46 * 
S TURN ORN I S S E N E X 
(THE WHITE HEADED STARLING) 
ADULT MALE 
Length 0.3 to 0.5; wing 4.EL to 4.4; expanse 13.1; tail 3 to 3.1; tarsus 
1 to 1.1; middle toe and claw 1; hind,toe and olaw .7; bill to gape 1.65 to 
1.15. 
ADULT FEMALE 
Length 8.7 inches; wing 4.25. 
DISTRIBUTION 
This arboreal Starling, which! is one of the most interesting of the spe¬ 
cies peculiar to Ceylon, is very scarce in collections, and has always been 
looked upon as one of our rarest birds. The fact is that the portions of 
the island which it inhabits are wild hill forests seldom trodden by Euro¬ 
peans, and hence its scarcity in the cabinets of collectors; but nevertheless 
in these primeval solitudes it is numerous. It is a bird of local distri¬ 
bution, being chiefly confined to the great forests on the FeaK range, which 
stretch from the Kuruwite Korale round to Belihul Oya, and the other forests 
of the Southern ranges. Including the Slngha Rajah and the extensive jungles 
stretching through the Northern and lower part of the Kukkul Korale into the 
Pasdun Korale. As regards the latter locality, which is the lowest at 
which it has yet been observed, I found It in some of the valleys through 
which the Southern affluents of the Kalu Ganga find their way to the main 
stream, and not far from the remote village of Moropitlya, at an altitude of 
a few hundred feet above the sea level. 
There appears to be a continuous stretch of hilly forest extending North¬ 
wards of this place for twenty miles to the Kalu Ganga, and the White Front¬ 
ed Starling 7 ill probably occur throughout this region* Above Gillymally 
I foil'd it very abundant in forest of about 1200 feet elevation, and equally 
so 2000 feet higher up. It appears to cross over /into some of the Western 
coffee districts from the Maskeliya jungles, for Mr Bligh procured it in 
1872 in Kotmalle. Layard dobs not seen to have procured specimens of this 
bird himself, as he only spears of it as existing in Mr Thwaltes* collection 
and in what part of the hill zone this latter gentleman procured it I an 
unable to say. $ There is a specimen in the British Museum procured by Mr 
Boat e labelled New era ‘El11a. 
Mr Bligh tells me he has never seen It in Haputale, but I do not sen why 
