Scansores.

Loriculus Asiaticus, Lath. Palaeornis Alexandri, Linn. torquatus, Briss. cyanocephalus, Linn. Calthropae, Layard. Layardi, Blyth. Megalaima Indica, Latr. Zeylanica, Gmel. flavifrons, Cuv. rubicapilla, Gm. Picus gymnophthalmus, Blyth. Mahrattensis, Lath. Macei, Vieill. Gecinus chlorophanes, Vieill. Brachypternus aurantius, Linn. Ceylonus, Forst. rubescens, Vieill. Stricklandi, Layard. Micropterus gularis, Jerd. Centropus rufipennis, Illiger. chlororhynchos, Blyth. Oxylophus melanoleucos, Gm. Coramandus, Linn. Endynamys orientalis, Linn. Cuculus Bartletti, Layard. striatus, Drapiez. canorus, Linn. Polyphasia tenuirostris, Gray. Sonneratii, Lath. Hierococcyx varius, Vahl. Surniculus dicruroides, Hodgs. Phoenicophaus pyrrhocephalus, Forst. Zanclostomus viridirostris, Jerd.

Columbae.

Treron bicincta, Jerd. flavogularis, Blyth. Pompadoura, Gm. chlorogaster, Blyth. Carpophaga pusilla, Blyth. Torringtoniae, Kelaart. Alsocomus puniceus, Tickel. Columba intermedia, Strickl. Turtur risorius, Linn. Suratensis, Lath. humilis, Temm. orientalis, Lath. Chalcophaps Indicus, Linn.

Gallinae.

Pavo cristatus, Linn. Gallus Lafayetti, Lesson. Galloperdix bicalcaratus, Linn. Francolinus Ponticerianus, Gm. Perdicula agoondah, Sykes. Coturnix Chinensis, Linn. Turnix ocellatus var. Bengalensis, Blyth. Turnix ocellatus var. taigoor, Sykes.

Gralliae.

Esacus recurvirostris, Cuv. Oedienemus crepitans, Temm. Cursorius Coromandelicus, Gm. Lobivanellus bilobus, Gm. Goensis, 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. Ibis falcinellus, Linn. Numenius arquatus, Linn. phoeopus, Linn. Totanus fuscus, Linn. ochropus, Linn. calidris, Linn. hypoleucos, Linn. glottoides, Vigors. stagnalis, Bechst. Actitis glareola, Gm. Tringa minuta, Leist. subarquata, Gm. Limicola platyrhyncha, Temm. Limosa aegocephala, Linn. Himantopus candidus, Bon. Recurvirostra avocetta, Linn. Haematopus ostralegus, Linn. Rhynchoea Bengalensis, Linn. Scolopax rusticola, Linn. Gallinago stenura, Temm. scolopacina, Bon. gallinula, Linn. Hydrophasianus Sinensis, Gm. Ortygometra rubiginosa, Temm. Corethura Zeylanica, Gm. Porzana pygmaea, Nan. Rallus striatus, Linn. Indicus, Blyth. Porphyrio poliocephalus, Lath. 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. ichthyaetus, Pall. Sylochelidon Caspius, Lath. Hydrochelidon Indicus, Steph. Gelochelidon Anglicus, Mont. Onychoprion anasthaetus, Scop. Sterna Javanica, Horsf. melanogaster, Temm. minuta, Linn. Seena aurantia, Gray. Thalasseus Bengalensis, Less. cristata, Steph. Dromas ardeola, Payk. Atagen ariel, Gould. Thalassidroma melanogaster, Gould. Plotus melanogaster, Gm. Pelicanus Philippensis, Gm. Graculus Sinensis, Shaw. pygmaeus, 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 at some future day be determined that some included in it have a wider geographical range.

Haematornis 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.

Batrachostomus monoliger. The oil bird; was discovered amongst the precipitous rocks of the Adam's Peak range by Mr. Layrard. 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 night-jar; swarms on the marshy plains of Neuera-ellia at dusk.

Hirundo hyperythra. The red-bellied swallow; was discovered in 1849 by Mr. Layard at Ambepusse. They build a globular nest with a round hole at top. A pair built in the ring for a hanging lamp in Dr. Gardner's study at Peradinia, 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.

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.

Tephrodornis affinis. The Ceylon butcher-bird. A migratory 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.

Enlabes 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.

Loriculus asiaticus. The small parroquet, abundant in various districts.

Palaeornis Calthropae. Layard's purple-headed parroquet, found at Kandy, is a very handsome bird, flying in flocks, and resting on the summits of the very highest trees. Dr. Kelaart states that it is the only parroquet of the Neuera-ellia range.

Palaeornis Layardi. The Jaffna parroquet was discovered by Mr. Layard at Point Pedro.

