SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

CONSTITUTION OF THE FAUNA OF CEYLON.

By A. WILLEY.

A MONG the introductory paragraphs of Sir J. Emerson

Tennent’s ‘Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon”

(1861), the following quotation reproduced from his classical

*“ Account of the Island” (1859) contains a succinct statement of

the principal literature written in the English language in which

the Fauna of Ceylon had been dealt with ina more or less compre-

hensive or special manner before his time.

I will repeat in full the paragraph to which I am referring,

because Sir Emerson Tennent’s words will perhaps form a fitting

prelude to the quarterly record of observations and experiences,

of which this is the first number to issue from the Ceylon Govern-

ment Press :—

Regarding the Fauna of Ceylon, little has been published in any collective

form, with the exception of a volume by Dr. Kelaart, entitled Prodromus

Faune Zeylanice [1852]; several valuable papers by Mr. Edgar L. Layard

in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for 1852 and 1853 ; and some

very imperfect lists appended to Pridham’s Compiled Account of the Island

[1849]. Knox, in the charming narrative of his captivity, published in the

reign of Charles II. [1681], has devoted a chapter tu the animals of Ceylon,

and Dr. Davy [1821] has described some of the reptiles ; but with these

exceptions the subject is almost untouched in works relating to the Colony.*

Yet a more than ordinary interest attaches to the inquiry, since Ceylon,

instead of presenting, as is generally assumed, an identity between its fauna.

and that of Southern India, exhibits a remarkable diversity, taken in

connection with the limited area over which the animals included in it are

distributed. The Island, in fact, may be regarded as the centre of a geo-

graphical circle, possessing within itself forms whose allied species radiate far

into the temperate regions of the north as well as into Africa, Australia, and

the Isles of the Eastern Archipelago.

In the light of our present knowledge of zoogeography it is, no

doubt, an exaggeration to claim Ceylon as an important centre of

* Of course this reproach no longer holds good since the issue, under the

editorship of Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., of many volumes of “The Fauna of

British India, including Ceylon and Burma,” a monumental work which was

commenced in 1888 under the authority of the Secretary of State for India in

Council, and is still in course of publication, new volumes being added to the

series periodically,

Bo 25-03

2 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

geographical distribution, since this would imply the existence in

the insular fauna of more primitive components than is actually |

the case. Indeed, in its present position angl configuration Ceylon

can hardly be regarded, in any instance, as the feeder of the

Indian Peninsula nor of any other zoological province,

Of the thirty-nine genera of indigenous Mammalia not one is ©

peculiar to the Island ; there is not even one peculiar Mammalian

species, although there may be some insular races of continental

species. The tailless lemur, locally known as the Ceylon Sloth

(Loris gracilis),* rarely seen on account of its nocturnal and

arboreal habits, though iiving in the outskirts of Colombo, is

confined to Ceylon and to the Carnatic Tractt of Southern India,

this being the most restricted range of any Indo-Ceylonese

Mammal.

All the other species of Mammals known to occur in Ceylon

have a much more extended range, though some few are restricted

to Ceylon and the Indian Peninsula, among the more notable

examples of this kind being the Ceylon bear, which is co-specific

with the Indian Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus), the Sealy ant-

eater or Indian pangolin (Manis pentadactyla),t and the mouse-

deer or Indian chevrotain (T'ragulus meminna).§

On tlie other hand, no fewer than fifteen genera of Mammals

occur in the Indian Peninsula, which are not represented in

Ceylon, the most prominent of these being four antelopes,

namely, the Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), the four-horned

antelope (Tetraceros quadricornis), the black buck (Antilope

cervicapra), and the Indian gazelle (Gazella bennetti). The

absence of antelopes from Ceylon may be looked uponas ranking

among the ‘famous deficiencies” of the Island, analogous, for

example, to the absence of snakes from Ireland, Iceland, and

New 4ealand. Other creatures whose presence in neighbouring

countries renders their absence from Ceylon the more conspicuous

are, for example, tigers, vultures, cranes, and hamadryads.|

The range of the hamadryad is approximately co-extensive

with that of the cobra di capello (Nata tripudians) upon which,

to a certain extent, it feeds. [See article by Vety. Capt. G. H.

Evans on “The King Cobra or Hamadryad” in J. Bombay Soc.,

* Unahapuluwa of the Sinhalese.

+ Blanford, W.T. The distribution of vertebrate animals in India, Ceylon, and

Burma. Phil. Trans. (Series B), vol. 194, pp. 335-436, 1901.

{ Kaballéw4, S.

§ Miminna, S.; sometimes called Wali-miya, S.

|| The Hamadryad or king cobra 1s named Vaia bungarus on grounds of priority

{see Boulenger,G. A. Fauna Brit. Ind. Reptilia and Batrachia, p. 392. 1890]. It

is also widely known as Ophiophagus elaps, its food consisting principally of other |

snakes, :

‘in ie with rund fom

University of Toronto

Fic. 1.-GAUTAMA BUDDHA AND THE SERPENT MUCALINDA.

From a wooden efign in the Colombo Museum. Height of original, 1 foot 2 inches.

To face p. 3|

a .

FAUNA OF CEYLON, a

vol. XIV., pp. 409-418, 1902 ; also in the same Journal on p. 629,a

note on the “Food of the King Cobra,” by E. H. Aitken]. But

whereas the cobra oceurs in Ceylon, where the manifold symbolic

uses to which it has been put have rendered it sacred and classical,

the more dreaded hamadryad is not found here.

