210 MEGALJSMA ZETLANICA. 



and the north-cast of the island. It is found in the Vanni and throughout most of the country lying imme- 

 diately to the north of Dambulla, wherever the jungle is of an open character. In the Seven Korales the 

 same mav be said of it; and Mr. Parker writes me that it is common about Uswewa. Mr. Holdsworth does 

 not record it from Aripu; but it avoids such dry scrubby districts on the seaboard, being similarly absent from 

 the brushy country about Hambantota. 



As regards the Central Province it is not uncommon in Dumbara and in the valleys of llewahette, 

 Maturata, and other basins of the hill-tributaries of the Mahawelliganga. In the glens or steep ravines 

 intersecting the great expanse of hilly patnas between Fort MacDonald and Haputale it is likewise found, and 

 is now and then seen at a considerable altitude on the pass leading up to Hakgala. Near Banderawella I have 

 met with it at about 1000 feet elevation. 



Habits. — The Brown-headed Barbet inhabits compounds, open wooded country, dry jungle, and scanty 

 forest where fruit-bearing trees are plentiful, on the seeds of which it principally feeds. 



There is perhaps no bird better known than this one is to sportsmen or any others who are induced to 

 visit or reside in the cultivated interior of the Western and Southern districts ; taking up their abode in some 

 shady compound encircling the native cultivator's house on the nearest rise to his ancestral paddy-fields, these 

 uoisy birds commence early in the morning to call to one another, and make the woods resound with their 

 guttural cries. Its loud scale-notes, commencing in measured time and increasing in rapidity and loudness, 

 must be known to every European in the low country, and give rise to its native name of Kotoruwa, which 

 has a slight resemblance to some of the syllables in the scale ; they much remind one of the commencement 

 of the laugh of the Great Brown Kingfisher, or " Laughing Jackass/' of Australia. The food of this Barbet 

 consists of every sort of tree-fruit, seed, and berry ; nothing seems to come amiss to it, for there is no tree that 

 bears fruit that it may not sometimes be found in. It is not as gregarious as the next, or as the two smaller 

 Barbets, but, on the contrary, is uusociably inclined towards its fellows, and more than two or three are seldom 

 found in the same tree. It is active in its movements, seizing fruit that may be firmly attached to the stalk, and 

 swinging its body from its perch, wrenches off the coveted morsel ; fruit and berries are swallowed whole, and 

 in the north the favourite food is the berry of the banyan or the luscious seed of the Palu or iron-wood tree, 

 of which the Ceylon bear (Prochilus labiatus) is so fond. It perches with the body inclining to the horizontal 

 and the head thrust forward in an attitude of watchfulness, unlike the smaller Barbets, who sit bolt upright 

 and twist the head stupidly from side to side. Coleopterous insects are likewise devoured by it ; and in captivity 

 this Barbet has been known to exhibit, as some Toucans do, a carnivorous tendency. An interesting account 

 of a caged bird is contained in Layard's " Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon." At page 447, Ann. & Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. 1854, he writes: — "One kept in a large aviary in Colombo destroyed all the little Amadinre 

 placed with it. Not content with snapping them up when within his reach, he would lie in wait for them behind 

 a thick bush or the feeding-trough, pounce upon them unawares, and after beating them a little on the ground 

 or perch, swallow them whole. When this cannibal came into my possession he was confined in a smaller cage 

 than that in which he had at first been secured ; this seemed to displease him, and he went to work to find 

 some means of escape ; he narrowly examined every side and corner to discover a weak spot, and having 

 detected one, applied himself vigorously to bore a hole through it, as a Woodpecker would have done ; 

 grasping the bars with his feet, he swung himself round, bringing his whole weight to bear upon 

 his bill, which he used as a pickaxe, till the house resounded with his rapid and well-aimed blows. On being 

 checked from exercising his ingenuity in this manner, he became sulky aud refused to eat or offer his call 

 of recognition when I approached him ; in a day or two, however, he apparently thought better of the 

 matter, resumed his labours upon another spot, and fed as voraciously as ever, devouring huge slices of 

 bananas, jungle fruits, the bodies of any small birds I skinned, &c. I hoped he would have lived long with 

 me, but found him dead one morning ; and as he was fat and well-favoured, I presume he died a victim to 

 the solitary system." 



The flight of the Kotoruwa is performed with quick beating of the wings, and is somewhat laboured, 

 though by no means slow, owing to the amount of momentum which such a solid frame must naturally acquire. 



Nidificathm. — This bird breeds from March until July. The latter month is rather late, I imagine; 



