316 Mr. S. Bligh on Motacilla melanope. 



appears to be an intermediate form between P. vlangali and 

 P. sladetii, differing from the former in having the scapulars 

 dark chestnut and the inner flanks between the golden chest- 

 nut of the outer flanks and the green of the abdomen purple. 

 In the latter character it agrees with Anderson^s description 

 of P. sladeni, but it has no dark margins to the scapulars 

 or interscapulars, which are said to be black in P. sladeni 

 and green in P. elegans. Without seeing an example of the 

 latter it is difficult to determine whether the British-Museum 

 example belongs to a distinct race from P. sladeni or P. ele- 

 gans, or whether it and P. elegans are tvvo quadroons between 

 P. olangali and P. sladeni, or whether it, P. elegans, and 

 P. sladeni merely represent individual variations unconnected 

 with geographical distribution. 



XXX. — On Hirundo rustica and Motacilla melanope in 

 Ceylon. By Samuel Bligh. (Communicated by John 

 Henry Gurney.) 



On 24th November, 1887, I was detained for the night, in 

 consequence of a ford being impassable, at a rest-house about 

 ten miles from Coslanda; the day was wet, but I kept on 

 the look-out for birds, and towards evening was attracted by 

 seeing several Wagtails [Motacilla melanope^ on the top of a 

 low bazaar-building (a native shop) ; in a few minutes the 

 number was doubled, and by this time small troops of them 

 kept passing the rest-house, and other flocks were gathering 

 from all sides, till thousands had collected ; Swallows [Hi- 

 rundo rustica) then began to arrive in flocks, and all com- 

 menced sweeping round over a small garden of native cofl'ee 

 of an acre or two in extent. 



As the garden partly belonged to the rest-house keeper, I 

 called him and asked him about the birds ; he told me that 

 they came there all the last cold season, for the first time, to 

 roost in the coffee. 



By this time a vast swarm of the two species had arrived 

 and it was getting dusky. The rest-house keeper sent a boy 

 to frighten up those that had settled ; they went up in a 



