PREFACE. 



In this volume, the chapters descriptive of the structure 

 and habits of the wild elephant are reprinted for the 

 sixth time from a larger work,^ published originally in 

 1859. Since the appearance of the First Edition, many 

 corrections and much additional matter have been 

 supplied to me, chiefly from India and Ceylon, and will 

 be found embodied in the following pages. 



To one of these in particular I feel bound to direct 

 attention. In the course of a more enlarged essay on the 

 zoology of Ceylon, 2 amongst other proofs of a geo- 

 logical origin for that island, distinct from that of the 

 adjacent continent of India, as evidenced by peculiarities 

 in the flora and fauna of each respectively, I had occasion 

 to advert to a discovery which had been recently an- 



' Ceylon: An Account of the of Ceylon. London, 1 861. See also 



Island, Physical, Historical, and To- Ceylon,, etc. by Sir J. Emerson Ten- 



pographical. 2 vols. 8vo. London, nent. London, i860, vol. i. pp. 7, 



Longmans & Co. 1859. 13, 85, 160, 183, &c. 



^ Sketches of the Natural History 



