FAUNA OF CEYLON. 11 



Some forty species of Uroi^eltidce 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- 

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

 Ly riocephalus^ the hump -nosed lizard of the Kandyan District, 

 and Chalcidosejjs 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 i^orcinu!^), 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 bookt 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 — 



* E.g., Mr. R. Lydekker and Dr. W. T. Blanford. 



t Alcock, A. A Naturalist in Indian Seas; or, Four Years with the Royal 

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

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

 acquaintance with this charming narrative. 



