ticks by the crows which rest on their backs as they browse, and free them from these pests.  In the low country the same acceptable office is performed by the “cattle-keeper heron” (Ardea bubulcus), which is “sure to be found in attendance on them while grazing; and the animals seem to know their benefactors, and stand quietly, while the birds peck their tormentors from their flanks.”—­Mag.  Nat.  Hist. p. 111, 1844.]

Mites.—­The Trombidium tinctorum of Hermann is found about Aripo, and generally over the northern provinces,—­where after a shower of rain or heavy night’s dew, they appear in countless myriads.  It is about half an inch long, like a tuft of crimson velvet, and imparts its colouring matter readily to any fluid in which it may be immersed.  It feeds on vegetable juices, and is perfectly innocuous.  Its European representative, similarly tinted, and found in garden mould, is commonly called the “Little red pillion.”

MYRIAPODS.—­The certainty with which an accidental pressure or unguarded touch is resented and retorted by a bite, makes the centipede, when it has taken up its temporary abode, within a sleeve or the fold of a dress, by far the most unwelcome of all the Singhalese assailants.  The great size, too (little short of a foot in length), to which it sometimes attains, renders it formidable, and, apart from the apprehension of unpleasant consequences from a wound, one shudders at the bare idea of such a hideous creature crawling over the skin, beneath the innermost folds of one’s garments.

[Illustration:  CERMATIA.]

At the head of the Myriapods, and pre-eminent from a superiorly-developed organisation, stands the genus Cermatia:  singular-looking objects; mounted upon slender legs, of gradually increasing length from front to rear, the hind ones in some species being amazingly prolonged, and all handsomely marked with brown annuli in concentric arches.  These myriapods are harmless, excepting to woodlice, spiders, and young cockroaches, which form their ordinary prey.  They are rarely to be seen; but occasionally at daybreak, after a more than usually abundant repast, they may be observed motionless, and resting with their regularly extended limbs nearly flat against the walls.  On being disturbed they dart away with a surprising velocity, to conceal themselves in chinks until the return of night.

But the species to be really dreaded are the true Scolopendrae, which are active and carnivorous, living in holes in old walls and other gloomy dens.  One species[1] attains to nearly the length of a foot, with corresponding breadth; it is of a dark purple colour, approaching black, with yellowish legs and antennae, and in its whole aspect repulsive and frightful.  It is strong and active, and evinces an eager disposition to fight when molested.  The Scolopendrae are gifted by nature with a rigid coriaceous armour, which does not yield to common pressure, or even to a moderate blow; so that they often escape the most well-deserved and well-directed attempts to destroy them, seeking refuge in retreats which effectually conceal them from sight.