WITH ADDITIONS, TO THE AVIFAUNA OF THE ISLAND. 371 



clumps, their song had entirely ceased, the only indication of 

 their presence being an occasional " churr" proceeding from 

 the dense cover out of which it was next to impossible to 

 drive them. 



760.— Pyrrhulauda grisea, Scop. (203.) 



This Little Lark is resident throughout the year in all the 

 eastern and north-eastern parts of Ceylon, and also in the dry 

 district of the north-west coast. I found it breeding this year 

 near Trincomalie in May and June. It commences to build at 

 the latter end of April, chosing the barest parts of open wastes, 

 commons, dried up paddy fields, &e. Three nests, which I found 

 on the Esplanade, were constructed in holes scooped in the 

 ground, with the surface of which the top of the structure was 

 flush. They were very loosely put together of dry grass, 

 stalks aud roots, bits of rag and pieces of thread and cotton 

 with no particular lining. Round the edge of the nest was 

 placed a neat little circle of small pieces of tile and brick, which, 

 in this case, must have been gathered in from some little 

 distance, as the ground, hard by, was quite bare. Two was the 

 number of eggs in these and other nests found. Some were 

 uniform pointed ovals measuring 0'8 by 0*55 and 0"8 by 0-53, 

 and of a greenish white ground, freckled all over with minute 

 spots of yellowish brown, olive brown and slate colour, with 

 some larger markings of the same, forming a zone round the 

 obtuse end. Four other eggs were much smaller, very much 

 resembling those of Sylvia rufa, at home ; they were somewhat 

 stumpy at both ends, of the same grounds as the above, and more 

 sparingly spotted with larger spots of yellowish brown and 

 bluish grey over minute specks of brown. They measured - 75 

 by -54 ; 0*73 by 055 ; 0'71 by 0-52, and 073 by 53. 



Another nest, found in July in the same district, Avas neatly 

 made of fine grass similar to that of Alaucla gulgula. It con- 

 tained two young covered with fulvous down. 



842.— Glareola orientalis, Leach. (224 ter.) 



I first procured this interesting addition to our Avifauna at 

 Minery Tank, " Ceylon's Inland Sea," on the 10th of July last, 

 and a few weeks afterwards discovered it to be abundant on 

 the flat lands surrounding the great tank at Kandelay. They 

 appear to breed at both localities, — my first example a female had 

 very distended ovse and the Kandelay birds all had young or eggs 

 — most probably the former, as it was so late in the season. I 

 obtained a perfect series from the young female to the fully adult 

 male ; these latter had a length of from 9'3 to 9 '% and the 

 wing from 7 - 5 to 7*3; an old female had a wing of 7'5, and a 

 young one of 7*2. The young of both sexes had the buff 

 part of the throat, which was almost white, streaked with black, 



