6 SPOLTA ZRYLANTCA. 



Many of the characteristic forms of the Malay Peninsula and 

 the Sunda Islands are conspicnons by their absence from Ceylon, 

 e.g., the flying lemur {Galeopithecus volans) among Mammals, 

 the flying lizard {Draco maculatuH) among reptiles, the robber 

 crab* (BirgU'S latrn) among Crustacea, and the singular Proto- 

 tracheate genus Peripatus. It is therefore remarkable to learn that 

 it is none the less possible to recognize a special Malay affinity in 

 the fauna of Ceylon, exemplified by certain rare denizens of the 

 dense forests and luxuriant gorges of the interior. Captain Legge 

 has drawn attention to this point in the caseof two birds, namely, 

 Bligh's whistling thrush (Arrenga hlighi^) and the red-faced 

 malkoha or ground cuckoo {Phoenicopliaes pyrrhocephalus), both 

 peculiar to Ceylon, but presenting near affinities to species from 

 Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula. 



Even the elephant, " the lord paramount of the Ceylon forests," 

 has to be considered in this connection. Sir E. Tennent, who was 

 one of the first to recognize a Malayan affinity in the fauna and 

 flora of Ceylon, records the fact, established independently by 

 the Dutch anatomists Temminck and Schlegel, that the Ceylon 

 elephant is identical with the Sumatran elephant, which Temminck 

 named Elephas sumatranus, and "differs as much from the 

 elephant of India as "the latter from its African congener." J 

 The specific distinction of the Sumatran from the Indian elephant 

 is not commonly upheld now. The former is probably no more 

 than an insular race of the Asiatic species. E. indicus. 



Several reptilian genera which are represented in Ceylon and 

 the Eastern Archipelago are wanting in the Indian Peninsula. 

 An interesting example of this kind is furnished by a small 

 burrowing snake, Gylindro2)his maculatus, one of those to which 

 the term "depatnaya" is applied. It is common in Colombo, 

 Balangoda, and elsewhere, and may be easily recognized by its 

 glistening skin adorned with a network of dense black markings. 

 The broad meshes of the network are occupied by brown pigment 

 above and brilliant white below. A small tract on the upper lip 

 below the eye on each side of the head, a pair of oblique tracts 

 behind the eyes and the areas immediately behind the large 

 triangular black patch on the head, separated from one another by 

 a narrow median black stripe, are also dense white in colour. 



* The robber crab is found locally all over the Eastern Archipelago from 

 Christmas Island to the Loyalty Islands, but west of the Straits it only occurs on 

 the South Sentinel, an islet of the Andaman Group less than one square mile in 

 extent, and in the Nicobar Islands (see Alcock, A. A. Naturalist in Indian Seas. 

 1902, pp. 83 and 151). 



t Syn. Myiophoneuit bHqhi [Legpre, Birds of Ceylon, p. 4«)3]. 



% Tennent, o/i. clt., pp. (>4-G8. 



