28 SPOLIA ZEYLANTCA. 



hit by a stone, as the left thigh was suffused below the skin and the 

 right tibio-tarsal joint was swollen to about twice the normal size. 



During the succeeding days gray crows continued to arrive 

 singly or in couples until the 8th November, when twenty-six birds 

 were brought in baskets from Crow island ; on the 9th eleven 

 more came, and on the 10th another lot of thirty-seven. 



The full number of birds required had now been collected, and 

 it remained to keep them for some time in galvanized wire cages in 

 order to study their waj's with a view to ascertain the best mode of 

 treating them in captivity. They were fed principally upon 

 cooked rice and raw meat, with occasional insect grubs (which 

 they greedily devoured), jakfruit, and biscuits. 



Perhaps crows as a body are gluttons, but at any rate there are 

 individuals among them who do not care to see their fellows 

 enjoying a meal. Those are apparently the fittest who survive' 

 while their less keen or less hungry companions starve. How- 

 ever this may be, the fact is that during the week following the 

 last arrival chronicled above about twelve crows died of star- 

 vation. 



As time passed on the importance of a plentiful supply of 

 fresh water became increasingly evident. It was also found that 

 they required a certain amount of exposure to the heat of the sun. 

 Deaths were more frequent in one of the aviaries which was 

 constantly shaded beneath a cadjan roof than in the others. It 

 was proved that crows are as much dependent upon air, light, and 

 water as human beings. They delight in bathing their whole 

 bodies and then shaking out their feathers to dry in the sun. 

 They may be seen daily bathing in the Colombo lake. 



All the crows whose blood I examined were infected by micros- 

 copic thread worms or filariae. Occasionally adult nematodes 

 were found in the peritoneal membrane, botli male and female. 

 The females were ovo viviparous and contained innumerable 

 young filariae coiled up inside the egg membranes or free. One 

 crow in particular, which died on 26th November, had nematodes 

 in the peritoneum and vast quantities of filariae in the blood. 

 It seemed not improbable (although I could not prove either 

 conclusion), firstly, that the bird had succumbed to the disease 

 called filariasis ; and secondly, that the filariae of the blood were 

 the progeny of the viviparous nematode worms of the perito- 

 neum.* 



* This 3U{rgestion may serve to call attention to a matter which is worthy of 

 investigation on the part of those interested in such questions. The life-history 

 of nematoda is complicated in various ways, and no simple assertion or suggestion 

 can approuoh the truth, although it might point the way. 



