hundred or
more together, stopping where-ever the food is most inviting. The
natives seem to have a mysterious dread of and never touch them, but
European hunters sometimes kill and eat them, declaring the flesh to
be much like that of the hare. The creature measures nearly three feet
between the tips of its extended wings. The flying fox is unable to
take flight from the earth, and if found there can easily be caught,
nor can they run under such circumstances, but, waddling along, seek
the nearest tree-trunk, which they ascend with great ease by means of
their long, sharp claws. From the branches they throw themselves with
a strong impetus, skimming for considerable distances through the air,
like the flying squirrel of the low latitudes, and the flying possum
of Australia. This last animal, like the kangaroo, is found only in
the country just named, where the natives, having no religious
compunctions as to the sacredness of animal life, kill the possum and
feast heartily upon its body roasted in hunter's style.

It is not quite safe to walk in the moist and thickly overgrown parts
of this garden of Peradenia,--the local name,--as there are dangerous
snakes which one is liable to encounter, besides other reptiles of low
latitudes, not always poisonous, but best avoided. Professor Haeckel
tells us how terrible he found the nuisance of mosquitoes and stinging
flies in this tropical garden. "There are of course mosquitoes
certain in all such places," he says, "but far more dangerous than
these annoying insects are the poisonous scorpions and millepeds, of
which I have collected some splendid specimens,--scorpions six inches
and millepeds a foot long." The chameleon is not so common as the
last-named creatures to which the professor refers, and is not so
noticeable, since its nature is to closely reflect the color of the
tree or stone on which it may chance to rest for the time being. They
are not liable to be detected unless in motion.

The ticpolonga, a deadly snake, the terror of the natives, is often
found in this garden. The largest snake in Ceylon is the boa or
anaconda, which is often seen here measuring over twenty feet in
length. It feeds mostly on small animals, and is very little feared
either by the natives or Europeans. It is not an agreeable sight,
nevertheless, as the reader may suppose, to see a large boa moving
along the ground near one's person, and free to act its own pleasure.
Their deadly coil about