15 
Birds in Southern Ceylon. 
Loriculus indicus } is exceedingly numerous, extending from 
the sea-coast, where it frequents cocoa-nut plantations, 
through the populated districts of the interior of the province, 
to the mountains, where its numbers diminish considerably. 
This is the reverse of what is the case in the central province 
and the intervening country between that and the west coast. 
It breeds in holes in the trunks of the “ kitool/-’ a sugar- 
palm, and feeds much on the toddy ” extracted from the 
flower of the tree. It becomes drugged with this substance, 
and numbers are caught by the natives, who bring them into 
the Fort of Galle for sale. 
Yungipicus gymnophthalmus ,Chrysocolaptes stricJclandi,Bra- 
chypternus ceylonus, and Chrysophlegma chlorophanes form 
my list of Woodpeckers. The first named and Brachypternus 
ceylonus may be said to have their head quarters here; they 
are found (the latter in great numbers in the maritime cocoa- 
nut districts) throughout the lowlands up to the Morowa- 
Korle mountains, where, however, they become scarcer than 
at a less elevation. Ch. stricklandi, exclusively a denizen of 
gloomy forests, extends from the Singha-Rajah hills down to 
the jungles in the vicinity of Baddegamme, the mission-station 
near Galle. I have observed it very much on small trees, 
searching for its food; in the distance it would be taken for 
Brachypternus ceylonus , were it not for its different note and 
peculiar erratic movements while ascending the tree. The lat¬ 
ter mounts up steadily a foot or two at a time, while Layard^s 
Woodpecker is up and down, first to one side and then the 
other, with a little short jerky movement, which, to my mind, 
is sufficient to distinguish it. Of the Barbets of the south, 
Megalaima zeylonica and Xantholcema rubricapilla are numer¬ 
ous in the lowlands, and extend up to about 1500 feet in the 
hills. Cyanops flavifrons is very abundant in the Singha- 
Rajah hills and neighbouring districts along the upper Gin- 
durah; it is likewise found in the low country not far from 
Galle wherever there is high forest; and there it frequents 
invariably the tops of the tallest trees, uttering its monoto¬ 
nous notes for hours together. It breeds in August. 
Cuckoos are tolerably well represented here. Cuculus son- 