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 flavogularis. The common green pigeon, is found in abundance at the top of Balacaddua Pass and at Ratnapoora. It feeds on berries and flies in large flocks. It was believed to be identical with the following.—Mag. Nat. Hist. p. 58: 1854.

Treron Pompadoura. The Pompadour pigeon. "The Prince of Canino has shown that this is a totally distinct bird, much smaller, with the quantity of maroon colour on the mantle greatly reduced."—Paper by Mr. BLYTH, Mag. Nat Hist. p. 514: 1857.

Carpophaga Torringtoniae. 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.

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 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.



CHAP. III.

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-goya 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 over, 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, where its delicate flesh 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-goya lives in almost any convenient hollow, such as a hole in the ground, or the deserted nest of the termites; and home small ones which frequented my garden at Colombo, made their retreat in the heart of a decayed tree. A still larger species, the Kabragoya[2], which is partial to marshy ground, 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 exanthemata, and it is curious that the native appellation of this one, Kabra[3], 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 inwardly taken it is poisonous.[4] It is one of the incidents which seem to indicate that Ceylon belongs to a separate circle of physical geography, this lizard has not hitherto been discovered on the continent of Hindustan, though it is found to the eastward in Burmah.[5]

[Footnote 1: Monitor dracaena, 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.]

[Footnote 2: Hydrosaurus salvator, Wagler.]

[Footnote 3: In the Mahawanso the hero, Tisso, 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 Kabra-goya.]

[Footnote 4: In the preparation of the mysterious poison, the Cobra-tel, which is regarded with so much horror by the Singhalese; the unfortunate Kabra-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, in 1840; and in dramatic arrangement it far outdoes the cauldron of Macbeth's witches. The ingredients are extracted from venomous snakes, the Cobra de Capello (from which it takes its name), the Carawella, and the Tic prolonga, by making an incision in the head and suspending the reptiles over a chattie to collect the poison. To this, arsenic and other drugs are added, and the whole is to be "boiled in a human skull, with the aid of the three Kabra-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 to be added to the boiling mixture, and so soon as an oily scum rises to the surface, the cobra-tel is complete."

Although it is obvious that the arsenic is the main ingredient in the poison, Mr. Morris reported to me that this mode of preparing it was actually practised in his district; and the above account was transmitted by him apropos to the murder of a Mohatal and his wife, which was then under investigation, and which had been committed with the cobra-tel. Before commencing the operation of preparing the poison, a cock is first sacrificed to the yakkos or demons.]

[Footnote 5: 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. 203, 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. GUENTHER on The Geog. Distribution of Reptiles, Magaz. Nat. Hist. for March, 1859, p. 230.]

Blood-suckers.—These, however, are but the stranger's introduction to innumerable varieties of lizards, 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 decaying chinks of every ruined wall. In all their motion there is that vivid and brief energy, the rapid but restrained action which is associated with their limited power of respiration, and 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' Paestum.]

One of the most beautiful of this 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 the power, like the chameleon, but in a less degree, of exchanging their ordinary colours for others less conspicuous. The C. ophiomachus, and another, the C. versicolor, exhibit this faculty in a remarkable manner. The head and neck, when the animal is irritated or hastily swallowing its food, becomes of a brilliant red (whence the latter has acquired the name of the "blood-sucker"), whilst the usual tint of the rest of the body is converted into pale yellow. The sitana[2], and a number of others, exhibit similar phenomena.

[Footnote 1: Calotes viridis, Gray.]

[Footnote 2: Sitana Ponticereana, Cuv.]

Chameleon.—The true chameleon[1] is found, but not in great numbers, in the dry districts in the north of Ceylon, where it frequents the trees, in slow pursuit of its insect prey. Whilst the faculty of this creature to blush 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 the brain, and the two sets of nerves which permeate the opposite sides of its frame. Hence, not only have each of the eyes an action quite independent of the other, but one side of its body would appear 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.

[Footnote 1: Chamaelio vulgaris, Daud.]

Ceratophora.—A unique lizard, and hitherto known only by two specimens, one in the British Museum, and another in that of Leyden, is the Ceratophora Stoddartii, distinguished by the peculiarity of its having no external ear, whilst its muzzle bears on its extremity the horn-like process from which it takes its name. It has recently been discovered by Dr. Kelaart to be a native of the higher Kandyan hills, where it is sometimes seen in the older trees in pursuit of sect larvae.[1]

[Footnote 1: Dr. Kelaart has likewise discovered at Neuera-ellia a Salea, distinct from the S. Jerdoni.]

