30 Lieut. W. Y. Legge on the Distribution of 
busily discussing the denizens of the tidal-flats of the great 
salt lagoons, I have often thought that this little chap must 
be gifted with an exceedingly bad temper. How he screams 
and pipes in the most offended of tones when he is disturbed ! 
How he still gives vent to his rage after he has alighted again, 
till he is finally appeased by the glad sight of some hapless 
struggling sand-worm and relapses into silence ! I know of 
but one instance of a large Stork being seen on the inland 
marshes of this district; and that must have been Ciconia 
episcopus , Bodd. Ardea purpurea is numerous in parts, such 
as in the vicinity of the large lake at Amblangodde and in 
like situations near Matura; but it is very local in its distri¬ 
bution. Herodias egrettoides is plentiful in parts, but not H. 
garzetta, which is a northern bird. Contrary to Layard's ex¬ 
perience, I find that Ardeola leucoptera and Buphus coromandus 
breed in colonies by themselves, and not in company with 
other Egrets. They are both very numerous about the swamps 
and saltish lagoons of the hilly district under consideration, 
and nest in the months of May and June, A. leucoptera 
choosing our island in preference to other localities. In a 
large colony which I visited on Kogalle Lake, a sheet of water 
some ten miles from Galle, I found most nests to contain two 
or three eggs, a few only having four. They were small for 
the size of the bird, averaging l n 7 ,n by 1" 2 m ; but they vary 
very much in dimensions; they are in some instances exceed¬ 
ingly round for the eggs of a Heron. The young nestlings 
just fledged have the bill fleshy red, the tarsi and feet bright 
pea-green, the head and back of neck dark brown, with buff 
mesial lines, and the neck buff, with broad brown margins. 
They perch and cling to the branches with great cleverness 
when only a day or two old. The nests were placed in a low, 
bushy, swamp-loving tree, called in the vernacular, “ cadool 33 
(Rhizophora mucronata ), and are very small, resembling large 
Pigeons' nests more than those of Herons. Ardetta cinna- 
momea is common here; but A. flavicollis is only now and then 
met with in the north-east monsoon. Hydrophasianus chi- 
rurgus is numerous in some of our fresh-water inland swamps, 
birds being often found in October in what is called in Indian 
