[Footnote 2:  Ploceus baya, Blyth.; P. Philippinus, Auct.]

[Illustration:  “CISSA PUELLA.”]

Amongst the birds of this order, one which, as far as I know, is peculiar to the island is Layard’s Mountain-jay (Cissa puella, Blyth and Layard), is distinguished not less by the beautiful blue colour which enlivens its plumage, than by the elegance of its form and the grace of its attitudes.  It frequents the hill country, and is found about the mountain streams at Neuera-ellia, and elsewhere.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The engraving above is taken by permission of Mr. Gould from one of his drawings for his Birds of India.]

Crows.—­Of all the Ceylon birds of this order the most familiar and notorious are the small glossy crows, whose shining black plumage shot with blue has suggested the title of Corvus splendens.[1] They frequent the towns in companies, and domesticate themselves in the close vicinity of every house; and it may possibly serve to account for the familiarity and audacity which they exhibit in their intercourse with men, that the Dutch during their sovereignty in Ceylon, enforced severe penalties against any one killing a crow, under the belief that they were instrumental in extending the growth of cinnamon by feeding on the fruit, and thus disseminating the undigested seed.[2]

[Footnote 1:  There is another species, the C. culminatus, so called from the convexity of its bill; but though seen in the towns, it lives chiefly in the open country, and may be constantly observed wherever there are buffaloes, perched on their backs and engaged, in company with the small Minah (Acridotheres tristis), in freeing them from ticks.]

[Footnote 2:  WOLF’S Life and Adventures, p. 117.]

So accustomed are the natives to their presence and exploits, that, like the Greeks and Romans, they have made the movements of crows the basis of their auguries; and there is no end to the vicissitudes of good and evil fortune which may not be predicted from the direction of their flight, the hoarse or mellow notes of their croaking, the variety of trees on which they rest, and the numbers in which they are seen to assemble.

All day long these birds are engaged in watching either the offal of the offices, or the preparation for meals in the dining-room:  and as doors and windows are necessarily opened to relieve the heat, nothing is more common than the passage of a crow across the room, lifting on the wing some ill-guarded morsel from the dinner-table.  No article, however unpromising its quality, provided only it be portable, can with safety be left unguarded in any apartment accessible to them.  The contents of ladies’ work-boxes, kid gloves, and pocket handkerchiefs vanish instantly if exposed near a window or open door.  They open paper parcels to ascertain the contents; they will undo the knot on a napkin if it encloses anything eatable, and I have known a crow to extract the peg which fastened the lid of a basket in order to plunder the provender within.