Geckoes.—But the most familiar and attractive of the class are the Geckoes[1], which frequent the sitting-rooms, and being furnished with pads to each toe, 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 those of the cat. As soon as evening arrives, they emerge from the chinks and recesses where they conceal themselves during the day, in search of insects which retire to settle for the night, and are to be seen in every house in keen and crafty pursuit of their prey. 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, and punctually as the candles were lighted, it made its appearance on the wall to be fed with its accustomed crumb; and, if neglected, it reiterated its sharp quick call of chic, chic, chit, till attended to. It was of a delicate grey colour, tinged with pink; and having by accident fallen on a work-table, it fled, leaving 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 its 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 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, at their first dinner it made its entrance as usual the instant the cloth had been removed.

[Footnote 1: Hemidactylus maculatus, Dum. et Bib., Gray; H. Leschenaultii, Dum. et Bib.; H. frenatus, Schlegel.]

[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 which infest 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 throughout the northern provinces, but rarely frequent rapid streams, and have never been found in the marshy elevations among the hills. Their instincts in Ceylon present no variation from their habits in other countries. There would appear to be two well-distinguished species in the island, the Allie Kimboola[1], the Indian crocodile, which inhabits the rivers and estuaries throughout the low countries of the coasts, attaining the length of sixteen or eighteen feet, and which will 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] 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 are sometimes encountered wandering in search of water in the jungle; but generally, 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 the rains.[4] 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 the 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, had been 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.[5]

[Footnote 1: Crocodilus biporcatus. Cuvier.]

[Footnote 2: Crocodilus 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, attaches aux colonnes de leurs maisons. Ils les vendent la chair comme on vendrait de la chair de porc, mais a bien meilleur marche."—PALLEGOIX, Siam, vol. i. p. 174.]

[Footnote 4: HERODOTUS records the observations of the Egyptians that the crocodile of the Nile abstains from food during the four winter months.—Euterpe, lviii.]

[Footnote 5: HUMBOLDT relates a similar story as occurring at Calabazo, in Venezuela.—Personal Narrative, c. xvi.]

The species which inhabits the fresh water is essentially cowardly in its instincts, and hastens to conceal itself on the appearance of man. A gentleman (who told me the circumstance), when riding in the jungle, 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, it 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 with 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 in 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 evade 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 was apparent or possible except descending into the mud at the bottom of the pond.[1]

[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.]

TESTUDINATA. Tortoise,—Of the testudinata the 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 adhered to its fleshy neck in such a position as to baffle any attempt of the animal itself to remove them; but as they were exposed to constant danger of being crushed against the plastron during the protrusion and retraction of the head, each was 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 presented the distinct colour of the scale to which it adhered.[2]

[Footnote 1: Testudo stellata, Schweig.]

[Footnote 2: HOOKER'S Himalayan Journals, vol. i. p. 37.]

The marshes and pools of the interior are frequented by the terrapins[1], which the natives are in the habit of keeping alive in wells under the conviction that they clear them of impurities. The edible turtle[2] 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. At certain seasons the turtle on the south-western coast of Ceylon is avoided as poisonous, and some lamentable instances are recorded of death which was ascribed to their use. At Pantura, to the south of Colombo, twenty-eight persons who had partaken of turtle in October, 1840, were seized with sickness immediately, after which coma succeeded, 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 AElian, that in the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so large that several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single shell.[3]

[Footnote 1: Emyda Ceylonensis, GRAY, Catalogue, p. 64, tab. 29 a.; Mag. Nat. Hist. p. 265: 1856. Dr. KELAART, in his Prodromus (p. 179), refers this to the common Indian species, E. punctata; but Dr. Gray has shown it to be a distinct one. It is generally distributed in the lower parts of Ceylon, in lakes and tanks. It is put into wells to act the part of a scavenger. By the Singhalese it is named Kiri-ibba.]

[Footnote 2: Chelonia virgata, Schweig.]

[Footnote 3: "Tiktontai de ara en taute te thalatte, kai chelonai megintai, onper oun ta elytra orophoi ginontai kai gar esti kai mentekaideka pechon en cheloneion, hos hypoikein ouk oligous, kai tous helious pyroiestatous apostegei, kai skian asmetois parechei."—Lib. xvi. c. 17. AElian copied this statement literatim from MEGASTHENES, Indica Frag. lix. 31; and 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, and there is still a considerable trade in this article, which is manufactured into ornaments, boxes, and combs by the Moormen resident at Galle. 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.[2] In illustration of the resistless influence of instinct at the period of breeding, it may be mentioned that the same tortoise is believed to return again and again to the same spot, notwithstanding that at each visit she had 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.[3]

[Footnote 1: Chelonia imbricata; Linn.]

[Footnote 2: 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.—Journ. Indian Archipel. vol. iii. p. 227, 1849.]

