulis Brownii, _Gm_. + Sardinella leiogaster, _C. & V._ + lineolata, _C. & V._ + Neohowii. + Saurus myops, _Val_. + Saurida tombil, _Bl._ + +MALACOPTERYGII (SUB-BRANCHIATI). + Pleuronectes, _L._ + +MALACOPTERYGII (APODA). + Muræna. + +LOPHOBRANCHI. + Syngnathus, _L._ + +PLECTOGNATHII. + Tetraodon ocellatus, _W. Benn_. + tepa, _Buch_. + argyropleura, _E. Bennett_. + argentatus, _Blyth_. + Balistes biaculeatus, _W. Benn_. + lineatus, _Bl._ + Triacanthus biaculeatus, _W. Benn_. + Alutarius lævis, _Bl._ + + +II. CARTILAGINOUS. + + Pristis antiquorum, _Lath_. + cuspidatus, _Lath_. + pectinatus, _Lath_. + Chiloscyllium plagiosum, _Benn_. + Stegostoma fasciatum, _Bl._ + Carcharias acutus, _Rüpp_. + Sphyrna zygæna, _L._ + Rhynchobatus lævis, _Bl._ + Trygon uarnak, _Forsk_. + Pteroplatea micrura, _Bl._ + Tæniura lymna, _Forsk_. + Myliobatis Nieuhofii, _Bl._ + Aëtobates narinari, _Bl._ + + * * * * * + +NOTE (A.) + +INSTANCES OF FISHES FALLING FROM THE CLOUDS IN INDIA. + + +(_From the Bombay Times,_ 1856.) + +See Page 343. + +The late Dr. Buist, after enumerating cases in which fishes were said to +have been thrown 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 Meerut, 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 Moradabad 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; 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 sky, like a flock of birds, descending rapidly to the ground; there +was rain drizzling, but no storm. On the 16th and 17th of May, 1833, a +fall of fish occurred in the zillah of Futtehpoor, about three miles +north of the Jumna, after a violent storm of wind and rain. The fish +were from a pound and a half 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 occurred at Allahabad, 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 20th 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 ground, +but in a continuous straight line, not more than a span in breadth. The +vast multitudes of fish, with which the low grounds 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 during a +tremendous deluge of rain at Kattywar, on the 25th of July, 1850, when +the ground around Rajkote was found 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 course of twenty-four successive hours +twenty-seven inches of rain fell, thirty-five fell in twenty-six hours, +seven 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 wonderful were they seen to +descend from the air during the furious squalls which occasionally occur +in June." + + * * * * * + + + + +NOTE (B.) + +CEYLON FISHES. + + +(_Memorandum by 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. Nevertheless 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 represent _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 Coromandel. Even the enormous area of the 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 from 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 already 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 figured without the study of the +specimens themselves, as the specific distinctions 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 mistake 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 represented in these drawings, +nor do either Russell or Cantor mention 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 tunnies, 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 wonderful variety of form +and colour, and constitute not less than one fifth of the whole of the +species of Ceylon fish. In Russell'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 drawings 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 proportion of the +tribe of flat fishes, or _Pleuronectidæ_. 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 +_Pleuronectidæ_. + +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 drawings 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 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:-- + + + CARTILAGINEA. + + Ceylon. China and Japan. + + Squali 12 15 + Raiæ 19 20 + Sturiones 0 1 + + OSTINOPTERYGII. + + Plectognathi. + tetraodontidæ 10 21 + balistidæ 9 19 + Lophobranchii. + syngnathidæ 2 2 + pegasidæ 0 3 + Ctenobranchii. + lophidæ 1 3 + Cyclopodi. + echeneidæ 0 1 + cyclopteridæ 0 1 + gobidæ 7 35 + Percini. + callionymidæ 0 7 + uranoscopidæ 0 7 + cottidæ 0 13 + triglidæ 11 37 + polynemidæ 12 3 + mullidæ 1 7 + perecidæ 26 12 + berycidæ 0 5 + sillaginidæ 3 1 + sciænidæ 19 13 + hæmullinidæ 6 12 + serranidæ 31 38 + theraponidæ 8 20 + cirrhitidæ 0 2 + mænidiæ 37 25 + sparidæ 16 17 + acanthuridæ 14 6 + chætodontidæ 25 21 + fistularidæ 2 3 + Periodopharyngi. + mugilidæ 5 7 + anabantidæ 6 15 + pomacentridæ 10 11 + Pharyngognathi. + labridæ 16 35 + scomberesocidæ 13 6 + blenniidæ 3 8 + Scomberina. + zeidæ 0 2 + sphyrænidæ 5 4 + scomberidæ 118 62 + xiphlidæ 0 1 + cepolidæ 0 5 + Heterosomata. + platessoideæ 5 22 + siluridæ 31 24 + cyprinidæ 19 52 + scopelinidæ 2 7 + salmonidæ 0 1 + clupeidæ 43 22 + gadidæ 0 2 + macruridæ 1 0 + Apodes. + anguillidæ 8 12 + murænidæ 8 6 + sphagebranchidæ 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, but it is called +by the natives the _Bora-chung_, and by European residents the +"ground-fish of Bhootan." It 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 cylindrical, with a thick body, +somewhat shaped like a pike, but rounder, the nose curved upwards, the +colour olive-green, with orange stripes, and the head speckled with +crimson.[1] 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 till they come to water; and presently the +_bora-chung_ rises to the surface, sometimes from a depth of nineteen +feet. In these extemporised wells these fishes are found always in +pairs, and I 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[2], divested the story of much of its +exaggeration, by stating, as the result of personal inquiry in Bhootan, +that the _bora-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 _bora-chung_ would appear to +be an _Ophiocephalus_, probably the _O. barka_ described by Buchanan, as +inhabiting holes in the banks of rivers tributary to the Ganges. + +[Footnote 1: Paper by Mr. J.T. PEARSON, _Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng._, vol. +viii p. 551.] + +[Footnote 2: _Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng._, vol. xi. p. 963.] + + + + +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 rarity, +though some of the "Argus" cowries[1] have been sold as high as _four +guineas_ a pair. + +[Footnote 1: _Cypræa Argus_.] + +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 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 entire 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.[1] During 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 _Ianthina_[2], which rises when the ocean is calm, and +by means of its inflated vesicles floats lightly on the surface. + +[Footnote 1: 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 membranous 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 thus secured, collects its food in the ripple of the waves. +On the slightest alarm, the water is discharged, the disc collapses into +its original dimensions, and the shell and its inhabitant disappear +together beneath the sand.] + +[Illustration: BULLIA VITTATA] + +[Footnote 2: _Ianthina communis_, Krause and _I. prolongata_, Blainv.] + +[Illustration: IANTHINA.] + +The trade in shells is one of extreme antiquity in Ceylon. The Gulf of +Manaar has been fished from the earliest times for the large chank +shell, _Turbinella_ _rapa_, 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 "[Greek: kochlious]," which THEVENOT translates "oysters;" in +which case Marallo might be conjectured to be Bentotte, near Colombo, +which yields the best edible "oysters" in Ceylon.[1] But the shell in +question was most probably the chank, and Marallo was Mantotte, off +which it is found in great numbers.[2] 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_[3]; but "schenek" is not an Arabic word, and is +merely an attempt to spell the local term, _chank_, in Arabic +characters. + +[Footnote 1: COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES, in Thevenot's ed. t i. p. 21.] + +[Footnote 2: At Kottiar, near Trincomalie, I was struck with the +prodigious size of the edible oysters, which were brought to us at the +rest-house. The shell of one of these measured a little more than eleven +inches in length, by half as many broad: thus unexpectedly attesting the +correctness of one of the stories related by the historians of +Alexander's expedition, that in India they had found oysters a foot +long. PLINY says: "In Indico mari Alexandri rerum auctores pedalia +inveniri prodidere."--_Nat. Hist._ lib. xxxii. ch. 31. DARWIN says, that +amongst the fossils of Patagonia, he found "a massive gigantic oyster, +sometimes even a foot in diameter."--_Nat. Voy._, ch. viii.] + +[Footnote 3:--ABOUZEYD, _Voyages Arabes,_ &c., t. i. p. 6; REINAUD, +_Mémoire sur l'Inde,_ &c p. 222.] + +BERTOLACCI mentions a curious local peculiarity[1] 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 +Manaar 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." + +[Footnote 1: See also the _Asiatic Journal for_ 1827, p. 469.] + +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 +Galle in the direction of Matura the stems of the coco-nut and jak trees +are profusely covered with the shells of the beautiful striped _Helix +hamastoma_. 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: DARWIN, in his _Naturalist's Voyage_, mentions a parallel +instance of the localised propagation of colours amoungst the cattle +which range the pasturage of East Falkland Island: "Round Mount Osborne +about half of some of the herds were mouse-coloured, a tint no common +anywhere else,--near Mount Pleasant dark-brown prevailed; whereas south +of Choiseul Sound white beasts with black heads and feet were +common."--Ch. ix. p. 192.] + +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 Guildford, as a temporary residence for the Governor, +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 presently 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 accumulations of ages, the millions of oysters[1], robbed of +their pearls, having been year after year flung into heaps, that extend +for a distance of many miles. + +[Footnote 1: It is almost unnecessary to say that the shell fish which +produces the true Oriental pearls is not an oyster, but belongs to the +genus Avicula, or more correctly, Meleagrina. It is the _Meleagrina +Margaritifera_ of Lamarck.] + +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[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Cajan_ is the local term for the plaited fronds of a +coco-nut.] + +I visited the pearl banks officially in 1848 in company with Capt. +Stenart, the official inspector. My immediate object was to inquire into +the causes of the suspension of the fisheries, and to ascertain the +probability 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 producing an annual income, to the colony. The conjecture, +hastily adopted, to account for the disappearance of mature 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 deepening the narrow +passage between Ceylon and India at Paumbam. It was also suggested, that +a previous Governor, 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 suppositions appeared worthy of +acceptance; for, in the frequent disruptions of Adam's Bridge, there was +ample evidence that the currents in the Gulf of Manaar had been changed +at former times without 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 conservators; 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 twenty-seven years, from 1768 till 1796[1]; +and they had been equally unsuccessful from 1732 till 1746. The Arabs +were well acquainted with similar vicissitudes, and Albyronni (a +contemporary of Avicenna), who served under Mahmoud of Ghuznee, and +wrote in the eleventh century, says that the pearl fishery, which +formerly existed in the Gulf of Serendib, had become exhausted in his +time, simultaneously with 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: This suspension was in some degree attributable to disputes +with the Nabob of Arcot and other chiefs, and the proprietors of temples +on the opposite coast of India, who claimed, a right to participate in +the fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar.] + +[Footnote 2: "Il y avait autrefois dans le Golfe de Serendyb, une +pêcherie de perles qui s'est épuiseé de notre temps. D'un autre côté il +s'est formé une pêcherie de Sofala dans le pays des Zends, là ou il n'en +existait pas auparavant--on dit que c'est la pêcherie de Serendyb qui +s'est transportée à Sofala."--ALBYROUNI, _in_ RENAUD'S _Fragmens Arabes, +&c_, p. 125; see also REINAUD'S _Mémoire sur l'Inde_, p. 228.] + +It appeared to me that the explanation of the phenomenon 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 appointed to study the habits and +the natural history of the pearl-oyster, and that his investigations +should be facilitated by the means at the disposal of the Government. + +Dr. Kelaart was appointed to this office, by Sir H.G. 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 movement, and unable of itself to quit the place to which it +is originally attached[1], he demonstrated, not only that it possesses +locomotive powers, but also that their exercise is indispensable to its +oeconomy 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 migrate and moor itself in +favourable situations.[2] 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.[3] 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 "treasures of the deep," might eclipse the +renown of her gems when she merited the title of the "Island of Rubies." + +[Footnote 1: STEUART'S _Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon_, p. 27: CORDINER'S +_Ceylon, &c_, vol. ii. p. 45.] + +[Footnote 2: See Dr. KELAART'S Report on the Pearl Oyster in the _Ceylon +Calendar for 1858--Appendix_, p. 14.] + +[Footnote 3: _Rapport de_ M. COSTE, Professeur d'Embryogénie, &c., +Paris, 1858.] + +On my arrival at Aripo, the pearl-divers, under the orders of their +Adapanaar, put to sea, and commenced the examination of the banks.[1] +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 employed to assist the diver in his operations 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 +suspended 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 down 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 Gulf, says that, before +descending, each filled his ears with cotton steeped in oil, and +compressed his nostrils by a piece of tortoise-shell.[2] This practice +continues there to the present day[3]; 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 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. + +[Footnote 1: Detailed accounts of the pearl fishery of Ceylon and the +conduct of the divers, will be found in PERCIVAL's _Ceylon_, ch. iii.: +and in CORDINER'S _Ceylon_, vol. ii. ch. xvi. There is also a valuable +paper on the same subject by Mr. LE BECK, in the _Asiatic Researches_, +vol. v. p. 993; but by far the most able and intelligent description is +contained in the _Account of the Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon_, by JAMES +STEUART, Esq., Inspector of the Pearl Banks, 4to. Colombo, 1843.] + +[Footnote 2: MASSOUDI says that the Persian divers, as they could not +breathe through their nostrils, _cleft the root of the ear_ for that +purpose: "_Ils se fendaient la racine de l'oreille pour respirer_; en +effet, ils ne peuvent se servir pour cet objet des narines, vu qu'ils se +les bouchent avec des morceaux d'écailles de tortue marine on bien avec +des morceaux de corne ayant la forme d'un fer de lance. En même temps +ils se mettent dans l'oreille du coton trempé dans de +l'huile."--_Moroudj-al-Dzeheb,_ &c., REINAUD, _Mémoire sur l'Inde,_ p. +228.] + +[Footnote 3: Colonel WILSON says they compress the nose with horn, and +close the ears with beeswax. See _Memorandum on the Pearl Fisheries in +Persian Gulf.--Journ. Geogr. Soc._ 1833, vol. iii. p. 283.] + +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 office 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[1]. + +[Footnote 1: RIBEYRO says that a diver could remain below whilst two +_credos_ were being repeated: "Il s'y tient l'espace de deux +_credo_."--Lib. i. ch. xxii. p. 169. PERCIVAL says the usual time for +them to be under water was two minutes, but that some divers stayed +_four_ or _five_, and one _six_ minutes,--_Ceylon_ p. 91; LE BECK says +that in 1797 he saw a Caffre boy from Karical remain down for the space +of seven minutes.--_Asiat. Res_ vol. v. p. 402.] + +The only precaution to which the Ceylon diver devotedly 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 be a Roman 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 representative of the higher authority, would be +recognised and respected by the sharks. + +Strange to say, though the Gulf of Manaar abounds with these hideous +creatures, not more than one well authenticated accident[1] 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 Gulf were so conscious +of this advantage of colour, that they were accustomed to blacken their +limbs, in order to baffle the sea monsters.[2] + +[Footnote 1: CORDINER'S _Ceylon_, vol. ii p. 52.] + +[Footnote 2: "Ils s'enduisaient les pieds et les jambes d'une substance +noirâtre, atin de faire peur aux monstres marins, que, sans cela, +seraient tentés de les dévorer."--_Moroudj-al-Dzekeb,_ REINAUD, _Mém. +sur l'Inde_, p. 228.] + +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[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: Along with this two plates are given from drawings made for +the Official Inspector, and exhibiting the ascertained size of the pearl +oyster at every period of its growth, from the "spat" to the mature +shell. The young "brood" are shown at Nos. 1 and 2. The shell at four +months old, No. 3, No. 4. six months, No. 5. one year, No. 6, two years. +The second plate exhibits the shell at its full growth.] + +The banks of Aripo are not the only localities, nor is the _acicula_ the +only mollusc, by which pearls are furnished. The Bay of Tamblegam, +connected with 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.[1] They delight in brackish water, and on more than +one recent occasion, an excess of either salt water or fresh has proved +fatal to great numbers of them. + +[Footnote 1: _Report of_ Dr. KELAART, Oct. 1857.] + +[Illustration: PEARL OYSTER. + +1, 2. The young brood or spat. +3. Four months old. +4. Six months old. +5. One year old. +6. Two years old.] + +[Illustration: THE PEARL OYSTER. Full Growth.] + +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 often heard issuing from the bottom of the +lake, at several places, both above and below the 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 Æolian 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 _cerithium._[1] + +[Illustration: CERITHIUM PALUSTRE.] + +[Footnote 1: _Littorina lævis. Cerithium palustre._ Of the latter the +specimens brought to me were dwarfed and solid, exhibiting in this +particular the usual peculiarities that distinguish (1) shells +inhabiting a rocky locality from (2) their congeners in a sandy bottom. +Their longitudinal development was less, with greater breadth, and +increased strength and weight.] + +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 +considerably 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 occasionally 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 mollusca, 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 nature of the land, +and the intervention of the fort and its buildings, forbade the +possibility of this kind of conduction. + +Sounds somewhat similar are heard under water at some places on the +western coast of India, especially in the harbour of Bombay.[1] At +Caldera, in Chili, musical 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 same interesting phenomenon has been +observed at the mouth of the Pascagoula, in the State of Mississippi, +and of another river called the "Bayou coq del Inde," on the northern +shore of the Gulf 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. + +[Footnote 1: These sounds are thus described 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 hearing long distinct sounds like the protracted booming of a +distant bell, the dying cadence of an Æolian harp, the note of a +pitchpipe or pitch-fork, or any other long-drawn-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 around +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 well known, and very often heard. +Accordingly, on inclining 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 resembling, 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 alive, and the means afforded of +determining how the musical sounds are produced and emitted, with other +particulars of interest supposed new in Ichthyology. We shall be +thankful to receive from our readers any information they can give us in +regard to a phenomenon 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 which the singular facts above +related have been given, no doubt will 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 proceed from under +water at that station. It appeared in the _Bombay Times_ of Feb. 13, +1849.] + +Certain fishes are known to utter sounds when removed from the water[1], +and some are capable of making noises when under it[2]; but all the +circumstances connected with the sounds which I heard at Batticaloa are +unfavourable to the conjecture that they were produced by either. + +[Footnote 1: The Cuckoo Gurnard (_Triglia cuculus_) and the maigre +(_Sciæna aquila_) utter sounds when taken out of the water (YARRELL, +vol. i. p. 44, 107); and herrings when the net has just been drawn have +been observed to do the same. This effect 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.] + +[Footnote 2: 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. PALLEGOIX, 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 un bruit +très-sonore et même 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. DARWIN, _Nat. Journ._ ch. vii. +Aristotle and Ælian were aware of the existence of this faculty in some +of the fishes of the Mediterranean. ARISTOTLE, _De Anim_., lib. iv. ch. +ix.; ÆLIAN, _De Nat. Anim._, lib. x. ch. xi.; see also PLINY, lib. ix. +ch. vii.. lib. xi. ch. cxiii.; ATHENÆUS, 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.] + +Organs of hearing have been clearly ascertained to exist, mot only in +fishes[1], but in mollusca. In the oyster the presence of an acoustic +apparatus of the simplest possible construction has been established by +the discoveries of Siebold[2], and from our knowledge of the reciprocal +relations existing between the faculties of hearing and of producing +sounds, the ascertained existence of the one affords legitimate grounds +for inferring the coexistence of the other in animals of the same +class.[3] + +[Footnote 1: AGASSIZ, _Comparative Physiology_, sec. ii. 158.] + +[Footnote 2: It consists of two round vesicles containing fluid, and +crystalline or elliptical calcareous particles or otolites, remarkable +for their oscillatory action in the living or recently killed animal. +OWEN'S _Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the +Invertebrate Animals_, 1855, p. 511-552.] + +[Footnote 3: I am informed that Professor MÜLLER read a paper on +"Musical fishes" before the Academy of Berlin, in 1856. It will probably +be found in the volume of MÜLLER'S _Archiv. für Physiologie_ for that +year; but I have not had an opportunity of reading it.] + +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Edinburgh Philosophical Journ_., vol. xiv. p. 188. See +also the Appendix to this chapter.] + +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 occasion of my visits to Batticaloa, to +investigate the subject more narrowly. At subsequent periods I have +since renewed my efforts, but without success, to obtain specimens 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The letter which I received from Dr. Grant on this subject, +I have placed in a note to the present chapter, in the hope that it may +stimulate some other inquirer in Ceylon to prosecute the investigation +which I was unable to carry out successfully.] + +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 Trincomalie, 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 exclusively of Ceylon +shells;--and as the very few cabinets 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 professing 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 discriminate between a specimen from Ceylon and one +from the Eastern Archipelago or Hindustan. In a very few instances, +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 collective 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 embodied in the monographs of REEVE, KUSTER, 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 +History_. + +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 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 wished. "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 Rissoæ, Chemnitziæ, 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 Lamarckian one, very similar +to that used by Reeve and Sowerby, and by Mr. HANLEY, in his +_Illustrated Catalogue of Recent Shells_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Below will be found a general reference to the Works or +Papers in which are given descriptive notices of the shells contained in +the following list; the names of the authors (in full or abbreviated) +being, as usual, annexed to each species. + +ADAMS, _Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1853, 54, 56; _Thesaur. Conch._ ALBERS, +_Zeitsch. Malakoz._ 1853. ANTON, _Wiegm. Arch. Nat._ 1837; _Verzeichn. +Conch_. BECK in _Pfeiffer, Symbol. Helic._ BENSON, _Ann. Nat. Hist._ +vii. 1851; xii. 1853, xviii, 1856. BLAINVILLE, _Dict. Sc. Nat.; Nouv. +Ann. Mus. His. Nat._ i. BOLTEN, _Mus._ BORN, _Test. Mus. Cæcs. Vind._ +BRODERIP, _Zool. Journ._ i. iii. BRUGUIERE, _Encyc. Méthod. Vers._ +CARPENTER, _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1856. CHEMNITZ, _Conch. Cab._ CHENU, +_Illus. Conch._ DESHAYES. _Encyc. Méth. Vers.; Mag. Zool. 1831; Voy. +Belanger; Edit. Lam. An. s. Vert.; Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1853, 54, 55. +DILLWYN. _Deser. Cat. Shells._ DOHRN, _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1857, 58; +_Malak. Blätter; Land and Fluviatile Shells of Ceylon._ DUCLOS, _Monog. +of Oliva._ FABRICIUS, _in Pfeiffer Monog. Helic.; in Dohrn's MSS._ +FÉRUSSAC, _Hist. Mollusques._ FORSKAL, _Anim. Orient._ GMELIN, _Syst. +Nat._ GRAY, _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1834, 52; _Index Testaceologicus Suppl.; +Spicilegia Zool.; Zool. Journ._ i.; _Zool. Beechey Voy._ GRATELOUP, +_Act. Linn. Bordeaux,_ xi. GUERIN, _Rev. Zool._ 1847. HANLEY, _Thesaur. +Conch,_ i.; _Recent Bivalves; Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1858. HINDS, _Zool. Voy. +Sulphur; Proc. Zool. Soc._ HUTTON, _Journ. As. Soc._ KARSTEN, _Mus. +Lesk._ KIENER, _Coquilles Vivantes._ KRAUSS, _Sud-Afrik Mollusk._ +LAMARCK, _An. sans Vertéb._ LAYARD, _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1854. LEA, +_Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1850. LINNÆUS, _Syst. Nat._ MARTINI, _Conch. Cab._ +MAWE. _Introd. Linn. Conch.; Index Test. Suppl._ MEUSCHEN, in _Gronor. +Zoophylac._ MENKE, _Synop. Mollus._ MULLER, _Hist. Verm. Terrest._ +PETIT, _Pro. Zool. Soc._ 1842. PFEIFFER, _Monog. Helic.: Monog. +Pneumon.; Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1852, 53, 54, 55. 56; _Zeitschr. +Malacoz._ 1853. PHILIPPI, _Zeitsch. Mal._ 1846, 47: _Abbild. Neuer +Conch._ POTIEZ et MICHAUD. _Galeric Douai._ RANG, _Mag. Zool._ ser. i. +p. 100. RÉCLUZ, _Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1845; _Revue Zool. Cur._ 1841: +_Mag. Conch._ REEVE, _Conch. Icon.; Proc. Zool. Soc_: 1842, 52. +SCHUMACHER. _Syst._ SHUTTLEWORTH. SOLANDER. in _Dillwyn's Desc. Cat. +Shells;_ SOWERBY, _Genera Shells; Species Conch.; Conch. Misc.; Thesaur. +Conch.; Conch. Illus.; Proc. Zool. Soc.; App. to Tankerrille Cat._ +SPENGLER, _Skrivt. Nat. Selsk. Kiobenhav._ 1792. SWAINSON, _Zool. +Illust._ ser. ii. TEMPLETON, _Ann. Nat. Hist._ 1858. TROSCHEL, in +_Pfeiffer, Mon. Pneum; Zeitschr. Malak._ 1847; _Wiegm. Arch. Nat._ 1837. +WOOD, _General Conch_.] + +Aspergillum Javanum. _Brug._ Enc. Mét. + sparsum, _Sowerby_, Gen. Shells.[1] + clavatum, _Chenu,_ lllust. Conch. + +Teredo nucivorus. _Sp_ Skr. Nat. Sels.[2] + +Solen truncatus. _Wood_, Gen. Couch. + linearis, _Wood_, Gen. Conch. + cultellus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + radiatus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + +Anatina subrostrata, _Lam._ Ani. s. Vert. + +Anatinella Nicobarica, _Gm._ Syst. Nat. + +Lutraria Egyptiaca, _Chemn._ Couch. Cab. + +Blainvillea vitrea, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.[3] + +Scrobicularia angulata. _Chem._ Con. Cab.[4] + +Mactra complanata, _Desh._ Proc. Zl. Soc.[5] + tumida, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + antiquata, _Reeve_ (as of _Spengl._), C. Icon. + cygnea, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + Corbiculoides, _Deshayes_, Pr. Zl. S. 1854. + +Mesodesma + Layardi, _Deshayes_, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1854. + striata, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.