144 



at Natural $t 



decay. And, lastly, the blistering-beetles 

 (Cantharidce) have, for a long time, been 

 employed witli great benefit in the healing 

 art." 



COLIAS. A genus of diurnal Lepidop- 

 tera, abounding in species. See Doubleday 

 and Hewitson's Genera of Diurnal Lepidop- 

 tera. We here restrict ourselves to the men- 

 tion of two British species. 



COLIAS HYALE, or CLOUDED YEL- 

 LOW BUTTERFLY. This is a compara- 

 tively scarce British butterfly, found chiefly 

 near the sea coast in the counties of Kent, 

 Sussex, and Suffolk. The male is usually 

 of a rich sulphur-yellow, the female nearly 

 white ; with a deep black spot in the middle 



of the anterior wings, and a pale orange spot 

 in the disc of the posterior. The anterior 

 wings have a black border, widest towards 

 the costa, and with a row of yellowish or 

 whitish spots. The under wings have a 

 large orange spot in the centre : beneath, 

 the upper wings are whitish yellow, tipped 

 with orange ; having a black ring-spot en- 

 closing a yellow centre near the middle, 

 and with a row of small dusky marks at 

 some distance from the outer margin. The 

 lower wings beneath are entirely orange- 

 yellow, with a row of dusky reddish spots 

 towards the margin, and two silvery spots 

 in the centre. The wings are all ciliated 

 witli yellowish red ; the body is yellow ; the 

 head and the front of the thorax and the 

 legs are ferruginous ; the back dusky ; the 

 antennas reddish. The caterpillar is velvety- 

 green, witli two yellowish lateral lines, and 

 black spots on the annuli : it feeds on papi- 

 lionaceous plants. The chrysalis is green, 

 with a yellow lateral line. 



COLIAS EDUSA, or CLOUDED SAF- 

 FRON BUTTERFLY. The anterior wings 

 of the male insect are of a deep bright ful- 

 vous orange above, with a broad black in- 

 ternally-waved band on their outer edge, 

 and a large round central deep black spot : 

 the posterior wings are fulvous above, with 

 a narrow black border on the outer edge, 

 and a greenish tinge on the other ; beneath 

 they are greenish, with a sub-ocellated silver 

 spot in the middle, accompanied by a smaller 

 one. The female differs in having a series 

 of irregular yellow spots in the black margin 

 of the anterior wings : but each sex has a 

 row of spots parallel with the edge of the 

 hinder margins of both wings, of which three 

 or four on the anterior ones are deep black, 

 and the rest of a rust-colour : the cilia are 

 yellow and red-brown above^ and rose- 

 coloured beneath. The body is yellowish- 



green, with the back dusky : the antennae 

 reddish, and the tip of the club inclining to 

 yellow. In some specimens the marginal 

 band is jet black ; and the posterior wings 

 are sometimes beautifully iridescent. It is 

 not uncommon during the autumn in the 

 southern counties of England, particularly 

 on the coasts of Kent and Sussex. The 

 caterpillar is deep green with a longitudinal 

 white stripe on each side, spotted with blue 

 and yellow ; it feeds on grasses : the chrysa- 

 lis is green, with a yellow line on each side, 

 and black spots on the wing-cases. 



COLIBRI. [See HUMMING-BIRD.] 

 COLIN. A South American Rasorial bird, 

 by some writers called the Quail, but belong- 

 ing to the genus ORTYX [which see]. There 

 are several distinct species, all much esteemed 

 for the delicacy of their flesh. 



COLOBUS. A genus of quadrumanous 

 animals, of which there are several species. 

 They are natives of Africa, and are in ge- 

 neral distinguished by their long, soft, silky 

 hair, which covers the head and upper part 

 of the body. Their "hands" want the 

 thumb ; hence their name, derived from the 

 Greek word for imperfect. All the species 

 of this genus, most of which are from West- 

 ern Africa, are in the British Museum. A 

 magnificent species was found by Dr. Rup- 

 pell in Abyssinia ; it is black, and has long 

 flowing white hair over the sides and back. 

 (C. Guereza.) [See MONKEYS.] 



COLOSSOCHELYS. (C. Atlas.) The 

 name applied by Dr. Falconer and Major 

 Cautley to a gigantic fossil Tortoise discover- 

 ed by them in India, the remains of which 

 are now in the British Museum. 



The first fossil remains of this colossal 

 Tortoise were discovered by the gentlemen 

 above-mentioned in 1835, in the tertiary 

 strata of the Sewalik Hills, or Sub-Hima- 

 layahs skirting the southern foot of the great 

 Hiinalayah chain. They were found asso- 

 ciated with the remains of four extinct spe- 

 cies of Mastodon and Elephant, species of 

 Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Horse, Anoplo- 

 therium, Camel, Giraffe, Sivatherium, and a 

 vast number of other Mammalia, &c. The 

 remains of many of the animals associated 

 with the Colossocheh/s in the Sewalik Hills 

 have been discovered along the banks of the 

 Irawaddi in Ava, and in Perim Island in 

 the Gulf of Cambay, showing that the same 

 extinct fauna was formerly spread over the 

 whole continent of India. 



" This is not the place (say the discover- 

 ers) to enter upon the geological question of 

 the age of the Sewalik strata ; suffice it to 

 say, that the general bearing of the evidence 

 is, that they belong to the newer tertiary 

 period. But another question arises : ' Are 

 there any indications as to when this gi- 

 gantic Tortoise became extinct ? or are there 

 grounds for entertaining the opinion that it 

 may have descended to the human period ? ' 

 Any d priori improbability that an animal 

 so hugely disproportionate to existing spe- 

 cies should have lived down to be a contem- 

 porary with man, is destroyed by the fact 

 that other species of Chelonians which were 



