202 



ZOOLOGY. 



[Part II. 



ascertained, for great doubts have been entertained as 

 to the position it is entitled to occupy in the chain of 

 creation. 



Frogs. — In the numerous marshes formed by the 

 overflowing of the rivers in the vast plains of the low 

 country, there are many varieties of frogs, which, both 

 by their colours and by their extraordinary size, are 

 calculated to excite the surprise of strangers.^ In the 

 lakes around Colombo and the stiU water near Trin- 

 comahe, there are huge creatures of this family, from 

 six to eight inches in length ^, of an ohve hue, deep- 

 ening into brown on the back and yellow on the under 

 side. The Kandian species, recently described, is much 

 less in dimensions, but distinguished by its brilhant 

 colouring, a beautiful grass green above and deep orange 

 underneath.^ 



In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the 

 graceful little hylas ^ were to be found in great numbers, 

 crouching under broad leaves to protect them from 

 the scorching sun ; some of them utter a sharp metalhc 

 sound at night, similar to that produced by smacking the 

 hps. They possess in a high degree the power of changing 

 their colour ; and one which had seated itself on the gilt 

 piUar of a dinner lamp was scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the or-molu to which it clung. They are enabled 

 to ascend glass by means of the suckers at the extremity 

 of their toes. Their food consists of flies and minute 

 coleoptera. 



' The Indian toad (Bufo melano- 

 stictus, SchneuT) is found in Ceylon^ 

 and tlie belief in its venomous nature 

 is as old as tlie third century B.C., 

 when the llahawanso mentions that 

 the wife of " King Asoca attempted 

 to destroy the gxeat bo-tree (at Ma- 



gadha) with the poisoned fang of a 

 toacV'—Ch. XX. p. 122. 



* Eana cutipora, and the Malabar 

 bull-frog, R. Malabarica. 



^ R. Kandiana, Kelawt. 



^ The tree-fi-og, Hyla leucomystax, 

 Graver. 