[Footnote 3: BENNETT'S Ceylon, ch. xxxiv.]

Snakes.—It is perhaps owing to the aversion excited by the ferocious expression and unusual action of serpents, combined with an instinctive dread of attack, that 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 not more than one half have as yet been scientifically identified; but so cautiously do serpents make their appearance, that the surprise of long residents is invariably expressed at the rarity with which they are to be seen; and from my own journeys, through the jungle, often of two to five hundred miles, I have frequently returned without seeing a single snake.[1] Davy, whose attention was carefully directed to the poisonous serpents of Ceylon[2], 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[3] and cobra de capello[4]) were capable of inflicting a wound likely to be fatal to man. The third is the caraicilla[5], a brown snake of about twelve inches 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.

[Footnote 1: 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 snakes renders them the chief destroyers of these reptiles.]

[Footnote 2: See DAVY'S Ceylon, ch. xiv.]

[Footnote 3: Dabois elegans, Grey.]

[Footnote 4: Naja tripadians, Gunther.]

[Footnote 5: Trigonocephalus hypnale, Wegl.]

Cobra de Capello.—The cobra de capello is the only one exhibited by the itinerant snake-charmers: and the accuracy of Davy's conjecture, that they control it, not by extracting its fangs, but by courageously availing themselves of its accustomed 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 had been 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 sufficiently quickly, 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. There is a rare variety which the natives fancifully designate the "king of the cobras;" it has the head and the anterior half of the body of so light a colour, that at a distance it seems like a silvery white.[1] 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[2], the cobra de capello is the only serpent which seems from choice to frequent the vicinity of human dwellings, but it is doubtless attracted by the young of the domestic fowl and by the moisture of the wells and drainage. 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 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.[3] 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 land, in the bay of Koodremale, a cobra was seen, about an hour before sunset, swimming vigorously towards the ship. It came within twelve yards, when the sailors assailed it with billets of wood and other missiles, and forced it to return to land. The following morning they discovered the track which it had left on the shore, and traced it along the sand till it disappeared in the jungle.[4] 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.[5]

[Footnote 1: A Singhalese work, the Sarpa Doata, quoted in the Ceylon Times, January, 1857, enumerates four species of the cobra;—the raja, or king; the velyander, or trader; the baboona, or hermit; and the goore, or agriculturist. The young cobras, it says, are not venomous till after the thirteenth day, when they shed their coat for the first time.]

[Footnote 2: Coryphodon Blumenbachii. WOLF, in his interesting story of his Life and Adventures in Ceylon, mentions that rat-snakes were often so domesticated by the natives 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."

Since the above was written, 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."]

[Footnote 3: 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.]

[Footnote 4: STEWART'S Account of the Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon, p. 9: Colombo, 1843.

The Python reticulatus (the "rock-snake") has been known like the cobra de capello, to make short voyages at sea. One was taken on board H.M.S. "Hastings," when off the coast of Burmah, in 1853; it is now in the possession of the surgeon, Dr. Scott.]

[Footnote 5: SWAINSON, in his Habits and Instincts of Animals, c. iv. p. 187, says that instances are well attested of the common English snake having been met with in the open channel; between the coast of Wales and the island of Anglesea, as if they had taken their departure from the one and were bound for the other.]

In BENNETT'S account of "Ceylon and its Capabilities" there is a 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 which resembles that of a toad. A recent discovery of Dr. Kelaart 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, one only of which was known to inhabit Ceylon. They belong to a family intermediate between the lizards and serpents with the body of the latter, and the head of the former, with which they are moreover identified by having the upper jaw fixed to the skull as in mammals and birds, instead of movable as amongst the true ophidians. In this they resemble the amphisbaenidae; but the tribe of Uropeltidae, or "rough tails," has the further peculiarity, that the tail is truncated, instead of ending, like that of the typhlops, in a point more or less acute; and the reptile assists its own movements by pressing the flat end to the ground. Within a very recent period an important addition has been made to this genus, by the discovery of five new species in Ceylon; in some of which the singular construction of the tail is developed to an extent much more marked than in any previously existing specimen. One of these, the Uropeltis grandis of Kelaart, 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 be, I think, little doubt that to its strange and anomalous structure is to be traced the fable of the transformation of the cobra de capello. The colour alone would seem to identify the two reptiles, but the head and mouth are no longer those of a serpent, and the disappearance of the tail might readily suggest the mutilation which the tradition asserts.



The Singhalese Buddhists, in their religious abstinence from inflicting death on any creature, are accustomed, after securing a venomous snake, to enclose it in a basket of woven palm leaves, and to set it afloat on a river. 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 which were 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, had inflicted the wound in self-defence.[1] For these reasons the Singhalese, when obliged to leave their houses in the dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the noise[2] of which as they strike it on the ground is sufficient to warn the snakes to leave their path.

