to a hundred, that to a casual observer look like
bunches of horse-hair. This appearance is produced by the long and
slender legs of these creatures, which are of a shining black, whilst
their bodies, so small as to be mere specks, are concealed beneath them.
The same spider is found in the low country near Galle, but there it
shows no tendency to become gregarious. Can it be that they thus
assemble in groups in the hills for the sake of accumulated warmth at
the cool altitude of 4000 feet?

[Footnote 1: _Phalangium bisignatum_.]

_Ticks_.--Ticks are to be classed among the intolerable nuisances to the
Ceylon traveller. They live in immense numbers in the jungle[1], and
attaching themselves to the plants by the two forelegs, lie in wait to
catch at unwary animals as they pass. A shower of these diminutive
vermin will sometimes drop from a branch, if unluckily shaken, and
disperse themselves over the body, each fastening on the neck, the ears,
and eyelids, and inserting a barbed proboscis. They burrow, with their
heads pressed as far as practicable under the skin, causing a sensation
of smarting, as if particles of red hot sand had been scattered over the
flesh. If torn from their hold, the suckers remain behind and form an
ulcer. The only safe expedient is to tolerate the agony of their
penetration till a drop of coco-nut oil or the juice of a lime can be
applied, when these little furies drop off without further ill
consequences. One very large species, dappled with grey, attaches itself
to the buffaloes.

[Footnote 1: Dr. HOOKER, in his _Himalayan Journal_, vol. i. p. 279, in
speaking of the multitude of those creatures in the mountains of Nepal,
wonders what they tend to feed on, as in these humid forests in which
they literally swarmed, there was neither pathway nor animal life. In
Ceylon they abound everywhere in the plains on the low brush-wood; and
in the very driest seasons they are quite as numerous as at other times.
In the mountain zone, which is more humid, they are less prevalent. Dogs
are tormented by them: and they display something closely allied to
cunning in always fastening on an animal in those parts where they
cannot be torn off by his paws; on his eye-brows, the tips of his ears,
and the back of his neck. With a corresponding instinct I have always
observed in the gambols of the Pariah dogs, that they invariably
commence their attentions by mutually gnawing each other's ears and
necks, as if in