22 Lieut. W. Y. Legge on the Distribution of 
validus is black, with a lightish base, of very small extent, to 
the under mandible > and a very noticeable peculiarity or cha¬ 
racteristic is, that the margin is well curved and the culmen 
much hooked, while that of D. jerdoni has a gentle sweep 
from base to tip. The larger bird is found in the “ Koora- 
kan” (Mleusine indie a) fields of the Singha-Rajah hills, and 
delights in sitting on some stump or fallen tree, from which 
it pours forth its loud shrill notes and draws attention to its 
existence in these mountain-solitudes; it is not, however, 
peculiar to the southern hills, as I have shot it in the 
“ Knuckles”*, where it is always to be seen in “ hill 33 paddy- 
fields. Phylloscopus nitidus is a winter visitor to these parts 
as well as to the western and central provinces; and I have 
no doubt that P. magnirostris, which I have procured in Dim- 
boola and also in forests of the north-east , accompanies its 
smaller congener to our hills. Of Motacillinse, we have in 
the south Calobates sulphurea , found along the sea-coast, af¬ 
fecting at times the very rocks in the vicinity of Galle, before 
betaking itself in September to the mountain-streams of the 
interior, and Budytes viridis , very numerous in grass-lands 
and newly ploughed paddy-fields, in one “ square ” of which 
I have counted nearly a score. Corydalla rufula is our only 
Pipit, the other two species apparently not extending to the 
south. 
Zoster ops palpebrosus is plentiful both in the low and hill 
country; and HoldswortlPs species, Z. ceylonensis , is very nu¬ 
merous in the Singha-Rajah forests. I might mention that 
this range of hills, lying about forty miles from Galle, attain¬ 
ing a height of about 3500 feet, and hitherto unexplored by 
any European save one f, appears to abound with all the pe¬ 
culiar Ceylonese birds. I found Z. ceylonensis there, as I did 
in the forests of the Knuckles, to the north of Kandy (see note. 
Journal R. A. S. (Ceylon), 1871, page 30), in large flocks af¬ 
fecting the ends of outspreading branches of forest-trees, cling¬ 
ing to the twigs and leaves thereof, and keeping up an inces¬ 
sant chirping • after one tree had been well searched, the 
* Mountains to the north of Kandy. 
t Dr. Th waites, director of the the botanical gardens, Peradeniya. 