[6] + +Cras-atella rostrata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + sulcata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + +Amphidesma + duplicatum, _Sowerby_. Species Conch. + +Pandora Ceylanica, _Sowerby_, Couch. Mis. + +Galeomma Layardi. _Desh._ Pr. Zl. S. 1856. + +Kellia peculiaris, _Adams_, Pr. Zl. S. 1856. + +Petricola cultellus, _Desh._ Pr. Zl. S. 1853. + +Sangumoiaria rosea, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + +Psammobia rostrata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + orcidens, _Gm._ Systems Naturæ. + Skinneri, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon.[7] + Layardi, _Desh_. P.Z. Soc. 1854. + +[Footnote 1: A. dichotomum, _Chenu._] + +[Footnote 2: Fistulana gregata, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 3: Blainvillea, _Hupé._] + +[Footnote 4: Latraria tellinoides, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 5: I have also seen M. hians of Philippi +in a Ceylon collection.] + +[Footnote 6: M. Taprobanensis, _Index Test. Suppl._] + +[Footnote 7: Psammotella Skinneri, _Reeve._] + + lunulata, _Desh_. P.Z. Soc. 1854. + amethystus, _Wood_, Gen. Conch.[1] + rugosa, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert.[2] +Tellina virgata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[3] + rugosa, _Born_, Test. Mus. Cæs. Vind. + ostracea, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + ala, _Hanley_, Thesaur. Conch. i. + inæqualis, _Hanley_, Thesaur. Conch. i. + Layardi, _Deshayes_, P.Z. Soc. 1854. + callosa, _Deshayes_, P.Z. Soc. 1854. + rubra, _Deshayes_, P.Z. Soc. 1854. + abbreviata, _Deshayes_, P.Z. Soc. 1854. + foliacea, _Linn._ Systema Naturæ. + lingua-felis, _Linn._ Systema Naturæ. + vulsella, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.[4] +Lucina interrupta, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert.[5] + Layardi, _Deshayes_, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1855. +Donax scortum, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + cuneata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + faba, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + spinosa, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. + paxillus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. +Cyrena Ceylanica, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + Tennentii, _Hanley_, P.Z. Soc. 1858. +Cytherea Erycina, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[6] + meretrix, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[7] + castanea, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + castrensis, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + casta, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. + costata, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + læta, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. + trimaculata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + Hebræa, _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, _Anton_. Wiegm. A. Nat. 1837.[8] +Venus reticulata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[9] + pinguis, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + recens, _Philippi_, Abbild. Neuer Conch. + thiara, _Dillw_. Descriptive Cat. Shells. + Malabarica, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + Bruguieri, _Hanley_, Recent Bivalves. + papilionacea, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + Indica, _Sowerby_, Thesaur. Conch. ii. + inflata, _Deshayes_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853.[10] + Ceylonensis, _Sowerby_, Thes. Conch. ii. + literata, _Linn._ Systema Naturæ. + textrix, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.[11] +Cardium unedo, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + maculosum, _Wood_, Gen. Con. + leucostomum, _Born_, Tt. M. Cæs. Vind. + rugosum, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + biradiatum, _Bruguiere_, En. Méth. Vers. + attenuatum, _Sowerby_, Conch. Illust. + enode, _Sowerby_, Conch. Illust. + papyraceum, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + ringiculum, _Sowerby_, Conch. Illust. + subrugosum, _Sowerby_, Conch. Illust. + latum, _Born_, Test. Mus. Cæs. Vind. + Asiaticum, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. +Cardita variegata, _Brug_. Enc. Méth. Vers. + bicolor, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Arca rhombea, _Born_, Test. Mus. + vellicata, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + cruciata, _Philippi_, Ab. Neur Conch. + decussata, _Reeve_ (as of Sowerby), C.I.[12] + scapha, _Meuschen_, in Gronov. Zoo. +Pectunculus nodosus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + pectiniformis, _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, _Müller_, Hist. Verm. Ter.[13] + marginalis, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Lithodomus + cinnamoneus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Mytilus viridis, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[14] + 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, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + vexillum, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon.[15] +Avicula macroptera, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. +Lima squamosa, _Linn._ Anim. s. Vert. +Pecten plica, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + radula, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + pleuronectes, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + pallium, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + senator, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. + histrionicus, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. + Indicus, _Deshayes_, Voyage Belanger. + Layardi, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. +Spondylus Layardi, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + candidus, _Reeve_ (as of _Lam._) C. Icon. +Ostrea hyotis, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + glaucina, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + Mytiloides, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + cucullata? var., _Born_, Test. M. Vind.[16] +Vulsella + Pholadiformis, _Reeve_, C. Icn. (immat.) +Placuna placenta, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Lingula anatina, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + +[Footnote 1: P. cærulesens, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 2: Sanguinolaria rugosa, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 3: T. striatula of Lamarck is also supposed to be indigenous +to Ceylon.] + +[Footnote 4: T. rostrata, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 5: L. divaricata is found, also, in mixed Ceylon collections.] + +[Footnote 6: C. dispar of Chemnitz is occasionally found in Ceylon +collections.] + +[Footnote 7: C. impudica. _Lam._] + +[Footnote 8: As Donax.] + +[Footnote 9: V. corbis, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 10: As Tapes.] + +[Footnote 11: V. textile, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 12:?Arca Helblingii, _Chemn._] + +[Footnote 13: Mr. Cuming informs me that he has forwarded no less than +six distinct _Uniones_ from Ceylon to Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, for +determination or description.] + +[Footnote 14: M. smaragdinus, _Chemn._] + +[Footnote 15: As Avicula.] + +[Footnote 16: The 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 +denticulated throughout. The muscular impressions are dusky brown.] + +Hyalæa tridentata, _For_. Anim. Orient.[1] +Chiton, 2 species (_Layard_). +Patella Reynaudii, _Deshayes_, Voy. Be. + testodinaria, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Emarginula fissurata, _Ch_. C. Cab.[2] _Lam._ +Calyptræa (Crucibulum) violascens, _Carpenter_, + Proc. Zool. Soc. 1856. +Dentalium + octogonum, _Lam_ Anim. s. Vert. + aprinum. _Linn_ Syst. Nat. +Bulla soluta, _Chemn_ Conch. Cab.[3] + vexillum, _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. Mauritiana, + if not it. +Vaginula maculata, _Templ._ An. Nat. +Lunax, 2 sp. +Parmacella Tennentii, _Templ._[4] +Vitrina irradians, _Pfeiffer_, Mon. Helic. + Edgariana, _Ben._ Ann. N.H. 1853 (xii.) + membranacea, _Ben._ A.N.H. 1853 (xii.) +Helix hæmastoma, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + vittata, _Müller_, Vermium Terrestrium. + bistrialis, _Beck_, in Pfeiff. Symb. Helic. + Tranquebarica, _Fabricius_, in _Pfeiff_. + Monog. Helic. + Juliana, _Gray_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834. + Waltoni, _Reeve_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1842. + Skinneri. _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. vii. + corylus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. vii. + umbrina (_Reeve_, as of _Pfeiff._.), C. Ic. vii. + fallaciosa. _Férussac_, Hist. Mollus. + Rivolii, _Deshayes_. Enc. Méth. Vers. ii. + Charpentieri, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + erronea, _Albers. Zeitschr_. Mal. 18S3. + 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, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + coriaria, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + Layardi, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + concavospira, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + novella, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + verrucula, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + hyphasma, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + Emiliana, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + Woodiana, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + partita, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + biciliata, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. + Isabellina, _Pfeiff_. Proc. Zool. Soc. + trifilosa, _Pfeiff_. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + politissima, _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. 18S4. + ceraria, _Benson_, An. Nat. H. 1853 (xii.) + vilipensa, _Benson_, An. N.H. 1853 (xii.) + perfucata, _Benson_, A.N.H. 1853 (xii.) + puteolus, _Benson_, An. N.H. 1853 (xii.) + mononema, _Benson_, A.N.H. 1853 (xii.) + marcida, _Benson_, An. N.H. 1853 (xii.) + galerus, _Benson_, A.N.H. 1856 (xviii.) + albizonata. _Dohrn_, Proc. Zoo. Soc. 1858. + Nictneri, _Dohrn_, MS.[5] + Grevillei, _Pfeiff_. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1856. +Streptaxis Layardi, _Pfeiff._ Mon. Helic. + Cingalensis, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Helic. +Pupa + muscerda, _Benson_, A.N.H. 1853 (xii.) + mimula, _Benson_, A.N.H. 1856 (xviii.) + Ceylanica, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Helic. +Bulimus + trifasciatus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + pullus, _Gray._ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834. + gracilis, _Hutton_, Journ. Asiat. Soc. iii. + punctatus, _Anton_, Verzeichn. Conch. + Ceylanicus, _Pfeiff_. (?Blævis, _iGray_, in + Index Testaceologicus.) + adumbratus, _Pfieff_. Monog. Helic. + intermedius, _Pfeiff_. 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, _Pfeiff_ Monog. Helic. + Ceylanica, _Pfeiff_ Monog. Helic. + Punctogaliana. _Pfeiff_ Monog. Helic. + pachycheila, _Benson_ + veruina, _Bens_, A. Nat. Hist. 1853 (xii.) + parabilis, _Bens_, A.N. Hist. 1856 (xviii.) +Succinea Ceylanica, _Pfeiff_ 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. 1856. +Cyclostoma (_Cyclophorus_) Ceylanicum, + _Sowerby_, Thes. Conch. + involvulum, _Müller_, Verm. Terrest. + Menkeanum, _Philippi_, Zeit. Mal. 1847. + punctatum, _Gratel_. A.L. Bordeaux (xi.) + loxostoma, _Pfeiff_. Monog. Pneumon. + +[Footnote 1: As Anomia.] + +[Footnote 2: The fissurata of Humphreys and Dacosta, pl. 4.--E. rubra, +_Lamarck_.] + +[Footnote 3: B. Ceylanica, _Brug_.] + +[Footnote 4: P. Tennentii. "Greyish brown, with longitudinal rows of +rufous spots, forming interrupted bands along the sides. A singularly +handsome species, having similar habits to _Limax_. Found in the valleys +of the Kalany Ganga, near Ruanwellé."--_Templeton_ MSS.] + +[Footnote 5: Not far from bistrialis and Ceylanica. The manuscript +species of Mr. Dohrn will shortly appear in his intended work upon the +land and fluviatile shells of Ceylon.] + +[Footnote 6: As Ellobium.] + +[Footnote 7: As Melampus.] + +[Footnote 8: As Ophicardelis.] + + alabastrum, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + Bairdii, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + Thwaitesii, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + annulatum, _Trosch._ in Pfeiff. M. Pneum. + parapsis, _Bens._ An. Nat. Hist. 1853 (xii.) + parma, _Bens._ An. Nat. His. 1856 (xviii.) + cratera, _Bens._ An. N. Hist. 1856 (xviii.) + (_Leptopoma_) halophilum, _Benson_, Ann. Nat. Hist. (ser. 2 vii.) 1851. + orophilum, _Bens._ A.N.H. (ser. 2. xi.) + apicatum, _Bens._ A.N.H. 1856 (xviii.) + conulus, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + flammeum, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + semiclausum, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + poecilum, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + elatum, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. +Cyclostoma (_Aulopoma_). + Iteri, _Guérin_, Rev. Zool. 1847. + helicinum, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + Hoffmeisteri, _Troschel_, Zeit. Mat. 1847. + grande, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + spheroideum, _Dohrn_, Malak. Blätter. + (?) gradatum, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. +Cyclostoma (_Pterocyclos_). + Cingalense, _Bens._ A.N.H. (ser. 2. xi.) + Troscheli, _Bens._ Ann. Nat. Hist. 1851. + Cumingii, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. + bifrons, _Pfeiff._ Monog. Pneumon. +Cataulus Templemani, _Pfeiff._ Mon. Pneu. + eurytrema, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852. + marginatus, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853. + duplicatus, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + aureus, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1855. + Layardi, _Gray_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852. + Austenianus _Bens._ A.N.H. 1853 (xii.) + Thwaitesii, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zo. Soc. 1852. + Cumingii, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1856. + decorus, _Bens._ Ann. Nat. Hist. 1853. + hæmastoma, _Pfeiff._ Proc. Zo. Soc. 1856. +Planorbis + Coromandelianus, _Fab._ in _Dorhn's_ MS. + Stelzeneri, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. + elegantulus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Z. Soc. 1858. +Limnæa + tigrina, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. + pinguis, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. +Melania + tuberculata, _Müller_, Verm. Ter.[1] + spinulosa, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + corrugata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + rudis, _Lea_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850. + acanthica, _Lea_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850. + Zeylanica, _Lea_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850. + confusa, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. + datura, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. + Layardi, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. +Paludomus + abbreviatus, _Reeve_, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1852. + clavatus, _Reeve_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852. + dilatatus, _Reeve_, 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. + phaslaninus, _Reeve_, Proc. Zo. Soc. 1852. + lævis, _Layard_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + palustris, _Layard_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + fulguratus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zo. Soc. 1857. + nasutus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857. + sphæricus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zo. Soc. 1857. + solidus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857. + distinguendus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Z.S. 1857. + Cumingianus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Z.S. 1857. + dromedarius, _Dohrn_, Proc. Z.S. 1857. + Skinneri, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857. + Swainsoni, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zo. Soc. 1857. + nodulosus, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zo. Soc. 1857. +Paludomus (_Tanalia_). + loricatus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + erinaceus, _Reeve_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852. + æreus, _Reeve_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852. + Layardi, _Reeve_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852. + undatus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + Gardneri, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + Tennentii, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + Reevei, _Layard_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + violaceus, _Layard_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + similis, _Layard_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + funiculatus, _Layard_, Pr. Z. Soc. 1854. +Paludomus (_Philopotamis_). + sulcatus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + regalis, _Layard_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + Thwaitesii, _Layard_, P. Zool. Soc. 1854. +Pirena atra, _Linn._ Systema Naturæ. +Paludina melanostoma, _Bens._ + Ceylanica, _Dohrn_, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857. +Bythinia stenothyroides, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857. + modesta, _Dohrn_, MS. + inconspicua, _Dohrn_, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857. +Ampullaria Layardi, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + moesta, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + cinerea, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + Woodwardi, _Dohrn_, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1858. + Tischbeini, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. + carinata, _Swainson_, Zool. Illus. ser. 2. + paludinoides, Cat. _Cristofori & Jan._[2] + Malabarica, _Philippi_, monog. Ampul.[2] + Luzonica, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon.[2] + Sumatrensis, _Philippi_, monog. Ampul.[2] +Navicella eximia, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + reticulata, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + Livesayi, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. + squamata, _Dohrn_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858. + depressa, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Neritina + crepidularia, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + melanostoma, _Trosch._ W.A. Nat. 1837. + triserialis, _Sowerby_, Conch. Illustr. + Colombaria, _Recluz_, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1845. + Perottetiana, _Recluz_, Rev. Z. Cuv. 1841. + Ceylanensis, _Recluz_, Mag. Conch. 1851. + Layardi, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + rostrata, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + reticulata, _Sowerby_, Conch. Illustr. +Nerita plicata, _Linn._ Systema Naturæ. + costata, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + plexa, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.[3] +Natica aurantia, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + mammilla, _Linn._ Systema Naturæ. + picta, _Reeve_, (as of _Recluz_), C. Icon. + arachnoidea, _Gm._ Systema Naturæ. + lineata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + +[Footnote 1: M. fasciolata, _Olivier_.] + +[Footnote 2: These four species are included on the authority of Mr. +Dohrn.] + +[Footnote 3: N. exuvia, _Lam._ not _Linn._] + + adusta, _Ch_. C. C. f. 1926-7, & _Karsten_.[1] + pellis-tigrina, _Karsten_, Mus. Lesk.[2] + didyma, _Bolten_, Mus.[3] +Ianthina prolongata, _Blainv_., D.S.N. xxiv. + communis, _Kr_., (as of _L._ in part) S.A.M. +Sigaretus, sp.[4] +Stomatella + calliostoma, _Adams_, Thesaur. Conch. +Haliotis varia, _Linn._ Systema Naturæ. + striata, _Martini_ (as of _Linn._), C. Cab. i. + semistriata, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. +Tornatella solidula, _Linn._ Systema Nat. +Pyramidella + maculosa, _Lam._, Anim. s. Vert. +Eulima Martini, _Adams_, Thes. Conch, ii. +Siliquaria + muricata, _Born_, Test. Mus. Cæs. Vind. +Scalaria raricostata, _Lam._, Anim. s. Vert. +Delphinula laciniata, _Lam._, Anim. s. Vert. + distorta, _Linn._, Syst. Nat.[5] +Solarium perdix, _Hinds_., Proc. Zool. Soc. + Layardi, _Adams_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.[6] +Rotella vestiaria, _Linn._, Syst. Nat. +Phorus pallidulus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. i. +Trochus + elegantulus, _Gray_, Index Tes. Suppl. + Niloticus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Monodonta labio, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + canaliculata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Turbo versicolor, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. + princeps, _Philippi_.[7] +Planaxis undulatus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert.[8] +Littorina angulifera, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + melanostoma, _Gray_, Zool., _Beech_. Voy.[9] +Chemnitzia + trilineata, _Adams_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853. + lirata, _Adams_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853. +Phasianella + lineolata, _Gray_, Index Test. Suppl. +Turritella + bacillum, _Kiener_, Coquilles Vivantes. + columnaris, _Kiener_, Coquilies Vivantes. + duplicata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + attenuata, _Reeve_, Syst. Nat. +Cerithium fluviatile, _Potrez & Michaud_, Galerie Douai. +Layardi (Cerithidea), _Adams_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. + palustre, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + aluco, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + asperula, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + telescopium, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + palustre obeliscus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + fasciatum, _Brug_., Encycl. Méth. Vers. + rubus, _Sower_. (as of _Mart_.), 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, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. (the Chank.) + cornigera, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + spirillus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Cancellaria + trigonostoma, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert.[10] + scalata, _Sowerby_, Thesaur. Conch. + articularis, _Sowerby_, Thesaur. Conch. + Littoriniformis, _Sowerby_, Thes. Conch. + contabulata, _Sowerby_, Thes. Conch. +Fasciolaria + filamentosa, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + trapezium, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Fusus longissimus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + colus, _Linn._ Mus. Lud. Ulricæ. + toreuma, _Deshayes_, (as Mur. t. _Martyn_).[11] + laticostatus, _Deshayes_, Mag. Zool. 1831. + Blosvillei, _Deshayes_, E. Méth. Vers., ii. +Pyrula rapa, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[12] + citrina, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + pugilina, _Born_, Test. Mus. Vind.[13] + ficus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + ficoides, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Ranella crumena, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + spinosa, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + rana, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[14] + margaritula, _Deshayes_, Voy. Belanger. +Murex baustellum, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + adustus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + microphyllus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + anguliferus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + palmarosæ, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + ternispina, _Kiener_, (as of _Lam._), Coquilles Vivantes. + tenuispina, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + ferrugo, _Mawe_, Index. Test. Suppl.[15] + Reeveanus, _Shuttleworth_, (teste _Cuming_) +Triton anus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[16] + mulus, _Dillwyn_, Descript. Cat. Shells. + retusus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + pyrum, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + clavator, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + Ceylonensis, _Sowerby_, Proc. Zool. Soc. + lotorium, _Lam._ (not _Linn_.), An. s. Vert. + lampas, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Pterocera lambis, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + millepeda, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Strombus canarium, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[17] + succinotus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + fasciatus, _Born_, Test. Mus. Cæs. Vind. + +[Footnote 1: Conch. Cab. f. 1926-7, and N. melanostoma, _Lam._ in part.] + +[Footnote 2: Chemn. Conch. Cab. 1892-3.] + +[Footnote 3: N. glauciua, _Lam._ not _Linn._] + +[Footnote 4: A species (possibly Javanicus) is known to have been +collected. I have not seen it.] + +[Footnote 5: Not of _Lamarck_. D. atrata. _Reeve_.] + +[Footnote 6: Philippia L.] + +[Footnote 7: Zeit. Mal. 1846 for T. argyrostoma, _Lam._ not _Linn._] + +[Footnote 8: Buccinum pyramidatum, _Gm_. in part: B. sulcatum, var. C. +of _Brug_.] + +[Footnote 9: Teste Cuming.] + +[Footnote 10: As Delphinulat.] + +[Footnote 11: Ed. _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert.] + +[Footnote 12: P. papyracea, _Lam._ In mixed collections I have seen the +Chinese P. bezoar of _Lamarck_ as from Ceylon.] + +[Footnote 13: P. vespertilio, _Gm_.] + +[Footnote 14: R. albivaricosa, _Reeve_.] + +[Footnote 15: M. anguliferus var. _Lam._] + +[Footnote 16: T. cynocephalus of _Lamarck_ is also met with in Ceylon +collections.] + +[Footnote 17: S. incisus of the Index Testaceologicus (urceus, var. +_Sow_. Thesaur.) is found in mixed Ceylon collections.] + + Sibbaldii, _Sowerby_, Thesaur. Conch. t. + lentiginosus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + marginatus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + Lamarckii, _Sowerby_, Thesaur. Conch. +Cassis glauca, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[1] + canaliculata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + Zeylanica, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + areola, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Ricinula albolabris, _Blainv_. Nouv. Ann. Mus. H. N. i.[2] + horrida, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + morus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Purpura tiscella, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + Persica, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + hystrix, _Lam._ (not _Linn._) An. s. Vert. + granatina, _Deshayes_, Voy. Belanger. + mancinella, _Lam._ (as of _Linn._) An. s.V. + buto, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + carinitera, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Harpa conoldalis, _Lam._ Anim, s. Vert. + minor, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Dolium pomum, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + olearium, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + perdix, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + maculatum, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Nassa ornata, _Kiener_, Coq. Vivantes. [3] + verrucosa, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + crenulata, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + olivacea, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. 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. + erythrostoma, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + Proteus, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + rubiginosum, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. +Eburna spirata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[4] + canaliculata, _Schumacher_, S.A. s. V.[5] + Ceylanica, _Bruguiere_, En. Méth. Vers. +Bullia vittata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + lineolata, _Sowerby_, Tankerv. Cat.[6] + Melanoides, _Deshayes_, Voy. Belan. +Terebra chlorata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + muscaria, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + lævigata, _Gray_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834. + maculata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + subulata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + concinna, _Deshayes_, ed. _Lam._ A. s. V. + myurus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + tigrina, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. + cerithina, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. +Columbella flavida, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + fulgurans, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + mendicaria, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + scripta, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. (Teste _Jay_). +Mitra + episcopalis, _Dillwyn_, Des. Cat. Shells. + cardinalis, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + crebrilirata, _Reeve_, Conch. Icon. + punctostriata, _Adams_, Proc. Zool. So. 1854. + insculpta, _Adams_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. +Layardi, _Adams_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854.