30 Lieut. W. V. Lcggc on the Distributiun of 



busily discussing the denizens of the tidal-flats of the great 

 salt lagoonSj I have often thought that this little chap must 

 be gifted with an exeeedingly bad temper. How he screams 

 and pipes in the most off'ended of tones when he is disturbed ! 

 How he still gives vent to his rage after he has alighted again, 

 till he is finally appeased by the glad sight of some hapless 

 struggling sand- worm and relapses into silence ! I know of 

 but one instance of a large Stork being seen on the inland 

 marshes of this district ; and that must have been Ciconia 

 episcopus, Bodd. Ardea piirpurea is numerous in parts, such 

 as in the vicinity of the large lake at Amblangodde and in 

 like situations near Matm'a ; but it is very local in its distri- 

 bution. Herodias egrettoides is plentiful in parts, but not H. 

 garzetta, which is a northern bird. Contrary to Layard^s ex- 

 perience, I find thai Ardeola leucoptera and Buphus coromandus 

 breed in colonics by themselves, and not in company with 

 other Egrets. They are both very numerous about the swamps 

 and saltish lagoons of the hilly district under consideration, 

 and nest in the months of May and June, A. leucoptera 

 choosing our island in preference to other localities. In a 

 large colony which I visited on Kogalle Lake, a sheet of water 

 some ten miles from Galle, I found most nests to contain two 

 or three eggs, a few only having four. They were small for 

 the size of the bird, averaging 1" 7'" by 1" 2'"; but they vary 

 very much in dimensions ; they are in some instances exceed- 

 ingly round for the eggs of a Heron. The young nestlings 

 just fledged have the bill fleshy red, the tarsi and feet bright 

 pea-green, the head and back of neck dark brown, with buff 

 mesial lines, and the neck buff, with broad brown margins. 

 They perch and cling to the branches with great cleverness 

 when only a day or two old. The nests were placed in a low, 

 bushy, swamp-loving tree, called in the vernacidar, " cadool " 

 {Rhizaphora mucronata) , and arc very small, resembling large 

 Pigeons^ nests more than those of Herons. Ardetta cinna- 

 momea is common here ; but A. flavicollis is only now and then 

 met with in the north-east monsoon. Hydrophasianus chi- 

 rurgus is numerovxs in some of our fresh-water inland swamps, 

 birds being often found in October in what is called in Indian 



