334 Mr. F. Lewis on the Land-birds of 



XXXI. — Field-notes on the Land-birds of Sabarapamuwa 

 Province, Ceylon. By Frederick Lewis, A.C.F. Ceylon, 

 F.L.S. 



Before proceeding to enter into the more minute details of 

 this paper, it may not be out of place to give a short general 

 description of the province of Sabaragamuwa, so that the 

 readers of ' The Ibis ' may more fully be able to picture to 

 themselves the character of the country in which the birds 

 described are to be found. 



Briefly, the province contains very nearly the greatest 

 range of altitude in Ceylon, and if Pidurutalagalla, our most 

 lofty mountain, be excluded, this general statement is more 

 nearly correct, as Sabaragamuwa extends from about 50 

 feet above sea-level to close on 7200 feet. In this wide 

 variation of altitude there is, naturally, wide variation in 

 temperature. Not only does the thermal variation show 

 wide differences, but the rainfall is still more variable, for it 

 ranges from, roughly speaking, 40 inches at Embelipitiye in 

 the dry zone, in the east, to close on 300 inches in the valley 

 of the Kuruganga, within the influence of Adam^s Peak. 



Amid such rapid variations, both of temperature, altitude, 

 and humidity, a still more changeable state of soil and vege- 

 tation is met with. In the hot and dry flat country — the 

 Bintenna of the Singalese — a rich soil is found. In the wet 

 steaming forests, within the limit of the high rainfall, the 

 soil is sandy, poor, and usually shallow, while up in the high 

 altitudes the forest-clad hill-ranges are frequently broken by 

 long open stretches of grass- or ''patina ''-land. The presence 

 of these patina-lands is not clearly accounted for, and 

 various theories have been put forward to explain why there 

 should be a hard-and-fast line between high forest and short 

 grass ; but though some of the explanations are distinctly 

 plausible, they do not answer all the conditions of the 

 problem. I may here state that patina-land is not the 

 exclusive characteristic of the hill-country, but its occurrence 

 has an undoubted effect on the distribution of the birds, and 

 as such forms an important factor. Not only so, but the 



