35 . 
PELLORNEUM P U S C I C A P I L L U M 
(THE WHISTLING'QUAKER THRUSH) 
ADULT MALE AND FEMALE 
Length 6.4 to 6.8 inches; wing 2.5 to 2.8; tall 2.4 to 2.6; tarsus 1 to 
1.1; middle toe .7 to .76; its claw (straight) .3; bill to gape .8 to .85. 
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 spe¬ 
cimen, shot in the North of the island, and in common with Layard, consider¬ 
ed 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. 
It is, however, a common and widely distributed bird, being found as a 
resident more or less over the whole 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, occurri/g 
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 or 
the Galle district, the flat forests of the South-east, and the /ilds of the 
Eastern Province, as well as through the entire forest 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 Chi law and Korunegalla 
district. 
In the Western Province its distribution is partial, it being there most 
numerous in the Jungles in the interior of Saffrggam, and In the region ly¬ 
ing at the bade of the mountains. In these latter it is found, as also in 
the Southern ranges, ascending in the Kandyan Province to an altitude of 
5500 feet. 
In the district of Uva, and in most of the deep wood dotted valleys be¬ 
low the coffee estates it is common, frequenting likewise the intermediate 
belts of forest above them-in Haputale and the main range. 
Scarcely any species shews itself' less, but, on the other hand, none make 
more nolee from their place of concealment. 
HABITS 
This Babbler, a very shy and retiring bird, and a denizen for the most 
. 
