the
strange position represented below; its perch firmly grasped with all
hands, its back curved into a ball of soft fur, and its head hidden deep
between its legs. The singularly-large and intense eyes of the loris
have attracted the attention of the Singhalese, who capture the creature
for the purpose of extracting them as charms and love-potions, and this
they are said to effect by holding the little animal to the fire till
its eyeballs burst. Its Tamil name is _theivangu_, or "thin-bodied;" and
hence a deformed child or an emaciated person has acquired in the Tamil
districts the same epithet. The light-coloured variety of the loris in
Ceylon has a spot on its forehead, somewhat resembling the _namam_, or
mark worn by the worshippers of Vishnu; and, from this peculiarity, it
is distinguished as the _Nama-theivangu_.[2]

[Footnote 1: Loris gracilis, _Geoff_.]

[Footnote 2: There is an interesting notice of the loris of Ceylon by
Dr. TEMPLETON, in the _Mag. Nat. Hist_. 1844, ch. xiv. p. 362.]

[Illustration: THE LORIS]

II. CHEIROPTERA. _Bats_.--The multitude of _bats_ is one of the features
of the evening landscape; they abound in every cave and subterranean
passage, in the tunnels on the highways, in the galleries of the
fortifications, in the roofs of the bungalows, and the ruins of every
temple and building. At sunset they are seen issuing from their diurnal
retreats to roam through the twilight in search of crepuscular insects,
and as night approaches and the lights in the rooms attract the
night-flying lepidoptera, the bats sweep round the dinner-table and
carry off their tiny prey within the glitter of the lamps. Including the
frugivorous section about sixteen species have been identified in
Ceylon, and of these, two varieties are peculiar to the island. The
colours of some of them are as brilliant as the plumage of a bird,
bright yellow, deep orange, and a rich ferruginous brown inclining to
red.[1] The Roussette[2] of Ceylon (the "Flying-fox," as it is usually
called by Europeans) measures from three to four feet from point to
point of its extended wings, and some of them have been seen wanting but
a few inches of five feet in the alar expanse. These sombre-looking
creatures feed chiefly on ripe fruits, the guava, the plantain, and the
rose-apple, and are abundant in all the maritime districts, especially
at the season when the silk-cotton tree, the _pulun-imbul_,[3] is
putting forth its flower-buds, of wh