Chap. XIII.] AXNELIDES. LEECHES. 



479 



cacies for the breakfast table; and the delicate little 

 pea crab j Pontonia inflata l , recalls its Mediterranean 

 congener 2 , which attracted the attention of Aristotle, 

 from taking up its habitation in the shell of the living 

 pinna. 



Annelida. — The marine Annelides of the island 

 have not as yet been investigated; a cursory glance, 

 however, amongst the stones, on the beach at Trinco- 

 malie and in the pools that afford convenient basins for 

 examining them, would lead to the belief that the marine 

 species are not numerous ; tubicole genera, as well as 

 some nereids, are found, but there seems to be little 

 diversity, though it is not impossible that a closer scrutiny 

 might be repaid by the discovery of some interesting 

 forms. 



Leeches. — Of all the plagues which beset the traveller 

 in the rising grounds of Ceylon, the most detested are 

 the land leeches. 3 They are not frequent in the plains, 



1 Milne Edw., Hist. Nat. Crust., 

 vol. ii. p. 360. 



2 Pinnotheres veterum. 



3 Hcemadipsa Ceylanica, Bosc. 

 Blainv. These pests are not, how- 

 ever, confined to Ceylon; they 

 infest the lower ranges of the 

 Himalaya. — Hooker, vol. i. p. 

 107; vol. ii. p. 54. Thunberg, 

 who records {Travels, voi. iv. p. 

 232) having seen them in Ceylon, 

 likewise met with them in the 

 forests and slopes of Batavia. 

 Marsden (Hist. p. 311) complains 

 of them dropping on travellers in 

 Sumatra. Knorr found them at 

 Japan ; and it is affirmed that 

 they abound in islands farther to 

 the eastward. M. Gay encoun- 

 tered them in Chili. — (Moquin- 

 Tandon, Hirudinees, p. 211. 346). 



It is very doubtful, however, 

 whether all these are to be referred 

 to one species. M. De Blainville, 

 under H. Ceylanica, in the Bid. 

 de Scien. Nat. vol. xlvii. p. 271, 

 quotes M. Bosc as authority for 

 the kind which that naturalist de- 

 scribes being "rouges et tachetees;" 

 which is scarcely applicable to the 

 Singhalese species. It is more 

 than probable therefore, consider- 

 ing the period at which M. Boso 

 wrote, that he obtained his infor- 

 mation from travellers to the further 

 east, and has connected with the 

 habitat universally ascribed to 

 them from old Knox's work (Part 

 i. chap, vi.) a meagre description, 

 more properly belonging to the 

 land leech of Batavia or Japan. 

 In all likelihood, therefore, there 



