258 



BIRDS. 



[Chap. VIII. 



migratory \ allured, as the Singhalese allege, by the 

 ripening of the cinnamon berries, and hence one species 

 is known in the southern provinces as the 66 Cinnamon 

 Dove." Others feed on the fruits of the banyan : and 

 it is probably to their instrumentality that this mar- 

 vellous tree chiefly owes its diffusion, its seeds being 

 carried by them to remote localities. A very beautiful 

 pigeon, peculiar to the mountain range, discovered in 

 the lofty trees at Neuera-ellia, has, in compliment to 

 the Viscountess Torrington, been named Oarpophaga 

 Torringtonice. 



Another, called by the natives neela-cobeya 2 , although 

 strikingly elegant both in shape and colour, is still more 

 remarkable for the singularly soothing effect of its low 

 and harmonious voice. A gentleman who has spent 

 many years in the jungle, in writing to me of this 

 bird and of the effects of its melodious song, says, that 

 66 its soft and melancholy notes, as they came from some 

 solitary place in the forest, were the most gentle sounds 

 I ever listened to. Some sentimental smokers assert 

 that the influence of the propensity is to make them 

 feel as if they could freely forgive all who had ever 

 offended them ; and I can say with truth such has been 

 the effect on my own nerves of the plaintive murmurs 

 of the neela-cobeya, that sometimes, when irritated, and 

 not without reason, by the perverseness of some of 

 my native followers, the feeling has almost instantly 

 subsided into placidity on suddenly hearing the loving 

 tones of these beautiful birds." 



1 Alsocomus puniceus, the " Sea- its periodical arrival and departure, 

 son Pigeon "of Ceylon, so called from 2 Chalcophaps Indicus, Linn. 