[7] +Voluta vexillum, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + Lapponica, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. +Melo Indicus, _Gm_. Syst. Nat. +Marginella Sarda, _Kiener_, Coq. Vivantes. +Ovulum ovum, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + verrucosum, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + pudicum, _Adams_, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854. +Cypræa Argus, _Linn._ 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, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + errones, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + cribraria, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + globulus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + clandestina, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + ocellata, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + caurica, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + tabescens, _Soland_. in Dillwyn Des. C. Sh. + gangrenosa, _Soland_. 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. + gibbesa, _Born_, Test. Mus. Cæs.[8] + nebulosa, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + Macleayana, _Duclos_, Monogr. of Oliva. + episcopalis, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + elegans, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + ispidula, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. (partly).[9] + Zeilanica, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + undata, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + irisans, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. (teste _Duclos_). +Conus miles, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + generalis, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + betulinus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + stercus-muscarum, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + Hebræus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + virgo, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + geographicus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + aulicus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + figutinus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + striatus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + senator, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[10] + literatus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + +[Footnote 1: C. plicaria of _Lamarck_, and C. coronulata of _Sowerby_, +are also said to be found in Ceylon.] + +[Footnote 2: As Purpura.] + +[Footnote 3: N. suturalis, _Reeve_ (as of _Lam._), is met with in mixed +Ceylon collections.] + +[Footnote 4: E. areolata, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 5: E. spirata, _Lam._ not _Linn._] + +[Footnote 6: B. Belangeri, _Kiener_.] + +[Footnote 7: As Turricula L.] + +[Footnote 8: O. utriculus, _Dillwyn_.] + +[Footnote 9: C. planorbis, _Born_; C. vulpinus, _Lam._] + +[Footnote 10: Conus ermineus, _Born_, in part.] + + imperialis, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + textile, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + terebra, _Born_, Test. Must. Cæs. Vind. + tessellatus, _Born,_ Test. Mus. Cæs. Vind. + augur, _Bruguiere_, Encycl. Méth. Vers. + obesus, _Bruguiere_, Encycl. Méth. Vers. + araneosus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + gubernator, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + monite, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + nimbosus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + eburneus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + vitulinus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + quercinus _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + lividus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + Omaria, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + Maldivus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + nocturnus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + Ceylonensis, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + arenatus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + Nicobaricus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + glans, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + Amadis, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + punctatus, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + minimus, _Reeve_. (as of _Linn_), C. Icon. + terminus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert. + lineatus, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab. + episcopus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + verriculum, _Reeve_. Conch. Cab. + zonatus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + rattus. _Brug_. En. Mth. V. (teste _Chemn._) + pertusus, _Brug_. Encycl. Méth. Vers. + Nussatella, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + lithoglyphus, _Brug_. En. Méth. Vers.[4] + tulipa, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. + Ammiralis, var. _Linn._ teste _Brug_. +Spirula Peronii, _Lam._ 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 Linnæus 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[1] examined by him. Hence the notice of this +extensive class of animals must be limited to indicating a few of those +which exhibit striking peculiarities, or which admit of the most common +observation. + +[Footnote 1: Actinia, 9 sp.; Anthea, 4 sp.; Actinodendron, 3 sp.; +Dioscosoma, 1 sp.; Peechea, 1 sp.; Zoanthura, 1 sp.] + +_Star Fish_.--Very large species of _Ophiuridæ_ are to be met with at +Trincomalie, crawling busily about, and insinuating their long +serpentine arms into the irregularities 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 unmutilated 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[1], are by no means rare; many +kinds are brought up in the nets, or maybe extracted from the stomachs +of the larger market fish. One very large species[2], 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 remarkable aspect. No description of it, so far as I am +aware, has appeared in any systematic work on zoology. + +[Footnote 1: _Asterias_, Linn.] + +[Footnote 2: _Pentaceros?_] + +_Sea Slugs_.--There are a few species of _Holothuria_, of which the +trepang is the best known example. It is largely collected in the Gulf +of Manaar, and dried in the sun to prepare it for export to China. A +good description and figures of its varieties are still desiderata. + +_Parasitic Worms_.--Of these entozoa, the _Filaria medinensis_, or +Guinea-worm, which burrows in the 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 particular 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 considerable 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.[1] But Linschoten, the Dutch +navigator, had previously observed 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. + +[Footnote 1: In DE BRY'S, _Collect_, vol. i. p. 49.] + +"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 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." [1] + +[Footnote 1: JOHN HUIGHEN VAN LINSCHOTEN _his Discours of Voyages into +the Easte and West Indies._ London, 1599, p, 16.] + +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: OWEN'S _Lectures on the Invertebrata_, p. 96.] + +_Planaria_.--In the journal already mentioned, Dr. Kelaart 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_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "A curious species, which is of a light brown above, white +underneath; very broad and thin, and has a peculiarly shaped tail, +half-moon-shaped in fact, like a grocer's cheese knife."] + +_Acalephæ_.--Acalephæ[1] are plentiful, so much so, indeed, that they +occasionally tempt the larger cetacea into the Gulf of Manaar. In the +calmer months of the year, when the sea is glassy, and for hours +together undisturbed by a ripple, the minute descriptions are rendered +perceptible by their beautiful prismatic tinting. 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 tentaculæ; 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, attain to considerable +size. A faintly blue medusa, nearly a foot across, may be seen in the +Gulf of Manaar, where, no doubt, others of still larger growth are to be +found. + +[Footnote 1: Jelly-fish.] + +[Illustration: PHYSALUS URTICULUS.] + +Occasionally after storms, the beach at Colombo is strewn with the thin +transparent globes of the "Portuguese Man of War," _Physalus 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 incautiously touched. + +_Red 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The late Dr. BUIST, of Bombay, in commenting on this +statement, writes to the _Athenæum_ that: "The red colour with which the +sea is tinged, round the shores of Ceylon, during a part of the S.W. +monsoon is due to the _Proto-coccus nivalis_, or the Himatta-coccus, +which presents different colours at different periods of the +year--giving us the seas of milk as well as those of blood. The coloured +water at times is to be seen all along the coast north to Kurrachee, and +far out, and of a much more intense tint in the Arabian Sea. The +frequency of its appearance in the Red Sea has conferred on it its +name."] + +The remaining orders, including the corals, madrepores, 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. + +TRITONIA ARBORESCENS. + + +The following is the letter of Dr. Grant, referred to at page 385:-- + +Sir,--I have perused, with much interest, your remarkable communication +received yesterday, respecting the musical sounds 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, with anything with which my past experience has made me +acquainted in marine zoology. Excepting the faint clink of the _Tritonia +arborescens_, repeated only once every minute or two, and apparently +produced by the mouth armed with two dense horny laminæ, 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 living specimens brought you by the sailors as the +animals which produced the sounds. Your authentication of the hitherto +unknown fact, would probably lead to the discovery of the same +phenomenon in other common accessible paludinæ, and other allied +branchiated animals, and to the solution of a problem, which is still to +me a mystery, even regarding the _tritonia_. + +My two living _tritonia_, contained in a large clear colourless glass +cylinder, filled with pure sea water, and placed on the central table of +the Wernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh, around which many +members were sitting, continued to clink audibly within the distance of +twelve feet during the whole meeting. These small animals were +individually not half the size of the last joint of my little finger. +What effect the mellow sounds of millions of these, covering the shallow +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 fallacy 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 calculated to excite useful +inquiry into a neglected and curious part of the economy of nature. + +I remain, Sir, + +Yours most respectfully, + +ROBERT E. GRANT. + +_Sir J. Emerson Tennent, &c. &c._ + + + + +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 sonorous 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, with 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 extraordinary sight presents itself of +flights of these delicate creatures, generally of a white or pale yellow +hue, apparently miles in breadth, and of such prodigious extension as to +occupy hours, and even days, uninterruptedly in their passage--whence +coming no one knows; whither going no one can tell.[1] 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. + +[Footnote 1: The butterflies I have seen in these wonderful migrations +in Ceylon were mostly _Callidryas Hilariæ, C. Alcmeone_, and _C. +Pyranthe_, with straggling individuals of the genus _Euplæa, E. Coras_, +and _E. Prothoe_. Their passage took place in April and May, generally +in a north-easterly direction. The natives have a superstitious belief +that their flight is ultimately directed to Adam's Peak, and that their +pilgrimage ends on reaching the sacred mountain. A friend of mine +travelling from Kandy to Kornegalle, drove for nine miles through a +cloud of white butterflies, which were passing across the road by which +he went.] + +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 undigested, and the time +has not yet arrived for the preparation of an Entomology of the island. + +What 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 coloured 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."[1] M. Nietner, a German +entomologist, who has spent some years in Ceylon, has recently +published, in one of the local periodicals, a series of papers on the +Coleoptera of the island, in which every species introduced is stated to +be previously undescribed.[2] + +[Footnote 1: _Nat. Journal_, p. 39.] + +[Footnote 2: Republished in the _Ann. Nat. Hist._] + +COLEOPTERA.--_Buprestidæ; Golden Beetles_.--In the morning the +herbaceous plants, especially on the eastern side of the island, are +studded with these gorgeous beetles, whose golden wing-cases[1] are used +to enrich the embroidery of the Indian zenana, whilst the lustrous +joints of the legs are strung on silken threads, and form necklaces and +bracelets of singular brilliancy. + +[Footnote 1: _Sternocera Chrysis; S. sternicornis_.] + +These exquisite colours are not confined to one order, and some of the +Elateridæ[1] and Lamellicorns exhibit hues of green and blue, that rival +the deepest tints of the emerald and sapphire. + +[Footnote 1: Of the family of _Elateridæ_, one of the finest is a +Singhalese species, the _Campsosternus Templetonii_, of an exquisite +golden green colour, with blue reflections (described and figured by Mr. +WESTWOOD in his _Cabinet of Oriental Entomology_, pl. 35, f. 1). In the +same work is figured another species of large size, also from Ceylon, +this is the _Alaus sordidus_.--WESTWOOD, l. c. pl. 35, f. 9.] + +_Scavenger Beetles_.--Scavenger beetles[1] are to be seen wherever the +presence of putrescent and offensive matter affords opportunity for the +display of their repulsive 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 deposited their eggs in the centre. I had +frequent opportunities, 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 suitable for their purpose; 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 acquainted, but which is obviously indispensable for the due +performance of the useful functions they discharge. + +[Footnote 1: _Ateuchus sacer; Copris sagax; C. capucinus_, &c. &c.] + +[Illustration: LONGHORN BEETLE (BATEROCERA RUBUS).] + +_The Coco-nut Beetle_.--In the luxuriant forests of Ceylon the extensive +family of _Longicorns_[1] and _Passalidæ_ live in destructive abundance. +To the coco-nut planters the ravages committed by beetles are painfully +familiar.[2] The larva of one species of _Dynastida_, the _Oryctes +rhinoceros_, called by the Singhalese "_Gascooroominiya_," 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 larvæ of these beetles, they are +esteemed a luxury by the Malabar coolies, who so far avail themselves of +the privilege accorded by the Levitical law, which permitted the Hebrews +to eat "the beetle after his kind."[3] + +[Footnote 1: The engraving on the preceding page represents in its +various transformations one of the most familiar and graceful of the +longicorn beetles of Ceylon, the _Batocera rubus_.] + +[Footnote 2: There is a paper in the _Journ. of the Asiat. Society of +Ceylon_, May, 1845, by Mr. CAPPER, on the ravages perpetrated by these +beetles. The writer had recently passed through several coco-nut +plantations, "varying in extent from 20 to 150 acres, and about two to +three years old: and in these he did not discover a single young tree +untouched by the cooroominiya."--P. 49.] + +[Footnote 3: Leviticus, xi. 22.] + +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 observed 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_) a demon 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 +_Cassididæ_ 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" (_Mantidæ_) and "walking +leaves." The latter[1], 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 the full-blown leaf, and the withered tint of decay. So +perfect is the imitation of a leaf in structure and articulation, that +this amazing insect when at rest is almost undistinguishable from the +foliage around: not only are the wings modelled to resemble ribbed and +fibrous follicles, but every joint of the legs is expanded into a broad +plait like a half-opened leaflet. + +[Footnote 1: Phyllium siccifolium.] + +[Illustration: STICK INSECT AND MANTIS] + +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 organisation 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. + +[Illustration] + +The "soothsayer," on the other hand (_Mantis superstitiosa._ Fab.[1]), +little justifies by its propensities the appearance of gentleness, and +the attitudes of sanctity, which have obtained for it the title of the +"praying 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. + +[Footnote 1: _M. aridifolia_ and _M. extensicollis_, as well as _Empusa +gongylodes_, remarkable for the long leaf-like head, and dilatations on +the posterior thighs, are common in the island.] + +_The Stick-insect_.--The _Phasmidæ_ 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 hence the name which they +have acquired of "_walking-sticks_." Like the _Phyllium_, the _Phasma_ +lives exclusively on vegetables, and some attain the length of several +inches. + +Of all the other tribes of the _Orthoptera_ Ceylon possesses 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, with rich +brown-coloured spots upon its gauzy wings, is to be seen near every +pool.[1] Another[2], 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Libellula pulchella_.] + +[Footnote 2: _Euphæa splendens_.] + +_The Ant-Lion._--Of the ant-lion, whose larvæ have earned a bad renown +from their predaceous ingenuity, Ceylon has, at least, four species, +which seem peculiar to the island.[1] 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Palpares contrarius_, Walker; _Myrmeleon gravis_, Walker; +_M. dirus_, Walker; _M. barbarus_, Walker.] + +_The White Ant_.--But of the insects of this order the most noted are +the _white ants_ or termites (which are ants only by a misnomer). They +are, unfortunately, at once ubiquitous and innumerable in every spot +where 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[1] +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."[2] These structures the termites erect with such perseverance +and durability that they frequently rise to the height of ten or twelve +feet from 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.[3] In their earlier stages 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. + +[Footnote 1: 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 uniformly 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 impervious 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[A] resembling the _Aphrophora +spumaria_; seven or eight individuals of which distil several pints of +water every night.--P. 414. It is highly probable that the termites 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 +should decompose water in order to provide itself with gas. FOURCROIX +found 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.] + +[Footnote A: _A. goudotti?_ Bennett.] + +[Footnote 2: KNOX'S _Ceylon_, Part i, ch. vi, p.24.] + +[Footnote 3: Dr. HOOKER, in his _Himalayan Journal_ (vol. i. p. 20) is +of opinion that the nests of the termites are not independent +structures, but that their nucleus is "the debris of clumps of bamboos +or the trunks of large trees which these insects have destroyed." He +supposes that the dead tree falls leaving the stump coated with sand, +_which the action of the weather soon fashions into a cone_. But +independently of the fact that the "action of the weather" produces +little or no effect on the closely cemented clay of the white ants' +nest, they may be daily seen constructing their edifices in the very +form of a cone, which they ever after retain. Besides which, they appear +in the midst of terraces and fields where no trees are to be seen: and +Dr. Hooker seems to overlook the fact that the termites rarely attack a +living tree; and although their nests may be built against one, it +continues to flourish not the less for their presence.] + +As these lofty mounds of earth have all been carried up from beneath the +surface, a cave of corresponding 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 surrounding it on all sides; and +all are connected by arched galleries, long passages, and doorways of +the most intricate 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 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 larvæ, 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 ironwood, which are too hard, and +those which are strongly impregnated 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 presence 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 marching column of these creatures may be observed at early +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 throughout +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 +quivering motion of the whole body, which is rapidly communicated 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 scoriæ; the insects themselves are of a pitchy +brown.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For these particulars of the _termes monoceros_, I am +indebted to Mr. Thwaites, of the Roy. Botanic Garden at Kandy.] + +HYMENOPTERA. _Mason Wasp_.--In Ceylon as in all other countries, the +order of hymenopterous insects arrests us less by the beauty of their +forms than the marvels of their sagacity and the achievements of their +instinct. A fossorial wasp of the family of _Sphegidæ_,[1] which is +distinguished by its metallic lustre, enters by the open windows, and +converts irritation at its movements 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 transformations, gnaws its way +into light, to emerge as a four-winged fly.[2] + +[Footnote 1: It belongs to the genus _Pelopæus, P. Spinolæ_, of St. +Fargean. The _Ampulex compressa_, which drags about the larvæ of +cockroaches into which it has implanted its eggs, belongs, to the same +family.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. E.L. Layard has given an interesting account of this +Mason wasp in the _Annals and Magazine 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; sometimes only half a cell was completed 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 disabled by the wasp, and yet not injured so as +to cause their immediate 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 instances, the outward end of each is +always selected. I cannot detect any difference in the thickness in the +crust of the cell 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 enclosed fly always +select the right end, and with what secretion is it supplied to +decompose this mortar?"] + +A formidable species (_Sphex ferruginea_ of St. Fargeau), 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 +themselves in the vicinity[1] of its nests. These are of such ample +dimensions, that when suspended from a branch, they often measure +upwards of six feet in length.[2] + +[Footnote 1: It ought to be remembered in travelling in the forests of +Ceylon that sal volatile applied immediately is a specific for the sting +of a wasp.] + +[Footnote 2: At the January (1839) meeting of the Entomological Society, +Mr. Whitehouse exhibited portions of a wasps' nest from Ceylon, between +seven and eight feet long and two feet in diameter, and showed that the +construction of the cells was perfectly analogous to those of the hive +bee, and that when connected each has a tendency to assume a circular +outline. In one specimen where there were three cells united the outer +part was circular, whilst the portions common to the three formed +straight walls. From this Singhalese nest Mr. Whitehouse demonstrated +that the wasps at the commencement of their comb proceed slowly, forming +the bases of several together, whereby they assume the hexagonal shape, +whereas, if constructed separately, he thought each single cell would be +circular. See _Proc. Ent. Soc._, vol. iii. p. 16.] + +_Bees._--Bees of several species and genera, some unprovided with +stings, and some in size scarcely exceeding 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 uncivilised +Veddahs, who collect the wax in the upland forests, to be bartered for +arrow points and clothes in the lowlands.[1] 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. + +[Footnote 1: A gentleman connected with the department of the +Surveyor-General writes to me that he measured a honey-comb which he +found fastened to the overhanging branch of a small tree in the forest +near Adam's Peak, and found it nine links of his chain or about six feet +in length and a foot in breadth where it was attached to the branch, but +tapering towards the other extremity. "It was a single comb with a layer +of cells on either side, but so weighty that the branch broke by the +strain."] + +_The Carpenter Bee._--The operations of one of the most interesting of +the tribe, the Carpenter bee[1], I have watched with admiration from the +window of the Colonial 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 +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 particles 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[2] of +these bees are admirably formed for the purpose of working 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Xylocopa tenuiscapa_, Westw.; Another species found in +Ceylon is the _X. latipes_, Drury.] + +[Footnote 2: See figure above.] + +[Illustration: THE CARPENTER BEE] + +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 described as being from +twelve to fourteen inches in length. + +_Ants_.--As to ants, I apprehend that, notwithstanding their numbers and +familiarity, information is very imperfect relative to the varieties and +habits of these marvellous insects in Ceylon.[1] In point of multitude +it is scarcely an exaggeration to apply to them the figure of "the sands +of the sea." They are everywhere; 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 coccidæ.[2] +Such is the passion of the ants for sugar, and their wonderful faculty +of discovering it, that the smallest particle of a substance 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 +desirable 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 inconceiveable 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. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Jerdan, in a series of papers in the thirteenth volume +of the _Annals of Natural History_, has described forty-seven species of +ants in Southern India. But M. Nietner has recently forwarded to the +Berlin Museum upwards of seventy species taken by him in Ceylon, chiefly +in the western province and the vicinity of Colombo. Of these many are +identical with those noted by Mr. Jerdan as belonging to the Indian +continent. One (probably _Drepanognathus saltator_ of Jerdan) is +described by M. Nietner as occasionally "moving by jumps of several +inches at a spring."] + +[Footnote 2: Dr. DAVY, in a paper on Tropical Plants, has introduced the +following passage relative to the purification of sugar by ants: + +"If the juice of the sugar-cane--the common syrup as expressed by the +mill--be exposed to the air, it gradually evaporates, yielding a +light-brown residue, like the ordinary muscovado sugar of the best +quality. If not protected, it is presently attacked by ants, and in a +short time is, as it were, converted into white crystalline sugar, the +ants having refined it by removing the darker portion, probably +preferring that part from it containing azotized matter. The negroes, I +may remark, prefer brown sugar to white: they say its sweetening power +is greater; no doubt its nourishing quality is greater, and therefore as +an article of diet deserving of preference. In refining sugar as in +refining salt (coarse bay salt containing a little iodine), an error may +be committed in abstracting matter designed by nature for a useful +purpose."] + +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 cockroach, +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, _Cæcilia, glutinosa_[1], a reptile resembling an enormous +earthworm, common in the Kandyan hills, of an inch in diameter, and +nearly two feet in length. On these occasions it would seem as if the +whole community had been summoned 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 towards 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 completely exhausted, and in the morning it had totally +disappeared, having been carried away either whole or piecemeal by its +assailants. + +[Footnote 1: See _ante_, p. 317.] + +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 distinct, 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 koombiga_ by the natives. In the houses its propensities and +habits are the same as those of the others; but I have observed that it +frequents 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.[1] 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 operation of forming these dwellings;--a +line of ants standing on the edge of one leaf bring another into contact +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 +immediate 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Formica smaragdina,_ Fab.] + +Like all their race, these ants are in perpetual motion, forming lines +on the ground along which they 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, instead 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 occasioning the intense pain +of their bite, as compared with that of the ordinary ant. + +To check the ravages of the coffee bug[1] (_Lecanium coffeæ_, Walker), +which for some years past has devastated 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 attended with +some inconvenience, for the Malabar Coolies, with bare and oiled skins, +were so frequently and fiercely assaulted by the ants as to endanger +their stay on the estates. + +[Footnote 1: For an account of this pest, see p. 437.] + +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 especially 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 Singhalese _Kaddiya_. They 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 own venom in +admiration of the singular courage displayed by these little +creatures.