Grandeur of the scene

Story of young pet elephant

CHAP.  VII.

THE ELEPHANT.

* * * * *

Conduct in Captivity.

Alleged superiority of the Indian to the African elephant—­not true

Ditto of Ceylon elephant to Indian

Process of training in Ceylon

Allowed to bathe

Difference of disposition

Sudden death of “broken heart”

First employment treading clay

Drawing a waggon

Dragging timber

Sagacity in labour

Mode of raising stones

Strength in throwing down trees exaggerated

Piling timber

Not uniform in habits of work

Lazy if not watched

Obedience to keeper from affection, not fear

Change of keeper—­story of child

Ear for sounds and music

Hurra! (note)

Endurance of pain

Docility

Working elephants, delicate

Deaths in government stud

Diseases

Subject to tooth-ache

Question of the value of labour of an elephant

Food in captivity, and cost

Breed in captivity

Age

Theory of M. Fleurens

No dead elephants found

Sindbad’s story

Passage from AElian

CHAP.  VIII.

BIRDS.

Their numbers

Songsters

Hornbills, the “bird with two heads”

Pea fowl

Sea birds, their number

I. Accipitres.—­Eagles
  Falcons and hawks
  Owls—­the devil bird

II. Passeres.—­Swallows
  Kingfishers—­sunbirds
  The cotton-thief
  Bul-bul—­tailor bird—­and weaver
  The mountain jay
  Crows, anecdotes of

III. Scansores.—­Parroquets

IV. Columbidae.—­Pigeons

V. Gallinae.—­Jungle-fowl

VI. Grallae.—­Ibis, stork, &c.

VII. Anseres.—­Flamingoes
  Pelicans
  Strange scene
  Game—­Partridges, &c.

List of Ceylon birds

List of birds peculiar to Ceylon

CHAP.  IX.

REPTILES.

Lizards.—­Iguana
  Kabara-goya, barbarous custom in preparing the kabara-tel poison
    Blood-suckers
  The green calotes
  The lyre-headed lizard
  Chameleon
  Ceratophora
  Geckoes,—­their power of reproducing limbs

Crocodiles
  Their sensitiveness to tickling
  Anecdotes of crocodiles
  Their power of burying themselves in the mud

Tortoises.—­Curious parasite
  Terrapins
  Edible turtle
  Cruel mode of cutting it up alive
  Huge Indian tortoises (note)
  Hawk’s-bill turtle, barbarous mode of stripping it of the tortoise-shell