SOME OF THE COMMONER BIRDS OF CEYLON 



By Caset a. Wood 



[With 9 plates] 



During a residence of nearly 3 years in Ceylon I made many 

 excursions to various parts of that remarkable island chiefly for the 

 purpose of studying its flora and fauna — especially its ornithology. 

 On some of these adventures I was accompanied by informed arche- 

 ologists and naturalists, much to my advantage. Several journeys 

 through forest and jungle were made in company with the well- 

 known Colombo artist, G. M. Henry, who made from live subjects 

 a large number of avian portraits, many of which were loaned by me 

 to the Government and used to illustrate the four volumes issued by 

 it and entitled "Coloured Plates of the Birds of Cejdon." From this 

 source are derived the illustrations in this and other papers by me 

 contributed to the Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The Report for 1934 contains a paper, with five plates, in which I 

 endeavored to describe and portray a few of the more curious and 

 rarer Sinhalese avifauna. This list was confined to indigenous 

 species and, although it by no means exhausts the list of species 

 peculiar to the island, it now occurs to the writer that a brief and 

 illustrated account of some of the commoner Ceylon birds would 

 interest the reader. 



As pointed out in the 1934 report, the Ceylonese avifauna is large. 

 The extreme length and width of the island are only 270 by 137 miles 

 and yet it is accredited with 52 peculiar and over 320 migrant or 

 semimigrant species. Wait, the most reliable modern authority on 

 the subject, tells us that 20 species may be classed as oceanic wander- 

 ers, and only 125 forms are entirely migrant. About 40 of the latter 

 have been recorded on few occasions, but about half of the migrants 

 are common and familiar birds. 



Probably the geographic position (6° north of the Equator) and 

 the resultant climatic conditions of Ceylon have most to do with the 

 great variety and number of its avian species. The many waders and 

 water birds are of course largely accounted for by its insular status, 

 but to this explanation must be added the fact that Ceylon is a land 

 dotted over with thousands of artificial "tanks" and lakes varying in 

 area from a few acres to hundreds of square miles. 



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