The shelter attributed to the Lord ot Lanka beneath the mant-

ling hood of the sacred Naga, cobra di capello, is a picturesque

example of the ancient interpretation of divine influence in the

East. The effigies which commemorate this miracle are executed

in brass and wood (see Fig. 1), and are described as the “ Serpent-

canopied Buddha” [cf. Sir M. Monier-Williams, “ Buddhism,”

London, 1889, p. 480, and frontispiece ]. ;

The examples of distribution selected from the Mammalian

section of the fauna seem to indicate that Ceylon is an outlier of

India rather than itself a centre of distribution, and that it

bears the same relation to India that Tasmania does to the island

continent of Australia or the British Isies to the continent of

Europe. From this point of view the Fauna of Ceylon may be

regarded as a Relict Fauna, the members of which have been

separated from their continental allies by subsidence of land and

encroachment of sea since the Tertiary Epoch.

Excluding the category of Oceanic Islands, it is a generally

accepted axiom that the terrestrial fauna of any island has reached

its destination by means of former land connections between the

island and neighbouring continental areas. Thus it is calculated

that at least ninety-five per cent. of the British species of animals

have reached the British Isles by previous land-connections with

Scandinavia and the Arctic Continent in the north and with France

and Belgium to the south-east.*

Before proceeding further with our analytical sketch of the

Fauna of Ceylon, it will be interesting to consider more closely

(with the assistance of Dr. Blanford’s Memoir to which I have

referred above) the relation of Ceylon to the Indian Peninsula.

The Indian region is divided into two main sub-regions by the

Indo-Gangetic Plain, which extends from the Arabian Sea to the

Bay of Bengal and “forms a geological boundary of the highest

importance.”

The Transgangetic sub-region includes the Himalayas, Assam,

Burma, &c. The Cisgangetic sub-region includes the Indian

Peninsula proper and Ceylon.

The Indian Peninsula is again divided into two very unequal

parts by the Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountains which separate

*Scharff,R.F. The History of the European Fauna. London, 1899. (Contemp.

Sci. Ser.)

4 SPOLIA ZRYLANICA.

the Malabar Coast Tract from the Central Provinces and the

Carnatic.

The investigation of the fauna of Ceylon may be approached

from at least three standpoints (excluding, for the moment, the

economic side of the question), namely, zoogeographical, faunistic,

and local or insular. Moreover, from whatever point of view the

subject be regarded, the fauna of Ceylon presents a dual character.

From its purely faunistic aspect the dual character of the fauna

depends upon the fact that, in addition to the relict or continental

types, to some of which allusion has already been made, Ceylon

possesses an extensive series of endemic or peculiar types.

Considered zoogeographically, it has been shown by Captain

Legge* and by Dr. Blanford that the Ceylon area comprises two

tracts, namely, the Northern Ceylon Tract, including the Northern

and Kastern Provinces, with an average rainfall of about 50 inches ;

and, secondly, the Hill Ceylon Tract, comprising the Central,

Western, and Southern Provinces, with an average rainfall exceed-

ing 100 inches. The Northern Tract is defined by Dr. Blanford

as being “in fact a part of the Carnatic with higher rainfall

and with much more forest,” while the Hill Tract “must be

regarded as a part of the Malabar Tract.”

From the local or insular standpoint, the faunal elements are

grouped under the two headings of low-country and up-country

types. As might be expected, there is a great amount of over-

lapping in the local distribution of particuiar species, and the

special characteristics of the fauna of the various Provinces of

the Island have yet to be ascertained with such precision, for

example, as that with which the birds of Sabaragamuwa have

been dealt with by Mr. F. Lewis.t It may be hoped that, in

course of time, we shall obtain further information on this matter

of local distribution by means of a system of careful records of

the occurrence of species in different localities and at different

times and seasons.

Of the 360 species of birds which have been recorded from

Ceylon, 7s many as forty-nine, or nearly one-seventh, are peculiar

to the island. The number of genera in which the species are

grouped is 240, of which, as noted by Dr. Blanford, eighty-two, or

rather more than one-third, belong to one order, namely, the

Passeres. Only six genera of birds are peculiar to the island, and

five of these are pasSerine.

*Legge, W. V. A History of the Birds of Ceylon (vide Introduction, p. xiii.

London, 1880.)

+ Lewis, F. Field-notes on the Land Birds of the Province of Sabaragamuwa,

This, 1898, Part I., pp. 334-356 ; Part IT., pp. 524-551

aed iets Uh FH

Fics. 2 AND 38.—OPHIOCEPHALUS STRIATUS (FROM ABOVE AND FROM BELOW).

Photographed from a specimen in the Colombo Museum.

To face p. 5)

—

FAUNA OF CEYLON. 5

Certain genera and species of birds, reptiles, and batrachians

are restricted to Ceylon and the Malabar Tract. Again, the

distribution of some animals points to the existence of a decided

Himalayan affinity in the fauna of Ceylon, in so far that certain

genera, which are represented by isolated species in Ceylon, only

occur otherwise in Transgangetic conntries, in some cases also in

Malabar.

Thus, the chestnut and blue magpie of Ceylon (Cissa ornata*)

and the yellow-fronted barbet (Cyanops flavifrons +), inhabitants

of the upland forests, are peculiar to the island, while their

congeners are Transgangetic and Himalayan species (Oates and

Blanford).

