Birds in Southern Ceylon. 15 



Loriculus indicus, is exceedingly numerous^ extending from 

 the sea-coast, where it fi'cquents cocoa-nut plantations, 

 through the populated districts of the interior of the province, 

 to the mountains, where its numbers diminish considerably. 

 This is the reverse of what is the case in the central province 

 and the intervening country between that and the west coast. 

 It breeds in holes in the trunks of the " kitool,^' a sugar- 

 palm, and feeds much on the " toddy " extracted from the 

 flower of the tree. It becomes drugged with this substance, 

 and numbers are caught by the natives, who bring them into 

 the Fort of Galle for sale. 



Yungipicus gymnophthalmus , Chrysocolaptes stricklandi, Bra- 

 chypternus ceylonus, and Chrysophlegma chlorophanes form 

 my list of Woodpeckers. The first named and Brachypternus 

 ceylonus may be said to have their head quarters here ; they 

 are found (the latter in great numbers in the maritime cocoa- 

 nut districts) throughout the lowlands up to the Morowa- 

 Korle mountains, where, however, they become scarcer than 

 at a less elevation. Ch. stricklandi, exclusively a denizen of 

 gloomy forests, extends from the Singha-Rajah hills down to 

 the jungles in the vicinity of Baddegamme, the mission- station 

 near Galle. I have observed it very much on small trees, 

 searching for its food ; in the distance it would be taken for 

 Brachypternus ceylonus, were it not for its different note and 

 peculiar erratic movements while ascending the tree. The lat- 

 ter mounts up steadily a foot or two at a time, while Layard's 

 Woodpecker is up and down, first to one side and then the 

 other, with a little short jerky movement, which, to my mind, 

 is sufiicient to distinguish it. Of the Barbets of the south, 

 Megalaima zeylonica and XanthulcBma rubricapilla are numer- 

 ous in the lowlands, and extend up to about 1500 feet in the 

 hills. Cyanops flavifrons is very abundant in the Singha- 

 Rajah hiUs and neighbouring districts along the upper Gin- 

 durah ; it is likewise found in the low country not far from 

 Galle wherever there is high forest ; and there it frequents 

 invariably the tops of the tallest trees, uttering its monoto- 

 nous notes for hours together. It breeds in August. 



Cuckoos are tolerably well represented here. Cuculus son- 



