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. Hæmatornis spilogaster. The "Ceylon eagle;" was discovered by Mr. Layard in the Wanny, and by Dr. Kelaart at Trincomalie. Athene castonotus. The chestnut-winged hawk owl. This pretty little owl was added to the list of Ceylon, birds by Dr. Templeton. Batrachostomus monoliger. The oil bird; was discovered amongst the precipitous rocks of the Adam's Peak range by Mr. Layard. Another specimen was sent about the same time to Sir James Emerson Tennent from Avisavelle. Mr. Mitford has met with it at Ratnapoora. Caprimulgus Kelaarti. Kelaart's nightjar; swarms on the marshy plains of Neuera-ellia at dusk. Hirundo hyperythra. The red-bellied swallow; was discovered in 1849 by Mr. Layard at Ambepusse. They build a globular nest with a round hole at top. A pair built in the ring for a hanging lamp in Dr. Gardner's study at 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 fre quents 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 yelloweared 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. Palæornis Calthropa. Layard's purpleheaded 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. 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 Torringtonia. 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-deGalle to Colombo, is a huge lizard of from four to five feet in length, the Talla-goya of the Singhalese, and Iguana1 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 some small ones which frequented my garden at Colombo, made their retreat in the heart of a decayed tree. A still larger species, the Kabragoya2, 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 1 Monitor dracona, 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 spotted, formerly obtained amongst naturalists the name of Monitor exanthemata, and it is curious that the native appellation of this one, Kabra1, 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. 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.3 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 1In 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. 2 In the preparation of the mysterious poison, the Cobra-tel, which is regarded with so much horror by the Singhalese, the unfortunate Kabragoya 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. 3 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 GÜNTHER on The Geog. Distribution of Reptiles, Magaz. Nat. Hist. for March, 1859, p. 230. decaying chinks of every ruined wall. In all their motion there is that vivid, and brief energy, the rapid but unrestrained 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 One of the most beautiful of this race is the green calotes 2, 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 sitana3, and a number of others, exhibit similar phenomena. Chameleon. The true chameleon 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 |