J 70 Some Account of the natural "Productions 



viewed in front, has the appearance of a pair of fpe&acles 5 

 but, being regarded from behind, is like the head of a eat. 

 Tts back is of a gray colour, and has fome dulky fpots on the 

 belly*. No other kind of this ferpeut has been feeii here, The 

 natives confider it as an object of veneration, and do not fufYer 

 it to be deftroyed. It loves to inhabit dilapidated buildings. 



The large it of all the ferpents is the pimpboura. The writer 

 of this memoir has kirn one preierved in fpirits, of eioht feet 

 and an half in length, and thirteen inches in circumference, 

 which was quite young. It is this fpeeies that h accufed of 

 fwallowing bullocks and buffaloes. But, however that may 

 be, the Cmgalefe aiTert, in the mod pofitive; manner, that 

 there are ferpents which are ten inches in cliameier, and that 

 fome have been taken with a hog in their belly. Nav, it 

 was declared, with equal folemnity, that one of then had 

 been opened, in which was found the horn of a buffalo. 



The moft curious ferpent of this iiland is the potanga, 

 which is faid to grow to a moft enormous fize. One of 

 them, when only four feet and a half in length, and half 

 an inch in diameter, had i'exen young ones in it. Thefe two 

 fpecies are remarkable for two fhort thick orickles, conti- 

 guous to the anus. 



There is alfo the depatuala, a third kind of the anguis of 

 Linnaeus. Some have defcribed it as poiTefling two heads. 

 It appears to confider its tail as a defence, from the violence 

 of its motion whenever it is attacked. 



The fifhennen taught an extraordinary ferpent, fome time 

 iince, at lea, of the length of fifty- feven inches and a half, 

 of which there does not appear to be any description in any 

 work of natural hiftorv; though Pennant's View of Hinduftan 

 contains an account of one that bears fome i'mall refemblance 

 to it. 



Of the lizard tribe, the crocodile is the moft considerable ; 

 it is the inhabitant of all the lakes and rivers in Ceylon, but 

 is feldom feen in the vicinity of the fea. There are two kinds 

 of laguna\ one of them is feven feet long, and is fuppofed to 

 be the fame as that which is fo well known' 011 the coait of 

 Coromandel. There is alfo a final! lizard with a prickly back, 

 like the camelion : to which may be added a fmall fpotted 

 lizard, which, from its meafured and tuneful cry, has ac- 

 quired the name of the pingi ng li zard ; and the real camelion. 



The toads are not of a larguTizc, like thofe of Bombay. 



1 The infeels are innumerar^F The genus of the J'carabceus 



is the moft abundant, but that of the mantis of Linnaeus is 



the moft curious. The fhapes it produces are very various 



and extraordinary. One of them, of which Colonel Agnew 



made 



