happens that a savage stranger, placing himself at the head of the tame herd, resists the attempts of the owners to drive them homewards at sunset. In the districts of Putlam and the Seven Corles buffaloes are generally used for draught; and in carrying heavy loads of salt from the coast towards the interior, they drag a cart over roads which would defy the weaker strength of bullocks. In one place between Batticaloa and Trincomalie we found the natives making an ingenious use of them when engaged in shooting water-fowl in the vast salt marshes and muddy lakes. Being an object to which the birds are accustomed, the Singhalese train the buffalo to the sport, and, concealed behind, the animal browsing listlessly along, they guide it by ropes attached to its horns, and thus creep undiscovered within shot of the flock. The same practice prevails, I believe, in some of the northern parts of India, where they are similarly trained to assist the sportsman in approaching deer. One of these "sporting buffalaoes" sells for a considerable sum. The buffalo, like the elk, is sometimes found in Ceylon as an albino, with purely white hair and pink iris. There is a peculiarity in the formation of its foot, which, though it must have attracted attention, I have never seen mentioned by naturalists. It is equivalent to an arrangement that distinguishes the foot of the reindeer from that of the stag and the antelope. In them, the hoofs, being constructed for lightness and flight, are compact and vertical; but, in the reindeer, the joints of the tarsal bones admit of lateral expansion, and the broad hoofs curve upwards in front, while the two secondary ones behind (which are but slightly developed in the fallow deer and others of the same family) are prolonged till, in certain positions, they are capable of being applied to the ground, thus adding to the circumference and sustaining power of the foot. It has been usually suggested as the probable design of this structure, that it is to enable the reindeer to shovel under the snow in order to reach the lichens beneath it; but I apprehend that another use of it has been overlooked, that of facilitating its movements in search of food by increasing the difficulty of its sinking in the snow. A formation precisely analogous in the buffalo seems to point to a corresponding design. The ox, whose life is spent on firm ground, has the bones of the foot so constructed as to afford the most solid support to an animal of its great weight; but in the buffalo, which delights in the morasses on the margins of pools and rivers, the formation of the foot resembles that of the reindeer. The tarsi in front extend almost horizontally from the upright bones of the leg, and spread widely on touching the ground; the hoofs are flattened and broad, with the extremities turned upwards; and the false hoofs descend behind till, in walking, they make a clattering sound. In traversing the marshes, this combination of abnormal incidents serves to give extraordinary breadth to the foot, and not only prevents the buffalo from sinking inconveniently in soft ground', but at the same time presents no obstacle to the withdrawal of his foot from the mud. Deer." Deer," Deer," says the truthful old chronicler, Robert Knox, "are in great abundance in the woods, from the largeness of a cow to the smallness of a hare, for here is a creature in this land no bigger than the latter, though every part rightly resembleth a deer: it is called meminna, of a grey colour, with white spots and good meat." 2 The little creature which thus dwelt in the recollection of the old man, as one of the memo 1 PROFESSOR OWEN has noticed a similar fact regarding the rudiments of the second and fifth digits in the instance of the elk and bison, which have them largely expanded where they inhabit swampy ground; whilst they are nearly obliterated in the camel and dromedary, which traverse arid deserts. OWEN on Limbs, p. 34; see also BELL on the Hand, ch. iii. 2 KNOX's Relation, &c., book i. c. 6. rials of his long captivity, is the small "musk deer" 1 so called in India, although neither sex is provided with a musk-bag; and the Europeans in Ceylon know it by the name of the moose deer. Its extreme length never reaches two feet; and of those which were domesticated about my house, few exceeded ten inches in height, their graceful limbs being of similar delicate proportion. It possesses long and extremely large tusks, with which it inflicts a severe bite. The interpreter moodliar of Negombo had a milk white Meminna in 1847, which he designed to send home as an acceptable present to Her Majesty, but it was unfortunately killed by an accident.2 Ceylon Elk.In the mountains, the Ceylon elk 3, which reminds one of the red deer of Scotland, attains the height of four or five feet; it abounds in all places which are intersected by shady rivers; where, though its hunting affords an endless resource to the sportsmen, its venison scarcely equals in quality the inferior beef of the lowland ox. In the glades and park-like openings that diversify the great forests of the interior, the spotted Axis troops in herds as numerous as the fallow deer in England; and, in journeys through the jungle, when often dependent on the guns of our party for the precarious supply of the table, we found the flesh of the Axis and the Muntjac 5 a sorry substi tute for that of the pea-fowl, the jungle-cock, and flamingo. The occurrence of albinos is very frequent 1 Moschus meminna. 