DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS Iff THE SOCIETY'S MUSEUM, 



Note. — Mr. Holdsworth says with justice, loc.cit.: "A further 

 examination of the golden-backed Woodpeckers of Ceylon appears 

 desirable, as the species generally met there is more likely to be 

 B. Punciicollis, common in Southern India, than Brach} pternus 

 Aurantius, which has a more northerly range," I think that it is 

 extremely probable that future investigation will shew that the 

 Jaffna bird, spoken of by Layard, as so numerous there, is the 

 former species and not the latter, as noted in his Catalogue, Annals 

 Natural History, 1854, page 448, under the name of B. Au- 

 rantius. I received two specimens from Doctor Ondaatje in 

 1870, which were shot in the peninsula, and presented by him to 

 the Society's Museum, and these proved to be B. Puneticollis, 

 and not B. Aurantius. 



42. Centropus Rufipennis, Wiper. — The red-winged 

 Ground Cuckoo, "Jungle Crow." Eti-kukuld, Sink. Centropus 

 Philippensis, Cvvier.— Lay ard, Annals Natural History, 1854, 

 page 450. Kelaart, Prodromus Faunas Zeylanica, page 128. 



Numerously distributed in the low-country, and extending up to* 

 3,000 feet in the central pone and in the Morowak Korale. 

 Kelaart has it in his list of Nuwara Eliya birds (Prodromus Faunae 

 Zeylanica.) This Cuckoo is specially numerous throughout the 

 Western Province, among the low wooded hills and cultivated 

 lands of the south-west, and in the maritime districts of the 

 north-east, Holdsworth found it once even in the north-west 

 about Aripu. It is also an inhabitant of the jungles on the south- 

 east coast. 



43. Polyphasia Passerina, Vahl.~ The Plaintive Cuckoo. 

 Cuculus apud, Blytk, in his Catalogue, Birds in Asiatic Society's 

 Museum. Cuculus tenuirostris, Gray. — Layard, Annals Natural 

 History, 1854, page 453; Kelaart, Prodromus Faunae Zeylanica, 

 page 129. 



Migratory to Ceylon, appearing, according to Layard, about Jaffna 

 in February, and in the north-east (about Aripu), according to 

 Holdsworth, in January. They were however plentiful in the 

 neighbourhood of Trincomalee in October last, so that they would 

 appear to frequent the eastern side of the Island at an earlier date 

 than the entrance north. Particularly abundant in the Northern 

 and Eastern Provinces and south-eastern districts ; frequents the 

 Euphorbia jungles about Hambantota in numbers. Jt is rare 

 in the south-west and likewise in the Western Province. 



44. Surniculus DrcRUROiDES, Hodgson.— The Drongo 

 tailed Cuckoo. Omitted from both Layard and Kelaart's lists. 



Inhabits inland jungles in the Western and Northern Provinces 

 (Trincomalee district), and has been procured in the lower hills 