The remarkable legless Batrachian, Ichthyophis glutinosus,

which is frequently dug out of its burrows in the plantations of

Ceylon, and may be described as an eel-like, scale-bearing

salamander, nearly black in colour with a bright yellow band

running along each side of the body, occurs in the “ Mountains of

Ceylon, Malabar, Eastern Himalayas, Khasi Hills, Burma, Siam,

Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java” (Boulenger, Fauna

Brit. Ind. Reptilia and Batrachia, p. 516).

The large tank fish “ lula” (plural “ lullu’’) of Ceylon (Ophio-

cephalus striatus{), which belongs to a distinctively Oriental

family, the Ophiocephalidex, occurs “throughout the plains of

India, Ceylon, and Burma to China and the Philippines” (Day,

Fishes of India, p. 366); but a nearly related fish (Channa

orientalis §) of the same family, said to be common in the low-

country paddy fields (Haly, M.S.), affords an excellent example

of discontinuous distribution, occurring only in the fresh waters

of Ceylon and China, being absent from the intervening countries

(Day and Blanford).

Besides the Himalayan or Transgangetic element in the fauna

of Ceylon, there are other foreign representatives which deserve

special mention, namely, the Malay, Mascarene (Madagascar and

neighbouring islands), and Australian elements.

* This bird is called the Ceylonese Jay by Legge [Birds of Ceylon. p. 353], and

the Ceylonese Magpie by Oates [Oates, E. W. Fauna Brit. Ind. Birds, vol. I..

p. 29, 1889], the explanation being that the genus Cissa is as nearly related to Pica,

the Magpie, as it isto Garrulus, the Jay, neither of which cross the Ganges. The

Ceylonese Jay or Magpie is not to be confounded with the common black and

white Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) of Colombo and the low-country, the

“Polli-cha” of the Sinhalese. The Magpie-robin also occurs in the Kandy

District and elsewhere.

{Described under the synonym of Megalema flavifrons by Legge [Birds of

Ceylon, p. 212].

{ Known as the “ Murrel” to Indian anglers (see Thomas, H.S. The Rod in

India. Mangalore, 1873).

§ Kanaya, 8S. Common at Kesbewa and in the Wellawatte canal.

SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

Many of the characteristic forms of the Malay Peninsula and

the Sunda Islands are conspicuous by their absence from Ceylon,

e.g., the flying lemur (Galeopithecus volans) among Mammals,

the flying lizard (Draco maculatus) among reptiles, the robber

crab* (Birgus latro) among Crustacea, and the singular Proto-

tracheate genus Peripatus. Itis therefore remarkable to learn that

it is none the less possible to recognize a special Malay affinity in

the fauna of Ceylon, exemplified by certain rare denizens of the

dense forests and luxuriant gorges of the interior. Captain Legge

has drawn attention to this point in the case of two birds, namely,

Bligh’s whistling thrush (Arrenga blighit) and the red-faced

malkoha or ground cuckoo (Phenicophaés pyrrhocephalus), both

peculiar to Ceylon, but presenting near affinities to species from

Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula.

Even the elephant, “ the lord paramount of the Ceylon forests,”

has to be considered in this connection. Sir E. Tennent, who was

one of the first to recognize a Malayan affinity in the fauna and

flora of Ceylon, records the fact, established independently by

the Dutch anatomists Temminck and Schlegel, that the Céylon

elephant is identical withthe Sumatran elephant, which Temminck

named Hlephas sumatranus, and “differs as much from the

elephant of India as “the latter from its African congener.’}

The specific distinction of the Sumatran from the Indian elephant

is not commonly upheld now. The former is probably no more

than an insular race of the Asiatic species, H. indicus.

Several reptilian genera which are represented in Ceylon and -

the Eastern Archipelago are wanting in the Indian Peninsula.

An interesting example of this kind is furnished by a small

burrowing snake, Cylindrophis maculatus, one of those to which

the term “depatnaya” is applied. It is common in Colombo,

Balangoda, and elsewhere, and may be easily recognized by its

glistening skin adorned with a network of dense black markings.

The broad meshes of the network are occupied by brown pigment

above and brilliant white below. A small tract on the upper lip

below the eye on each side of the head, a pair of oblique tracts

behind the eyes and the areas immediately behind the large

triangular black patch on the head, separated from one another by

a narrow median black stripe, are also dense white in colour.

*The robber crab is*found locally all over the Eastern Archipelago from

Christmas Island to the Loyalty Islands, but west of the Straits it only occurs on

the South Sentinel, an islet of the Andaman Group less than one square mile in

extent, and in the Nicobar Islands (see Alcock, A. A. Naturalist in Indian Seas,

1902, pp. 83 and 151).

+ Syn. Myiophoneus blight [Legge, Birds of Ceylon, p. 463).

{ Tennent, op. cit., pp. 64-68.

FAUNA OF CEYLON. 7

These points are not very well shown in Fig. 4. This earth-snake

attains a length of about one foot with an even diameter of some

five-sixteenths of an inch. As a species it is peculiar to Ceylon,

but the genus is represented in the Malay Peninsula and Archi-

pelago by a closely related species, Cylindrophis rufus.

srmpisere te ee: ee eee le

Fig. 4. Cylindrophis maculatus.

From a specimen in the Colombo Museum, found in Colombo. About half natural size.

Perhaps even more remarkable than the evidence of Himalayan

and Malay components of the Ceylon fauna is that which relates

to the Mascarene element. Madagascar is well known as the

headquarters of lemurs and of chameleons,* harbouring more

species of these animals than occur in any other quarter of the

Old World. Ceylon possesses a single species of lemur, the

Loris gracilis referred to above, and asingle species of chameleon

(Chameeleo calearatus). True chameleons are characterized by

the great length of the tongue, by the mobility of the eyes

(ensheathed within a circular eyelid which’ accompanies the

eyeball in its rolling movements, each eyeball moving inde-

pendently), and by the structure of the feet, which are specially

adapted for climbing along the branches of the trees, having the

toes closely webbed together into two groups. In the forefeet

the two outer and the three inner toes are respectively united

together, forming two divergent, opposable groups, while in the

hind feet it is the three outer and the two inner toes which are

thus united.

