leus_), which is "sure to be found in attendance on them while
grazing; and the animals seem to know their benefactors, and stand
quietly, while the birds peck their tormentors from their
flanks."--_Mag. Nat. Hist._ p. 111, 1844.]

_Mites_.--The _Trombidium tinctorum_ of Hermann is found about Aripo,
and generally over the northern provinces,--where after a shower of rain
or heavy night's dew, they appear in countless myriads. It is about half
an inch long, like a tuft of crimson velvet, and imparts its colouring
matter readily to any fluid in which it may be immersed. It feeds on
vegetable juices, and is perfectly innocuous. Its European
representative, similarly tinted, and found in garden mould, is commonly
called the "Little red pillion."

MYRIAPODS.--The certainty with which an accidental pressure or unguarded
touch is resented and retorted by a bite, makes the centipede, when it
has taken up its temporary abode within a sleeve or the fold of a dress,
by far the most unwelcome of all the Singhalese assailants. The great
size, too (little short of a foot in length), to which it sometimes
attains, renders it formidable; and, apart from the apprehension of
unpleasant consequences from a wound, one shudders at the bare idea of
such hideous creatures crawling over the skin, beneath the innermost
folds of one's garments.

At the head of the _Myriapods_, and pre-eminent from a
superiorly-developed organisation, stands the genus _Cermatia_:
singular-looking objects; mounted upon slender legs, of gradually
increasing length from front to rear, the hind ones in some species
being amazingly prolonged, and all handsomely marked with brown annuli
in concentric arches. These myriapods are harmless, excepting to
woodlice, spiders, and young cockroaches, which form their ordinary
prey. They are rarely to be seen; but occasionally at daybreak, after a
more than usually abundant repast, they may be observed motionless, and
resting with their regularly extended limbs nearly flat against the
walls. On being disturbed they dart away with a surprising velocity, to
conceal themselves in chinks until the return of night.

[Illustration: CERMATIA.]

But the species to be really dreaded are the true _Scolopendrae_, which
are active and carnivorous, living in holes in old walls and other
gloomy dens. One species[1] attains to nearly the length of a foot, with
corresponding breadth; it is of a dark purple colour, approaching black,
with