NO, 44.— 1893.] NIDIFICATION OF CEYLON BIRDS, 



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NOTES ON THE NIDIFICATION OP STURNORNIS SENEX 

 (WHITE-HEADED STARLING) AND CISSA 

 ORNATA (CEYLON BLUE JAY). 



By F. Lewis. 



The White-headed Starling is, I believe, the rarest of Ceylon 

 birds, its natural home being those parts of the country 

 where the rainfall is well over 100 inches per annum. 



In the course of many years I have only met with it at rare 

 intervals. It is a gregarious species living in small flocks of 

 from four to ten birds, when it may be found affecting small 

 clumps of forest, but at no time far away from extensive 

 forest-clad ranges of hills. In this way I found it in Rasa- 

 galla forest, Balangoda; Bambarabotuwa, north of Pelmadulla; 

 Eratna, below Adam's Peak ; and Wellankanda, in the wildest 

 part of the Kukulu Korale. 



In April, 1892, Mr. G. W. Jenkins, of Sana Estate, managed 

 to procure for me an egg, and soon after I proceeded to the 

 spot and saw the nest. This was placed in the hollow (decayed 

 portion) of a kokatiya tree (Garcinia termophylla), some 

 fifty feet or so from the ground, and was very roughly 

 lined with decayed leaves and twigs, but upon no systematic 

 plan, except that the leaves appeared to be mostly of one 

 kind. 



The egg is in colour a beautiful light glossy blue, broad oval 

 in shape, but rather acute towards the " narrow end." My 

 specimen measures 1^ in. by J in. 



In 1876 I procured, while resident in the Dikoya district, 

 what I believed to be the egg of the Ceylon Blue Jay ( Cissa 

 ornata), but the specimen being in fragments, I was unable 

 for years to verify my supposition or secure a perfect egg. In 

 January last Mr. J. Gray, of Balangoda, procured for me 

 a perfect egg from the forest of Bambarabotuwa, and I am 

 also indebted to him for a second specimen, though not in 

 ,good preservation. 