- * During the last century, precisely between the years 1800 and 1900, eighty-

two species of ehameleons have been described. Of these, Madagascar possesses

thirty-three species, thirty of which are peculiar. This is the highest percentage

(91 per cent.) of endemicity in any zoological province in which chameleons occur.

They : are confined to the Old World, and the Indo-Ceylonese species marks the

Eastern limit of the family (see Werner, F. Prodromus einer Monographie der

Chamileonten. Zool. Jahrb. Syst., XV., 1902, p. 332).

8 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

All chameleons possess the faculty of changing colour, but all

lizards which change colour are not chameleons, those which are

commonly seen along the roadside in Ceylon belonging to a genus

of Oriental lizards named Calotes by Cuvier. The true chameleon

seems to be rare in Ceylon, and I have not seen one in the jungle

hitherto, though the Colombo Museum possesses four specimens

from four different localities, namely, Mullaittivu (W. Ferguson),

Chilaw (H. Nevill), Puttalam (F. A. lairlie), and finally, one which

is said to hail from Colombo (A. Haly, Report on Reptilia in

Col. Mus., 1891).

The distribution of a genus of skinks (the family of lizards to

which the Brahminy lizard, Mabuia carinata, belongs) named

Acontias, also points to a marked Ethiopian (Mascarene and

African) affinity in Ceylon. Four species of Acontias are endemic

in Ceylon, “none in any other part of the Indo-Malay region, two

or three have been brought from Madagascar, four from South

Africa” (Blanford, op. cit., 1901, p. 395).*

Among the birds, the Drongos or king crows (Dicruride) point

in the same direction, the black drongo (Dicrurus ater), which

may be met with in the wayside jungle between Chilaw and

Puttalam, being regarded by Oates as synonymous with the

Edolius for ficatus of Madagascar, of which the term “ Drongo” is

the original native name.

Fig. 5. Ltroplus maculatus.

From the Colombo Lake.

A small fresh water fish which occurs in the Colombo lake,

ealled “ Rallia” in Sinhalese (Htroplus maculatus), belongs to a

* Dr. Alcock (A Naturalist in Indian, Seas, 1902, see p. 140) mentions a small

though gorgeously coloured Tree-gecko, Phelswma andamanense, which is peculiar

to the Andamanese jungles, while its congeners are confined to Madagascar and the

neighbouring islands, the Comoros, Mauritius, and the Seychelles.

; Newton, A. A. Dictionary of Birds, London, 1893-1896.

FAUNA OF CEYLON. 9

strictly Indo-Ceylonese genus (7.e., confined to Ceylon and the

Indian Peninsula), whose nearest relative is the genus Paretroplus

of Madagascar (Day, F., Fishes of India, 1878, p. 414).

The Land Mollusca of Ceylon are highly peculiar, and the

largest of them are the species of the genus Acavus, which is

confined to Ceylon, but exhibits close relationship with the genus

Helicophanta of Madagascar.*

The earthwormsf of Ceylon inelude no fewer than thirty

endemic species, of which seventeen belong to the genus Mega-

scolex, whose headquarters are in Australia, while eight other

species of the same family (Megascolecide) belong to genera

which, until recent years, had only been met with on the

Australian Continent, namely, the two genera Cryptodrilus and

Megascolides. One Ceylon species of Megascolex (M. armatus)

occurs also in Madagascar, Zanzibar, and several other localities,

though there is some doubt as to how far this species may have

been accidentally conveyed from place to place by shipping.

The second family of Ceylon earthworms (Moniligastride) is

represented by four species of Woniligaster, which is a dominant

East Indian or Malayan genus.

The Ceylon earthworms therefore afford an indication of the

existence of an Australian element in the fauna, which might be

further illustrated by examples taken from other groups of terres-

trial invertebrates. Thus, the snail Acavus appears, from the

large size of the egg and of the embryonic shell which forms

within it, to be as nearly related to the Australian genus Panda

as to the Mascarene genus Helicophanta (Cooke, op. cit.).

The application of these facts to the theory of geographical

distribution can only be indicated here in the briefest manner.

The Island of Celebes is to the Oriental region what New Zealand

is to the Australian region. The Fauna of Celebes is one of the

most peculiar insular faunas in the world. Professor Semon has

voiced a widely held opinion that Celebes has received the most

characteristic members of its fauna, such forms as the monkey

(Cynopithecus), the deer (Anoa), the pig (Babirussa), the lemur

(Tarsius), &c., from the west, either from Asia or from a huge

continent or archipelago which spread far to the West, of which

Madagascar is perhaps the last remnant.t Of course Ceylon must

also have formed part of this continent, the Lanka of the ancients,

* Cooke, A. H. Molluscs. Cambridge Nat. Hist., 1895, see pp. 303 and 355.

The genus Acavus comprises the common Ceylon snails which are seen adhering

to the trunks of trees and to fences in most parts of the Island.

Tt Michaelsen, W. Die Terricolenfauna Ceylons. Mt. Mus. Hamburg, XIV.,

1897, 94 pp., 1 plate.

