The marshes and pools of the interior are frequented by the

terrapins[1], which the natives are in the habit of keeping alive in

wells under the conviction that they clear them of impurities. The

edible turtle[2] is found on all the coasts of the island, and sells for

a few shillings or a few pence, according to its size and abundance at

the moment. At certain seasons the turtle on the south-western coast of

Ceylon is avoided as poisonous, and some lamentable instances are

recorded of death which was ascribed to their use. At Pantura, to the

south of Colombo, twenty-eight persons who had partaken of turtle in

October, 1840, were seized with sickness immediately, after which coma

succeeded, and eighteen died during the night. Those who survived said

there was nothing unusual in the appearance of the flesh except that it

was fatter than ordinary. Other similarly fatal occurrences have been

attributed to turtle curry; but as they have never been proved to

proceed exclusively from that source, there is room for believing that

the poison may have been contained in some other ingredient. In the Gulf

of Manaar turtle is frequently found of such a size as to measure

between four and five feet in length; and on one occasion, in riding

along the sea-shore north of Putlam, I saw a man in charge of some

sheep, resting under the shade of a turtle shell, which he had erected

on sticks to protect him from the sun--almost verifying the statement of

Ælian, that in the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so large that

several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single shell.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Emyda Ceylonensis_, GRAY, _Catalogue_, p. 64, tab. 29 a.;

_Mag. Nat. Hist._ p. 265: 1856. Dr. KELAART, in his _Prodromus_ (p.

179), refers this to the common Indian species, _E. punctata_; but Dr.

Gray has shown it to be a distinct one. It is generally distributed in

the lower parts of Ceylon, in lakes and tanks. It is put into wells to

act the part of a scavenger. By the Singhalese it is named _Kiri-ibba_.]

[Footnote 2: Chelonia virgata, _Schweig_.]

[Footnote 3: "Tiktontai de ara en tautê tê thalattê, kai chelônai

megintai, ônper oun ta elytra orophoi ginontai kai gar esti kai

mentekaideka pêchôn en chelôneion, hôs hypoikein ouk oligous, kai tous

hêlious pyrôiestatous apostegei, kai skian asmetois parechei."--Lib.

xvi. c. 17. Ælian copied this statement literatim from MEGASTHENES,

_Indica Frag_. lix. 31; and may not Megasthenes have referred to some

tradition connected with the gigantic fossilised species discovered on

the Sewalik Hills, the remains of which are now in the Museum at the

East India House?]

The hawksbill turtle[1], which supplies the tortoise-shell of commerce,

was at former times taken in great numbers in the vicinity of

Hambangtotte during the season when they came to deposit their eggs, and

there is still a considerable trade in this article, which is

manufactured into ornaments, boxes, and combs by the Moormen resident at

Galle. If taken from the animal after death and decomposition, the

colour of the shell becomes clouded and milky, and hence the cruel

expedient is resorted to of seizing the turtles as they repair to the

shore to deposit their eggs, and suspending them over fires till heat

makes the plates on the dorsal shields start from the bone of the

carapace, after which the creature is permitted to escape to the

water.[2] In illustration of the resistless influence of instinct at the

period of breeding, it may be mentioned that the same tortoise is

believed to return again and again to the same spot, notwithstanding

that at each visit she had to undergo a repetition of this torture. In

the year 1826, a hawksbill turtle was taken near Hambangtotte, which

bore a ring attached to one of its fins that had been placed there by a

Dutch officer thirty years before, with a view to establish the fact of

these recurring visits to the same beach.[3]

[Footnote 1: Chelonia imbricata; _Linn_.]

[Footnote 2: At Celebes, whence the finest tortoise-shell is exported to

China, the natives kill the turtle by blows on the head, and immerse the

shell in boiling water to detach the plates. Dry heat is only resorted

to by the unskilful, who frequently destroy the tortoise-shell in the

operation.--_Journ. Indian Archipel._ vol. iii. p. 227, 1849.]

[Footnote 3: BENNETT'S _Ceylon_, ch. xxxiv.]

_Snakes_.--It is perhaps owing to the aversion excited by the ferocious

expression and unusual action of serpents, combined with an instinctive

dread of attack, that exaggerated ideas prevail both as to their numbers

in Ceylon, and the danger to be apprehended from encountering them. The

Singhalese profess to distinguish a great many kinds, of which not more

than one half have as yet been scientifically identified; but so

cautiously do serpents make their appearance, that the surprise of long

residents is invariably expressed at the rarity with which they are to

be seen; and from my own journeys, through the jungle, often of two to

five hundred miles, I have frequently returned without seeing a single

snake.[1] Davy, whose attention was carefully directed to the poisonous

serpents of Ceylon[2], came to the conclusion that but _four_, out of

twenty species examined by him, were venomous, and that of these only

two (the _tic-polonga[3]_ and _cobra de capello_[4]) were capable of

inflicting a wound likely to be fatal to man. The third is the

_caraicilla_[5], a brown snake of about twelve inches in length; and for

the fourth, of which only a few specimens have been, procured, the

Singhalese have no name in their vernacular,--a proof that it is neither

deadly nor abundant.

[Footnote 1: Mr. Bennett, who resided much in the south-east of the

island, ascribes the rarity of serpents in the jungle to the abundance

of the wild peafowl, whose partiality to snakes renders them the chief

destroyers of these reptiles.]

[Footnote 2: See DAVY'S _Ceylon_, ch. xiv.]

[Footnote 3: Dabois elegans, _Grey_.]

[Footnote 4: Naja tripadians, _Gunther_.]

[Footnote 5: Trigonocephalus hypnale, _Wegl_.]

_Cobra de Capello_.--The cobra de capello is the only one exhibited by

the itinerant snake-charmers: and the accuracy of Davy's conjecture,

that they control it, not by extracting its fangs, but by courageously

availing themselves of its accustomed timidity and extreme reluctance to

use its fatal weapons, received a painful confirmation during my

residence in Ceylon, by the death of one of these performers, whom his

audience had provoked to attempt some unaccustomed familiarity with the

cobra; it bit him on the wrist, and he expired the same evening. The

hill near Kandy, on which the official residences of the Governor and

Colonial Secretary had been built, is covered in many places with the

deserted nests of the white ants (_termites_), and these are the

favourite retreats of the sluggish and spiritless cobra, which watches

from their apertures the toads and lizards on which it preys. Here, when

I have repeatedly come upon them, their only impulse was concealment;

and on one occasion, when a cobra of considerable length could not

escape sufficiently quickly, owing to the bank being nearly precipitous

on both sides of the road, a few blows from my whip were sufficient to

deprive it of life. There is a rare variety which the natives fancifully

designate the "king of the cobras;" it has the head and the anterior

half of the body of so light a colour, that at a distance it seems like

a silvery white.[1] A gentleman who held a civil appointment at

Kornegalle, had a servant who was bitten by a snake, and he informed me

that on enlarging a hole near the foot of the tree under which the

accident occurred, he unearthed a cobra of upwards of three feet long,

and so purely white as to induce him to believe that it was an albino.

With the exception of the rat-snake[2], the cobra de capello is the only

serpent which seems from choice to frequent the vicinity of human

dwellings, but it is doubtless attracted by the young of the domestic

fowl and by the moisture of the wells and drainage. The Singhalese

remark that if one cobra be destroyed near a house, its companion is

almost certain to be discovered immediately after,--a popular belief

which I had an opportunity of verifying on more than one occasion. Once,

when a snake of this description was killed in a bath of Government

House at Colombo, its mate was found in the same spot the day after; and

again, at my own stables, a cobra of five feet long, having fallen into

the well, which was too deep to permit its escape, its companion of the

same size was found the same morning in an adjoining drain.[3] On this

occasion the snake, which had been several hours in the well, swam with

ease, raising its head and hood above water; and instances have

repeatedly occurred of the cobra de capello voluntarily taking

considerable excursions by sea. When the "Wellington," a government

vessel employed in the conservancy of the pearl banks, was anchored

about a quarter of a mile from land, in the bay of Koodremalé, a cobra

was seen, about an hour before sunset, swimming vigorously towards the

ship. It came within twelve yards, when the sailors assailed it with

billets of wood and other missiles, and forced it to return to land. The

following morning they discovered the track which it had left on the

shore, and traced it along the sand till it disappeared in the

jungle.[4] On a later occasion, in the vicinity of the same spot, when

the "Wellington" was lying at some distance from the shore, a cobra was

found and killed on board, where it could only have gained access by

climbing up the cable. It was first discovered by a sailor, who felt the

chill as it glided over his foot.[5]

[Footnote 1: A Singhalese work, the _Sarpa Doata_, quoted in the _Ceylon

Times_, January, 1857, enumerates four species of the cobra;--the

_raja_, or king; the _velyander_, or trader; the _baboona_, or hermit;

and the _goore_, or agriculturist. The young cobras, it says, are not

venomous till after the thirteenth day, when they shed their coat for

the first time.]

[Footnote 2: Coryphodon Blumenbachii. WOLF, in his interesting story of

his _Life and Adventures in Ceylon_, mentions that rat-snakes were often

so domesticated by the natives as to feed at their table. He says: "I

once saw an example of this in the house of a native. It being meal

time, he called his snake, which immediately came forth from the roof

under which he and I were sitting. He gave it victuals from his own

dish, which the snake took of itself from off a fig-leaf that was laid

for it, and ate along with its host. When it had eaten its fill, he gave

it a kiss and bade it go to its hole."

Since the above was written, Major Skinner, writing to me 12th Dec.

1858, mentions the still more remarkable case of the domestication of

the cobra de capello in Ceylon. "Did you ever hear," he says, "of tame

cobras being kept and domesticated about a house, going in and out at

pleasure, and in common with the rest of the inmates? In one family,

near Negombo, cobras are kept as protectors, in the place of dogs, by a

wealthy man who has always large sums of money in his house. But this is

not a solitary case of the kind. I heard of it only the other day, but

from undoubtedly good authority. The snakes glide about the house, a

terror to thieves, but never attempting to harm the inmates."]

[Footnote 3: PLINY notices the affection that subsists between the male

and female asp; and that if one of them happens to be killed, the other

seeks to avenge its death.--Lib. viii. c. 37.]

[Footnote 4: STEWART'S _Account of the Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon_, p. 9:

Colombo, 1843.

The Python reticulatus (the "rock-snake") has been known like the cobra

de capello, to make short voyages at sea. One was taken on board H.M.S.

"Hastings," when off the coast of Burmah, in 1853; it is now in the

possession of the surgeon, Dr. Scott.]

[Footnote 5: SWAINSON, in his _Habits and Instincts of Animals_, c. iv.

p. 187, says that instances are well attested of the common English

snake having been met with in the open channel; between the coast of

Wales and the island of Anglesea, as if they had taken their departure

from the one and were bound for the other.]

In BENNETT'S account of "_Ceylon and its Capabilities_" there is a

curious piece of Singhalese folk-lore, to the effect, that the cobra de

capello every time it expends its poison _loses a joint of its tail_,

and eventually acquires a head which resembles that of a toad. A recent

discovery of Dr. Kelaart has thrown light on the origin of this popular

fallacy. The family of "false snakes" (_pseudo-typhlops_), as Schlegel

names the group, have till lately consisted of but three species, one

only of which was known to inhabit Ceylon. They belong to a family

intermediate between the lizards and serpents with the body of the

latter, and the head of the former, with which they are moreover

identified by having the upper jaw fixed to the skull as in mammals and

birds, instead of movable as amongst the true ophidians. In this they

resemble the amphisbænidæ; but the tribe of _Uropeltidæ_, or "rough

tails," has the further peculiarity, that the tail is truncated, instead

of ending, like that of the typhlops, in a point more or less acute; and

the reptile assists its own movements by pressing the flat end to the

ground. Within a very recent period an important addition has been made

to this genus, by the discovery of five new species in Ceylon; in some

of which the singular construction of the tail is developed to an extent

much more marked than in any previously existing specimen. One of these,

the _Uropeltis grandis_ of Kelaart, is distinguished by its dark brown

colour, shot with a bluish metallic lustre, closely approaching the

ordinary shade of the cobra; and the tail is abruptly and flatly

compressed as though it had been severed by a knife. The form of this

singular reptile will be best understood by a reference to the

accompanying figure; and there can be, I think, little doubt that to its

strange and anomalous structure is to be traced the fable of the

transformation of the cobra de capello. The colour alone would seem to

identify the two reptiles, but the head and mouth are no longer those of

a serpent, and the disappearance of the tail might readily suggest the

mutilation which the tradition asserts.

