18.2 Mr. H. Parker's Notes from Ceylon. 



XXIY.— Notes from Ceylon. By H. Parker, F.Z.S. 



The folloAving Notes, which are supplementary to Col. 

 Legge's ' Birds of Ceylon/ deal cliiefly Avith distribution and 

 nidification in the extreme south-east of Ceylon, the dates of 

 the latter being, in many cases, very irregular, considering 

 that the island is only about three-fourths of the size of 

 Ireland. 



Of the places mentioned, Tissa-maharama (Tissa), 20 miles 

 north-east of Hambantota, and 6 miles from the sea, and 

 Ramb-hara Wihara (Ramb.), 9 miles from the sea, in a strip 

 of heavy forest on the banks of the Wallaweganga, are iu 

 South-east Ceylon; while Vil-ankulam (Vil.) is in the south- 

 central part of the Northern Province. The mouths men- 

 tioned are those in which nests have now been found, mostly 

 in addition to the dates previously published. Col. Legge's 

 arrangement and nomenclatu.re are followed. 



Spilornis spilog aster (Blyth). April (Mannar), May 

 (Tissa, yoimg). In the former case an Q^g was lying in the 

 nest without any lining. It is a rather broad oval, 3-39 in. 

 by l-Sl in., and, as may be supposed, it exhibits a decided 

 similarity to the egg of Spizaetus ceylonensis. The shell is 

 rough and lustreless, dull white in ground-colour, thickly 

 sprinkled with underlying spots of pale " brownish lake-red" 

 (according to Syme's 'Werner's Nomenclature of Colours '), 

 large and occasionally almost confluent in the large (or 

 upper) half of the shell, and minute and paler in the other 

 half. Irregularly scattered over these are broken spots and 

 small blotches of '' orange-coloured brown," varying from 

 deep to pale in tone, and decidedly largest and most nume- 

 rous in the upper half of the egg. 



In the latter case, the nest, a substantial structure of 

 sticks, nearly three feet wide, had a slight lining of two or 

 three twigs with quite fresh green leaves on them. These 

 are probably renewed every day. The nest contained a 

 young bird, covered with white down ; its iris was veiy dark 

 grey, almost black ; bill leaden black ; cere leaden, almost 

 as dark as the bill ; feet lemon-yellow ; claws bright black. 



