10 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



127. -THE BROWN-HEADED KINGFISHER. 



Pelargopsis gurial, Pears. 

 The Brown-headed or Stork-billed Kingfisher is the least common 

 of all the family, and only occurs as a straggler in most places of 

 the district. It has not been recorded from Sind. Mr. Davidson, C.S., 

 found it breeding in Nassiek and West Khaudesh in April and May in 

 holes in river banks : generally about a foot deep. A female I shot in 

 Ncemuch in March had good sized eggs in her ovaries, and I have 

 also received notes of nesting holes from other places.* The eggs 

 are stated by Mr. Theobald to be four in number, in shape round 

 and pure white. He gives the dimensions as 1*09 inches in length 

 by 1'02 in breadth, but this is less thau egg* of the m?Tch smaller 

 White-breasted Kingfisher measure, and must, I think, be a mistake. 



129.— THE WHITE- BREASTED KINGFISHER. 



Halcyon s-mymensis, Lin. 



The White-breasted Kingfisher is a common permanent resident 

 throughout the entire region, breeding in holes pierced in the banks 

 of rivers, canals, and tanks, and in the sides of wells, from March to 

 the end of May and again in July and August. There is no nest. 

 The eggs, from four to seven in nntnbtr, are deposited in a cavity at 

 the end of the passage; they are glossy china-white when first laid, 

 but soon become discoloured. In shape they are very broad ovals, 

 some being almost spherical ; they average 1'12 inches in length by 

 1-03 in breadth. 



I have never found the least semblance of nest, but Mr. Baker 

 writing from Silchar, North Cachar, tells a very different tale. He 

 says, in eftst. : — "Halcyon smyrnensis a)wa} T s build their nests hero 

 of moss, and generally under an overhanging stone on the bank 

 of some small stream, which is entirely covered in with jungle. 

 The people here declare that it never makes a hole in a bank, and 

 they do not consider it to be a Kingfisher, calling it quite a 

 different name." In another letter he says: — " I was halting on 

 the bank of a river, some eight or ten miles from Guilong, and 

 during the day noticed a pair of these birds constantly visiting a 

 place under an old rotten tree. On my inspecting it I found that 

 thoy had built, or rather nearly built, a nest in a crevice between 

 two roots. It was composed of moss with a few skeleton lcaves> 



* Vide B. N. H. S. Journal, p. 32, No. 2, Vol. h 