[Illustration: UROPELTIS GRANDIS]

The Singhalese Buddhists, in their religious abstinence from inflicting

death on any creature, are accustomed, after securing a venomous snake,

to enclose it in a basket of woven palm leaves, and to set it afloat on

a river. During my residence in Ceylon, I never heard of the death of a

European which was caused by the bite of a snake; and in the returns of

coroners' inquests which were made officially to my department, such

accidents to the natives appear chiefly to have happened at night, when

the animal having been surprised or trodden on, had inflicted the wound

in self-defence.[1] For these reasons the Singhalese, when obliged to

leave their houses in the dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the

noise[2] of which as they strike it on the ground is sufficient to warn

the snakes to leave their path.

[Footnote 1: In a return of 112 coroners' inquests, in cases of death

from wild animals, held in Ceylon in five years, from 1851 to 1855

inclusive, 68 are ascribed to the bites of serpents; and in almost every

instance the assault is set down as having taken place _at night_. The

majority of the sufferers were children and women.]

[Footnote 2: PLINY notices that the serpent has the sense of hearing

more acute than that of sight; and that it is more frequently put in

motion by the sound of footsteps than by the appearance of the intruder,

"excitatur pede sæpius."--Lib. viii. c. 36.]

_The Python_.--The great python[1] (the "boa," as it is commonly

designated by Europeans, the "anaconda" of Eastern story), which is

supposed to crush the bones of an elephant, and to swallow the tiger, is

found, though not of so portentous dimensions, in the cinnamon gardens

within a mile of the fort of Colombo, where it feeds on hog-deer and

other smaller animals.

[Footnote 1: Python reticulatus, _Gray_.]

The natives occasionally take it alive, and securing it to a pole expose

it for sale as a curiosity. One which was brought to me in this way

measured seventeen feet with a proportionate thickness: but another

which crossed my path on a coffee estate on the Peacock Mountain at

Pusilawa, considerably exceeded these dimensions. Another which I

watched in the garden at Elie House, near Colombo, surprised me by the

ease with which it erected itself almost perpendicularly in order to

scale a wall upwards of ten feet high.

Of ten species which ascend the trees to search for squirrels and

lizards, and to rifle the nests of birds, one half, including the green

_carawilla_, and the deadly _tic polonga_, are believed by the natives

to be venomous; but the fact is very dubious. I have heard of the cobra

being found on the crown of a coco-nut palm, attracted, it was said, by

the toddy which was flowing at the time, as it was the season for

drawing it.

_Water-Snakes_.--The fresh-water snakes, of which four species have been

described as inhabiting the still water and pools, are all harmless in

Ceylon. A gentleman, who found near a river an agglutinated cluster of

the eggs of one variety _(Tropidonotus umbratus)_, placed them under a

glass shade on his drawing-room table, where one by one the young

serpents emerged from the shell to the number of twenty.

The use of the Pamboo-Kaloo, or snake-stone, as a remedy in cases of

wounds by venomous serpents, has probably been communicated to the

Singhalese by the itinerant snake-charmers who resort to the island from

the coast of Coromandel; and more than one well-authenticated instance

of its successful application has been told to me by persons who had

been eye-witnesses to what they described. On one occasion, in March,

1854, a friend of mine was riding, with some other civil officers of the

government, along a jungle path in the vicinity of Bintenne, when they

saw one of two Tamils, who were approaching them, suddenly dart into the

forest and return, holding in both hands a cobra de capello which he had

seized by the head and tail. He called to his companion for assistance

to place it in their covered basket, but, in doing this, he handled it

so inexpertly that it seized him by the finger, and retained its hold

for a few seconds, as if unable to retract its fangs. The blood flowed,

and intense pain appeared to follow almost immediately; but, with all

expedition, the friend of the sufferer undid his waistcloth, and took

from it two snake-stones, each of the size of a small almond, intensely

black and highly polished, though of an extremely light substance. These

he applied one to each wound inflicted by the teeth of the serpent, to

which the stones attached themselves closely, the blood that oozed from

the bites being rapidly imbibed by the porous texture of the article

applied. The stones adhered tenaciously for three or four minutes, the

wounded man's companion in the meanwhile rubbing his arm downwards from

the shoulder towards the fingers. At length the snake-stones dropped off

of their own accord; the suffering of the man appeared to have subsided;

he twisted his fingers till the joints cracked, and went on his way

without concern. Whilst this had been going on, another Indian of the

party who had come up took from his bag a small piece of white wood,

which resembled a root, and passed it gently near the head of the cobra,

which the latter immediately inclined close to the ground; he then

lifted the snake without hesitation, and coiled it into a circle at the

bottom of his basket. The root by which he professed to be enabled to

perform this operation with safety he called the _Naya-thalee Kalinga_

(the root of the snake-plant), protected by which he professed his

ability to approach any reptile with impunity.

In another instance, in 1853, Mr. Lavalliere, the District Judge of

Kandy, informed me that he saw a snake-charmer in the jungle, close by

the town, search for a cobra de capello, and, after disturbing it in its

retreat, the man tried to secure it, but, in the attempt, he was bitten

in the thigh till blood trickled from the wound. He instantly applied

the _Pamboo-Kaloo_, which adhered closely for about ten minutes, during

which time he passed the root which he held in his hand backwards and

forwards above the stone, till the latter dropped to the ground. He

assured Mr. Lavalliere that all danger was then past. That gentleman

obtained from him the snake-stone he had relied on, and saw him

repeatedly afterwards in perfect health.

The substances which were used on both these occasions are now in my

possession. The roots employed by the several parties are not identical.

One appears to be a bit of the stem of an Aristolochia; the other is so

dried as to render it difficult to identify it, but it resembles the

quadrangular stem of a jungle vine. Some species of Aristolochia, such

as the _A. serpentaria_ of North America, are supposed to act as a

specific in the cure of snake-bites; and the _A. indica_ is the plant to

which the ichneumon is popularly believed to resort as an antidote when

bitten[1]; but it is probable that the use of any particular plant by

the snake-charmers is a pretence, or rather a delusion, the reptile

being overpowered by the resolute action of the operator, and not by the

influence of any secondary appliance, the confidence inspired by the

supposed talisman enabling its possessor to address himself fearlessly

to his task, and thus to effect, by determination and will, what is

popularly believed to be the result of charms and stupefaction. Still it

is curious that, amongst the natives of Northern Africa, who lay hold of

the _Cerastes_ without fear or hesitation, their impunity is ascribed to

the use of a plant with which they anoint themselves before touching the

reptile[2]; and Bruce says of the people of Sennar that they acquire

exemption from the fatal consequences of the bite by chewing a

particular root and washing themselves with an infusion of certain

plants. He adds that a portion of this root was given him, with a view

to test its efficacy in his own person, but that he had not sufficient

resolution to undergo the experiment.

[Footnote 1: For an account of the encounter between the ichneumon and

the venomous snakes of Ceylon, see Pt. II. ch. i. p. 149.]

[Footnote 2: Hassellquist.]

As to the snake-stone itself, I submitted one, the application of which

I have been describing, to Mr. Faraday, and he has communicated to me,

as the result of his analysis, his belief that it is "a piece of charred

bone which has been filled with blood perhaps several times, and then

carefully charred again. Evidence of this is afforded, as well by the

apertures of cells or tubes on its surface as by the fact that it yields

and breaks under pressure, and exhibits an organic structure within.

When heated slightly, water rises from it, and also a little ammonia;

and, if heated still more highly in the air, carbon burns away, and a

bulky white ash is left, retaining the shape and size of the stone."

This ash, as is evident from inspection, cannot have belonged to any

vegetable substance, for it is almost entirely composed of phosphate of

lime. Mr. Faraday adds that "if the piece of matter has ever been

employed as a spongy absorbent, it seems hardly fit for that purpose in

its present state; but who can say to what treatment it has been

subjected since it was fit for use, or to what treatment the natives may

submit it when expecting to have occasion to use it?"

The probability is, that the animal charcoal, when instantaneously

applied, may be sufficiently porous and absorbent to extract the venom

from the recent wound, together with a portion of the blood, before it

has had time to be carried into the system; and that the blood which Mr.

Faraday detected in the specimen submitted to him was that of the Indian

on whose person the effect was exhibited on the occasion to which my

informant was an eye-witness. The snake-charmers from the coast who

visit Ceylon profess to prepare the snake-stones for themselves, and

preserve the composition as a secret. Dr. Davy[1], on the authority of

Sir Alexander Johnston, says the manufacture of them is a lucrative

trade, carried on by the monks of Manilla, who supply the merchants of

India--and his analysis confirms that of Mr. Faraday. Of the three

different kinds which he examined--one being of partially burnt bone,

and another of chalk, the third, consisting chiefly of vegetable matter,

resembled a bezoar,--all of them (except the first, which possessed a

slight absorbent power) were quite inert, and incapable of having any

effect exclusive of that on the imagination of the patient. Thunberg was

shown the snake-stone used by the boers at the Cape in 1772, which was

imported for them "from the Indies, especially from Malabar," at so high

a price that few of the farmers could afford to possess themselves of

it; he describes it as convex on one side black, and so porous that

"when thrown into water, it caused bubbles to rise;" and hence, by its

absorption, it served, if speedily applied, to extract the poison from

the wound.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Account of the Interior of Ceylon_, ch. iii. p. 101.]

[Footnote 2: _Thunberg_, vol. 1. p. 155.]

_Caecilia_.--The rocky jungle, bordering the higher coffee estates,

provides a safe retreat for a very singular animal, first introduced to

the notice of European naturalists about a century ago by Linnæus, who

gave it the name _Caecilia glutinosa_, to indicate two peculiarities

manifest to the ordinary observer--an apparent defect of vision, from

the eyes being so small and imbedded as to be scarcely distinguishable;

and a power of secreting from minute pores in the skin a viscous fluid,

resembling that of snails, eels, and some salamanders. Specimens are

rare in Europe from the readiness with which it decomposes, breaking

down into a flaky mass in the spirits in which it is attempted to be

preserved.

The creature is about the length and thickness of an ordinary round desk

ruler, a little flattened before and rounded behind. It is brownish,

with a pale stripe along either side. The skin is furrowed into 350

circular folds, in which are imbedded minute scales. The head is

tolerably distinct, with a double row of fine curved teeth for seizing

the insects and worms on which it is supposed to live.

Naturalists are most desirous that the habits and metamorphoses of this

creature should be carefully ascertained, for great doubts have been

entertained as to the position it is entitled to occupy in the chain of

creation.

_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 dracæna, _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_.

Dapatnaya Laukadivana, _Kel._

Trevelyanii, _Kelaart_.

Hemidactylus frenatus, _Schleg._

Leschenaultii, _Dum & Bib._

_trihedrus, Less._

maculatus, _Dum & Bib._

Piresii, _Kelaart_.

Coctoei, _Dum & Bib._

Peripia Peronii, _Dum & Bib._

Gymnodactylus Kandianus, _Kel._

Sitana Ponticercana, _Cuv._

Lyriocephalus scutatus, _Wagl._

Ceratophora Stoddartii, _Gray_.

Salea Jerdoni, _Gray_.

Calotes ophiomachus, _Gray_.

versicolor, _Dum. & Bib._

Rouxii, _Dum. & Bib._

mystaceus, _Dum. & Bib._

Chamelo vuelgaris, _Daud._

Ophidia.

Trimesuras viridis, _Lucep._

Ceylonensis, _Gray_.

nigro-marginatus, _Gthr._

Megæra trigonoerphalux, _Latr._

Trigonocephalus hypnalis, _Wagl._

Dabois elegans, _Gray_.

