140 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
Wallawe valley below Kaltotta, and from there it spreads into 
the Tangalla District, and again at Tellijjawella and Henegama 
in the Matara District, where the rainfall exceeds 100 inches 
per annum. Briefly, therefore, it is to be found both in the 
dry and wet zones. It breeds at sea level, and at over 3,500 
feet it is common in“ park” country as well as in“ chena ” 
country. I am not acquainted with a more remarkable 
distribution—remarkable for its contradictions—of any Ceylon 
land bird. 
Of the Woodpeckers—Pici— both Chrysocolaptes stricklandi 
and Brachypternus erythronotus—are common in the Vedda 
country, but chiefly in damp forest areas, where owing to the 
presence of moisture the trees are large. Away from the 
damp forests the little Lyngipicus gmnophthalmus is common 
right to the coast at Kumuna. 
At Galamuna, on the Kumbukkan river, I secured a Brachy- 
pternus that may prove to be a new species. It resembles 
erythronotus, except that the inner hind toe is only rudimen- 
tary, forming only a minute dactyle projection, terminating in 
an apiculate point that serves as a claw. My example—an 
adult  —measured 104 in. in length: wing 54 in., tail 34 in., 
bill (along ridge) 1} in., tarsus 1 in. Unfortunately the skin 
of this bird got destroyed, so that I have been unable to 
compare it with Museum examples. 
I have already hinted that the presence or absence of water 
governs the question of human distribution within the area 
under consideration, and I venture to think that the same 
applies, in some particulars, to the distribution of birds ; thus, 
for instance, the common Black Crow (Corvus macrorynchus) 
occurs only where there are villages ; nowhere did I find it in 
uninhabited forest areas. It was equally common at Kumuna 
on the sea coast and at Muppane—far inland—in a hilly 
country. The same might, with some curious exceptions, 
be said of our Sparrow, that I noticed was common at Pottuvil, 
Panawa, and Okanda on the east coast, but was absent at 
Kumuna, and equally absent from many of the smaller villages 
in the interior of the Vedda country. 
The drying up for several months of the year of most of the 
streams naturally causes a restricted distribution among the 
