264 Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Ceylon. 



or hollow tree. The eggs, commonly four in number, are 

 bright blue, thickly spotted with brown at the obtuse end. The 

 food is insects of all kinds, and in all stages, captured on the 

 ground and on trees. They have a variety of notes, and the 

 song poured out in the fulness of their joy in the pairing season 

 is very pleasing. On the top of a towering cotton-tree, opposite 

 my last residence in Colombo, a magpie robin daily for some 

 weeks charmed me with his song, whilst his mate sat brooding 

 her eggs, or callow nestlings, in the roof of a native hut beneath 

 him. One morning, after the young had left their cradle and be- 

 taken themselves to the neighbouring compounds, I was attracted 

 by cries of distress from various birds and squirrels, and above 

 all I heard the seemingly plaintive mewing of a cat. 1 had no 

 living specimen of the last in my museum, so wondering what 

 could be the matter, went into my garden to see. I found the 

 mewing proceeded from my friends the robins, who were furiously 

 attacking something in a bush, whilst the birds and squirrels 

 screamed in concert. There 1 found one of the young robins, 

 whose plumage by the way at that early age much resembles 

 that of the European bird, being brown speckled with yellow, 

 caught as I thought in the tendrils of a creeper ; I put out my 

 hand to release it, when to my surprise I saw the glittering eyes 

 of the green whip snake {Trimesurus viridis, Lacep.), in whose 

 fangs the bird was struggling. I seized the reptile by the neck 

 and rescued the bird, but too late ; it lay panting in my hand for 

 a few moments, then fluttered and died. On skinning it I foimd 

 no wound, except on the outer joint of the wing by which it had 

 been seized, and am confident that fear alone deprived it of life. 

 A favourite attitude of this species is standing, with the tail 

 elevated over the back, either perpendicularly or thrown so much 

 forward as to nearly touch the head, the wings drooping ; in this 

 position they only utter a low note. Swainson has described as 

 Gryllivora rosea a bird of this species ; it is probably nothing 

 more than one whose feathers were stained by the dust of our red 

 kabook soil. During the long dry season some of our birds be- 

 come so discoloured with this that they are useless as specimens. 



80. CopsYCHUs MACRouRus, Gmel. 



The first time that I fell in with this exquisite songster will 

 ever be impressed on my memory as connected with the 

 beauties of tropical scenery. I arrived at Kandy one evening, 

 and started the next morning collecting, and by chance took the 

 road round the hill at the back of the Pavilion, called '' Lady 

 Horton's Walk." A few birds, which though common there, 

 were rare in the Southern Province, had rewarded my labour. 



