246 Sir R. H. Schomburgk on the Birds of Siam. 



XX. — Cursory Notes on some of the Birds of Siam. By Sir 

 Robert H. Schomburgk, Ph.D., F.R.S., Corr. Member of 

 the Zool. Soc. of London, &c. 



The following observations on some of the birds of Siam do 

 not aim at a scientific description ; they are merely notes from 

 my pocket-book aad from the journal which I kept during 

 my travels in the interior of Siam. It has been my object to 

 dwell more on the customs and manners of the birds that came 

 under my notice than to describe them scientifically. They 

 must be taken for what they are worth. The Siamese name of 

 the bird, where I could ascertain it, has generally been given *. 



1. Haliastur INDUS (Bodd.). (Ih-hioh.) 



The graceful motions of this bird when on the wing are ad- 

 mirable. We see him swifting over the surface of the river ; 

 then suddenly he rises up into the air to a height of several 

 hundred feet, sailing around in circles of greater or less extent, 

 apparently without the smallest exertion ; for not a pinion is seen 

 to move ; only now and then the bird changes the position of 

 his body from the horizontal to the oblique, now to the right, 

 now to the left; he pauses, and down he darts to the river's 

 surface (in seemingly a straight line), seizes with his talons his 

 prey, one of the finny tribe, and, rising up for a short distance, 

 flies to an adjacent tree on the river's bank, there to devour it, 

 or carries it off to his nest. 



2. CoRACTAS AFFiNis. (Nook tackah.) 



This handsome bird belongs to the Bee-eaters. It is dressed 

 in blues of all shades, azure and smaragdinous included, and then 

 shading off into green and grey. His greatest enemies are the 

 Crows. The bird is by no means uncommon in the gardens 

 attached to the houses in Bangkok ; but scarcely have the Crows 



* Sir Robert has kindly forwarded specimens of most of the birds men- 

 tioned in his notes, which, though in a very bad state of preservation, have 

 enabled me to add the correct scientific name of the species where he has 

 not himself inserted it. Besides the species mentioned, his collection con- 

 tains examples of Hierax eutolmos (Hodgs.), Micronisus badius, Porphyrio 

 smaragdinotis, Tringoides hypoleucos, and several others enumerated by 

 Mr. Gould in the list of Sir R. Schomburgk's birds given in P. Z. S. 1859, 

 p. 151.— P. L. S. 



