I 



Mr. E. L. Layard's Rambles in Ceylon. 397 



now dragging through a river, and now jumpkg over a fallen tree ; 

 we have not had an upset — not broken a trace. 



On the 8th, the river being passable, we recrossed and came on to 

 Maddewatchy, previously mounting to the top of the Mehintally hill, 

 to have a last look at the glorious scenery, and to try and find more of 

 the singular little Streptaxis^T , one live specimen of which rewarded 

 my toil ; it measures— axis 3 Imes ; diameter 5^ from the centre of 

 the apex to outside of the peritreme, 3f hues continuing the line 

 across to the other side; the length is only 1^ line more. Colour 

 corneous ; shell semidiaphanous, sHghtly striated at the suture ; 

 mouth lunulate ; lip reflected, notched posteriorly at the junction 

 with the body-whorl, hp with one single tooth. Animal hvid : found 

 under stones. 



On the 9th we made Vavonia Vlancolom, and on the 10th Tram- 

 bacolom, stopping at Oenandie, where is a fine tank, on which I shot 

 a specimen of Threskiornis melanocephalus, and a fine wild pig ; we 

 also found many deer, but missed them. At Trambacolom we wan- 

 dered about and found abundance of deer, pigs, and peafowl, and I 

 got the nest of Alcippe nigrifrons (Blyth), one of my new species. 

 It was built in a low thorny bush, and composed of grasses woven 

 together in a dome, with the entrance near the top ; eggs two in num- 

 ber (quite fresh), white slightly freckled with pink spots. 



On our return home we found Muttu had shot three fine specimens 

 of Buceros pica, and as he had only the little collecting gun and half 

 its usual charge (or one-eighth of an ounce of shot), two of the birds 

 were alive; one of them however died that night, the other is alive now. 

 If it falls oif its perch, it catches itself by its bill and raises itself like 

 a parrot ; we feed it with raw meat, and hope it will live. When 

 resting on the ground the whole tarsus is employed to support the 

 body, but on a thick branch they sit very upright ; one of them 

 bit a Cooly, and I really believe would have taken the finger off 

 had I not caught hold of his mandibles, which required great force 

 to open ; the man's finger was cut to the bone on each side. On the 

 11th we got to Kanagariencolom, where there is a tolerable rest- 

 house. Here the road begins to show the sand of the northern 

 peninsula and the soil is full of iron pyrites. 



On the 1 2th we came on to Ambamani, where we foimd the rest- 

 house without any walls and only partially roofed ; turning out the 

 cattle we found in it, we took possession. In the evening, as usual, 

 we went out shooting, looking for elephants and deer — lesser spe- 

 cimens there are none; I got one deer and G. a pea- fowl.' Next 

 morning (the 1 3th) we came on to Vattaketchy, where there is a good 

 rest-house on the edge of a paddy-field, consequently it is nicely 

 cool. I bagged another deer and nearly had an adventure with a 

 cheeta while returning home by moonlight ; he however let us pass 

 unmolested. 



The next morning (the 14th) we shot our way to Elephant Pass, 



'^ Streptaxis Layardiana, Bens. MSS. A second tridentate species, 

 Str. Cingalensis, Bens. MSS., from Howagam Corle, has since been received 

 from Mr. Layard. 



