native gardens, patinas dotted with timber, and In fact, any locality which 
Is clothed with fruit-bearing trees or those whose flowers afford It Its fa¬ 
vourite saccharine food. It Is a most gluttonous little bird, constantly 
on the wing in active search for its food, darting with a very swift flight 
through the woods, uttering Its sibilant little scream. Its bright plumage 
flashing in the rays of the tropical sun. 
When It reaches a tree which attracts Its attention it Instantly checks 
Its headlong procuress, and alighting on the top actively climbs to the fruit 
which it has espied, or should the tree prove barren, after giving out its 
call note for a short time, darts off, perhaps in an opposite direction from 
which it came. It Is excessively fond of the toddy, or juice which exists 
In the Klttol palm, (Carzo&a Ureus), and feeds on it to such an extent that 
It becomes stupefied and falls an easy captive to the natives, who cage it 
in large numbers for sale at Point de Galle. While in a state of captivity 
they are fed on sugar cane, of which they are very fond, but they do not li\e 
for any length of time should the supply of cane come to an end. 
It feeds so greedily on the beautiful fruit of the Jambu tree that I have 
seen bird after bird shot out of one tree without their companions taking 
the slightest notice of the gun, or the death of so many of their little 
flock. When held up by the legs after being shot, the juice of this fruit 
pours from their mouths and nostrils. The flowers of the coooanut tree cone 
In for a large share of its patronage, as do also those of other trees, on 
the cups or calyces of which it subsists, biting them off in a pendent atti¬ 
tude. Layard writes that "at Gillymally they were in sucn abundance that 
the flowering trees were literally alive with them; they clung to the bright 
scarlet flowers head downwards, or scrambled from branch to branch, while tiB 
forest echoed with their bickerings. They bit off the petals, which fell 
like scarlet snow on th ground, to get at the calyx, and when this dainty 
morsel was devoured they flew off to the banana trees, down the broad leaves 
of which they slid and fastened o the ripening fruit or the pendent flower. 
When roosting at night they sleep hanging by their feet from the perch. 
The lower figure in the drawing is an adult bird, that on the upper 
branch an Immature or yearling individual. 
