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



of which they slid and fastened upon the ripening clusters of 

 fruit or the pendant heart-shaped flower. 



174. Pal^egrnis Alexandri, Linn. Laboo girawa, Cing. 



This, the largest of our parrakeets, is found in countless thou- 

 sands at Batticaloa, nestling in the cocoa-nut trees and resorting 

 to them by night in vast flocks. I procured a specimen or two 

 near Matelle in the central province, where I also procured all 

 our other parrots, and I shot a single bird at Gillymalle. 



The natives tell me they breed in hollow trees and lay twD 

 round white eggs. The young are much sought after to rear as 

 pets, and they are taught to speak many native words with great 

 distinctness. 



175. Pal^ornis torquatus, Briss. Rana girawa, Cing. 



Killy, Mai. 



Exceedingly abundant at Chilaw on the western coast, and 

 northward to Jaffna and round by Mulletivoe to Trincomalie on 

 the east coast, and in the interior of the island likewise. At 

 Chilaw I have seen it in such vast flights, coming to roost in the 

 cocoat-nut trees which overhang the native bazaar, that their 

 noise quite drowned the babel of native tongues engaged in bar- 

 gaining for the evening provisions. 



Hearing of the swarms which resorted to the spot, I posted 

 myself on a bridge some half a mile away, and attempted to 

 count the flocks that came from one direction, eastward, over 

 the jungle ; about five o^clock in the afternoon straggling bodies 

 began to wing their way homeward, but many of them came 

 back again to pick up the scattered grains left on the fields near 

 the village ; about half-past five however the tide fairly set in, and 

 I soon found I had no flocks to count — it was one living scream- 

 ing stream : some high in air winged their way till over their 

 homes, when with a scream they suddenly dived downwards 

 with many evolutions until on a level with the trees ; others flew 

 along the ground rapid and noiselessly, now darting under the 

 pendant boughs of some mango or other solitary tree, now 

 skimming over the bridge close to my face with the rapidity of 

 thought, their brilliant green plumage shining in the setting 

 sunlight with a lovely lustre. 



I waited at this spot till the evening closed in, and then took 

 my gun and went to the cocoa-nut tope which covered the bazaar. 

 I could hear, though from the darkness I could not distin- 

 guish, the birds fighting for their perches, and on firing a shot 

 they rose with a noise like the rushing of a mighty wind, but 

 soon settled again, and such a din commenced as I shall never 



