I 
8 . 
PALAEORNIS ,, CALTHROPE 
(LAYARD’S PARRAKEET) 
* 
adult male and female 
Length to front of oere 10.6 to 11 inches; culmen 1.05; total length 12.3; 
wing 5.4 to 5.6; tail 5.8; tarsus .6; outer anterior toe and olaw .98 to 1; 
greatest height of upper mandible .47., 
DISTRIBUTION 
The Ceylon Parrakeet was discovered by Layard, who writes thus concerning 
it in ’Annal and Magazine of Natural History B for 1854 - B My first acquain¬ 
tance with this lovely bird was at Kandy, where I killed a male and female 
at one shot from a flock flying*over my head; I took them for the common 
P.Torquatus until I picked them up, and then great was my delight to find 
such an elegant new species. It proved to be the common Parrakeet of the 
hilly zone, and I have traced it to all parts of it*. 
As Layard remarks, this species is distributed throughout the hills of 
the Kandyan Province; but it is singularly local as regards some parts, small 
districts here and there appearing to be surrendered almost entirely to the 
last species. Of such I may mention portions of the Puselawa, Hewahette, 
and Kalebokka valleys, as well as parts of Dumbara, where in the month of 
November I have met with numbers of the P. Cyanocephalous, to the almost en¬ 
tire exclusion of the present Parrakeet. It is numerous about Kandy, pera- 
denlya, and also Deltotte, Upper Hewahette, Pundaloya, most parts of Uva, 
Madulsima, and Haputale, while it is still more abundant in Maskelia, Dikoya 
and throughout the Peak forests at intermediate altitudes. In the South it 
is numerous in the Morawak Korale, and very abundant indeed in the higher 
parts of the Kukkul Korale, notably in the Singha Rajah forest , concerning 
which region I consider it more abundant there than in any other part of the 
Island. 
It was thought for many years to be an Inhabitant only of the hills, an 
idea which obtained on account of the very Imperfect exploration of the fo¬ 
rests round the base of the central zone, and the repeated working of natu¬ 
ral 1sts over certain beaten tracks. In 1870 I first met with it in the low 
country down in the valleys adjacent to the Hlnedren or Haycock Hills, and 
was somewhat surprised at finding it there, while I had not seen or heard of 
it In the IJdagamma or Opate forests, a district lying higher than the one in 
question. 
