1200 PELECANUS PH1LIPPINENSIS. 



the Pelicans in that part of Ceylon seemed to have collected literally in thousands on the tank. My companion 

 took a long shot into the " mob " with a rifle, and the various scattered flocks which were floating calmly 

 about streamed steadily up into the air one after the other, and each commenced to soar majestically roxind 

 in bold circles which crossed each other, overlapped, sometimes joined in one common circuit, and then rolled 

 off again into separate parties until the whole air was a mass of immense circling birds which rose far into 

 the sky and then wheeled off over the surrounding forest. 



The Pelican is an exceedingly silent bird, and does not appear to become, like most birds, demonstrative 

 during the breeding-season even. A pair of young birds which I brought round to Galle from the south-east 

 coast used to make a hoarse guttural croak when they saw their food coming, flapped their wings, and darted 

 out their huge bills with an expansive motion of their pouches. They thrived well until the wet damp 

 weather of the south-west monsoon (a thing unknown in their natural habitat on the other side of the island) 

 came on, when they both died. 



Nidifi cation. — The Grey Pelican breeds in company with other birds (Herons, Ibises, and Cormorants), 

 and, doubtless, like them, resorts to the same spot year after year, unless much disturbed, when it will 

 occasionally desert the Pelicanry and carry off its nest to some other secluded spot. One of the longest- 

 known of these interesting places is the Pelicanry at the great tank of Padawiya, concerning which Sir Emerson 

 Tennent has written an interesting account. In the vicinity there are other localities, such as at Sieventhe- 

 murrippu, where Capt. Wade-Dalton informs me he found a very large colony some few years ago ; and, 

 again, there is another spot not far from Tirai where these birds usually breed. I have heard of a breeding- 

 place in the Minery district, and there is a large colony near (Rugatn) Rukam tank. In 1872 I found about 

 a dozen pairs breeding at the oft-mentioned Uduwila tank, near the Kirin.de Ganga. The nesting-time in 

 Ceylon is between December and March, and by the latter month the young are sometimes nearly all 

 hatched out. 



While on a visit to Tissa Maha Rama I heard from a native that there was a place near the river, and 

 about five miles distant from Tissa, where great numbers of water-birds bred. Starting one morning at the 

 usual hour for bullock-cart travelling (2 a.m.), I traversed the dense jungle on the east side of the river, and 

 arrived at the crossing-place of the Hambantota road before daybreak. Here a sparkling stream flowing down 

 the gravelly bed of the river, on either side of which was a broad stretch of cool sand, completely canopied 

 by the foliage of the magnificent Koombook-tree, offered a most delightful spot for outspanning ; and so 

 leaving the bullock-cart in charge of the driver, I started with my coolies for the tank, about a mile distant. 

 The day was just dawning, and the harsh call of the Buff-breasted Kingfisher, mingled with the trill of the 

 Red Woodpecker and the voluble notes of the Racket-tailed Drougo, were beginning to break into the 

 stillness of the forest. After striking off the rough track we traversed an open space of long rank grass and 

 vegetation, where paddy had been cultivated some years ago in the upper waters of the tank, and approaching 

 a narrow belt of jungle, which we could not see over, we heard the first indications of the vast bird-colony 

 which had taken up its quarters in the depths of the jungle. Listening to the cries of the hundreds of young 

 birds mingled with the " croaks " of Herons and the quaks of Egrets, we stepped through the narrow belt of 

 jungle, I may say, on the tiptoe of expectation, and came in view of one of those wonderful scenes which 

 it is almost useless to describe to those who have not explored eastern jungles. 



Teeming tropical nature was just awakening from her slumbers, and hundreds and hundreds of the 

 showiest birds which the island of Ceylon produces were assembled together in the small space of a few acres. 

 An area of about fifty acres, surrounded by luxuriant forest, beneath which was a belt of thorny and almost 

 impenetrable jungle, enclosed the half-dried village tank of Uduwila, reduced to a muddy pond of two or three 

 acres by the drought of several months. In this murky pool, polluted by the droppings of hundreds of 

 huge birds, stood about forty or fifty thorny trees, averaging from 20 to 30 feet in height, and round the 

 edge of the water was a broad expanse of black mud fancifully cracked by the sun and pitted all over with 

 numberless elephant-footprints. All these trees were loaded with huge nests and literally covered with 

 magnificent birds. Rows of elegant White Egrets and Spoonbills, graceful Herons and gaunt Shell-eaters, 

 little groups of stately Pelican-Ibises, their rosy plumage glistening in the rays of the sun, just appearing 

 above the surrounding jungle, colonies of swarthy Cormorants and little assemblies of handsome " Snake- 