{Semon, R. In the Australian Bush. London, 1899,

C 29-03

10 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

and the hypothesis may serve as a provisional guide to the

interpretation of the composite nature of the fauna of the

Island.

The instances quoted above by no means exhaust the list of

the heterochthonous* elements in the fauna of Ceylon, but they

serve to illustrate the fact that the Island has special zoogeographi-

cal relationships indicative of former geological connections, either

directly or indirectly, with the Malay Peninsula and Eastern

Archipelago, with the Indian Peninsula, and with Madagascar.

Turning now to a brief consideration of that portion of the —

fauna which is peculiar to Ceylon, the great class of the Arthro-

poda, comprising the Millipedes and Centipedes, Insects, Crusta-

ceans, and Spiders, naturally furnishes the most abundant, though

perhaps not the most striking evidence of endemicity. In fact,

with the exception of the highest and of the lowest classes of

animals (Mammalia and Infusoria respectively), all the principal

divisions of the animal kingdom are represented by various

percentages of endemic types.

Besides those which have been incidentally referred to above,

it is well known that the Ceylon jungle fowl (Gallus stanley*),

which is such a familiar feature of jungle life, is a peculiar

species found only.in Ceylon, while the equally familiar peafowl

(Pavo cristatus) ranges over the whole of the Indian Peninsula,

being replaced in Burma, Malacca, and Java by the Burmese or

Javan peafowl (Pavo muticus).

Of all the vertebrates of Ceylon, it is the order of Reptilia

which best illustrates, within a small compass, the distinguishing

characteristics of the insular fauna. Although the degree of

endemicity in the fauna of Ceylon does not extend beyond the

possession of peculiar genera, yet there is a group of burrowing

snakes, the Uropeltide (generally known as earth-snakes), which

is restricted to Ceylon and the India Peninsula, and is therefore to

be noted, in a special sense, as a peculiar Indo-Ceylonese family.

These snakes are called “depatnaya”t in Sinhalese, on account

of the similar appearance of both extremities of the body, and of

their faculty of gliding with equal facility forwards and back-

wards. Reverse locomotion is occasionally met with in other

animals, and it always exercises a somewhat weird effect upon the

imagination of the onlooker.

* Perhaps such archaic forms as Channa orientalis and Ichthyophis glutinosus

are to be regarded as truly autochthonous species which have survived fluctuations

of time, climate, and topography, having inhabited the regions in which they

are now found from remote periods preceding the arrival of later immigrants.

7 As mentioned above, the genus Cylindrophis is also called “depatnaya,” but it -

belongs to a different family, the Zlysiide.

Fic. 6.—~SCOLOPENDRA BICOLOR, HumsBert.

A brilliant black and yellow centipede (the lighter portions are bright yellow, the head orange-coloured ).

Found in the sandy jungle bordering the sea from Puttalam to Trincomalee, It has a wid:

distribution in the East Indies.

To Face p. 10

(FROM NuwaRA ELIYA)

Fic. 7.~CERATOPHORA STODDARTII

t the Colombo Museum.

specimen a

ing

Photographed from « liv

Jace p17)

FAUNA OF CEYLON. 14

Some forty species of Uropeltide have been described, of which

seven are known to be peculiar to Ceylon, but it is probable that

more species remain to be recorded,

Three genera of lizards are peculiar to Ceylon, namely, Cerato-

phora with three species, the horned lizards of Nuwara Eliya,

Lyriocephalus, the hump-nosed lizard of the Kandyan District,

and Chalcidoseps a rare skink allied to Acontias, not represented

in the Colombo Museum.

There are still two other categories of animals which play their

part in the life of the island, and should therefore be mentioned

before concluding this essay, namely, animals which have been

introduced by human agency, and secondly, the domesticated

animals.

Of the introduced animals the most important is the so-called

hog-deer (Cervus porcinus), also Known as the paddy-field deer

(Wil-muwa in Sinhalese), which is said to have been introduced by

the Dutch into the Kalutara District of the Western Province, but

I have not succeeded in finding any record of the date or motive

of its acclimatization. It is normally an inhabitant of the Indo-

Gangetic Plain, but not of the Indian Peninsula in the strict sense.

Hence it is assumed by some authorities* that its presence in

Ceylon is not an example of natural discontinuous distribution

but of artificial introduction.

First in importance of the domesticated animals (apart from

the elephant) are of course the draught-bulls which are of the

three familiar kinds, the small Ceylon Bulls, the stately Brahminy

Bulls which figure in procession with elephants, horses, and lions,

upon the ancient moonstones of Anuradhapura, and lastly, the

shaggy Indian Buffaloes, with which the wild buffaloes associate

while grazing at the borders of the jungle.

The present position of Ceylon relatively to the Asiatic

Continent and to the world in general has been roughly defined

in the preceding lines in terms of its terrestrial fauna, and a brief

reference has been made to a distribution of land and water in

ancient geological times differing completely from that which we

now know. On the first pages of Dr. Alcock’s new and richly

illustrated bookft the same subject is touched upon from the

marine side. After premising that the seas of India are three—to

‘wit, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Andaman Sea—

* Eg., Mr. R. Lydekker and Dr. W. T. Blanford. :

tAlcock, A. A Naturalist in Indian Seas: or, Four Years with the Royal

Indian Marine Survey Ship “Investigator.” London (John Murray), 1902.

Iam indebted to the courtesy of the Hon. Mr. John Ferguson for my first

acquaintance with this charming narrative.