2 When the English took possession of Kandy, in 1803, they found "five beautiful milk-white deer in the palace, which was noted as a very extraordinary thing."-Letter in Appendix to PERCIVAL'S Ceylon, p. 428. The writer does not say of what species they were. 3 Rusa Aristotelis. Dr. GRAY has lately shown that this is the great axis of Cuvier. Oss. Foss. 502, t. 39. f. 10. The Singhalese, on fol - lowing the elk, frequently effect their 4 Axis maculata, H. Smith. in troops of the axis. Deer's horns are an article of export from Ceylon, and considerable quantities are annually sent to the United Kingdom. VII. PACHYDERMATA. The Elephant. The elephant and the wild boar, the Singhalese "waloora," are the only representatives of the pachydermatous order. The latter, which differs in no respect from the wild boar of India, is found in droves in all parts of the island where vegetation and water are abundant. The elephant, the lord paramount of the Ceylon forests, is to be met with in every district, on the confines of the woods, in whose depths he finds concealment and shade during the hours when the sun is high, and from which he emerges only at twilight to wend his way towards the rivers and tanks, where he luxuriates till dawn, when he again seeks the retirement of the deep forests. This noble animal fills so dignified a place both in the zoology and œconomy of Ceylon, and his habits in a state of nature have been so much misunderstood, that I shall devote a separate section to his defence from misrepresentation, and to an exposition of what, from observation and experience, I believe to be his genuine character when free in his native domains. VIII. CETACEA.- Among the Cetacea the occurrence of the Dugong on various points of the coast, and especially on the western side of the island, will be noticed elsewhere; and whales are so frequently seen that they have been captured within sight of Colombo, and more than once their carcases, after having been flinched by the whalers, have floated on shore near the light-house, tainting the atmosphere within the fort by their rapid decomposition. From this sketch of the Mammalia it will be seen that, in its general features, this branch of the Fauna bears a striking resemblance to that of Southern India, although many of the larger animals of the latter are 1 Halicore dugong, F. Cuv. unknown in Ceylon; and, on the other hand, some species discovered there are altogether peculiar to the island. A deer1 as large as the Axis, but differing from it in the number and arrangement of its spots, has been described by Dr. Kelaart, to whose vigilance the natural history of Ceylon is indebted, amongst others, for the identification of two new species of monkeys2, a number of curious shrews, and an orange-coloured ichneumont, before unknown. There are also two descriptions of squirrels that have not as yet been discovered elsewhere, one of them belonging to those equipped with a parachute, as well as some local varieties of the palm squirrel (Sciurus penicillatus, Leach). But the Ceylon Mammalia, besides wanting a number of minor animals found in the Indian peninsula, cannot boast such a ruminant as the majestic Gaur8, which inhabits the great forests from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya; and, providentially, the island is equally free of the formidable tiger and the ferocious wolf of Hindustan. The Hyena and Cheetah, common in Southern India, are unknown in Ceylon; and though abundant in deer, the island possesses no example of the Antelope or the Gazelle. List of Ceylon Mammalia. A list of the Mammalia of Ceylon is subjoined. In framing it, as well as the lists appended to other chapters on the Fauna of the island, the principal object in view has been to exhibit the extent to which its natural history had been investigated, 1 Cervus orizus, KELAART, Prod. F. Zeyl., p. 83. 2 Presbytes ursinus, Blyth, and P. Thersites, Elliot. 3 Sorex montanus, S. ferrugineus, and Feroculus macropus. 4 Herpestes fulvescens, KELAART, Prod. Fann. Zeylan., App. p. 42. 5 Sciurus Tennentii, Layard. Sciuropterus Layardi, Kelaart. There is a rat found only in the Cinnamon Gardens at Colombo, Mus mouse | Ceylonus, Kelaart; and a 8 Bos cavifrons, Hodgs.; B. frontalis, Lamb. Felis jubata, Schreb. |