Pelamys bicolor, _Doud._

Aturia lapemoides, _Gray_.

Hydrophis sublævis, _Gray_.

Chersydrus granulatus, _Merr._

Cerberus cinereus, _Gray_.

Tropidophis schistosus, _Daud._

Python reticulatus, _Gray_.

Cylindrophis rufa, _Gray_.

maculata, _Linn._

Aspidura brachyorrhos, _Boie._

Haplocercus Ceylonensis, _Gthr._

Ohgodon subquadratus, _Dum. & Bib._

subgriseus, _Dum. & Bib._

sublineatus, _Dum. & Bib._

Simotes Russellii, _Daud_.

purpurascens, _Schleg._

Ablabes collaris, _Gray_.

Tropidonotus quincunciatus, _Schleg._

var. funebris.

var. carinatus.

stolatus, _Linn_.

chrysargus, _Boie_.

Cynophis Helena, _Daud_.

Coryphodon Blumenbachii, _Merr._

Cyclophis calamaria, _Günther_.

Chrysopelea ornata, _Shaw_.

Dendrophis picta, _Gm._

punctulata, _Gray_.

Dryiophis _prasina, Reinw._

Passerita, myeterizans, _Linn_.

var. fusca.

Dipsas _multimaculata Reinw._

Dipsadomorphus Ceylonensis, _Gray_.

Lycodon aulicus, _Dum. & Bib._

Cercaspis carinata, _Kuhl._

Bungarus fascinatus, _Schneid._

Naja tripudians, _Merr._

Chelonia.

Testudo stellata, _Schweig._

Emys Sebæ, _Gray_.

Emyda Ceylonensis, _Gray_.

_Caretta imbrieuta, Limm._

_Chelonia virgata, Schweig._

Emydosauri.

Crocodyius biporderes, _Cuv._

palastris, _Less._

BATRACHIA.

Rana cutipora, _Dum. & Bib._

Kuhlii, _Schleg._

vittigera, _Wiegm._

robusta, _Blyth._

tigrina, _Daud._

_Leschenaultii, Dum & Bib._

Kandiana, _Kelaart._

Neuera-elliana, _Kelaart._

Rana Malabarica, _Dum. & Bib._

Ixalus variabilis, _Gray._

leucorhinus, _Martens._

poecilopleurus, _Martens._

aurifasciatus, _Dum. & Bib._

Pyxicephalus fodiens, _Jerd._

Polypedates leucomystax, _Gray._

Polypedates microtympanum, _Gray._

eques, _Gray._

_stellata, Kelaart._

_schmardana, Kelaart._

Limnodytes lividus, _Blyth._

macularis, _Blyth._

mutabilis, _Kelaart._

maculatus, _Kelaart._

Bufo melanostictus, _Schneid._

Kelaartii, _Gray._

Engystoma marmoratum, _Cuv._

rubrum, _Jerd._

Kaloula pulchra, _Gray._

balteata, _Günther._

PSEUDOPHIDIA.

Cæcilia glutinosa, _Linn._

NOTE.--The following species are peculiar to Ceylon; and the genera

Aspidura, Cercaspis, and Haplocercus would appear to be similarly

restricted. Trimesurus Ceylonensis, T. nigro-marginatus; Megæra

Trigonocephala; Trigonocephalus hypnalis; Daboia elegans; Cylindrophis

maculata; Aspidura brachyorrhos; Haplocercus Ceylonensis; Oligodon

sublineatus; Cynophis Helena; Cyclophis calamaria; Dipsadomorphus

Ceylonensis; Cercaspis carinata; Ixalus variabilis, I. Leucorhinus, I.

poecilopleurus; Polypedates microtympanum, P. eques.

CHAP. IV.

FISHES.

Little has been yet done to examine and describe the fishes of Ceylon,

especially those which frequent the rivers and inland waters. Mr.

Bennett, who was for some years employed in the Civil Service, directed

his attention to the subject, and published in 1830 some portions of a

projected work on the marine ichthyology of the island[1], but it never

proceeded beyond the description of about thirty individuals. The great

work of Cuvier and Valenciennes[2] particularises about one hundred

species, specimens of which were procured from Ceylon by Reynard

Leschenault and other correspondents, but of these not more than half a

dozen belong to fresh water.

[Footnote 1: _A Selection of the most Remarkable and Interesting Fishes

found on the Coast of Ceylon_. By J.W. BENNETT, Esq. London, 1830.]

[Footnote 2: _Historie Naturelle des Poissons_.]

The fishes of the coast, so far as they have been examined, present few

which are not common to the seas of Ceylon and India. A series of

drawings, including upwards of six hundred species and varieties, of

Ceylon fish, all made from recently-captured specimens, has been

submitted to Professor Huxley, and a notice of their general

characteristics forms an interesting article in the appendix to the

present chapter.[1]

[Footnote 1: See note C to this chapter.]

Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far is the

Seir-fish[1], a species of scomber, which is called _Tora-malu_ by the

natives. It is in size and form very similar to the salmon, to which the

flesh of the female fish, notwithstanding its white colour, bears a very

close resemblance both in firmness and flavour.

[Footnote 1: Cybium (Scomber, _Linn_.) guttatum.]

Mackerel, dories, carp, whitings, mullet, red and striped, perches and

soles, are abundant, and a sardine (_Sardinella Neohowii_, Val.)

frequents the southern and eastern coast in such profusion that on one

instance in 1839 a gentleman, who was present, saw upwards of four

hundred thousand taken in a haul of the nets in the little bay of

Goyapanna, east of Point-de-Galle. As this vast shoal approached the

shore the broken water became as smooth as if a sheet of ice had been

floating below the surface.[1]

[Footnote 1: These facts serve to explain the story told by the friar

ODORIC of Friule, who visited India about the year 1320 A.D., and says

there are "fishes in those seas that come swimming towards the said

country in such abundance that for a great distance into the sea nothing

can be seen but the backs of fishes, which casting themselves on the

shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come and to take as

many of them as they please, and then they return again into the

sea."--_Hakluyt_, vol. ii. p. 57.]

_Poisonous Fishes_.--The sardine has the reputation of being poisonous

at certain seasons, and accidents ascribed to its use are recorded in

all parts of the island. Whole families of fishermen who have partaken

of it have died. Twelve persons in the jail of Chilaw were thus poisoned

about the year 1829; and the deaths of soldiers have repeatedly been

ascribed to the same cause. It is difficult in such instances to say

with certainty whether the fish were in fault; whether there may not

have been a peculiar susceptibility in the condition of the recipients;

or whether the mischief may not have been occasioned by the wilful

administration of poison, or its accidental occurrence in the brass

cooking vessels used by the natives. The popular belief was, however,

deferred to by an order passed by the Governor in Council in February,

1824, which, after reciting that "Whereas it appears by information

conveyed to the Government that at three several periods at Trincomalie

death has been the consequence to several persons from eating the fish

called Sardinia during the months of January and December," enacts that

it shall not be lawful in that district to catch sardines during these

months, under pain of fine and imprisonment. This order is still in

force, but the fishing continues notwithstanding.[1]

[Footnote 1: There are two species of Sardine at Ceylon; the _S.

neohowii_, Val., alluded to above, and the _S. leiogaster_, Val. and

Cuv. xx. 270, which was found by Mr. Reynaud at Trincomalie. It occurs

also off the coast of Java. Another Ceylon fish of the same group, a

Clupea, is known as the "poisonous sprat," the bonito (_Scomber

pelamys?_), the kangewena, or unicorn fish (_Balistes?_), and a number

of others, are more or less in bad repute from the same imputation.]

_Sharks_.--Sharks appear on all parts of the coast, and instances

continually occur of persons being seized by them whilst bathing even in

the harbours of Trincomalie and Colombo. In the Gulf of Manaar they are

taken for the sake of their oil, of which they yield such a quantity

that "shark's oil" is now a recognised export. A trade also exists in

drying their fins, and from the gelatine contained in them, they find a

ready market in China, to which the skin of the basking shark is also

sent;--it is said to be there converted into shagreen.

_Saw Fish._--The huge saw fish, the _Pristis antiquorum_[1], infests the

eastern coast of the island[2], where it attains a length of from twelve

to fifteen feet, including the powerful weapon from which its name is

derived.

[Footnote 1: Two other species are found in the Ceylon waters, _P.

cuspidatus_ and _P. pectinatus_.]

[Footnote 2: ELIAN mentions, amongst the extraordinary marine animals

found in the seas around Ceylon, a fish _with feet instead of fins;

[Greek: poias ge mên chêlas ê pteri gia.]_--Lib xvi. c. 18. Does not

this drawing of a species of Chironectes, captured near Colombo, justify

his description?

[Illustration: CHIRONECTES]]

But the most striking to the eye of a stranger are those fishes whose

brilliancy of colouring has won for them the wonder even of the listless

Singhalese. Some, like the Red Sea Perch (_Helocentrus ruber_, Bennett)

and the Great Fire Fish[1], are of the deepest scarlet and flame colour;

in others purple predominates, as in the _Serranus flavo-cæruleus_; in

others yellow, as in the _Chæetodon Brownriggii_[2], and _Acanthurus

vittatus_, Bennett[3], and numbers, from the lustrous green of their

scales, have obtained from the natives the appropriate name of

_Giraway_, or _parrots_, of which one, the _Sparus Hardwickii_ of

Bennett, is called the "Flower Parrot," from its exquisite colouring,

being barred with irregular bands of blue, crimson, and purple, green,

yellow, and grey, and crossed by perpendicular stripes of black.

[Footnote 1: _Pterois muricata_, Cuv. and Val. iv. 363. _Scorpæna

miles_, Bennett; named, by the Singhalese, "_Maha-rata-gini_," the Great

Red Fire, a very brilliant red species spotted with black. It is very

voracious, and is regarded on some parts of the coast as edible, while

on others it is rejected. Mr. Bennett has given a drawing of this

species, (pl. 9), so well marked by the armature of the head. The French

naturalists regard this figure as being only a highly-coloured variety

of their species "dont l'éclat est occasionné par la saison de l'amour."

It is found in the Red Sea and Bourbon and Penang. Dr. CANTOR calls it

_Pterois miles_, and reports that it preys upon small crustaceæ.--_Cat.

Malayan Fishes_, p. 44.]

[Footnote 2: _Glyphisodon Brownriggii_, Cuv. and Val. v. 484; _Chætodon

Brownriggii_, Bennett. A very small fish about two inches long, called

_Kaha bartikyha_ by the natives. It is distinct from Chætodon, in which

Mr. Bennett placed it. Numerous species of this genus are scattered

throughout the Indian Ocean. It derives its name from the fine hair-like

character of its teeth. They are found chiefly among coral reefs, and,

though eaten, are not much esteemed. In the French colonies they are

called "Chauffe-soleil." One species is found on the shores of the New

World (_G. saxatilis_), and it is curious that Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard

found this fish at the Cape de Verde Islands in 1827.]

[Footnote 3: This fish has a sharp round spine on the side of the body

near the tail; a formidable weapon, which is generally partially

concealed within a scabbard-like incision. The fish raises or depresses

this spine at pleasure. It is yellow, with several nearly parallel blue

stripes on the back and sides; the belly is white, the tail and fins

brownish green, edged with blue.

It is found in rocky places; and according to Mr. Bennett, who has

figured it in his second plate, it is named _Seweya_. It is scarce on

the southern coast of Ceylon.]

_Fresh-water Fishes._--Of the fresh-water fish, which inhabit the rivers

and tanks, so very little has hitherto been known to naturalists[1],

that of nineteen drawings sent home by Major Skinner in 1852, although

specimens of well-known genera, Colonel Hamilton Smith pronounced nearly

the whole to be new and undescribed species.

[Footnote 1: In extenuation of the little that is known of the

fresh-water fishes of Ceylon, it may be observed that very few of them

are used at table by Europeans, and there is therefore no stimulus on

the part of the natives to catch them. The burbot and grey mullet are

occasionally eaten, but they taste of mud, and are not in request.]

