,
which preys upon birds and fish. Could it be the Urva of the Nepalese
(_Urva cancrivora_, Hodgson), which Mr. Hodgson describes as dwelling in
burrows, and being carnivorous and ranivorous?--Vide _Journ. As. Soc.
Beng._, vol. vi. p. 56.]

IV. RODENTIA. _Squirrels_.--Smaller animals in great numbers enliven the
forests and lowland plains with their graceful movements. Squirrels[1],
of which there are a great variety, make their shrill metallic call
heard at early morning in the woods, and when sounding their note of
warning on the approach of a civet or a tree-snake, the ears tingle with
the loud trill of defiance, which rings as clear and rapid as the
running down of an alarum, and is instantly caught up and re-echoed from
every side by their terrified playmates.

[Footnote 1: Of two kinds which frequent the mountains, one which is
peculiar to Ceylon was discovered by Mr. Edgar L. Layard, who has done
me the honour to call it the _Sciurus Tennentii_. Its dimensions are
large, measuring upwards of two feet from head to tail. It is
distinguished from the _S. macrurus_ by the predominant black colour of
the upper surface of the body, with the exception of a rusty spot at the
base of the ears.]

One of the largest, belonging to a closely allied subgenus, is known as
the "Flying Squirrel,"[1] from its being assisted in its prodigious
leaps from tree to tree, by the parachute formed by the skin of the
flanks, which on the extension of the limbs front and rear, is laterally
expanded from foot to foot. Thus buoyed up in its descent, the spring
which it is enabled to make from one lofty tree to another resembles the
flight of a bird rather than the bound of a quadruped. Of these pretty
creatures there are two species, one common to Ceylon and India, the
other (_Sciuropterus Layardii_, Kelaart) is peculiar to the island, and
is by far the most beautiful of the family.

[Footnote 1: Pteromys oral., _Tickel_. P. petaurista, _Pallas_.]

_Rats_.--Among the multifarious inhabitants to which the forest affords
at once a home and provender is the tree rat[1], which forms its nest on
the branches, and by turns makes its visits to the dwellings of the
natives, frequenting the ceilings in preference to the lower parts of
houses. Here it is incessantly followed by the rat-snake[2], whose
domestication is encouraged by the native servants, in consideration of
its services in destroying vermin. I had one day an opportunity of
surprisi