CENTEOPUS CHLOEOEHTNCHUS. 265 



stone into deep water, and which may he likened to the syllable dhjobnk ; this is uttered by both sexes ; but 

 whenever I procured a specimen uttering the loud call in question it proved to be a male. Its diet consists 

 of Coleoptera, spiders, snails, and grasshoppers, and in the stomach of one example I found a number of 

 minute Ammonites. When winged it runs, like the preceding, very rapidly through the dense jungle and 

 quickly escapes pursuit. 



Nidification.— The breeding-season probably begins in April or May and lasts until July. In August 

 I procured the nestling which forms the subject of the accompanying Plate, and which had not long left the 

 nest. It was seated on a low branch in some dense underwood and uttered a sound resembling the note of 

 the adult, but not so deep. On the first occasion that I heard it I was unable to find the bird, supposing it 

 to be an old one which had flown away on my approaching it ; but on passing the exact spot the following 

 day I again heard the note, and succeeded in finding its author, which must have remained in precisely the 

 same position during the 24 hours that had intervened. The nest and eggs are, in all probability, almost 

 identical with those of the Common Coucal, the latter being perhaps somewhat smaller. 



The figure in the Plate represents an adult bird, shot in the Seven Korales, feeding the nestling alluded 

 to, which was procured in Mr. Chas. de Zoysa's fine forest at Kuruwite, where the species is abundant. 



2 m 



