DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN THE SOCIETY'S MUSEUM. 15 



on the Neilgherries), confined to the immediate vicinity of the 

 sanatarium. Notwithstanding that this singular concentration of 

 these restricted species to such a small area can be easily accounted 

 for on the strength of their being peculiar to the Island, and the 

 highest mountains about Nuwara Eliya being the only district of 

 such an elevation, and therefore with the same cool climate, in 

 the country, yet there is no parallel to it in the distribution of 

 birds throughout the whole peninsular part of India, and it must 

 therefore I think, be viewed as the most remarkable feature in 

 the history of Ceylon birds. Students of our Ornithology are 

 much indebted to Mr. Iloldsworth, who, assisted by the most 

 eminent Indian Ornithologists at home, has worked out, in his 

 catalogue of Ceylon birds, published last year in the proceedings 

 of the London Zoological Society, the right nomenclature of all 

 our birds, and the history and authorship of all those species about 

 which there was any doubt. He has shewn that several members 

 of our old lists, such as Yungipicus gymnopthalmos, Tephro- 

 dornis affinis (Blyth), and Grauculus Pussillus (ibid ', hitherto 

 assigned to Ceylon only, are found in South India, and that one 

 of our hill fly-catchers, Euymias serdida, Waldeii, on the other 

 hand, as an inhabitant of the peninsula, is peculiar to this 

 Island, and was hitherto confounded with E. melanops, Vigons; 

 while again he has proved that a few species described as new 

 by Layard and others, such as Butalis Muttui, Zoothera inibri- 

 cata, are identical with the hitherto recorded from India, 

 Alseonax terricolor and Oreocincla Neilgherrienses. It is a 

 pity that this gentleman confined his labours and attention to 

 the cultivated districts of the Western Province and the neigh- 

 bourhoods of Mannar and Nuwara Eliya only, instead of 

 exploring the Island to a greater extent, particularly in the south- 

 west and east, and thereby acquiring a thorough knowledge of the 

 distribution of our species ; by so doing he would have rendered his 

 catalogue much more valuable to the enquirer, and afforded much 

 information as to where different birds were to be found. In the 



