Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Ceylon. 169 



cave late (after 5 p.m.) ia the evening of a day which threatened 

 rain, but the old birds were still flying round the summit of the 

 mountain, at a vast altitude, occasionally dashing down into the 

 cave with food for their nestlings. By daylight next morning I 

 was on foot, but the birds were before me, hawking on the plain 

 below, and all about the hills : I have found the birds here in 

 Colombo, in Kandy, and all along the road we went. I could 

 learn nothing of the number of eggs laid, nor of their colour. I 

 found one bird in each nest. The Chinese who live on the spot 

 pretend not to understand anything asked them, and the apa- 

 thetic Cingalese have never taken the trouble to see for them- 

 selves, so they could give me no information. The aspect of the 

 country, broken and rugged, coupled with the numerous flocks 

 of birds I saw flying round the various hills, lead me to think 

 there must be many breeding places yet undiscovered. One, 

 however, was pointed out, but we had not time to visit it. I 

 could not hear of any other kind of swift breeding there, but 

 have just received such information as leads me to suppose that 

 C.fuciphaga builds near Jafi"na on some rocks overhanging the 

 sea. I may further add, that there were no bats in the cave with 

 C. nidifica, nor did I see any bird of prey, save a fine Hcematornis, 

 which I shot. The Cingalese name for C. nidifica is Wahalcma." 

 On this letter Mr. Blyth remarks : — 



" The specimens sent by Mr. Layard are perfectly identical in 

 species with those from Darjiling, &c., and measure 4| to 4| in. 

 long, of which the outer tail-feathers measure 2 to 2^ in. ; ex- 

 panse of wings lOi to lOi in., and closed wing 4| to 4^ in. The 

 gastric glands, as in C. fuciphaga, present no trace of the struc- 

 ture figured by Sir E. Home. The nests sent difi'er remarkably 

 from those of C. fuciphaga, in being partly composed of grass 

 stems worked in with layers of the mucus, and one of the two 

 has some moss fixed to the outside. Hence they correspond with 

 the descriptions of the nest of the Linchi or Lintge of Java, or 

 C. fuciphaga, the nest of which is without any such intermixture, 

 and no doubt the misrepresentations of the gatherers have led to 

 the mistake. As regards the activity of the birds, early and late, 

 the requirements of the young at the particular period might 

 sufficiently account for it, only that Capt. Lewis also found the 

 other species with young in the Nicobars, and the habit of re- 

 tiring early may prove characteristic of C. fuciphaga*-." 



To this I have little to add, save that 1 have traced the birds 

 up to Anarajahpoora, and doubt not they breed among the rocks 

 in that neighbourhood. I may remark that I only found single 



* From a paper by Mr. Blyth printed for private circulation. Calcutta^ 

 1849. 



Ann. £(• Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xii. 12 



