448 MR. E. W. H. HOLDSWORTH ON CEYLONESE BIRDS. [Mar. 5, 



year at NuwaraEliya and in the surrounding district, frequenting the 

 primitive jungle with which the upper hills are covered. It is also 

 found occasionally in wild country near Kandy, and was first seen 

 by Layard "in low, scrubby, and almost impenetrable brushwood" 

 a few miles from Colombo. It was probably not far from this last 

 locality that I also met with it, in the low country, a wild district of 

 no great extent, to which I have referred in my notice of Harpactes 

 fasciatus. Like its congeners, however, this Scimitar-bill is essentially 

 a hill bird. It creeps about underwood and the lower branches of 

 trees, half opening and closing its wings, and assuming various kinds 

 of strange attitudes. It is at all seasons noisy ; and just about the 

 pairing-time in February the cries of a party of these birds remind 

 one more of a concert of Cats than any thing else. It is to this 

 species the name of Gamut-bird is often applied, from the powerful 

 notes of the male beginning very low and running up the scale ; they 

 have a very striking sound when heard amid the silence of the deep 

 jungle. 



The colour of the sexes is alike. The back, wings, flanks, vent, 

 and under tail-coverts rich olive-brown with a rufous tinge, especially 

 on the flanks ; from the base of the upper mandible to the nape black, 

 extending to the mixed olive-brown and black on the top of the head : 

 throat, breast, middle of abdomen, and a conspicuous supercilium 

 pure silky white ; tail blackish brown. The young bird is much 

 more rufous generally, and has the ear-coverts and the sides of the 

 neck and breast quite rusty. 



Lord Walden has a series of specimens of Pomatorhinus the 

 localities of which are not very intelligible on the labels ; but the birds 

 were probably obtained in the south or south-east of the island. 

 All these have the upper surface quite rufous, extending also to the 

 tail. This colouring is not found in one of the many specimens I 

 have from Nuwara Eliya, and is so marked as almost to justify a 

 specific distinction. 



Bill yellow, with the base dusky above ; irides dark red ; feet lead- 

 colour. 



Ceylon. 



141. Garrulax cinereifrons, Blyth. 



Peculiar to Ceylon. This species is confined to the southern half 

 of the island, frequenting the lower hills, and, according to Layard, 

 "it much resembles the Ma/acocerci, hunting in small parties and 

 incessantly calling to each other." It is not uncommon in the Kandy 

 district and in the hilly country between that and Galle. I have 

 examined a great number of specimens of this species, and have found 

 them agree very closely with each other ; but they differ so materially 

 in dimensions from those given by Blyth that I can only suppose he 

 had but one example before him, and that an immature bird. This 

 impression is confirmed by the specific name cinereifrons, given by 

 him, and agreeing with his description " forehead and cheeks pale 

 ashy;" whereas the birds I have examined have the whole top of 

 the head ashy, that colour often extending over the nape, as well as 



