36 



ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRXnCH.) 



country near Galle, becoming perhaps a little less plentiful in the 

 Morowak Korale and higher parts of the Hinidurn Pattu. It is 

 found close to the Cinnamon 'hardens, as regards Colombo, and is 

 numerous in all the woods and jungles of the Western Province. 



70. Dumetia Albogtjlaris, Blyth— The White-throated 

 Wren-babbler; " Pig Bird" of Europeans in India; Battichcha, 

 Sink. — Layard, Annals Natural History, 1853, volume 12, page 

 272. * 



Great mistakes have been made about the range of this babbler owing 

 to its shy and skulking habits. I have discovered it to be widely 

 distributed throughout the Island and in some localities common, 

 although Layard remarks, loc. cit , " confined to the vicinity of 

 Colombo," and Holds worth (Catalogue Ceylon Birds, P. Z. S. 1872, 

 Iso. 138) says that he only saw it in the vicinity of the Cinnamon 

 Gardens. It appears, it is true, to be rather numerous in that 

 particular locality, but it occurs in various parts of the Western 

 Province, and all through the low wooded districts of the south- 

 west, as well as in the Central Province up to 2,500 feet, at which 

 elevation I met with it near Madulkele in the Knuckles. 



71. Drymocataphus Fusoicapillus, Blyth. — The whist- 

 ling Wren-babbler ; Battichcha Sink. — Layard, Annals Naturai 

 History 1853, volume 12, page 269. 



Another bird hitherto passed over and considered very rare. Ex- 

 ceedingly numerous all through the low-country of the south-west 

 up to 2,000 feet in the Morowak Korale and Hinidurn Pattu, and 

 equally so in the Trincomalee district. PI olds worth remarks of 

 it in his Catalogue, No. 139, " I only know of three specimens 

 having been obtained, two of them by Layard in Colombo and 

 on the central road leading northwards from Kandy, and one by 

 myself also from the latter part of the Island." It has hitherto 

 escaped observation owing to its shy habits and frequenting thick 

 jungle, and I might have missed it as well as my predecessors, had 

 not my attention, on first collecting in this district, been directed 

 to the very remarkable note or whistle resembling the words, "to 

 meet you," which I found on procuring a specimen emanated from 

 this bird. Having once identified its voice, I found it an inhabi- 

 tant of every bit of jungle and thicket in the neighbourhood. It 

 occurs rarely, I imagine, in the Western Province, and will be found 

 also in the lower parts of Sabaragamuwa. Mr. Bligh of Kandy 

 has procured it in the Central Province, but I am not aware at 

 what elevation. 



72. Pomatorhinus Melanurus, Blyth. — The Ceylon Sci- 

 mitar Babbler, 



Numerous in the jungles of the Hewagam Korale and interior of 

 the Western Province generally, throughout the wooded country 



