Sabaragamuwa Province, Ceylon. 339 



on which I have found large assemblages of birds of one 

 species within one isolated area. These occasions^ however, 

 were not at those periods when the outward migration was 

 commenced, but rather on the contrary. I will, in its proper 

 place, again refer to this fact in its relation to migratory as 

 well as endemic species. 



The influence of vegetation in relation to the fluctuation 

 of migration is also obvious, and I will take four types of 

 country as illustrating this : — First, the dry forest-land within 

 the minimum rainfall limit ; second, the wet forests within 

 the maximum rainfall limit; third, the grass- or patina-land 

 limit; and fourth, the swampy and bush-land limit. 



The first of these, of course excluding Waders, includes 

 the greatest number of species, embracing migrants and 

 residents and a proportion of endemic species, in contra- 

 distinction to birds that are resident but not indigenous. 

 The wet forests produce a certain number more of resident 

 and endemic species than the dry forests. The grass- 

 country is distinctly specific in distribution, and swampy and 

 bush country may be said to exhaust the families of Waders 

 and supplement their numbers by a few endemic and a large 

 proportion of the resident and migratory species. 



It would be out of place here to attempt to give anything 

 like a description of the botanical aspect and features of 

 such a province as Sabaragamuwa, but I would draw atten- 

 tion to the fact that the fruiting of certain trees at regular 

 intervals in the year, and again of others at periods separated 

 by years of interval, bring about corresponding times within 

 which the increase of certain frugivorous birds can be dis- 

 tinctly traced to this cause. For example, the fruiting of 

 the banyan- tree will gather multitudes of Barbets and 

 Pigeons, while the seeding of a gregarious Strobilanthes in 

 the highest hills brings the Jungle-fowl [Gallus lafayetti) 

 in the greatest abundance where before they were only 

 occasionally seen. 



The valleys of the larger rivers appear to mark the ranges 

 of certain species, and in this particular I find the most 

 restricted to be Merops swlnhoii and Carpophaga (snea, not, 



