(ju so/lie Burmese Birds. 471 



tically on the banks among the fishermen's houses hard by^ 

 or stand motionless on the water^s edge^ whilst others are 

 circling and wheeling about overhead in large flocks mingled 

 with innumerable Pelicans.'' 



At the end of October and the beginning of November 

 Adjutants pass over Tonghoo, flying southwards in incredible 

 numbers. Whence they come I cannot say ; but their desti- 

 nation we know, from what has been said above, to be the creeks 

 which cut up the greater part of the Pegu, Rangoon, and other 

 districts bordering on the sea, where they spend the dry 

 months of the year. 



The approach of one of these migrating armies is announced 

 nearly a quarter of an hour before it arrives by the loud 

 noise which the birds make with their wings. Their flight is 

 very slow -, and the usual order is single file, or at the most 

 four abreast. I have known one of these flocks to occupy 

 more than twenty minutes in passing over my house. Fre- 

 quently in the course of a flight the leading birds, or sections 

 of birds, may be seen to wheel to the right or left and com- 

 mence flying round and round. Each bird as it arrives at 

 the wheeling-point does the same, until the whole flock is one 

 revolving mass ; and shortly afterwards it begins to unwind 

 itself, and the order of flight is resumed as regularly as before. 



616. Gallicrex cinereus. 



A common bird, which breeds in the Tonghoo district in 

 August and September, when I have found its nest. 



621. HypotvEnidia striata. 



The Blue-breasted Rail breeds at Tonghoo in August and 

 September. I took a nest on the 20th September 1874 con- 

 taining five eggs of a dull cream-colour, speckled and blotched 

 with reddish brown and purplish stone-colour, particularly 

 towards the larger end. The bird is common at Rangoon 

 and Tonghoo. Jerdon's description (vol. iii. p. 726) of the 

 soft parts does not tally with mine. He says, '^ Bill yellowish 

 green, irides red, legs dull green /' but all the Blue-breasted 

 Rails that I have examined in Burma have had the bill 

 bright plum-colour, the irides red-brown, and the legs dirty 



