Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Ceylon. 261 



coveted morsel is seized in its powerful bill, and the bird throws 

 itself from its perch, twisting and flapping its wings until the 

 fruit is detached; on this the wings ai-e extended, the descent 

 arrested, and the bird regains its footing. The head is now 

 thrown back and the food allowed to fall into the throat and 

 swallowed without mastication, 



A live bird which I had for some time in my possession used 

 its bill for the purpose of recovering its perch as a parrot would 

 do, with this exception, that the Buceros employed the whole of 

 the bill, hooking on by the under side of the lower mandible, 

 while the parrot uses the upper mandible. 



I have been credibly informed, that during the season of incu- 

 bation the male bird encloses the female in the hollow tree 

 selected for the reception of the nest with a wall of mud, as a 

 defence against the monkey tribes, who certainly would need 

 more than ordinaiy courage to attack a fortress defended by 

 such a formidable weapon as the powerful bill of the bird. The 

 cock bird assiduously provides for his imprisoned partner, feed- 

 ing her through an aperture left for the purpose, and when the 

 young are excluded breaks down the wall and sets her free, to 

 assist him in satisfying the increased demand upon his parental 

 energies. 



As I have rigorously rejected from this list all species that I 

 have not personally identified, and have only included those cata- 

 logued by Dr. Kelaart in his ' Prodromus,' in order to give my 

 idea of their authenticity, I do not introduce Buceros albirostris, 

 Shaw, but I may say I feel confident that this or an allied spe- 

 cies exists in the mountains. I have seen it on two occasions, 

 and Muttu came in full of a new Kandatta which he had seen 

 in the Mookalane while 1 lay ill at Gillymalle. His description 

 tallied precisely mth what I had myself witnessed, and my idea 

 is that the bird was B. albirostris, specimens of which I received 

 from Mr. Blyth. 



173. LoRicuLUs AsiATicus, Lath. Gira malitchia, Cing. ; and 

 Pol-girawa, Flower Parrot. 



Kandy, Putlam,Caltura,Galle,Hambantotte, and Gillymalle are 

 the various localities where I have most plentifully procured this 

 pretty little parrakeet. At Gillymalle they were in such abundance 

 that the flowering trees were literally alive with them ; they clung 

 to the bright scarlet flowers head downwards, or scrambled from 

 branch to branch, while the forest echoed with their bickerings. 

 They bit ofl" the leaves (which fell like scarlet snow upon the 

 ground) to get at the calyx, and when this dainty morsel was 

 devoured they flew off to the banana trees, down the broad leaves 



