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. A.s a species it is peculiar to Ceylon, 

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

 pelago by a closely related species, Gylindro-phis rufiia. 



Fig. 4, Cylindrophis maeulatua. 

 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 a single species of chameleon 

 {Ghamceleo calcaratus). True, chameleons are characterised 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, Madafj^ascar 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 Monographic der 

 Chamaleonten. Zool. Jahrb. Syst.. XV., 1902, p. :S32). 



