Mr. E. L. Layard's Rambles in Ceylon. 227 



spare guns and baggage, wMch had been sent round by another 

 route (this being Q.'s head-quarters for some time), we took our 

 rifles and went out to look for our dinners : this was soon procured 

 in the shape of a fine young pea-hen, which fell before Q.'s gun. 

 Committing this to the care of the cook, we sallied out again and 

 wandered along the bank to look for footsteps, so as to judge of the 

 game we were likely to meet : this we soon found was large ; elephant 

 tracks of all sizes being abiuidant, and mingled with them, deer, 

 elks, pigs, and bears. Vast numbers of the shells of Uriio margi- 

 nalis, some of very large dimensions, mingled with Ampullaria glauca, 

 Paludina*, and Planorbis*, scattered along the borders of the tank, 

 testified to the good dinners eaten by the Anastomus oscitans, Bonn., 

 which, from this circumstance, is called Gombellu cocku by the 

 Cingalese, Gombellu being the name for shells in general. The 

 Anastomus is not a shy bird, not being eaten by the natives, and 

 many of them were stalking about the swampy margins in company 

 with egrets and the small black-headed ibis, Theskiornis melano- 

 cephalus. Winding round the tank, we beat over all the Chenasi", 

 making occasional entries into the surrounding forest. Returning 

 from one of these inroads, Q. dropt on his knees, uttering the well- 

 known native warning note (which Europeans make use of when 

 vexed as a sign of impatience) : the whole party were instantly flat on 

 the ground, hidden in bushes or tufts of grass, and looking forward, 

 I made out through the bushes a large herd of spotted deer {Axis 

 maeulata) drinking at a water-hole ; before however we could form 

 any plan of operations they were off again, being evidently very wild, 

 and after a fruitless chase of an hour or two, we emerged again on 

 the open field near the tank. One of our men pointed to a hare in 

 its form, and fixing his eyes on it, walked quietly up and secured 

 it ; it proved to be a very young one. At what time of year do 

 these creatures bring forth ? I have had them of the tenderest age 

 during every month in the year. Birds also seem to lay in the same 

 unseasonable manner : I have obtained nests with eggs in every 

 month. The small change of temperature, and the unmarked cha- 

 racter of the summer and winter, so to speak, of the tropics, are also 

 carried out in animated nature within the same limit. I cannot at 

 this moment remember any marked instance of migration, except 

 that of the common swallow, which appears in September, and of 

 Spias Glaucippe and all the species of the genus Callydrias among 

 butterflies ; these, in the months of April and May, may be seen in 

 thousands, generally flying from west to east : the native will tell 

 you that they all go to Adam's Peak, there to die at the shrine of 

 Buddhu. I have not been stationed long enough in any localitv to 

 make a very correct list of migrations, but the following contains a 

 few notes which I have jotted down at various times : — 



* Vide Supplementary notes. 



t Lands periodically cultivated with grain crops and then suffered to lie 

 waste for a certain number of years, during which time low jungle grows 

 up, affording the finest cover and feeding ground for deer, &c. 



15* 



