INTKODU CTION. 
xix 
Palceornis caltliropce , Zosterops ceylonensis, Culicicapa ceylonensis) abound, and in which both 
Gallus lafayettii and Galloper dix bicalcarata are plentiful. The northern portion of this korale, 
lying between the Karawita hills and the hilly forests of the Passedun Korale, consists partly of 
semicultivated land and partly of a curious and little-known tract of open grassy hills with wood- 
dotted dingles, resembling the patnas of the Kandyan country, and on the open parts of which 
Grass- Warblers, Wren-Warblers, and Munias are common, while Babblers ( Pomatorhinus ) are 
found in the groves ; but otherwise an absence of bird-life is decidedly noticeable. 
It is in the coffee-districts and valleys lying beneath the estates which are dotted with 
patna-grasses, particularly “ Maana-grass ” ( Andropogon martini ), and patched here and there 
with groves of luxuriant trees lining the courses of the streams, where the hill-species, both 
“ peculiar ” and Indian, intermingled with not a few low-country forms, abound ; but it is also in 
these spots where the original ornithological features of the country are being gradually changed 
by the disappearance before the woodman’s axe of such a vast area of forest, and species such as 
Palumbus torringtonice, Merula Icinnisi, Eulabes ptilogenys, Stoparola sordida, and Culicicapa 
ceylonensis (true hill-species) are being driven into the upper forests, or are locating themselves 
to a considerable extent about the open estates where once their forest-home stood. 
In the upper forests and in the Nuwara-Eliya plateau we lose the stately trees of the genera 
Poona, Dipterocarpus, & c., and find stunted, though thick-trunked, arboreal forms, for the most 
part profusely clothed with handsome mosses ; and these woods, with their circumscribed patnas, 
are the favourite haunts of the peculiar birds enumerated in my table, as well as many Indian 
species, both permanent and migratory. Of the former may be mentioned Merula Icinnisi , 
Culicicapa ceylonensis, Parus atriceps, Cislicolu schoenicola, Pericrocotus flammeus, Pericrocotus 
peregrinus, Hypsipetes ganeesa, Pratincola bicolor, Orthotomus sutorius , Corydalla rufula ; of the 
latter, Turdus wardi,Erythrosterna hyperythra, Larvivora brunnea, Hierococcyx nanus, Phylloscopus 
nitidus, Phylloscopus magnirostris are noticeable. 
The eastern subdivision of Southern Ceylon, which is shut off from the influence of the 
south-west monsoon by the eastern slopes of the Kolonna and Morowak-Korale mountains and 
their spurs, which run south towards Matara, presents one of the most remarkable instances of 
a sudden change in physical aspect and floral character that can, perhaps, anywhere be met with 
in such a small island. Possessing a totally different climate, and consequently a distinct flora, 
the avifauna of this region has little relation to that of the damp south-western division. The 
birds of the vast forest which stretches southwards from the Haputale mountains to the confines 
of the scrubby maritime district are the same as those of the northern forests ; and the ornis of 
the coast-region is precisely the same as that of the north-west coast, except that it includes several 
species, such as Prinia hodgsoni, Taccocua leschenaulti, and Pyctorhis nasalis, which seem to have 
their head-quarters here, and are not found (in such abundance, at any rate) in that part. Charac- 
teristic species of the two regions are Xantholcema hcemacephala, Pyrrhulauda grisea, Merops 
viridis, Picus mahrattensis, Upupa ceylonensis, and Cittocincla macrura, none of which, with the 
exception of the latter bird, are found in the adjoining damp district. The numerous shallow 
