32 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA, 



As regards birds which nest in holes in trees, I have not as 

 yet very much to offer in the way of conjecture. Legge, in the 

 passage Avhich I quoted above, stated that both Barbets and 

 Woodpeckers were early breeders in the Western Province, 

 but that is not my experience in the North-Central Province. 

 There the Barbets, which are fruit-eaters, breed early and 

 appear to have several broods in the season. The Wood- 

 peckers, insect-feeders, breed fairly late, and appear to have 

 only one brood. Quite possibly the food supply of the 

 Woodpeckers becomes abundant only late in the season. 



Personall5^ I know practically nothing about the breeding 

 season in the wet zone and up-country, and I should very 

 much like to know whether there too the different species breed 

 at different times of the year, and whether the differences can 

 be traced to the same causes which I have endeavoured to 

 explain as influencing the nesting seasons in those parts of the 

 Island with which I am more familiar. 



We want notes and observations taken in all parts of Ceylon, 

 and in the hope of inducing some more naturalists to take up 

 this branch of ornithology I should like to conclude my Paper 

 with some hints on the finding of nests and the collection of 

 eggs. 



Often when I have been showing my eggs people have 

 remarked " But where do you find them ? " "I used to collect 

 eggs when I was a boy, and I have been in the jungle a good 

 bit, but I seldom come across any nests." 



I think there is something in what they say. Out here, 

 birds have many more enemies to guard against than at home, 

 and the nesting area available is so much larger that nests are 

 not so easily spotted. 



Instead of the obvious hedge-row and the comparatively 

 limited copse or wood, there is limitless jimgle. However, 

 one gradually learns how and where to look, and the process 

 of learning is a splendid training for the powers of observation. 



Nearly all birds give their nests away by their behaviour ; 

 and one leams to watch for the signs by which they do this. 

 A good many sitting birds wait imtil one is quite close, and 

 then start off in such a flurried way that the^- betray them- 

 selves. If a Bulbul or Cinnamon Thrush bolts out of a bush 



