DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.643#0221
ISLAND OF CEYLON.
aoi
tie one of thefe animals pendent by the tail, and provoke it till
it emits its deadly faliva on the point of the weapons, which
kill with the flighteft wound. This dreadful reptile feldom at-
tains a foot in length.
The Draco volans*, the animal which bears the dreadful FlyingLizaro.
name of Dragon, is no more than an innocent little lizard, fur-
nifhed with membranes, extending along the fides in form of
wings, with which it makes fhort flights.from tree to tree,
chirruping as it goes. Beneath its chin is a long (lender ap-
pendage ; the tail is very long and flender, but the length of
the whole creature is not more than nine inches; and this is
the only animal that bears really the form feigned by poets and
writers of romance for that of the tremendous dragon.
The infects of Ceylon are of uncommon fizes : fcorpions have Insects.
been found there eight inches long, exclufive of the legs ; Sco-
'lopendra feven inches in length % and of fpiders, the Aranea
•avicularia, Seb* muf. i. tab. 69, with legs four inches long, and
the body covered with thick black hair, a fpecies that makes a
web ftrong enough to entangle the fmaller fpecies of birds, on
which, it feeds.
The hare of Ceylon differs in no refpect from the Englijh hare. Harb.
The crefted porcupine, N° 314, is an animal of this ifland. Porcupine.
A bezoar is fometimes found in its ftomach: the reign of its
pretended Alexipbarmic qualities is now over. Tavernier gave
five hundred crowns for one, which he fold to advantage. It is
* Satnej Vol. ii. tab. 51.
Vol. I.
Dd
a mere
aoi
tie one of thefe animals pendent by the tail, and provoke it till
it emits its deadly faliva on the point of the weapons, which
kill with the flighteft wound. This dreadful reptile feldom at-
tains a foot in length.
The Draco volans*, the animal which bears the dreadful FlyingLizaro.
name of Dragon, is no more than an innocent little lizard, fur-
nifhed with membranes, extending along the fides in form of
wings, with which it makes fhort flights.from tree to tree,
chirruping as it goes. Beneath its chin is a long (lender ap-
pendage ; the tail is very long and flender, but the length of
the whole creature is not more than nine inches; and this is
the only animal that bears really the form feigned by poets and
writers of romance for that of the tremendous dragon.
The infects of Ceylon are of uncommon fizes : fcorpions have Insects.
been found there eight inches long, exclufive of the legs ; Sco-
'lopendra feven inches in length % and of fpiders, the Aranea
•avicularia, Seb* muf. i. tab. 69, with legs four inches long, and
the body covered with thick black hair, a fpecies that makes a
web ftrong enough to entangle the fmaller fpecies of birds, on
which, it feeds.
The hare of Ceylon differs in no refpect from the Englijh hare. Harb.
The crefted porcupine, N° 314, is an animal of this ifland. Porcupine.
A bezoar is fometimes found in its ftomach: the reign of its
pretended Alexipbarmic qualities is now over. Tavernier gave
five hundred crowns for one, which he fold to advantage. It is
* Satnej Vol. ii. tab. 51.
Vol. I.
Dd
a mere