BREEDING SEASONS OF CEYLON BIRDS. 21 



NOTES ON THE EGGS, NESTS, AND BREEDING SEASONS 

 OF SOME CEYLON BIRDS. 



By W. E. Wait, M.A. 



A T the last meeting of our Society, Mr. Green gave us a 

 -^-*- most suggestive Paper indicating the hnes on which we 

 should work, with some hints of the many problems which 

 awaited solution in all the branches of our faima, even in those 

 in which most research had been accomphshed. 



This evening, I wish to follow up Mr. Green's suggestion as 

 regards one particular subject by giving some notes based on 

 my collection of birds' eggs. They will only serve to show 

 how much remains to be done before our knowledge of the 

 nesting and breeding of birds in Ceylon can be said even to 

 approach completion. 



Thirty years ago Legge, in his magnificent volume on the 

 " Birds of Ceylon," worked out the occurrence and distribution 

 of our Avifauna so thoroughly that not more than a dozen 

 new species have been added since his time ; and most of these 

 additions are mere chance visitors. Legge, however, himself 

 admits in his introduction how incomplete was his knowledge 

 concerning the nidification of many of the species. Again 

 and again , in his description of resident species , he states that 

 the nest and eggs had not yet been discovered in the Island. 



In his day, among aur Ceylon Ornithologists, there were 

 several keen egg-collectors to whom he often refers. I may 

 mention the names of Mr. Mc Vicar of the Survey Department, 

 Mr. Bligh of Haputale, and Mr. Parker, late of the Irrigation 

 Department. The last-named wrote a Paper giving an account 

 of many Ceylon eggs in one of the parts of " Stray Feathers." 

 He corresponded with Hume and Legge, and I believe he has 

 a magnificent collection of Ceylon eggs. I can only hope that 

 when he has finished his book on Ceylonese folk-lore he will 

 give us a volume on Ceylon Oology, It is badly needed, as 

 since Legge's time practically nothing on the subject has 

 appeared in print easily accessible to readers in the Island. 



* Read before the Ceylon Natui-al History Society, December 17, 1912. 



