ISLAND OF CEYLON. 2or 



tie one of thefe animals pendent by the tail, and provoke it till 

 it emits its deadly faliva on the point of the weapons, which 

 kill with the flighteft wound. This dreadful reptile feldqm at- 

 tains a foot in length. 



The Draco volans*, the animal which bears the dreadful FlyingLizard. 

 name of Dragon^ is no more than an innocent little lizard, fur- 

 nifhed with membranes, extending along the fides in form of 

 wings, with which it makes fliort flights from tree to tree, 

 chirruping as it goes. Beneath its chin is a long flender ap- 

 pendage ; the tail is very long and flender, but the length of 

 the whole creature is not more than nine inches ; and this is 

 the only animal that bears really the form feigned by poets and 

 writers of romance for that of the tremendous dragon. 



The infe6ls of Ceylon are of uncommon fizes : fcorpions have Insects, 

 been found there eight inches long, exclufive of the legs ; Sco- 

 lopendr^ feven inches in length ; and of fpiders, the Aranea 

 avicularia, Seb, muf. i. tab. 69, with legs four inches long, and 

 the body covered with thick black hair, a fpecies that makes a 

 web ftrong enough to entangle the fmaller fpecies of birds, on 

 which it feeds. 



The hare of Ceylon differs in no pefpect from the EngliJJj hare. Hare. 



The crefted porcupine, N° 314, is an animal of this ifland. Porcupine. 

 A bezoar is fometimes found in its flomach : the reign of its 

 pretended Alexipharmic qualities is now over. T'averjiier gave 

 five hundred crowns for one, which he fold to advantage. It is 



* Same, Vol. ii. tab. 51. 



Vol. L D d a mere 