[1] + +[Footnote 1: KNOX'S _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, pt. i. ch. vi. p. +23.] + +LEPIDOPTERA. _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 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 (_Ornithoptera darsius_, Gray); 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 Polymnestor_, 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 larvæ 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 is the _P. Hector_, +with gorgeous crimson spots set in the black velvet of the inferior +wings; these, when fresh, are shot with a purple blush, equalling in +splendour the azure of the European "_Emperor._" + +_The Spectre Butterfly._--Another butterfly, but belonging to a widely +different group, is the "sylph" (_Hestia Jasonia_), called by the +Europeans by the various names of _Floater, Spectre_, and _Silver-paper +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 cascades, 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 _Lycanidæ_[1], 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[2] are magnificent 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Lycæna polyommatus, &c._] + +[Footnote 2: _Amblypodia pseudocentaurus, &c._] + +Short as is the eastern twilight, it has its own peculiar forms, and the +naturalist marks with interest the small, but strong, _Hesperidæ_[1], +hurrying, by abrupt and jerking flights, to the scented blossoms of the +champac or the sweet night-blowing moon-flower; and, when darkness +gathers around, we can hear, though hardly distinguish amid the gloom, +the humming of the powerful wings of innumerable hawk moths, which hover +with their long proboscides inserted into the starry petals of the +periwinkle. + +[Footnote 1: _Pamphila hesperia, &c._] + +Conspicuous amidst these nocturnal moths is the richly-coloured +_Acherontia Satanas_, one of the Singhalese 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;--Reaumur believed it to be caused by the +rubbing of the palpi against the tongue. I have never been able to +observe either motion, 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: There is another variety of the same moth in Ceylon which +closely resembles it in its markings, but in which I have never detected +the uttering of this curious cry. It is smaller than the _A. Satanas_, +and, like it, often enters dwellings at night, attracted by the lights; +but I have not found its larvæ, although that of the other species is +common on several widely different plants.] + +_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 common 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[1], which feeds on the country almond (_Terminalia +catappa_) and the palma Christi or Castor-oil plant; it is easily +distinguishable from the Atlas, which has a triangular wing, whilst its +is falcated, and the transparent spots are covered with a curious +thread-like division drawn across them. + +[Footnote 1: _Antheræa mylitta,_ Drury.] + +Towards the northern portions of the island this valuable species +entirely displaces the other, owing to the fact that the almond and +_palma 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. + +[Footnote 1: The Portuguese had made the attempt previous to the arrival +of the Dutch, and a strip of land on the banks of the Kalany river near +Colombo, still bears the name of Orta Seda, the silk garden. The attempt +of the Dutch to introduce the true silkworm, the _Bombyx mori_, took +place under the governorship; of Ryklof Van Goens, who, on handing over +the administration to his successor in A.D. 1663, thus apprises him of +the initiation of the experiment:--"At Jaffna Palace a trial has been +undertaken to feed silkworms, and to ascertain whether silk may be +reared at that station. I have planted a quantity of mulberry trees, +which grow well there, and they ought to be planted in other +directions."--VALENTYN, chap. xiii. The growth of the mulberry trees is +noticed the year after in a report to the governor-general of India, but +the subject afterwards ceased to be attended to.] + +In addition to the Atlas moth and the Mylitta, there are many other +_Bombycidæ_; in Ceylon; and, though the silk of some of them, were it +susceptible of being unwound from the cocoon, would not bear a +comparison with that of the _Bombyx mori_, 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 larvæ of these +Lepidoptera, and make drawings of their various changes, they would +render a possible service to commerce, and a certain one to +entomological 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 delicate yellow flowers impart a delicious coolness, and give +to the streets of Galle and Colombo the fresh and enlivening aspect of +walks in a garden. + +In the towns, however, the suriya trees are productive of one serious +inconvenience. They are the resort of a hairy greenish caterpillar[1], +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 unprotected skin, +they inflict, if molested, a sting as pungent, but far more lasting, +than that of a nettle or a star-fish. + +[Footnote 1: The species of moth with which it is identified has not yet +been determined, but it most probably belongs to a section of +Boisduval's genus _Bombyx_ allied to _Cnethocampa_, Stephens.] + +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 necessary 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Another caterpillar which feeds on the jasmine flowering +Carissa, stings with such fury that I have known a gentleman to shed +tears while the pain was at its height. It is short and broad, of a pale +green, with fleshy spines on the upper surface, each of which seems to +be charged with the venom that occasions this acute suffering. The moth +which this caterpillar produces, _Neæra lepida_, Cramer; _Limacodes +graciosa_, Westw., has dark brown wings, the primary traversed by a +broad green band. It is common in the western side of Ceylon. The larvæ +of the genus _Adolia_ are also hairy, and sting with virulence.] + +_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_[1], of which the females are devoid of wings, and some +possess no articulated feet. Their larvæ construct for themselves cases, +which they suspend to a branch frequently of the pomegranate[2], +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 African species has obtained the name of +"Lictor." The German entomologists denominated the group _Sackträger_, +the Singhalese call them _Dara-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. + +[Footnote 1: _Eumeta_, Wlk.] + +[Footnote 2: The singular instincts of a species of Thecla, _Dipsas +Isocrates_, Fab., in connection with the fruit of the pomegranate, were +fully described by Mr. Westwood, in a paper read before the +Entomological Society of London in 1835.] + +[Illustration: THE WOOD-CARRYING MOTH.] + +The male, at the close of the pupal rest, escapes from one end of this +singular covering, but the female makes it her dwelling 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 remarkable creatures there are five ascertained species in Ceylon: +_Psyche Doubledaii_, Westw.; _Metisa plana_; Walker; _Eumeta Cramerii_, +Westw.; _E. Templetonii_, Westw.; and _Cryptothelea consorta_, Temp. + +All the other tribes of minute _Lepitoptera_ have abundant +representatives in Ceylon; some of them most attractive from the great +beauty of their markings and colouring. The curious little split-winged +moth (_Pterophorus_) 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 sections, +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." + +[Illustration: CICADA--"THE KNIFE GRINDER."] + +In the jungle which adjoined the grounds attached to my official +residence at Kandy, the shrubs were frequented by an insect covered +profusely with a snow-white powder, arranged in delicate filaments that +curl like a head of dressed celery. These it moves without dispersing +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 +larvæ of the _Flata limbata_, or of some other closely allied +species[1], though I have not seen in Ceylon any of the wax produced by +the _flata_. + +[Footnote 1: Amongst the specimens of this order which I brought from +Ceylon, two proved to be new and undescribed, and have been named by Mr. +A. WHITE _Elidiptera Emersoniana_ and _Poeciloptera Tennentina_.] + +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 +experience 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[1] in their colouring,) which are inoffensive if +unmolested, but if touched or irritated, exhale an odour that, once +endured, is never afterwards forgotten. + +[Footnote 1: Such as _Cantuo ocellatus, Leptoscelis Marginalis, Callidea +Stockerius_, &c. &c. Of the aquatic species, the gigantic _Belostoma +Indicum_ cannot escape notice, attaining a size of nearly three inches.] + +APHANIPTERA. _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 +previously kindled; and here prone on the white ashes, their stomachs +close to the earth, and their hind legs extended behind, they repose in +comparative coolness, and bid defiance to their persecutors. + +[Illustration: POECILOPTERA TENNENTINA.] + +[Illustration: ELIDIPTERA EMERSONIANA.] + +DIPTERA. _Mosquitoes_.--But of all the insect pests that beset an +unseasoned European the most provoking by far is the truculent +mosquito.[1] 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.[2] + +[Footnote 1: _Culex laniger?_ Wied. In Kandy Mr. Thwaites finds _C. +fuscanns, C. circumcolans,_ &c., and one with a most formidable hooked +proboscis, to which he has assigned the appropriate name _C. Regius_.] + +[Footnote 2: The precise species of insect by means of which the +Almighty signalised the plague of flies, remains uncertain, as the +Hebrew term _arob_ or _oror_ which has been rendered in one place. +"Divers sorts of flies," Ps. cv. 31; and in another, "swarms of flies," +Exod. viii. 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. lxxviii. 45, that the insects by which the Egyptians +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 graphically describes: and WESTWOOD, in an +ingenious passage in his _Entomologist's Text-book._ p. 17, combats the +strange idea of one of the bishops, that it was a cockroach! and argues +in favour of the mosquito. This view he sustains by a reference to the +habits of the creature, 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 Isrælites 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 Egypt, 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 Egyptian infliction, the word used +in the Hebrew is _zevor_, which the Septuagint renders by the ordinary +generic term for flies in general, [Greek: muia], "_musca_" (Eccles. x. +1, Isaiah vii. 10); but in every instance in which mention is made of +the miracle of Moses, the Septuagint says that the fly produced was the +[Greek: kunomyia], the "dog-fly." What insect was meant by this name it +is not now easy to determine, but ÆLIAN intimates that the dogfly both +inflicts a wound and emits a booming sound, in both of which particulars +it accords with the mosquito (lib. iv, 51); and PHILO-JUDÆUS, in his +_Vita Mosis_, lib. i. ch. xxiii., descanting on the plague of flies, and +using the term of the Septuagint, [Greek: kunomyia], describes it as +combining the characteristic of "the most impudent of all animals, the +fly and the dog, exhibiting the courage and the cunning of both, and +fastening on its victim with the noise and rapidity of an +arrow"--[Greek: meta roizou kathaper belos]. This seems to identify the +dog-fly of the Septuagint with the description of the Psalmist, Ps. +lxxviii. 45, and to vindicate the conjecture that the tormenting +mosquito, and not the house-fly, was commissioned by the Lord to humble +the obstinacy of the Egyptian tyrant.] + +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 protected by a fold of +Russian 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 Egypt, cover their beds with their +nets, knowing that the mosquitoes, although they bite through linen +robes, will not venture through a net.[1] But, notwithstanding the +opinion of Spence[2], 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 same considerations which +restrained those of the Nile under the successors of Cambyses. + +[Footnote 1: HERODOTUS, _Euterpe._ xcv.] + +[Footnote 2: KIRBY and SPENCE'S _Entomology_, letter iv.] + +_The Coffee-Bug_.--Allusion has been made in a previous passage to the +coccus known in Ceylon as the "Coffee-Bug" (_Lecanium Caffeæ_, Wlk.), +which of late years has made such destructive ravages in the plantations +in the Mountain Zone.[1] 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.[2] Each of these warts or scales is a +transformed female, containing a large number of eggs which are hatched +within it. + +[Footnote 1: The following notice of the "coffee-bug," and of the +singularly destructive effects produced by it on the plants, has been +prepared chiefly from a memoir presented to the Ceylon Government by the +late Dr. Gardner, in which he traces the history of the insect from its +first appearance in the coffee districts, until it had established +itself more or less permanently in all the estates in full cultivation +throughout the island.] + +[Footnote 2: See the annexed drawing, Fig. 1.] + +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 between 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.[1] These are +the larvæ of the males undergoing transformation into pupæ, 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 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 antennæ are also inclined +backwards, and from the tail protrude three short bristles, the middle +one thinner and longer than the rest. + +[Footnote 1: Figs. 2, and 3 and 5 in the engraving, where these and all +the other figures are considerably enlarged.] + +When the transformation is complete, the mature insect makes its way +from beneath the pellucid case[1], all its organs having then attained +their full size: the head is sub-globular, with two rather prominent +black eyes, and two antennæ, each with eleven joints, hairy throughout, +and a tuft of rather longer hairs at the apices; the legs are also +covered with hairs, the wings 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 +along 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. + +[Footnote 1: Fig. 4. Mr. WESTWOOD, who observed the operation in one +species, states that they escape backwards, the wings being extended +flatly over the head.] + +The female, like the male, attaches herself to the surface of the plant, +the place selected being usually 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 themselves); but, unlike +the male, which derives no nourishment 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 _promuscis_), springing 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 distinguishable +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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Figs. 6 and 7. There are many other species of the Coccus +tribe in Ceylon, some (Pseudococcus?) never appearing as a scale, the +female wrapping herself up in a white cottony exudation; many species +nearly allied to the true Coccus infest common plants about gardens, +such as the Nerium Oleander, Plumeria Acuminata, and others with milky +juices; another subgenus (Ceroplastes?), the female of which produces a +protecting waxy material, infests the Gendurassa Vulgaris, the Furrcæa +Gigantea, the Jak Tree, Mango, and other common trees.] + +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 corpulent 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[1]; after which the scale becomes somewhat more +conical, assumes a darker 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 miniature the hat of a Cornish +miner[2], there being a narrow rim at the base, which gives increased +surface of attachment. It is about 1/8 inch in diameter, by about 1/12 +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 +destitute 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.[3] In some of the +scales, the eggs when laid on the field of the microscope resemble those +masses of life sometimes seen in decayed cheese.[4] A few small +yellowish maggots are sometimes found with them, and these are the +larvæ[5] of insects, the eggs of which have been deposited in the female +while the scale was soft. They escape when mature by cutting a small +round hole in the dorsum of the scale. + +[Footnote 1: REAUMUR has described the singular manner in which this +occurs. _Mem._ tom. iv.] + +[Footnote 2: Fig. 8.] + +[Footnote 3: Fig. 9.] + +[Footnote 4: Figs. 10, 11.] + +[Footnote 5: Of the parasitic Chalcididiæ, many genera of which are well +known to deposit their eggs in the soft Coccus, viz.: Encystus, +Coccophagus, Pteromalus, Mesosela, Agonioneurus; besides Aphidius, a +minutely sized genus of Ichneumonidæ. Most, if not all, of these genera +are Singhalese.] + +[Illustration: THE COFFEE BUG. Lecanium Coffeæ.] + +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. + +The second year, however, brings a change for the worse; if the young +shoots and the underside of the leaves he 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 appearance. 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[1] +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 exceedingly disgusting look from the dense mass of yellow +pustular bodies forming on them, the leaves get shrivelled, and the +infected trees become conspicuous in the row. The black ants are +assiduous in their visits to them. Two-thirds of the crop is lost, and +on many trees not a single berry forms. + +[Footnote 1: _Racodium?_ Species of this genus are not confined to the +coffee plant alone in Ceylon, but follow the "bugs" in their attacks on +other bushes. It appears like a dense interlaced mesh of fibres, each +made up of a single series of minute oblong vesicles applied end to +end.] + +This _Lecanium_, or a very closely allied species, has been observed in +the Botanic Garden at Peradenia, on the _Citrus acida, Psidium +pomiferum, Myrtus Zeylanica, Rosa Indica, Careya arborea, Vitex +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, especially in low +sheltered situations, and it is believed to prevail most extensively in +wet seasons. While 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 themselves. 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 blighte have been +known to do in some mysterious way. Whether 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. + + * * * * * + + + + +_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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The entire of the new species contained in this list have +been described in a series of papers by Mr. WALKER in successive numbers +of the _Annals of Natural History_ (1858-61): those, from Dr. +TEMPLETON'S collection of which descriptions have been taken, have been +at his desire transferred to the British Museum for future reference and +comparison.] + +"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 fully 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.[1] But if, on the contrary, the land in Ceylon is +gradually rising, the difference 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 from 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 unknown, but +will probably be found to have more resemblance to that of Ceylon than +to the insects of northern and western India--just as the insect-fauna +of Malaya appears more to resemble the similar productions of +Australasia than those of the more northern continent. + +[Footnote 1: On the subject of this conjecture see _ante_, p. 60.] + +"Mr. Layard's collection was partly formed in the dry northern province +of Ceylon; and among them more Hindustan 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 +Nilgherry 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, Silbet, +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 distributed:-- + +"Order COLEOPTERA. + +"The recorded species of _Cicindelidæ_ inhabit the plains or the coast +country of Ceylon, and several of them are also found in Hindustan. + +"Many of the species of _Carabidæ_ and of _Staphylinidæ_, especially +those collected by Mr. Thwaites, near Kandy, and by M. Nietner at +Colombo, have much resemblance to the insects of these two families in +North Europe; in the _Scydmænid, Ptiliadæ, Phalacridæ, Nitidulidæ, +Colydiadæ_, and _Lathridiadæ_ the northern form is still more striking, +and strongly contrasts with the tropical forms of the gigantic _Copridæ, +Buprestidæ, and Cerambycidæ_, and with the _Elateridæ, Lampyridæ, +Tenebrionidæ, Helopidæ, Meloidæ, Curculionidæ, Prionidæ, Cerambycidæ, +Lamiidæ_, and _Endomychidæ_. + +"The _Copridæ, Dynastidæ, Melolonthidæ, Cetoniadæ_, and _Passalidæ_ are +well represented on the plains and on the coast, and the species are +mostly of a tropical character. + +"The _Hydrophilidæ_ have a more northern aspect, as is generally the +case with aquatic species. + +"The order _Strepsiptera_ is here considered as belonging to the +_Mordellidæ_, and is represented by the genus _Myrmecolax_, which is +peculiar, as yet, to Ceylon. + +"In the _Curculionidæ_ the single species of _Apion_ will recall to mind +the great abundance of that genus in North Europe. + +"The _Prionidæ_ and the two following families have been investigated by +Mr. Pascoe, and the _Hispidæ_, with the five following families, by Mr. +Baly; these two gentlemen are well acquainted with the above tribes of +beetles, and kindly supplied me with 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 published 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 Rangbodde, and Dr. Hagen informs me that not less than 500 species +have been noticed in Ceylon, but that they are not yet recorded, with +the exception of the 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 larvæ, and on account of their being often conveyed along the +whole length of rivers. The species of _Psocus_ 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 _Formicidæ_ and the _Poneridæ_ are very numerous, as +they are in other damp and woody tropical countries. 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 known 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 _Lepidoptera_ 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 _Papilionidæ_ to the _Tineidæ_, abound, and numerous species +and several genera appear, as yet, to be peculiar 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 Hindustan, Java, Borneo, and of other +parts of Australasia, which are being prepared for publication. In some +of the heterocerous families several species are common to Ceylon and to +Australasia, and in various cases the faunas of Ceylon and of +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, Hymenia recurvalis_ inhabits also the West Indies, South +America, West Africa, Hindustan, China, Australasia, Australia, and New +Zealand; and its food-plant is probably some vegetable which is +cultivated 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 numbers, as might be expected from the moisture and +heat of the climate. _Culex 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 +_Simulium_, which abound so exceedingly in temperate countries, have +each one representative 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 Diptera, 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. _Lecanium coffeæ_ 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. + + +"In conclusion, it may be observed that the species of insects in Ceylon +may be estimated as exceeding 10,000 in number, of which about 2000 are +enumerated in this volume. + + +Class ARACHNIDA. + +"Four or five species of spiders, of which the specimens cannot be +satisfactorily described; one _Ixodes_ and one _Chelifer_ 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 COLEOPTERA, _Linn._ + +Fam. CICINDELIDÆ, _Steph._ + +Cicindela, _Linn._ + flavopunctata, _Aud._ + discrepans, _Wlk._ + aurofasciaca, _Guér._ + quadrilineata, _Fabr._ + biramosa, _Fabr._ + catena, _Fabr._ + *insignificans, _Dohrn._ + +Tricondyla, _Latr._ + femorata, _Wlk._ + *tumidula, _Wlk._ + *scitiscabra, _Wlk._ + *concinna, _Dohrn._ + +Fam. CARABIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Casnonia, _Latr._ + *punctata, _Niet._ + *pilifera, _Niet._ + +Ophionea, _Klug._ + *cyanocephala, _Fabr._ + +Euplynes, _Niet._ + Dohrni, _Niet._ + +Heteroglossa, _Niet._ + *elegans, _Niet._ + *ruficollis, _Niet._ + *bimaculata, _Niet._ + +Zuphium, _Latr._ + *pubescens, _Niet._ + +Pheropsophos, _Solier._ + Cateisei, _Dej._ + bimaculatus, _Fabr._ + +Cymindis, _Latr_ + rufiventris, _Wlk._ + +Anchisia, _Niet._ + *modesta, _Niet._ + +Dromius, _Bon._ + marginiter, _Wlk._ + repandens, _Wlk._ + +Lebia, _Latr._ + *bipars, _Wlk,_ + +Creagris, _Niet._ + labrosa, _Niet._ + +Elliotia, _Niet._ + paltipes, _Niet._ + +Maraga, _Wlk._ + planigera, _Wlk._ + +Catascopus, _Kirby._ + facialis, _Wied._ + reductus, _Wlk._ + +Scarites, _Fabr._ + obliterans, _Wlk._ + subsignans, _Wlk._ + designans, _Wlk._ + *minor, _Wlk._ + +Clivina, _Latr._ + *rugosifrons, _Niet._ + *elongatula, _Niet._ + *maculata, _Niet._ + recta, _Wlk._ + +Leistus, _Fræhl._ + linearis, _Wlk._ + +Isotarsus, _Laferlé_ + quadrimaculatus, _Oliv._ + +Panagæus, _Latr._ + retractus, _Wlk._ + +Chlænius, _Bon._ + bimaculatus, _Dej._ + diffinis, _Reiche._ + *Ceylanicus, _Niet._ + *quinque-maculatus, _Niet._ + pulcher, _Niet._ + cupricollis, _Niet._ + ruginosus, _Niet._ + +Anchomenus, _Bon._ + illocatus, _Wlk._ + +Agonum, _Bon._ + placidulum, _Wlk._ + +Corpodes?, _Macl._ + marginicallis, _Wlk._ + +Argutor, _Meg._ + degener, _Wlk._ + relinquens, _Wlk._ + +Simphyus, _Niet._ + *unicolor, _Niet._ + +Bradytus, _Steph._ + stolidus, _Wlk._ + Curtonotus, _Wlk._ + +Harpalus, _Latr._ + *advolans, _Niet._ + dispellens, _Wlk._ + +Calodromus, _Niet._ + *exornatus, _Niet._ + +Megaristerus, _Niet._ + *mandibularis, _Niet._ + *stenolophoides, _Niet._ + *Indicus, _Niet._ + +Platysma, _Bon._ + retinens, _Wlk._ + +Morio, _Latr._ + trogositoides, _Wlk._ + cucujoides, _Wlk._ + +Barysomus, _Dej._ + *Gyllenhalii, _Dej._ + +Oodes, _Bon._ + *piceus, _Niet._ + +Selenophorus, _Dej._ + inuxus, _Wlk._ + +Orthogonius, _Dej._ + femoratus, _Dej._ + +Helluodes, _Westw._ + Taprobanæ, _Westw._ + +Physocrotaphus, _Parry._ + Ceylonicus, _Parry._ + *minax, _West._ + +Physodera, _Esch._ + Eschscholtzii, _Parry._ + +Omphra, _Latr._ + *ovipennis, _Reiche._ + +Planetes, _Macl._ + bimaculatus, _Macleay._ + +Cardiaderus, _Dej._ + scitus, _Wlk._ + +Distrigus, _Dej._ + *costatus, _Niet._ + *submetallicus, _Niet._ + rufopiceus, _Niet._ + *æneus, _Niet._ + *Dejeani, _Niet._ + +Drimostoma, _Dej._ + *Ceylanicum, _Niet._ + *marginale, _Wlk_. + +Cyclosomus, _Latr_. + flexuosus, _Fabr_. + +Ochthephilus, _Niet_. + *Ceylanicus, _Niet_. + +Spathinus, _Niet_. + *nigriceps, _Niet_. + +Acuparpus, _Latr_. + derogatus, _Wlk_. + extremus, _Wlk_. + +Bembidium, _Latr_. + finitimum, _Wlk_. + *opulentum, _Niet_. + *truncatum, _Niet_. + *tropicum, _Niet_. + *triangulare, _Niet_. + *Ceylanicum, _Niet_. + Klugii, _Niet_. + *ebeninum, _Niet_. + *orientale, _Niet_. + *emarginatum, _Niet_. + *ornatum, _Niet_. + *scydmænoides, _Niet_. + +Fam. PAUSSIDÆ, _Westw_. + +Cerapterus, _Swed_. + latipes, _Swed_. + +Pleuropterus, _West_. + Westermanni, _West_. + +Paussus, _Linn._ + pacificus, _West_. + +Fam. DYTISCIDÆ, _Macl_. + +Cybister, _Curt_. + limbatus, _Fabr_. + +Dytiscus, _Linn._ + extenuans, _Wlk_. + +Eunectes, _Erich_. + griseus, _Fabr_. + +Hydaticus, _Leach_. + festivus, _Ill_. + vittatus, _Fabr_. + dislocans, _Wlk_. + fractifer, _Wlk_. + +Colymbetes, _Clairv_. + interclusus, _Wlk_. + +Hydroporus, _Clairv_. + interpulsus, _Wlk_. + intermixtus, _Wlk_. + lætabilis, _Wlk_. + *inefficiens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. GYRINIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Dineutes, _Macl_. + spinosus, _Fabr_. + +Porrorhynchus, _Lap_. + indicans, _Wlk_. + +Gyretes, _Brullé_. + discifer, _Wlk_. + +Gyrinus, _Linn._ + nitidulus, _Fabr_. + obliquus, _Wlk_. + +Orectochilus, _Esch_. + *lenocinium, _Dohrn_. + +Fam. STAPHILINIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Ocypus, _Kirby_. + longipennis, _Wlk_. + congruus, _Wlk_. + punctilinea, _Wlk_. + *lineatus, _Wlk_. + +Philonthus, _Leach_. + *pedestris, _Wlk_. + +Xantholinus, _Dahl_. + cinctus, _Wlk_. + *inclinans, _Wlk_. + +Sunius, _Leach_. + *obliquus, _Wlk_. + +Oedichirus, _Erich_. + *alatus, _Niet_. + +Poederus, _Fabr_. + alternans, _Wlk_. + +Stenus, _Latr_. + *barbatus, _Niet_. + *lærtoides, _Niet_. + +Osorius? _Leach_. + *compactus, _Wlk_. + +Prognatha, _Latr_. + decisi, _Wlk_. + *tenuis, _Wlk_. + +Leptochirus, _Perty_. + *piscinus, _Erich_. + +Oxytelus, _Grav_. + rudis, _Wlk_. + productus, _Wlk_. + *bicolor, _Wlk_. + +Trogophloeus, _Mann_. + *Taprobanæ, _Wlk_. + +Omalium, _Grav_. + filiforme, _Wlk_. + +Aleochara, _Grav_. + postica, _Wlk_. + *translata, _Wlk_. + *subjecta, _Wlk_. + +Dinarda, _Leach_. + serricornis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PSELAPHIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Pselaphanax, _Wlk_. + setosus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. SCYDMÆNIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Erineus, _Wlk_. + monstrosus, _Wlk_. + +Scydmænus, _Latr_. + *megamelas, _Wlk_. + *alatus, _Niet_. + *femoralis, _Niet_. + *Ceylanicus, _Niet_. + *intermedius, _Niet_. + *pselaphoides, _Niet_. + *advolans, _Niet_. + *pubescens, _Niet_. + *pygmæus, _Niet_. + *glanduliferus, _Niet_. + *graminicola, _Niet_. + *pyriformis, _Niet_. + *angusticeps, _Niet_. + *ovatus, _Niet_. + +Fam. PTILIADÆ, _Wo_. + +Trichopteryx, _Kirby_. + *cursitans, _Niet_. + *immatura, _Niet_. + *invisibilis, _Niet_. + +Ptilium, _Schüpp_. + *subquadratum, _Niet_. + +Ptenidium, _Erich_. + *macrocephalum, _Niet_. + +Fam. PHALACRIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Phalacrus, _Payk_. + conjiciens, _Wlk_. + confectus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. NITUDULIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Nitidula, _Fabr_. + contigens, _Wlk_. + intendens, _Wlk_. + significans, _Wik_. + tomentifera, _Wlk_. + *submaculata, _Wlk_. + *glabricula, _Dohrn_. + +Nitidulopsis, _Wlk_. + æqualis, _Wlk_. + +Meligethes, _Kirby_. + *orientalis, _Niet_. + *respondens, _Wlk_. + +Rhizophagus, _Herbst_. + parallelus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. COLYDIADÆ, _Woll_. + +Lyctus, _Fabr_. + retractus, _Wlk_. + disputans, _Wlk_. + +Ditoma, _Illig_. + rugicollis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TROGOSITIDÆ, _Kirby_. + +Trogosita, _Oliv_. + insinuans, _Wlk_. + *rhyzophagoides, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CUCUJIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Loemophloeus, _Dej_. + ferrugineus, _Wlk_. + +Cucujus? _Fabr_. + *incommodus, _Wlk_. + +Silvanus, _Latr_. + retrahens, _Wlk_. + *scuticollis, _Wlk_. + *Porrectus, _Wlk_. + +Brontes, _Fabr_. + *orientalis, _Dej_. + +Fam. LATHRIDIANÆ, _Wall_. + +Lathridius, _Herbst_. + perpusillus, _Wlk_. + +Corticaria, _Marsh_. + resecta, _Wlk_. + +Monotoma, _Herbst_. + concinnula, _Wlk_. + +Fam. DERMESTIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Dermestes, _Linn._ + vulpinus, _Fabr_. + +Attagenus, _Latr_. + detectus, _Wlk_. + rufipes, _Wlk_. + +Trinodes, _Meg_. + hirtellus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. BYRRHIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Inclica, _Wlk_. + solida, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HISTERIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Hister, _Linn._ + Bengalensis, _Weid_. + encaustus, _Mars._ + orientalis, _Payk_. + bipustulatus, _Fabr._ + *mundissimus, _Wlk._ + +Saprinus, _Erich_. + semipunctatus, _Fabr._ + +Platysoma, _Leach._ + atratum? _Erichs._ + desmens, _Wlk._ + restoratum, _Wlk._ + +Dendrophilus, _Leach._ + finitimus, _Wlk._ + +Fam. APHODIADÆ, _Macl._ + +Aphodius, _Illig._ + robustus, _Wlk._ + dynastoides, _Wlk._ + pallidicornis, _Wlk._ + mutans, _Wlk_. + sequens, _Wlk._ + +Psammodius, _Gyll._ + inscitus, _Wlk._ + +Fam. TROGIDÆ, _Macl._ + +Trox, _Fabr._ + inclusus, _Wlk._ + cornutus, _Fabr._ + +Fam. COPRIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Ateuchus, _Weber._ + sacer, _Linn._ + +Gymnopleurus, _Illig_ + smaragdifer, _Wlk._ + Koenigii, _Fabr._ + +Sisyphus, _Latr._ + setosulus _Wlk._ + subsideus, _Wlk._ + +Orepanocerus, _Kirby._ + Taprobanæ, _West._ + +Cobris, _Geoffr._ + Pirmal, _Fabr._ + sagax, _Quens._ + capucinus, _Fabr._ + cribricollis, _Wlk._ + repertus, _Wlk._ + sodalis, _Wlk._ + signatus, _Wlk._ + diminutivus, _Wlk._ + +Onthophagus, _Latr._ + Bonassus, _Fabr._ + cervicornis, _Fabr._ + prolixus, _Wlk._ + gravis, _Wlk._ + difficilis, _Wlk._ + lucens, _Wlk._ + negligens, _Wlk._ + moerens, _Wlk._ + turbatus. _Wlk._ + +Onitis, _Fabr._ + Philemon, _Fabr._ + +Fam. DYNASTIDÆ, _Macl._ + +Oryctes, _Illig._ + rhinoceros, _Linn._ + +Xylotrupes, _Hope._ + Gideon, _Linn._ + reductus, _Wlk._ + solidipes, _Wlk._ + +Phileurus, _Latr._ + detractus, _Wlk._ + +Orphnus, _Macl._ + detegens, _Wlk._ + scitissimus, _Wlk._ + +Fam. GECTRUPIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Bolboceras, _Kirby_. + lineatus, _Westw_. + +Fam. MELOLONTHIDÆ, _Macl_. + +Melolontha, _Fabr_. + nummicudens, _Newm_. + rubiginosa, _Wlk_. + ferruginosa, _Wlk_. + seriata, _Hope_. + pinguis, _Wlk_. + setosa, _Wlk_. + +Rhizotrogus, _Latr_. + hirtipectus, _Wlk_. + æqualis, _Wlk_. + costatus, _Wlk_. + inductus, _Wlk_. + exactus, _Wlk_. + sulcifer, _Wlk_. + +Phyllopertha, _Kirby_. + transversa, _Burm_. + +Silphodes, _Westw_. + Indica, _Westw_. + +Trigonostoma, _Dej_. + assimile, _Hope_. + compressum? _Weid_. + nanum, _Wlk_. + +Serica, _Macl_. + pruinosa, _Hope_. + +Popilia, _Leach_. + marginicollis, _Newm_. + cyanella, _Hope_. + discalis, _Wlk_. + +Scricesthis, _Dej_. + rotundata, _Wlk_. + subsignata, _Wlk_. + mollis, _Wlk_. + confirmata, _Wlk_. + +Plectris, _Lep. & Serv_. + solida, _Wlk_. + punctigera, _Wlk_. + glabsilinea, _Wlk_. + +Isonychus, _Mann_. + ventralis, _Wlk_. + pectoralis, _Wlk_. + +Omaloplia, _Meg_. + fracta, _Wlk_. + interrupta, _Wlk_. + semicincta, _Wlk_. + *hamifera, _Wlk_. + *picta, _Dohrn_. + *nana, _Dohrn_. + +Apogenia, _Kirby_. + nigricans, _Hope_. + +Phytalos _Erich_. + eurystomus, _Burm_. + +Ancylon cha. _Dej_. + Reynaudii, _Blanch_. + +Leucopholis, _Dej_. + Mellei, _Guer_. + pinguis, _Burm_. + +Anomala, _Meg_. + elata, _Fabr_. + humeralis, _Wlk_. + discalis, _Wlk_. + varicolor, _Sch_. + conformis, _Wlk_. + similis, _Hope_. + punctatissima, _Wlk_. + infixa, _Wlk_. + +Mimela, _Kirby_. + variegata, _Wlk_. + mundissima, _Wlk_. + +Parastasia, _Westw_. + rufopic a. _Westw_. + +Euchlora, _Macl_. + viridis, _Fabr_. + perplexa, _Hope_. + +Fam. CETONIADÆ, _Kirby_. + +Glycyphana, _Burm_. + versicolor, _Fabr_. + luctuosa, _Gory_. + variegata, _Fabr_. + marginicollis, _Gory_. + +Clinteria, _Burm_. + imperalis, _Schaum_. + incerta, _Parry_. + chloronota, _Blanch_. + +Tæniodera, _Burm_. + Malabariensis, _Gory_. + quadrivittata, _White_. + alboguttata, _Vigors_. + +Protætia, _Burm_. + maculata, _Fabr_. + Whitehousii, _Parry_. + +Agestrata, _Erich_. + nigrita, _Fabr_. + orichalcea, _Linn._ + +Coryphocera, _Burm_. + elegans, _Fabr_. + +Nacronota, _Hoffm_. + quadrivittata, _Sch_. + +Fam. TRICHIADÆ, _Leach_. + +Valgus, _Scriba_. + addendus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LUCANIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Odontolabis, _Burm_. + Bengalensis, _Parry_. + emarginatus, _Dej_. + +Ægus, _Macl_. + acuminatus, _Fabr_. + lunatus, _Fabr_. + +Singuala, _Blanch_. + tenella, _Blanch_. + +Fam. PASSALIDÆ, _Macl_. + +Passalus, _Fabr_. + transversus, _Dohrn_. + interstitialis, _Perch_. + punctiger? _Lefeb_. + bicolor, _Fabr_. + +Fam. SPHÆRIDIADÆ, _Leach_. + +Sphæridium, _Fabr_. + tricolor, _Wlk_. + +Cercyon, _Leach_. + *vicinale, _Wlk._ + +Fam. HYDROPHILIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Hydrous, _Leach_. + *rufiventris, _Niet_. + *inconspicuus, _Niet._ + +Hydrobius, _Leach._ + stultus, _Wlk._ + +Philydrus, _Solier._ + esurieus, _Wlk._ + +Berosus, _Leach._ + *decrescens, _Wlk._ + +Hydrochus, _Germ._ + *lacustris, _Niet._ + +Georyssus, _Latr._ + *gemma, _Niet._ + *insularis, _Dohrn._ + +Dastareus, _Wlk._ + porosus, _Wlk._ + +Fam. BUPRESTIDIE, _Steph._ + +Sternocera, _Esch._ + chrysis, _Linn._ + sternicornis, _Linn._ + +Chrysochroa, _Solier._ + ignita, _Linn._ + Chinensis, _Lap._ + Rajah, _Lap._ + *cyaneocephala, _Fabr._ + +Chyrsodema, _Lap_ + sulcata, _Thunb._ + +Belionota, _Esch._ + scutellaris, _Fabr._ + *Petiri, _Gory._ + +Chrysobothris, _Esch._ + suturalis, _Wlk._ + +Agrilus, _Meg._ + sulcicollis, _Wlk._ + *cupreiceps, _Wlk._ + *cupreicollis, _Wlk._ + *armatus, _Fabr._ + +Fam. ELATERIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Campsosternos, _Latr._ + Templetonii, _Westw._ + aureolus, _Hope._ + Bohemannii, _Cand._ + venustulus, _Cand._ + pallidipes, _Cand._ + +Agrypnus, _Esch._ + fuscipes, _Fabr._ + +Alaus, _Esch._ + speciosus, _Linn._ + sordidus, _Westw._ + +Cardiophorus, _Esch._ + humerifer, _Wlk._ + +Corymbites, _Latr._ + dividens, _Wlk._ + divisa, _Wlk._ + *bivittava, _Wlk._ + +Lacon, _Lap._ + *obesus, _Cand._ + +Athous, _Esch._ + punctosus, _Wlk._ + inapertus, _Wlk._ + decretus, _Wlk._ + inefficiens, _Wlk._ + +Ampedus, _Meg._ + *acutifer, _Wlk._ + *discicollis, _Wlk._ + +Legna, _Wlk._ + idonea, _Wlk._ + +Fam. LAMPYRIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Lycus, _Fabr_. + triangularis, _Hope._ + geminus, _Wlk._ + astutus, _Wlk._ + fallix, _Wlk._ + planicornis, _Wlk._ + melanopterus, _Wlk._ + pubicornis, _Wlk._ + duplex, _Wlk._ + costifer, _Wlk._ + revocans, _Wlk._ + dispellens, _Wlk._ + *pubipennis, _Wlk._ + *humerifer, _Wlk._ + expansicornis, _Wlk._ + divisus, _Wlk._ + +Dictyopterus, _Latr._ + internexus, _Wlk._ + +Lampyris, _Geoff._ + tenebrosa, _Wlk._ + diffinis, _Wlk._ + lutescens, _Wlk._ + *vitrifera, _Wlk._ + +Colophotia, _Dej._ + humeralis, _Wlk._ + [vespertina, _Febr._ + perplexa, _Wlk._?] + intricata, _Wlk._ + extricans, _Wlk._ + promelas, _Wlk._ + +Harmatelia, _Wlk._ + discalis, _Wlk_ + bilinea, _Wlk._ + +Fam. TELEPHORIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Telephorus, _Schäff._ + dimidiatus, _Fabr._ + malthinoides, _Wlk._ + +Eugeusis, _Westw._ + palpator, _Westw._ + gryphus, _Hope._ + olivaceus, _Hope._ + +Fam. CEBRIONIDÆ, _Steph._ + +Callirhipis, _Latr._ + Templetonii, _Westw._ + Championii, _Westw._ + +Fam. MERLYRIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Malachius, _Fabr._ + plagiatus, _Wlk._ + +Malthinus, _Latr._ + *forticornis, _Wlk._ + *retractus, _Wlk._ + fragilis, _Dohrn._ + +Enciopus, _Steph._ + proficiens, _Wlk._ + +Honosca, _Wlk._ + necrobioides, _Wlk._ + +Fam. CLERIDÆ, _Kirby._ + +Cylidrus, _Lap._ + sobrinus, _Dohrn._ + +Stigmatium, _Gray._ + elaphroides, _Westw._ + +Necrobia, _Latr._ + rufipes, _Fabr._ + aspera, _Wlk._ + +Fam. PTINIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Ptinus, _Linn._ + *nigerrimus, _Boield._ + +Fam. DIAPERIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Diaperis, _Geoff._ + velutina, _Wlk._ + fragilis, _Dohrn._ + +Fam. TENEBRIONIDÆ, _Leach._ + +Zophobas, _Dej._ + errans? _Dej._ + clavipes, _Wlk._ + ?solidus, _Wlk._ + +Pseudoblaps, _Guer._ + nigrita, _Fabr._ + +Tenebrio, _Linn._ + rubripes, _Hope._ + retenta, _Wlk._ + +Trachyscelis, _Latr._ + brunnea, _Dohrn._ + +Fam. OPATRIDÆ, _Shuck._ + +Opatrum, _Fabr._ + contrahens, _Wlk._ + bilineatum, _Wlk._ + planatum, _Wlk._ + serricolle, _Wlk._ + +Asida, _Latr._ + horrida, _Wlk._ + +Crypticus, _Latr._ + detersus, _Wlk._ + longipennis, _Wlk._ + +Phaleria, _Latr._ + rutipes, _Wlk._ + +Toxicum, _Latr._ + oppugnans, _Wlk._ + biluna, _Wlk._ + +Boletophagus, _Ill._ + *inorosus, _Dohrn._ + *exasperatus, _Dohrn._ + +Uloma, _Meg._ + scita, _Wlk._ + +Alphitophagus, _Steph._ + subFascia, _Wlk._ + +Fam. HELOPIDÆ, _Steph._ + +Osdara, _Wlk._ + picipes, _Wlk._ + +Cholipus, _Dej._ + brevicornis, _Dej._ + parabolicus, _Wlk._ + læviusculus, _Wlk._ + +Helops, _Fabr._ + ebeninus, _Wlk._ + +Camaria, _Lep. & Serv._ + amethystina, _L.&S._ + +Amarygmus, _Dalm._ + chrysomeloides, _Dej._ + +Fam. MELOIDÆ, _Woll._ + +Epicanta, _Dej._ + nigrifinis, _Wlk._ + +Cissites, _Latr._ + testaceus, _Febr._ + +Mylabris, _Fabr._ + humeralis, _Wlk._ + alterna, _Wlk._ + *recognita, _Wlk._ + +Atratocerus, _Pal., Bv._ + debilis, _Wlk._ + reversus, _Wlk._ + +Fam. OEDEMERIDÆ, _Steph._ + +Cistela, _Fabr_. + congrua, _Wlk_. + *falsifica, _Wlk_. + +Allecula, _Fabr_. + fusiformis, _Wlk_. + elegans, _Wlk_. + *flavifemur, _Wlk_. + +Sora, _Wlk_. + *marginata, _Wlk_. + +Thaceona, _Wlk_. + dimelas, _Wlk_. + +Fam. MORDELLIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Acosmas, _Dej_. + languidus, _Wlk_. + +Rhipiphorus, _Fabr_. + *tropicus, _Niet_. + +Mordella, _Linn._ + composita, _Wlk_. + *detectiva, _Wlk_. + +Myrmecolax, _Westir_. + *Nietneri, _Westir_. + +Fam. ANTHICIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Anthicus, _Payk_. + *quisquilairius, _Niet_. + *insularius, _Niet_. + *sticticollis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CISSIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Cis, _Latr_. + contendens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TOMICIDÆ, _Shuck_. + +Apate, _Fabr_. + submedia, _Wlk_. + +Bostrichus, _Geoff_. + mutuatus, _Wlk_. + *vertens, _Wlk_. + *moderatus, _Wlk_.. + *testaceus, _Wlk_. + *exiguns, _Wlk_. + +Platypus, _Herbst_. + minex, _Wlk_. + solidus, _Wlk_. + *latifinis, _Wlk_. + +Hylurgus, _Latr_. + determinans, _Wlk_. + *concinnulus, _Wlk_. + +Hylesinus, _Fahr_. + curvifer, _Wlk_. + despectus, _Wlk_. + irresolutus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CURCULIONIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Bruchus, _Linn._ + scutellaris, _Fabr_. + +Spermophagus, _Steven_. + convolvuli, _Thunb_. + figuratus, _Wlk_. + Cisti, _Fabr_. + incertus, _Wlk_. + decretus, _Wlk_. + +Dendropemon, _Schön_. + *melancholicus, _Dohrn_. + +Dendrotrogus, _Jek_. + Dohrnii, _Jek_. + discrepans, _Dohrn_. + +Eucorynus, _Schön_. + colligendus, _Wlk_. + colligens, _Wlk_. + +Basitropis, _Jek_. + *disconotatus, _Jek_. + +Litocerus, _Schön_. + punctulatus, _Dohrn_. + +Tropideres, _Sch_. + punctulifer, _Dohrn_. + tragilis, _Wlk_. + +Cedus, _Waterh_. + *cancellatus, _Dohrn_. + +Xylinades, _Latr_. + sobrinulus, _Dohrn_. + indignus, _Wlk_. + +Xenocerus, _Germ_. + anguliterus, _Wlk_. + revocans, _Wlk_. + *anchoralis, _Dohrn_. + +Callistocerus, _Dohrn_. + *Nietneri, _Dohrn_. + +Anthribus, _Geoff_. + longicornis, _Fabr_. + apicalis, _Wlk_. + facilis, _Wlk_. + +Aræcerus, _Schön_. + coffeæ, _Fabr_. + *insidiosus, _Fabr_. + *musculus, _Dohrn_. + *intangens, _Wlk_. + *bifovea, _Wlk_. + +Dipieza, _Pasc_. + *insignis, _Dohrn_. + +Apolecta, _Pasc_. + *Nietneri, _Dohrn_. + *musculus, _Dohrn_. + +Arrhenodes, _Steven_. + miles, _Sch_. + pilicornis, _Sch_. + dentirosiris, _Jek_. + approximans, _Wlk_. + Veneris, _Dohrn_. + +Cerobates, _Schön_. + thrasco, _Dohrn_. + aciculatus, _Wlk_. + +Ceocephalus, _Schön_. + cavus, _Wlk_. + reticulatus, _Fabr_. + +Nemocephalus, _Latr_. + sulcirostris, _De Haan_. + planicollis, _Wlk_. + spinirostris, _Wlk_. + +Apoderus, _Oliv_. + longicollis? _Fabr_. + Tranquebaricus, _Fabr_. + cygneus, _Fabr_. + scitulus, _Wlk_. + *triangularis, _Fabr_. + *echinatus, _Sch_. + +Rhynchites, _Herbst_. + suffundens, _Wlk_. + *restituens, _Wlk_. + +Apion, _Herbst_. + *Cingalense, _Wlk_. + +Strophosomus, _Bilbug_. + *suturalis, _Wlk_. + +Piazomias, _Schön_. + æqualis, _Wlk_. + +Astycus, _Schön_. + lateralis, _Fabr_.? + ebeninus, _Wlk_. + *immunis, _Wlk_. + +Cleonus, _Schön_. + inducens, _Wlk_. + +Myllocerus, _Schön_. + transmarinus, _Herbst_.? + spurcatus, _Wlk_. + *retrahens, _Wlk_. + *posticus, _Wlk_. + +Phyllobius, _Schön_. + *mimicus, _Wlk_. + +Episomus, _Schön_. + pauperatus, _Fabr_. + +Lixus, _Fabr_. + nebulitascia, _Wlk_. + +Aclees, _Schön_. + cribratus, _Dej_. + +Alcides, _Dalm_. + signatus, _Boh_. + obliquus, _Wlk_. + transversus, _Wlk_. + *clausus, _Wlk_. + +Acienemis, _Fairm_. + Ceylonicus, _Jek_. + +Apotomorhinus, _Schön_. + signatus, _Wlk_. + alboater, _Wlk_. + +Cryptorhynchus, _Illig_. + ineffectus, _Wlk_. + assimilans, _Wlk_. + declaratus, _Wlk_. + notabilis, _Wlk_. + vexatus, _Wlk_. + +Camptorhinus, _Schön_.? + reversus, _Wlk_. + *indiscretus, _Wlk_. + +Desmidophorus, _Chevr_. + hebes, _Fabr_. + communicans, _Wlk_. + strenuus, _Wlk_. + *discriminans, _Wlk_. + inexpertus, _Wlk_. + fasciculicollis, _Wlk_. + +Sipaius, _Schön_. + granulatus, _Fabr_. + porosus, _Wlk_. + tinctus, _Wlk_. + +Mecopus, _Dalm_. + *Waterhousei, _Dohrn_. + +Rhynchophorus, _Herbst_. + ferrugineus, _Fabr_. + introducens, _Wlk_. + +Protocerus, _Schön_. + molossus? _Oliv_. + +Sphænophorus, _Schön_. + glabridiscus, _Wlk_. + exquisitus, _Wlk_. + Debaani?, _Jek_. + cribricollis, _Wlk_. + ?panops, _Wlk_. + +Cossonus, _Clairv_. + *quadrimacula, _Wlk_. + ?hebes, _Wlk_. + ambiguus, _Sch_.? + +Scitophilus, _Schön_. + orizæ, _Linn._ + disciferus, _Wlk_. + +Mecinus, Germ. + *?relictus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PRIONIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Trictenotoma, _G.R. Gray_. + Templetoni, _Westw_. + +Prionomina, _White_. + orientalis, _Oliv_. + +Acanthophorus, _Serv_. + serraticornis, _Oliv_. + +Cnemoplites, _Newm_. + Rhesus, _Motch_. + +Ægosoma, _Serv_. + Cingalense, _White_. + +Fam. CERAMBYCIDÆ, _Kirby_. + +Cerambyx, _Linn._ + indutus, _Newm_. + vernicosus, _Pasc_. + consocius, _Pasc_. + versutus, _Pasc_. + nitidus, _Pasc_. + macilentus, _Pasc_. + venustus, _Pasc_. + torticollis, _Dohrn_. + +Sebasmia, _Pasc_. + Templetoni, _Pasc_. + +Callichroma, _Latr_. + trogoninum, _Pasc_. + telephoroides, _Westw_. + +Homalomelas, _White_. + gracilipes, _Parry_. + zonatus, _Pasc_. + +Colobus, _Serv_. + Cingalensis, _White_. + +Thramus, _Pasc_. + gibbosus, _Pasc_. + +Deuteromina, _Pasc_. + mutica, _Pasc_. + +Obrium, _Meg_. + laterale, _Pasc_. + moestum, _Pasc_. + +Psilomerus, _Blanch_. + macilentus, _Pasc_. + +Clytus, _Fabr_. + vicinus, _Hope_. + ascendens, _Pasc_. + Walkeri, _Pasc_. + annularis, _Fabr_. + *aurilinea, _Dohrn_. + +Rhaphuma, _Pasc_. + leucoscutellata, _Hope_. + +Ceresium, _Newm_. + cretatum, _White_. + Zeylanicum, _White_. + +Stromatium, _Serv_. + barbatum, _Fabr_. + maculatum, _White_. + +Hespherophanes, _Muls_. + simplex, _Gyll_. + +Fam. LAMIDIÆ, _Kirby_. + +Nyphona, _Muls_. + cylindracea, _White_. + +Mesosa, _Serv_. + columba, _Pasc_. + +Coptops, _Serv_. + bidens, _Fabr_. + +Xylorhiza, _Dej_. + adusta, _Wied_. + +Cacia, _Newm_. + triloba, _Pasc_. + +Batocera, _Blanch_. + rubus, _Fabr_. + ferruginea, _Blanch_. + +Monohammus, _Meg_. + tistulator, _Germ_. + crucifer, _Fabr_. + nivosus, _White_. + commixtus, _Pasc_. + +Cereposius, _Dup_. + patronus, _Pasc_. + +Pelargoderus, _Serv_. + tigrinus, _Chevr_. + +Olenocamptus, _Chevr_. + bilobus, _Fabr_. + +Praonetha, _Dej_. + annulata, _Chevr_. + posticalis, _Pasc_. + +Apomecyna, _Serv_. + histrio, _Fabr_., var.? + +Ropica, _Pasc_. + præusta, _Pasc_. + +Hathlia, _Serv_. + procera, _Pasc_. + +Iolea, _Pasc_. + proxima, _Pasc_. + histrio, _Pasc_. + +Glenea, _Newm_. + sulphurella, _White_. + commissa, _Pasc_. + scapitera, _Pasc_. + vexator, _Pasc_. + +Stibara, _Hope_. + nigricornis, _Fabr_. + +Fam. HISPIDÆ, _Kirby_. + +Oncocephala, _Dohrn_. + deltoides, _Dohrn_. + +Leptispa, _Baly_. + pygmæa, _Baly_. + +Amplistea, _Baly_. + Döhrnii, _Baly_. + +Estigmena, _Hope_. + Chinensis, _Hope_. + +Hispa, _Linn._ + hystrix, _Fabr_. + erinacea, _Fabr_. + nigrina, _Dohrn_. + *Walkeri, _Baly_. + +Platypria, _Guér_. + echidna, _Guér_. + +Fam. CASSIDIDÆ, _Westw_. + +Episticia, _Boh_. + matronula, _Boh_. + +Hoplionota, _Hope_. + tetraspilota, _Baly_. + rubromarginata, _Boh_. + horrifica, _Boh_. + +Aspidomorpha, _Hope_. + St. crucis, _Fabr_. + miliaris, _Fabr_. + pallidimarginata, _Baly_. + dorsata, _Fabr_. + calligera, _Boh_. + micans, _Fabr_. + +Cassida, _Linn._ + clathrata, _Fabr_. + timefacta, _Boh_. + farinosa, _Boh_. + +Laccoptera, _Boh_. + 14-notata, _Boh_. + +Coptcycla, _Chevr_. + sex-notata, _Fabr_. + 13-signata, _Boh_. + 13-notata, _Boh_. + ornata, _Fabr_. + Ceylonica, _Boh_. + Balyi, _Boh_. + trivittata, _Fabr_. + 15-punctuata, _Boh_. + catenata, _Dej_. + +Fam. SAGRIDÆ, _Kirby_. + +Sagra, _Fabr_. + nigrita, _Oliv_. + +Fam. DONACIDÆ, _Lacord_. + +Donacia, _Fabr_. + Delesserti, _Guér_. + +Coptocephala, _Chev_. + Templetoni, _Baly_. + +Fam. EUMOLFIDÆ, _Baly_. + +Corynodes, _Hope_. + cyaneus, _Hope_. + æneus, _Baly_. + +Glyptoscelis, _Chevr_. + Templetoni, _Baly_. + pyrospilotus, _Baly_. + micans, _Baly_. + cupreus, _Baly_. + +Eumolpus, _Fabr_. + lemoides, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CRYPTOCEPHALIDÆ, _Kirby_. + +Cryptocephalus, _Geoff_. + sex-punctatus, _Fabr_. + Walkeri, _Baly_. + +Diapromorpha, _Lac_. + Turcica, _Fabr_. + +Fam. CHRYSOMELIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Chalcolampa, _Baly_. + Templetoni, _Baly_. + +Lina, _Meg_. + convexa, _Baly_. + +Chrysomela, _Linn._ + Templetoni, _Baly_. + +Fam. GALERUCIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Galeruca, _Geoff_. + *pectinata, _Dohrn_. + +Graphodera, _Chevr_. + cyanea, _Fabr_. + +Monolepta, _Chevr_. + pulchella, _Baly_. + +Thyamis, _Steph_. + Ceylonicus, _Baly_. + +Fam. COCCINELLIDÆ, _Latr_. + +Epilachna, _Chevr_. + 28-punctata, _Fabr_. + Delessortii, _Guér_. + pubescens, _Hope_. + innuba, _Oliv_. + +Coccinella, _Linn._ + tricincta, _Fabr_. + *repanda, _Muls_. + tenuilinea, _Wlk_. + rejiciens, _Wlk_. + interrumpens, _Wlk_. + quinqueplaga, _Wlk_. + simplex, _Wlk_. + antica, _Wlk_. + flaviceps, _Wlk_. + +Neda, _Muls_. + tricolor, _Fabr_. + +Coelophora, _Muls_. + 9-maculata, _Fabr_.? + +Chilocorus, _Leach_. + opponens, _Wlk_. + +Scymnus, _Kug_. + varibilis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. EROTYLIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Fatua, _Dej_. + Nepalensis, _Hope_. + +Triplax, _Payk_. + decorus, _Wlk_. + +Tritoma, _Fabr_. + *bilactes, _Wlk_. + *preposita, _Wlk_. + +Ischyrus, _Cherz_. + grandis, _Fabr_. + +Fam. ENDOMYCHIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Eugonius, _Gerst_. + annularis, _Gerst_. + lunulatus, _Gerst_. + +Eumorphus, _Weber_. + pulcripes, _Gerst_. + *tener, _Dohrn_. + +Stenotarsus, _Perty_. + Nietneri, _Gerst_. + *castaneus, _Gerst_. + *tormentosus, _Gerst_. + *vallatus, _Gerst_. + +Lycoperdina, _Latr_. + glabrata, _Wlk_. + +Ancylopus, _Gerst_. + melanocephalus, _Oliv_. + +Saula, _Gerst_. + *nigripes, _Gerst_. + *ferruginea, _Gerst_. + +Mycerina, _Gerst_. + castanea, _Gerst_. + + +Order ORTHOPTERA, _Linn._ + +Fam. FORFICULIDÆ, _Steph_. + Forficula, _Linn._ + ------? + +Fam. BLATTIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Panesthia, _Serv_. + Javanica, _Serv_. + plagiata, _Wlk_. + +Polyxosteria, _Burm_. + larva. + +Corydia, _Serv_. + Petiveriana, _Linn._ + +Fam. MANTIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Empusa, _Illig_. + gongylodes, _Linn._ + +Harpax, _Serv_. + signiter, _Wlk_. + +Schizocephala, _Serv_. + bicornis, _Linn._ + +Mantis, _Linn._ + superstitiosa, _Fabr_. + aridifolia, _Stoll_. + extensicollis, ? _Serv_. + +Fam. PHASMIDÆ, _Serv_. + +Acrophylla, _Gray_. + systropedon, _Westw_. + +Phasma, _Licht_. + sordidium, _DeHaan_. + +Phyllium, _Illig_. + siccifolium, _Linn._ + +Fam. GRYLLIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Acheta, _Linn._ + bimaculata, _Deg_. + supplicans, _Wlk_. + æqualis, _Wlk_. + confirmata, _Wlk_. + +Platydactylus, _Brull_. + crassipes, _Wlk_. + +Steirodon, _Serv_. + lanceolatum, _Wlk_. + +Phyllophora, _Thunb_. + falsifolia, _Wlk_. + +Acanthodis, _Serv_. + rugosa, _Wlk_. + +Phaneroptera, _Serv_. + attenuata, _Wlk_. + +Phymateus, _Thunb_. + miliaris, _Linn._ + +Truxalis, _Linn._ + exaltata, _Wlk_. + porrecta, _Wlk_. + +Acridium, _Geoffr_. + extensum, _Wlk_. + deponens, _Wlk_. + rutitibia, _Wlk_. + cinctifemur, _Wlk_. + respondens, _Wlk_. + nigrifascia, _Wlk_. + + +Order PHYSAPODA, _Dum_. + +Thrips, _Linn._ + stenomeras, _Wlk_. + + +Order NEUROPTERA, _Linn._ + +Fam. SERICOSTOMIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Mormonia, _Curt_. + *ursina, _Hagen_. + +Fam. LEPTOCERIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Macronema, _Pict_. + multifarium, _Wlk_. + *splendidum, _Hagen_. + *nebulosum, _Hagen_. + *obliquum, _Hagen_. + *Ceylanicum, _Niet_. + *annulicorne, _Niet_. + +Molanna, _Curt_. + mixta, _Hagen_. + +Setodes, _Ramb_. + *Iris, _Hagen_. + *Ino, _Hagen_. + +Fam. PSYCHOMIDÆ, _Curt_. + +Chimarra, _Leach_. + *aurieps, _Hagen_. + *tunesta, _Hagen_. + *sepulcralis, _Hagen_. + +Fam. HYDROPSYCHIDÆ, _Curt_. + +Hydropsyche, _Pict_. + *Taprobanes, _Hagen_. + *mitis, _Hagen_. + +Fam. RHYACOPHILIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Rhyacophila, _Pict_. + *castanea, _Hagen_. + +Fam. PERLIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Perla, _Geoffr_. + angulata, _Wlk_. + *testacea, _Hagen_. + *limosa, _Hagen_. + +Fam. SILIDÆ, _Westw_. + +Dilar, _Ramb_. + *Nietneri, _Hagen_. + +Fam. HEMEROBIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Mantispa, _Illig_. + *Indica, _Westw_. + mutata, _Wlk_. + +Chrysopa, _Leach_. + invaria, _Wlk_. + *tropica, _Hagen_. + auritera, _Wlk_. + *punctata, _Hagen_. + +Micromerus, _Ramb_. + *linearis, _Hagen_. + *australis, _Hagen_. + +Hemerobius, _Linn._ + *frontalis, _Hagen_. + +Coniopteryx, _Hal_. + *cerata, _Hagen_. + +Fam. MYRMELEONIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Palpares, _Ramb_. + contrarius, _Wlk_. + +Acanthoclisis, _Ramb_. + *--n. s. _Hagen_. + *molestus, _Wlk_. + +Myrmeleon, _Linn._ + gravis, _Wlk_. + nirus, _Wlk_. + barbarus, _Wlk_. + +Ascalaphus, _Fabr_. + nugax, _Wlk_. + incusans, _Wlk_. + *cervinus, _Niet_. + +Fam. PSOCIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Psocus, _Latr_. + *Taprobanes, _Hagen_. + *oblitus, _Hagen_. + *consitus, _Hagen_. + *trimaculatus, _Hagen_. + *obtusus, _Hagen_. + *elongatus, _Hagen_. + *chloroticus, _Hagen_. + *aridus, _Hagen_. + *coleoptratus, _Hagen_. + *dolabratus, _Hagen_. + *infelix, _Hagen_. + +Fam. TERMITIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Termes, _Linn._ + Taprobanes, _Wlk_. + fatalis, _Koen_. + monocerous, _Koen_. + *umbilicatus, _Hagen_. + *n. s., _Jouv_. + *n. s., _Jouv_. + +Fam. EMBIDÆ, _Hagen_. + +Oligotoma, _Westw_. + *Saundersii, _Westw_. + +Fam. EPHEMERIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Bætis, _Leach_. + Taprobanes, _Wlk_. + +Potamanthus, _Pict_. + *fasciatus, _Hagen_. + *annulatus, _Hagen_. + *femoralis, _Hagen_. + +Cloe, _Burm_. + *tristis, _Hagen_. + *consueta, _Hagen_. + *solida, _Hagen_. + *sigmata, _Hagen_. + *marginalis, _Hagen_. + +Cænis, _Steph_. + perpusida, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LIBELLULIDÆ. + +Calopteryx, _Leach_. + Chinensis, _Linn._ + +Euphoea, _Selys_. + splendens, _Hagen_. + +Micromerus, _Ramb_. + lineatus, _Burm_. + +Trichoenemys, _Selys_. + *serapica, _Hagen_. + +Lestes, _Leach_. + *elata, _Hagen_. + *gracilis, _Hagen_. + +Agrion, _Fabr_. + *Coromandelianum, _F._ + *tenax, _Hagen_. + *hilare, _Hagen_. + *velare, _Hagen_. + *delicatum, _Hagen_. + +Gynacantha, _Ramb_. + subinterrupta, _Ramb_. + +Epophthalmia, _Burm_. + vittata, _Burm_. + +Zyxomma, _Ramb_. + petiolatum, _Ramb_. + +Acisoma, _Ramb_. + panorpoides, _Ramb_. + +Libellula, _Linn._ + Marcia, _Drury_. + Tillarga, _Fabr_. + variegata, _Linn._ + flavescens, _Fabr_. + Sabina, _Drury_. + viridula, _Pal. Beauv_. + congener, _Ramb_. + soror, _Ramb_. + Aurora, _Burm_. + violacea, _Niet_. + perla, _Hagen_. + sanguinea, _Burm_. + trivialis, _Ramb_. + contaminata, _Fabr_. + equestris, _Fabr_. + nebulosa, _Fabr_. + + +Order HYMENOPTERA, _Linn._ + +Fam. FORMICIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Formica, _Linn._ + smaragdina, _Fabr_. + mitis, _Smith_. + *Taprobane, _Smith_. + *variegata, _Smith_. + *exercita, _Wlk_. + *exundans, _Wlk_. + *meritans, _Wlk_. + *latebrosa, _Wlk_. + *pangens, _Wlk_. + *ingruens, _Wlk_. + *detorquens, _Wlk_. + *diffidens, _Wlk_. + *obscurans, _Wlk_. + *indeflexa, _Wlk_. + consultans, _Wlk_. + +Polyrhachis, _Smith_. + *illandatus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PONERIDÆ, _Smith_. + +Odontomachus, _Latr_. + simillimus, _Smith_. + +Typhlopone, _Westw_. + Curtisii, _Shuck_. + +Myrmica, _Latr_. + basalis, _Smith_. + contigua, _Smith_. + glyciphila, _Smith_. + *consternens, _Wlk_. + +Crematogaster, _Lund_. + *pellens, _Wlk_. + *deponens, _Wlk_. + *forticulus, _Wlk_. + +Pseudomyrma, _Guré_. + *atrata, _Smith_. + allaborans, _Wlk_. + +Atta, _St. Farg_. + didita, _Wlk_. + +Pheidole, _Westw_. + Janus, _Smith_. + *Taprobanæ, _Smith_. + *rugosa, _Smith_. + +Meranopius, _Smith_. + *dimicans, _Wlk_. + +Cataulacus, _Smith_. + Taprobanæ, _Smith_. + +Fam. MUTILLIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Mutilla, _Linn._ + *Sibylla, _Smith_. + +Tiphia, _Fabr_. + *decrescens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. EUMENIDÆ, _Westw_. + +Odynerus, _Latr_. + *tinctipennis, _Wlk_. + *intendens, _Wlk_. + *intendens, _Wlk_. + +Scolia, _Fabr_. + auricollis, _St. Farg_. + +Fam. CRABRONIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Philanthus, _Fabr_. + basalis, _Smith_. + +Stigmus, _Jur_. + *congruus, _Wilk_. + +Fam. SPHEGIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Ammophila, _Kirby_. + atripes, _Smith_. + +Pelopæus, _Latr_. + spinolæ, _St. Farg_. + +Sphex, _Fabr_. + ferruginea, _St. Farg_. + +Ampulex, _Jur_. + compressa, _Fabr_. + +Fam. LARRIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Larrada, _Smith_. + *extensa, _Wlk_. + +Fam. POMPILIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Pompilus, _Fabr_. + analis, _Fabr_. + +Fam. APIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Andrena, _Fabr_. + *exagens, _Wlk_. + +Nomia, _Latr_. + rustica, _Westw_. + *vincta, _Wlk_. + +Allodaps, _Smith_. + *marginata, _Smith_. + +Ceratina, _Latr_. + viridis, _Guér_. + picta, _Smith_. + *similliana, _Smith_. + +Coelioxys, _Latr_. + capitata, _Smith_. + +Croeisa, _Jur_. + *ramosa, _St. Farg_. + +Stelis, _Panz_. + carbonaria, _Smith_. + +Anthophora, _Latr_. + zonarta, _Smith_. + +Xylocopa, _Latr_. + tenuiscatia, _Westw_. + latipes, _Drury_. + +Apis, _Linn._ + Indica, _Smith_. + +Trigona, _Jur_. + iridipennis, _Smith_. + *præterita, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CHRYSIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Stilbum, _Spin_. + splendidum, _Dahl_. + +Fam. DORYLIDÆ, _Shuck_. + +Enictus, _Shuck_. + porizonoides, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ICHNEUONIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Cryptus, _Fabr_. + *onustus, _Wlk_. + +Hemiteles?, _Grav_. + *varius, _Wlk_. + +Porizon, _Fabr_. + *dominans, _Wlk_. + +Pimpla, _Fabr_. + albopicta, _Wlk_. + +Fam. BRACONIDÆ, _Hal_. + +Microgaster, _Latr_. + *recusans, _Wlk_. + *significans, _Wlk_. + *subducens, _Wlk_. + *detracta, _Wlk_. + +Spathius, _Nees_. + *bisignatus, _Wlk_. + *signipennis, _Wlk_. + +Heratemis, _Wlk_. + *tilosa, _Wlk_. + +Nebartha, _Wlk_. + *macropoides, _Wlk_. + +Psyttalia, _Wlk_. + *testacea, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CHALCIDIÆ, _Spin_. + +Chalcis, _Fabr_. + *dividens, _Wlk_. + *pandens, _Wlk_. + +Halticella, _Spin_. + *rufimanus, _Wlk_. + *inticiens, _Wlk_. + +Dirrhinus, _Dalm_. + *anthracia, _Wlk_. + +Eurytoma, _Ill_. + *contraria, _Wlk_. + indefensa, _Wlk_. + +Eucharis, _Latr_. + *convergens, _Wlk_. + *deprivata, _Wlk_. + +Pteromalus, _Swed_. + *magniceps, _Wlk_. + +Encyrtus, _Latr_. + *obstructus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. DIAPRIDÆ, _Hal_. + +Diapria, _Latr_. + apicalis, _Wlk_. + + +Order LEPIDOPTERA, _Linn._ + +Fam. PAPILIONIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Ornithoptera, _Boisd_. + Darsius, _G.R. Gray_. + +Papilio, _Linn._ + Diphilus, _Esp_. + Jophon, _G.R. Gray_. + Hector, _Linn._ + Romulus, _Cram_. + Polymnestor, _Cram_. + Crino, _Fabr_. + Helenus, _Linn._ + Pammon, _Linn._ + Polytes, _Linn._ + Erithonius, _Cram_. + Antipathis, _Cram_. + Agamemnon, _Linn._ + Eurypilus, _Linn._ + Bathycles, _Zinck-Som_. + Sarpedon, _Linn._ + dissimilis, _Linn._ + +Pontia, _Fabr_. + Nina, _Fabr_. + +Pleris, _Schr_. + Eucharis, _Drury_. + Coronis, _Cram_. + Epicharis, _Godt_. + Nama, _Doubl_. + Remba, _Moore_. + Mesentina, _Godt_. + Severina, _Cram_. + Namouna, _Doubl_. + Phryne, _Fabr_. + Paulina, _Godt_. + Thestylis, _Doubl_. + +Callosune, _Doubl_. + Eucharis, _Fabr_. + Danaë, _Fabr_. + Etrida, _Boisd_. + +Idmais, _Boisd_. + Calais, _Cram_. + +Thestias, _Boisd_. + Marianne, _Cram_. + Pirene, _Linn._ + +Hebomoia, _Hübn_. + Glaucippe, _Linn._ + +Eronia, _Hübn_. + Valeria, _Cram_. + +Callidryas, _Boisd_. + Philippina, _Boisd_. + Pyranthe, _Linn._ + Hilaria, _Cram_. + Alcmeone, _Cram_. + Thisorella, _Boisd_. + +Terias, _Swain_. + Drona, _Horsf_. + Hecabe, _Linn._ + +Fam. NYMPHALIDÆ, _Swain_. + +Euploea, _Fabr_. + Prothoe, _Godt_. + Core, _Cram_. + Alcathoë, _Godt_. + +Danais, _Latr_. + Chrysippus, _Linn._ + Plexippus, _Linn._ + Aglæ, _Cram_. + Melissa, _Cram_. + Limniacæ, _Cram_. + Juventa, _Cram_. + +Hestia, _Hübn_. + Jasonia, _Westw_. + +Telchinia, _Hübn_. + violæ, _Fabr_. + +Cethosia, _Fabr_. + Cyane, _Fabr_. + +Messarus, _Doubl_. + Erymanthis, _Drury_. + +Atella, _Doubl_. + Phalanta, _Drury_. + +Argychis, _Fabr_. + Niphe, _Linn._ + Clagia, _Godt_. + +Ergolis, _Boisd_. + Taprobana, _West_. + +Vanessa, _Fabr_. + Charonia, _Drury_. + +Libythea, _Fabr_. + Medhavina, _Wlk_. + Pushcara, _Wlk_. + +Pyrameis, _Hübn_. + Charonia, _Drury_. + Cardui, _Linn._ + Callirhoë, _Hübn_. + +Junonia, _Hübn_. + Limomas, _Linn._ + Oenone, _Linn._ + Orithia, _Linn._ + Laomedia, _Linn._ + Asterie, _Linn._ + +Precis, _Hübn_. + Iphita, _Cram_. + +Cynthia, _Fabr_. + Arsinoe, _Cram_. + +Parthenos, _Hübn_. + Gambrisius, _Fabr_. + +Limenitis, _Fabr_. + Calidusa, _Moore_. + +Neptis, _Fabr_. + Heliodore, _Fabr_. + Columelia, _Cram_. + aceris, _Fabr_. + Jumbah, _Moore_. + Hordonia, _Stoll_. + +Diadema, _Boisd_. + Auge, _Cram_. + Bolina, _Linn._ + +Symphædra, _Hubn_. + Thyelia, _Fabr_. + +Adolias, _Boisd_. + Evelina, _Stoll_. + Lutentina, _Fabr_. + Vasanta, _Moore_. + Garuda, _Moore_. + +Nymphalis, _Latr_. + Psaphon, _Westw_. + Bernardus, _Fabr_. + Athamas, _Cram_. + Fabius, _Fabr_. + Katlima, _Doubl_. + Philarchus, _Westw_. + Melanitis, _Fabr_. + Banksia, _Fabr_. + Leda, _Linn._ + Casiphone, _G.R. Gray_. + undularis, _Boisd_. + +Ypththima, _Hübn_. + Lysandra, _Cram_. + Parthalis, _Wlk_. + +Cyllo, _Boisd_. + Gorya, _Wlk_. + Cathæna, _Wlk_. + Embolima, _Wlk_. + Neilgherriensis, _Guér_. + Purimata, _WLk_. + Pushpamitra, _Wlk_. + +Mycalesis, _Hübn_. + Patnia, _Moore_. + *Gamaliba, _Wlk_. + Dosaron, _Wlk_. + Samba, _Moore_. + +Cænonympha, _Hübn_. + Euaspla, _Wlk_. + +Emesis, _Fabr_. + Echerius, _Stoll_. + +Fam. LYCÆNIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Anops, _Boisd_. + Bulis, _Boisd_. + Thetys, _Drury_. + +Loxura, _Horsf_. + Atymnus, _Cram_. + +Myrina, _Godt_. + Schumous, _Doubled_. + Triopas, _Cram_. + +Amblypodia, _Horsf_. + Longinus, _Fabr_. + Narada, _Horsf_. + pseudocentaurus, _Do_. + quercetorum, _Boisd_. + +Aphnæus, _Hübn_. + Pindarus, _Fabr_. + Etolus, _Cram_. + Hephæstos, _Doubled_. + Crotus, _Doubled_. + +Dipsas, _Doubled_. + chrysomallus, _Hübn_. + Isocrates, _Fabr_. + +Lycæna, _Fabr_. + Alexis, _Stoll_. + Boetica, _Linn._ + Chejus, _Horsf_. + Rosimon, _Fabr_. + Theophrasius, _Fabr_. + Pluto, _Fabr_. + Parana, _Horsf_. + Nyseus, _Guér_. + Ethion, _Basd_. + Celeno, _Cram_. + Kandarpa, _Horsf_. + Elpis, _Godt_. + Chimonas, _Wlk_. + Gandara, _Wlk_. + Chorienis, _Wlk_. + Geria, _Wlk_. + Doanas, _Wlk_. + Sunya, _Wlk_. + Audhra, _Wlk_. + +Polyommatus, _Latr_. + Akasa, _Horsf_. + Puspa, _Horsf_. + Laius, _Cram_. + Ethion, _Boisd_. + Cataigara, _Wlk_. + Gorgippia, _Wlk_. + +Lucia, _Westw_. + Epius, _Westw_. + +Pithecops, _Horsf_. + Hylax, _Fabr_. + +Fam. HESPERIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Goniloba, _Westw_. + Iapetus, _Cram_. + +Pyrgus, _Hübn_. + Superna, _Moore_. + Danna, _Moore_. + Genta, _Wlk_. + Sydrus, _Wlk_. + +Nisoniades, _Hübn_. + Diocles, _Boisd_. + Salsala, _Moore_. + Toides, _Wlk_. + +Pamphila, _Fabr_. + Angias, _Linn._ + +Achylodes, _Hübn_. + Temata, _Wlk_. + +Hesperia, _Fabr_. + Indrani, _Moore_. + Chaya, _Moore_. + Cinnara, _Moore_. + gremius, _Latr_. + Ceodochates, _Wlk_. + Tiagara, _Wlk_. + Cetiaris, _Wlk_. + Sigala, _Wlk_. + +Fam. SPHINGIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Sesia, _Fabr_. + Hylas, _Linn._ + +Macroglossa, _Ochs_. + Stenatarum, _Linn._ + gyrans, _Borsd_. + Corythus, _Borsd_. + divergens, _Wlk_. + +Calymina, _Borsd_. + Panopus, _Cram_. + +Choerocampa, _Dup_. + Thyslia, _Linn._ + Nyssus, _Drury_. + Clotho, _Drury_. + Oldenlandiæ, _Fabr_. + Lycetus, _Cram_. + Silhetensis, _Boisd_. + +Pergesa, _Wlk_. + Acteus, _Cram_. + +Panacia, _Wlk_. + vigil, _Guér_. + +Daphnis, _Hübn_. + Nern, _Linn._ + +Zonitia, _Boisd_. + Morpheus, _Cram_. + +Macrosila, _Boisd_. + ordiqua, _Wlk_. + discistriga, _Wlk_. + +Sphinx, _Linn._ + convolvuli, _Linn._ + +Acherontia, _Ochs_. + Satanas, _Boisd_. + +Smerintinis, _Latr_. + Dryas, _Boisd_. + +Fam. CASTNIIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Eusemia, _Dalm_. + beliatrix, _Westw_. + +Ægocera, _Latr_. + Venuia, _Cram_. + bimacula, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ZYGÆNIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Syntomis, _Ochs_. + Schoenherri, _Boisd_. + Creusa, _Linn._ + Imaoa, _Cram_. + +Glaucopis, _Fabr_. + subaurata, _Wlk_. + +Enchiomia, _Hübn_. + Polymena, _Cram_. + diminuta, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LITHOSIIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Scaptesyle, _Wlk_. + bicolor, _Wlk_. + +Nyctemera, _Hübn_. + lacticima, _Cram_. + latistriga, _Wlk_. + Coleta, _Cram_. + +Euschema, _Hübn_. + subrepleta, _Wlk_. + transversa, _Wlk_. + vilis, _Wlk_. + +Chalcosia, _Hübn_. + Tiberina, _Cram_. + venosa, _Anon_. + +Eterusia, _Hope_. + Ædea, _Linn._ + +Trypanophora, _Koll_. + Taprobanes, _Wlk_. + +Heteropan, _Wlk_. + scintillans, _Wlk_. + +Hypsa, _Hübn_. + plana, _Wlk_. + caricæ, _Fabr_. + ficus, _Fabr_. + +Vitessa, _Moor_. + Zeinire, _Cram_. + +Lithosia, _Fabr_. + autica, _Wlk_. + brevipennis, _Wlk_. + +Setina, _Schr_. + semitascia, _Wlk_. + solita, _Wlk_. + +Doliche, _Wlk_. + hilaris, _Wlk_. + +Pitane, _Wlk_. + conserta, _Wlk_. + +Æmene, _Wlk_. + Taprobanes, _Wlk_. + +Dirade, _Wlk_. + attacoides, _Wlk_. + +Cyllene, _Wlk_. + transversa, _Wlk_. + *spoliata, _Wlk_. + +Bizone, _Wlk_. + subornata, _Wlk_. + peregrina, _Wlk_. + +Delopeia, _Steph_. + pulcella, _Linn._ + Astrea, _Drury_. + Argus, _Kodar_. + +Fam. ARCHTIIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Alope, _Wlk_. + ocellitera, _Wlk_. + Sangalida, _Cram_. + +Tinolius, _Wlk_. + eburneigutta, _Wlk_. + +Creatonotos, _Hübn_. + interrupta, _Linn._ + emitteus, _Wlk_. + +Acmonia, _Wlk_. + Etnosioides, _Wlk_. + +Spilosoma, _Steph_. + subtascia, _Wlk_. + +Cycnia, _Hübn_. + rubida, _Wlk_. + sparsigutta, _Wlk_. + +Antheua, _Wlk_. + discalis, _Wlk_. + +Atoa, _Wlk_. + lactmea, _Cram_. + candidula, _Wlk_. + erisa, _Wlk_. + +Amerila, _Wlk_. + Melipithus, _Wlk_. + +Ammotho, _Wlk_. + cunionotatus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LIPARIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Artaxa, _Wlk_. + guttata, _Wlk_. + *varians, _Wlk_. + atomaria, _Wlk_. + +Acyphas, _Wlk_. + viridescens, _Wlk_. + +Lacida, _Wlk_. + rotundata, _Wlk_. + antica, _Wlk_. + subnotata, _Wlk_. + complens, _Wlk_. + promittens, _Wlk_. + strigulitera, _Wlk_. + +Amsacta? _Wlk_. + tenebrosa, _Wlk_. + +Antipha, _Wlk_. + costalis, _Wlk_. + +Anaxila, _Wlk_. + norata, _Wlk_. + +Procodeca, _Wlk_. + angulifera, _Wlk_. + +Redoa, _Wlk_. + submarginata, _Wlk_. + +Euproctis, _Hübn_. + virguncula, _Wlk_. + bimaculata, _Wlk_. + lunata, _Wlk_. + tinctifera, _Wlk_. + +Cispia, _Wlk_. + plagiata, _Wlk_. + +Dasychira, _Hübn_. + pudibunda, _Linn._ + +Lymantria, _Hühn_. + grandis, _Wlk_. + marginata, _Wlk_. + +Enome, _Wlk_. + ampla, _Wlk_. + +Dreata, _Wlk_. + plumipes, _Wlk_. + geminata, _Wlk_. + mutans, _Wlk_. + mollifera, _Wlk_. + +Pandala, _Wlk_. + dolosa, _Wlk_. + +Charnidas, _Wlk_. + junctifera, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PSYCHIDÆ, _Bru_. + +Psyche, _Schr_. + Doubledaii, _Westw_. + +Metisa, _Wlk_. + plana, _Wlk_. + +Eumeta, _Wlk_. + Cramerii, _Westw_. + Templetonii, _Westw_. + +Cryptothelea, _Templ_. + consorta, _Templ_. + +Fam. NOTODONTIDÆ, _St_. + +Cerura, _Schr_. + liturata, _Wlk_. + +Stauropus, _Germ_. + alternans, _Wlk_. + +Nioda, _Wlk_. + fusiformis, _Wlk_. + transversa, _Wlk_. + +Rilia, _Wlk_. + lanceolata, _Wlk_. + basivitta, _Wlk_. + +Ptilomacra, _Wlk_. + juvenis, _Wlk_. + +Elavia, _Wlk_. + metaphæa, _Wlk_. + +Notodonta, _Ochs_. + ejecta, _Wlk_. + +Ichthyura, _Hübn_. + restituens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LIMACODIDÆ, _Dup_. + +Scopelodes, _Westw_. + unicolor, _Westw_. + +Messata, _Wlk_. + rubiginosa, _Wlk_. + +Miresa, _Wlk_. + argeutifera, _Wlk_. + aperiens, _Wlks_. + +Nyssia, _Herr Sch_. + læta, _Westw_. + +Neæra, _Herr. Sch_. + graciosa, _Westw_. + +Narosa, _Wlk_. + conspersa, _Wlk_. + +Naprepa, _Wlk_. + varians, _Wlk_. + +Fam. DREPANULIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Oreta, _Wlk_. + suffusa, _Wlk_. + extensa, _Wlk_. + +Arna, _Wlk_. + apicaus, _Wlk_. + +Ganisa, _Wlk_. + postica, _Wlk_. + +Fam. SATURINIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Attacus, _Linn._ + Atlas, _Linn._ + lunula, _Anon_. + +Antheræa, _Hübn_. + Mylitta, _Drury_. + Assama, _Westw_. + +Tropæa, _Hübn_. + Selene, _Hübn_. + +Fam. BOMBYCIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Trabala, _Wlk_. + basalis, _Wlk_. + prasina, _Wlk_. + +Lasiocampa, _Schr_. + trifascia, _Wlk_. + +Megasoma, _Boisd_. + venustum, _Wlk_. + +Lebeda, _Wlk_. + repanda, _Wlk_. + plagiata, _Wlk_. + bimaculata, _Wlk_. + scriptiplaga, _Wlk_. + +Fam. COSSIDÆ, _Newm_. + +Cossus, _Fabr_. + quadrinotatus, _Wlk_. + +Zeuzera, _Latr_. + leuconota, _Steph_. + pusilla, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HEPIALIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Phassus, _Steph_. + signifer, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CYMATOPHORIDÆ, _Herr. Sch_. + +Thyatira, _Ochs_. + repugnans, _Wlk_. + +Fam. BRYOPHILIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Bryophila, _Treit_. + semipars, _Wlk_. + +Fam. BOMBYGOIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Diphtera, _Ochs_. + deceptura, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LEUCANIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Leucania, _Ochs_. + confusa, _Wlk_. + exempta, _Wlk_. + interens, _Wlk_. + collecta, _Wlk_. + +Brada, _Wlk_. + truncata, _Wlk_. + +Crambopsis, _Wlk_. + excludens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. GLOTTULIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Polytela, _Guén_. + gloriosa, _Fabr_. + +Glottula, _Guén_. + Dominic, _Cram_. + +Chasmma, _Wlk_. + pavo, _Wlk_. + cygnus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. APAMIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Laphygma, _Guér_. + obstans, _Wlk_. + trajiciens, _Wlk_. + +Prodenia, _Guén_. + retina, _Friv_. + glaucistriga, _Wlk_. + apertura, _Wlk_. + +Calogramma, _Wlk_. + festiva, _Don_. + +Heliophobus, _Boisd_. + discrepans, _Wlk_. + +Hydræcia, _Guér_. + lampadifera, _Wlk_. + +Apamea, _Ochs_. + undecilia, _Wlk_. + +Celæna, _Steph_. + serva, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CARADRINIDÆ, _Guér_. + +Amyna, _Guér_. + selenampha, _Guér_. + +Fam. NOCTUIDÆ, _Guér_. + +Agrotis, _Ochs_. + aristifera, _Guér_. + congrua, _Wlk_. + punctipes, _Wlk_. + mundata, _Wlk_. + transducta, _Wlk_. + plagiata, _Wlk_. + plagifera, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HADENIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Eurois, _Hübn_. + auriplena, _Wlk_. + inclusa, _Wlk_. + +Epiceia, _Wlk_. + subsignata, _Wlk_. + +Hadena, _Treit_. + subcurva, _Wlk_. + postica, _Wlk_. + retrahens, _Wlk_. + confundens, _Wlk_. + congressa, _Wlk_. + ruptistriga, _Wlk_. + +Ansa, _Wlk_. + filipalpis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. XYLINIDÆ, _Guén._ + +Ragada, _Wlk_. + pyrorchroma, _Wlk._ + +Cryassa, _Wlk_. + bifacies, _Wlk_. + +Egelista, _Wlk_. + rudivitta, _Wlk_. + +Xylina, _Ochs_. + deflexa, _Wlk_. + inchoans, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HELIOTHIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Heliothis, _Ochs_. + armigera, _Hübn_. + +Fam. HEMEROSIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Ariola, _Wlk_. + coelisigna, _Wlk_. + dilectissima, _Wlk_. + saturata, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ACONTIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Xanthodes, _Guén_. + intersepta, _Guén_. + +Acontia, _Ochs_. + tropica, _Guén_. + olivacea, _Wlk_. + fasciculosa, _Wlk_. + signifera, _Wlk_. + turpis, _Wlk_. + mianöides, _Wlk_. + approximans, _Wlk_. + divulsa, _Wlk_. + *egens, _Wlk_. + plenicosta, _Wlk_. + determinata, _Wlk_. + hypætroides, _Wlk_. + +Chlumetia, _Wlk_. + multilinea, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ANTHOPILIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Micra, _Guén_. + destituta, _Wlk_. + derogata, _Wlk_. + simplex, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ERIOPIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Callopistria, _Hübn_. + exotiac, _Guén_. + rivularis, _Wlk_. + duplicans, _Wlk_. + +Fam. EURHIPIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Penicillaria, _Guén_. + nugatrix, _Guén_. + resoluta, _Wlk_. + solida, _Wlk_. + lodatrix, _Wlk_. + +Rhesala, _Wlk_. + imparata, _Wlk_. + +Eutelia, _Hübn_. + favillatrix, _Wlk_. + thermesiides, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PLUSIIDÆ, _Boisd_. + +Abrostola, _Ochs_. + transfixa, _Wlk_. + +Plusia, _Ochs_. + aurilera, _Hübn_. + verticillata, _Guén_. + agramma, _Guén_. + obtusisigna, _Wlk_. + nigriluna, _Wlk_. + signata, _Wlk_. + dispellens, _Wlk_. + propulsa, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CALPIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Calpe, _Treit_. + minuticornis, _Guén_. + +Oroesia, _Guén_. + emarginata, _Fabr_. + +Deva, _Wlk_. + conducens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HEMICERIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Westermannia, _Hübn_. + supberba, _Hübn_. + +Fam. HYBLÆIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Hyblæa, _Guén_. + Puera, _Cram_. + constellica, _Guén_. + +Nolasena, _Wlk_. + ferrifervens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. GONOPTERIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Cosmophila, _Boisd_. + Indica, _Guén_. + xanthindvina, _Boisd_. + +Anomis, _Hübn_. + fulvida, _Guén_. + icomea, _Wlk_. + +Gonitis, _Guén_. + combinans, _Wlk_. + albitibia, _Wlk_. + mesogona, _Wlk_. + guttanivis, _Wlk_. + involuta, _Wlk_. + basalis, _Wlk_. + +Eporedia, _Wlk_. + damnipennis, _Wlk_. + +Rusicada, _Wlk_. + nigritarsis, _Wlk_. + +Pasipeda, _Wlk_. + rutipalpis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TOXOCAMPIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Toxocampa, _Guén_. + metaspila, _Wlk_. + sexlinea, _Wlk_. + quinquelina, _Wlk_. + +Albonica, _Wlk_. + reversa, _Wlk_. + +Fam. POLYDESMIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Polydesma, _Boisd_. + boarmoides, _Wlk_. + erubescens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HOMOPTERIDÆ, _Bois_. + +Alamis, _Guén_. + spoliata, _Wlk_. + +Homoptera, _Boisd_. + basipallens, _Wlk_. + retrahens, _Wlk_. + costifera, _Wlk_. + divisistriga, _Wlk_. + procumbens, _Wlk_. + +Diacuista, _Wlk_. + homopteroides, _Wlk_. + +Daxata, _Wlk_. + bijungens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HYPOGRAMMIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Briarda, _Wlk_. + precedens, _Wlk_. + +Brana, _Wlk_. + calopasa, _Wlk_. + +Corsa, _Wlk_. + lignicolor, _Wlk_. + +Avatha, _Wlk_. + includens, _Wlk_. + +Gadirtha, _Wlk_. + decrescens, _Wlk_. + impingens, _Wlk_. + spurcata, _Wlk_. + rectifera, _Wlk_. + duplicans, _Wlk_. + intrusa, _Wlk_. + +Ercheia, _Wlk_. + diversipennis, _Wlk_. + +Plotheia, _Wlk_. + frontalis, _Wlk_. + +Diomea, _Wlk_. + rotundata, _Wlk_. + chloromela, _Wlk_. + orbicularis, _Wlk_. + muscosa, _Wlk_. + +Dinumma, _Wlk_. + placens, _Wlk_. + +Lusia, _Wlk_. + geometroids, _Wlk_. + perficita, _Wlk_. + replusa, _Wlk_. + +Abunis, _Wlk_. + trimesa, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CATEPHIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Cocytodes, _Guén_. + coerula, _Guén_. + modesta, _Wlk_. + +Catephia, _Ochs_. + linteola, _Guén_. + +Anophia, _Guén_. + acronyctoids, _Guén_. + +Steiria, _Wlk_. + subobliqua, _Wlk_. + trajiciens, _Wlk_. + +Aucha, _Wlk_. + velans, _Wlk_. + +Ægilia, _Wlk_. + describens, _Wlk_. + +Maceda, _Wlk_. + mansueta, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HYPOCALIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Hypocala, _Guén_. + efflorescens, _Guén_. + subsatura, _Guén_. + +Fam. CATOCALIDÆ, _Boisd_. + +Blenina, _Wlk_. + donans, _Wlk_. + accipiens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. OPHIDERIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Ophideres, _Boisd_. + Materna, _Linn._ + fullonica, _Linn._ + Cajeta, _Cram_. + Ancilla, _Cram_. + Salaminia, _Cram_. + Hypermnestra, _Cram_. + multiscripta, _Wlk_. + bilineosa, _Wlk_. + +Potamophera, _Guén_. + Maulia, _Cram_. + +Lygniodes, _Guén_. + reducens, _Wlk_. + disparans, _Wlk_. + hypolenca, _Guén_. + +Fam. EREBIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Oxyodes, _Guén_. + Clytia, _Cram_. + +Fam. OMMATOPHORIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Speiredonia, _Hübn_. + retrahens, _Wlk_. + +Sericia, _Guén_. + atrops, _Guén_. + parvipennis, _Wlk_. + +Patula, _Guén_. + macrops, _Linn._ + +Argiva, _Hübn_. + hieroglyphica, _Drury_. + +Beregra, _Wlk_. + replenens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HYPOPYRIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Spiramia, _Guén_. + Heliconia, _Hübn_. + triloba, _Guén_. + +Hypopyra, _Guén_. + vespertilio, _Fabr_. + +Ortospana, _Wlk_. + connectens, _Wlk_. + +Entomogramma, _Guén_. + fautrix, _Guén_. + +Fam. BENDIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Homæa, _Guén_. + clathrum, _Guén_. + +Hulodes, _Guén_. + caranea, _Cram_. + palumba, _Guén_. + +Fam. OPHIUSIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Sphingomorpha, _Guén_. + Chlorea, _Cram_. + +Lagoptera, _Guén_. + honesta, _Hübn_. + magica, _Hübn_. + dotata, _Fabr_. + +Ophiodes, _Guén_. + discriminans, _Wlk_. + basistigma, _Wlk_. + +Cerbia, _Wlk_. + fugitiva, _Wlk_. + +Ophisma, _Guén_. + lætabilis, _Guén_. + deficiens, _Wlk_. + gravata, _Wlk_. + circumferens, _Wlk_. + terminans, _Wlk_. + +Achæa, _Hübn_. + Melicerta, _Drury_. + Mezentia, _Cram_. + Cyllota, _Guén_. + Cyllaria, _Cram_. + fusifera, _Wlk_. + signivitta, _Wlk_. + reversa, _Wlk_. + combinans, _Wlk_. + expectans, _Wlk_. + +Serrodes, _Guén_. + campana, _Guén_. + +Naxia, _Guén_. + absentimacula, _Guén_. + Onelia, _Guén_. + calefaciens, _Wlk_. + calorifica, _Wlk_. + +Catesia, _Guén_. + hoemorrhoda, _Guén_. + +Hypætra, _Guén_. + trigonifera, _Wlk_. + curvifera, _Wlk_. + condita, _Wlk_. + complacens, _Wlk_. + divisa, _Wlk_. + +Ophiusa, _Ochs_. + myops, _Guén_. + albivitta, _Guén_. + Achatina, _Sulz_. + fulvotænia, _Guén_. + simillima, _Guén_. + festinata, _Wlk_. + pallidilinea, _Wlk_. + luteipalpis, _Wlk_. + +Fodina, _Guén_. + stola, _Guén_. + +Grammodes, _Guén_. + Ammonia, _Cram_. + Mygdon, _Cram_. + stolida, _Fabr_. + mundicolor, _Wlk_. + +Fam. EUCLIDIDÆ, _Guén_. +Trigonodes, _Guén_. + Hippasia, _Cram_. + +Fam. REMIGIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Remigia, _Guén_. + Archesia, _Cram_. + frugalis, _Fabr_. + pertendens, _Wlk_. + congregata, _Wlk_. + opturata, _Wlk_. + +Fam. FOCILLIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Focilla, _Guén_. + submemorans, _Wlk_. + +Fam. AMPHIGANIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Lacera, _Guén_. + capella, _Guén_. + +Amphigonia, _Guén_. + hepatizans, _Guén_. + +Fam. THERMISIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Sympis, _Guén_. + rutibasis, _Guén_. + +Thermesia, _Hübn_. + finipalpis, _Wlk_. + soluta, _Wlk_. + +Azazia, _Wlk_. + rubricans, _Boisd_. + +Selenis, _Guén_. + nivisapex, _Wlk_. + multiguttata, _Wlk_. + semilux, _Wlk_. + +Ephyrodes, _Guén_. + excipiens, _Wlk_. + crististera, _Wlk_. + lineitera, _Wlk_. + +Capnodes, _Guén_. + *maculicosta, _Wlk_. + +Ballatha, _Wlk_. + atrotumens, _Wlk_. + +Daranissa, _Wlk_. + digramma, _Wlk_. + +Darsa, _Wlk_. + detectissima, _Wlk_. + +Fam. URAPTERYDÆ, _Guén_. + +Lagyra, _Wlk_. + Talaca, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ENNOMIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Hyperythra, _Guén_. + limbolaria, _Guén_. + +Orsonoba, _Wlk_. + Rajaca, _Wlk_. + +Fascelima, _Wlk_. + chromataria, _Wlk_. + +Laginia, _Wlk_. + bractiaria, _Wlk_. + +Fam. BOARMIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Amblychia, _Guén_. + angeronia, _Guén_. + poststrigaria, _Wlk_. + +Boarmia, _Treit_. + sublavaria, _Guén_. + admissaria, _Guén_. + raptaria, _Wlk_. + Medasina, _Wlk_. + Bhurmitra, _Wlk_. + Suiasasa, _Wlk_. + diffluaria, _Wlk_. + caritaria, _Wlk_. + exclusaria, _Wlk_. + +Hypochroma, _Guén_. + minimaria, _Guén_. + +Gnophos, _Treit_. + Pulinda, _Wlk_. + Culataria, _Wlk_. + +Hemerophila, _Steph_. + vidhisara, _Wlk_. + +Agathia, _Guén_. + blandiaria, _Wlk_. + +Bulonga, _Wlk_. + Ajaia, _Wlk_. + Chacoraca, _Wlk_. + Chandubija, _Wlk_. + +Fam. GEOMETRIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Geometra, _Linn._ + specularia, _Guén_. + Nanda, _Wlk_. + +Nemoria, _Hubn_. + caudularia, _Guên_. + solidaria, _Guén_. + +Thalassodes, _Guén_. + quadraria, _Guén_. + catenaria, _Wlk_. + immissaria, _Wlk_. + Sisunaga, _Wlk_. + adornataria, _Wlk_. + meritaria, _Wlk_. + coelataria, _WlK_. + gratularia, _Wlk_. + chlorozonaria, _Wlk_. + læsaria, _Wlk_. + simplicaria, _Wlk_. + immissaria, _Wlk_. + +Comibæna, _Wlk_. + Divapala, _Wlk_. + impulsaria, _Wlk_. + +Celenna, _Wlk_. + saturaturia, _Wlk_. + +Pseudoterpna, _Wlk_. + Vivilaca, _Wlk_. + +Amaurima, _Guén_. + rubrolimbaria, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PALYADÆ, _Guén_. + +Eumelea, _Dunc_. + ludovicata, _Guén_. + aureliata, _Guén_. + *carnearia, _Wlk_. + +Fam. EPHYRIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Ephyra, _Dap_. + obrinaria, _Wlk_. + decursaria, _Wlk_. + Cacavena, _Wlk_. + abhadraca, _Wlk_. + Vasudeva, _Wlk_. + Susarmana, _Wlk_. + Vutumana, _Wlk_. + inæquata, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ACIDALIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Drapetodes, _Guén_. + mitaria, _Guén_. + +Pomasia, _Guén_. + Psylaria, _Guén_. + Sunandaria, _Wlk_. + +Acidaria, _Treit_. + obliviaria, _Wlk_. + adeptaria, _Wlk_. + nexiaria, _Wlk_. + addictaria, _Wlk_. + actiosaria, _Wlk_. + defamataria, _Wlk_. + negataria, _Wlk_. + actuaria, _Wlk_. + cæsaria, _Wlk_. + +Cabera, _Steph_. + falsaria, _Wlk_. + decussaria, _Wlk_. + famularia, _Wlk_. + nigrarenaria, _Wlk_. + +Hyria, _Steph_. + elataria, _Wlk_. + marcidaria, _Wlk_. + oblataria, _Wlk_. + grataria, _Wlk_. + rhodinaria, _Wlk_. + +Timandra, _Dup_. + Ajura, _Wlk_. + Vijura, _Wlk_. + +Agyris, _Guén_. + deharia, _Guén_. + +Zanclopteryx, _Herr. Sch_. + saponaria, _Herr. Sch_. + +Fam. MICRONIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Micronia, _Guén_. + caudata, _Fabr_. + aculeata, _Guén_. + +Fam. MACARIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Macaria, _Curt_. + Eleonora, _Cram_. + Varisara, _Wlk_. + Rhagivata, _Wlk_. + Palaca, _Wlk_. + honestaria, _Wlk_. + Sangata, _Wlk_. + honoraria, _Wlk_. + cessaria, _Wlk_. + subcandaria, _Wlk_. + +Doava, _Wlk_. + adjutaria, _Wlk_. + figuraria, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LARENTIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Sauris, _Guén_. + hirudinata, _Guén_. + +Camptogramma, _Steph_. + baceata, _Guén_. + +Blemyia, _Wlk_. + Bataca, _Wlk_. + blitiaria, _Wlk_. + +Corenna, _Guén_. + Comatina, _Wlk_. + +Lobophora, _Curt_. + Salisnea, _Wlk_. + Ghosha, _Wlk_. + contributaria, _Wlk_. + +Mesogramma, _Steph_. + lactularia, _Wlk_. + scitaria, _WLk_. + +Eupithecia, _Curt_. + recensitaria, _Wlk_. + admixtaria, _Wlk_. + immixtaria, _Wlk_. + +Gathynia, _Wlk_. + miraria, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PLATYDIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Trigonia, _Guén_. + Cydoniatis, _Cram_. + +Fam. HYPENIDÆ, _Herr_. + +Dichromia, _Guén_. + Orosialis, _Cram_. + +Hypena, _Schr_. + rhombalis, _Guén_. + jocosalis, _Wlk_. + mandatalis, _Wlk_. + quæsitalis, _Wlk_. + laceratalis, _Wlk_. + iconicalis, _Wlk_. + labatalis, _Wlk_. + obacerralis, _Wlk_. + pactalis, _Wlk_. + raralis, _Wlk_. + paritalis, _Wlk_. + surreptalis, _Wlk_. + detersalis, _Wlk_. + ineffectalis, _Wlk_. + incongrualis, _Wlk_. + rubripunctum, _Wlk_. + +Gesonia, _Wlk_. + *obeditalis, _Wlk_. + duplex, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HERMINIDÆ, _Dup_. + +Herminia, _Latr_. + Timonaris, _Wlk_. + diffusalis, _Wlk_. + interstans, _Wlk_. + +Adrapsa, _Wlk_. + ablualis, _Wlk_. + +Bertula, _Wlk_. + abjudicalis, _Wlk_. + raptatalis, _Wlk_. + contigens, _Wlk_. + +Bocana, _Wlk_. + jutalis, _Wlk_. + manifestalis, _Wlk_. + ophinsalis, _Wlk_. + vagalis, _Wlk_. + turpatalis, _Wlk_. + hypernalis, _Wlk_. + gravatalis, _Wlk_. + tomodalis, _Wlk_. + +Orthaga, _Wlk_. + Euadrusalis, _Wlk_. + +Hipoepa, _Wlk_. + lapsalis, _Wlk_. + +Lamura, _Wlk_. + oberratans, _Wlk_. + +Echana, _Wlk_. + abavalis, _Wlk_. + +Dragana, _Wlk_. + pansalis, _Wlk_. + +Pingrasa, _Wlk_. + accuralis, _Wlk_. + +Egnasia, _Wlk_. + ephiradalis, _Wlk_. + accingalis, _Wlk_. + participalis, _Wlk_. + usurpatalis, _Wlk_. + +Berresa, _Wlk_. + natalis, _Wlk_. + +Imma, _Wlk_. + rugosalis, _Wlk_. + +Chusaris, _Wlk_. + retatalis, _Wlk_. + +Corgatha, _Wlk_. + zonalis, _Wlk_. + +Catada, _Wlk_. + glomeralis, _Wlk_. + captiosalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PYRALADÆ, _Guén_. + +Pyralis, _Linn._ + igniflualis, _Wlk_. + Palesalis, _Wlk_. + reconditalis, _Wlk_. + Idahalis, _Wlk_. + Janassalis, _Wlk_. + +Aglossa, _Latr_. + Guidusalis, _Wlk_. + +Labanda, _Wlk_. + herbealis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ENNYCHIDÆ, _Dup._ + +Pyrausta. _Schr._ + *absistalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ASOPIDÆ, _Guén_ + +Desmia, _Westw_. + afflictalis, _Guén_. + concisalis, _Wlk_. + +Ædiodes, _Guén._. + flavibasalis. _Guén_. + effertalis, _Wlk_. + +Samea, _Guén_. + gratiosalis, _Wlk_. + +Asopia. _Guén_. + vulgalis, _Guén_. + falsidicalis, _Wlk_. + abruptalis, _Wlk_. + latim orginalis, _Wlk_. + præteritalis, _Wlk_. + Eryxelis, _Wlk_. + rofidalis, _Wlk_. + +Agathodes, _Guén_. + ostentalis, _Geyer_. + +Leucinades, _Guén_. + orbonalis, _Guén_. + +Hymenia, _Hübn_. + recurvalis, _Fabr_. + +Agrotera, _Schr_. + suffusalis, _Wlk_. + decessalis, _Wlk_. + +Isopteryx, _Guén_. + *melaleucalis, _Wlk_. + *impulsalis, _Wlk_. + *spromelalis, _Wlk_. + acclaralis, _Wlk_. + abnegatalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HYDROCAMPIDÆ, _Guén_. +Oligostigma, _Guén_. + obitalis, _Wlk_. + votalis, _Wlk_. + +Cataclysia, _Herr