Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Ceylon. 101 



hawk are gradually shifted until one grasps the prey near the 

 gills and the other near the tail, so as to bring the fish into line 

 with its own body, thus offering the smallest surface for the im- 

 pinging of the atmosphere. With a snake or eel the matter is 

 more difficult, and I have often seen the prey free itself from its 

 captor by its strong writhings ; a bite, however, near the head 

 destroys its power, and it is borne away dangling by the neck iu 

 the grasp of its destroyer. 



9. PONTOAETUS ICHTHYAETUS, Horsf. 



I encountered this species in the Wanny, where a pair may be 

 generally found located by any good-sized piece of water. I 

 found many nests in such situations, but believe the season for 

 incubation had not commenced when I visited the locality in 

 April. The eyrie is usually on some towering monarch of the 

 woods overlooking the tank where the parent birds find a suffi- 

 cient store of fish, frogs, and snakes, for themselves and their 

 offspring. 



10. Haliastub Indus, Bodd. Chem prandu, Mai. ; lit. Red 

 Hawk. Brimalgumoitu, Port. 



Common along the whole seaboard of the island, particularly 

 at the mouths of rivers, and in estuaries, preying on carrion, for 

 which it contends with the crows and the black kite {Milvus 

 ater) ; I have known it to seize a fowl, but this is an unusual 

 occurrence. They build in the vicinity of water, making many 

 false nests in the same tree before they finally fix upon one 

 which pleases them ; and whilst the female is incubating, the 

 male occupies one of those fii-st made. The nest, like that of 

 Blagrus leucog aster, is composed of sticks and twigs without any 

 lining. Eggs about 3 inches in length by 1^ in diameter, colour 

 dull dirty white, dotted at the thick end with bloody-coloured, un- 

 equal and uncertain small blotches and spots ; in some instances 

 these spots are nearly black, resembling dry blood. The young, 

 of which there are generally two, are excluded about the first 

 week in February, incubation lasting about three weeks. Before 

 the appearance of their feathers they are covered with a grayish 

 down, and apparently fed with soft reptiles. 



11. Falco peregrinus, Linn. 



This bird is doubtless very rare ; the only three specimens pro- 

 cured I shot in January, on the open plains near Wally Bridge 

 in the Jaffna district. I found them breeding in a palmirah tope 

 on the left-hand side of the road from Jaffna to Pt. Pedro ; the 

 nest, a rough structure of sticks laid on the dead " matties " or 

 fronds of the palmirah, from which the leafy parts had been cut 