[Footnote 1: 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 2: 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 saepius."—Lib. viii. c. 36.]

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 so 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 which was brought to me in this way measured seventeen feet with a proportionate thickness: but another 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.

Of ten species which ascend the trees to search for squirrels and lizards, and to rifle the nests of birds, one half, including the green carawilla, and the deadly tic polonga, are believed by the natives to be venomous; but the fact 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, as it was the season for drawing it.

Water-Snakes.—The fresh-water snakes, of which four species have been described as inhabiting the still water and pools, are all harmless in Ceylon. A gentleman, who found near a river an agglutinated cluster of the eggs of one variety (Tropidonotus umbratus), placed them under a glass shade on his drawing-room table, where one by one the young serpents emerged from the shell to the number of twenty.

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 they saw one of two Tamils, who were approaching them, 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 the stones 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 have subsided; 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-thalee Kalinga (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, the 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 it 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 which were 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 it difficult to identify it, 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 a specific in the cure of snake-bites; 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, and not by the influence of any secondary appliance, the confidence inspired by the supposed talisman enabling 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, their impunity is ascribed to the use of a plant with which they anoint themselves before touching the reptile[2]; 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 undergo the experiment.

[Footnote 1: For an account of the encounter between the ichneumon and the venomous snakes of Ceylon, see Pt. II. ch. i. p. 149.]

[Footnote 2: Hassellquist.]

As to the snake-stone itself, I submitted one, the application of which I have been describing, to Mr. Faraday, and he 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 to any 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 preserve the composition as 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 a bezoar,—all of them (except the first, which possessed a slight absorbent power) were quite inert, and incapable of having any effect exclusive of that 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 absorption, 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. 1. p. 155.]

Caecilia.—The rocky jungle, bordering the higher coffee estates, provides a safe retreat for a very singular animal, first introduced to the notice of European naturalists about a century ago by Linnaeus, who gave it the name Caecilia glutinosa, to indicate two peculiarities manifest to the ordinary observer—an apparent defect of vision, from the eyes being so small and imbedded 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 from the readiness with which it decomposes, breaking down into a flaky mass in the spirits in which it is attempted to be preserved.

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.

Frogs.—In the numerous marshes formed by the overflowing of the rivers in the vast 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 strangers.[1] 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[2], of an olive hue, deepening into brown on the back and yellow on the under side. The Kandian species, recently described, is much less in dimensions, but distinguished by its brilliant colouring, a beautiful grass green above and deep orange underneath.[3]

[Footnote 1: The Indian toad (Bufo melanostictus, Schneid) is found In Ceylon, and the belief in its venomous nature is as old as the third century B.C., when the Mahawanso mentions that the wife of "King Asoca attempted to destroy the great bo-tree (at Magadha) with the poisoned fang of a toad."—Ch. xx. p. 122.]

[Footnote 2: Rana eutipora, and the Malabar bull-frog, R. Malabarica.]

[Footnote 3: R. Kandiana, Kelaart.]

In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the graceful little hylas[1] were to be found in great numbers, crouching 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. They possess in a high degree the power of changing their colour; and one which had seated itself on the gilt pillar of a dinner lamp was scarcely to be distinguished from the or-molu to which it clung. They are enabled to ascend glass by means of the suckers at the extremity of their toes. Their food consists of flies and minute coleoptera.

[Footnote 1: The tree-frog, Hyla leucomystax, Gracer.]

List of Ceylon Reptiles.

I am indebted to Dr. Gray of the British Museum for a more complete enumeration of the reptiles of Ceylon than is to be found in Dr. Kelaart's published lists; but many of those new to Europeans have been carefully described by the latter gentleman in his Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae and its appendices, as well as in the 13th vol. Magaz. Nat. Hist. (1854).

Saura.

Monitor dracaena, Linn. Hydrosaurus salvator, Wagl. Mabouya elegans, Gray. Riopa punctata, Linn. Hardwichii, Gray. Tiliqua rufescens, Shaw. Eumeces Taprobanius, Kel. Nessia Burtoni, Gray. Acontias Layardi, Kelaart. Argyrophis bramieus, Daud. Rhinophis Blythii, Kelaart. Mytilia Gerrardii, Gray. Templetonii, Gray. animaculata, Gray. melanogaster, Gray. Siluboura Ceylonica, Cuv. Uropeltis Saffragamus, Kelaart. grandis, Kelaart. pardalis, Kelaart. Dapatnaya Laukadivana, Kel. Trevelyanii, Kelaart. Hemidactylus frenatus, Schleg. Leschenaultii, Dum & Bib. trihedrus, Less. maculatus, Dum & Bib. Piresii, Kelaart. Coctoei, Dum & Bib. Peripia Peronii, Dum & Bib. Gymnodactylus Kandianus, Kel. Sitana Ponticercana, Cuv. Lyriocephalus scutatus, Wagl. Ceratophora Stoddartii, Gray. Salea Jerdoni, Gray. Calotes ophiomachus, Gray. versicolor, Dum. & Bib. Rouxii, Dum. & Bib. mystaceus, Dum. & Bib. Chamelo vuelgaris, Daud.

