256 
BIRDS. 
[Chap. VIII. 
During the storms which usher in the monsoon, it has 
been observed, that when coco-nut palms are destroyed 
by lightning, the effect frequently extends beyond 
a single tree, and from the contiguity and conduction 
of the spreading leaves, or some other peculiar cause, 
large groups will be affected by a single flash, a few 
killed instantly, and the rest doomed to rapid decay. 
In Belligam Bay, a little to the east of Point-de-Gralle, 
a small island, which is covered with coco-nuts, has 
acquired the name of ei Crow Island," from being the 
resort of those birds, which are seen hastening towards 
it in thousands towards sunset. A few years ago, during 
a violent storm of thunder, such was the destruction of 
the crows that the beach for some distance was covered 
with a black line of their remains, and the grove on 
which they had been resting was to a great extent 
destroyed by the same flash. 1 
III. Scansores. Parroquets. — Of the Psittacidge the 
only examples are the parroquets, of which the most 
renowned is the Palceornis Alexandria which has the 
historic distinction of bearing the name of the great 
conqueror of India, having been the first of its race 
introduced to the knowledge of Europe on the return of 
his expedition. An idea of their number may be formed 
from the following statement of Mr. Layard, as to the 
multitudes which are to be found on the western coast. 
At Chilaw, I have seen such vast flights of parroquets 
hurrying towards the coco-nut trees which overhang the 
1 Similar instances are recorded 
in other countries of sudden and pro- 
digious mortality amongst crows; 
hut whether occasioned by lightning 
seems uncertain. In 1839 thirty- 
three thousand dead crows were 
found on the shores of a lake in 
the county Westmeath in Ireland 
after a storm. — Thompson's Nat. 
Hist. Ireland, vol. i. p. 319. Pat- 
terson in his Zoology, p. 356, men- 
tions other cases. 
