192 
SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
They are very wild birds, feeding on fish, crabs, and worms, and 
they do not take at all kindly to captivity. 
(6) A Harrier, called Montagu’s Harrier ( Circus cineraceus ), 
was shot in the Ratnapura District and purchased by the Museum 
in December. This species, like the three other Harriers—Marsh, 
Pied, and Pale-—-belonging to the fauna of Ceylon, is a north¬ 
east or winter or cool season migrant to Ceylon, where it arrives 
about October, leaving again in April. It is rarely seen in the 
middle of the Island, i.e ., in the hill region, although Mr. F. Lewis 
(Notes on the Ornithology of the Balangoda District, Journ. 
Ceylon Asiat. Soc., vol. VIII., 1884, p. 278) has recorded it from 
Balangoda. According to Legge (op. cit. p. 14) it first concentrates 
in the Jaffna Peninsula and adjacent islands, and then spreads 
down both sides of the coast, but apparently does not wander into 
the interior. Its occurrence in Ratnapura is therefore exceptional, 
and this is the second specimen acquired by the Museum. 
The Pied Harrier referred to above (Cirtius melanoleucus) is the 
rarest of the Ceylon Harriers. The first specimen obtained by 
the Museum was shot near Angurantota on the road to Neboda in 
the Kalutara District in February, 1891. From a manuscript note 
left by Mr. A. Haly it appears that this bird and its mate had 
been noted for some years frequenting the same paddy field. A 
second skin was purchased in 1898. 
(7) A Pale Harrier (Circus macrurus ) was caught alive on 
board a steamer about seventy miles from Colombo, and was sent 
by Mr. W. Jackson Jones to the Museum on 5th November. It 
had apparently lost its bearings. The skin of another specimen 
shot at Ratnapura was received at the Museum in a damaged 
condition on 25th November. 
(8) The Marsh Harrier (Circus ceruginosus) is the commonest 
of the Harriers in Ceylon. It is not uncommonly seen in Colombo 
in the cool season, and is sometimes pursued by crows on the wing. 
Two skins from Gampola were sent in December by Mr. W. W. 
Stevens. 
(9) During the last fortnight of December and in the following 
January (1905) a most interesting visitor appeared in some 
numbers in Colombo (Galle Face Battery and Cinnamon Gardens). 
This was the Short-eared Owl (Asio ctccipitrinus ), a bird of wide 
distribution, but according to Dr. Blanford (Fauna. Brit. Ind., 
Birds, vol. III., 1895, p. 272) not hitherto recorded from Ceylon. 
It had been recorded from Ceylon, though not in a manner 
accessible to ornithologists, by Mr. A. Haly (Administration 
Report, Colombo Museum, 1891). It was not included in Legge’s 
Monograph on the Birds of Ceylon (1880). 
