.v: ".'.:; .lox .^I'^c:: miscellaneous notes. , 859 



Government monopoly, the right to collect them, being sold by auction, 

 biit the nests of C. innominata, though of very little value on account 

 of the large amount of grass and feathers, used in their construction, are 

 also collected by the licensee, but are only purchased by the poorer 

 classes. The pure white nests of C. francica are worth, at present prices, 

 about Rs. 140 a viss ; those of C. innominata being worth only about lis. 5. 



C. innominata is the earlier breeder of the two, commencing nesting 

 operations in February, a few eggs being laid about the first week in 

 March; but C. /ronc/ca does not lay till well on in April, and fresh eggs 

 may be taken as late as the latter half of May, by which time C. 

 innominata have all hatched oft ; and whilst this latter species plasters 

 its nests at random on the walls of the caves anywhere above high- 

 water mark, C. francica always goes to the top of the cave, and places 

 its nests well inside a fissure of the rock. The eggs of C. innominata are 

 constantly the larger, measuring on the average 0' 94 X 0*62, whilst those 

 of C. francica average 0'83 x 0'52. A very long egg of francica may be as 

 long as a very short egg of innominata, but is always narrower, and the 

 eggs of the two species can be distinguished with certainty. 



A difterence in the habits of the two is that whilst francica leaves the 

 caves at dawn, finds its food over the mainland, and returns to the islands 

 at dusk, innominata haunts the caves all day, and the numbers are so great 

 as to recall white ants fluttering round a lamp, and the birds may even be 

 caught by a quick grab of the hand, a feat which we actually saw 

 performed several times. 



1103. Yellow-breasted Trogon — Harpactes orescius. 



Although none too often seen at their times, one discovers in the breeding 

 season that this is one of the commonest birds, and I must have seen some 

 twenty-five or thirty nests. Once one gets the hang of it, they are very 

 easy to find, all that is necessary being to examine every stump that looks 

 sufticiently rotten for the trogon to be able to peck. They lay from the 

 middle of February to the middle of March, and the nest is placed at any 

 height from three to fifteen feet from the ground. As a rule the bird 

 scoops out a hollow about the shape and size of a cocoanut, with the top 

 quarter cut oft' diagonally, and in this it sits facing outwards with its 

 long tail raised vertically and pressed against the back of the hollow. 

 Normally the clutch is only two, but very occasionally three eggs are laid ; 

 they are cream coloured and of course unspotted. The nests are very 

 frequently placed close to a path : c. f. Binsham's notes in Hume's Nests 

 and Eggs. 



1314. Little Malay Cuckoo-dove — Macropygia nificeps. 



Appears to be very rare and confined to Nwalabo mountain. A nest of the 

 usual dove type, with a single fresh egg was found on May 14. 1918. 



1 o51 . Lesser Adjutant — Leptopiilus javanicus. 



These birds breed in several spots on the little Tenasserim river, the 

 largest colony, consisting of about forty nests, beino at Indaw village, 

 some sixty miles south of Mergui. I first found this on December 23, 

 1917 ; but on that date all had hatched out ; and I only got one addled egg. 

 In 1918 I was unable to reach the spot before November 23 which proved 

 rather late as most of the broods had just hatched, but I got seventeen 

 eggs, all with the exception of one clutch very hard set. The nests are 

 built in Kanyin (Dipterocarpus) trees at an immense height, fully loO feet, 

 and are only accessible to professional climbers, who drive previously pre- 

 pared bamboo spikes into the trunk, forming a ladder as they climb. The 

 full clutch is four, but as often as not only three eggs are laid. 



CYRIL HOPWOOD, m.b.o.u. 



