484 
ARTICULATA. 
[Chap. XIII. 
found in Ceylon, nearly double the size of the European 
one, and with a prodigious faculty of engorging bloody 
there is another pest in the low country, which is a 
source of considerable annoyance, and often of loss, to 
the husbandman. This is the cattle leech *, which 
infests the stagnant pools, chiefly in the alluvial lands 
around the base of the mountain zone, whither the 
cattle resort by day, and the wild animals by night, to 
quench their thirst and to bathe. Lurking amongst 
the rank vegetation that fringes these deep pools, and 
hid by the broad leaves, or concealed among the stems 
and roots covered by the water, there are quantities of 
these pests in wait to attack the animals on their ap- 
proach to drink. Their natural food consists of the 
juices of lumbrici and other invertebrata ; but they 
two inches long, but reaching to the immediate -vicinity, 
six inches when extended. Mr. 1 Hcemopsis pallidum. In size 
Thwaites, to whom I am indebted the cattle leech of Ceylon is some- 
for these particulars, adds that he what larger than the medicinal 
saw in a tank at Kolona Korle leech of Europe ; in colour it is of a 
leeches which appeared to him uniform brown without bands, un- 
flatter and of a darker colour than less a rufous margin may be so con- 
those described above, but that he sidered. It has dark stria?. The 
had not an opportunity of ex- body is somewhat rounded, flat 
amining them particularly. when swimming, and composed of 
Mr. Thwaites states that there rather more than ninety rings, 
is a smaller tank leech of an olive- The greatest dimension is a little 
green colour, with some indistinct in advance of the anal sucker ; the 
longitudinal strige on the upper body thence tapers to the other 
surface ; the crenated margin of a extremity, which ends in an upper 
pale yellowish-green; ocelli as in lip projecting considerably beyond 
the paddi-field leech; length, one the mouth. The eyes, ten in 
inch at rest, three inches when ex- number, are disposed as in the 
tended. common leech. The mouth is oval, 
Mr. E. L. Layakd informs us, the biting apparatus with difficulty 
Mag. Nat. Hist. p. 225, 1853, that seen, and the teeth not very 
a bubbling spring at the village of numerous. The bite is so little 
Tonniotoo, three miles S. W. of acute that the moment of attach- 
Moeletivoe, supplies most of the ment, and the incision of the mem- 
leeches used in the island. Those brane is scarcely perceived by the 
in use at Colombo are obtained in sufferer from its attack. 
