Frogs.—­In the numerous marshes formed by the overflowing of the rivers in the vast plains of the low country, there are many varieties of frogs, which, both by their colours and by their extraordinary size, are calculated to excite the surprise of strangers.[1] In the lakes around Colombo and the still water near Trincomalie, there are huge creatures of this family, from six to eight inches in length[2], of an olive hue, deepening into brown on the back and yellow on the under side.  The Kandian species, recently described, is much less in dimensions, but distinguished by its brilliant colouring, a beautiful grass green above and deep orange underneath.[3]

[Footnote 1:  The Indian toad (Bufo melanostictus, Schneid) is found In Ceylon, and the belief in its venomous nature is as old as the third century B.C., when the Mahawanso mentions that the wife of “King Asoca attempted to destroy the great bo-tree (at Magadha) with the poisoned fang of a toad.”—­Ch. xx. p. 122.]

[Footnote 2:  Rana eutipora, and the Malabar bull-frog, R. Malabarica.]

[Footnote 3:  R. Kandiana, Kelaart.]

In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the graceful little hylas[1] were to be found in great numbers, crouching under broad leaves to protect them from the scorching sun; some of them utter a sharp metallic sound at night, similar to that produced by smacking the lips.  They possess in a high degree the power of changing their colour; and one which had seated itself on the gilt pillar of a dinner lamp was scarcely to be distinguished from the or-molu to which it clung.  They are enabled to ascend glass by means of the suckers at the extremity of their toes.  Their food consists of flies and minute coleoptera.

[Footnote 1:  The tree-frog, Hyla leucomystax, Gracer.]

List of Ceylon Reptiles.

I am indebted to Dr. Gray of the British Museum for a more complete enumeration of the reptiles of Ceylon than is to be found in Dr. Kelaart’s published lists; but many of those new to Europeans have been carefully described by the latter gentleman in his Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae and its appendices, as well as in the 13th vol. Magaz.  Nat.  Hist. (1854).

Saura.

Monitor dracaena, Linn.
Hydrosaurus salvator, Wagl.
Mabouya elegans, Gray.
Riopa punctata, Linn.
  Hardwichii, Gray.
Tiliqua rufescens, Shaw.
Eumeces Taprobanius, Kel.
Nessia Burtoni, Gray.
  Acontias Layardi, Kelaart. 
Argyrophis bramieus, Daud.
Rhinophis Blythii, Kelaart. 
Mytilia Gerrardii, Gray. 
  Templetonii, Gray.
  animaculata, Gray.
  melanogaster, Gray. 
Siluboura Ceylonica, Cuv.
Uropeltis Saffragamus, Kelaart.
  grandis, Kelaart.
  pardalis, Kelaart.