Of eight of these, which were from the Mahawelli-ganga, and caught in

the vicinity of Kandy, five were carps[1], of which two were _Leucisci_,

and one a _Mastacemblus_, to which Col. H. Smith has given the name of

its discoverer, _M. Skinneri_[2], one was an _Ophicephalus_, and one a

_Polyacanthus_, with no serræ on the gills. Six were from the

Kalany-ganga, close to Colombo, of which two were _Helastoma_, in shape

approaching the Choetodon; two _Ophicephali_, one a _Silurus_, and one

an _Anabas_, but the gills were without denticulation. From the still

water of the lake, close to the walls of Colombo, there were two species

of _Eleotris_, one _Silurus_ with barbels, and two _Malacopterygians_,

which appear to be _Bagri_.

[Footnote 1: Of the fresh-water fishes belonging to the family

Cyprinidæ, there are about eighteen species from Ceylon in the

collection of the British Museum.]

[Footnote 2: This fish bears the native name of _Theliya_ in Major

Skinner's list; and is described by Colonel Hamilton Smith as being "of

the proportions of an eel; beautifully mottled, with eyes and spots of a

lighter olive upon a dark green." This so nearly corresponds with a fish

of the same name, _Theliya_, which was brought to Gronovius from Ceylon,

and proved to be identical with the _Aral_ of the Coromandel coast, that

it may be doubtful whether it be not the individual already noted by

Cuvier as _Rhyncobdella ocellata_, Cuv. and Val. viii. 445.]

In this collection, brought together without premeditation, the

naturalist will be struck by the preponderance of those genera which are

adapted by nature to endure a temporary privation of moisture; and this,

taken in connection with the vicissitudes affecting the waters they

inhabit, exhibits a surprising illustration of the wisdom of the Creator

in adapting the organisation of His creatures to the peculiar

circumstances under which they are destined to exist.

So abundant are fish in all parts of the island, that Knox says, not the

running streams alone, but the reservoirs and ponds, "nay, every ditch

and little plash of water but ankle deep hath fish in it."[1] But many

of these reservoirs and tanks are, twice in each year, liable to be

evaporated to dryness till the mud of the bottom is converted into dust,

and the clay cleft by the heat into gaping apertures. Yet within a very

few days after the change of the monsoon, the natives are busily engaged

in fishing in those very spots and in the hollows contiguous to them,

although entirely unconnected with any pool or running streams; in the

way in which Knox described nearly 200 years ago, with a funnel-shaped

basket, open at bottom and top, which, as he says, they "jibb down, and

the end sticks in the mud, which often happens upon a fish; which, when

they feel beating itself against the sides, they put in their hands and

take it out, and reive a ratan through their gills, and so let them drag

after them."[2]

[Footnote 1: KNOX'S _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, Part 1. ch. vii.

The occurrence of fish in the most unlooked-for situations, is one of

the mysteries of other eastern countries as well as Ceylon and India. In

Persia irrigation is carried on to a great extent by means of wells sunk

in line in the direction in which it is desired to lead a supply of

water, and these are connected by channels, which are carefully arched

over to protect them from evaporation. These _kanats_, as they are

called, are full of fish, although neither they nor the wells they unite

have any connection with streams or lakes.]

[Footnote 2: KNOX, _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, Part I. ch. vii.]

[Illustration: FROM KNOX'S CEYLON, A.D. 1681]

This operation may be seen in the lowlands, which are traversed by the

high road leading from Colombo to Kandy, the hollows on either side of

which, before the change of the monsoon, are covered with dust or

stunted grass; but when flooded by the rains, they are immediately

resorted to by the peasants with baskets, constructed precisely as Knox

has stated, in which the fish are encircled and taken out by the

hand.[1]

[Footnote 1: As anglers, the native Singhalese exhibit little

expertness; but for fishing the rivers, they construct with singular

ingenuity fences formed of strong stakes, protected by screens of ratan,

which stretch diagonally across the current; and along these the fish

are conducted into a series of enclosures from which retreat is

impracticable. Mr. LAYARD, in the _Magazine of Natural History_ for May,

1853, has given a diagram of one of these fish "corrals," as they are

called.

[Illustration: FISH CORRAL]]

So singular a phenomenon as the sudden reappearance of full-grown fishes

in places which a few days before had been encrusted with hardened clay,

has not failed to attract attention; but the European residents have

been contented to explain it by hazarding the conjecture, either that

the spawn had lain imbedded in the dried earth till released by the

rains, or that the fish, so unexpectedly discovered, fall from the

clouds during the deluge of the monsoon.

As to the latter conjecture; the fall of fish during showers, even were

it not so problematical in theory, is too rare an event to account for

the punctual appearance of those found in the rice-fields, at stated

periods of the year. Both at Galle and Colombo in the south-west

monsoon, fish are popularly thought to have fallen from the clouds

during violent showers, but those found on the occasions that give rise

to this belief, consist of the smallest fry, such as could be caught up

by waterspouts, and vortices analogous to them, or otherwise blown on

shore from the surf; whereas those which suddenly appear in the

replenished tanks and in the hollows which they overflow, are mature and

well-grown fish.[1] Besides, the latter are found, under the

circumstances I have described, in all parts of the interior, whilst the

prodigy of a supposed fall of fish from the sky has been noticed, I

apprehend, only in the vicinity of the sea, or of some inland water.

[Footnote 1: I had an opportunity, on one occasion only, of witnessing

the phenomenon which gives rise to this popular belief. I was driving in

the cinnamon gardens near the fort of Colombo, and saw a violent but

partial shower descend at no great distance before me. On coming to the

spot I found a multitude of small silvery fish from one and a half to

two inches in length, leaping on the gravel of the high road, numbers of

which I collected and brought away in my palankin. The spot was about

half a mile from the sea, and entirely unconnected with any watercourse

or pool.

Mr. WHITING, who was many years resident at Trincomalie, writes me that

he "had often been told by the natives on that side of the island that

it sometimes rained fishes; and on one occasion (he adds) I was taken by

them, in 1849, to a field at the village of Karran-cotta-tivo, near

Batticaloa, which was dry when I passed over it in the morning, but had

been covered in two hours by sudden rain to the depth of three inches in

which there was then a quantity of small fish. The water had no

connection with any pond or stream whatsoever." Mr. CRIPPS, in like

manner, in speaking of Galle, says: "I have seen in the vicinity of the

fort, fish taken from rain-water that had accumulated in the hollow

parts of land that in the hot season are perfectly dry and parched. The

place is accessible to no running stream or tank; and either the fish,

or the spawn from which they were produced, must of necessity have

fallen with the rain."

Mr. J. PRINSEP, the eminent secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal,

found a fish in the pluviometer at Calcutta, in 1838.--_Journ. Asiat.

Soc. Bengal_, vol. vi p. 465.

A series of instances in which fishes have been found on the continent

of India under circumstances which lead to the conclusion that they must

have fallen from the clouds, have been collected by Dr. BUIST of Bombay,

and will be found in the appendix to this chapter.]

The surmise of the buried spawn is one sanctioned by the very highest

authority. Mr. YARRELL in his "_History of British Fishes_," adverting

to the fact that ponds which had been previously converted into hardened

mud, are replenished with small fish in a very few days after the

commencement of each rainy season, offers this solution of the problem

as probably the true one: "The impregnated ova of the fish of one rainy

season, are left unhatched in the mud through the dry season, and from

their low state of organisation as ova, the vitality is preserved till

the recurrence, and contact of the rain and oxygen in the next wet

season, when vivification takes place from their joint influence."[1]

[Footnote 1: YARRELL, _History of British Fishes_, introd. vol. i. p.

xxvi.]

This hypothesis, however, appears to have been offered upon imperfect

data; for although some fish like the salmon scrape grooves in the sand

and place their spawn in inequalities and fissures; yet as a general

rule spawn is deposited not beneath but on the surface of the ground or

sand over which the water flows, the adhesive nature of each egg

supplying the means of attachment. But in the Ceylon tanks not only is

the surface of the soil dried to dust after the evaporation of the

water, but the earth itself, twelve or eighteen inches deep, is

converted into sun-burnt clay, in which, although the eggs of mollusca,

in their calcareous covering, are in some instances preserved, it would

appear to be as impossible for the ova of fish to be kept from

decomposition as for the fish themselves to sustain life. Besides,

moisture in such situations is only to be found at a depth to which

spawn could not be conveyed by the parent fish, by any means with which

we are yet acquainted.

But supposing it possible to carry the spawn sufficiently deep, and to

deposit it safely in the mud below, which is still damp, whence it could

be liberated on the return of the rains, a considerable interval would

still be necessary after the replenishing of the ponds with water to

admit of vivification and growth. But so far from this interval being

allowed to elapse, the rains have no sooner ceased than the fishing of

the natives commences, and those captured in wicker cages are mature and

full grown instead of being "small fish" or fry, as affirmed by Mr.

Yarrell.

Even admitting the soundness of his theory, and the probability that,

under favourable circumstances, the spawn in the tanks might be

preserved during the dry season so as to contribute to the perpetuation

of their inhabitants, the fact is no longer doubtful, that adult fish in

Ceylon, like some of those that inhabit similar waters both in the New

and Old World, have been endowed by the Creator with the singular

faculty of providing against the periodical droughts either by

journeying overland in search of still unexhausted water, or, on its

utter disappearance, by burying themselves in the mud to await the

return of the rains.

_Travelling Fishes._--It was well known to the Greeks that certain

fishes of India possessed the power of leaving the rivers and returning

to them again after long migrations[1] on dry land, and modern

observation has fully confirmed their statements. The fish leave the

pools and nullahs in the dry season, and led by an instinct as yet

unexplained, shape their course through the grass towards the nearest

pool of water. A similar phenomenon is observable in countries similarly

circumstanced. The Doras of Guiana[2] have been seen travelling over

land during the dry season in search of their natural element[3], in

such droves that the negroes have filled baskets with them during these

terrestrial excursions.

[Footnote 1: I have collected into a note, which will be found in the

appendix to this chapter, the opinions entertained by the Greeks and

Romans upon this habit of the fresh-water fishes of India. See note B.]

[Footnote 2: _D. Hancockii_, Cuv. et Val.]

[Footnote 3: Sir R. Schomburgk's _Fishes of Guiana_, vol. i. pp. 113,

151, 160. Another migratory fish was found by Bose very numerous in the

fresh waters of Carolina and in ponds liable to become dry in summer.

When captured and placed on the ground, "they _always directed

themselves towards the nearest water, which they could not possibly

see_, and which they must have discovered by some internal index." They

belong to the genus _Hydrargyra_, and are called Swampines.-- KIBBY,

_Bridgewater Treatise_, vol i. p. 143.

Eels kept in a garden, when August arrived (the period at which instinct

impels them to go to the sea to spawn) were in the habit of leaving the

pond and were invariably found moving eastward _in the direction of the

sea_.--YARRELL, vol. ii. p. 384. Anglers observe that fish newly caught,

when placed out of sight of water, always struggle towards it to

escape.]

Pallegoix in his account of Siam, enumerates three species of fishes

which leave the tanks and channels and traverse the damp grass[1]; and

Sir John Bowring, in his account of the embassy to the Siamese kings in

1855, states, that in ascending and descending the river Meinam to

Bankok, he was amused with the novel sight of fish leaving the river,

gliding over the wet banks, and losing themselves amongst the trees of

the jungle.[2]

[Footnote 1: PALLEGOIX, vol. i. p. 144.]

[Footnote 2: Sir J. BOWRING'S _Siam_, vol. i. p. 10.]

The class of fishes which possess this power are chiefly those with

labyrinthiform pharyngeal bones, so disposed in plates and cells as to

retain a supply of moisture, which, whilst crawling on land, gradually

exudes so as to keep the gills damp.[1]

[Footnote 1: CUVIER and VALENCIENNES, _Hist. Nat. des Poissons, _tom.

vii. p. 246.]