Sch_. + diaicidalis, _Guén_. + bisectalis, _Wlk_. + blaudialis, _Wlk_. + elutalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. SPILOMELIDÆ, _Guén_. +Lepyrodes, _Guén_. + geometralis, _Guén_. + lepidalis, _Wlk_. + peritalis, _Wlk_. + +Phalangiodes, _Guén_. + Neptisalis, _Cram_. + +Spilomela, _Guén_. + meritalis, _Wlk_. + abdicatis, _Wlk_. + decussalis, _Wlk_. + +Nistra, _Wlk_. + coelatalis, _Wlk_. + +Pagyda. _Wlk_. + salvalis, _Wlk_. + +Massepha, _Wlk_. + absolutalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. MARGORODIDÆ, _Guén_. + +Glyphodes, _Guén_. + diurnalis, _Guén_. + decretalis, _Guén_. + coesalis, _Wlk_. + univocalis, _Wlk_. + +Phakellura, _L. Guild_. + gazorialis, _Guén_. + +Margarodes, _Guén_. + psittæalis, _Hübn_. + pomonalis, _Guén_. + hilaralis, _Wlk_. + +Pygospila, _Guén_. + Tyresalis, _Cram_. + +Neurina, _Guén_. + Procopalis, _Cram_. + ignibasalis, _Wlk_. + +Hurgia, _Wlk_. + detamalis, _Wlk_. + +Maruca, _Wlk_. + ruptalis, _Wlk_. + caritalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. BOTYDÆ, _Guén_. + +Botys, _Latr_. + marginalis, _Cram_. + sillalis, _Guén_. + multilineatis, _Guén_. + admensalis, _Wlk_. + abjungalis, _Wlk_. + rutilalis, _Wlk_. + admixtalis, _Wlk_. + celatalis, _Wlk_. + deductalis, _Wlk_. + celsalis, _Wlk_. + vulsalis, _Wlk_. + ultimalis, _Wlk_. + tropicalis, _Wlk_. + abstrusalis, _Wlk_. + ruralis, _Wlk_. + adhoesalis, _Wlk_. + illisalis, _Wlk_. + stultalis, _Wlk_. + adductalis, _Wlk_. + histricalis, _Wlk_. + illectalis, _Wlk_. + suspictalis, _Wlk_. + Janassalis, _Wlk_. + Cynaralis, _Wlk_. + Dialis, _Wlk_. + Thaisalis, _Wlk_. + Dryopealis, _Wlk_. + Myrinalis, _Wlk_. + phycidalis, _Wlk_. + annulalis, _Wlk_. + brevilinealis, _Wlk_. + plagiatalis, _Wlk_. + +Ebulea, _Guén_. + aberratalis, _Wlk_. + Camillalis, _Wlk_. + +Pionea, _Guén_. + actualis, _Wlk_. + Optiletalis, _Wlk_. + Jubesalis, _Wlk_. + brevialis, _Wlk_. + suffusalis, _Wlk_. + +Scopula, _Schr_. + revocatalis, _Wlk_. + turgidalis, _Wlk_. + volutatalis, _Wlk_. + +Godara, _Wlk_. + pervasalis, _Wlk_. + +Herculia, _Wlk_. + bractialis, _Wlk_. + +Mecyna. _Guén_. + deprivalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. SCOPARIDÆ, _Guén_. +Scoparia. _Haw_. + murificalis, _Wlk_. + congestalis, _Wlk_. + Alconalis, _Wlk_. + +Davana. _Wlk_. + Phalantalis, _Wlk_. + +Darsania, _Wlk_. + Niobesalis, _Wlk_. + +Dosara. _Wlk_. + coelatella, _Wlk_. + lapsalis, _Wlk_. + immeritalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CHOREUTIDÆ, _Staint_. + +Niaccaba. _Wlk_. + sumptialis, _Wlk_. + +Simæthis. _Leach_. + Clatella, _Wlk_. + Damonella, _Wlk_. + Bathusella, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PHYCIDÆ, _Staint_. + +Myelois, _Hübn_. + actiosella, _Wlk_. + bractiatella, _Wlk_. + cantella, _Wlk_. + adaptella, _Wlk_. + illusella, _Wlk_. + basifuscella, _Wlk_. + Ligeralis, _Wlk_. + Marsyasalis, _Wlk_. + +Dascusa, _Wlk_. + Valensalis, _Wlk_. + +Daroma, _Wlk_. + Zeuxoalis, _Wlk_. + Epulusalis, _Wlk_. + Timeusalis, _Wlk_. + +Homoesoma, _Curt_. + gratella, _Wlk_. + Getusella, _Wlk_. + +Nephopteryx, _Hübn_. + Etolusalis, _Wlk_. + Cyllusalis, _Wlk_. + Hylasalis, _Wlk_. + Acisalis, _Wlk_. + Harpaxalis, _Wlk_. + Æolusalis, _Wlk_. + Argiadesalis, _Wlk_. + Philiasalis, _Wlk_. + +Pempelia, _Hübn_. + laudatella, _Wlk_. + +Prionapteryx, _Steph_. + Lincusalis, _Wlk_. + +Pindicitora, _Wlk_. + Acreonalis, _Wlk_. + Annusalis, _Wlk_. + Thysbesalis, _Wlk_. + Linceusalis, _Wlk_. + +Lacipea, _Wlk_. + muscosella, _Wlk_. + +Araxes, _Steph_. + admotella, _Wlk_. + decusella, _Wlk_. + celsella, _Wlk_. + admigratella, _Wlk_. + coesella, _Wlk_. + candidatella, _Wlk_. +Catagela, _Wlk_. + adjurella, _Wlk_. + acricuella, _Wlk_. + lunulella, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CRAMBIDÆ, _Dup_. + +Crambus, _Fabr_. + concinellus, _Wlk_. + +Darbhaca, _Wlk_. + inceptella, _Wlk_. + +Jartheza, _Wlk_. + honosella, _Wlk_. + +Bulina, _Wlk_. + solitella, _Wlk_. + +Bembina, _Wlk_. + Cyanusalis, _Wlk_. + +Chilo, _Zinck_. + dodatella, _Wlk_. + gratiosella, _Wlk_. + aditella, _Wlk_. + blitella, _Wlk_. + +Dariausa, _Wlk_. + Eubusalis, _Wlk_. + +Arrhade, _Wlk_. + Ematheonalis, _Wlk_. + +Darnensis, _Wlk_. + Strephonella, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CHLOEPHORIDÆ. _Staint_. + +Thagora, _Wlk_. + tigurans, _Wlk_. + +Earias, _Hübn_. + chromatana, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TORTRICIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Lozotænia, _Steph_. + retractana, _Wlk_. + +Peronea, _Curt_. + divisana, _Wlk_. + +Lithogramma, _Steph_. + flexilineana, _Wlk_. + +Dictyopteryx, _Steph_. + punctana, _Wlk_. + +Homona, _Wlk_. + fasciculana, _Wlk_. + +Hemonia, _Wlk_. + obiterana, _Wlk_. + +Achroia, _Hübn_. + tricingulana, _Wlk_. + +Fam. YPONOMEUTIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Atteva, _Wlk_. + niveigutta, _Wlk_. + +Fam. GELICHIDÆ, _Staint_. + +Depressaria, _Haw_. + obligatella, _Wlk_. + fimbriella, _Wlk_. + +Decuaria, _Wlk_. + mendicella, _Wlk_. + +Gelechia, _Hübn_. + nugatella, _Wlk_. + calatella, _Wlk_. + deductella, _Wlk_. + Perionella, _Wlk_. + +Gizama, _Wlk_. + blandiella, _Wlk_. + +Enisima, _Wlk_. + falsella, _Wlk_. + +Gapharia, _Wlk_. + recitatella, _Wlk_. + +Goesa. _Wlk_. + decusella, _Wlk_. + +Cimitra, _Wlk_. + secinsella, _Wlk_. + +Ficulea, _Wlk_. + blandinella, _Wlk_. + +Fresilia, _Wlk_. + nesciatella, _Wlk_. + +Gesontha, _Wlk_. + cantiosella, _Wlk_. + +Aginis, _Wlk_. + hilariella, _Wlk_. + +Cadra, _Wlk_. + delectella, _Wlk_. + +Fam. GLYPHYPTIDÆ, _Staint_. + +Glyphyteryx, _Hübn_. + scitulella, _Wlk_. + +Hybele, _Wlk_. + mansuetella, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TINEIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Tinea, _Linn._ + tapetzella, _Linn._ + receptella, _Wlk_. + pelionella, _Linn._ + plagiferella, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LYONETIDÆ, _Staint_. + +Cachura, _Wlk_. + objectella, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PTEROPHORIDÆ, _Zell_. + +Pterophorus, _Geoffr_. + leucadacivius, _Wlk_. + oxydactylus, _Wlk_. + anisodactylus, _Wlk_. + + + +Order DIPTERA, _Linn._ + +Fam. MYCETOPHILIDÆ, _Hal_. + +Sciara, _Meig_. + *valida, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CECIDOMYZIDÆ, _Hal_. + +Cecidomyia, _Latr_. + *primaria, _Wlk_. + +Fam. SIMULIDÆ, _Hal_. + +Simulium, _Latr_. + *destinatum, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CHIRONOMIDÆ, _Hal_. + +Ceratopogon, _Meig_. + *albocinctus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CULICIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Culex, _Linn._ + regius, _Thwaites_. + fuscanns, _Wlk_. + circumvolans, _Wlk_. + contrahens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TIPULIDÆ, _Hal_. + +Ctenophora, _Fabr_. + Taprobanes, _Wlk_. + +Gymnoplistia? _Westw_. + hebes, _Wlk_. + +Fam. STRATIOMIDÆ, _Latr_. + +Ptilocera, _Wied_. + quadridentata, _Fabr_. + tastuosa, _Geist_. + +Pachygaster, _Meig_. + rutitarsis, _Macq_. + +Acanthina, _Wied_. + azurea, _Geist_. + +Fam. TABANIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Pangonia, _Latr_. + Taprobanes, _Wlk_. + + +Fam. ASILIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Trupanea, _Macq_. + Ceylanica _Macq_. + +Asilus, _Linn._ + flavicornis, _Macq_. + Barium, _Wlk_. + + +Fam. DOLICHOPIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Psilopus, _Meig_. + *procuratus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. MUSCIDÆ, _Latr_. + +Tachina? _Fabr_. + *tenebrosa, _Wlk_. + +Musca. _Linn._ + domestica, _Linn._ + +Dacus, _Fabr_. + *interclusus, _Wlk_. + *nigroæneus, _Wlk_. + *detentus, _Wlk_. + +Ortalis, _*Fall_. + *confundens, _Wlk_. + +Sciomyza, _Fall_. + eucotelus, _Wlk_. + +Drosophila, _*Fall_. + *restituens, _Wlk_. + +Fam. NYCTERIBIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Nycteribia, _Latr_. + ----? a species + parasitic on Scatophilus + Coromandelicus, + _Bligh_. + + + +Order HEMIPTERA, _Linn._ + +Fam. PACHYCORIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Cantuo, _Amyot & Serv_. + ocellatus, _Thunb_. + +Callidea, _Lap_. + superba, _Dall_. + Stockerus, _Linn._ + +Fam. EURYGASTERIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Trigonosoma, _Lap_. + Destontainii, _Fabr_. + +Fam. PLATASPIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Coptosoma, _Lap_. + laticeps, _Dall_. + +Fam. HALYDIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Halys, _Fabr_. + dentata, _Fabr_. + +Fam. PENTATOMIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Pentatoma, _Oliv_. + Timorensis, _Hope_. + Taprobanensis, _Dall_. + +Catacanthus, _Spin_. + Incarnatus, _Drury_. + +Rhaphigaster, _Lap_. + congrua, _Wlk_. + +Fam. EDESSIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Aspongopus, _Lap_. + anus, _Fabr_. + +Tesseratoma, _Lep. & Serv_. + papillosa, _Drury_. + +Cyclopelta, _Am. & Serv_. + siccifolia, _Hope_. + +Fam. PHYLLOCEPHALIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Phyllocephala, _Lap_. + Ægyptiaca, _Lefeb_. + +Fam. MICTIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Mictis, _Leach_. + castanea, _Dall_. + valida, _Dall_. + punctum, _Hope_. + +Crinocerus, _Burm_. + ponderosus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ANISOSCELIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Leptoscelis, _Lap_. + ventralis, _Dall_. + turpis, _Wlk_. + marginalis, _Wlk_. + +Serinetha, _Spin_. + Taprobanensis, _Dall_. + abdominalis, _Fabr_. + +Fam. ALYDIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Alydus, _Fabr_. + linearis, _Fabr_. + +Fam. STENOCEPHALIDÆ, _Dall_. + +Leptocorisa, _Latr_. + Chinensis, _Dall_. + +Fam. COREIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Rhopalus, _Schill_. + interruptus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. LYGÆIDÆ, _Westw_. + +Lygæus, _Fabr_. + lutescens, _Wlk_. + figuratus, _Wlk_. + discifer, _Wlk_. + +Rhyparochromus, _Curt_. + testacelpes, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ARADIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Piestosoma, _Lap_. + pierpes, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TINGIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Calloniana, _Wlk_. + *elegans, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CIMICIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Cimex, _Linn._ + lectularius, _Linn._? + +Fam. REDUVIIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Pirates, _Burm_. + marginatus, _Wlk_. + +Acanthaspis, _Am. & Serv_. + sanguimpes, _Wlk_. + fulvispina, _Wlk_. + +Fam. HYDROMETRIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Ptilomera, _Am. & Serv_. + laticanda, _Hardw_. + +Fam. NEPIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Belostoma, _Latr_. + Indicum, _St. Farg_. + +Nepa, _Linn._ + minor, _Wlk_. + +Fam. NOTONECTIDÆ, _Steph_. + +Notonecta, _Linn._ + abbreviata, _Wlk_. + simplex, _Wlk_. + +Corixa, _Geoff._ + *subjacens, _Wlk_. + + +Order HOMOPTERA, _Latr_. + +Fam. CICADIDÆ, _Westw_. + +Dundubia, _Am. & Serv_. + stipata, _Wlk_. + Clonia, _Wlk_. + Larus, _Wlk_. + +Cicada, _Linn._ + limitaris, _Wlk_. + nubifurca, _Wlk_. + +Fam. FULGORIDÆ, _Schaum_. + +Hotinus, _Am. & Serv_. + maculatus, _Oliv_. + fulvirostris, _Wlk_. + coccineus, _Wlk_. + +Pyrops, _Spin_. + punctata, _Oliv_. + +Aphæna, _Guér_. + sanguinalis, _Westw_. + +Elidiptera, _Spin_. + Emersoniana, _White_. + +Fam. CIXIIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Eurybrachys, _Guér_. + tomentosa, _Fabr_. + dilatata, _Wlk_. + crudelis, _Westw_. + +Cixius, _Latr_. + *nubilus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. ISSIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Hemisphærius, _Schaum_. + *Schaumi, _Staf_. + *bipustulatus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. DERBIDÆ, _Schaum_. + +Thracia, _Westw_. + pterophorides, _Westw_. + +Derbe, _Fabr_. + *furcato-vittata, _Stal_. + +Fam. FLATTIDÆ, _Schaum_. + +Flatoides, _Guér_. + hyalinus, _Fabr_. + tenebrosus, _Wlk_. + +Ricania, _Germ_. + Hemerobii, _Wlk_. + +Poeciloptera, _Latr_. + pulvernlenta, _Guér_. + stellaris, _Wlk_. + Tennentina, _White_. + +Fam. MEMBRACIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Oxyrhachis, _Germ_. + *indicans, _Wlk_. + +Centrotus, _Fabr_. + *reponens, _Wlk_. + *malleus, _Wlk_. + substitutus, _Wlk_. + *decipiens, _Wlk_. + *relinquens, _Wlk_. + *imitator, _Wlk_. + *repressus, _Wlk_. + *terminalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. CERCOPIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Cercopis, _Fabr_. + inclusa, _Wlk_. + +Ptyelus, _Lep. & Serv_. + costalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. TETTIGONIIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Tettigonia, _Latr_. + paulula, _Wlk_. + +Fam. SCARIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Ledra, _Fabr_. + rugosa, _Wlk_. + conica, _Wlk_. + +Gypona, _Germ_. + prasina, _Wlk_. + +Fam. IASSIDÆ, _Wlk_. + +Acocephalus, _Germ_. + porrectus, _Wlk_. + +Fam. PSYLLIDÆ, _Latr_. + +Psylla, _Goff_. + *marginalis, _Wlk_. + +Fam. COCCIDÆ, _Leach_. + +Lecanium, _Illig_. + Coffeæ, _Wlk_. + + + + + +CHAP. XIII. + +ARTICULATA. + + * * * * * + +_Arachinida--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 grace 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 singular 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, 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 butterflies 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 become +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. + +[Illustration: Spider] + +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 expanded, 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Species of the true _Tarentula_ are not uncommon in Ceylon; +they are all of very small size, and perfectly harmless.] + +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 Gampola in the vicinity of +Kandy, and one taken in the store-room of the rest-house there, nearly +covered with its legs an ordinary-sized breakfast plate.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Plate opposite.] + +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 overhanging 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 monsoon, 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 larvæ and worms, devouring cockroaches and their pupæ, and +attacking the millepeds, gryllotalpæ, and other fleshy insects. + +Mr. EDGAR L. LAYARD has described[1] an encounter between a Mygale and a +cockroach, which he witnessed in the madua of a temple at Alittane, +between Anarajapoora and Dambool. When about a yard apart, each +discerned the other and stood still, the spider with his legs slightly +bent and his body raised, the cockroach confronting him and directing +his antennæ with a restless undulation towards his enemy. The spider, by +stealthy movements, approached to within a few inches and paused, both +parties eyeing each other intently; then suddenly a rush, a scuffle, 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 clytra remaining. + +[Footnote 1: _Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist._ May, 1853.] + +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. Petersburg, Holland, and England. +In a work on the Insects of Surinam, published in 1705[1], she figured +the _Mygale aricularia_, in the act of devouring a humming-bird. The +accuracy of her statement has since been impugned[2] 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 writer somewhat illogically declares, that he +"disbelieves the existence of any bird-catching spider." + +[Footnote 1: _Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphosibus Insectorum +Surinamensium_, Amst. 1701. Fol.] + +[Footnote 2: By Mr. MACLEAY in a paper communicated to the Zoological +Society of London, _Proc._ 1834, p. 12.] + +Some years later, however, the same writer felt it incumbent on him to +qualify this hasty conclusion[1], in consequence of having seen at +Sydney an enormous spider, the _Epeira 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 +_Mygale_; 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." + +[Footnote 1: See _Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._ for 1842, vol. viii. p. +324.] + +Subsequent observation has, however, served to sustain the story of +Madame Merian.[1] Baron Walckenær and Latreille both corroborated it by +other authorities; and M. Moreau da Jonnès, 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. Jonnès 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 vertebræ.[2] + +[Footnote 1: See authorities quoted by Mr. SHUCKARD in the _Ann. and +Mag. of Nat. Hist._ 1842, vol. viii. p. 436, &c.] + +[Footnote 2: At a meeting of the Entomological Society, July 20, 1855, a +paper was read by Mr. H.W. BATES, who stated that in 1849 at Cameta in +Brazil, he "was attracted by a curious movement of the large grayish +brown Mygale on the trunk of a vast tree: it was close beneath a deep +crevice or chink in the tree, across which this species weaves a dense +web, at one end open for its exit and entrance. In the present instance +the lower part of the web was broken, and two small finches were +entangled in its folds. The finch was about the size of the common +Siskin of Europe, and he judged the two to be male and female; one of +them was quite dead, but secured in the broken web; the other was under +the body of the spider, not quite dead, and was covered in parts with a +filthy liquor or saliva exuded by the monster. "The species of spider," +Mr. Bates says, "I cannot name; it is wholly of a gray brown colour, and +clothed with coarse pile." "If the Mygales," he adds, "did not prey upon +vertebrated animals, I do not see how they could find sufficient +subsistence."--_The Zoologist_, vol. xiii. p. 480.] + +For my own part, no instance came to my knowledge in Ceylon of a mygale +attacking a bird; but PERCIVAL, 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: PERCIVAL'S _Ceylon_, p. 313.] + +The fact of its living on millepeds, blattæ, 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. + +Walckenær 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 under 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 vertically 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Over the country generally are scattered species of +_Gasteracantha_, remarkable for their firm shell-covered bodies, with +projecting knobs arranged in pairs. In habit these anomalous-looking +_Epeirdæ_ appear to differ in no respect from the rest of the family, +waylaying their prey in similar situations and in the same manner. + +Another very singular subgenus, met with in Ceylon, is distinguished by +the abdomen being dilated behind, and armed with two long spines, +arching obliquely backwards. These abnormal kinds are not so handsomely +coloured as the smaller species of typical form.] + +An officer in the East India Company's Service[1], 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 Taprobanius_,) which he saw near Monghyr on the Ganges; 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."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Capt. Sherwill.] + +[Footnote 2: _Jour. Asiat. Soc. Bengal_, 1850, vol. xix. p. 475.] + +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 +witness to its ferocity[1], was seen to attack a young sparrow half +grown, and seize it by the thigh, _which it sawed through_. The "savage +then caught the bird by the throat, and put an end to its sufferings by +cutting off its head." "On another occasion," 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. + +[Footnote 1: Capt. Hutton. See a paper on the _Galeodes voræ_ in the +_Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. xi. Part 11. p. 860.] + +In the hills around Pusilawa, I have seen the haunts of a curious +species of long-legged spiders[1], 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 Galle, 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? + +[Footnote 1: _Phalangium bisignatum_.] + +_Ticks_.--Ticks are to be classed among the intolerable nuisances to the +Ceylon traveller. They live in immense numbers in the jungle[1], and +attaching themselves to the plants by the 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 inserting 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 with grey, attaches itself +to the buffaloes. + +[Footnote 1: Dr. HOOKER, in his _Himalayan Journal_, vol. i. p. 279, in +speaking of the multitude of those creatures in the mountains of Nepal, +wonders what they tend to feed on, as in these humid forests in which +they literally swarmed, there was neither pathway nor animal life. In +Ceylon they abound everywhere in the plains on the low brush-wood; and +in the very driest seasons they are quite as numerous as at other times. +In the mountain zone, which is more humid, they are less prevalent. Dogs +are tormented by them: and they display something closely allied to +cunning in always fastening on an animal in those parts where they +cannot be torn off by his paws; on his eye-brows, the tips of his ears, +and the back of his neck. With a corresponding instinct I have always +observed in the gambols of the Pariah dogs, that they invariably +commence their attentions by mutually gnawing each other's ears and +necks, as if in pursuit of ticks from places from which each is unable +to expel them for himself. Horses have a similar instinct; and when they +meet, they apply their teeth to the roots of the ears of their +companions, to the neck and the crown of the head. The buffaloes and +oxen are relieved of ticks by the crows which rest on their backs as +they browse, and free them from these pests. In the low country the same +acceptable office is performed by the "cattle-keeper heron" (_Ardea +bubulcus_), which is "sure to be found in attendance on them while +grazing; and the animals seem to know their benefactors, and stand +quietly, while the birds peck their tormentors from their +flanks."--_Mag. Nat. Hist._ p. 111, 1844.] + +_Mites_.--The _Trombidium tinctorum_ of Hermann is found about Aripo, +and generally over the northern provinces,--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 perfectly 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 assailants. The +great size, too (little short of a foot in length), 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. + +[Illustration: CERMATIA.] + +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 myriapods 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 motionless, and +resting with their regularly extended limbs nearly flat against the +walls. On being disturbed they dart away with a surprising velocity, to +conceal themselves in chinks until the return of night. + +But the species to be really dreaded are the true _Scolopendræ_, which +are active and carnivorous, living in holes in old walls and other +gloomy dens. One species[1] attains to nearly the length of a foot, with +corresponding breadth; it is of a dark purple colour, approaching black, +with yellowish legs and antennæ, and in its whole aspect repulsive and +frightful. It is strong and active, and evinces an eager disposition to +fight when molested. The _Scolopendræ_ 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Scolopendra crassa_, Temp.] + +There is a smaller species[1], 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Scolopendra pallipes_.] + +_The Fish-insect_.--The chief inconvenience of a 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 during 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 larvæ 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 individuals; so +have these vegetable depredators been provided with foes who pursue and +feed greedily upon them. These are of widely different genera; but +instead 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_[1]), +and another is the pretty little silvery creature (_Lepisma_), called by +Europeans the "fish-insect."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Of the first of these, three species have been noticed in +Ceylon, all with the common characteristics of being nocturnal, very +active, very minute, of a pale chesnut colour, and each armed with a +crab-like claw. They are + + _Chelifer Librorum_, Temp. + _Chelifer oblongus_, Temp. + _Chelifer acaroides_, Hermann. + +Dr. Templeton appears to have been puzzled to account for the appearance +of the latter species in Ceylon, so far from its native country, but it +has most certainly been introduced from Europe, in Dutch or Portuguese +books.] + +[Footnote 2: _Lepisma niveo-fasciata_, Templeton, and _L. niger_, Temp. +It was called "Lepisma" by Fabricius, from its fish-like scales. It has +six legs, filiform antenna, and the abdomen terminated by three +elongated setæ, two of which are placed nearly at right angles to the +central one. LINNÆUS states that the European species, with which book +collectors are familiar, was first brought in sugar ships from America. +Hence, possibly, these are more common in seaport towns in the South of +England and elsewhere, and it is almost certain that, like the chelifer, +one of the species found on book-shelves in Ceylon, has been brought +thither from Europe.] + +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. + +_Millepeds_.--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[1], lying in short curved tubes, the cavity admitting 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 animal gently forwards. This +_Julus_ is harmless, and may be handled with perfect impunity. Its food +consists chiefly of fruits and the roots and stems of succulent +vegetables, its jaws not being framed for any more formidable purpose. +Another and a very pretty species[2], 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Julus ater_.] + +[Footnote 2: _Julus carnifex_, Fab.] + +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. + +[Illustration: CALLING CRAB OF CEYLON.] + +In the bazaars several species of edible crabs are exposed for sale; and +amongst the delicacies 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[1] of extraordinary +dimensions and of a beautiful purple hue, variegated with white. Along +the level shore north and south of Colombo, and in no less profusion +elsewhere, the nimble little Calling Crabs[2] scamper over the moist +sands, carrying aloft the enormous hand (sometimes larger than the 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Palinurus ornatus_, Fab. P--n. s.] + +[Footnote 2: _Gelasimus tetragonon_? Edw.; _G. annulipes_? Edw.; _G. +Dussumieri_? Edw.] + +_Sand Crabs_.--In the same localities, or a little farther inland, the +_Ocypode_[1] 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.[2] So inconvenient 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 Galle 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. + +[Footnote 1: _Ocypode ceratophthamus_. Pall.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ann. Nat. Hist_. April, 1852. Paper by Mr. EDGAR L. +LAYARD.] + +_Painted Crabs_.--On the reef of rocks which lies to the south of the +harbour at Colombo, the beautiful little painted crabs[1], distinguished +by dark red markings on a yellow ground, may be seen all day long +running nimbly in the spray, and ascending and descending in security +the almost perpendicular sides of the rocks which are washed by the +waves. _Paddling Crabs_[2], 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 delicacies for the breakfast table; and the +delicate little pea crab, _Pontonia inflata_[3], recalls its +Mediterranean congener[4], which attracted the attention of Aristotle, +from taking up its habitation in the shell of the living pinna. + +[Footnote 1: _Grapsus strigosus_, Herbst.] + +[Footnote 2: _Neptunus pelagicus_, Linn.; _N. sanguinolentus_, Herbst, +&c. &c.] + +[Footnote 3: MILNE EDW., _Hist. Nat. Crust_., vol. ii. p. 360.] + +[Footnote 4: _Pinnotheres veterum_.] + +ANNELIDÆ.--The marine _Annelides_ of the island have not as yet been +investigated; a cursory glance, however, amongst the stones, on the +beach at Trincomalie 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.[1] They are +not frequent in the plains. which are too hot and dry for them; but +amongst the rank vegetation in the lower ranges of the hill country, +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 envelope their legs in "leech gaiters" made of +closely woven cloth. The natives smear their bodies with oil, tobacco +ashes, or lemon juice[2]; 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 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, +congregate with singular celerity. Their size is so insignificant, 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 resort; 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 ledge 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 the march of troops in the mountains, when the +Kandyans 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.[3] + +[Footnote 1: _Hæmadipsa Ceylanica_. Bose. Blainv. These pests are not, +however, confined to Ceylon, they infest the lower ranges of the +Himalaya.--HOOKER, vol. i. p. 107; vol. ii. p. 54. THUNBERG, who records +(_Travels_, vol. iv. p. 232) having seen them in Ceylon, likewise met +with them in the forests and slopes of Batavia. MARSDEN (_Hist_. p. 311) +complains of them dropping on travellers in Sumatra. KNORR found them at +Japan; and it is affirmed that they abound in islands farther to the +eastward. M. GAY encountered them in Chili.--(MOQUIN-TANDON, +_Hirudinées_, p. 211, 346). It is very doubtful, however, whether all +these are to be referred to one species. M. DE BLAINVILLE, under _H. +Ceylanica_, in the _Dict. de Scien. Nat_. vol. xlvii. p. 271, quotes M. +Bosc as authority for the kind, which that naturalist describes being +"rouges et tachetées;" which is scarcely applicable to the Singhalese +species. It is more than probable therefore, considering the period at +which M. BOSC wrote, that he obtained his information from travellers to +the further east, and has connected with the habitat universally +ascribed to them from old KNOX'S work (Part 1. chap. vi.) a meagre +description, more properly belonging to the land leech of Batavia or +Japan. In all likelihood, therefore, there may be a _H. Boscii_, +distinct from the _H. Ceylanica_. That which is found in Ceylon is +round, a little flattened on the inferior surface, largest at the anal +extremity, thence gradually tapering forward, and with the anal sucker +composed of four rings, and wider in proportion than in other species. + +[Illustration: EYES AND TEETH OF THE LAND LEECH OF CEYLON] + +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 five pairs, are placed in an arch on the +dorsal surface; 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 intervening. To Mr. Thwaites, Director of the Botanic +Garden at Peradenia, who at my request examined 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 ocelli, 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 cutting instruments, +is principally muscular, the muscular body being very clearly seen. The +rounded edge in which the teeth are set appears to be cartilaginous in +structure; the teeth are very numerous, (_fig_. B); but some near the +base have a curious appendage, apparently (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-like +appendage. The tint of the common species is yellowish-brown or +snuff-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 fasciæ 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."] + +[Illustration: LAND LEECHES IN PURSUIT] + +[Footnote 2: The Minorite friar, ODORIC of Portenau. writing in A.D. +1320, says that the gem-finders who sought the jewels around Adam's +Peak, "take lemons which they peel, anointing themselves with the juice +thereof, so that the leeches may not be able to hurt them."