12 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

Dr. Alcock gives expression to the opinion that these seas were

formerly part of a great inland ocean, “ of which the present

Mediterranean is the shrunken remains. Peninsular India and

Ceylon then formed a great island-continent, connected by a

chain of large islands—of some of which the Maldives and Chagos

and Seychelles are the tombstones—with Madagascar and South

Africa, and separated from the present heart of Asia by a deep

channel—a channel perhaps traversed, much as now the West

Indies traverse the Caribbean, by a series of islands, which may

have been lowly precurscers of the Himalayas ; for these gigantic

mountains are of quite recent origin.”

The distribution of certain deep-sea fishes and other animals

can (so far as our present knowledge of the abyssal regions of the

ocean extends) only be rendered intelligible by some such inference

as that just quoted. A fish belonging to the family of the Weevers

or Trachinide was first discovered in Japanese waters and named

Bembrops caudimacula by Professor Steindachner of Vienna in

1877. Three years later it was again discovered in the Gulf of

Mexico, and several years afterwards it was found by the “ Investi-

gator” to belong also to the fauna of the 100-fathom line in the

Bay of Bengal, having been trawled in 128 fathoms off the Coro-

mandel Coast.*

From a depth exceeding 700 fathoms near the Laccadives a

gigantic Crustacean named Bathynomus giganteus, belonging to

the same order (Isopoda) as the common wood-louse, was brought

to the surface by the “ Investigator.” It was first obtained about

twenty years ago at a depth of 955 fathoms in the Gulf of Mexico

to the north-east of Yucatan, and was described by the late Pro-

fessor A. Milne-Edwards of Paris. A specimen of this wonderful

abyssal Isopod, measuring 12 inches in length and 4 inches across,

has been more recently dredged off the north-east coast of Ceylon

in 594 fathoms.f

Many other examples of similar distribution of marine animals

which live and feed on the sea-bottom are known. Of these, one

of the most notable instances is afforded by the so-called King

Crabs of the genus Limulus, which are found living in shallow

water at certain localities on the Japanese, Moluccan, Malaccan,

and Indian coasts, and also off the east coast of New England and

in the West Indies.

The genus Limulus, of which a number of fossil species dating

back to the Carboniferous and Jurassic formations have been

* Alcock, op. cit., p. 120.

{ Alcock, op. cit., pp. 127 and 271, Itisa matter for regret that the Colombo

Museum does not profit by these new discoveries.

Fic. 8.—LIMULUS (From DutcH Bay).

From a dried specimen in the Colombo Museum

FAUNA OF CEYLON. 13

unearthed, while four species are still living, is one of those

animal types which are of peculiar interest to the morphologist

on account of their ancient lineage (a record of which has been

preserved in the sedimentary rocks), their primitive or generalized

organization, and their manifold affinities.

There is an imperfect specimen of Limulus moluccanus* in the

Colombo Museum, labelled “ Dutch Bay,” but no further informa-

tion is available, and the fishermen of Karativu know nothing

about the creature.

Colombo, February 5, 1903.

* For the most recent account of the classification and distribution of the

Limulide, see Pocock, R. I. The taxonomy of recent species of Limulus. Ann.

Nat. Hist. (7th series), vol. IX., pp. 256-266, pl. V.-VI., 1902. For an account of

the morphology and affinities of Limulus, Professor E. Ray Lankester’s article

“Arachnida” in the first of the new volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica

(1902) should be consulted.

14 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA,

VARIATION OF “GATOCHRYSOPS PANDAVA,”

Hors/field.

By N. MANDERS, Major, R.A.M.C.

SERIES of five males and ten females of this Lyczenid

Butterfly, reared by Dr. Willey, and submitted to me with

the remark that they were hatched on July 4, 1902, from larve

collected from a species of Cycas in the Museum grounds, show

an aberration which is especially noticeable in the females, and

is worthy of record as an example of non-seasonal variation.

The five males are of the ordinary rain season form, and do not

vary on the upper side of the wings beyond an intensification of

the dark pigment inside the posterior border in three of them,

giving rise to dark lens-shaped spots, which are not conspicuous in

the other two specimens.

The females are also of the rain

season form, and present an interesting

series showing gradual diminution of

pigment in the posterior margin of the

hind wing. Two of them may be

regarded as typical examples of the

species C.pandava ; four of the others

show a whitish suffusion of the pos-

terior margin on the upper surface

between the veins and above the black

lunules, but separated from them by

some blackish seales.

In the remaining four females the

black lunules are entirely replaced by

white, the veins however remaining

black ; the whitish suffusion above the

lunules has become concentrated into

Figs. 9 and 10. Catochrysops ‘ .

pandava, 2, showing extremes definite white lunules, though not of so

of variation in thesubmarginal ¢]ear a white as the marginal lunules ;

pigment spots of the hind ; . ?

wing. the blackish line between the series of

outer and inner lunules still persists. In all these specimens the

black lunule or ocellus external to the tail-like appendage of the

CATOCHRYSOPS PANDAVA. I Ls

hind wing persists as a much reduced black spot almost circular,

crowned internally with a few orange scales; in two individuals

a few black scales represent the lunules internal to the tail.

On the under surface in both sexes the changes, as regards the

presence or absence of the marginal spots, are the same, except

that the ocellus and anal spots persist more conspicuously.*

Colombo, December 17, 1902.

* For an account of the seasonal variations of Catochrysops pandava see

Marshall and De Nicéville, “The Butterflies of India, Burma, and Ceylon,” Vol.

IIL., Calcutta, 1890, p. 183, pl. XXVIL., figs. 187 and 188.

