Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon Part 44

aulicus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

figutinus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

striatus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

senator, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.[10]

literatus, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

[Footnote 1: C. plicaria of _Lamarck_, and C. coronulata of _Sowerby_, are also said to be found in Ceylon.]

[Footnote 2: As Purpura.]

[Footnote 3: N. suturalis, _Reeve_ (as of _Lam._), is met with in mixed Ceylon collections.]

[Footnote 4: E. areolata, _Lam._]

[Footnote 5: E. spirata, _Lam._ not _Linn._]

[Footnote 6: B. Belangeri, _Kiener_.]

[Footnote 7: As Turricula L.]

[Footnote 8: O. utriculus, _Dillwyn_.]

[Footnote 9: C. planorbis, _Born_; C. vulpinus, _Lam._]

[Footnote 10: Conus ermineus, _Born_, in part.]

imperialis, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

textile, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

terebra, _Born_, Test. Must. Caes. Vind.

tessellatus, _Born,_ Test. Mus. Caes. Vind.

augur, _Bruguiere_, Encycl. Meth. Vers.

obesus, _Bruguiere_, Encycl. Meth. Vers.

araneosus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

gubernator, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

monite, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

nimbosus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

eburneus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

vitulinus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

quercinus _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

lividus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Omaria, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Maldivus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

nocturnus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Ceylonensis, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

arenatus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Nicobaricus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

glans, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Amadis, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.

punctatus, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.

minimus, _Reeve_. (as of _Linn_), C. Icon.

terminus, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert.

lineatus, _Chemn._ Conch. Cab.

episcopus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

verriculum, _Reeve_. Conch. Cab.

zonatus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

rattus. _Brug_. En. Mth. V. (teste _Chemn._) pertusus, _Brug_. Encycl. Meth. Vers.

Nussatella, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

lithoglyphus, _Brug_. En. Meth. Vers.[4]

tulipa, _Linn._ Syst. Nat.

Ammiralis, var. _Linn._ teste _Brug_.

Spirula Peronii, _Lam._ Anim. s. Vert.

Sepia Hieredda, _Rang_. M.Z., ser. i. p. 100.

Sepioteuthis, _Sp_.

Loligo, _Sp_.

A conclusion not unworthy of observation may be deduced from this catalogue; namely, that Ceylon was the unknown, and hence unacknowledged, source of almost every extra-European sh.e.l.l which has been described by Linnaeus without a recorded habitat. This fact gives to Ceylon specimens an importance which can only be appreciated by collectors and the students of Mollusca.

2. RADIATA.

The eastern seas are profusely stocked with radiated animals, but it is to be regretted that they have as yet received but little attention from English naturalists. Recently, however, Dr. Kelaart has devoted himself to the investigation of some of the Singhalese species, and has published his discoveries in the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Asiatic Society for 1856-8. Our information respecting the radiata on the confines of the island is, therefore, very scanty; with the exception of the genera[1] examined by him. Hence the notice of this extensive cla.s.s of animals must be limited to indicating a few of those which exhibit striking peculiarities, or which admit of the most common observation.

[Footnote 1: Actinia, 9 sp.; Anthea, 4 sp.; Actinodendron, 3 sp.; Dioscosoma, 1 sp.; Peechea, 1 sp.; Zoanthura, 1 sp.]

_Star Fish_.--Very large species of _Ophiuridae_ are to be met with at Trincomalie, crawling busily about, and insinuating their long serpentine arms into the irregularities and perforations in the rocks.

To these they attach themselves with such a firm grasp, especially when they perceive that they have attracted attention, that it is almost impossible to procure unmutilated specimens without previously depriving them of life, or at least modifying their muscular tenacity. The upper surface is of a dark purple colour, and coa.r.s.ely spined; the arms of the largest specimens are more than a foot in length, and very fragile.

The star fishes, with immovable rays[1], are by no means rare; many kinds are brought up in the nets, or maybe extracted from the stomachs of the larger market fish. One very large species[2], figured by Joinville in the ma.n.u.script volume in the library at the India House, is not uncommon; it has thick arms, from which and the disc numerous large fleshy cirrhi of a bright crimson colour project downwards, giving the creature a remarkable aspect. No description of it, so far as I am aware, has appeared in any systematic work on zoology.

[Footnote 1: _Asterias_, Linn.]

[Footnote 2: _Pentaceros?_]

_Sea Slugs_.--There are a few species of _Holothuria_, of which the trepang is the best known example. It is largely collected in the Gulf of Manaar, and dried in the sun to prepare it for export to China. A good description and figures of its varieties are still desiderata.

_Parasitic Worms_.--Of these entozoa, the _Filaria medinensis_, or Guinea-worm, which burrows in the cellular tissue under the skin, is well known in the north of the island, but rarely found in the damper districts of the south and west. In Ceylon, as elsewhere, the natives attribute its occurrence to drinking the waters of particular wells; but this belief is inconsistent with the fact that its lodgment in the human body is almost always effected just above the ankle. This shows that the minute parasites are transferred to the skin of the leg from the moist vegetation bordering the footpaths leading to wells. At this period the creatures are very small, and the process of insinuation is painless and imperceptible. It is only when they attain to considerable size, a foot or more in length, that the operation of extracting them is resorted to, when exercise may have given rise to inconvenience and inflammation.

These pests in all probability received their popular name of _Guinea-worms_, from the narrative of Bruno or Braun, a citizen and surgeon of Basle, who about the year 1611 made several voyages to that part of the African coast, and on his return published, amongst other things, an account of the local diseases.[1] But Linschoten, the Dutch navigator, had previously observed the same worms at Ormus in 1584, and they are thus described, together with the method of removing them, in the English version of his voyage.

[Footnote 1: In DE BRY'S, _Collect_, vol. i. p. 49.]

"There is in Ormus a sickenesse or common plague of wormes, which growe in their legges, it is thought that they proceede of the water that they drink. These wormes are like, unto lute strings, and about two or three fadomes longe, which they must plucke out and winde them aboute a straw or a feather, everie day some part thereof, so longe as they feele them creepe; and when they hold still, letting it rest in that sort till the next daye, they bind it fast and annoynt the hole, and the swelling from whence it commeth foorth, with fresh b.u.t.ter, and so in ten or twelve dayes, they winde them out without any let, in the meanetime they must sit still with their legges, for if it should breake, they should not, without great paine get it out of their legge, as I have seen some men doe." [1]

[Footnote 1: JOHN HUIGHEN VAN LINSCHOTEN _his Discours of Voyages into the Easte and West Indies._ London, 1599, p, 16.]

The worm is of a whitish colour, sometimes inclining to brown. Its thickness is from a half to two-thirds of a line, and its length has sometimes reached to ten or twelve feet. Small specimens have been found beneath the tunica conjunctiva of the eye; and one species of the same genus of _Nematoidea_ infests the cavity of the eye itself.[1]

[Footnote 1: OWEN'S _Lectures on the Invertebrata_, p. 96.]