NOTES. 295 



George Edwards was a well-known naturalist and Fellow of the 

 Royal Society, born 1694, died 1773, the author of " A Natural His- 

 tory of Uncommon Birds and of some Rare and Undescribed Animals. * 

 He did about 900 sketches for it, and drew his birds from life. He 

 had travelled in Europe, but never out of it, so that the specimen of 

 Tersi'phone 'paradisi of which he made this sketch must have been 

 one imported into Europe from Ceylon. I suggest that its importer 

 was Jan Gideon Loten, the retii'ed Dutch Governor of Cejdon 

 (1752-7), who on leaving Ceylon seems to have lived for a time in 

 England, where, in 1765, at Banstead in Surrey, he married an 

 English woman as his second wife. He was " a great lover of birds," 

 and "collected and employed people to procure specimens of species 

 which attracted his notice." If it was not Loten, it was probably 

 the notorious Earl Ferrers, who, " when he was Captain Shirley, 

 had contributed a number of birds captured by him and intended 

 for Madame Pompadour's collection." (See " Notes and Queries " 

 Us. Iv., pp. 150, 190). 



Whether Edwards' book contains sketches of other Ceylon birds 

 I am not at present able to say, but the next member of the Ceylon 

 Natural History Society who happens to visit the British Museum 

 would have an opportunity of ascertaining. 



Walton-by-Clevedon, J. P. LEWIS. 



Somerset, August 5, 1912. 



27. Cave Inscription at Kurunegala. — How amazingly accurate 

 is Sinhalese tradition ! In 1890 Mr. F. H. Modder, in a Paper on 

 " The Animal-shaped Rocks of Kurunegala" (R. A. S., XL), had 

 recorded the fact that according to the popular belief the beauti- 

 fully situated cave of Ahas Lena was formed by Pusba Dewa, 

 nephew of King Devanam Piyatissa. 



Six miles from where the precious Tooth Relic had lain enshrined 

 by the massive base of Eta Gala, where it sinks to rise again in 

 Kuruminiya Gala, on the left hand of the traveller journeying from 

 Kurunegala to Puttalam, commence the forest-clad heights of the 

 Natagane range. Parallel with it runs a second range, which, 

 beginning with the sinuous outline of the Anda Gala, reaches its 

 highest point in the pallid austerity of the Yakdessa crag, from 

 where the hapless Kuweni had invoked the curse of heaven on 

 her faithless lover. A sudden depression in the Natagane range, 

 running north and south, separates it from the Atu Kanda ; and 

 buried within this cleft Ues a deeper hollow of a few acres in extent, 

 the site of Mudu Konda Pola, the Rahas Nuwara of the deified Irugal 

 Bandara. A massive ring of stone encircles the great hollow ; large 

 caves on [the side, rising 30 and 40 feet from the ground level, 

 afford a dry and secure retreat in times of peril ; and here in 1555 the 

 gallant Widiye Bandara, driven from Pelenda ; and repelled from 