16 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

“NYCTALEMON PATROCLUS” IN KANDY.

By F. M. MACKWOOD.

YCTALEMON PATROCLUS is a moth of large size belong-

ing to the family Uraniide. The colour of the wings is

a varying shade of smoky brown or sepia, speckled with black

and with a straight whitish band across the middle.

The species has been recorded from China, Sylhet, Burma,

Andamans, Malacca, Philippines, and Papuan sub-region.*

Last December (1902) a specimen was caught in Lady Horton’s

walk, Kandy, this being its first record for Ceylon. Since then

another example has been caught on the bank of the river near

Kandy, and was purchased by a tourist.

The span of the wings (7.e., from tip to tip of the fore wings) is

5+ inches, and the distance from the tip of the fore wing to the tail

of the hind wing is also 5} inches in the expanded condition.

[It is somewhat remarkable that such a large species should have

escaped notice for so long, especially when we take into consider-

ation the number of collectors who have worked in the Kandy

District. Fresh records of its occurrence will be awaited with

interest, and it must be left to the future to decide whether it is

an accidental immigrant or a normal incoline.—ED. ]

* Sir G. F. Hampson, ‘‘ Fauna of British India: Moths,” Vol. III., 1895, pp.

111-112, fig. 57.

NYCTALEMON PATROCLUS.

Fig. 11. Nyctalemon patroclus, Linn., é (Colln. F. M

Drawn from the original specimen lent to the Colombo Museum,

. Mackwood).

Natural size,

25-03

18 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

NOTE “ON MYCALESIS SUBDITA,” azoore.

By N. MANDERS, Major, R.A.M.C.

HIS species was originally described by Moore* from speci-

mens collected at Udugama near Galle by Mr. John Pole.

A pair is now in the Museum collection. So far as I know, very

few specimens have been taken, but it probably only requires to

be looked for at almost any time of the year in its particular

haunts amongst bamboos, on which the larva probably feeds.

With such few specimens to judge from, it is perhaps not quite

certain that it is a good species, but to my mind it looks distinct

enough.

In looking over Mr. Mackwood’s collection of South Indian

butterflies I was greatly interested to notice two specimens of this

insect, which agree exactly with the types in the Museum; the

insect therefore is of wider distribution than has been hitherto

supposed ; the specimens are unfortunately without labels, and the

locality of capture is doubtful.

Colombo, December 17, 1902,

* Described in Moore’s great iconographic work “ Lepidoptera Indica,” now being

issued in parts. It is also described briefly by L. de Nicéville and Major Manders

in their joint work, entitled “ A List of the Butterflies of Ceylon, with Notes on

the Various Species,” in Journ. Asiat. Soc., Bengal, Vol. LXVIII., Part IL., 1899,

p. 181.

THE MAHSEER AND THE MURREL IN CEYLON. 19

THE MAHSEER AND THE MURREL IN CEYLON.

By A. WILLEY.

HE Mahseer is probably the most admired game fish of India,

and, in the opinion of experts, shows more sport than the

salmon ; not that it sustains so long a contest, but makes amore im-

petuous rush.* It is known to occur in the perennial rivers of the

Bengal, Madras, and Bombay Presidencies, but anglers are not

altogether satisfied that it occurs in Ceylon, although ichthyologists

are aware that it does (cf. Day, “ Fishes of India,” p. 307).

Fig. 12. Barbus tov. Sketch based upon a figure in Day’s “ Fishes of India.”

The fact is that the mahseer is an exceedingly variable kind of

barbel, exhibiting both local and individual variations, and

different specimens may appear, at first sight, to be utterly dis-

tinct, owing to the circumstance that certain individuals possess

a curious bilabiate growth proceeding from the upper and lower

lips, while others, for some unaccountable reason, have no such

lobes.t| Whether or not this is a sexual character or a seasonal

variation or a mere sport, 1 am unable to say. The specimen

which I have examined, caught by Mr. C. A. Hartley in the

Sitala-ganga, in which the processes were well developed, was a

young male.

* Thomas, H.S., “The Rod in India.” Mangalore, 1873. I am indebted to this book

-for details concerning the habits of the Mahseer. I also take this opportunity of

acknowledging with thanks the receipt of specimens of the Ceylon mahseer from

Mr. C, A. Hartley of Maskeliya and from Mr, A. C. W. Clarke of Pundalu-oya.

+The bilabiate form of the mahseer bears a striking resemblance to a fish

recently described by Mr. G. A. Boulenger from the Kenya District in East Africa,

under the name Barbus labiatus, n. sp. (P. Zool. Soc., London, 1902, p. 225.

pl. XVIL., fig. 1.)

20 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

The Ceylon mahseer (Barbus tor)* is co-specitic with the Indian

mahseer, though, perhaps, if a sufficient number of specimens were

measured, weighed, and compared, it would be found to constitute

an insular race of the species.

With regard to dimensions, Mr. Thomas notes an interesting

correlation between the size of the Indian mahseer and that of

the rivers which these fishes frequent, unfortunately without

tabulating his observations nor even naming the rivers. “In

some rivers,” he says, “they do not run above 10 or 12 Ib.,

whereas in others they have been taken weighing 40 Ib. and 50 Ib.,

and even as much as 74 lb.”’t

It is instructive to learn that the size, or what comes to the same

thing, the importance of the fish caught, does not bear any sort of

relation to the size of the bait used to tempt him, very small fishes

being often captared upon very large spoons and vice versd.

