£1 



Beat is fixed, are bent over the top and interlaced with fine 

 grass, so as to form a dome with an opening at the side. The 

 eggs are four in number, and very beautiful : ground colour 

 clear blue green, clouded here and there, or blotched mostly 

 towards the obtuse end with sepia. Axis 7£ lines, diameter 

 6 lines. In several instances that have come under my notice* 

 they have been hatched without the assistance of the bird 

 during the daytinie. 



Budytes Viridis (Gmelin). The Indian Field- Wagtail; 

 This Field Wagtail is migratory to Ceylon, appearing about 

 Colombo during the first week in October and disappearing sud- 

 denly in the beginning of May. Nearly all individuals on ar- 

 riving here are young, and in the first plumage, with a few dusky 

 spots on the chest and the light under surface tinged more or 

 less with yellow. Some specimens have a few bright, yellow, 

 feathers on the foreneck, in October ; these are probably adult 

 birds with a remnant of the breeding plumage. This bird moults 

 here about January, and, assumes the spring clress with th$ 

 ashy gray head before leaving us, but I have not met with any 

 so far advanced as to have the black cap. It is very plentiful 

 on the Galle Face, its elegant little figure adorning the green 

 sward as it runs to and fro, pecking in its singular way, to ona 

 side and then to the other. 



Corydalla Rufula (Vieillot.) The Indian Pipit. 

 The Indian Pipit is stationary in this Province throughout the 

 year, but is more plentiful about Colombo during the south-west 

 monsoon, than at other times. A partial migration to some 

 °ther part of the Island seems to take place during the dry 

 season. In this neighbourhood its numbers seem to increase 

 in May, about the time when the two larger species C. Striolata 

 and C. Richardi, which arrive during the first week in October, 

 migrate to the Continent to breed. It prefers open bare 



