wers. Perhaps
the most graceful of the birds of Ceylon in form and motions, and the
most chaste in colouring, is that which Europeans call "the Bird of
Paradise,"[2] and the natives "the Cotton Thief," from the circumstance
that its tail consists of two long white feathers, which stream behind
it as it flies, Mr. Layard says:--"I have often watched them, when
seeking their insect prey, turn suddenly on their perch and _whisk their
long tails with a jerk_ over the bough, as if to protect them from
injury."

[Footnote 1: Nectarina Zeylanica, _Linn_.]

[Footnote 2: Tchitrea paradisi, _Linn_.]

_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