[Footnote 2:  The Uropeltis grandis of Kelaart, which was at first supposed to be a new species, proves to be identical with U.  Phillippinus of Cuvier.  It is doubtful, however, whether this species be found in the Phillippine Islands, as stated by Cuvier; and it is more than, probable that the typical specimen came from Ceylon—­a further illustration of the affinity of the fauna of Ceylon to that of the Eastern Archipelago.  The characteristics of this reptile, as given by Dr. GRAY, are as follows:—­“Caudal disc subcircular, with large scattered tubercles; snout subacute, slightly produced.  Dark brown, lighter below, with some of the scales dark brown in the centre near the posterior edge.  GRAY, Proceed.  Zool.  Soc. 1858, p. 262.]

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 woven of palm leaves, and to set it afloat on a river.

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 such 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 that was brought to me tied in this way measured seventeen feet with a proportionate thickness:  but one more fully grown, 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.

The Singhalese assert that when it has swallowed a deer, or any animal of similarly inconvenient bulk, the python draws itself through the narrow aperture between two trees, in order to crush the bones and assist in the process of deglutition.

It is a singular fact that the small and innocuous ground-snakes called Calamariae, which abound on the continent of India and in the islands are not to be found in Ceylon; where they would appear to be replaced by two singular genera, the Aspidura and Haplocercus, These latter have only one series of shields below the tail, whilst most other harmless snakes (Calamaria included) have a double series of sub-candals.  The Aspidura has been known to naturalists for many years[1]; the Haplocercus of Ceylon has only recently been described by Dr. Guenther, and of it not more than three existing specimens are known:  hence its habits and the extent of its distribution over the island are still left in uncertainty.[2]