26 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
ice. Many of the animals and birds would have been driven 
south to a warmer climate, and some of the temperate Hima- 
layan types appear to have penetrated as far south as the hills 
of Southern India and Ceylon. 
Our noticeable Himalayan birds number about a dozen, viz., 
Cissa ornata (the Ceylon Magpie), Hulabes religiosa and 
E. ptilogenys (the two Hill Mynahs), Acmonorhyncus vincens 
(Legge’s Flower-pecker), Cyanops flavifrons (the Yellow- 
fronted Barbet), Hurystomus orientalis (the Broad-billed 
Roller), Melittophagus swinhowi (the Chestnut-headed Bee- 
eater), Collocalia unicolor (the Indian Edible-nest Swiftlet), 
Batrachostomus moniliger (the Frogmouth), Loriculus indicus 
(the Ceylon Parroquet), Photodilus assimilis (the Ceylon Bay 
Owl), Huhua nepalensis (the Forest Eagle Owl), and Chal- 
cophaps indica (the Bronze-wing Pigeon). 
It must be borne in mind that this ‘“‘ Himalayan dozen ” 
represents the small band of survivois from a considerably 
larger immigration. 
Now, over half of these surviving species are birds of weak 
powers of flight, to whom a wide arm of the sea would prove 
an exceedingly formidable barrier. It is quite possible, 
therefore, that when the onset of the glacial epoch drove the 
temperate Himalayan species southwards, Ceylon was con- 
nected with the Malabar coast, or not separated by any 
serious barrier. 
What was the nature of this connection ? 
The sea now lying between the Ceylonese ‘‘ Malabar tract ”’ 
and the Malabar coast is fairly wide and of a considerable 
depth. There is a shallow submerged plateau fringing the 
Ceylon coast off Colombo, and a similar plateau on the Indian 
side. But these plateaux are of no great width, and between 
them lies a deep sea basin. In fact, a few miles from each 
shore the water suddenly deepens from a few fathoms to 500 
fathoms or more, and this depression reaches north to within 
a few miles of Adam’s Bridge. 
If we are to maintain that the connection during the glacial 
period was formed by a continuous land surface, say, from 
Colombo to Tuticorin, we must postulate that this sea floor 
was then over 3,000 feet higher than now ; and also to prevent 
