[Footnote 1:  Journ.  Asiat.  Soc.  Bengal, vol. xv. p. 280, 314.]

The birds and rarer vertebrata of the island were thus compared with their peninsular congeners, and a tolerable knowledge of those belonging to the island, so far as regards the higher classes of animals, has been the result.  The example so set has been perseveringly followed by Mr. E.L.  Layard and Dr. Kelaart, and infinite credit is due to Mr. Blyth for the zealous and untiring energy with which he has devoted his attention and leisure to the identification of the various interesting species forwarded from Ceylon, and to their description in the Calcutta Journal.  To him, and to the gentleman I have named, we are mainly indebted, for whatever accurate knowledge we now possess of the zoology of the colony.

The mammalia, birds, and reptiles received their first scientific description in an able work published recently by Dr. Kelaart of the army medical staff[1], which is by far the most valuable that has yet appeared on the Singhalese fauna.  Co-operating with him, Mr. Layard has supplied a fund of information especially in ornithology and conchology.  The zoophytes and crustacea have been investigated by Professor Harvey, who visited Ceylon for that purpose in 1852, and by Professor Schmarda, of the University of Prague, who was lately sent there for a similar object.  From the united labours of these gentlemen and others interested in the same pursuits, we may hope at an early day to obtain such a knowledge of the zoology of Ceylon, as may to some extent compensate for the long indifference of the government officers.

[Footnote 1:  Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae; being Contributions to the Zoology of Ceylon, by F. KELAART, Esq., M.D., F.L.S., &c. &c. 2 vols.  Colombo and London, 1852.  Mr. DAVY, of the Medical Staff; brother to Sir Humphry, published in 1821 his Account of the Interior of Ceylon and its Inhabitants, which contains the earliest notices of the natural history of the island, and especially of the Ophidian reptiles.]

I. QUADRUMANA. 1 Monkeys.—­To a stranger in the tropics, among the most attractive creatures in the forests are the troops of monkeys, which career in ceaseless chase among the loftiest trees.  In Ceylon there are five species, four of which belong to one group, the Wanderoos, and the other is the little graceful grimacing rilawa[1], which is the universal pet and favourite, of both natives and Europeans.

[Footnote 1:  Macacus pileatus, Shaw and Desmmarest.  The “bonneted Macaque” is common in the south and west; and a spectacled monkey is said to inhabit the low country near to Bintenne; but I have never seen one brought thence.  A paper by Dr. TEMPLETON in the Mag.  Nat.  Hist. n.s. xiv. p. 361, contains some interesting facts relative to the Rilawa of Ceylon.]