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



idea of eating Pulliar's dinner ; when, however, he replaced the chicken 

 on the table, it could not stand, and the next instant rolled on its side, 

 dead ! Q. vowed Pulliar had done it, as he did not like anything that 

 Europeans touched ! I, however, had seen Q.'s brawny hand close 

 over its breast in a manner not to be mistaken, and shortly it was in 

 a curry before us. Q. spread his hammock, and I occupied the top 

 of the table, which, if I attempted to turn, rolled over and deposited 

 me on the ground. Our roof consisted of two cocoa-nut leaves, and 

 though wet to the skin with the dew, we slept comfortably till 

 morning, when, paying the man double for all we had consumed, we 

 started for Matelan. Our course lay along the side of the Mulletivoe 

 Lake, on which were vast flocks of water birds. The flamingoes rose 

 in clouds, the noise of their wings resembling distant thunder, they 

 themselves being a mile off*. Ibises, pelicans, spoonbills, gulls, 

 terns, and small waders, lined the shore, while overhead screamed 

 the fish-eagle {Blagus leucogaster), and the kites (Milvus ater and 

 H. Pondicerianus). On the opposite side of the lake lay heavy 

 jungle, which Q., who knew every inch of the country, said contained 

 vast quantities of satin-wood and ebony, and abounded in large game. 

 We arrived at Matelan about 10 a.m., got breakfast and a nap, and 

 at Y-past 3 p.m. started again for Mulletivoe. Part of our journey 

 lay through the most splendid collecting ground I have yet seen — 

 small patches of jungle bounding little wet spots full of water-fowl. 

 We had not time to stop and collect any, but I noticed vast numbers 

 of the anhinga (Plotus melanog aster), the night heron (Nycticorax 

 griseus), pelicans, cormorants, spoonbills, and a (to me) new ibis, 

 white, with naked black head : Q. says I shall see them abundantly 

 by and by. Across the lake the old line of jungle lay unbroken, 

 while that on our side was prettily diversified, now running far into 

 the plain, now receding again ; sometimes broken into little clumps, 

 behind which pea-fowl, and deer, and partridges, and hares would 

 suddenly come into view, and then seem far away. We found ele- 

 phants' traces everywhere. Long strings of teal winged their way far 

 overhead from one feeding-ground to another ; white egrets sat 

 gazing at us as we rode under their roosting-trees ; while an occasional 

 jackal, started by our dogs, would afford us a race over the yielding 

 turf. 



Of insects I saw but little, save an occasional Callidyras or Euplcea ; 

 rarely, an Hipparehia (which by the way is a new and undescribed 

 species) would start up from some grassy tuft, and drop again as 

 quickly into concealment. Doubtless the elephants' dung, and that 

 of the numerous buffaloes and black cattle that dotted the plain, 

 would have repaid a search for Coleoptera, but I had no time to 

 spare and a long stage before me. Once, when passing through a spit 

 of jungle, I fired at a splendid new pigeon ; instantly up rose an enor- 

 mous flight of flying foxes (Pteropus edulis, Peron) ; after wheeling 

 several times round their roosting-place they settled again, hanging 

 by their long claws in thick masses from the dead branches. Asso- 

 ciated with them were night herons, and the flight of each is hardly 

 to be discriminated : incongruous as the companionship appears, I 

 found it similar at the lake between Tangalle and Matura. At dusk 



