and south of India,, As it frequents tangled brakes, thick thorny; 

 scrub and under wood of all sorts and lives on the ground; 

 almost entirely, it is scarcely ever seen, and would be entirely 

 passed over by the closest observer, were he not acquainted 

 with its wild sounding, two-note whistle followed by the curi- 

 ous cry, tolerably well syllabised by the bird's Sinhalese name, 

 Avitch-i-a. It is heard at day break and at sun-set, but 

 rarely ever in the day time* I have noticed that it whistles 

 more in the morning than the evening* the more common note 

 feeing the cry referred to, which it utters when disturbed. It is 

 found close to Colombo in the thick underwood beyond the 

 Cinnamon Gardens. Up country it is common in the Coffee 

 Estates, its clear whistle being the first sound heard at 

 dawn. 



Pomatorhinus Mblanuhfs (Blyth). The black tailed! 

 Scimitar Babbler^ 



Some up country specimens, that I have examined, have a* 

 inifous spot behind the ear coverts which Mr. Holdsworth 

 judges to be a mark of a young bird, although in all other 

 respect except length of bill (one of the distinguishing marks 

 between the adult bird and its Indian ally, P. Horsfieldi)\ 

 they correspond with mature birds whicli I have procured in ; 

 the low country. The bill of an adult measures, at front along 

 the chord of the arc 5 a little more than 1 inch. 



The black tailed Scimitar Babbler is common in the wild ; 

 jungle to the north-east of Cotta, and is sometimes seen it in ; 

 the allotments quite close to that village* It is another instance 

 ©f a Ceylon bird whose range in the Island has hitherto been 

 misunderstood,, and which is controlled by the presence of 

 forest land rather than by that of hills. When alone it is fre- 

 quently very noisy, uttering its loud call note which some 

 syllabise by the words " coo-riik" "coo-ruk;" when searching, 



