The Bulbul.—­The Condatchee Bulbul[1], which, from the crest on its head, is called by the Singhalese the “Konda Coorola,” or Tuft bird, is regarded by the natives as the most “game” of all birds; and the training it to fight was one of the duties entrusted by the Kings of Kandy to the Kooroowa, or Bird Head-man.  For this purpose the Bulbul is taken from the nest as soon as the sex is distinguishable by the tufted crown; and being secured by a string, is taught to fly from hand to hand of its keeper.  When pitted against an antagonist, such is the obstinate courage of this little creature that it will sink from exhaustion rather than release its hold.  This propensity, and the ordinary character of its notes, render it impossible that the Bulbul of India can be identical with the Bulbul of Iran, the “Bird of a Thousand Songs,"[2] of which poets say that its delicate passion for the rose gives a plaintive character to its note.

[Footnote 1:  Pycnonotus haemorrhous, Gmel.]

[Footnote 2:  "Hazardasitaum," the Persian name for the bulbul.  “The Persians,” according to Zakary ben Mohamed al Caswini, “say the bulbul has a passion for the rose, and laments and cries when he sees it pulled.”—­OUSELEY’S Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 16.  According to Pallas it is the true nightingale of Europe, Sylvia luscinia, which the Armenians call boulboul, and the Crim-Tartars byl-byl-i.]

Tailor-Bird.—­The Weaver-Bird.—­The tailor-bird[1] having completed her nest, sewing together the leaves by passing through them a cotton thread twisted by the creature herself, leaps from branch to branch to testify her happiness by a clear and merry note; and the Indian weaver[2], a still more ingenious artist, having woven its dwelling with grass something into the form of a bottle, with a prolonged neck, hangs it from a projecting branch with its entrance inverted so as to baffle the approaches of its enemies, the tree snakes and other reptiles.  The natives assert that the male bird carries fire flies to the nest, fastening them to its sides by a particle of soft mud, and Mr. Layard assures me that although he has never succeeded in finding the fire fly, the nest of the male bird (for the female occupies another during incubation) invariably contains a patch of mud on each side of the perch.

[Footnote 1:  Orthotomus longicauda, Gmel.]

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

Crows.—­Of all the Ceylon birds of this order the most familiar and notorious is the small glossy crow, whose shining black plumage shot with blue has obtained for him 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 are instrumental in extending the growth of cinnamon by feeding on the fruit, and thus disseminating the undigested seed.[2]