352 REVIEWS NATURAL HISTORY OF CEYLON. 



drought, the fields lay to a great extent untilled, owing to the want of water, 

 and the tanks, almost reduced to dryness, were covered with the leaves of 

 the rose-coloured lotus. 



" Our cavalcade was as oriental as the scenery through which it moved ; the 

 Governor and the officers of his staff and household formed a long corteg6, 

 escorted by the native attendants, horse-keepers, and foot-runners. The ladies 

 were borne in palankins, and the younger individuals of the party carried in 

 chairs raised on poles, and covered with cool green awnings made of the fresh 

 leaves of the talipat palm. 



•' After traversing the cultivated lands, the path led across open glades of 

 park-like verdure and beauty, and at last entered the great forest, under the 

 shade of ancient trees wreathed to their crowns with climbing plants, and fes- 

 tooned by natural garlands of convolvulus and orchids. Here silence reigned, 

 disturbed only by the murmuring hum o^ glittering insects, or the shrill clamour 

 of the plum-headed parroquet and the flute-like calls of the golden oriole. 



" We crossed the broad sandy beds of two rivers over-arched by tall trees, the 

 most conspicuous of which is the Kombook, from the calcined bark of which 

 the natives extract a species of lime to be used with their betel. And from the 

 branches hung suspended over the water the gigantic pods of the huge puswael 

 bean, the sheath of which measures six feet long by five or six inches broad. 



" On ascending the steep bank of the second stream, we found ourselves in 

 front of the residences which had been extemporised for our party in the inter- 

 mediate vicinity of the corral. These cool and enjoyable structures were 

 formed of branches and thatched with palm leaves and fragrant lemon grass ; 

 and in addition to a dining-room and suites of bedrooms fitted with tent furni- 

 ture, they included kitchens, stables, and store-rooms, all run up by the natives 

 in the course of a few days." 



"We now pass to the birds, and are irresistably attracted by the 

 account of Corvus splendens, the common Ceylon crow, which 

 reminds us of the tricks of the European magpie, but exceeds that 

 bird greatly in sagacity and in familiarity with man : — 



" Crows. — Of all the Ceylon birds of this order the most familiar and notor- 

 ious are the small glossy crows, whose shining black plumage shot with blue 

 has suggested the title of Corvus splendens. They frequent the towns in com- 

 panies, and domesticate themselves in the close vicinity of every house ; and it 

 may possibly serve to account for the familiarity and audacity which they 

 exhibit in their intercourse with men, that the Dutch during their sovereignty 

 in Ceylon, enforced severe penalties against any one killing a crow, under the 

 belief that they were instrumental in extending the growth of cinnamon by 

 feeding on the fruit, and thus disseminating the undigested seed. 



" So accustomed are the natives to their presence and exploits, that, like the 

 Greeks and Romans, they have made the movements of crows the basis of their 

 auguries ; and there is no end to the vicissitudes of good and evil fortune which 

 may not be predicted from the direction of their flight, the hoarse or mellow 



