294 Mr. Blyth on the Ornithology of Ceylon. 



XVII. — The Ornithology of Ceylon. — A Supplement to Dr. Jer- 

 don's ' Birds of India.' By Edward Blyth^ late Curator 

 of the Museum of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, Hon. 

 Mem. As. Soc. 



My object in drawing up this paper, containing an enumera- 

 tion of the Cinghalese species, which do not find admission to 

 Dr. Jerdon's ' Birds of India,' is to supply what I conceive to 

 be a desideratum to students of ornithology alike in Southern 

 India and in Ceylon, — to the former lest they should be led to 

 describe any of them that they might meet with as new species, 

 and to the latter in order to complete their information re- 

 specting the birds inhabiting the island, so far as at present 

 known, in addition to the species which they will find described 

 by Dr. Jerdon. My friend Mr. Layard has not left much for 

 his successors to glean in the low country; but I believe that 

 many species have yet to be discovered in the mountain-region, 

 as also in the southernmost hill-districts of India, and that many 

 more species will be found to be common to the two ranges of 

 territory than we are at present aware of. In the class of Mam- 

 malia, I found a Ceylon example of Felis ruhiginosa in the Bel- 

 fast Museum, and one of Sciurus layardi, from South Malabar, 

 in the Worcester Museum ; and I have seen three specimens of 

 Sciurus macrurus, the common large Squirrel of the lower 

 elevations of Ceylon, from the Nilgiris and other mountains of 

 Southern India. My late friend Dr. Kelaart was no sports- 

 man or gunner, and ornithology was a very subordinate branch 

 of his researches into the natural history of the island ; but his 

 residence at Newera Elia led to the discovery of several conspicu- 

 ous species ; and it cannot be supposed but that many more re- 

 main to reward the investigations of an energetic ornithologist in 

 tliat vicinity alone. I supply brief descriptions wherever necessary, 

 as those already published are inaccessible to the generality of 

 ornithological students. 



'a' 



1. Pal^eornis calthrapje, Blyth ; J. A. S. B. xviii, p. 800, 

 1849 ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1854, xiii. p. 263 ; Hartlaub, 

 Journ. f. Orn. 1854, p. 158; P. gironieri, Verrcaux, Rev. Zool. 



