File:Sketches of the natural history of Ceylon - with narratives and anecdotes illustrative of the habits and instincts of the mammalia, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. - including a monograph of the (14563035999).jpg

Identifier: sketchesofnatura00tenn (find matches)
Title: Sketches of the natural history of Ceylon : with narratives and anecdotes illustrative of the habits and instincts of the mammalia, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. : including a monograph of the elephant and a description of the modes of capturing and training it with engravings from original drawings
Year: 1868 (1860s)
Authors: Tennent, James Emerson, Sir, 1804-1869 Metcalf Collection (North Carolina State University). NCRS
Subjects: Zoology Elephants
Publisher: London : Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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thezebra; and the tsetse fly, the pest of South Africa,whose bite is mortal to the ox, the dog, and the horse,is harmless to man and the untamed creatures of theforest.^ The Singhalese distinguish one species of mongoos,which they designate Hotantbeya,^ and which theyassert never preys upon serpents. A writer in theCeylon Miscellany mentions, that they are often to beseen crossing rivers and frequently mud-brooks nearChilaw; the adjacent thickets affording them shelter,and their food consisting of aquatic reptiles, crabs, andmollusca. ^ ^ Dr. LiviNGSTONi:, Tour in 8. or mouse-cat of Behar, which preys Africa, p. 80. Is it a fact that, in upon birds and fish. Can it be the America, pigs extirpate the rattle- Urva of the Nepalese (Urva can- snakes with impunity ? crivora, Hodgson), which Mr. Hodg- This is possibly the musbilai son describes as dwelling in bur- Chap. I.) SQUIRRELS. 41 IV. EoDENTiA. Squirrels. — Smaller animals in greatnumbers enliven the forests and lowland plains with
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FLYING SQUIREEL, their graceful movements. Squirrels ^, of which thereare a great variety, make their shrill metallic call heard rows, and being carnivorous and ^ Of two kinds which frequentranivorous ?—Vide Journ. As. Soc. the mountains, one which is pe-Beng. vol. vi. p. 56. culiar to Ceylon was discovered 42 MAMMALIA. (Chap. I. at early morning in the woods; and when sounding theirnote of warning on the approach of a civet or a tree-snake, the ears tingle with the loud trill of defiance,which rings as clear and rapid as the running down of analarum, and is instantly caught up and re-echoed fromevery side by their terrified playmates. One of the largest, belonging to a closely allied sub-genus, is known as the Flying Squirrel, * from itsbeing assisted, in its prodigious leaps from tree to tree,by a parachute formed by the skin of the flanks, which,on the extension of the limbs front and rear, is laterallyexpanded from foot to foot. Thus buoyed up in itsdescent, the spring which it

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