--HAKLUYT, +_Voy._ vol. ii. p. 58.] + +[Footnote 3: DAVY'S _Ceylon_, p. 104; MARSHALL'S _Ceylon_, p. 15.] + +One circumstance regarding these land leeches is remarkable 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 _Rotifera_, be dried up and preserved for an indefinite +period, resuming their vital activity on the mere recurrence of +moisture?[1] + +[Footnote 1: See an account of the _Rotifera_ and their faculty of +repeated vivifaction, in the note appended to this chapter.] + +Besides a species of the medicinal leech, which[1] is 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[2], 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 approach to drink. +Their natural food consists of the juices of lumbrici and other +invertebrata; but they 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 passages, 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.[3] + +[Footnote 1: _Hirudo sanguisorba_. The paddi-field leech of Ceylon, used +for surgical purposes, has the dorsal surface of blackish olive, with +several longitudinal striæ, more or less defined; the crenated margin +yellow. The ventral surface 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 teeth are 140 in each series, appearing as a single row; in +size diminishing gradually from one end, very close set, and about half +the width of a tooth apart. When full grown, these leeches are about two +inches long, but reaching to six inches when extended. Mr. Thwaites, to +whom I am indebted for these particulars, 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 +examining them particularly. + +[Illustration: DORSAL.] + +[Illustration: VENTRAL.] + +Mr. Thwaites states that there is a smaller tank leech of an olive-green +colour, with some indistinct longitudinal striæ on the upper surface; +the crenated margin of a pale yellowish-green; ocelli as in the +paddi-field leech; length, one inch at rest, three inches when extended. + +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.] + +[Footnote 2: _Hæmopsis paludum_. In size the cattle leech of Ceylon is +somewhat larger than the medicinal leech of Europe: in colour it is of a +uniform brown without bands, unless a rufous margin may be so +considered. It has dark striæ. 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 attachment, and the incision of the membrane is +scarcely perceived by the sufferer from its attack.] + +[Footnote 3: 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 +ruptured by their serrated jaws. Instances have come to my knowledge of +Europeans into whose nostrils they had gained admission and caused +serious disturbance.] + + * * * * * + + +ARTICULATA. + +_APTERA_. + + +THYSANURA. + +Podura _albicollis_. + _atricollis_. + _viduata_. + _pilosa_. + +Archoreutes _coccinea_. + +Lepisma nigrofasciara, _Temp_. + _nigra._ + + +ARACHNIDA. + +Buthus afer. _Linn_. + Ceylonicus, _Koch_. + +Scorpio _linearis_. + +Chelifer librorum. + _oblongus_. + +Obisium _crassifemur_. + +Phrynus lunatus, _Pall_. + +Thelyphonus caudatus, _Linn._ + +Phalangium _bisignatum_. + +Mygale fasciata, _Walck_. + +Olios taprobanius, _Walck_. + +Nephila ... ? + +Trombidium tinctorum, _Herm_. + +Oribata ... ? + +Ixodes ... ? + + +MYRIAPODA. + +Cermatia _dispar_. + +Lithobius _umbratilis_. + +Scolopendra _crassa_. + spinosa, _Newp_. + _pallipes_. + _Grayii_? _Newp_. + tuberculidens, _Newp_. + Ceylonensis, _Newp_. + flava, _Newp_. + _olivacea_. + _abdominalis_, + +Cryptops _sordidus_. + _assimilis_. + +Geophilus _tegularius_. + _speciosus_. + +Julus _ater_. + carnifex, _Fabr_. + _pallipes_. + _fiaviceps_. + _pallidus_. + +Craspedosoma _juloides_. + _præusta_. + +Polydesmus _granulatus_. + +Cambala _catenulata_. + +Zephronia _conspicua_. + + +_CRUSTACEA_. + +DECAPODA BHACHTUEA. + +_Polybius_. + +Neptunus pelagicus, _Linn._ + sanguinolentus, _Herbst_. + +Thalamlta ... ? + +Thelphusa _Indica, Latr_. + +_Cardisoma_ ... ? + +Ocypoda ceratophthalmus, _Pall_, + _macrocera, Edw_. + +Gelasimus _tetragonon, Edw_. + _annulipes, Edw_. + +Macrophthalmus _carinimanus, Latr_. + +Grapsus _messor, Forsk_. + strigosus, _Herbst_. + +Plagusia depressa, _Fabr_. + +Calappa philargus, _Linn._ + _tuberculata, Fabr_. + +Matota victor, _Fabr_. + +Leucosia _fugax, Fabr_. + +_Dorippe_. + +DECAPODA ANOMURA. + +_Dromia_ ... ? + +Hippa Asiatica, _Edw_. + +Pagurus affinis, _Edw_. + _punctulatus, Oliv_. + +_Porcellana_ ... ? + +DECAPODA MACRURA. + +Scyllarus _orientalis, Fabr_. + +Palinurus ornatus, _Fabr_. + affinis, _N.S._ + +_Crangon_ ... ? + +_Alpheus_ ... ? + +Pomonia inflata, _Edw_. + +Palæmon carcinus, _Fabr_. + +Steaopus ... ? + +Peneus ...? + +STOMATOPODA. + +_Squilla_ ... ? + +Gonodactylus chiragra, _Fabr_. + + +_CIRRHIPEDIA_. + +_Lepas_. + +_Balanus_. + + +_ANNELIDA_. + +Tubicolæ. + +Dorsibranchiata. + +Abranchia. + Hirudo _sanguisorba_. + _Thwaitesii_. + Hæmopsis _paludum_. + Hæmadipsa Ceylana. _Blainv_. + +Lumbricus ... ? + + * * * * * + +NOTE + +ON THE FACULTY OF REPEATED RE-VIVIFICATION POSSESSED BY THE _ROTIFERA_, +ETC. + + +The _Rotifer_, a singular creature, although 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 shower of rain supplies 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 +_Tardigrades_, (which belong to the _Acari_,) and certain paste-eels, +all exhibit a similar phenomenon. But although these different species +may die and be resuscitated 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 sixteenth alternation of +desiccation and damping, but paste-eels bore seventeen of those +vicissitudes. + +SPALLANZANI, after thoroughly drying sand rich in _Rotifera_, 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 drop of water. _If +they had exhausted their lives all at once and without these +intermissions, these Rotifera and paste-eels would not have lived beyond +sixteen or eighteen consecutive days._ + +To remove all doubt as to the complete desiccation of the animalcules +experimented on by SPALLANZANI and BAKER, M. DOYÈRE 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 week; after +which they were placed in a stove heated to 267° Fahr., and yet, when +again immersed in water, a number of the _Rotifera_ became 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. + + + + +INDEX. + + * * * * * + +ABOU-ZEYD, his account of fish on dry land, 350 n. +Abyssinia, fishes of, 352. +_Acalephæ_, 398. _See_ Radiata. +Acanthopterygii, 360. +Accipitres, 245. +_Acherontia Sathanas_, 427 +Adam's Peak, elephants on the summit, 109. +Ælian's account of the mermaid, 69. +his statement as to the export of elephants from Ceylon, 77 _n_., 209 _n_. + error as to the shedding of the elephant's tusks, 79 _n_. + describes elephants killing criminals with their knees. 87 _n_. + error as to elephants' joints, 102. + his account of Ceylon tortoises, 293. + his account of the superiority of the elephants of Ceylon, 209 _n_. + his description of the performances of the trained elephants at + Rome, 237. + his account of the sword-fish, 328. + describes a _Cheironectes_, 331. +African elephant, its peculiarities, 65. + not inferior to the Indian in tractability, 208. +Albino buffalo, 57. + deer, 59. +Albyrouni, on the pearl oyster, 375. +Alce, described by Pliny and Cæsar, 101 _n_. +Alexandria, story of the dogs at, 34. +Alligator, 283. _See_ Crocodile. +Almeida, Manoel de, on burying fishes, 353 _n_. +Amboina, mermaids at, 70. +Ampullaria, its faculty of burying itself, 355. +_Anabas_, 354. + Daldorf's account of, doubted, 349, 350. + accidents from, 351 n. +Angling bad in Ceylon, 335 _n_., 341. +_Annelidæ_, leeches, 479. + land-leech, its varieties, 482. + land-leech, its teeth and eyes, 480. + its tormenting bite, 482. + list of, 485. +Anseres, 260. +Ansted, Prof., on the geology of Ceylon, 61. + his statement as to the height of Indian elephants, 100 _n_. +Antiochus, elephants used by, 208. +Antipater, the first to bring the Indian elephant to Europe, 207. +Ant-lion, 411. _See_ Insects. +Ants, 420 _See_ Insects. + red, 420, 422. + white, 412. _See Termites_. + their faculty in discovering food, 421. +Armandi's work on the use of elephants in war, 208 _n_. +Aphaniptera, 433. +_Arachnidæ_, spiders, 464. + extraordinary webs, _ib_. + _Olios Taprobanius_, 470. + _Mygale fasciata_, 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. + _Trombidium tinctorum_, 472. + list of, 485. +Argus cowrie, 369. +Aripo, the sea-shore, 373. +Aristotle, account of fishes migrating overland, 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. +Athenæus, anecdotes of fishes on dry land, 346. +Avicula, 373. _See_ Pearl Fishery. +Avitchia, story of, 244. _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 hybernate 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 African 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, 407. + tortoise beetle, 408. +Bell, Sir Charles, on the elephant's shoulder, 108. +Benary, his derivation of the word elephant, 76 _n_. +Bengal mode of taking elephants, 164. +Bennett's account of Ceylon, _Introd_. + work on its Ichthyology, 323. +Bernier, on the Ceylon elephant, 209. +Bertolacci, on form of _chank shell_, 372. +Bestiaries, 104. +Bicho de Mar. _See_ Holothuria. +Birds of 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 bird' nests, 248. + kingfisher, sun birds, 249. + bulbul, tailor bird, weaver bird, 251. + crows, anecdotes of, 253. + paroquets, 256. + pigeons, 257. + jungle-fowl, 259. + _grallæ_, flamingoes, 260. + list of Ceylon birds, 265. +Bird-eating spiders, 469. +Birds' nests, edible, 248. +Blainville, De, on the age of the elephant, 232. +Blair, on the anatomy of the elephant, 123 _n_. +Bles, Marcellus, on the elephants of Ceylon. 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, 348. +Broderip, on the elephant, 122. +Browne, Sir Thomas, _vulgar errors_, 100, 105. + error as to elephants' 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 _n_., 215. +Bugs, 433. _See_ Insects _and_ Coffee-bug. +Buist, Dr., account of fish fallen from clouds, 362. +Bulbul, 251. _See_ Birds. +_Bulimi_, their vitality, 357. +_Bullia_, curious property of, 370. +Bullocks for draught, 50. +Burying fishes, 351. +Butterflies, 403, 425. _See_ Insects. + migration of, 403 _n_. + the spectre butterfly, 426. + +Cæcilia, 317. _See_ Reptiles. +Cæsar's description of the "_alce_," 100 _n_. +Cajan, 373 _n_. +Caldera, in Chili, musical sounds under water, 383. +Calotes, the green, 276. +Camel, attempt to domesticate in Ceylon, 53 _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. +Carpenter bee, 418. _See_ Insects. +Caterpillars, stings of, 429. +Cats attracted by the _Cuppa-may-niya,_ 33. +Centipede, 474. _See_ Myriapoda _and_ Scolopendræ. +_Ceratophora_, 279. +_Cerithia_, 381. + probably musical, 381 _n._ +_Cermatia_, 473. _See_ Myriapoda. +Cetacea, 68, 74. + described by Megasthenes and Ælian, 69. +Chameleon, 278. _See_ Reptiles. +Chank shell, Turbinella rapa, 371. _See_ [Greek: Kochlious] and + _Schenek_. +Cheetah, 26. _See_ Leopard. +Cheironectes, described by Ælian, 331. +Cheiroptera, 13, 74. +_Chelifer_, 475. +Chelonia, 322. +Chena cultivation, 130. +Cicada, 432. _See_ Insects. +_Cirrhipeda_, 486. +Cissa, 252. +Civet, 32. _See_ Genette. +Climbing fish (_Anabas scandens_), 349. +Cluverius, 68. +Cobra de Capello, anecdotes of, 297. + legend 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, 301. + worship of, 303. +Cobra-tel, poison, 272. _See_ Kabara-tel. +Coecilia glutinosa, 317. + attacked and killed by ants, 422. +Coco-nut beetle, 407. +Coffee-bug, _Lecanium Caffeæ_, 436. +Coffee rat, 43. +Coleoptera, 405. +Columbidæ, 257. +Conchology. _See_ Shells. +Cooroowe, elephant catchers, 181. +Corral for taking elephants, 156, 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 elephants, 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, 233. _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-moy niya_ plant, its attraction for cats, 33 _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, 350. + his story doubted, 350. +Darwin, burying-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 dissection, 123 _n_. +Dicuil on the elephant, 103. +Diptera, 434. +Dogs, 33. + device of, to escape fleas, 433, 434. + dog-tax, 33. + republican instincts, 34. + disliked by elephants, 82, 84. +Donne, on the elephant, 105. +Doras, fish of Guiana, 347. +Dragon-flies, 411. _See_ Insects. +Dugong, 68, 69. + abundant at Manaar, 69. + origin of the 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. + [Greek: Elephas], 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. + 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 descending 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, 113 _n_. + a rogue, what, 114. + savage attacks of rogues, 116. + 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 elephants, 132. + anecdote of Col. Hardy, 132, 133. + sagacity in freedom over-estimated, 134. + leave the forests during thunder, 134. + cunning, feign death, 135. + stories of encounters with wild elephants, 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 _n_. + _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 demeanour, 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_. +Elephants, capricious disposition of, 215. + first labour intrusted to them, 217. + his comprehension of his duties, 218. + exaggeration of his strength in uprooting trees, 218 _n_. + Mahouts and their duties, 221. + Their cry of _urre!_ 222 _n_. + elephant's sense of musical notes, 223. + its endurance of pain, 224. + diseases in captivity, 225. + subject to tooth-ache, 227. + questionable economy of keeping trained elephants for labour, 229. + their cost, 230. + their food, 230 _n_. + fallacy of their alleged reluctance to breed in captivity, 231. + 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 Ælian 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 _n_. +Falkland Islands, peculiarity in the cattle there, 372 _n_. +Fauna of Ceylon, not common to India, _Introd_. 62. + peculiar and independent, _Introd_. 62. + have received insufficient attention, 3. + first study due to Dr. Davy, 3. + subsequent, due to Templeton, Layard, and Kelaart, 3, 4. +Fishes of Ceylon, little known, 323. + seir fish, and others for table, 324. + abundance of perch, soles, and sardines, 324. + explanation of Odoric's statement, 324 _n_. + sardines, said to be poisonous, 324. + shark, and sawfish, 325. + sawfish, 325. + ray, 326. + swordfish, 328. + cheironectes of Ælian, 331. + fishes of rare forms, and of beautiful colours, 332. + fresh-water fishes, their peculiarities, 335. + fresh-water, little known, _ib_.; reason, 335 _n_. + 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, 345. + the fact was known to the Greeks and Romans, 345. + instances in Guiana and Siam, 347. + faculty of all migratory fish for discovering water, 347 _n_. + on dry land in Ceylon, 348. + fish ascending trees, 349. + excerpt from letter by Mr. Morris, 348 _n_. + Anabas scandens, 349, 350. + 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 Abyssinia and elsewhere, 352. + statement of the patriarch Mendes, 553 _n_. +knowledge of habits of Melania employed judicially by E.L. Layard, 355 +_n_. + illustrations of æstivating fish and animals, 356. + æstivating shell-fish and water-beetlea, 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_, 367. +Fishing, native mode of, 340. +Fish insect, 475. +Flamingoes, 261. _See_ Birds. +Fleas, 433. _See_ Insects. +Fleurens, on the duration of life in the elephant, 232. +Flies, their instinct in discovering carrion, 196 _n_. + mosquitoes, the plague of, 434. +Flowers, fondness of monkeys for, 7. +Flying Fox. _Pteropus 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. +Flying squirrels, 41. +Fresh-water fishes, 335. +Fretz, Lieut., his singular wound, 154. +Frogs, 318. + tree frogs, 319, 320. + +Galle, elephants shipped in 1701, 163 _n_. +Gallinæ, 259. +Galloperdix bicalcaratus, 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 submersion, 61, 67. + Ceylon has a fauna distinct from India, 62. +"Golden Meadows," 211 _n_. _See_ Massoude. +Golunda rat, 43. +_Goondah_, 114. _See_ Rogue. +Gooneratne, Mr., _Introd_. + his story of the jackal, 35. +Gordon Cumming, his butchery of elephants in Africa, 146 _n_. +Gowra-ellia, 49. +Grallæ, 260. +Gray, Dr. J.E., Brit. Mus., _Introd_. + notice of Ceylon fishes, 366. +Great fire-fish, 332. +Guinea worm, 397. +Günther, Dr. A., on Ceylon reptiles, 275 _n_., 304. +Gwillim's Heraldry, error as to elephants, 105 _n_. + +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, 223. +Hastisilpe, a work on elephants, 87 _n_., 91. +Hawking, 246. +Hawks. _See_ Birds, 246. +Hedge-hog, 46. +Helix hæmastoma, its colouring, 372. +Hemiptera, 433, 462. +Hendoo, crook for driving elephants, 212. +Herd, a, of elephants, is a family, 111. + its mode of electing a leader, 117. +Herodotus, on mosquitoes, 435. + antipathy of the elephant to the camel, 83 _n_. +Herpestes, 38. +Herport, Albrecht, his work on India, 71 _n_. +_Hesperidæ_, 426. +Hill, Sir John, error as to elephants, 98. +Hippopotamus rogues, 115 _n_. +Histiophorus, 330. _See_ Sword-fish. +Holland, Dr., his theory as to the formation of tusks, 89 _n_. +_Holothurin_, 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_. +Homoptera, 462, 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 _n_., 472. +_Hora_, 115. _See_ Rogue. +Horace, alludes to a white elephant, 92 _n_. +Hornbill, _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, 157. +Hunter, Dr. John, his theory of æstivation, 356. +Hurra! 223 _n_. +Huxley, Prof., _Introd_. + his memorandum on the fishes of Ceylon, 364. +Hydrophobia in jackals, 36. +Hymenoptera, 416. + +_Ianthina_, 370. +Ichneumon, 39. _See_ Mongoos. +Iguana, 271. _See_ Reptiles. +_Infusoria_, Red, in the Ceylon seas, 400. +Insects of Ceylon, 403. + their profusion and beauty, 403. + hitherto imperfectly described, 404. + coleoptera, 405. + Beetles, scavengers, 405. + coco-nut beetle, tortoise beetle, 407. + tortoise beetle, 408. + Orthoptera, 408. + the soothsayer, leaf-insect, 410. + Neuroptera, 411. + dragon-flies, 411. + ant-lion, 411. + white ant, termites, 411. +Insects, _Hymenoptera_, mason-wasp, 416. + wasps, bees, wasps' nest, 418. + carpenter bee, 418. + ants, 420. + value of scavenger ants to conchologists, 421. + dimiya or red ant, 422. + introduced to destroy coffee-bug, 423. + _Lepidoptera_, butterflies, 424. + _lycænidæ, hesperidæ_, 426. + _acherontia sathanas_, 427. + moths, silk-worm, 427. + stinging caterpillars, 429. + oiketicus, 430. + _Homoptera, cicada_, the "knife-grinder," 432. + Flata, 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, 35. + its cunning, 35. + probably the "fox" of Scripture, 35. + its sagacity in hunting, 36. + subject to hydrophobia, 36. + jackal's horn, the _narric comboo_, 37. + superstitions connected with, 37. +Jackdaw, fable of, 244. _See_ Avitchia. +Jardine, Sir W., error as to elephants shedding their tusks, 79 _n_. +Jay, the mountain, 252. _See_ Cissa. +Joinville, on the parasite of the bat, 20. +_Julus_, 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 Ceylon, 4. + examination of the Radiata, 395. + discoveries as to the pearl oyster, 375. +Kingfisher, 249. _See_ Birds. +Kinnis, Dr., cultivates zoology, 4. +Kite, on Egyptian sculpture, 246 _n_. +Knife-grinder, 432. _See_ Cicada. +Knox, R., account of Ceylon fauna, _Introd_. + his description of the Wanderoo, 5. + of elephants executing criminals, 87. + of the mode of catching elephants, 157. +Knox, his description of natives fishing, 340. +[Greek: Kochlious], 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 _n_. + +Layard, E.A., his knowledge of Ceylon zoology, 4. + his collections of Ceylon birds, 241. + story of fish on dry land, 318. + anecdote of burying molluscs, 355. +Leaf insect. 408-410. _See_ Insects. +Leaping fish, 332. _See Salarias alticus_. +_Lecanium Caffeæ_, 436. +Leeches, 479. _See Annelidæ_. + land leech, 479. + medicinal leech, 483. + cattle leech, 344. +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 Major Skinner, 29. + monkeys killed by leopards, 31. +Lepidoptera, 424. +_Lepisma_, the fish insect, 474. +Lima, General de, his account of the weight of elephants' tusks at +Mozambique, 79 _n_. +Livingstone's account of the "rogue" hippopotamus, 115 _n_. +Llama of the Andes, its stomach, 128 _n_. +Livy, account of fishes on dry land, 346. +Lizards, 271. _See_ Reptiles. +Lophobranchi, 362. +_Loris_, 12. _See_ Mammalia. + two varieties in Ceylon, 12. + torture inflicted on it, 13. +Lucan, description of the ichneumon, 39. +_Lycænidæ_, 426. +Lyre-headed lizard, 277. + +Macabbees iii. Book, allusion to elephants, 87 _n_., 211 _n_. +Macacus monkey, 5. +Machlis described by Cæsar, 101. +Macready, Major, account of a noise made by elephants, 97. +his opinion as to the vulnerable point in the elephant's head. 145 +_n_. +Mahawanso, mentions a white elephant, 93. +Mahout, an elephant driver, 181. _See_ Ponnekella. +Mahout, alleged short life, 222. +_Malacopterygii abdominales_, 362. + _sub-branchiati_, 362. + _apoda_, 362. +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 found dead, 11. + _Loris_, 12. + tortures inflicted on it, 13. + Bat, flying fox, 14. + skeleton of, 14. + attracted by toddy to the coco-nut palms, 18. + horse-shoe bat, 18. + parasite of the bat, Nycteribia, 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. + Mongoos, 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, 45. + pengolin, 46-48. + the gaur, 49. + the ox, 50. + anecdote of, 51. + draft oxen, 51-53. + the buffalo, 54. + sporting buffaloes, 55. + peculiarity of the buffalo's foot, 56. + deer, 57. + meminna, 57, 58. + Ceylon elk, 59. + wild boar, 59. + elephant, 69, 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 _n_. +_Mastacembelus_, 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 _n_. +Meleagrina, 373 _n_. _See_ Pearl fishery. +Meminna deer, 58. +Mercator, 68. +Mercer, Mr., his story of an elephant fight, 86. +Mermaid, 68. _See_ Dugong. +Mermaids, at Manaar, 69. + at Amboina, 70. + at Booro, 71. + at Edam, 72. +Millipeds, _Julus_, 477. +Mites, 472. +Mollusca. _See_ Shells. +Molyneux, on the anatomy of the elephant, 122 _n_. +Mongoos, 38. _See_ Ichneumon. + species at Neuera-ellia, _Herpestes Vitticollis_, 38. + story of its antidote against the bite of serpents, 39. + its mode of killing snakes, 39. +Monkeys, 5. + never found dead, 11. + a white monkey, 8. +Moors of Galle, make ornaments of the elephant's teeth, 153. +Moors, as caravan drivers, 53. +Moose deer, 58. _See_ Meminna. +Morris, Mr., 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. + _Tritonia 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, 411. +Nietner, on Ceylon insects, _Introd_. +_Nycteribia_, 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_. +_Oiketicus_, 430. +Oil-bird, 269. +Ophidia, 321. +Ortelius, 68. +Orthoptera, 408. +Ouanderoo. _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, 248. +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, 107. + 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 _machlis_, 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. + _Priamus_, 10. + its curiosity, 11. +Protopterus of the Gambia, 352. +Pseudophidia, 322. +Pterois volitans, 333. +_Pterophorus_, 430. _See_ Insects. +Pteropus, 14. _See_ Flying Fox. +Pyrard de Laval, on the Ceylon elephant, 209. +Python, its great size, 303. + +Quadrumana, 5, 74. +Quatrefage on the Rotifera, 487. + +_Radiata_, star-fish, 395. + sea-slugs, holothuria, 396. + parasitic worms, 396. + Guinea worm, 397. + _planaria_, 398. + _acalephæ_, 398. + Portuguese Man-of-war, 400. + Red infusoria, 400. +Raja-kariya, forced labour, in elephant hunts, 170. +Raja-welle estate, story of an elephant at, 133 _n_. +Ramayana, Ceylon elephants mentioned in, 210. +Rats, 42. + eaten as food in Oovah and Bintenne, 43. + liable to hydrophobia, 43. + coffee rat, 43. + bandicoot, 44. +Rat snake, anecdote of, 43. +Rat-snake, domesticated, 299 _n_. +Ray, 326, 327. +Reinaud, on the ancient use of the elephant in Indian wars, 205 _n_. +Reptiles of Ceylon described by Dr. Davy, _Introd_. + lizards, iguana, 271. + kabara-tel, poison, 272. + blood-suckers, 275. + calotes, the green, 276. + lyre-headed lizard, 277. + chameleon, 278. + _ceratophora_, 279. + gecko, anecdotes of, 281, 282. + crocodile, 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 taking tortoise-shell, 293. + snakes, few poisonous, 294. + tic-polonga, 296. + cobra de capello, 297. + legends of the cobra, 297-298 _n_. + _uropeltis_, 301. + the python, 303. + haplocercus, 304. + tree-snakes, 305. + water snakes, 308. + sea snakes, 308. + the snake-stone and its composition, 312-317. + _cæcilia_, 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, 41, 74. +Rogers, Major, story of his horse, 84. + 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. +_Ronkedor_, 114. _See_ "Rogue." +_Ronquedue_, 114. _See_ "Rogue." + dangerous encounters with, 136. +Rotifera, marvellous faculty in, 486. +Rousette. _See_ Flying-fox _and_ Pteropus, 14. +Ruminantia, 49, 74. + +_Salarias Alticus_, 332. + almasius, 68. +Sardines, said to be poisonous, 324. +Saw fish, 325. _See_ Fishes. +Scaliger, Julius, 68. +Scansores, 256. +_Scarus harid_, 335. +_Schenck_, 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. +Schomburgk, Sir R., on the fishes of Guiana, 347. +Sciurus Tennentii, 41 _n_. +_Scolopiendræ_, centipede, 474. +Scorpions, 474. +Sea slugs, _holothuria_, 397. +Sea snakes, 308. +Seir-fish, 324. +Seneca, account of fishes on dry land, 346. +Septuagint, allusion to elephants in, 87, 210 _n_. +Serpents, 294. _See_ Reptiles. +Shakspeare, on the elephant, 105. + describes its capture in pit-falls, 157 _n_. +Sharks, 325. +Shark charmer, 378. +Shaw, error as to elephants shedding their tusks, 79 _n_. +Shells of Ceylon, 369. + lanthina, 370. + Bullia vittata, 370. + chanks, 371. + oysters, immense, 371 _n_. + Helix hæmastoma, 372. + Pearl fishery, 373. + Musical shells, 381. + Mr. Henley's memorandum, 386. + uncertainty as to species, 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. _Introd_. _n_. + adventure with a leopard, 30. + great number of elephants killed by him, 142. + description of the Panickeas or elephant catchers, 158, 159 _n_. + anecdotes of elephants, 118. + collection of Ceylon fish, 339. +Small-pox attracts the leopard, 28. + native superstition, 29. +Snakes, 294. _See_ Reptiles. + few venomous, 296. + tic-polonga, 296. + cobra de capello, 297. + legends of, 297 _n_. + stories of, 298. +Snakes, tamed snakes, 299 _n_. + snakes crossing the sea, 300. + curious tradition of the cobra-de-capello, 300. + uropeltis, and explanation of the popular belief, 302. + reluctance of Buddhists to kill snakes, 303. + python or "boa," 303. + tree snakes, 305. + the _Passerita fusca_, 306. + water snakes, 308. + sea snakes, 308. + their geographical distribution, 309. + their habits, 310. + cæcilia, 317. +Snake-stone, its alleged virtue, 312. + anecdotes of its use, 312. + 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, 44. +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_. +Stuckley, on the anatomy of the elephant, 123 _n_. +Sumatra confounded with Ceylon, 67. + elephant of, 64. + points in which it differs from that of India, 65. +Sun bird, 249. _See_ Birds. +Superstitions:--Singhalese folk-lore regarding bears, 24 _n_. + leopards, 27, 29. + mongoos, 38. + kabra-goya, 273. + cobra-de-capello, 300. + use of snake-stones, 315. + elephants' burial-place, 236. +Suriya trees, caterpillars on, 429. +Syrnum Indranee, 246. _See_ Devil-bird. +Swallows, 248. _See_ Birds. +Sword-fish, 328. + +Tailor-bird, 251. _See_ Birds; +Tamblegam, lake of, 380. + pearls, 380. +Tarentula, _Mygale fasciata_, 465. + 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, _ib_. + 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 elephant, 106. +Thunberg, account of the snake-stone, 317. +_Thysdnura_, 464. +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_ Turtle. + parasite of, 289. + fresh-water tortoises, 290. _See_ Terrapins. +Tortoise-shell, cruel mode of taking, 293. +Tree frogs, 320. +Tree snakes, 304. +Trepang, 396. _See_ Sea-slug. +_Tritonia arborescens_, 385. _See_ Musical Fish. + letter on, 401. +_Trombidium tinctorum. See_ Mites. +Trumpeting of elephants, 97, 201. +Trunk, elephant's, origin of the name, 97 _n_. +Tsetse fly of Africa, 40. +Turbinella rapa, 371. _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 _n_. +Tusks, Dr. Holland's theory of their formation, 88 _n_. +Tytler, Mr., story of an elephant, 133 _n_. + +_Uropeltis_, 301. +Urré! 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, Esq., Brit Mus., _Introd_. +White, of Selbourne, his theory of animals suckled by strange mothers, 113 + _n_. +White ants, 411. _See_ Termites. +Whiting, Mr., account of buried fishes, 342 _n_., 354. +Wild-boar, 59. +Wolf, Jo. Christian, travels in Ceylon, 99 _n_., 115 _n_. + 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, 154. +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. + + +LONDON +PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. +NRW-STREET SQUARE + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon +by J. Emerson Tennent + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13325 *** |