198 ADDITIONS TO THE AVIFAUNA OF CEYLON, 



37.— Limnsetus Kienieri, De Sparre. (12 bis.) 



Mr. S. Bligh of Kandy gives an account of the shooting of 

 this interesting addition to Ceylonese birds in the last number 

 of the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Asiatic Society. 



72 — Ketupa ceylonensis, Gmelin. (29.) 



All examples of the Brown Fish Owl that I have shot have the 

 tarsi and feet decidedly murky sap green ; there is no yellowish 

 tint, whatever, in the leg, except it be, when the specimen is 

 drying, between the reticulations. Jerdon lays particular 

 stress on the yellow hue, and I see Mr. Holdsworth gives the 

 colour as " dirty yellow," whether or not, from a freshly 

 shot specimen I cannot say. Furthermore, in Ceylon examples 

 the bill is not " horny yellow," but dusky greenish grey, dusky 

 brown on the culmen, at the curve in some, and with a brown 

 patch on either side of it in others. Judging from four speci- 

 mens that I have measured, there does not seem to be much 

 difference in the size of the sexes. Length from 20 to 20'5 ; 

 wing from 14'5 in a female to 153 in a male. 



105. — Batrachostomus moniliger, Layard. (44.) 



I have seen, I think, two species of this interesting genus ; 

 the one, a small rufous bay brown bird, with an enormous 

 mouth and shortish tail,* the other larger and of paler 

 plumage, corresponding to the description given by Mr. Hume 

 of his Ceylon specimen, a?itea, Vol. II, p. 354, but of much 

 greater lengthf than that example. 



The former was procured in the foi'ests of the Western 

 Province between Negombo and Koonegalle, and was pur- 

 chased for the Local Museum in 1869. I regret to say I 

 have no data of this specimen, as when I repaired to the 

 Museum for the purpose of taking notes on it, I found that 

 it had disappeared, having been thrown away, I suspect, by a 

 careless native taxidermist, because it was not a good skin ! 



The latter I shot myself in a bamboo thicket a few miles from 

 G-alle. I met with it at about 3 in the afternoon, sitting across 

 a horizontal branch in the thicket, its eyes shut, and with all 

 the appearance of an Australian Podargus. When I first saw 

 it, I was within a few feet of it ; it did not see me, nor open its 

 eyes, as if it heard anything, and I was thus enabled to slink 

 away to a suitable distance before serving the ends of science by 

 taking the unconscious creature's life. 



* This is apparently the true moniliger, Layard. — Ed., S. F. 

 f My measurements were from the drj skin. — Ed., S. F. 



