h his loud cry subdues all other sounds, until the numerous
peacocks, perched on the high trees around the lake, commence their
discordant yells, which master everything.

The name for the devil-bird is "gualama," and so impressed are the
natives with the belief that a sight of it is equivalent to a call to
the nether world that they frequently die from sheer fright and
nervousness. A case of this happened to a servant of a friend of mine.
He chanced to see the creature sitting on a bough, and he was from that
moment so satisfied of his inevitable fate that he refused all food,
and fretted and died, as, of course, any one else must do, if starved,
whether he saw the devil-bird or not.

Although I have heard the curious, mournful cry of this creature nearly
every night, I have never seen one; this is easily accounted for, as,
being a night-bird, it remains concealed in the jungle during the day.
In so densely wooded a country as Ceylon it is not to be wondered at
that owls, and all other birds of similar habit are so rarely met with.
Even woodcocks are rarely noticed; so seldom, indeed, that I have never
seen more than two during my residence in the island.

From the same cause many interesting animals pass unobserved, although
they are very numerous. The porcupine, although as common as the
hedge-hog in England, is very seldom seen. Likewise the manis, or great
scaled ant-eater, who retires to his hole before break of day, is never
met with by daylight. Indeed, I have had some trouble in persuading
many persons in Ceylon that such an animal exists in the country.

In the same manner the larger kinds of serpents conceal themselves by
day and wander forth at night, like all other reptiles except the
smaller species of lizard, of which we have in Ceylon an immense
variety, from the crocodile himself down to the little house-lizard.

Of this tribe the "cabra goya" and the "iguana" grow to a large size;
the former I have killed as long as eight or nine feet, but the latter
seldom exceeds four. I have often intended to eat one, as the natives
consider them a great delicacy, but I have never been quite hungry
enough to make the trial whenever one was at hand. The "cabra goya" is
a horrid brute, and is not considered eatable even by the Cingalese.

One curious species of lizard exists in Ceylon; it is little brown
species with a peculiarly rough skin and a serrated spine. A long horn
projects from the snout, and it is