NOTES ON CEYLONESE ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 361 



Q'95 ; wing, short of end of tail, 3'6 ; outer tail feathers half an 

 inch shorter than the outer ; culinen, (point of bill from rise of 

 skull) 0"85 ; bill, from front, 0'58 ; from gape, 0*9. 



On dissection the stomach was found to be extremely mus- 

 cular, and its contents Ber [Zizyplms) fruits. The coeca were 

 rudimentary, not T 'o " lcn long. 



The female is described by Heuglin as slightly smaller, isa- 

 belline grey in colour, with an olivaceous tinge, darker above 

 than below, wanting altogether the black marking on the head, 

 and having much less distinct black tips to the tail feathers. 

 The ends of the primary quill feathers, the two first excepted, 

 blackish with white margins. 



It is to be hoped that more specimens of this very rare bird 

 will be obtained. The discovery will aid in showing how very 

 cautious it is necessary to be in describing new for supposed 

 new birds from Western India, they being so likely to prove 

 known African forms. 



W. T. Blanford. 



Uotes on Cegloncse Ornitljologn aiib ®oXo^ t foitlj nbbitions 

 to tlje Jpifauna of X\z Islaitb. 



By W. Vincent Legge, f.z.s., &c. 



The following notes contain new discoveries in Ceylonese 

 oologv, which, although matter for the second edition of" Nests 

 and Eggs of Indian Birds," ought, I think, to have first 

 publication in an Ornithological Journal like Stray Feathers. 

 The numbers prefixed to the different species are those of Mr. 

 Hume's list. Those which follow the name of the authority are 

 those of Mr. Holdsworth's catalogue. 



8. — Falco peregrinus, Gmeliu. (1). 



A fine female shot on the west coast at Putlam on the 15 th of 

 February last year ; the gentlemen, a member of the Oeylon 

 Civil Service, who shot it, informs me that it frequented the 

 vicinity of his compound for several evenings, flying a.oout and 

 apparently hawking after insects in the twilight — curious beha- 

 viour for a Peregrine, but this is an age of advancement and en- 

 larged ideas, and if Peregrines choose to catch moths instead 

 of pigeons what can it matter to us ! The district, however, 

 of Putlam is not one in which a Peregrine would be looked for ; 

 it is flat, and, like all the north-west coast, covered with low 

 scrubby jungle. I do not know if any previous instance of the 

 actual shooting of F. peregrinus has been published. Layard, if 

 not mistaken in his identification of it, speaks (An. Nat. Hist., 

 1854) of its breeding in a Palmyra near Jaffna, and I myself 



