NOTICES Of NEW BOOKS, 319 



next page, after a description of Fells pardus, and a black variety 

 of it, we read : — 



11 In Ceylon all these animals are, as I have said, commonly called 

 Cheetahs, and they must not be confounded with the hunting Cheetah of 

 India, not a pure feline, but lanky and long-legged, unable to climb trees, 

 and usually considered as a link between felines and canines." 



We are at a loss, therefore, to know whether Dr. Walters 

 includes F. jubatus as a native of Ceylon or not. 



Writing of the large Fruit-eating Bat {Pteropus), commonly 

 called " Flying Fox," from the shape of the head, he states that 

 it is " found here and there in very large numbers, and is as great 

 a pest in Ceylon as another species of the genus is in Australia." 

 He adds that last year a party of scientific gentlemen made an 

 experiment to ascertain the possibility of destroying the " Flying 

 Foxes" wholesale by dynamite, but the method was found im- 

 practicable, and the " Flying Fox " still flourishes to the great 

 detriment of the fruit crops. 



Of the deer to be met with in Ceylon, Dr. Walters states 

 that the finest of them all, the Sambar, the native name for which 

 is gona rusa (not sona russa), is 



" Not often shot, but gives first-rate sport to hounds, for which pur- 

 pose the best strain of English foxhounds has proved a failure. Far 

 better ruus are made with dogs crossed either between foxhound and 

 pointer, mastiff and bloodhound, or greyhound and kangaroo-dog. It is 

 a grand sight to see a Sambar of 600 lbs. weight dashing for his life down 

 a steep broken hill at a headlong pace." 



The Spotted Deer, Axis maculata (native Chetool, Hind. 

 Chital), the only gregarious Deer in Ceylon, is found in large 

 herds in the north of the island. At p. 161 we read : — "A deer 

 peculiar to Ceylon is C. orizus, almost as large as the Sambar, 

 but with a different arrangement of spots on the coat." In this 

 sentence there are no less than three mistakes: (1), Cervus 

 oryzus, the " Hog Deer," is not confined to Ceylon ; (2), it is 

 nothing like so large as the Sambar, standing only 2 ft. high 

 at the shoulder, while the Sambar measures from 4 ft. to 4ft. 

 6 in. ; (3), the Sambar has no spots; and we may add (4), the 

 Hog Deer is considered by the best authorities to have been 

 introduced into Ceylon, where it is confined to a small area 

 between Matura and the Kaltura River. 





