Mr. E. W. H. Holdsworth on Ceylonese Birds. 123 



In my catalogue of the birds of Ceylon* I called attention 

 to the migration of many of the resident species from one side 

 of the island to the other at the times of the change of the 

 monsoons, and also of some of the birds of the upper hills 

 being met with periodically as low down as the neighbour- 

 hood of Kandy, at an elevation of only 1500 or 1600 feet, 

 which is about the highest range of the general low-country 

 species. The hill-birds Mr. Legge mentions as being found 

 in the lower part of the southern hills, are just the same 

 species which, at only certain seasons, are met with at corre- 

 sponding elevations near Kandy ; and the question is whether 

 the same rule does not hold good in both cases — namely, that 

 just at the change of the monsoons, when there is a general 

 break-up of the weather, followed by a complete reversal of 

 the direction of the wind, the hill-birds temporarily descend 

 to lower districts. The most remarkable instance of what 

 has been hitherto considered a purely hill-species being found 

 by Mr. Legge very low down on the small ranges near the 

 sea, is Chrysocolaptes stricklandi. This bird is resident in 

 the country between 4000 and 8000 feet (the latter being the 

 highest elevation in the island) ; and I have met with it most 

 abundantly at about 6000 or 7000 feet, and, more or less, at 

 all times of the year. Unfortunately, Mr. Legge rarely gives 

 any hint as to the time of year when he has obtained the hill- 

 species in the lower districts of which he speaks. A specimen 

 of this Woodpecker, however, which he sent home for iden- 

 tification, and which came under my notice, was labelled as 

 having been killed in March; and that is just the month, 

 between the monsoons, when many of the hill-birds are met 

 with about Kandy. It looks, therefore, in this case, as if the 

 bird may have been only a visitor. 



Among other species resident in the highest parts of the 

 island, and which Mr. Legge found at only 2000 feet, are 

 Myialestes cinereocapilla and Eumyias sordida, and Zosterops 

 ceylonensis as low as 1500. The first is, I believe, a hiU- 

 species in India, but descending to the plains in many places 

 during winter ; the other two are not known out of Ceylon, 

 * P. Z. S. 1872. 



