306 



ZOOLOGY. 



TPabt II. 



found in Ceylon, nearly double the size of the European 

 one, and with a prodigious faculty of engorging blood, 

 there is another pest in the low country, which is a 

 source of considerable annoyance, and often of loss, to 

 the husbandman. This is the cattle leech \ which 

 infests the stagnant pools, chiefly in the alluvial lands 

 around the base of the mountain zone, to which the 

 cattle resort by day, and the wild .animals by night, to 

 quench their thirst and to bathe. Lurking amongst 

 the rank vegetation which fringes these deep pools, and 

 hid by the broad leaves, or concealed among the stems 

 and roots covered by the water, there are quantities of 

 these pests in wait to attack the animals that approach 

 them. Their natural food consists of the juices of 

 lumbrici and other invertebrata ; but they generally 

 avail themselves of the opportunity ajQTorded by the 

 dipping of the muzzles of the animals into the water 

 to fasten on their nostrils, and by degrees to make 

 their way to the deeper recesses of the nasal passages, 

 and the mucous membranes of the throat and gullet. 

 As many as a dozen have been found attached to the 

 epiglottis and pharynx of a bullock, producing such 

 irritation and submucous effusion that death has even- 



the crenated margin of a pale yellow- 

 ish-greeu ; ocelli as in the paddi-field 

 leech. Leng-th, one inch at rest, three 

 inches when extended. 



Mr. E. Layard informs us, Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. p. 225, 1853, that a bub- 

 bling spring at the village of Ton- 

 niotoo, three miles S. W. of Moele- 

 tivoe, supplies most of the leeches 

 used in the island. Those in use at 

 Colombo are obtained in the imme- 

 diate vicinity. 



^ Hcemopsis j^nliidum. In size the 

 cattle leech of Ceylon is somewhat 

 larger than the medicinal leech of 

 Europe ; in colour it is of a uniform 

 brown without bands, imless a rufous 

 margin may be so considered. It 



has dark strias. The body is some- 

 what rounded, flat when swimming, 

 and composed of rather more than 

 ninety rings. The gi-eatest dimen- 

 sion is a little in advance of the anal 

 sucker; the body thence tapers to 

 the other extremity, which ends in 

 an upper lip projecting considerably 

 beyond the mouth. The eyes, ten in 

 nimiber, are disposed as in the com- 

 mon leech. The mouth is oval, the 

 biting apparatus with difficidty seen, 

 and the teeth not very numerous. 

 The bite is so little acute that the 

 moment of attachment and of divi- 

 sion of the membrane is scarcely 

 perceived by the suflerer from its 

 attack. 



