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