Ornithology of Ceylon. 281 
latter and myself, till I left Ceylon in 1853. The list and the 
correspondence are still in my possession. 
When I left I had brought up the list to 315; deduct from 
this the novelties added by Kelaart, and some which I think 
he has wrongly identified (but which are included in my list 
in the ‘ Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.’), 22 in number, and 
it leaves me the contributor of 110 species to the Ceylonese 
ornis, examples of most of which fell to my own gun. 
My collecting-trips never extended to those hill-parts where 
Dr. Kelaart collected, Newera Ella &c. I was twice in 
Kandy, once at “ Carolina,” an estate near Ambegamoa, and 
once as far as Gillymallie, ved Ratnapoora. The country 
from Trincomalie to Hambantotte I never touched ; and all 
the glorious ‘‘ Park”? country and the eastern parts of the 
island, where Captain Legge procured so many of his novelties, 
is ground untrodden by me. Thus I missed many fine resi- 
dents. As for stragglers, my varied experience has shown 
me that it is very unsafe to doubt the assertion of a fellow 
worker that he found such or such a bird. A species may 
even be common at one time, and utterly absent at another. 
I am glad that the liberality of a wealthy relative has kept 
together the bulk of my Ceylonese collection at Poole, thus 
rendering it accessible to workers, and proving the correct- 
ness or otherwise of my identifications. Many have asserted 
(my friend Legge among the number, before he saw the spe- 
cimens) that I could not have found Falco peregrinus nesting 
at Point Pedro. When I penned those “ Notes on the Orni- 
thology of Ceylon” in the ‘Annals and Mag.’ (my first 
attempt at ornithology), I knew nothing of the vexed ques- 
tions of geographical distribution &c. TJ simply put down 
what I saw, and I fearlessly take the full responsibility of 
every species added by me. 
Where I myself identified any thing, it was from compas 
rison with specimens sent from India by Blyth. His cata- 
logue, with all these marked, is now before me, lately sent 
out from England with my other books. I interleaved it, 
and noted each species as it occurred on the flyleaf, with nest 
and eggs &e. 
