CHAPTER I.

MAMMALIA.

Neglect of zoology in Ceylon

Labours of Dr. Davy

Followed by Dr. Templeton and others

Dr. Kelaart and Mr. E.L.  Layard

Monkeys
  The Rilawa, Macacus pileatus
  Wanderoos
  Knox’s account of them
  Error regarding the Silenus Veter (note)
  Presbytes Cephalopterus
  Fond of eating flowers
  A white monkey
  Method of the flight of monkeys
  P. Ursinus in the Hills
  P. Thersites in the Wanny
  P. Priamus, Jaffna and Trincomalie
  No dead monkey ever found

Loris

Bats
  Flying Fox, Pteropus Edwardsii
  Their numbers at Peradenia
  Singularity of their attitudes
  Food and mode of eating
  Horse-shoe bat, Rhinolophus
  Faculty of smell in bat
  A tiny bat, Scotophilus foromandelicus
  Extraordinary parasite of the bat, the Nycteribia

Carnivora.—­Bears
  Their ferocity

Singhalese belief in the efficacy of charms (note)

Leopards
  Erroneously confounded with the Indian cheetah
  Curious belief
  Anecdotes of leopards
  Their attraction by the smallpox
  Native superstition
  Encounter with a leopard
  Monkeys killed by leopards
  Alleged peculiarity of the claws

Palm-cat

Civet

Dogs
  Cruel mode of destroying dogs
  Their republican instincts

Jackal
  Cunning, anecdotes of
  The horn of the jackal

Mungoos
  Its fights with serpents
  Theory of its antidote

Squirrels
  Flying squirrel

Tree-rat
  Story of a rat and a snake

Coffee-rat

Bandicoot

Porcupine

Pengolin
  Its habits and gentleness
  Its skeleton

Ruminantia.—­The Gaur
  Oxen
  Humped cattle
  Encounter of a cow and a leopard
  Draft oxen
  Their treatment
  A Tavalam
  Attempt to introduce the camel (note)
  Buffaloes
  Sporting buffaloes
  Peculiar structure of the foot

Deer

Meminna

Elk

Wild-boar

Elephants
  Recent discovery of a new species
  Geological speculations as to the island of Ceylon
  Ancient tradition
  Opinion of Professor Ansted
  Peculiarities in Ceylon mammalia
  The same in Ceylon birds and insects
  Temminck’s discovery of a new species of elephant in Sumatra
  Points of distinction between it and the elephant of India
  Professor Schlegel’s description

Cetacea
  Whales
  The Dugong
  Origin of the fable of the mermaid
  Credulity of the Portuguese
  Belief of the Dutch

Testimony of Valentyn

List of Ceylon mammalia