182 
Mr. H. Parker's Notes from Ceylon. 
XXIV. — Notes from Ceylon. By H. Parker, F.Z.S. 
The following Notes, which are supplementary to Col. 
Loggers f Birds of Ceylon/ deal chiefly with distribution and 
nidification in the extreme south-east of Ceylon, the dates of 
the latter being, in many cases, very irregular, considering 
that the island is only about three-fourths of the size of 
Ireland. 
Of the places mentioned, Tissa-maharama (Tissa), 20 miles 
north-east of Hambantota, and 6 miles from the sea, and 
Ramb-hara Wihara (Ramb.), 9 miles from the sea, in a strip 
of heavy forest on the banks of the Wallaweganga, are in 
South-east Ceylon; while Vil-ankulam (Yil.) is in the south- 
central part of the Northern Province. The months men¬ 
tioned are those in which nests have now been found, mostly 
in addition to the dates previously published. Col. Legged 
arrangement and nomenclature are followed. 
Spilornis spiloga.ster (Blyth). April (Mannar), May 
(Tissa, young). In the former case an egg was lying in the 
nest without any lining. It is a rather broad oval, 3’39 in. 
by 1*84 in., and, as may be supposed, it exhibits a decided 
similarity to the egg of Spizaetus ceylonensis. The shell is 
rough and lustreless, dull white in ground-colour, thickly 
sprinkled with underlying spots of pale “ brownish lake-red ” 
(according to Syme's c Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours '), 
large and occasionally almost confluent in the large (or 
upper) half of the shell, and minute and paler in the other 
half. Irregularly scattered over these are broken spots and 
small blotches of “ orange-coloured brown,” varying from 
deep to pale in tone, and decidedly largest and most nume¬ 
rous in the upper half of the egg. 
In the latter case, the nest, a substantial structure of 
sticks, nearly three feet wide, had a slight lining of two or 
three twigs with quite fresh green leaves on them. These 
are probably renewed every day. The nest contained a 
young bird, covered with white down; its iris was very dark 
grey, almost black; bill leaden black; cere leaden, almost 
as dark as the bill; feet lemon-yellow; claws bright black. 
