[Illustration: "CISSA PUELLA."]

Amongst the birds of this order, one which, as far as I know, is
peculiar to the island is _Layard's Mountain-jay_ (_Cissa puella_, Blyth
and Layard), is distinguished not less by the beautiful blue colour
which enlivens its plumage, than by the elegance of its form and the
grace of its attitudes. It frequents the hill country, and is found
about the mountain streams at Neuera-ellia, and elsewhere.[1]

[Footnote 1: The engraving above is taken by permission of Mr. Gould
from one of his drawings for his _Birds of India_.]

_Crows_.--Of all the Ceylon birds of this order the most familiar and
notorious are the small glossy crows, whose shining black plumage shot
with blue has suggested 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
were 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 their presence and exploits, that, like
the Greeks and Romans, they have made the movements of crows 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 these birds 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 a crow across the room, lifting on the wing
some ill-guarded morsel from the dinner-table. No article, however
unpromising i