LOCAL BIRD-MIGRATION IN INDIA. 351 



In conclusion I should say that during the eighteen months I was 

 in Madras I never discovered any bee-eaters' nests, and suggested that 

 possibly the species left Madras to breed. 



These are the facts. How are they to be explained? Why do bee- 

 eaters visit Lahore and Bannu only in the winter? If it is the cold 

 that drives them south in the autumn, how are we to account for the 

 presence of a stray bee-eater at Quetta in December? Further, these 

 birds leave Lahore early in October when the days are still uncom- 

 fortably hot, and the nights quite warm. 



(1027). The Blue-tailed Bee-eater. — (Merops philippinus.) 



Blanford says that this bird is distributed " throughout the greater 

 part of the oriental region . . . generally, but somewhat locally 

 distributed over India, Ceylon and Burma, extending west to Sind, 

 but not found in the Himalayas. . . A resident species, partially 

 migratory in many places and in Ceylon merely a winter visitant." 



Hume records the finding of its nest in the following places : — 

 Hoshungabad, Lahore, Raipur, Baraich, Allahabad, Agra, Pegu, and 

 Kaukarit in Tenasserim. Thomson says that this species breeds in the 

 Himalayas in the hot valleys of Kumaun far in the interior. 



Macdonald writing of Myingyan, says that the bird seems to be 

 " rare in the district except during the breeding season, which is a 

 month later than that of M. viridis. It is not even then common. 

 Five eggs were taken from one nest in the river bank south of Myin- 

 gyan town on the 5th of May." 



Baker states that it is fairly numerous round the swamps of Singa- 

 pore, but does not mention finding its eggs. The bird does not ap- 

 pear to occur in Hongkong. It is only an occasional straggler to 

 the island of Bombay. Ferguson states that it is "a rare bird in 

 Travancore ; the Museum contains only one specimen shot near Tri- 

 vandrum in August 1893." It does not find place in the list of birds 

 of the following places which have appeared in this Journal: — Chitral, 

 Kashmir, Quetta, Seistan. 



As regards its migration : there is no doubt that it is a summer 

 visitant to Lahore, where it breeds. Inglis, writing of the Madhu- 

 bani Sub-Division of the Darbhanga District, says: — " ] have found 

 this species scarce in the sub-division though common near Baghownie 

 from the middle of March throughout the rains. Mr. Scroope. 

 however, has observed it in many places during the rains. I have 



