Chai\ VIII.] 



PELICANS. 



265 



and slowly soared away in the direction of the sea- 

 shore. 



The pelicans were apparently later in their move- 

 ments ; they allowed us to approach as near them as 

 the swampy nature of the soil would permit ; and even 

 when a gun was discharged amongst them, only those 

 moved off which the particles of shot disturbed. They 

 were in such numbers at this favourite place, that the 

 water over which they had taken up their residence 

 was swarming with crocodiles, attracted by the frequent 

 fall of the young birds ; and the natives refused, from 

 fear of them, to wade in for one of the larger pelicans 

 which had fallen, struck by a rifle ball. It was alto- 

 gether a very remarkable sight. 



Of the birds familiar to European sportsmen, par- 

 tridges and quails are to be had at all times ; the wood- 

 cock has occasionally been shot in the hills, and the 

 ubiquitous snipe, which arrives in September from 

 Southern India, is identified not alone by the eccen- 

 tricity of its flight, but by retaining in high perfection 

 the qualities which have endeared it to the gastronome 

 at home. But the magnificent pheasants, which inhabit 

 the Himalayan range and the woody hills of the Chin- 

 Indian peninsula, have no representative amongst the 

 tribes that people the woods of Ceylon ; although a bird 

 believed to be a pheasant has more than once been 

 seen in the jungle, close to Eangbodde, on the road to 

 Neuera-ellia. 



List of Ceylon Birds. 

 In submitting this catalogue of the birds of Ceylon, 

 I am anxious to state that the copious mass of its con- 