The individual which is most frequently seen in these excursions in

Ceylon is a perch called by the Singhalese _Kavaya_ or _Kawhy-ya_, and

by the Tamils _Pannei-eri_, or _Sennal_. It is closely allied to, if not

identical with, the _Anabas scandens_ of Cuvier, the _Perca scandens_ of

Daldorf. It grows to about six inches in length, the head round and

covered with scales, and the edges of the gill-covers strongly

denticulated. Aided by the apparatus already adverted to in its head,

this little creature issues boldly from its native pools and addresses

itself to its toilsome march generally at night or in the early morning,

whilst the grass is still damp with the dew; but in its distress it is

sometimes compelled to travel by day, and Mr. E.L. Layard on one

occasion encountered a number of them travelling along a hot and dusty

gravel road under the midday sun.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist_., May, 1853, p. 390. Mr.

Morris, the government-agent of Trincomalie, writing to me on this

subject in 1856, says--"I was lately on duty inspecting the bund of a

large tank at Nade-cadua, which, being out of repair, the remaining

water was confined in a small hollow in the otherwise dry bed. Whilst

there heavy rain came on, and, as we stood on the high ground, we

observed a pelican on the margin of the shallow pool gorging himself;

our people went towards him and raised a cry of fish! fish! We hurried

down, and found numbers of fish struggling upwards through the grass in

the rills formed by the trickling of the rain. There was scarcely water

enough to cover them, but nevertheless they made rapid progress up the

bank, on which our followers collected about two bushels of them at a

distance of forty yards from the tank. They were forcing their way up

the knoll, and, had they not been intercepted first by the pelican and

afterwards by ourselves, they would in a few minutes have gained the

highest point and descended on the other side into a pool which formed

another portion of the tank. They were chub, the same as are found in

the mud after the tanks dry up." In a subsequent communication in July,

1857, the same gentleman says--"As the tanks dry up the fish congregate

in the little pools till at last you find them in thousands in the

moistest parts of the beds, rolling in the blue mud which is at that

time about the consistence of thick gruel."

"As the moisture further evaporates the surface fish are left uncovered,

and they crawl away in search of fresh pools. In one place I saw

hundreds diverging in every direction, from the tank they had just

abandoned to a distance of fifty or sixty yards, and still travelling

onwards. In going this distance, however, they must have used muscular

exertion sufficient to have taken them half a mile on level ground, for

at these places all the cattle and wild animals of the neighbourhood had

latterly come to drink; so that the surface was everywhere indented with

footmarks in addition to the cracks in the surrounding baked mud, into

which the fish tumbled in their progress. In those holes which were deep

and the sides perpendicular they remained to die, and were carried off

by kites and crows."

"My impression is that this migration takes place at night or before

sunrise, for it was only early in the morning that I have seen them

progressing, and I found that those I brought away with me in chatties

appeared quiet by day, but a large proportion managed to get out of the

chatties at night--some escaped altogether, others were trodden on and

killed."

"One peculiarity is the large size of the vertebral column, quite

disproportioned to the bulk of the fish. I particularly noticed that all

in the act of migrating had their gills expanded."]

Referring to the _Anabas scandens_, Mr. Hamilton Buchanan says, that of

all the fish with which he was acquainted it is the most tenacious of

life; and he has known boatmen on the Ganges to keep them for five or

six days in an earthen pot without water, and daily to use what they

wanted, finding them as lively and fresh as when caught.[1] Two Danish

naturalists residing at Tranquebar, have contributed their authority to

the fact of this fish ascending trees on the coast of Coromandel, an

exploit from which it acquired its epithet of _Perca scandens_. Daldorf,

who was a lieutenant in the Danish East India Company's service,

communicated to Sir Joseph Banks, that in the year 1791 he had taken

this fish from a moist cavity in the stem of a Palmyra palm, which grew

near a lake. He saw it when already five feet above the ground

struggling to ascend still higher;--suspending itself by its

gill-covers, and bending its tail to the left, it fixed its anal fin in

the cavity of the bark, and sought by expanding its body to urge its way

upwards, and its march was only arrested by the hand with which he

seized it.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Fishes of the Ganges_, 4to. 1822.]

[Footnote 2: _Transactions Linn. Soc._ vol. iii. p. 63. It is

remarkable, however, that this discovery of Daldorf, which excited so

great an interest in 1791, had been anticipated by an Arabian voyager a

thousand years before. Abou-zeyd, the compiler of the remarkable MS.

known since Renandot's translation by the title of the _Travels of Two

Mahometans_, states that Suleyman, one of his informants, who visited

India at the close of the ninth century, was told there of a fish which,

issuing from the waters, ascended the coco-nut palms to drink their sap,

and returned to the sea. "On parle d'un poisson de mer que sortant de

l'eau, monte sur la cocotier et boit le suc de la plante; ensuite il

retourne à la mer." See REINAUD, _Relations des Voyages faits par les

Arabes et Persans dans le neuvième siècle_, tom. i. p. 21, tom ii. p.

93.]

There is considerable obscurity about the story of this ascent, although

corroborated by M. John. Its motive for climbing is not apparent, since

water being close at hand it could not have gone for sake of the

moisture contained in the fissures of the palm; nor could it be in

search of food, as it lives not on fruit but on aquatic insects.[1] The

descent, too, is a question of difficulty. The position of its fins, and

the spines on its gill-covers, might assist its journey upwards, but the

same apparatus would prove anything but a facility in steadying its

journey down. The probability is, as suggested by Buchanan, that the

ascent which was witnessed by Daldorf was accidental, and ought not to

be regarded as the habit of the animal. In Ceylon I heard of no instance

of the perch ascending trees[2], but the fact is well established that

both it, the _pullata_ (a species of polyacanthus), and others, are

capable of long journeys on the level ground.[3]

[Footnote 1: Kirby says that it is "in pursuit of certain crustaceans

that form its food" (_Bridgewater Treatise_, vol. i. p. 144); but I am

not aware of any crustaceans in the island which ascend the palmyra or

feed upon its fruit. Birgus latro, which inhabits Mauritius and is said

to climb the coco-nut for this purpose, has not been observed in

Ceylon.]

[Footnote 2: This assertion must be qualified by a fact stated by Mr.

E.A. Layard, who mentions that on visiting one of the fishing stations

on a Singhalese river, where the fish are caught in staked enclosures,

as described at p. 212, and observing that the chambers were covered

with netting, he asked the reason, and was told "_that some of the fish

climbed up the sticks and got over_."--_Mag. Nat. Hist._ for May 1828,

p. 390-1.]

[Footnote 3: Strange accidents have more than once occurred in Ceylon

arising from the habit of the native anglers; who, having neither

baskets nor pockets in which to place what they catch, will seize a fish

in their teeth whilst putting fresh bait on their hook. In August 1853,

a man carried into the Pettah hospital at Colombo, having a climbing

perch, which he thus attempted to hold, firmly imbedded in his throat.

The spines of its dorsal fin prevented its descent, whilst those of the

gill-covers equally forbade its return. It was eventually extracted by

the forceps through an incision in the oesophagus, and the patient

recovered. Other similar cases have proved fatal.]

_Burying Fishes._--But a still more remarkable power possessed by some

of the Ceylon fishes, is that of secreting themselves in the earth in

the dry season, at the bottom of the exhausted ponds, and there awaiting

the renewal of the water at the change of the monsoon.

The instinct of the crocodile to resort to the same expedient has been

already referred to[1], and in like manner the fish, when distressed by

the evaporation of the tanks, seek relief by immersing first their

heads, and by degrees their whole bodies, in the mud; and sinking to a

depth at which they find sufficient moisture to preserve life in a state

of lethargy long after the bed of the tank has been consolidated by the

intense heat of the sun. It is possible, too, that the cracks which

reticulate the surface may admit air to some extent to sustain their

faint respiration.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, P. II. ch. iii. p. 189.]

The same thing takes place in other tropical regions, subject to

vicissitudes of draught and moisture. The Protopterus[1] which inhabits

the Gambia (and which, though demonstrated by Professor Owen to possess

all the essential organisation of fishes, is nevertheless provided with

true lungs), is accustomed in the dry season, when the river retires

into its channel, to bury itself to the depth of twelve or sixteen

inches in the indurated mud of the banks, and to remain in a state of

torpor till the rising of the stream after the rains enables it to

resume its active habits. At this period the natives of the Gambia, like

those of Ceylon, resort to the river, and secure the fish in

considerable numbers as they flounder in the still shallow water. A

parallel instance occurs in Abyssinia in relation to the fish of the

Mareb, one of the sources of the Nile, the waters of which are partially

absorbed in traversing the plains of Taka. During the summer its bed is

dry, and in the slime at the depth of more than six feet is found a

species of fish without scales, different from any known to inhabit the

Nile.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Lepidosiren annectans_, Owen. See _Linn. Trans._ 1839.]

[Footnote 2: This statement will be found in QUATREMERE'S _Memoires sur

l'Egypte_, tom. i. p. 17, on the authority of Abdullah ben Ahmed ben

Solaim Assouany, in his _History of Nubia_, "Simon, héritier présomptif

du royanme d'Alouah, m'a assuré que l'on trouve, dans la vase qui couvre

le fond de cette rivière, un grand poisson sans écailles, qui ne

ressemble en rien aux poissons du Nil, et que, pour l'avoir, il faut

creuser à une toise et plus de profondeur." To this passage there is

appended this note:--"Le patriarche Mendes, cité par Legrand (_Relation

Hist. d'Abyssinie_, du P. LOBO, p. 212-3) rapporte que le fleuve Mareb,

après avoir arrosé une étendue de pays considérable, se perd sous terre;

et que quand les Portugais faisaient la guerre dans ce pays, ils

fouilloient dans le sable, et y trouvoient de la bonne eau et du bon

poison. Au rapport de l'auteur de _l'Ayin Akbery_ (tom. ii. p. 146, ed.

1800), dans le Soubah de Caschmir, près du lieu nommé Tilahmoulah, est

une grande pièce de terre qui est inondée pendant la saison des pluies.

Lorsque les eaux se sont évaporées, et que la vase est presque sèche,

les habitans prennent des bâtons d'environ une aune de long, qu'ils

enfoncent dans la vase, et ils y trouvent quantité de grands et petits

poissons." In the library of the British Museum there is an unique MS.

of MANOEL DE ALMEIDA, written in the sixteenth century, from which

Balthasar Tellez compiled his _Historia General de Ethiopia alta_,

printed at Coimbra in 1660, and in it the above statement of Mendes is

corroborated by Almeida, who says that he was told by João Gabriel, a

Creole Portuguese, born in Abyssinia, who had visited the Merab, and who

said that the "fish were to be found everywhere eight or ten palms down,

and that he had eaten of them."]

In South America the "round-headed hassar" of Guiana, _Callicthys

littoralis_, and the "yarrow," a species of the family Esocidæ, although

they possess no specially modified respiratory organs, are accustomed to

bury themselves in the mud on the subsidence of water in the pools

during the dry season.[1] The _Loricaria_ of Surinam, another Siluridan,

exhibits a similar instinct, and resorts to the same expedient. Sir R.

Schomburgk, in his account of the fishes of Guiana, confirms this

account of the Callicthys, and says "they can exist in muddy lakes

without any water whatever, and great numbers of them are sometimes dug

up from such situations."

[Footnote 1: See Paper "_on some Species of Fishes and Reptiles in

Demerara_," by J. HANDCOOK, Esq., M.D., _Zoological Journal_, vol. iv.

p. 243.]

In those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat, and small tanks

are extremely numerous, the natives in the hot season are accustomed to

dig in the mud for fish. Mr. Whiting, the chief civil officer of the

eastern province, informs me that, on two occasions, he was present

accidentally when the villagers were so engaged, once at the tank of

Moeletivoe, within a few miles of Kottiar, near the bay of Trincomalie,

and again at a tank between Ellendetorre and Arnetivoe, on the bank of

the Vergel river. The clay was firm, but moist, and as the men flung out

lumps of it with a spade, it fell to pieces, disclosing fish from nine

to twelve inches long, which were full grown and healthy, and jumped on

the bank when exposed to the sun light.

