126



Mr. Russell Humphrys,



Our glasses are now employed carefully searching the

neighbouring trees, with the result that numerous tiny Sun-birds

(Arachnechthra minima) are discovered busily employed search¬

ing the palm leaves for minute insects—a somewhat similar Sun-

bird but larger, we take to be A. ceylonica ; both species were

plentiful and quite easy to approach. A familiar cage bird in the

English bird market is the Green Bulbul ( Chloropsis jerdoni),

here we observe him at home amidst natural surroundings, and

very beautiful he is. His bright grass green plumage matches

so closely the surrounding foliage as to render detection very

difficult. Another species we observed in this localit)' - was the

Black-capped Bulbul (. Pycnonotus melanicterus ) a bird entered in

our field notes as the Black-crested Yellow Bulbul ( Otocompsa

fiaviventris) ; to an untutored eye the similarity between the two

birds a short distance away is our excuse for the error. Several

examples of the latter bird have been in our possession at

different times, but as Oates and Blanford make no reference to

the occurrence of this bird in Ceylon we conclude it must have

been the former species. Another Bulbul observed, of a dull

olive green plumage, was not identified ; we noted it as being

possibly P. htteolus.


As we emerge from thick bush into a clearing a Drongo

(.Dicmrus ater ) is sitting motionless on a rotting palm stump,

swooping down at intervals to return with some insect to his

perch, and there devour it at his leasure. It being now mid-day

and our collecting box more than half full, we select this spot as

a suitable halting ground and prepare to refresh the inner man,

and afterwards enjoy a short siesta as far as mosquitoes and flies

innumerable will allow.


Reader, during the interval, and while the remainder of

our little expedition are enjoying a well earned repose, we will

borrow the winged sandals of Perseus and journey some

hundred and fifty miles to the hills inland, and alighting in the

neighbourhood of the Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, at an

altitude of some 1600 to 1700 feet above sea level, continue our

wanderings.


A Green Fruit Pigeon (Crocopus chlorogaster) flashes across



