264 Mr. B. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Ceyloti:' 



or hollow tree. The eggs, commonly four in number, ate*' 

 bright blue, thickly spotted with brown at the obtuse end. The 

 food is insects of all kinds, and in all stages, captured on the 

 ground and on trees. They have a variety of notes, and the 

 song poured out in the fulness of their joy in the pairing season 

 is very pleasing. On the top of a towering cotton-tree, opposite 

 my last residence in Colombo, a magpie robin daily for some 

 weeks charmed me with his song, whilst his mate sat brooding 

 her eggs, or callow nestlings, in the roof of a native hut beneath 

 him. One morning, after the young had left their cradle and be- 

 taken themselves to the neighbouring compounds, I was attracted 

 by cries of distress from various birds and squirrels, and above 

 all I heard the seemingly plaintive mewing of a cat. 1 had no 

 living specimen of the last in my museum, so wondering what 

 could be the matter, went into my garden to see. I found the 

 mewing proceeded from my friends the robins, who were furiously 

 attacking something in a bush, whilst the birds and squirrels 

 screamed iia concert. There 1 found one of the young robins, 

 whose plumage by the way at that early age much resembles 

 that of the European bird, being brown speckled with yellow, 

 caught as I thought in the tendrils of a creeper ; I put out my 

 hand to release it, when to my surprise I saw the glittering eyes 

 of the green whip snake {Trimesurus viridis, Lacep.), in whose 

 fangs the bird was struggling. I seized the reptile by the neck 

 and rescued the bird, but too late ; it lay panting in my hand for 

 a few moments, then fluttered and died. On skinning it I found 

 no wound, except on the outer joint of the wing by which it had 

 been seized, and am confident that fear alone deprived it of life. 

 A favourite attitude of this species is standing, with the tail 

 elevated over the back, either perpendicularly or thrown so much 

 forward as to nearly touch the head, the wings drooping; in this 

 position they only utter a low note. Swainson has described as 

 Gryllivora rosea a bird of this species ; it is probably nothing 

 more than one whose feathers were stained by the dust of om- red 

 kabook soil. During the long diy season some of our birds be- 

 come 80 discoloured with this that they are useless as specimens. 



80. COPSYCHUS MACROURUS, Gmel, 



The first time that I fell in with this exquisite songster will 

 ever be impressed on my memory as connected with the 

 beauties of tropical sceneiy. I amved at Kandy one evening, 

 and started the next morning collecting, and by chance took the 

 road round the hill at the back of the Pavilion, called '*'Lady 

 Horton's Walk." A few birds, which though common there, 

 were rare in the Southern Province, had rewarded my labour. 



