Veyhn Ornithology* Vl\ 



tjnder parts yellowish white and spotted with brown. Inner 

 web of primaries indistinctly barred. Tail speckled with 

 dark grey, and slightly streaked. Thighs white* Bill horn 

 colour. Irides pale yellow. Tarsi and toes yellowish brown ; 

 claws pale yellow. Length 1 foot 2 J inches. Wing 

 1 1 inches. 



Found by Mr. Layard in the old Fort at Jaffna. The above 

 description is taken from the only specimen he procured. 



Some account of the R^diyas, with a specimen of their language. 

 By Simon Casie Chitty, Esq. 



It is commonly believed that the Rodiyas were originally 

 one of the Singhalese castes, who, according to one tradition*, 

 as noticed by Knox, were expelled from society for having 

 imposed on a certain King, by substituting human flesh for 

 venison, which it was their duty to provide for the royal 

 table ; or who, according to another tradition, as noticed by 

 Davy, were made outcastes because they continued to indulge 

 in eating beef after its use was prohibited ; or who, according 

 to another tradition, as noticed by Upham, were driven into 

 the jungle on account of their leprosy, engendered by bestial 

 practices; but the striking dissimilarity of their physical cha- 

 racteristics from the Singhalese, being much more robust and 

 vigorous, at once militates against the belief that they are of 

 the same nation, and marks them out as a distinct and pecu- 

 liar race of people. My opinion of the Rodiyas therefore is, 

 that they are either a colony of some of the wandering hordes 

 from India, or a fragment of the aborigines of Ceylon itself^ 

 partially blended with the Singhalese females of high caste 

 whom the kings in former times had degraded to their rank 

 and community, not only for high treason, but also for sacrilege^ 

 &s was the case with seven members of the family of Nahalle 



