ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM COCOAWATTE ESTATE. 297 



it to the sides of the nest. I revisited the spot on May llth, taking a coil 

 of rope, saw, etc. Sannassy did his duty nobly, and after quite an hour 

 of unsuccessful attempts managed to get hold of the egg by hanging 

 almost head downwards by a rope tied to a bough above. The egg is a 

 long oval, of a pale stone-grey colour. The birds kept flying round the' 

 whole time I was at the nest and seemed much excited. On the 24th 

 I found a fourth nest, and with some difficulty secured the egg. 



The males in this species take a share in incubation, as I several times 

 saw them on the nests. Frequently both birds would settle close 

 together at the side of their nest and caress each other with their bills, 

 uttering a low chattering note. The bird always sits in the same 

 position, i.e., with its head and breast on the same side of the bough 

 as the nest ; I mean to say, with its feet on the bough where it 

 forms the inner side of the nest, and its breast bent forward on the 

 egg. The eggs I obtained were pale stone-grey and not " white " as 

 described in " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," but they probably 

 fade to almost white in time. 



55. Batracliostomus moniliger^ Layard, the Ceylonese Frog- 

 mouth, — Common. During the year I have been here I have almost 

 every night heard a peculiar nocturnal bird-note, which I always sus- 

 pected must be that of the frog-mouth, but as the sound always came 

 from heavy jungle, I could never obtain the author of it. However, at 

 last, after many moonlight stalks, Sannassy^ killed me a beautiful 

 female specimen of this bird in the act of uttering the curious call, 

 and, the identity of the bird with its note once established, though 

 its strictly nocturnal habits and partiality for dense jungle cause it to be 

 very seldom obtained, I have no hesitation in describing it as 

 common — so common that rarely a night passes without my hearing 

 four or five different birds calling in the jungles bordering the 

 estate. Its note is very hard to describe, but somewhat resembles 

 the words " Coorroo ! coorroo! coorroo !'^ uttered very rapidly 

 in a sort of chuckle. The bird pauses for some time between each 

 call, and does not utter its note nearly so frequently as the night- 

 jars. I am sure this bird, is not nearly so common at a high elevation 

 as it is below ^ 2,000 feet. I have only once heard it up-country 

 at an elevation of 5,500 feefc, and, curiously enough, in the jungle 

 above Ragalla estate in Uda Pusselawa, the exact locality where 



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