The mahseer is essentially a ground-feeding fish, preferring a

diet of crabs, molluscs, and small fish. Like all members of the

Carp family (Cyprinide), to which it belongs, its jaws are toothless

and it kills its victims by compression, afterwards crunching them

to fragments by means of teeth which are set far back in the throat,

borne upon the inferior pharyngeal bones; these are the pharyn-

geal or throat-teeth. The mahseer will also devour seeds which

fall into the water, or rice which may be thrown in, as well as

aquatic weeds and insects. Finally it is, to a limited extent, a

surface-feeder, and will take the fly. The barbels or feelers, four

in number,{ which fringe the mouth, are organs which are

specially characteristic of bottom-feeding fishes, such as the

barbels and catfishes (Siluride). The fleshy lips of the mahseer

are well adapted to exert a powerful suctorial action upon rocks

and stones, by which it is enabled to detach the molluscs which

adhere to them,

According to Mr. Thomas’s observations, the mahseer travels

long distances up stream during the monsoon rains for the

purpose of depositing its spawn in the more or less protected head-

waters of the rivers. It does not spawn all at once, as the salmon

does, but lays its eggs in batches, repeating the process several

times in a season. This, it should be added, is inferred from

examination of the ovaries, and is not the result of direct

* Synonymous with Barbus mosal. The Sinhalese name is Léla.

+ My. C. A. Hartley informed me last June (1902) that he had never taken one

weighing above 2 or 3 lb. from the Sitala-ganga, but that probably larger indi-

viduals would be met with in the main Maskeliya river into which the Sitala-

ganga flows. The largest specimen received at the Museum: measured somewhat

less than a foot in length.

{ A rostral pair and a longer maxillary pair.

THR MAHSEER AND THE MURREL IN CEYLON. 21

observation. The result of this graduated oviposition is that the

mahseer, unlike the spent salmon, never becomes so emaciated as

to be unfit for human food.

It may be useful to sportsmen and naturalists living in out-

stations to explain the manner in which the mahseer in

particular, and freshwater fishes in general, may be identified.

The mahseer may be recognized in the open by its fighting

qualities, and in the laboratory or museum by the arrangement of

its scales. Down each side of the body from the gill region to

the tail fin there is one row of scales, which exhibits a series of

minute perforations. These are the orifices of small tubular

sensory organs composing the so-called lateral line apparatus,

which is innervated by a special branch of the tenth cranial nerve

known as the lateral line nerve.

The number of scales in the lateral line is an important

diagnostic feature in the determination of ary species of fish,

taken, naturally, in conjunction with its other characters, ¢g.,

presence or absence of teeth, presence or absence of barbels,

number of fin-rays in the fins, especially in the dorsal and anal

fins. The mahseer has no jaw teeth ; it has two pairs of barbels,

twelve rays in the dorsal fin, of which the first three are osseous

(the first very small), seven or eight rays in the anal fin, of which

the first two or three are osseous, and twenty-four or twenty-five

seales in the lateral line.* The tail fin is forked. Inthe middle

line of the back there are nine scales in front of the dorsal fin.

The body is elongated, the height being equal to about one-fourth

of the length excluding the caudal fin.

Just as the mahseer, from an angling point of view, takes the

place, in India and Ceylon, of the salmon of the West, so the

murrel may be regarded as representing the pike in the economy

of the inland waters, although all these fishes belong to totally

distinct families.

The murrel or lula (Ophiocephalus striatus) is a large, nearly

black, somewhat flat-headed fish, with long, many-rayed dorsal

and anal fins and rounded tail fin (see fig. 2 facing p. 5). The

dorsal and anal fins end abruptly behind and are not continuous

with the tail fin. The lateral line does not extend in a straight

line from the gill region of the head to the tail, but is bent

downwards over two rows of scales at the level of the twelfth

dorsal fin-ray, and is thence continued to the base of the tail fin.

The Indian murrel attains a length of 2 to 3 feet. The Colombo

Museum has a specimen of the Ceylon murrel with total length of

* In the case of the Indian Mahseer the number of scales in the lateral line is

twenty-five to twenty-seven according to Giinther and Day.

22 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA.

2 feet 3 inches and maximum breadth across the head of 4 inches;

height of body behind pectoral fins 35 inches (without reckoning

the dorsal fin); weight (after removal of gut) nearly 4 Ib.

The Ophiocephalide are commonly known as walking fishes on

account of the fact that they are able to exist for lengthened

periods out of water and can travel in a serpentine manner

overland. . Day* witnessed the exhumation of some Ophiocephali

from the mud of a dried-up tank. They are capable of an

amphibious mode of respiration in virtue of the existence of air

cavities in the head (accessory to the true gill cavities), which

impart amore or less labyrinthine structure tothe pharyngeal bones

though not so complicated as the elaborate suprabranchial

apparatus of the Climbing Perch (Anabas scandens), the “ Kavaiya”

of the Sinhalese.

The climbing and burrowing fishes of Ceylon were treated at

considerable length by Sir E. Tennent, who reminded his readers

that these phenomena were known to the ancients. “It is an

illustration,” he says on p. 344 of his work on the Natural

History of Ceylon, “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 [De Respiratione]

and Theophrastus [De Piscibus in sicco degentibus] 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 re-appearance on the return of the rains.”

Last year I picked up a “ Kavaiya” which was toiling along the

wayside in the Southern Province, and on arrival at the next

resthouse placed it in a basin of water for the night. At

daybreak the fish was found healthy and active on the floor, while

the basin was tenanted by a drowned rat.

* Day, F., “ Fauna Brit. Ind.: Fishes,” Vol. II., p. 359.