inference that natives first made it known to Europeans in the island. 
HABITS 
This handsome bird is a denizen of forest and heavy jungle, and is of 
suoh a shy and retiring disposition that it is but little known to Europeans 
even those who are stationed in the wilds of the interior. 
The natives of the Western and Southern Provinces, a part of the island 
in which the population is chiefly located in the cultivated districts, are 
less acquainted with it than with most birds, but the inhabitants of the 
Northern and Eastern jungles, whose scanty villages are situated, for the 
most part, in the depths of those primeval wilds, recognise the Malkoha as 
a not uncommon bird. 
Layard, who considers its range to be limited to the mountain zone, 
speaks of it as being eaten by the natives,, probably alluding to the Kandy¬ 
ans of the Dumbara district before it was denuded of forest, when it contain¬ 
ed this bird in much greater numbers than It does now. The natives of the 
Friar’s Hood jungles, where it is commoner than in other parts of the island 
call it "Warrelelya* or "Long Tail". 
The Malkoha is fond of tall or shady forest In which there is a conside¬ 
rable amount of undergrowth or small jungle, into which it often descends, 
after making a meal off the fruits of the lofty trees overhead. When 
flushed it invariably flies up into high branches, and is difficult to come 
.up with, as it quickly makes off, taking short flights from tree to trec^. 
I have seen a flock of six or seven feeding among the topmost boughs of 
one tree, and noticed that they move very quickly about among the leaves, 
sharply wrenching off the berries which they were seeking , and devouring 
them whole. As a rule it is a silent bird, the only note with which I am 
acquainted being a rather low call like Kaa, which It utters when flying 
about. Although I have occasionally found the remains of small insects in 
its stomach, it Is almost exclusively a fruit eating species, its flesh is 
consequently by no means to be despised. It is tender and not unpleasant¬ 
ly flavoured, and Layard remarks that the natives consider it a great deli¬ 
cacy* I have known an individual return to a tree, on the berries of which 
It had been feeding, a few minutes after being shot at. 
Nothing is known of the NIDIPICATION of this species. 
In the picture accompanying this"notice, the figure in the background 
with the ”'hite eye represents a female shot in the Vanni. 
