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 vertebrso, 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 Mephas Sumatranus. 



1 See Chapter on the Insects of Possession Neerlandaises dans 

 Ceylon. VInde Archipelagique. 



2 Coup d'CEil General sur les 