Being desirous of obtaining a specimen of the fish so exhumed, I

received from the Moodliar of Matura, A.B. Wickremeratne, a fish taken

along with others of the same kind from a tank in which the water had

dried up; it was found at a depth of a foot and a half where the mud was

still moist, whilst the surface was dry and hard. The fish which the

moodliar sent to me proved to be an Anabas, and closely resembles the

_Perca scandens_ of Daldorf.

[Illustration: THE ANABAS OF THE DRY TANKS]

But the faculty of becoming torpid at such periods is not confined in

Ceylon to the crocodiles and fishes, it is equally possessed by some of

the fresh-water mollusca and aquatic coleoptera. The largest of the

former, the _Ampullaria glauca_, is found in still water in all parts of

the island, not alone in the tanks, but in rice-fields and the

watercourses by which they are irrigated. There it deposits a bundle of

eggs with a white calcareous shell, to the number of one hundred and

more in each group, at a considerable depth in the soft mud, under

which, when the water is about to evaporate during the dry season, it

burrows and conceals itself[1] till the returning rains restore it to

liberty, and reproduce its accustomed food. The _Melania Paludina_ in

the same way retires during the droughts into the muddy soil of the rice

lands; and it can only be by such an instinct that this and other

mollusca are preserved when the tanks evaporate, to re-appear in full

growth and vigour immediately on the return of the rains.[2]

[Footnote 1: A knowledge of this fact was turned to prompt account by

Mr. Edgar S. Layard, when holding a judicial office at Point Pedro in

1849. A native who had been defrauded of his land complained before him

of his neighbour, who, during his absence, had removed their common

landmark by diverting the original watercourse and obliterated its

traces by filling it to a level with the rest of the field. Mr. Layard

directed a trench to be sunk at the contested spot, and discovering

numbers of the Ampullaria, the remains of the eggs, and the living

animal which had been buried for months, the evidence was so resistless

as to confound the wrongdoer, and terminate the suit.]

[Footnote 2: For a similar fact relative to the shells and water beetles

in the pools near Rio Janeiro, see DARWIN'S _Nat. Journal_, ch. v. p.

90. BENSON, in the first vol. of _Gleanings of Science_, published at

Calcutta in 1829, describes a species of _Paludina_ found in pools,

which are periodically dried up in the hot season but reappear with the

rains, p. 363. And in the _Journal of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal_ for

Sept. 1832, Lieut. HUTTON, in a singularly interesting paper, has

followed up the same subject by a narrative of his own observations at

Mirzapore, where in June, 1832, after a few heavy showers of rain, which

formed pools on the surface of the ground near a mango grove, he saw the

_Paludinæ_ issuing from the ground, "pushing aside the moistened earth

and coming forth from their retreats; but on the disappearance of the

water not one of them was to be seen above ground. Wishing to ascertain

what had become of them, he turned up the earth at the base of several

trees, and invariably found the shells buried from an inch to two inches

below the surface." Lieut. Hutton adds that the _Ampullariæ_ and

_Planorbes_, as well as the _Paludinæ_, are found in similar situations

during the heats of the dry season. The British _Pisidea_ exhibit the

same faculty (see a monograph in the _Camb. Phil. Trans._ vol. iv.). The

fact is elsewhere alluded to in the present work of the power possessed

by the land leech of Ceylon of retaining vitality even after being

parched to hardness during the heat of the rainless season. Vol. I. ch.

vii. p. 312.]

Dr. John Hunter[1] has advanced the opinion that hybernation, although a

result of cold, is not its immediate consequence, but is attributable to

that deprivation of food and other essentials which extreme cold

occasions, and against the recurrence of which nature makes a timely

provision by a suspension of her functions. Excessive heat in the

tropics produces an effect upon animals and vegetables analogous to that

of excessive cold in northern regions, and hence it is reasonable to

suppose that the torpor induced by the one may be but the counterpart of

the hybernation which results from the other. The frost which imprisons

the alligator in the Mississippi as effectually cuts him off from food

and action as the drought which incarcerates the crocodile in the

sun-burnt clay of a Ceylon tank. The hedgehog of Europe enters on a

period of absolute torpidity as soon as the inclemency of winter

deprives it of its ordinary supply of slugs and insects; and the

_Tenrec_[2] of Madagascar, its tropical representative, exhibits the

same tendency during the period when excessive heat produces in that

climate a like result.

[Footnote 1: HUNTER'S _Observations on parts of the Animal Oeconomy_, p.

88.]

[Footnote 2: _Centetes ecaudatus_, Illiger.]

The descent of the _Ampullaria_, and other fresh-water molluscs, into

the mud of the tank, has its parallel in the conduct of the _Bulimi_ and

_Helices_ on land. The European snail, in the beginning of winter,

either buries itself in the earth or withdraws to some crevice or

overarching stone to await the returning vegetation of spring. So, in

the season of intense heat, the _Helix Waltoni_ of Ceylon, and others of

the same family, before retiring under cover, close the aperture of

their shells with an impervious epiphragm, which effectually protects

their moisture and juices from evaporation during the period of their

æstivation. The Bulimi of Chili have been found alive in England in a

box packed in cotton after an interval of two years, and the animal

inhabiting a land-shell from Suez, which was attached to a tablet and

deposited in the British Museum in 1846, was found in 1850 to have

formed a fresh epiphragm, and on being immersed in tepid water, it

emerged from its shell. It became torpid again on the 15th November,

1851, and was found dead and dried up in March, 1852.[1] But the

exceptions serve to prove the accuracy of Hunter's opinion almost as

strikingly as accordances, since the same genera of animals which

hybernate in Europe, where extreme cold disarranges their oeconomy,

evince no symptoms of lethargy in the tropics, provided their food be

not diminished by the heat. Ants, which are torpid in Europe during

winter, work all the year round in India, where sustenance is

uniform.[2] The Shrews of Ceylon (_Sorex montanus_ and _S. ferrugineus_

of Kelaart) which, like those at home, subsist upon insects, inhabit a

region where the equable temperature admits of the pursuit of their prey

at all seasons of the year; and hence, unlike those of Europe, they

never hybernate. A similar observation applies to the bats, which are

dormant during a northern winter when insects are rare, but never become

torpid in any part of the tropics.

[Footnote 1: _Annals of Natural History_, 1850. See Dr. BAIRD's _Account

of Helix desertorum; Excelsior, &c._, ch. i. p. 345.]

[Footnote 2: Colonel SYKES has described in the _Entomological Trans._

the operations of an ant which laid up a store of hay against the rainy

season.]

The bear, in like manner, is nowhere deprived of its activity except

when the rigour of severe frost cuts off its access to its accustomed

food. On the other hand, the tortoise, which immerses itself in

indurated mud during the hot months in Venezuela, shows no tendency to

torpor in Ceylon, where its food is permanent; and yet is subject to

hybernation when carried to the colder regions of Europe.

To the fish in the detached tanks and pools when the heat, by exhausting

the water, deprives them at once of motion and sustenance, the practical

effect must be the same as when the frost of a northern winter encases

them in ice. Nor is it difficult to believe that they can successfully

undergo the one crisis when we know beyond question that they may

survive the other.[1]

[Footnote 1: YARRELL, vol. i. p. 364, quotes the authority of Dr. J.

Hunter in his _Animal OEconomy_, that fish, "after being frozen still

retain so much of life as when thawed to resume their vital actions;"

and in the same volume (_Introd._ vol. i. p. xvii.) he relates from

JESSE'S _Gleanings in Natural History_, the story of a gold fish

(_Cyprinus auratus_) which, together with the water in a marble basin,

was frozen into one solid lump of ice, yet, on the water being thawed,

the fish became as lively as usual Dr. RICHARDSON, in the third vol. of

his _Fauna Borealis Americana_, says the grey sucking carp found in the

fur countries of North America, may be frozen and thawed again without

being killed in the process.]

_Hot-water Fishes_.--Another incident is striking in connection with the

fresh-water fishes of Ceylon. I have mentioned elsewhere the hot springs

of Kannea, in the vicinity of Trincomalie, the water in which flows at a

temperature varying at different seasons from 85° to 115°. In the stream

formed by these wells M. Reynaud found and forwarded to Cuvier two

fishes which he took from the water at a time when his thermometer

indicated a temperature of 37° Reaumur, equal to 115° of Fahrenheit. The

one was an Apogon, the other an Ambassis, and to each, from the heat of

its habitat, he assigned the specific name of "Thermalis."[1]

[Footnote 1: CUV. and VAL., vol. iii. p. 363. In addition to the two

fishes above named, a loche _Cobitis thermalis_, and a carp, _Nuria

thermoicos_, were found in the hot-springs of Kannea at a heat 40°

Cent., 114° Fahr., and a roach, _Leuciscus thermalis_, when the

thermometer indicated 50° Cent., 122° Fahr.--_Ib_. xviii. p. 59, xvi. p.

182, xvii. p. 94. Fish have been taken from a hot spring at Pooree when

the thermometer stood at 112° Fahr., and as they belonged to a

carnivorous genus, they must have found prey living in the same high

temperature.--_Journ. Asiatic Soc. Beng_. vol. vi. p. 465. Fishes have

been observed in a hot spring at Manilla which raises the thermometer to

187°, and in another in Barbary, the usual temperature of which is 172°;

and Humboidt and Bonpland, when travelling in South America, saw fishes

thrown up alive from a volcano, in water that raised the temperature to

210°, being two degrees below the boiling point. PATTERSON'S _Zoology_.

Pt. ii p. 211; YARRELL'S _History of British Fishes_, vol. i. In. p.

xvi.]

_List of Ceylon Fishes._

I. OSSEOUS.

Acanthopterygii.

_Perca_ argentea, _Bennett_.

Apogon roseipinnis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Zeylonicus, _Cuv. & Val_.

thermalis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Ambassis thermalis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Serranus biguttatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Tankervillæ, _Benn_.

lemniscatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Sonneratii, _Cuv. & Val_.

flavo-ceruleus, _Lacep_.

marginalis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Boelang, _Cuv. & Val_.

Serranus faveatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

angularis, _Cuv. & Val_.

punctulatas, _Cuv. & Val_.

Diacope decem-lineatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

spilura, _Benn_.

xanthopus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Mesoprion annularis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Holocentrus orientale, _Cuv. & Val_.

spinifera, _Cuv. & Val_.

argenteus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Upeneus tæniopterus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Zeylonicus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Russeli, _Cuv. & Val_.

cinnabarinus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Platycephalus punctatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

scaber, _Linn_.

tuberculatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

serratus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Pterois volitans, _Gm_.

muricata, _Cuv. & Val_.

Diagramma cinerascens, _Cuv. & Val_.

Blochii, _Cuv. & Val_.

poeciloptera, _Cuv. & Val_.

Cuvieri, _Benn_.

Sibbaldi, _E. Benn_.

Lobotes crate, _Cuv. & Val_.

Scolopsides bimaculatus, _Rupp_.

Amphiprion Clarkii, _J. Benn_.

Dascyllus aruanus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Glyphisodon Rahti, _Cuv. & Val_.

Brownrigii, _Benn_.

_Sparus_ Hardwickii, _J. Benn_.

Pagrus longifilis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Lethrinus opercularis, _Cuv. & Val_.

fasciatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

frænatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

cythrurus, _Cuv. & Val_.

cinereus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Smaris balteatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Cæsio coerulaureus, _Lacep_.

Gerres oblongus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Chætodon vagabundus, _Linn_.

Sebanus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Layardi, _Blyth_.

xanthocephalus, _E. Bennett_.

guttatissimus, _E. Benn_.

Hæniochus macrolepidotus, _Linn_.

Scatophagus argus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Holacanthus xanthurus, _E. Benn_.

Platax Raynaldi, _Cuv. & Val_.

ocellatus _Cuv. & Val_.

Ehrenbergii, _Cuv. & Val_.

Anabas _scandens_, _Dald_.

_Helostoma_.

_Polyacanthus_.

_Ophicephalus_.

Cybium guttatum, _Bloeh_.

Chorinemus moadetta, _Ehren_.

Rhynchobdella ocellata, _Cuv. & Val_.

