DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN THE SOCIETY'S MUSEUM. 35 



Note. — The bird found in the Southern Province has more blue 

 at the chin and along the side of the throat than my Western and 

 Northern Province examples, corresponding in fact to the descrip- 

 tion Holdsworth gives (Catalogue Ceylon Birds, P. Z. S. 1872, 

 No. 125.) of the peculiarity in the throat, of Ceylon examples of 

 C. Rubeculoides. I however have examples of this species from 

 the north with the entire blue throat and not with "the orange 

 colouring of the breast running up the centre" of it. Can there be 

 a third species peculiar to the Island, which has been mistaken for 

 C. Rubeculoides, inhabiting the forests of the south-western hills ? 



67. Pitta Brachyura, Jerdon.- -The Pitta. The Short- 

 tailed Ground Thrush; " Avichiya, Sinks'' 



Migratory to Ceylon, arriving here in September, distributed over 

 the whole Island up to Nuwara liliya, and almost equally common 

 in all parts. It is perhaps less numerous in the hills and in the 

 cultivated parts of the Western Province than in the low jungles 

 of the south-west, north-east, and. south-east. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Hambantota and Trincomalee I have found it more abundant 

 than in this district. It seems especially fond of the low Euphorbia 

 scrub in the Kataragama district. 



68. Oreocincla Spiloptera, Blyth. — The Spotted Moun" 

 tain Thrush. 



I have lately discovered this bird to have a much more extended 

 range than hitherto supposed. It is distributed throughout parts 

 of the Central Pro\ince, not mounting as high as Nuwara Eliya 

 according to Holds worth, over the Morowak and Kukulu Korales, 

 and occurs plentifully in places in the Northern Province in the 

 north-east monsoon. I met with several in one spot in the splendid 

 forests on the road from Trincomalee to Anuradhapura. It doubtless 

 occurs in the low-hill forests of the Gangaboda Pattu in the Galle 

 district. I have once or twice got a glimpse of a bird along the 

 , rocky streams of those jungles which could have been no other than 

 this species It is, as regards the Central Province, especially 

 common in Dumbara. 



69. Alcippe Nigrifrons, Blyth. — The Ceylon Wren- 

 babbler. Battichcha, Sinh. Layard, Annals Natural History, 

 1853, volume 12, page 269. 



Numerous in jungles all over the Island, except perhaps the dry 

 country of the north-west (Aripu), where I observe Mr. Holds- 

 worth did not fi/id it. It is however abundant in parts of the 

 Trincomalee district, and likewise occurs (though not in jungle 

 near the sea) in the neighbourhood of Hambantota and Kataragama. 

 In the Central Province it is numerous up to the highest points, 

 and it is especially abundant in the bamboo thickets of the low- 



