vi 
INTKODUCTION. 
A suggestion to re-publish these sections in an inde- 
pendent form has afforded an opportunity for repairing 
some of these defects by revising the entire, restoring 
omitted passages, and introducing fresh materials col- 
lected in Ceylon; the additional matter occupying a 
very large portion of the present volume. 
I have been enabled, at the same time, to avail my- 
self of the corrections and communications of scientific 
friends; and thus to compensate, in some degree for 
what is still incomplete, by increased accuracy in minute 
particulars. 
In the Introduction to the First Edition of the 
original work I alluded, in the following terms, to that 
portion of it which is now reproduced in an extended 
form : — 
ttf Eegarding the fauna of Ceylon, little has been 
published in any collective form, with the exception of 
a volume by Dr. Kelaart entitled Prodromus Faunw 
Zeilanica? ; several valuable papers by Mr. Edgar L. 
Layard in the Annals and Magazine of Natural His- 
tory for 1852 and 1853 ; and some very imperfect lists 
appended to Pridham's compiled account of the island. 1 
Knox, in the charming narrative of his captivity, pub- 
lished in the reign of Charles II., has devoted a chapter 
to the animals of Ceylon, and Dr. Davy has described 
some of the reptiles: but with these exceptions the 
subject is almost untouched in works relating to the 
colony. Yet a more than ordinary interest attaches to 
1 An Historical, Political, and its Dependencies, by C. Pridham, 
Statistical Account of Ceylon and Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1849. 
