22 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XL- 



ESSAY ON THE CONSTRUCTION 

 OF ZOOLOGICAL TABLES, WITH A TABULAR 

 DIAGNOSIS OF THE SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



By Amyrald Haly, Esq., 



Director, Colombo Museum, 



(Read January 26, 1888.) 



" The only possible check I can see to the progress of Science is, that the 

 works on it are becoming too voluminous ; it is becoming scholastic ; life 

 will be too short to learn it, and no time will be left for discoveries." — 

 Mr. Justice G-kove, Speech at the Royal Academy Dinner, 1881. 



mm. 



On Combinations of Structures. 



N the mountains north of the Cape there is an 

 animal known as the brindled gnu, thus des- 

 cribed by Cuvier in the "Regne Animal": — 

 " A monster composed of different animals. It 

 has the body and crupper of a small horse,, 

 covered with brown fur; the tail is furnished with long 

 white hairs like that of a horse, and on the neck is a hand- 

 some straight mane, white at the bottom and black at the 

 end of the hairs. The horns, approximated and enlarged 

 at the base like those of the buffalo of the Cape, descend 

 outwardly and turn up at the point. The muzzle is large, 

 flat, and surrounded with a circle of projecting hairs ; under 

 the throat and dewlap is a second black mane. The feet 

 have all the lightness of those of the stag." 



This combination of the head of the ox, the tail of the 

 horse, and feet of the stag, can scarcely fail to strike any one 

 on seeing a good figure of this animal or a mounted speci- 

 men in a museum. I believe, however, this impression of 



