NOTES ON N1DIFICAT10N IN KANARA, 333 



cases singly; the number of eggs was 4 or 5 in each case. They 

 appear to me indistinguishable from those of Alcedo bcngalcnsis. 



122.— THE BLUE-NECKED BEE-FATER. 

 Nyctiornis athertoni, Jerd. and Sclby. 

 This is a very sh) r bird, and not at all common anywhere I 

 visited; I noticed it, however, occasionally both above and below 

 the ghats from February to July, and it is probably found 

 throughout the year. I obtained several nests; these were, as 

 might have been expected in an orthodox bee-eater, all in holes 

 in banks, most frequently adjoining roads ; they were as a rule 

 very deep, sometimes over 6 feet, and were at once recognizable 

 by the fact that the tunnel always contained many wing-cases 

 and other remains of bees, wasps, and beetles. The holes ended 

 in a large chamber, completely filled with these remains, and 

 the eggs were completely hidden beneath them. I carefully ex- 

 tracted the contents of a nest in which the eggs were hard 

 set, and, with a slight admixture of earth, it nearly filled the 

 top of a " solah topee ' Three and four were the number of 

 e'-H'S:^ and young I found in the nests ; they are quite indistinguish- 

 able from those of Haleyoi frnensis; fortunately, however, both 

 the blue-necked and chestnut-headed bee-eaters allow themselves to 

 be dug out, so there can never be any doubt about the identity 

 of their eggs. All the eggs I took were in the end of March ; in 

 April the nests contained young. The Public Works coolies 

 employed on the roads had an abominable habit of digging out and 

 eating the birds and eggs of this species, and many nests so destroyed 

 came to my notice. 



140.— THE GREAT HORNBILL. 



Dichoceros carat us, Shaw. 



I found this much the scarcest of the four Hornbills found in Kanara, 

 and certainly did not notice a dozen specimens in the eighteen months 

 I was there. On the 12th February, 1890, I was shown a nest at 

 Kutgul, just below the Devimane Ghat, and was told the birds had 

 bred there for many years, though the villagers generally killed the 

 old one, and the one young one (the villagers said there never Mas 



43 



