310 Mr. Blyth on Ceylon Ornithology. 



A Ceylon specimen is described by Dr. Jerdon (B. Ind. iii. 

 p. 725), and the Orissa race (P. amauroptera, nobis) indi- 

 cated. "These birds arrive in the south of Ceylon in great 

 numbers in the months of October and November, coming in 

 with the first northerly wind which blows (whence their Dutch 

 name) [" Nordewind"] . They drop exhausted, as if from a long 

 flight, in the streets and houses, and conceal themselves till 

 recovered from their fatigues. I found one in the well of my 

 carriage, another in the folds of the gig apron, and a third in a 

 shoe under my bed ! The irides are of a lovely yellow and 

 carmine blended, the yellow forming a circle nearest the pupil. 

 Some eggs were given me by a native as the eggs of this bird, 

 which were precisely similar in all respects, save that of size, to 

 those of the Gallinula phoenicura. Axis 13 lines, diam. 10 lines " 

 (Layard, torn. cit. p. 267). Of course these birds must have 

 migrated from the mainland of India ; but still they differ from 

 the Orissa race already mentioned. 



Mr. Layard remarks that, in Ceylon, " Birds seem to lay in 

 an unseasonable manner : I have obtained nests with eggs in 

 every month. The small change of temperature and the un- 

 marked character of the summer and winter, so to speak^ of the 

 tropics [or rather of the medial intertropical belt and its vicinity] 

 are also carried out in animated nature within the same limit. 

 I cannot at the moment remember any marked instance of 

 migration [he had perhaps not then known that of Porzana 

 zeylonica], except that of the common swallow, which appears 

 in September, and of Spias fflaucippe and all the species of the 

 genus Callidryas among butterflies; these, in the months of 

 April and May, may be seen in thousands, flying fi'om west to 

 east : the natives will tell you that they all go to Adam's Peak, 

 there to die at the shrine of Buddhu. * * * 



" It is difficult to draw the line between those birds which 

 actually leave the island and those that only change their 

 residence to breed or procure abundance of food. All the ducks, 

 I believe, are migratory (except perhaps the little Nettapus coro- 

 mandelianus, Gmel.) [and Dendrocyyyia arcuata] ; they arrive at 

 Ft. Pedro about October and November, but much depends on 

 the lateness of the season, and some species are not found at 



