64 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. I. 
Horsfield, known to us by specimens obtained from Java 
and Sumatra. 
As to the Fishes of Ceylon, they are of course less dis- 
tinct ; and besides they have hitherto been very imper- 
fectly compared. But the Insects afford a remarkable con- 
firmation of the view I have ventured to propound ; so 
much so that Mr. Walker, by whom the elaborate lists 
appended to this work have been prepared, asserts 
that some of the families have a less affinity to the en- 
tomology of India than to that of Australia. 1 
But more conclusive than all, is the discovery to 
which I have alluded, in relation to the elephant of 
Ceylon. Down to a very recent period it was univer- 
sally believed that only two species of the elephant are 
now in existence, the African and the Asiatic; distin- 
guished by certain peculiarities in the shape of the cra- 
nium, the size of the ears, the ridges of the teeth, the 
number of vertebras, and, according to Cuvier, in the 
number of nails on the hind feet. The elephant of 
Ceylon was believed to be identical with the elephant 
of India. But some few years back, Temminck, in 
his survey of the Dutch possessions in the Indian Ar- 
chipelago 2 , announced the fact that the elephant which 
abounds in Sumatra (although unknown in the adjacent 
island of Java), and which had theretofore been regarded 
as the same species with the Indian one, has been recently 
found to possess peculiarities, in which it differs as much 
from the elephant of India, as the latter from its African 
congener. On this new species of elephant, to which the 
natives give the name of gadjah, Temminck has conferred 
the scientific designation of the Elejphas Sumatranus. 
1 See Chapter on the Insects of Possessions Neerlandaises dans 
Ceylon. I'Inde Archipelagique. 
2 Coup d'(Eil General sur les 
