432 Notes on some Ceylonese Birds. 



75 ^er.— Ephialtes bakhamuna, Forst 



Three specimens, a male, female^ and young-, enable me to 

 decide positively that this is precisely identical with Jerdon's 

 griseus, of which I have no less than 51 specimens from different 

 parts of India. 



It is entirely distinct from lempigi, which I have from Burmah, 

 Malacca, and Malayana, from malaharicus, which I have also 

 from the Nilghiris and even from as far East as Calcutta, and from 

 lettia, of which also I have an enormous series from various 

 parts of the Himalayas. I need scarcely add^ that it is still 

 more conspicuously distinct from pennatus, spUoce^hahis, Brucei 

 and pliimipes. 



105 &*s.— Batrachostomus punctatus, -Sp. 'Nov. 



I have separately noticed, vide infra, that a Batrachostomus 

 which would certainly not appear to be moniliger occurs in 

 Ceylon. I have provisionally named it as above, but possessing 

 only a single specimen of the Ceylon form and very few 

 specimens of the family from else where to compare it with, I 

 feel no certainty about it, and only desire to draw the attention 

 of ornithologists in Ceylon prominently to it. 



111.— Caprimulgus spilocircus. Gray. 



Ceylon specimens do not agree over well with Nilghiri ones, 

 and I am not at all sure that the latter will not require to be 

 re-named. 



112.— Caprimulgus asiaticus, Lath. 



Mr. Holdsworth says, that it is not unreasonable to conclude 

 that atripeunis, Jerd., was the bird referred to by Layard as 

 abundant in the vicinity of Columbo ; but I think it is quite 

 certain that he was confusing mahrattensis and asiaticus; indeed 

 the general appearance of the birds is not dissimilar, and I have 

 repeatedly had specimens of asiaticus sent me as mahrattensis 

 and vice versa, by persons who had at other times sent me the 

 birds correctly named. 



Mahrattensis, I may add is not, in India, at all a rare bird. I 

 am sure I have seen a hundred specimens and I have a large 

 series in my museum. 



115.— Harpactes fasciatus, Gmel. 



I think ornithologists in Ceylon should compare their speci- 

 mens of this supposed species with a good series of specimens 

 from the Wynaad and Malabar Coast. The specimens sent me 

 from Ceylon are so vile that I cannot be certain about it^ but 



