DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN CEYLON. 21 
five species belong to genera common to Ceylon and Malabar, 
but rare or wanting in the Carnatic. 
The Game Birds—Gallinee—tell almost the same tale. With 
the exception of the Quails, some of which are migrants, they 
are generally birds with a local distribution. The Peacock— 
Pawo cristatus—at present is practically confined to the drier 
scrub jungle tracts of the north, east, and south-east of the 
Island, but the Sinhalese name for the bird enters into place 
names, such as Monara-gala and Monara-natana-hena (the 
chena where the peacock dances), in localities where the bird 
is no longer found. It may be a Carnatic invader, or as the 
bird is so often kept for show, it may have been introduced in 
historic times by human agency. 
Our Jungle Cock—Gallus lafayetti—is peculiar to Ceylon, 
but has spread all over the Island. Its nearest ally—G. son- 
nerati—ocecurs both in the Malabar and Carnatic tracts, but I 
do not think it is found on the sandy tracts on the Rames- 
waram side of Adam’s Bridge. 
Our Spur Fowl—Galloperdiz bicalcarata—occurs chiefly in the 
south of the Island. On the south-east coast a few stragglers 
wander right down to the sandy seashore, but on the northern 
side it stops within a short distance of the foothills south of 
Dambulla. An allied species is found in South India. 
Our Quails are fairly widely distributed, but all are rather 
rare or sporadically scattered here and there through the low- 
country. The Common Bustard Quail—Turnia pugnax—is 
not a true Quail, but belongs to another order. Francolinus 
pictus—the Painted Partridge—has a peculiar local distri- 
bution, being found only on the Uva patanas, and from thence 
eastward to the low-country by Nilgala and Bibile. F. pondi- 
cerianus—the Gray Partridge—is confined to the northern 
scrub tract. It is unknown on the Malabar coast south of 
Bombay, but ranges through the Carnatic to Afghanistan. 
With the order Grallz, which comprises the Rails, we enter 
upon the vast assemblage of water birds, waders, and birds 
of the shore or of inland sandy tracts. 
These water birds include in their ranks the larger number 
of our migrants, and the resident species and genera are 
mostly widely diffused. Most of them are found all over 