Ophidia.

Trimesuras viridis, Lucep. Ceylonensis, Gray. nigro-marginatus, Gthr. Megaera trigonoerphalux, Latr. Trigonocephalus hypnalis, Wagl. Dabois elegans, Gray. Pelamys bicolor, Doud. Aturia lapemoides, Gray. Hydrophis sublaevis, Gray. Chersydrus granulatus, Merr. Cerberus cinereus, Gray. Tropidophis schistosus, Daud. Python reticulatus, Gray. Cylindrophis rufa, Gray. maculata, Linn. Aspidura brachyorrhos, Boie. Haplocercus Ceylonensis, Gthr. Ohgodon 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, Guenther. Chrysopelea ornata, Shaw. Dendrophis picta, Gm. punctulata, Gray. Dryiophis prasina, Reinw. Passerita, myeterizans, Linn. var. fusca. Dipsas multimaculata Reinw. Dipsadomorphus Ceylonensis, Gray. Lycodon aulicus, Dum. & Bib. Cercaspis carinata, Kuhl. Bungarus fascinatus, Schneid. Naja tripudians, Merr.

Chelonia.

Testudo stellata, Schweig. Emys Sebae, Gray. Emyda Ceylonensis, Gray. Caretta imbrieuta, Limm. Chelonia virgata, Schweig.

Emydosauri.

Crocodyius biporderes, Cuv. palastris, Less.

BATRACHIA.

Rana cutipora, Dum. & Bib. Kuhlii, Schleg. vittigera, Wiegm. robusta, Blyth. tigrina, Daud. Leschenaultii, Dum & Bib. Kandiana, Kelaart. Neuera-elliana, Kelaart. Rana Malabarica, Dum. & Bib. Ixalus variabilis, Gray. leucorhinus, Martens. poecilopleurus, Martens. aurifasciatus, Dum. & Bib. Pyxicephalus fodiens, Jerd. Polypedates leucomystax, Gray. Polypedates microtympanum, Gray. eques, Gray. stellata, Kelaart. schmardana, Kelaart. Limnodytes lividus, Blyth. macularis, Blyth. mutabilis, Kelaart. maculatus, Kelaart. Bufo melanostictus, Schneid. Kelaartii, Gray. Engystoma marmoratum, Cuv. rubrum, Jerd. Kaloula pulchra, Gray. balteata, Guenther.

PSEUDOPHIDIA.

Caecilia glutinosa, Linn.

NOTE.—The following species are peculiar to Ceylon; and the genera Aspidura, Cercaspis, and Haplocercus would appear to be similarly restricted. Trimesurus Ceylonensis, T. nigro-marginatus; Megaera Trigonocephala; Trigonocephalus hypnalis; Daboia elegans; 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. IV.

FISHES.

Little has been yet done to examine and describe the fishes of Ceylon, 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 ichthyology of the island[1], but it never proceeded beyond the description of about 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, Esq. London, 1830.]

[Footnote 2: Historie Naturelle des Poissons.]

The fishes of the coast, so far as they have been examined, present few which are not common to the seas of Ceylon and India. A series of drawings, including upwards of six hundred species and varieties, of Ceylon fish, all made from recently-captured specimens, has been submitted to Professor Huxley, and a notice of their general characteristics forms an interesting article in the appendix to the present chapter.[1]

[Footnote 1: See note C to this chapter.]

Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far is the Seir-fish[1], a species of scomber, 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, dories, carp, whitings, mullet, red and striped, perches and soles, are abundant, and a sardine (Sardinella Neohowii, Val.) frequents the southern and eastern coast in such profusion that on 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 Friule, who visited India 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 its use 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 may not have been 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 two species of Sardine at Ceylon; the S. neohowii, Val., alluded to above, and the S. leiogaster, Val. and Cuv. xx. 270, which was found by Mr. 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 (Scomber pelamys?), 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 now a recognised export. A trade also exists in drying their fins, and from the gelatine contained in them, they find a ready market in China, to which the skin of the basking shark is also sent;—it is said to be there converted into shagreen.