Mastocemblus Skinneri, _H. Smith_.

Caranx Heberi, _J. Benn_.

speciosus, _Forsk_.

Rhombus triocellatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Equula dacer, _Cuv. & Val_.

filigera, _Cuv. & Val_.

Amphacanthus javus, _Linn_.

sutor, _Cuv. & Val_.

Acanthurus xanthurus, _Blyth_.

triostegus, _Bloch_.

Delisiani, _Cuv. & Val_.

lineatus, _Lacep_.

melas, _Cuv. & Val_.

Atherina duodecimalis, _Cuv. & Val_.

_Blennius_.

Salarias marmoratus, _Benn_.

alticus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Eleotris sexguttata, _Cuv. & Val_.

Cheironectes hispidus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Tautoga fasciata, _Bloch_.

Julis lunaris, _Linn_.

decussatus, _W. Benn_.

formosus, _Cuv. & Val_.

quadricolor, _Lesson_.

dorsalis, _Quoy & Gaim_.

aureomaculatus, _W. Benn_.

Ceilanicus, _E. Benn_.

Finlaysoni, _Cuv. & Val_.

purpureo-lineatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

Gomphosus fuscus, _Cuv. & Val_.

viridis, _W. Benn_.

Scarus pepo, _W. Benn_.

harid, _Forsk_.

Malacopterygrii (abdominales).

_Silurus_.

Bagrus albilabris, _Cuv. & Val_.

Plotosus lineatus, _Cuv. & Val_.

_Cyprinus_.

Barbus tor, _Cuv. & Val_.

Nuria thermoicos, _Cuv. & Val_.

Leuciscus Zeylonicus, _E. Benn_.

thermalis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Cobitis thermalis, _Cuv. & Val_.

Hemirhamphus Reynaldi, _Cuv. & Val_.

Georgii, _Cuv. & Val_.

Exocoetus evolans, _Linn_.

Sardinella leiogaster, _Cuv. & Val_.

lineolata, _Cuv. & Val_.

Saurus myops, _Val_.

Malacopterygii (Sub-brachiati).

_Pleuronectes, L._

Malacopterygii (Apoda).

_Muræna_.

Lophobranchi.

_Syngnathus, L._

Plectognathii.

Tetraodon ocellatus, _W. Benn_.

argyropleura, _E. Bennett_.

argentatus, _Blyth_.

Balistes biaculeatus, _W. Benn_.

Triacanthus biaculeatus, _W. Benn_.

II. CARTILAGINOUS

_Squabus, L._

Pristis antiquorum, _Lath._

cuspidatus, _Lath._

pectinatus, _Lath._

_Raia, L._

NOTE (A.)

INSTANCES OF FISHES FALLING FROM THE CLOUDS IN INDIA.

_From the Bombay Times_, 1856.

Dr. Buist, after enumerating cases in which fishes were said to have

been thrown out from volcanoes in South America and precipitated from

clouds in various parts of the world, adduces the following instances of

similar occurrences in India. "In 1824," he says, "fishes fell at

Meerut, on the men of Her Majesty's 14th Regiment, then out at drill,

and were caught in numbers. In July, 1826, live fish were seen to fall

on the grass at Moradabad during a storm. They were the common cyprinus,

so prevalent in our Indian waters. On the 19th of February, 1830, at

noon, a heavy fall of fish occurred at the Nokulhatty factory, in the

Daccah zillah; depositions on the subject were obtained from nine

different parties. The fish were all dead; most of them were large: some

were fresh, others were rotten and mutilated. They were seen at first in

the sky, like a flock of birds, descending rapidly to the ground; there

was rain drizzling, but no storm. On the 16th and 17th of May, 1833, a

fall of fish occurred in the zillah of Futtehpoor, about three miles

north of the Jumna, after a violent storm of wind and rain. The fish

were from a pound and a half to three pounds in weight, and of the same

species as those found in the tanks in the neighbourhood. They were all

dead and dry. A fall of fish occurred at Allahabad, during a storm in

May, 1835; they were of the chowla species, and were found dead and dry

after the storm had passed over the district. On the 20th of September,

1839, after a smart shower of rain, a quantity of live fish, about three

inches in length and all of the same kind, fell at the Sunderbunds,

about twenty miles south of Calcutta. On this occasion it was remarked

that the fish did not fall here and there irregularly over the ground,

but in a continuous straight line, not more than a span in breadth. The

vast multitudes of fish, with which the low grounds round Bombay are

covered, about a week or ten days after the first burst of the monsoon,

appear to be derived from the adjoining pools or rivulets and not to

descend from the sky. They are not, so far as I know, found in the

higher parts of the island. I have never seen them, though I have

watched carefully, in casks collecting water from the roofs of

buildings, or heard of them on the decks or awnings of vessels in the

harbour, where they must have appeared had they descended from the sky.

One of the most remarkable phenomena of this kind occurred during a

tremendous deluge of rain at Kattywar, on the 25th of July, 1850, when

the ground around Rajkote was found literally covered with fish; some of

them were found on the tops of haystacks, where probably they had been

drifted by the storm. In the course of twenty-four successive hours

twenty-seven inches of rain fell, thirty-five fell in twenty-six hours,

seven inches within one hour and a half, being the heaviest fall on

record. At Poonah, on the 3rd of August, 1852, after a very heavy fall

of rain, multitudes of fish were caught on the ground in the

cantonments, full half a mile from the nearest stream. If showers of

fish are to be explained on the assumption that they are carried up by

squalls or violent winds, from rivers or spaces of water not far away

from where they fall, it would be nothing wonderful were they seen to

descend from the air during the furious squalls which occasionally occur

in June."

* * * * *

NOTE (B.)

MIGRATION OF FISHES OVER LAND.

_Opinions of the Greeks and Romans_.

It is an illustration of the eagerness with which, after the expedition

of Alexander the Great, particulars connected with the natural history

of India were sought for and arranged by the Greeks, that in the works

both of ARISTOTLE and THEOPHRASTUS the facts are recorded of the fishes

in the Indian rivers migrating in search of water, of their burying

themselves in the mud on its failure, of their being dug out thence

alive during the dry season, and of their spontaneous reappearance on

the return of the rains. The earliest notice is in the treatise of

ARISTOTLE _De Respiratione_, chap. ix., who mentions the strange

discovery of living fish found beneath the surface of the soil, [Greek:

tôn ichthuôn oi polloi zôsin en tê gê, akinêtizontes mentoi, kai

euriskontai oruttomenoi]; and in his History of Animals he conjectures

that in ponds periodically dried the ova of the fish so buried become

vivified at the change of the season.[1] HERODOTUS had previously

hazarded a similar theory to account for the sudden appearance of fry in

the Egyptian marshes on the rising of the Nile; but the cases are not

parallel. THEOPHRASTUS, the friend and pupil of Aristotle, gave

importance to the subject by devoting to it his essay [Greek: Peri tês

tôn ichthyôn en zêrô diamonês], _De Piscibus in sicco degentibus_. In

this, after adverting to the fish called _exocoetus_, from its habit of

going on shore to sleep, [Greek: apo tês koitês], he instances the small

fish ([Greek: ichthydia]), which leave the rivers of India to wander

like frogs on the land; and likewise a species found near Babylon,

which, when the Euphrates runs low, leave the dry channels in search of

food, "moving themselves along by means of their fins and tail." He

proceeds to state that at Heraclea Pontica there are places in which

fish are dug out of the earth, ([Greek: oryktoi tôn ichthyôn]), and he

accounts for their being found under such circumstances by the

subsidence of the rivers, "when the water being evaporated the fish

gradually descend beneath the soil in search of moisture; and the

surface becoming hard they are preserved in the damp clay below it, in a

state of torpor, but are capable of vigorous movements when disturbed.

In this manner, too," Theophrastus adds, "the buried fish propagate,

leaving behind them their spawn, which becomes vivified on the return of

the waters to their accustomed bed." This work of Theophrastus became

the great authority for all subsequent writers on this question.

ATHENÆUS quotes it[2], and adds the further testimony of POLYBIUS, that

in Gallia Narbonensis fish are similarly dug out of the ground.[3]

STRABO repeats the story[4], and one and all the Greek naturalists

received the statement as founded on reliable authority.

[Footnote 1: Lib. vi. ch, 15, 16, 17.]

[Footnote 2: Lib. viii. ch. 2.]

[Footnote 3: Ib. ch. 4.]

[Footnote 4: Lib. iv. and xii.]

Not so the Romans. LIVY mentions it as one of the prodigies which were

to be "expiated," on the approach of a rupture with Macedon, that "in

Gallico agro qua induceretur aratrum sub glebis pisces emersisse,"[1]

thus taking it out of the category of natural occurrences. POMPONIUS

MELA, obliged to notice the matter in his account of Narbon Gaul,

accompanies it with the intimation that although asserted by both Greek

and Roman authorities, the story was either a delusion or a fraud.[2]

JUVENAL has a sneer for the rustic--

"miranti sub aratro

Piscibus inventis."--_Sat_. xiii. 63.

[Footnote 1: Lib. xlii. ch. 2.]

[Footnote 2: Lib. ii ch, 5.]

And SENECA, whilst he quotes Theophrastus, adds ironically, that now we

must go to fish with a _hatchet_ instead of a hook; "non cum hamis, sed

cum dolabra ire piscatum."[1] PLINY, who devotes the 35th chapter of his

9th book to this subject, uses the narrative of Theophrastus, but with

obvious caution, and universally the Latin writers treated the story as

a fable.

[Footnote 1: _Nat. Quæst._ vii 16.]

In later times the subject received more enlightened attention, and

Beckmann, who in 1736 published his commentary on the collection [Greek:

Peri Thaumasiôn akousmátôn], ascribed to Aristotle, has given a list of

the authorities about his own times,--Georgius Agricola, Gesner,

Rondelet, Dalechamp, Bomare, and Gronovius, who not only gave credence

to the assertions of Theophrastus, but adduced modern instances in

corroboration of his Indian authorities.

* * * * *

NOTE (C.)

CEYLON FISHES.

(_Memorandum, by Professor Huxley._)

See p. 205.

The large series of beautifully coloured drawings of the fishes of

Ceylon, which has been submitted to my inspection, possesses an unusual

value for several reasons.

The fishes, it appears, were all captured at Colombo, and even had those

from other parts of Ceylon been added, the geographical area would not

have been very extended. Nevertheless there are more than 600 drawings,

and though it is possible that some of these represent varieties in

different stages of growth of the same species, I have not been able to

find definite evidence of the fact in any of those groups which I have

particularly tested. If, however, these drawings represent _six hundred_

distinct species of fish, they constitute, so far as I know, the largest

collection of fish from one locality in existence.

The number of known British fishes may be safely assumed to be less than

250, and Mr. Yarrell enumerates only 226, Dr. Cantor's valuable work on

Malayan fishes enumerates not more than 238, while Dr. Russell has

figured only 200 from Coromandel. Even the enormous area of the Chinese

and Japanese seas has as yet not yielded 800 species of fishes.

The large extent of the collection alone, then, renders it of great

importance; but its value is immeasurably enhanced by two

circumstances,--the _first_, that every drawing was made while the fish

retained all that vividness of colouring which becomes lost so soon

after its removal from its native element; _second_, that when the

sketch was finished its subject was carefully labelled, preserved in

spirits, and forwarded to England, so that at the present moment the

original of every drawing can be subjected to anatomical examination,

and compared with already named species.

Under these circumstances, I do not hesitate to say that the collection

is one of the most valuable in existence, and might, if properly worked

out, become a large and secure foundation for all future investigation

into the ichthyology of the Indian Ocean.

It would be very hazardous to express an opinion as to the novelty or

otherwise of the species and genera figured without the study of the

specimens themselves, as the specific distinctions of fish are for the

most part based upon character; the fin-rays, teeth, the operculum, &c.,

which can only be made out by close and careful examination of the

object, and cannot be represented in ordinary drawings however accurate.

