336 
CEYLON 
Mount Lavinia. 
January 7th—12th, 1908. 
Mount Lavinia, a mass of rock breaking the even line of the 
sandy shore a few miles south of Colombo, has a charm all its own. 
Ear away to north and south the waving coco-nut palms fringe the 
golden sands which are the resort of fishermen innumerable. These 
are an amphibious race who boldly face the roaring surf in their 
catamarans, strange “ dug-out ” craft with picturesque brown sails, 
craft that are the very embodiment of safety till the fatal moment 
when the out-rigger giving way causes disaster as promptly as 
when the engine of an aeroplane strikes work, with, however, the 
important difference that the amphibious fisherman has no fall but 
simply rolls over into his other element. 
The Crow 1 throughout the east is familiar, but nowhere more 
so than at Colombo, where the hotel-keepers find it advisable to put 
up notices warning their guests of its habit of stealing such trifles 
as rings, eyeglasses, or even necklaces. At Mount Lavinia crows 
used to come into our room at the hour of chhota haziri; 2 and we 
were told that not long before one had succeeded in carrying off an 
egg-cup! A lady, a Colombo resident, told us the following story 
of her personal experience. She was the owner of a tiny fat puppy 
that could hardly stand. Once, when lapping milk from a saucer 
it was attacked by two crows front and rear. One seized the puppy 
by the tail and dragged it backwards, holding it while its mate 
tackled the milk. When, however, the latter had drunk its fill the 
selfish bird went off, declining to take its turn at tail-pulling. 
The few days spent on the coast, though not very profitable as 
regards the collection of butterflies made, were of interest as a basis 
for comparison. Thus, in five days’ work on the coast I took 104 
specimens, whereas a like time at Kandy produced 106 specimens, 
no great difference truly, but the coast collection included only 26 
species, the inland collection 43 ; of these, 16 species were common 
to both lists. There was but one butterfly taken by me on the West 
Coast, which I did not, sooner or later, meet with at Kandy, viz.:— 
Zizera lysimon, Hubn. f. karsandra Moore, of which I took two at 
1 The Indian Grey-necked Crow, Corvus splendens; an amusing account of its 
familiarities is given in “ Cassell’s Natural History,” vol. iv. pp. 11 - 13 . 
2 Literally “ Little breakfast.” Early tea. 
3 In this chapter I have endeavoured to follow the nomenclature of later authori¬ 
ties (Bingham and Hampson), but have usually given in brackets the name under 
which the species will be found in Moore’s “ Lepidoptera of Ceylon.” 
