MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 773 



The Malayan Bee-eater (Merops sumatranus). — Great quantities of these 

 bee-eaters were breeding alont; the banks of the Pahang River when I 

 travelled down it in May, large or small nesting colonies being passed all 

 down I he two hundred and odd miles of river from Lipis to Kuala Pahang 

 on the East Coast. 



The nest-holes are almost always made in flat sandy ground, nests in 

 vertical banks being quite the exception. 



The burrows descend at a slant at first, and then run horizontally about 

 18 inches or 2 feet below the surface. They are of considerable length, the 

 egg chamber often being 7 or 8 feet from the entrance. Clutches genarally 

 contain 4 or 5 eggs of the usual Merops type. 



The flat sandy " padangs," or plains on the East Coast were full of the nest 

 holes of these bee-eaters, from which the brilliantly coloured birds kept 

 flashing out into the sunlight as one approached. Scarcely less numerous 

 than the bee-eaters on these sandy flats were the beautiful sand lizards 

 {Liohpis helliana), by which all the old bee-eaters' burrows seemed to be 

 occupied. Very quick and wary they were, basking motionless with the bright 

 blue and orange skin of their sides expanded to the hot sun, but scurrying off 

 with rabbit-like celerity at the approach of danger, and vanishing down the 

 nearest burrow in a little whirlwind of dust. 



The half-dozen specimens which I wanted I had to shoot ; catching them 

 was out of the question. 



Wounded ones when handled expanded the beautifully coloured skin of 

 the sides as much as possible, but seemed very gentle and made no attempt 

 to bite. 



Selangor, Juhj, 1899. A. L. BUTLER. 



No. XVI.— BISON, TIGER, AND WILD DOGS. 



1 can, from personal observation, folly confirm Captain Burton's statement, 

 — as mentioned in his Jungle Notes in the last number of this Journal — that 

 Bison will enter cultivation when near jungle. In a portion of the hill 

 part of the Kanara district there are a number of rice-felds, surrounded by 

 thorny fences with thick forest close up. I have noticed on several occasions, 

 when passing by these fields early in the morning, large gaps in the fences 

 and the rice much trampled over from Bison forcing their way through 

 at night, attracted by the crop. I have followed their tracks from the 

 fields far back into the jungle. The field watcher used to ask me to sit up 

 for a shot ; but the nights, while I was staying in the neighbourhood were 

 too dark. The Bison visited the fields late and retired from them in the dusk 

 of dawn. 



Bison, mostly cows and young animals, are of ten killed by tigers in the 

 Kanara forests. Early one morning, during the hot weather, a lady, who 

 was stalking a herd of Bison, saw two tigers engaged in the same operation 