There are certain groups of fish, however, whose family traits are so

marked as to render it almost impossible to mistake even their

portraits, and hence I may venture, without fear of being far wrong,

upon a few remarks as to the general features of the ichthyological

fauna of Ceylon.

In our own seas rather less than a tenth of the species of fishes belong

to the cod tribe. I have not found one represented in these drawings,

nor do either Russell or Cantor mention any in the surrounding seas, and

the result is in general harmony with the known laws of distribution of

these most useful of fishes.

On the other hand, the mackerel family, including the tunnies, the

bonitos, the dories, the horse-mackerels, &c., which form not more than

one sixteenth of our own fish fauna, but which are known to increase

their proportion in hot climates, appear in wonderful variety of form

and colour, and constitute not less than one fifth of the whole of the

species of Ceylon fish. In Russell's catalogue they form less than one

fifth, in Cantor's less than one sixth.

Marine and other siluroid fishes, a group represented on the continent

of Europe, but doubtfully, if at all, in this country, constitute one

twentieth of the Ceylon fishes. In Russell's and Cantor's lists they

form about one thirtieth of the whole.

The sharks and rays form about one seventh of our own fish fauna. They

constitute about one tenth or one eleventh of Russell and Cantor's

lists, while among these Ceylon drawings I find not more than twenty, or

about one thirtieth of the whole, which can be referred to this group of

fishes. It must be extremely interesting to know whether this

circumstance is owing to accident, or to the local peculiarities of

Colombo, or whether the fauna of Ceylon really is deficient in such

fishes.

The like exceptional character is to be noticed in the proportion of the

tribe of flat fishes, or _Pleuronectidæ_. Soles, turbots, and the like,

form nearly one twelfth of our own fishes. Both Cantor and Russell give

the flat fishes as making one twenty-second part of their collection,

while in the whole 600 Ceylon drawings I can find but five

_Pleuronectidæ_.

When this great collection has been carefully studied, I doubt not that

many more interesting distributional facts will be evolved.

* * * * *

Since receiving this note from Professor Huxley, the drawings in

question have been submitted to Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, and

that eminent naturalist, after a careful analysis, has favoured me with

the following memorandum of the fishes they exhibit, numerically

contrasting them with those of China and Japan, so far as we are

acquainted with the ichthyology of those seas:--

Cartilaginea.

China and

Ceylon Japan.

Squali 12 15

Raiæ 19 20

Sturiones 0 1

Ostinopterygii.

Plectognathi.

tetraodontidæ 10 21

balistidæ 9 19

Lophobranchii

syngnathidæ 2 2

pegasidæ 0 3

Ctenobranchii

lophidæ 1 3

Cyclopodii.

echeneidæ 0 1

cyclopteridæ 0 1

gobidæ 7 35

China and

Ceylon Japan.

Percini.

callionymidæ 0 7

uranoscopidæ 0 7

cottidæ 0 13

triglidæ 11 37

polynemidæ 12 3

mullidæ 1 7

percidæ 26 12

berycidæ 0 5

sillaginidæ 3 1

sciænidæ 19 13

hæmulinidæ 6 12

serranidæ 31 38

theraponidæ 8 20

cirrhitidæ 0 2

mænidiæ 37 25

sparidæ 16 17

acanthuridæ 14 6

chætodontidæ 25 21

fistularidæ 2 3

Periodopharyngi.

mugilidæ 5 7

anabantidæ 6 15

pomacentridæ 10 11

Pharyngognathi.

labridæ 16 35

scomberesocidæ 13 6

blenniidæ 3 8

Scomberina.

zeidæ 0 2

sphyrænidæ 5 4

scomberidæ 118 62

xiphiidæ 0 1

cepolidæ 0 5

Heterosomata.

platessoideæ 5 22

siluridæ 31 24

cyprinidæ 19 52

scopelinidæ 2 7

salmonidæ 0 1

clupeidæ 43 22

gadidæ 0 2

macruridæ 1 0

Apodes.

anguillidæ 8 12

murænidæ 8 6

sphagebranchidæ 8 10

CHAP. V.

CONCHOLOGY, ETC.

I. THE SHELLS OF CEYLON.

Allusion has been made elsewhere to the profusion and variety of shells

which abound in the seas and inland waters of Ceylon[1], and to the

habits of the Moormen, who monopolise the trade of collecting and

arranging them in satin-wood cabinets for transmission to Europe. But,

although naturalists have long been familiar with the marine testacea of

this island, no successful attempt has yet been made to form a

classified catalogue of the species; and I am indebted to the eminent

conchologist, Mr. Sylvanus Hanley, for the list which accompanies this

notice of those found in the island.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. II. P. ix. ch. v.]

In drawing it up, Mr. Hanley observes that he found it a task of more

difficulty than would at first be surmised, owing to the almost total

absence of reliable data from which to construct it. Three sources were

available: collections formed by resident naturalists, the contents of

the well-known satin-wood boxes prepared at Trincomalie, and the

laborious elimination of locality from the habitats ascribed to all the

known species in the multitude of works on conchology in general.

But, unfortunately, the first resource proved fallacious. There is no

large collection in this country composed exclusively of Ceylon shells.

And the very few cabinets rich in the marine treasures of the island

having been filled as much by purchase as by personal exertion, there is

an absence of the requisite confidence that all professing to be

Singhalese have been actually captured in the island and its waters.

The cabinets arranged by the native dealers, though professing to

contain the productions of Ceylon, include shells which have been

obtained from other islands in the Indian seas; and books, probably from

these very facts, are either obscure or deceptive. The old writers

content themselves with assigning to any particular shell the

too-comprehensive habitat of "the Indian Ocean," and seldom discriminate

between a specimen from Ceylon and one from the Eastern Archipelago or

Hindustan. In a very few instances, Ceylon has been indicated with

precision as the habitat of particular shells, but even here the views

of specific essentials adopted by modern conchologists, and the

subdivisions established in consequence, leave us in doubt for which of

the described forms the collective locality should be retained.

Valuable notices of Ceylon shells are to be found in detached papers, in

periodicals, and in the scientific surveys of exploring voyages. The

authentic facts embodied in the monographs of Reeve, Kuster, Sowerby,

and Kienn, have greatly enlarged the knowledge of the marine testacea;

and the land and fresh-water mollusca have been similarly illustrated by

the contributions of Benson and Layard in the _Annals of Natural

History_.

The dredge has been used but only in a few insulated spots along the

coasts of Ceylon; European explorers have been rare; and the natives,

anxious only to secure the showy and saleable shells of the sea, have

neglected the less attractive ones of the land and the lakes. Hence Mr.

Hanley finds it necessary to premise that the list appended, although

the result of infinite labour and research, is less satisfactory than

could have been wished. "It is offered," he says, "with diffidence, not

pretending to the merit of completeness as a shell-fauna of the island,

but rather as a form, which the zeal of other collectors may hereafter

elaborate and fill up."

Looking at the little that has yet been done, compared with the vast and

almost untried field which invites explorers, an assiduous collector may

quadruple the species hitherto described. The minute shells especially

may be said to be unknown; a vigilant examination of the corals and

excrescences upon the spondyli and pearl-oysters would signally increase

our knowledge of the Rissoæ, Chemnitziæ, and other perforating testacea,

whilst the dredge from the deep water will astonish the amateur by the

wholly new forms it can scarcely fail to display.

Dr. Kelaart, an indefatigable observer, has recently undertaken to

investigate the Nudibranchiata, Inferobranchiata, and Tectibranchiata;

and a recently-received report from him, in the Journal of the Ceylon

Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which he has described fifty-six

species,--thirty-three belonging to the genus Doris alone--gives ample

evidence of what may be expected from the researches of a naturalist of

his acquirements and industry.

_List of Ceylon Shells._

The arrangement here adopted is a modified Lamarckian one, very similar

to that used by Reeve and Sowerby, and by MR. HANLEY, in his

_Illustrated Catalogue of Recent Shells_.[1]

[Footnote 1: Below will be found a general reference to the Works or

Papers in which are given descriptive notices of the shells contained

in the following list; the names of the authors (in full or abbreviated)

being, as usual, annexed to each species.

ADAMS, _Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1853, 54, 56; _Thesaur. Conch._ ALBERS,

_Zeitsch. Malakoz._ 1853. ANTON, _Wiegm. Arch. Nat._ 1837; _Verzeichn.

Conch._ BECK in _Pfeiffer, Symbol. Helic._ BENSON, _Ann. Nat. Hist._

vii. 1851; xii. 1853; xviii. 1856. BLAINVILLE, _Dict. Sc. Nat.; Nouv.

Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat._ i. BOLTEN, _Mus._ BORN, _Test. Mus. Cæs. Vind._

BRODERIP, _Zool. Journ._ i. iii. BRUGUIDRE, _Ency. Méthod. Vers._

CARPENTER, _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1856. CHEMNITZ, _Conch. Cab._ CHENU,

_Illus. Conch._ DESHAYES, _Encyc. Méth. Vers.; Mag. Zool._ 1831; _Voy.

Belanger; Edit. Lam. An. s. Vert.; Proceed. Zool. Soc._ 1853, 54, 55.

DILLWYN, _Descr. Cat. Shells._ DOHRN, _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1857, 58;

_Malak. Blatter; Land and Fluviatile Shells of Ceylon._ DUCLOS, _Monog.

of Oliva_. FABRICIUS, _in Pfeiffer Monog. Helic.; in Dohrn's MSS._

FÉRUSSAC, _Hist. Mollusques._ FORSKÄL, _Anim. Orient._ GMELIN, _Syst.

Nat_. GRAY, _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1834, 52; _Index Testaceologicus Suppl.;

Spicilegia Zool.; Zool. Journ._ i.; _Zool. Beechey Voy_. GRATELOUP,

_Act. Linn. Bourdeaux_, xi. GUERIN, _Rev. Zool_. 1847. HANLEY, _Thesaur.

Conch_. i.; _Recent Bivalves; Proc. Zool. Soc_. 1858. HINDS, _Zool. Voy.

Sulphur; Proc. Zool. Soc_. HUTTON, _Journ. As. Soc_. KARSTEN, _Mus.

Lesk_. KIENER, _Coquilles Vivantes_. KRAUSS, _Sud-Afrik Mollusk_.

LAMARCK, _An. sans Vertéb_. LAYARD, _Proc. Zool. Soc_. 1854. LEA,

_Proceed. Zool. Soc_. 1850, LINNÆUS, _Syst. Nat_. MARTINI, _Conch. Cab_.

MAWE, _Introd. Linn. Conch.; Index. Test. Suppl_. MEUSCHEN, in _Gronov.

Zoophylac_. MENKE, _Synop. Mollus_. MULLER, _Hist. Verm. Terrest_.

PETIT, _Pro. Zool. Soc_. 1842. PFEIFFER, _Monog. Helic.; Monog.

Pneumon.; Proceed. Zool. Soc_. 1852, 53, 54, 55, 56 _Zeitschr. Malacoz_.

1853. PHILIPPI, _Zeitsch. Mal_. 1846, 47; _Abbild. Neuer Conch_. POTIEZ

et MICHAUD, _Galerie Douai_. RANG, _Mag. Zool_. ser. i. p. 100. RÉCLUZ,

_Proceed. Zool. Soc_. 1845; _Revue Zool. Cuv_.1841; _Mag. Conch_. REEVE,

_Conch. Icon.; Proc. Zool. Soc_. 1842, 52. SCHUMACHER, _Syst_.

SHUTTLEWORTH. SOLANDER, in _Dillwyn's Desc. Cat. Shells_. SOWERBY,

_Genera Shells; Species Conch.; Conch. Misc.; Thesaur. Conch.; Conch.

Illus.; Proc. Zool. Soc.; App. to Tankerville Cat_. SPENGLER, _Skrivt.

Nat. Selsk. Kiobenhav_. 1792. SWAINSON, _Zool. Illust_. ser. ii.

TEMPLETON, _Ann. Nat. Hist_. 1858. TROSCHEL, in _Pfeiffer, Mon. Pneum;

Zeitschr. Malak_. 1847; _Weigm. Arch. Nat_. 1837. WOOD, _General

Conch_.]