168 



ZOOLOGY. 



[Part II. 



standing the power of wing possessed by these birds, adds 

 something to the difficulty of behoving that it consists of 

 ghitinous alg£e.^ In the nests brought to me there was 

 no trace of organisation ; and whatever may be the origi- 

 nal material, it is so elaborated by the swallow as to pre- 

 sent somewhat the appearance and consistency of strings 

 of isinglass. The quantity of these nests exported from 

 Ceylon is trifling. 



Kingfishers. — In sohtary places, where no sound breaks 

 the silence except the gurgle of the river as it sweeps 

 round the rocks, the lonely Kingfisher sits upon an over- 

 hanging branch, his turquoise plumage hardly less intense 

 in its lustre than the deep blue of the sky above him ; 

 and so intent is his watch upon the passing fish that in- 

 trusion fails to scare him from his post ; the emblem of 

 vigilance and patience. 



Sun Birds. — In the gardens the Sun Bk-ds^ (known 

 as the Humming Bkds of Ceylon) hover all day long, 

 attracted by the plants over wluch they hang, poised 

 on their ghttering wings, and inserting their curved beaks 

 to extract the tiny insects that nestle in the flowers. 

 Perhaps the most graceful of the buxls of Ceylon in form 

 and motions, and the most chaste in coloming, is that 

 which Europeans caU " the Bird of Paradise,"^ and the 

 natives " the Cotton Thief," from the circumstance that 

 its tail consists of two long white feathers, which stream 

 belund it as it flies. Mr. Layard says : — " I have often 

 watched them, when seeking their insect prey, turn 

 suddenly on their perch and lohisk their long tails 

 with a jerk over the bough, as if to protect them fi'om 

 injury." 



The Biilhul. — The Condatchee Bidbul^, which, from 



^ An epitome of what lias been 

 written on this subject will be found 

 in Dr. HorsfieliT s Catalogue of the 

 Birds in the E. I. Comp. Museuni; 

 vol. i. p. 101, etc. 



"^ Nectarina Zeylanica, Linn. 



^ Tchitrea paradisi, Linn. 



* Pycuonotus hcemorrhouS; Gmel. 



