. Its only marked peculiarity,
so far as is apparent, consists in its singular and disproportionate
tail. It has a little fretful, discordant twitter, but no connected
notes. The Singhalese name for the bird escapes us at this writing.

Ornithologists make out a list of over three hundred distinct species
of birds in Ceylon, among which the largest variety is found in the
parrot family, very nearly equaled by the wading and aquatic tribes.

CHAPTER III.

The Wearisome Tropics.--Waterspouts.--Climatic
Conditions.--Length of Days.--A Land Rich in Prehistoric
Monuments.--History and Fable.--Last King of
Ceylon.--Ancient Ruins.--Aged Cave Temples.--Gigantic Stone
Statue of Buddha.--French Vandals.--A Native
Chronicle.--Once the Seat of a Great Empire.--System of
Irrigation.--Mysterious Disappearance of a Nation.--Ruins of
a Vast City.--Departed Glory.--The Brazen Palace.--Asiatic
Extravagance.--Ruined Monument.

The author had been expressing a sense of hearty appreciation, on a
certain occasion, in a domestic circle at Colombo, as to the perennial
character of the vegetation, together with the endless variety of
fruits and flowers in this favored land, but it appeared that those
who had adopted it as their home did not find it to be absolute
perfection. There is no terrestrial paradise; there was never a golden
age; both of these figures of speech are born of poetical license: but
to the traveler who recalled for a moment the ice-bound aspect and
chilling snow of his New England home which must have prevailed at
that moment, the contrast which surrounded him here had a magic charm.

"It seems almost like heresy to say so," remarked the cultured and
amiable wife of our host, an English official, "but one does sometimes
weary of the sameness in the verdure of the tropics, lovely as it is,
while remembering with a sigh the beautiful, varying autumn and the
joyous springtime of more northern regions. Here we are always upon a
dead level, so to speak; no contrasts present themselves. Eternal
summer palls upon one. Perpetual youth in the vegetable kingdom," she
added, "seems as unnatural and undesirable as it would be in human
life. We have no winter, spring, or autumn in our Ceylon calendar."

The equable and fruitful climate of the island is not produced, as is
the case upon the west coast of California, by the influence of the
ocean. There the Kurosiwo or Japanese cu