BATRACHOSTOMUS. 197 



upper parts are usually more or less mottled with blackish, and 

 there are indications of cross-bars to the tail-feathers. Young 

 birds are greatly mottled throughout. 



Bill olive-brown, the lower mandible paler ; irides yellow ; legs 

 and feet fleshy grey (Legge). Tarsus feathered for the greater part 

 of its length. 



Length about 9 ; tail 4'5 ; wing 4'75 ; tarsus *6 ; width of bill 

 at gape 1*3. The type of B. punctatus was exceptionally small, 

 tail 4, wing 4-3. 



Distribution. Throughout Ceylon, in Travancore, and doubtless 

 in the Wynaad. 



Habits, <Sfc. A shy nocturnal bird, living in forest, and very 

 seldom seen. Legge, in Ceylon, once found one sleeping perched 

 across a bamboo in the daytime. When thus perched its bill was 

 turned upwards and its eyes closed. Both Legge and Bourdillon 

 noticed a loud chuckling cry, which they attributed to this bird, 

 and both think this species less rare than it appears to be, 

 Bourdillon obtained a young one and the nest in Travancore on 

 February 24th ; the nest was a pad, 2| inches broad, of dead 

 leaves, fragments of bark, dry wood, and lichen interwoven with 

 vegetable down, in the fork of a sapling about 15 feet from the 

 ground. Fragments of the egg showed that it was pure white, 

 smooth, and glossless. 



