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]

[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 its presence and exploits, that, like
the Greeks and Romans, they have made the movements of the crow 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 they 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 crows across the room, lifting on the
wing some ill-guarded morsel from the dinner-table.

No article, however unpromis