CHAPTER I. 
MAMMALIA. 
With the exception of the Mammalia and Birds, the 
fauna of Ceylon has, up to the present, failed to receive 
that systematic attention to which its richness and va- 
riety most amply entitle it. The Singhalese themselves, 
habitually indolent, and singularly unobservant of nature 
and her operations, are at the same time restrained 
from the study of natural history by the tenet of their 
religion which forbids the taking of life under any cir- 
cumstances. From the nature of their avocations, the 
majority of the European residents, engaged in plant- 
ing and commerce, are discouraged by want of leisure 
from cultivating the taste ; and it is to be regretted 
that, with few exceptions, the civil servants of the 
government, whose position and duties would have 
afforded them influence and extended opportunities for 
successful investigation, have never seen the importance 
of encouraging such studies. 
The first effective impulse to the cultivation of natural 
science in Ceylon, was communicated by Dr. Davy when 
connected with the medical staff 1 of the army from 
1816 to 1820, and his example stimulated some of the 
assistant-surgeons of Her Majesty's forces to make col- 
1 De. Davy, brother to the il- tants, which contains the earliest 
lustrious Sir Humphry Davy, pub- notice of the Natural History of 
lished, in 1821, his Account of the the island, and especially of its 
Interior of Ceylon and its InhaU- ophidian reptiles. 
B 2 
