A suggestion to re-publish these sections in an independent form has
afforded an opportunity for repairing some of these defects by revising
the entire, restoring omitted passages, and introducing fresh materials
collected in Ceylon; the additional matter occupying a very large
portion of the present volume.

I have been enabled, at the same time, to avail myself of the
corrections and communications of scientific friends; and thus to
compensate, in some degree for what is still incomplete, by increased
accuracy in minute particulars.

In the Introduction to the First Edition of the original work I alluded,
in the following terms, to that portion of it which is now reproduced in
an extended form:--

"Regarding the _fauna_ of Ceylon, little has been published in any
collective form, with the exception of a volume by Dr. KELAART entitled
_Prodromus Faunæ Zeilanicæ_; several valuable papers by Mr. EDGAR L.
LAYARD in the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_ for 1852 and
1853; and some very imperfect lists appended to PRIDHAM'S compiled
account of the island.[1] KNOX, in the charming narrative of his
captivity, published in the feign of Charles II., has devoted a chapter
to the animals of Ceylon, and Dr. DAVY has described some of the
reptiles: but with these exceptions the subject is almost untouched in
works relating to the colony. Yet a more than ordinary interest attaches
to the inquiry, since Ceylon, instead of presenting, as is generally
assumed, an identity between its _fauna_ and that of Southern India,
exhibits a remarkable diversity, taken in connection with the limited
area over which the animals included in it are distributed. The island,