BIKDS. 



[Chaf. VIII. 



and savage husband, who suspected the fidelity of his 

 wife, availed himself of her absence to kill her child, 

 of whose paternity he was doubtful, and on her return 

 placed before her a curry prepared from its flesh. Of 

 this the unhappy woman partook, till discovering the 

 crime by finding the finger of her infant, she fled in 

 frenzy to the forest, and there destroyed herself. On 

 her death she was metamorphosed, according to the 

 Buddhist belief, into an ulama, or Devil-bird, which 

 still at nightfall horrifies the villagers by repeating 

 the frantic screams of the bereaved mother in her 

 agony. 



II. Passekes. Swallows. — Within thirty-five miles of 

 Caltura, on the western coast, are inland caves, to which 

 the Esculent Swift 1 resorts, and there builds the 66 edible 

 bird's nest," so highly prized in China. Near the spot 

 a few Chinese immigrants have established themselves, 

 who rent the nests as a royalty from the government, 

 and make an annual export of the produce. But the 

 Swifts are not confined to this district, and caves con- 



doubt : lie says — " The Devil-Bird 

 is not an owl. I never heard it 

 until I came to Kornegalle, where 

 it haunts the rocky hill at the back 

 of Grovernment-house. Its ordinary 

 note is a magnificent clear shout 

 like that of a human being, and 

 which can be heard at a great dis- 

 tance, and has a fine effect in the 

 silence of the closing night. It has 

 another cry like that of a hen just 

 caught, but the sounds which have 

 earned for it its bad name, and 

 which I have heard but once to 

 perfection, are indescribable, the 

 most appalling that can be ima- 

 gined, and scarcely to be heard 

 without shuddering; I can only 



compare it to a boy in torture, 

 whose screams are being stopped 

 by being strangled. I have offered 

 rewards for a specimen, but with- 

 out success. The only European 

 who had seen and fired at one 

 agreed with the natives that it is 

 of the size of a pigeon, with a long 

 tail. 1 believe it is a Podargus or 

 Night Hawk." In a subsequent 

 note he further says — "I have 

 since seen two birds by moonlight, 

 one of the size and shape of a 

 cuckoo, the other a large black 

 bird, which I imagine to be the 

 one which gives these calls." 



1 Collocalia brevirostris,il/bCM. ; 

 C. nidifica, Gray. 



