186 ZOOLOGY. [PART II. 



reproduced within less than a month. This faculty of 

 reproduction is doubtless designed to enable the creature 

 to escape from its assailants : the detaching of the 

 limb is evidently its own act ; and it is observable, that 

 when reproduced, the tail generally exhibits some varia- 

 tion from the previous form, the diverging spines being 

 absent, the new portion covered with small square 

 uniform scales placed in a cross series, and the scuta 

 below being seldom so distinct as in the original mem- 

 ber. 1 In an officer's quarters in the fort of Colombo, 

 a Geckoe had been taught to come daily to the dinner- 

 table, and always made its appearance along with the 

 dessert. The family were absent for some months, during 

 which the house underwent extensive repairs, the roof 

 having been raised, the walls stuccoed, and the ceilings 

 whitened. It was naturally surmised that so long a sus- 

 pension of its accustomed habits would have led to 

 the disappearance of the little lizard ; but on the 

 return of its old friends, at their first dinner it made 

 its entrance as usual the instant the cloth had been re- 

 moved. 



Crocodile. The Portuguese in India, like the Spa- 

 niards in South America, affixed the name of lagarto to 

 the huge reptiles that infest the rivers and estuaries of 

 both continents ; and to the present day the Europeans in 

 Ceylon apply the term alligator to what are in reality cro- 

 codiles, which literally swarm in the still waters and tanks 

 throughout the northern provinces, but rarely frequent 

 rapid streams, and have never been found in the marshes 

 among the hills. Their instincts in Ceylon do not lead to 

 any variation from their habits in other countries. There 

 would appear to be two well-distinguished species in the 

 island, the Allie Kimboola 2 , the Indian crocodile, inhabit- 

 ing the rivers and estuaries throughout the low countries 

 of the coasts, attaining the length of sixteen or eighteen 



1 Brit. Mm. Cat. p. 143 ; KELA- I 2 Crocodilus biporcatus, Cuvivr. 

 ABT'a Prod. Faun. Zeylan,, p. 183. 