Saw Fish.—The huge saw fish, the Pristis antiquorum[1], infests the eastern coast of the island[2], where it attains a length of from twelve to fifteen feet, including the powerful weapon from which its name is derived.

[Footnote 1: Two other species are found in the Ceylon waters, P. cuspidatus and P. pectinatus.]

[Footnote 2: ELIAN mentions, amongst the extraordinary marine animals found in the seas around Ceylon, a fish with feet instead of fins; [Greek: poias ge men chelas e pteri gia.]—Lib xvi. c. 18. Does not this drawing of a species of Chironectes, captured near Colombo, justify his description?

]

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 (Helocentrus ruber, Bennett) and the Great Fire Fish[1], are of the deepest scarlet and flame colour; in others purple predominates, as in the Serranus flavo-caeruleus; in others yellow, as in the Chaeetodon Brownriggii[2], and Acanthurus vittatus, 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. Scorpaena miles, Bennett; named, by the Singhalese, "Maha-rata-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. Mr. Bennett has given a drawing of this species, (pl. 9), so well marked by the armature of the head. The French naturalists regard this figure as being only a highly-coloured variety of their species "dont l'eclat est occasionne par la saison de l'amour." It is found in the Red Sea and Bourbon and Penang. Dr. CANTOR calls it Pterois miles, and reports that it preys upon small crustaceae.—Cat. Malayan Fishes, p. 44.]

[Footnote 2: Glyphisodon Brownriggii, Cuv. and Val. v. 484; Chaetodon Brownriggii, Bennett. A very small fish about two inches long, called Kaha bartikyha by the natives. It is distinct from Chaetodon, in which Mr. 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. saxatilis), 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. The fish raises or depresses this spine at pleasure. It 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 Mr. Bennett, who has figured it in his second plate, it is named Seweya. It is scarce on the southern coast of Ceylon.]

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.]

Of eight of these, which were from the Mahawelli-ganga, and caught in the vicinity of Kandy, five were carps[1], of which two were Leucisci, and one a Mastacemblus, to which Col. H. Smith has given the name of its discoverer, M. Skinneri[2], one was an Ophicephalus, and one a Polyacanthus, with no serrae on the gills. Six were from the Kalany-ganga, close to Colombo, of which two were Helastoma, in shape approaching the Choetodon; two Ophicephali, 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.

[Footnote 1: Of the fresh-water fishes belonging to the family Cyprinidae, there are about eighteen species from Ceylon in the collection of the British Museum.]

[Footnote 2: This fish bears the native name of Theliya in Major Skinner's list; and is described by Colonel Hamilton Smith as being "of the proportions of an eel; beautifully mottled, with eyes and spots of a lighter olive upon a dark green." This so nearly corresponds with a fish of the same name, Theliya, which was brought to Gronovius from Ceylon, and proved to be identical with the Aral of the Coromandel coast, that it may be doubtful whether it be not the individual already noted by Cuvier as Rhyncobdella ocellata, Cuv. and Val. viii. 445.]

In this collection, 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 entirely unconnected with any pool or running streams; in the way in 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 1. 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. vii.]



This operation may be seen in the lowlands, which are traversed by the high road leading from Colombo to Kandy, the hollows on either side of which, before the change of the monsoon, 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 encircled 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, which 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.

]

So singular a phenomenon as the sudden reappearance of full-grown fishes in places which a few days before had been encrusted with hardened clay, has not failed to attract attention; but the European residents have been contented to explain it by hazarding the conjecture, either that the spawn had 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 thought 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 at Trincomalie, 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 Karran-cotta-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 pluviometer 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 Dr. BUIST of Bombay, and will be found in the appendix to this chapter.]

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 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 hypothesis, however, appears to have been offered 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 the 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. But so far from this interval being allowed to elapse, the rains have no sooner ceased than the fishing of the natives commences, and those captured in wicker cages are mature and full grown instead of being "small fish" or fry, as affirmed 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 inhabitants, 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.

Travelling Fishes.—It was well known to the Greeks that certain fishes of India possessed the power of leaving the rivers and returning to them again after long migrations[1] on dry land, and modern observation has fully confirmed their statements. The fish 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[2] have been seen travelling over land during the dry season in search of their natural element[3], in such droves that the negroes have filled baskets with them during these terrestrial excursions.

[Footnote 1: I have collected into a note, which will be found in the appendix to this chapter, the opinions entertained by the Greeks and Romans upon this habit of the fresh-water fishes of India. See note B.]

[Footnote 2: D. Hancockii, Cuv. et Val.]

[Footnote 3: 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.— KIBBY, 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.]

Pallegoix in his account of Siam, enumerates three species of fishes which leave the tanks and channels and traverse the damp grass[1]; and Sir John Bowring, in his account of the 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.[2]

[Footnote 1: PALLEGOIX, vol. i. p. 144.]

