LOCAL BIRD-MIGRATION IN INDIA. 349 



It is found in the Khasia hills, although Stuart Baker does not say 

 to what height it extends. He writes : " Common near Sylhet. I 

 have never found this hird breeding in company as it does in other 

 parts of India." As regards the western limit of its distribution, 

 Butler writes : — (Ibis, eighth series, Vol. V., p. 351). "Very common 

 all over the northern parts of the Soudan. It becomes rarer on the 

 White Nile, but I have seen it at intervals as far along as the Bahr- 

 <>1-Ghazal, and up that river to Meshra-el-Rek." Loat does not 

 mention it among the birds seen by him in the Natron valley about 

 70 miles W. N. W. of Cairo and 60 miles south of Alexandria. As 

 regards its intermediate distribution, Fulton does not mention it in his 

 "List of the Birds of Chitral," nor does it find place in the List of 

 Birds seen in Seistan by members of the Mission. Marshall does not 

 mention the species in his notes on Birds near Quetta, but Nurse 

 states (B. N. H. S. Journal, Vol. XV., p. 531) that he saw on Decem- 

 ber 16, 1903, a specimen sitting on a poplar tree. " I was quite close 

 to it at the time", he writes " and am certain of the identification. I 

 had not previously seen a specimen of this species in Baluchistan, 

 though Blanford says that it extends through Baluchistan to Persia. 

 It is certainly not common at Quetta." 



Hume states that the species breeds pretty well all over India and 

 Burma, though less commonly in damp, low-lying localities, such as 

 Orissa and Eastern Bengal. Legge says in his " Birds of Ceylon :" 

 " This Bee-eater breeds in the sand hills at Hambantota and other 

 similar localities in Ceylon. I found the young fledged on the 

 south-east coast in June, but did not succeed in finding any nests." 



Ferguson states that it is one of the commonest and most numerous 

 birds in the low country of Travancore. 



Bingham says : "Except in heavy forest land this little bird is as 

 common in Tenasserim almost as in the United Provinces. It crosses 

 the Dawna range into the Thourgyeen valley, and is found in suitable 

 spots all along the river. It is a permanent resident and breeds 

 there." 



Regarding its "local migrations" E. H. Aitken writes: — " [n 

 Bombay it is to be seen everywhere from the end of the rains till the 

 beginning of the hot season, but disappears in the interval. Yet it 

 is not ranked as a migratory bird and is so in the usual sense. It 



