31 
Birds in Southern Ceylon . 
works cc winter ” plumage: such a term would be puzzling 
here, however; for this dress, the non-breeding garb, is worn 
in Ceylon from May until the latter part of the last-named 
month; so that the breeding-dress is the winter and the oppo¬ 
site the summer dress. This species is wonderfully numerous 
on the northern tanks in the Wanny ” district, their musical 
notes resounding all day and all night long through the pic¬ 
turesque forests on their borders. These sounds are essentially 
typical of the wild regions in the northern forests of this 
island, and must always associate themselves in the mind of 
the naturalist with his wanderings in Ceylon. Porphyrio 
poliocephalus is rare on the lagoons of the south; and now and 
then Gallicrex cristata falls to the gun of the sportsman in 
the paddy-fields. This latter bird appears to be migrating to 
the south of Ceylon, coming down with the north-east mon¬ 
soon in October, and leaving in April. As yet I have not been 
able to meet with it during the remaining portion of the year. 
The Rails of Ceylon must either be very rare or very difficult 
to find in districts which they do affect. I am inclined to 
think they are also very local in their distribution, as it is 
somewhat noteworthy that Layard, who looked through the 
island so well, only met with the three rarest species ( Porzana 
fusca, P.pygmcea , and Rallus indicus) in one locality, near Co¬ 
lombo. I have not seen any examples of any of these birds 
from this part, though one, or all, may yet be found in the 
marshy districts of Matura. Anastomus oscitans, the only Ibis 
in this corner of the island, is found on Amblangodde Lake, 
twenty miles north of Galle, where there is a tolerably large 
colony. They breed there, I imagine, as I have seen and 
shot them on the lake very soon after the breeding-season. 
Who will be the discerning individual destined to settle the 
much-vexed question of the peculiar worn space in the bill ? 
I do not see how it is to be done while there is such strong 
difference of opinion, some asserting that it does not exist in 
the young bird and others denying this. My own experience 
points decidedly to the former theory. I secured a young 
bird, some four or five months old, from the western pro¬ 
vince, a district which, by the way, it does not affect in 
