210 
, MEGAL2EMA ZEYLANICA. 
and the north-east of the island. It is found in the Vanni and throughout most of the country lying imme- 
diately to the north of Dambulla, wherever the jungle is of an open character. In the Seven Ko rales the 
same may be said of it; and Mr. Parker writes me that it is common about Uswewa. Mr. Holdswortli does 
not record it from Aripu ; hut it avoids such dry scrubby districts on the seaboard; being similarly absent from 
the brushy country about Hambantota. 
As regards the Central Province it is not uncommon in Dumbara and in the valleys of Hewahette, 
Maturata, and other basins of the hill-tributaries of the Mahawelliganga. In the glens or steep ravines 
intersecting the great expanse of hilly patnas between Fort MacDonald and Haputale it is likewise found; and 
is now and then seen at a considerable altitude on the pass leading up to Hakgala. Near Banderawella I have 
met with it at about 4000 feet elevation. 
Habits . — The Brown-headed Barbet inhabits compounds, open wooded country, dry jungle, and scanty 
forest where fruit-bearing trees are plentiful, on the seeds of which it principally feeds. 
There is perhaps no bird better known than this one is to sportsmen or any others who are induced to 
visit or reside in the cultivated interior of the Western and Southern districts ; taking up their abode in some 
shady compound encircling the native cultivator’s house on the nearest rise to his ancestral paddy-fields, these 
noisy birds commence early in the morning to call to one another, and make the woods resound with their 
guttural cries. Its loud scale-notes, commencing in measured time and increasing in rapidity and loudness, 
must be known to every European in the low country, and give rise to its native name of Kotoruiva, which 
has a slight resemblance to some of the syllables in the scale ; they much remind one of the commencement 
of the laugh of the Great Brown Kingfisher, or “ Laughing Jackass,” of Australia. The food of this Barbet 
consists of every sort of tree-fruit, seed, and berry; nothing seems to come amiss to it, for there is no tree that 
bears fruit that it may not sometimes be found in. It is not as gregarious as the next, or as the two smaller 
Barbets, but, on the contrary, is unsociably inclined towards its fellows, and more than two or three are seldom 
found in the same tree. It is active in its movements, seizing fruit that may be firmly attached to the stalk, and 
swinging its body from its perch, wrenches off the coveted morsel ; fruit and berries are swallowed whole, and 
in the north the favourite food is the berry of the banyan or the luscious seed of the Palu or iron-wood tree, 
of which the Ceylon bear ( Prochilus labiatus ) is so fond. It perches with the body inclining to the horizontal 
and the head thrust forward in an attitude of watchfulness, unlike the smaller Barbets, who sit bolt upright 
and twist the head stupidly from side to side. Coleopterous insects are likewise devoured by it ; and in captivity 
this Barbet has been known to exhibit, as some Toucans do, a carnivorous tendency. An interesting account 
of a caged bird is contained in Layard’s “Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon.” At page 447, Ann. & Mag. 
Nat. Hist. 1854, he writes: — “One kept in a large aviary in Colombo destroyed all the little Amadime 
placed with it. Not content with snapping them up when within his reach, he would lie iu wait for them behind 
a thick bush or the feeding-trough, pounce upon them unawares, and after beating them a little on the ground 
or perch, swallow them whole. When this cannibal came into my possession he was confined in a smaller cage 
than that in which he had at first been secured ; this seemed to displease him, and he went to work to find 
some means of escape ; he narrowly examined every side and corner to discover a weak spot, and having- 
detected one, applied himself vigorously to bore a hole through it, as a W oodpecker would have done ; 
grasping the bars with his feet, he swung himself round, bringing his whole weight to bear upon 
his bill, which he used as a pickaxe, till the house resounded with his rapid and well-aimed blows. On being 
checked from exercising his ingenuity in this manner, he became sulky and refused to eat or offer his call 
of recognition when I approached him ; in a day or two, however, he apparently thought better of the 
matter, resumed his labours upon another spot, and fed as voraciously as ever, devouring huge slices of 
bananas, jungle fruits, the bodies of any small birds I skinned, &c. I hoped he would have lived long with 
me, but found him dead one morning ; and as he was fat and well-favoured, I presume he died a victim to 
the solitary system.” 
The flight of the Kotoruiva is performed with quick beating of the wings, and is somewhat laboured, 
though by no means slow, owing to the amount of momentum which such a solid frame must naturally acquire. 
Nidification . — This bird breeds from March until July. The latter month is rather late, I imagine ; 
