NOTES. 133 



NOTES. 



13. Stray Notes on Ceylon Animals. — The following notes were 

 made during and subsequent to a holiday trip in Ceylon in October, 

 1911. Disconnected and trivial as they are, they may perhaps be 

 useful if only as indie atmg points in the habits and distribution of 

 certain animals that would repay further investigation. 



(1) Freshwater Sponges and Polyzoa. 



In my volume on the Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids, and Polyzoa, 

 in the " Fauna of British India," I pointed out how httle was known 

 of these animals so far as Ceylon was concerned,* and I hoped that 

 a personal investigation of some of the lakes and tanks of the Island 

 would enable me to add to our knowledge of these groups. In this, 

 however, I was to a large extent disappointed, partly perhaps 

 because my visit was not made at a favourable season, but also 

 partly, I have no doubt, because freshwater sponges and polyzoa 

 are much scarcer in Ceylon than in some districts of India. The only 

 sponge obtained was Spongilla carteri, which was found growing in 

 the Kandy lake on a masonry dam. The only freshwater polyzoon 

 that I saw was an immature colony of Plumatella, probably P. 

 javanica, Kraepelin, which was attached to the lower surface of a 

 stone in a small stream above Peradeniya, at an altitude of about 

 1,700 feet. A careful search romid the edge of the lake at Nuwara 

 EUya (alt. ca. 6,000 feet) was absolutely miproductive , and the 

 profuse growth of a slimy dark green alga which covered every stone 

 and every twig rendered it improbable that either sponge or poly- 

 zoon could live. Mr. S. W. Kemp's recent investigation of lakes at 

 altitudes of from 3,500 to 6,500 feet in the Western Himalayas 

 proves that several species of these groups grow luxuriantly in them, 

 so that the question of altitudes does not enter the case. Neither 

 at Colombo, nor at Anm'adhapura, nor in the hill-country did I find 

 either sponge gemmules or polyzoon statoblasts floating free on the 

 surface of the water. There were no gemmules in the specimen of 

 8. carteri I obtained at Kandy in October. 



* The list of records for Ceylon stands as follows : — 



Freshwater Sponges. 

 Spongilla proliferens. 

 carteri. 



Freshwater Polyzoa. 

 Plumatella {?) javanica. 



" princeps." 



Pectinatella burmanica. 



