valuable notes relative to the birds of the island, regards the
identification of the Singhalese Devil-Bird as open to similar doubt: he
says--"The Devil-Bird is not am owl. I never heard it until I came to
Kornegalle, where it haunts the rocky hill at the back of
Government-House. Its ordinary note is a magnificent clear shout like
that of a human being, and which can be heard at a great distance, and
has a fine effect in the silence of the closing night. It has another
cry like that of a hen just caught, but the sounds which have earned for
it its bad name, and which I have heard but once to perfection, are
indescribable, the most appalling that can be imagined, and scarcely to
be heard without shuddering; I can only compare it to a boy in torture,
whose screams are being stopped by being strangled. I have offered
rewards for a specimen, but without success. The only European who had
seen and fired at one agreed with the natives that it is of the size of
a pigeon, with a long tail. I believe it is a Podargus or Night Hawk,"
In a subsequent note he further says--"I have since seen two birds by
moonlight, one of the size and shape of a cuckoo, the other a large
black bird, which I imagine to be the one which gives these calls."]

II. PASSERES. _Swallows_.--Within thirty-five miles of Caltura, on the
western coast, are inland caves, the resort of the Esculent Swift[1],
which there builds the "edible bird's nest," so highly prized in China.
Near the spot a few Chinese immigrants have established themselves, who
rent the royalty from the government, and make an annual export of their
produce. But the Swifts are not confined to this district, and caves
containing them have been found far in the interior, a fact which
complicates the still unexplained mystery of the composition of their
nest; and notwithstanding the power of wing possessed by these birds,
adds something to the difficulty of believing that it consists of
glutinous algæ.[2] In the nests brought to me there was no trace of