n observed, that
when coco-nut palms are struck by lightning, the destruction frequently
extends beyond a single tree, and from the contiguity and conduction of
the spreading leaves, or some other peculiar cause, large groups will be
affected by a single flash, a few killed instantly, and the rest doomed
to rapid decay. In Belligam Bay, a little to the east of Point-de-Galle,
a small island, which is covered with coco-nuts, has acquired the name
of "Crow Island," from being the resort of those birds, which are seen
hastening towards it in thousands towards sunset. A few years ago,
during a violent storm of thunder, such was the destruction of the crows
that the beach for some distance was covered with a black line of their
remains, and the grove on which they had been resting was to a great
extent destroyed by the same flash.[1]

[Footnote 1: Similar instances are recorded in other countries of sudden
mortality amongst crows to a prodigious extent, but whether occasioned
by lightning seems uncertain. In 1839 thirty-three thousand dead crows
were found on the shores of a lake in the county Westmeath in Ireland
after a storm.--THOMPSON'S _Nat. Hist. Ireland_, vol. i. p. 319, and
Patterson in his Zoology, p. 356, mentions other cases.]

III. SCANSORES. _Parroquets_.--Of the Psittacidae the only examples are
the parroquets, of which the most renowned is the _Palaeornis Alexandri_,
which has the historic distinction of bearing the name of the great
conquerer of India, having been the first of its race introduced to the
knowledge of Europe on the return of his expedition. An idea of their
number may be formed from the following statement of Mr. Layard, as to
the multitudes which are found on the western coast. "At Chilaw I have
seen such vast flights of parroquets coming to roost in the coco-nut
trees which overhang the bazaar, that their noise drowned the Babel of
tongues bargaining for the evening provisions. Hearing of the swarms
which resorted to this spot, I posted myself on a bridge some half mile
distant, and attempted to count the flocks which came from a single
direction to the eastward. About four o'clock in the afternoon,
straggling parties began to wend towards home, and in the course of half
an hour the current fairly set in. But I soon found that I had no longer
distinct flocks to count, it became one living screaming stream. Some
flew high in the air till right above their homes, and dived abruptly
downward wi