262 ZOOLOGY. [PAST II. 



The ants which burrow in the ground in Ceylon are 

 generally, but not invariably, black, and some of them are 

 of considerable size. One species, about the third of an 

 inch in length, is abundant in the hills, and especially about 

 the roots of trees, where they pile up the earth in circular 

 heaps round the entrance to their nests, and in doing this 

 I have observed a singular illustration of their instinct. To 

 carry up each particle of sand by itself would be an end- 

 less waste of labour, and to carry two or more loose ones 

 securely would be to them embarrassing, if not impossible. 

 To overcome the difficulty they glue together with their 

 saliva so much earth or sand as is sufficient for a burden, 

 and each ant may be seen hurrying up from below with 

 his load, carrying it to the top of the circular heap out- 

 side, and throwing it over, whilst it is so strongly attached 

 as to roll to the bottom without breaking asunder. 



The ants I have been here describing are inoffensive, dif- 

 fering in this particular from the Dimiya and another of 

 similar size and ferocity, which is called by the Singhalese 

 Kaddiya. They have a legend illustrative of their alarm 

 for the bites of the latter, to the effect that the cobra de 

 capello invested the Kaddiya with her own venom in admi- 

 ration of the singular courage displayed by these little 

 creatures. 1 



LEPIDOPTERA. Butterflies. In the interior of the island 

 butterflies are comparatively rare, and, contrary to the ordi- 

 nary belief, they are seldom to be seen in the sunshine. 

 They frequent the neighbourhood of the jungle, and espe- 

 cially the vicinity of the rivers and waterfalls, living mainly 

 in the shade of the moist foliage, and returning to it in haste 

 after the shortest flights, as if their slender bodies were 

 speedily dried up and exhausted by the exposure to the 

 intense heat. 



Among the largest and most gaudy of the Ceylon Lepi- 

 doptera is the great black and yellow butte&y(0rnitkoptera 



KNOX'S Historical Relation of Ceylon, pt. i. ch. vi. p. 23. 



