ur like flesh, when he instantly devours it.

[Footnote 1: See Sir J.E. TENNENT'S _Ceylon_, vol. i. p. 31.]

They likewise allege that the female cheetah never produces more than
one litter of whelps.

Of the _lesser feline species_, the number and variety in Ceylon
is inferior to those of India. The Palm-cat[1] lurks by day among the
fronds of the coco-nut palms, and by night makes destructive forays on
the fowls of the villagers; and, in order to suck the blood of its
victim, inflicts a wound so small as to be almost imperceptible. The
glossy genette[2], the "_Civet_" of Europeans, is common in the
northern province, where the Tamils confine it in cages for the sake
of its musk, which they collect from the wooden bars on which it rubs
itself. Edrisi, the Moorish geographer, writing in the twelfth
century, enumerates musk as one of the productions then exported from
Ceylon.[3]

[Footnote 1: Paradoxurus typus, _F. Cuv._]

[Footnote 2: Viverra Indica, _Geoffr., Hodgs._]

[Footnote 3: EDRISI, _Geogr._ sec. vii. Jauberts's translation,
t. ii. p. 72. In connexion with cats, a Singhalese gentleman has
described to me a plant in Ceylon, called _Cuppa-mayniya_ by the
natives; by which he says cats are so enchanted, that they play with
it as they would with, a captured mouse; throwing if into the air,
watching it till it falls, and crouching to see if it will move. It
would be worth inquiring into the truth of this; and the explanation
of the attraction.]

_Dogs_.--There is no native wild dog in Ceylon, but every village
and town is haunted by mongrels of European descent, that are known by
the generic description of _Pariahs_. They are a miserable race,
lean, wretched, and mangy, acknowledged by no owners, living on the
garbage of the streets and sewers, and if spoken to unexpectedly they
shrink with an almost involuntary cry. Yet in these persecuted
outcasts there survives that germ of instinctive affection which binds
the dog to the human race, and a gentle word, even a look of
compassionate kindness, is sufficient foundation for a lasting
attachment.

The Singhalese, from their religious aversion to taking away life in any
form, permit the increase of these desolate creatures till in the hot
season they become so numerous as to be a nuisance; and the only
expedient hitherto devised by the civil government to reduce their
numbers, is once in each year to offer a reward for their destruction,
when the Tamils and Ma