610 
PELLOENEUM EUSCICAPILLUM. 
Ohs. This bird was placed by Blyth in the genus Dnjmocatajplms, which was instituted for a Malaccan species, 
D. nigrocapHata, differing slightly in the proportion of its longer quill-feathers, and having a slightly different 
type of plumage from Pellorneum. I have compared oiu’ bird wdth Pellorneum rvficeps of Southern India, and 
the quills are the same, and also the biU. The proportion of the longer quills in any given species appears, in many 
cases, to be an unsafe character, and certainly not worthy of consideration in the creation of genera, unless it be 
thought desirable to burden ornithology with a still greater multiplicity of genera than it is at present hampered 
with ! In the present case, for instance, the 7th quill is subject to variation in individuals, some having it equal 
to the Gth and some shorter. In the type species of Drymocalaphus the tail is shorter than the wing by about 
the length of the bill, and in this it therefore differs from our bird and from typical Pellorneum : the wing is, 
however, much the same in both forms ; and I scarcely think that the genus Drymocataphus is a good one, unless the 
character of the head-plumage, as exemplified in the several species forming this little group, be allowed consideration 
enough to justify its establishment. The present species was subsequently classed by Blyth as a Pellorneum, and 
Mr. Holdsworth again restored it to its position as a Drymocataphus. 
Distribution . — This little bird, one of the most interesting species peculiar to the island of Ceylon, was 
discovered by Layard. He writes : — “ But two specimens fell under my notice. One I killed with a blow- 
pipe in my garden in Colombo, the other I shot in the Central Road.” Mr. Holdsworth procured but one 
specimen, shot in the north of the island, and, in common with Layard, conceived it to be a rare species, its 
very shy and retiring nature, and its habit of only frequenting thick underwood, obviously giving rise to this idea. 
On the contrary, how'ever, it is a common and widely distributed bird, being found as a resident more or less 
over the whole low country, with perhaps the exception of the Jaffna peninsula and some of the open coast 
districts in the north-west. It is most numerous in regions covered with large tracts of jungle, occurring in 
such places everywhere, and least so in cultivated portions of country, in which it is confined to wooded knolls, 
or overgrown waste land. It is, accordingly, scattered through all the jungle-clad low hills of the Galle 
district, the flat forests of the south-east, and the wilds of the Eastern Province, as well as through the 
entire foi'cst-region of the north, across from Trincomalie (where it is numerous) to the confines of the open 
country on the north-west, and thence down to the Chilaw and Kurunegala districts. In the Western Province 
its distribution is partial, it being there most numerous in the jungles of the interior, of Saffragam, and in 
the region lying at the base of the mountains. In these latter it is found, as also in the southern ranges, 
ascending in the Kandyan Province to an altitude of about 5500 feet. In the district of Uva and in most 
of the deep wood-dotted valleys below the coffee-estates it is common, frequenting likewise the intermediate 
belts of forest above them in Haputale and the main range. 
I would here remark that there is no bird in Ceylon concerning the distribution of which my predecessors 
in ornithological w'ork appear to have been so misled. Scarcely any species shows itself less, but, on the 
other hand, none make more noise from their place of concealment. An acquaintance with its note, therefore, 
was required, and failing this one could not but pass it by completely. For my own part I imagined it, 
during the first three years of my labours in Ceylon, to be one of the rarest of birds, for I could never meet 
with it in the AVestern Province. Shortly after I went to Galle, while collecting one morning in the vicinity 
of the Bonavista Orphanage (to the hospitable and kind superintendent of which I am indebted for the 
passing of many a pleasant hour in one of the most charming little bungalows in the low country), I was 
attracted by a bird-note which I remembered often to have heard, and on procuring its owner was surprised 
to find that I had at last obtained this much-looked-for species. In the same manner I captured it very soon 
afterwards near AA^'ackwella, and tlien in other copses in the neighbourhood, and soon ceased to pay any 
attention to its whistle. On going to Trincomalie my first day's trip into the jungle renewed my acquaintance 
with my little friend, and so on wherever I travelled I continued to hear the garrulous bird, until it had to be 
noted in my catalogue as a common and widely distributed species, and as such was spoken of in my account 
of the birds of the south-west hilhregion (‘Ibis,' 1874). To this Mr. Holdsworth, who had not made the 
acquaintance of its note, somewhat naturally took exception in his comment on my paper published in the 
following number of the ‘ Ibis.' Mr. Bligh, however, knows it to be a common bird in the Haputale jungles j 
and those who hereafter work in the ornithological field of Ceylon will, I doubt not, substantiate my 
experience. 
Habits . — This Babbler, as has just been remarked, is a very shy and retiring bird, and a denizen, for the 
