80 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



Except for the clearings for plantations and agriculture the whole 

 Island is jungle-covered. At the higher elevations, up to 6,000 

 feet, the clearings are for tea, while in the low-lying coastal fringe 

 rice cultivation is responsible for most of the open spaces. The 

 northern half of the Island is a vast expanse of primaeval forest, 

 traversed by the great high road of the north with the branches to 

 the ports of the eastern coast. 



The following are Major Mayor's notes on his collecting- 

 stations : — 



JJrugalla, Central Province. — A small village, 21 miles east of 

 Kandy. Elevation about 1,600 feet, but rising up to the Negat- 

 enne Gap, at 3,000 feet. The country comprises a series of hills — 

 some running up to 1,000 feet above Urugalla — all heavily culti- 

 vated. Tea and Eubber Estates up to Negatenne, and round 

 Urugalla large tracts of terraced rice-fields, interspersed with jungle, 

 whilst the tops of the hills are covered with forest. Heavy mists 

 morning and eTening make it very difficult to dry the skins. 

 Here, as elsewhere, the natives apparently eat everything they can 

 catch ; with the exception of one old Singhalese villager,, they 

 brought in no specimens, and I am certain visited my traps when 

 located. It being just after the N.-E. Monsoon the villagers, 

 accoi'ding to the headmen, were helpless with malaria. I 

 distributed about 500 (iO-gr.) packets of quinine round this 

 District. 



Kandy and Peradeniya. — The former 1,654 feet, the latter 1,540 

 feet, above sea-level. The Director of Agriculture kindly gave me 

 the use of an empty bungalow in the Royal Botanical Gardens. 

 This I made my centre, trapping in the Gardens, and in the 

 Experimental Gardens and the jungle on the other side of the 

 Mhawala Ganja ; also in the liady Horton Reserve Forest on the 

 hills above Kandy in which the Government Agent of Kandy 

 kindly gave me permission to shoot. Loris and Flying Squirrels 

 were reported to be in this part, but I saw neither, and could not 

 get any specimens brought in by natives. The Gardens abound 

 in Squirrels, mostly F. iMlmarum, and thousands of Flying Foxes, 

 which are protected by the Garden authorities, as I presume they 

 interest the crowds of Tourists who visit the beautiful Royal 

 Botanical Gardens. 



Pattipola, Central Province. — A village f mile from Summit 

 Level of the Railway (6,226 feet) between Kandy and Bandara- 

 wella. Very hilly, the lower slopes and valleys covered with 

 coarse grass, interspersed with Rhododendron trees and bushes. 

 The upper slopes, and tops of all the hills, are covered with a 

 dense jungle of wind torn and twisted trees, smothered in moss 

 and streaming bunches of lichen. The undergrowth is very thick, 

 and mixed with bamboos running up to 8 feet or more in height. 



