200 ADDITIONS TO THE AVIFAUNA OF CEYLON, 



ring", exactly on a level with the eye. This feature is about 

 the same as this in all caged examples I have seen. In a 

 young male the rose ring was incomplete, not extending round 

 the hind neck ; a female, immature, but apparently full grown, 

 measured 15*75 ; wing, 7*4; tail from vent, 8*5; height of 

 upper mandible, 0*65 ; length from nostril straight to tip, 1'17. 

 Iris dingy yellow, with a darkish inner circle (our male, when 

 adult, has the iris golden* yellow) ; feet, more slaty than in the 

 adult. The bill is much smaller than in the males, in one of 

 which latter it measures in height nearly 0'8, and in length 

 from the nostril 1*35. 



Since the above was written, I have procured a male of the 

 year at Pigeon Island, in ivhich the bill measures 0*8 in height, 

 and the maxilla 07. There is not a vestige of a mandibular 

 patch or neck ring in this example, the plumage being that of 

 an adult female. It has a wing of 7*6. 



152 quat. — Palaeornis Calthropae, Layard. (65.) 



The bill of an immature female in my collection is reddish 

 black. I have never had an opportunity of examining nestling 

 females, so / cannot assert that their bills are red, but from the 

 reddish hue in my specimen alluded to here, it is probable that 

 the part in question is red when the birds are very young. The 

 crown and nape in my bird are dull green, overcast with bluish ; 

 there is only a trace of the black gorget and an indication of 

 the bright green neck ring ; the interscapular region is over- 

 cast with bluish on a dull green ground, and the back and 

 rump are brighter blue than in the male (adult), with, however, 

 the longer upper tail-coverts of a light green, which is continued 

 along the edge of the blue region to the flanks. 



166 ter.— Chysocolaptes Stricklandi, Layard. (70.) 



This Woodpecker is abundant in many parts of the island, and 

 may, I think, be considered the most numerous of our Picidce 

 after B. ceylonus and B. puncticollis. It appears to have been 

 until lately entirely overlooked in the low country districts, and 

 thought to be quite a hill species. This is by no means correct. 

 In 1872, I found that it inhabited the forests of the low hills in 

 the south-west of the island, as well as the mountains of that part 

 (Ibis, 1874, p. 15). Prior to that I had shot it on the banks of 

 rivers in the south-east. Last year I met with it throughout 

 the plains of the same district. It is likewise abundant both in 

 the cocoanut groves and jungles of the north-east (vide Stray 

 Feathers, Vol. I., p. 340), in the former of which I have shot 

 Brachypternus ceylonus, B. puncticollis (?) and this bird within a 



* Out of more than a dozen live specimens of sivalensis, now before me, one of 

 which has been six years in captivity, not one has more than a faint yellowish tinge to 

 the white irides. — Ed. ; S. F. 



