1920.] Recently pahlifihed Oniitholoyical Works. 727 



together with notes on the distribution and habits, special 

 attention being given to the nests and eggs, of which last 

 Mr. Wait has a very fine and complete collection. 



In matters of nomenclature and classification Blanford 

 and Gates's volumes on the Birds in the ' Fauna of 

 British India' are followed, while references are given to 

 Legge's work ; but we ho|)e that when the handbook is 

 completed a more moderu system of nomenclature will 

 be used, as only by this means will the differentiation of 

 the Ceylonese fauna — which is very considerable, considering 

 the small extent and shallow nature of the sea separating 

 Ceylon from India — in the matter of subspecies, apart from 

 the quite distinct generic and specific forms, be made 

 manifest. This subspecific variation was, of course, to a 

 large extent ignored by the older writers. 



The first paper listed above contains a discussion of the 

 zoo-geographical relations of the Ceylonese avifauna, and 

 is in the form of a criticism of Dr. Blanford's well-known 

 paper on the " Distribution of Vertebrate Aniuuils in 

 India, Burma, and Ceylon," published in the Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Royal Society in 1901. After a review 

 of the more characteristic forms, Mr. Wait draws attention 

 to the fact that there are two very distinct elements in the 

 avifauna of Ceylon. The oldest, as is shown by the far 

 greater amount of differentiation, inhabits the central 

 Kandyan uplands and the damp low country to the west of 

 the mountains to the neighbourhood of Colombo; this fauna 

 is closely related to that of the Malabar district of south- 

 Ave^tern India, where very similar conditions prevail, and it 

 is here that nearly all the types confined to Ceylon are 

 found. 



The dry north-east and north-west coastal districts have 

 an avifauna largely identical with that of the eastern 

 portion of the Madras Presidency, which may be termed 

 the Carnatic tract. Mr. Wait finds that these two regions 

 possess several genera and species not found in the Malabar 

 or Kandyan regions, and that there, is little or no specific 

 or subspecific difllercntiation in tins case, showing that 



SEIl. XI. — VOL. 11. 3 c 



