On Nidification and Migration in Ceylon. 191 



XXI. — Observations on Early Nidification and Migration in 

 North-ioest Ceylon. By H. Parker, C.E., F.Z.S. 



The district of Mannar, in the nortli-west of Ceylon, consists 

 chiefly of a somewhat triangular extent of low-lying plain, 

 stretching north and south of the town of Mannar. The 

 coast-line forms the base (about 45 miles long) of the tri- 

 angle, which is a very flat one, its apex being only about 

 13 miles from the coast. The district is hemmed in by 

 almost impenetrable low forest, out of which several streams 

 and rivers flow through the plain into the sea. Though often 

 full in the wet season, they are all empty, with the exception 

 of a few scattered pools, during the dry months. 



The plain, and more especially its central portion, is studded 

 with village reservoirs, or '^tanks,'^ which have extensive 

 paddy-fields below them, the remaining ground being covered 

 with a more or less dense growth of thorny jungle from 12 to 

 20 feet high. In all, there are some J 30 of these tanks in 

 the district. The fall of the land towards the sea is so slig-ht 

 that, although the depth of the tanks near the embankments 

 is only from three to eight feet, the areas vary from 20 to 

 400 acres. The shallower parts of these sheets of water are 

 filled during the wet season with tall sedge and weeds, the 

 latter sometimes extending almost up to the embankments. 

 In most cases \oity kumbuk trees {Terminalia glabra) line the 

 embankments ; and a few others, and occasionally thorny 

 bushes, stand isolated or in groups in various parts of the 

 w^ater. When full, these tanks abound with fish and frogs, 

 and are the resort, for food and nidification, of many thou- 

 sands of water-birds. 



Along the coast north of Mannar, a flat unproductive 

 strip of ground, utilized in ancient times for the formation of 

 salt by solar evaporation of the sea-water with which it was 

 flooded, is very little above sea-level ; and, separating it from 

 the sea, there runs a line of mudbanks covered with a growth 

 of low trees and, in places, with mangroves. These trees are 

 the breeding- quarters of large flocks of water-birds, and the 

 permanent home of innumerable Parrakeets (Paheornis tor- 



