14 ROYAL ASTATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH.) 



Hambantota, respectively, possess a similar avifauna, with the 

 difference perhaps, that natatorial birds abound more in the latter 

 than in the former, owing to the presence of large tanks in the 

 Magam and adjoining Pattus, but the list of insessorial birds 

 in the two places is precisely the same: the great mountain zone 

 districts are peculiar features lying as a dividing medium between 

 them. Again, the damp hill-country of the south-west, and the 

 vast forest-covered region of the north-east, lying between 

 Anuradhapura and Trincomalee, possess the same birds, with the 

 exception of one or two very local species, such as Temenuchus 

 senex and Prionochilus Yincens, which are only located in the 

 mountains of the former part; moreover, the south-western corner 

 of the Island possesses scarcely anything in common with the 

 adjacent lying hot and flat country of the south-east, the eastern 

 si ope 8 of the Kolonna and Morowak Korale mountains and their 

 off-shoots, leading southwards to Matara, acting as a barrier or 

 dividing line beyond which, on either side, the typical forms of 

 the two regions (Temenuchus senex, Hubigula melanictera, 

 Prionochilus Vincens, &c, on the west, and Pyrrhulaunda grisea, 

 Temenuchus pagodaruin, Sarciophorus bilobus, &c, of the east) 

 do not appear to pass. While on the subject of the south-west 

 and its avifauna, it would be well to remark that it is somewhat 

 noteworthy, that two species of " Ceylon" birds, vide supra, 

 should only be found in that district, and this certainly would 

 allow us to premise that others, as yet undiscovered members of 

 our Fauna, may be confined solely to the hills of the Eastern Pro- 

 vince. Lastly, there exists another region which, as the late Dr. 

 Kelaart prophesied in his "Prodromus Faunae Zeylanica" has 

 proved to be " a distinct centre of creation*' analogous to that of the 

 correspondingly elevated zone of the Neilgherries in South India. 

 I speak of NuwaraEliya and its surrounding mountains. I doctor 

 Kelaart referred generally to Zoology and Botany, but we have 

 there, as far as birds even are concerned, three of the peculiar 

 Ceylon species, Merula Kinisii, Arrenga Blighi, Brachjpteryx 

 Palliseri, and perhaps a fourth, Ochronella Nigrorufa (found also 



