AND NOTES ON VARIOUS SPECIES FOUND THERE. 203 



greenish rather than the greyish* blue of that part, from leu- 

 copygialis. 



I think the examination of a large series of both these species 

 would prove the Ceylon bird to be the smaller ; both, however, 

 vary much in size and length of wing. Ccendesceens is stouter 

 in the bill than leucopygialis, and has a fine light edging 

 at the tips of the inner primaries and secondaries which the 

 latter has not. It frequents the jungles (not occurring about 

 open paddy fields like our Ceylon species) in the north and 

 south-east of the island, and in these localities is by no means 

 uncommon. I obtained a specimen in 1868 at Colombo, on 

 the west coast, but, further than this, I am not aware of its- 

 occurrence in any but the above districts. 



538.— Prinia Hodgsoni, Blyth. (165 bis.) 



This Prinia, which from its confined habitat in Ceylon has 

 been overlooked, must now be added to our list. I met with 

 it last year in July and August in great numbers in the flat 

 jungle-covered country of the south-east. It fell to my gun, 

 in the first instance, in a clearing in the jungle, where it was 

 affecting long grass and low bushes, and subsequently I always 

 found it in such places, and along the edge of jungle roads. It 

 consorted at that season in little troops of 4 or 5, consisting of 

 old birds and their young broods, and I therefore procured 

 without difficulty immature birds in all stages. Jerdon has 

 altogether omitted the pectoral band so conspicuous in the 

 adult male, and this, together with the very limited range of the 

 species in Ceylon, and that, too, confined to the south, the 

 habitat of most of our peculiar birds, disposed me to look upon 

 it as new, but my specimens were identified by Mr. Blanford 

 as Hodgsoni, and all claim to novelty on the part of the newly 

 found stranger was thus put aside for ever ! 



I found that the female differed from the male in the much 

 lighter colour of the upper surface and pectoral band (incom- 

 plete in the young female) and in the presence of a lightish 

 line surmounting the lores. The gradation in the hue of the 

 iris and tarsi from the newly-fledged nestling to the adult was 

 very distinct. In the former the iris was olive and the tarsi 

 had a brownish anterior wash ; in birds of about two months old 

 but fully grown the iris had become olive yellow and the tarsi 

 fleshy yellow, slightly tinged with brown ; while in the adult 

 these parts are reddish yelloio and fleshy yellow respectively. 

 The pectoral band is very faint in the newly fledged nestling, 

 and deepens to ashy in the bird of the year, but is neither so 

 broad nor so deep as in the adult. The Ceylon bird does not 



* The young, in which the head and wings are brownish, are somewhat grey about 

 the back, that colour mingling with the normal glossy hue. 