[Footnote 2: Sir J. BOWRING'S Siam, vol. i. p. 10.]

The class of fishes which possess this power are chiefly those with labyrinthiform pharyngeal bones, so disposed in plates and cells as to retain a supply of moisture, which, whilst 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 which is 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, if not identical with, 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 travel by day, and Mr. E.L. Layard on one occasion encountered a number of them travelling along a hot and dusty gravel 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 bund 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, Mr. Hamilton Buchanan says, that of all the fish with which he was acquainted it is the most tenacious of life; and he has known boatmen on the Ganges to keep them for five or six days in an earthen pot without water, and daily to use what they wanted, finding them as lively and fresh as when caught.[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, which 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 Renandot's translation by the title of the Travels of 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 que sortant de l'eau, monte sur la cocotier et boit le suc de la plante; ensuite il retourne a la mer." See REINAUD, Relations des Voyages faits par les Arabes et Persans dans le neuvieme siecle, 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. 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[2], 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.[3]

[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. Birgus latro, which inhabits Mauritius and is said to climb the coco-nut for this purpose, has not been observed in Ceylon.]

[Footnote 2: 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. 212, 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 1828, p. 390-1.]

[Footnote 3: Strange accidents have more than once occurred in 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 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 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; and 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. II. ch. iii. p. 189.]

The same thing takes place in other tropical regions, subject to vicissitudes of draught 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 Memoires sur l'Egypte, tom. i. p. 17, on the authority of Abdullah ben Ahmed ben Solaim Assouany, in his History of Nubia, "Simon, heritier presomptif du royanme d'Alouah, m'a assure que l'on trouve, dans la vase qui couvre le fond de cette riviere, un grand poisson sans ecailles, qui ne ressemble en rien aux poissons du Nil, et que, pour l'avoir, il faut creuser a une toise et plus de profondeur." To this passage there is appended this note:—"Le patriarche Mendes, cite par Legrand (Relation Hist. d'Abyssinie, du P. LOBO, p. 212-3) rapporte que le fleuve Mareb, apres avoir arrose une etendue de pays considerable, se perd sous terre; et que quand les Portugais faisaient la guerre dans ce pays, ils fouilloient dans le sable, et y trouvoient de la bonne eau et du bon poison. Au rapport de l'auteur de l'Ayin Akbery (tom. ii. p. 146, ed. 1800), dans le Soubah de Caschmir, pres du lieu nomme Tilahmoulah, est une grande piece de terre qui est inondee pendant la saison des pluies. Lorsque les eaux se sont evaporees, et que la vase est presque seche, les habitans prennent des batons d'environ une aune de long, qu'ils enfoncent dans la vase, et ils y trouvent quantite 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 Tellez 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 Joao Gabriel, a Creole Portuguese, born in Abyssinia, who had visited the Merab, 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 Esocidae, although they possess no specially modified respiratory organs, are accustomed to bury themselves in the mud on the subsidence of water in the pools during the dry season.[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."

[Footnote 1: See Paper "on some Species of Fishes and Reptiles in Demerara," by J. HANDCOOK, Esq., M.D., Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 243.]

In those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat, and small tanks are extremely numerous, the natives in the hot season are accustomed 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 Moeletivoe, within a few miles of Kottiar, near the bay of Trincomalie, and again at a tank between Ellendetorre and Arnetivoe, on the bank of the Vergel river. The clay was firm, but moist, and as the men flung out lumps of it with a spade, it fell to pieces, disclosing fish from nine to twelve inches long, which were full grown and healthy, and jumped on the bank when exposed to the sun light.

Being desirous of obtaining a specimen of the 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 proved to be an Anabas, and closely resembles the Perca scandens of Daldorf.



But the faculty of becoming torpid at such periods is not confined in Ceylon to the crocodiles and fishes, it is equally possessed by some of the fresh-water mollusca and aquatic coleoptera. The largest 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. There it deposits a bundle of eggs with a white calcareous shell, to the number of one hundred and more in each group, at a considerable depth in the soft mud, under which, when the water is about to evaporate during the dry season, it burrows and conceals itself[1] till the returning rains restore it to liberty, and reproduce its accustomed food. 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 by diverting the original watercourse and obliterated its traces by filling it 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 wrongdoer, 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. 90. 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 Soc. 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, where in June, 1832, after a few heavy showers of rain, which formed pools on the surface of the ground near a mango grove, he saw the Paludinae 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 Ampullariae and Planorbes, as well as the Paludinae, are found in similar situations during the heats of the dry season. The British Pisidea exhibit 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. Vol. I. ch. vii. p. 312.]