150 ZOOLOGY. [PART II. 



inhabit the forests, making their nests among the roots of 

 the trees, and feeding in the season, on the ripe seeds of 

 the nilloo. Like the lemmings of Norway and Lapland, 

 they migrate in vast numbers on the occurrence of a 

 scarcity of their ordinary food. The Malabar coolies are 

 so fond of their flesh, that they evince a "preference for 

 those districts in which the coffee plantations are subject 

 to their incursions, where they fry the rats in coco-nut oil, 

 or convert them into curry. 



Bandicoot. Another favourite article of food with 

 the coolies is the pig-rat or Bandicoot 1 , which attains on 

 those hills the weight of two or three pounds, and grows 

 to nearly the length of two feet. As it feeds on grain 

 and roots, its flesh is said to be delicate, and much resem- 

 bling young pork. Its nests, when rifled, are frequently 

 found to contain considerable quantities of rice, stored up 

 against the dry season. 



Porcupine. The Porcupine 2 is another of the rodentia 

 which has drawn down upon itself the hostility of the 

 planters, from its destruction of the young coco-nut palms, 

 to which it is a pernicious and persevering, but withal so 

 crafty, a visitor, that it is with difficulty any trap can be 

 so disguised, or any bait made so alluring, as to lead to 

 its capture. The usual expedient is to place some of its 

 favourite food at the extremity of a trench, so narrow 

 as to prevent the porcupine turning, whilst the direction 

 of his quills effectually bars his retreat backwards. On a 

 newly planted coco-nut tope, at Hang-welle, within a few 

 miles of Colombo, I have heard of as many as twenty-seven 

 being thus captured in a single night ; but such success 

 is rare. The more ordinary expedient is to smoke them 

 out by burning straw at the apertures of their burrows. 

 The flesh is esteemed a delicacy in Ceylon, and in con- 

 sistency, colour, and flavour, it very much resembles 

 young pork. 



1 Mus bandicota, Bcckst. The En- 

 glish term bandicoot is a corruption 

 of the Telinga name pandikoku, lite- 

 rally piy-rat. 



Hystrix leucurus ; Syki 



