Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon

by Sir James Emerson Tennent

Footnote 4: [(return)]

It is with deep regret that I have to record the death of this accomplished gentleman, which occurred in 1860.

Footnote 5: [(return)]

See p. 312.

Footnote 6: [(return)]

Commonly called "harvest-men."

---

CONTENTS.

---

[CHAPTER I.]

MAMMALIA.

• Neglect of zoology in Ceylon [3]
• Labours of Dr. Davy[3]
• Followed by Dr. Templeton and others [4]
• Dr. Kelaart and Mr. E.L. Layard [4]
• Monkeys [5]
  • The Rilawa, Macacus pileatus [5]
  • Wanderoos[5]
  • Knox's account of them [5]
  • Error regarding the Silenus Veter (note) [6]
  • Presbytes Cephalopterus [7]
  • Fond of eating flowers [7]
  • A white monkey [8]
  • Method of the flight of monkeys [9]
  • P. Ursinus in the Hills [9]
  • P. Thersites in the Wanny [10]
  • P. Priamus, Jaffna and Trincomalie [10]
  • No dead monkey ever found [11]
• Loris [12]
• Bats [13]
  • Flying Fox, Pteropus Edwardsii [14]
  • Their numbers at Peradenia [16]
  • Singularity of their attitudes [17]
  • Food and mode of eating [18]
  • Horse-shoe bat, Rhinolophus [19]
  • Faculty of smell in bat [19]
  • A tiny bat, Scotophilus foromandelicus [20]
  • Extraordinary parasite of the bat, the Nycteribia [20]
• Carnivora.—Bears [22]
  • Their ferocity [23]
• Singhalese belief in the efficacy of charms (note) [24]
• Leopards [25]
  • Erroneously confounded with the Indian cheetah [25]
  • Curious belief [26]
  • Anecdotes of leopards [27]
  • Their attraction by the smallpox [28]
  • Native superstition [28]
  • Encounter with a leopard [29]
  • Monkeys killed by leopards [31]
  • Alleged peculiarity of the claws [32]
• Palm-cat [32]
• Civet [32]
• Dogs [33]
  • Cruel mode of destroying dogs[33]
  • Their republican instincts[34]
• Jackal [34]
  • Cunning, anecdotes of [35]
  • The horn of the jackal [36]
• Mungoos [37]
  • Its fights with serpents[38]
  • Theory of its antidote [40]
• Squirrels [41]
  • Flying squirrel [41]
• Tree-rat [42]
  • Story of a rat and a snake [43]
• Coffee-rat [43]
• Bandicoot [44]
• Porcupine [45]
• Pengolin [46]
  • Its habits and gentleness [47]
  • Its skeleton [48]
• Ruminantia.—The Gaur [49]
  • Oxen [50]
  • Humped cattle [51]
  • Encounter of a cow and a leopard [51]
  • Draft oxen [52]
  • Their treatment [53]
  • A Tavalam [53]
  • Attempt to introduce the camel (note) [53]
  • Buffaloes [54]
  • Sporting buffaloes [55]
  • Peculiar structure of the foot [56]
• Deer [57]
• Meminna [57]
• Elk [59]
• Wild-boar [59]
• Elephants [60]
  • Recent discovery of a new species [60]
  • Geological speculations as to the island of Ceylon [61]
  • Ancient tradition [61]
  • Opinion of Professor Ansted [61]
  • Peculiarities in Ceylon mammalia [63]
  • The same in Ceylon birds and insects [63]
  • Temminck's discovery of a new species of elephant in Sumatra [64]
  • Points of distinction between it and the elephant of India [65]
  • Professor Schlegel's description [66]
• Cetacea [68]
  • Whales [68]
  • The Dugong [69]
  • Origin of the fable of the mermaid [70]
  • Credulity of the Portuguese [70]
  • Belief of the Dutch [70]
• Testimony of Valentyn [71]
• List of Ceylon mammalia [73]

[CHAP. II]