8 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



All chameleons possess the faculty of changing colour, l)nt all 

 lizards which change colour are not chameleons, those which are 

 commonlj' seen along the roadside in Ceylon belonging to a genus 

 of Oriental lizards named Galatea 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. Fairlie), 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, Mahnia carinata, belongs) named 

 Acontias, also points to a marked Ethiopian fMascarene and 

 African) affinity in Ceylon. Four species of Acuntias 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. ciL, 1901, p. 395).* 



Among the birds, the Drongos or king crows {Dicraridce) 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 Gates as synonymous with the 

 Edolms foi^ficatus of Madagascar, of which the term "■ Drongo" is 

 the original native name.t 



Fig. 5. MrojjluK macidatua. 

 From the Colombo Lake. 



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

 called " Rallia " in Sinhalese {EtropluH macuUitus), belongs to a 



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

 though gorgeously coloured Tree-gecko, P/ielsuma aHdamancn.ic, which is peculiar 

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

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



I Newton, A. A. Dictionary of Birds. Loudon, 1893-1896. 



