LBIONIDEOMUS INDICUS. 615 



expaase 9-5 to 10-0 ; wing 2-95 to 3-15 ; tail 2-8 to 3-0 ; tarsus 0-8 to 0-9 ; bill from gape 0'7 ; weight 0-55 to 

 0-6 oz. Female. Length G-5 to 6"75 inches ; expanse 9-4 to 9-75 ; wing 3-05 ; tail from vent 2-7 to 2-8 ; tarsus 

 0-8 ; bill from gape 0-75 ; weight 0-62 oz. 

 " Legs, feet, and claws pinkisK flesh-colour ; upper mandible dark brown, lower mandible fleshy pink ; irides deep 

 brown." 



Distribution. — This charming little Wagtail, which is a denizen of the dry forests of the island, arrives in 

 Ceylon about the first week in October, and spreads through the region north of the central zone, its limit 

 on the western side being the Kurunegala district, in which part I have traced it as far south as the forests 

 lying between Madampe and the Maha oya. Thence it extends round the base of the hills to the eastern 

 forests ; but I do not know if it ranges higher than about the foot of the mountains. On the eastern side 

 I have never seen it further down than the country between Vendeloos and Dambool. It is principally located 

 in the central forests to the north of Dambool, and is numerous in the district between Trincomalie and 

 Anaradjapura, in the Seven Korales, and other places north of the mountain-zone. 



At Trincomalie I have found it in wood close to the sea-shore. It disappears from the island about the 

 end of March. On the mainland it has a wide eastern distribution, extending from the south of India chiefly 

 up the east side of the peninsula to Arrakan and Pegu and across to China, down the province of Tenasserim 

 to Malacca, taking in the Andaman Islands, and thence to Sumatra, at the west of which island Mr. Davison 

 saw it in Acheen. Mr. Buxton does not seem to have met with it in Lampong at the other extremity; but it 

 is doubtless found in most parts of this comparatively little-known island. Jerdon says it is found throughout 

 the whole peninsula of India, but is common nowhere; he considered it rare in the south of India, and he only 

 procured it himself at Nellore and on the Malabar coast. Mr. Bourdillon records it as a winter visitor to the 

 Travancore hills ; Mr. Blanford procured it in the Godaveri valley ; Blyth states that he obtained it at all 

 seasons near Calcutta. In the Irrawaddy delta Dr. Armstrong obtained it in dense forest a few miles from 

 China Ba-keer ; and up the country Captain Feilden got it at Thayetmyo, and Mr. Oates in the hills. In 

 Tenasserim, where it is generally distributed throughout the less elevated portions of the province, it was 

 not procured later than April. From the evidence of observers in various parts of India, Mr. Hume affirms 

 that it leaves the country in May, returning in September ; but where it breeds is still a mystery, although we 

 may, from a glance at its distribution, surmise that it passes northward through Burmah, and thence perhaps 

 retires to the eastern confines of Thibet, or still further north to the southern part of Mongolia. Here, 

 however, once we pass to the northward of the line of the Himalayas, we are dealing with a region so vast 

 that there would be room in it for numbers of Indian birds to breed unknown to any who have yet explored it; 

 and any conclusions which one might arrive at with reference to our little Wagtail could only be the veriest 

 conjecture indeed. It is noteworthy that Mr. Swinhoe procured it as far north as Pekin, which would decidedly 

 suggest a very northerly breeding-place. Its distribution in India is perhaps as singular as its migration, for 

 it does not seem to be governed by a preference for the is-ombral tracts which Mr. Hume has so well 

 delineated in the useful map he has lately published (Str. Feath. vii.), and in Ceylon it is essentially a dry- 

 district species. 



Habits. — The Wood- Wagtail frequents the interior of the forest, being more often seen away from water 

 than near it. I have sometimes met with it on the sandy beds of dry rivers in heavy jungle, but most 

 frequently running about on the leafy ground among trees, or along the edges of paths and roads in the 

 depths of the woods. It is very arboreal in its habits, often flying high up and alighting on the gigantic limb 

 of some huge " Koombook "- or " Palu "-tree, about which it will run with as much confidence as on terra 

 firma ; it just as often, however, flies off and realights on the ground. Its actions are very graceful, and there 

 was always, to my mind, no little charm in watching its elegant form in the wild and solitary jungles of 

 Ceylon. It is, to a surprising degree, fearless and inquisitive in its manner, and will approach within a few 

 yards of man, quietly tripping over the fallen leaves of the forest, with its characteristic " balancing " and 

 swaying to and fro of its tiny frame, twisting its head awry, and giving out its tinkling cry of clink, clink, 

 resembling somewhat that of the Chaffinch ; for a moment it will then survey the intruder with quiet curiosity, 

 hopping perhaps on to a low adjacent branch, and after running along it for an instant will realight and 



