: Mus bandicota, _Beckst_. The English term bandicoot is a
corruption of the Telinga name _pandikoku_, literally _pig-rat_.]

_Porcupine_.--The Porcupine[1] is another of the _rodentia_ which has
drawn down upon itself the hostility of the planters, from its
destruction of the young coco-nut palms, to which it is a pernicious and
persevering, but withal so crafty, a visitor, that it is with difficulty
any trap can be so disguised, or any bait made so alluring, as to lead
to its capture. The usual expedient is to place some of its favourite
food at the extremity of a trench, so narrow as to prevent the porcupine
turning, whilst the direction of his quills effectually bars his
retreat. On a newly planted coco-nut tope, at Hang-welle, within a few
miles of Colombo, I have heard of as many as twenty-seven being thus
captured in a single night; but such success is rare. The more ordinary
expedient is to smoke them out by burning straw at the apertures of
their burrows. The flesh is esteemed a delicacy in Ceylon, and in
consistency, colour, and flavour, it very much resembles that of a young
pig.

[Footnote 1: Hystrix leucurus, _Sykes_.]

V. EDENTATA, _Pengolin._--Of the _Edentata_ the only example in Ceylon
is the scaly ant-eater, called by the Singhalese, Caballaya, but usually
known by its Malay name of _Pengolin_[1], a word indicative of its
faculty of "rolling itself up" into a compact ball, by bending its head
towards its stomach, arching its back into a circle, and securing all by
a powerful fold of its mail-covered tail. The feet of the pengolin are
armed with powerful claws, which they double in in walking like the
ant-eater of Brazil. These they use in extracting their favourite food,
the termites, from ant-hills and decaying wood. When at liberty, they
burrow in the dry ground to a depth of seven or eight feet, where they
reside in pairs, and produce annually one or two young.

[Footnote 1: Manis pentadactyla, _Linn._]

Of two specimens which I kept alive at different times, one from the
vicinity of Kandy, about two feet in length, was a gentle and
affectionate creature, which, after wandering over the house in search
of ants, would attract attention to its wants by climbing up my knee,
laying hold of my leg with its prehensile tail. The other, more than
double that length, was caught in the jungle near Chilaw, and brought to
me in Colombo. I had always understood that the pengolin was unable to
climb trees; b