On Birds from Kalaio. 357 



partially blocked by mud, though a hole was left large 

 enough for the female to put her whole head out. The nest 

 contained a single e^i^, much like many of those of Anthra- 

 coceros, and in colour a dull, very dirty fawn-brown. The 

 texture is very coarse, even for a Horubill's egg, and the surface 

 is minutely pitted all over. The egg measures l"-87 X l"-37. 



XXXII. — Notes on some Birds obtained at Kalaw, in the 

 Southern Shan States. By Major G. Rippon, 



Kalaw is a small village on the western edge of that part of 

 the Southern Shan States wliich is called the Myelat, in the 

 Hsamonghkan State. Its latitude is about 20° 40' N., and 

 its longitude about 96° 40' E. 



Kalaw is about 4500 feet elevation above the sea, but 

 many small peaks round it, rising out of the plateau, reach 

 a height of more than 5000 feet. At Kalaw itself there is 

 a good deal of cultivation at the proper season. When I 

 was there, however, in April last (1895), all the fields were 

 dry, although a stream, wliich could have been used for 

 irrigation, was flowing through them. Several spurs run 

 out from the main plateau towards the low country to the 

 west. Those near Kalaw have an elevation of from 4000 to 

 4500 feet, and are mostly covered with mixed jungle, while 

 the higher knolls and ridges rising from the plateau are 

 generally covered with pine-trees, and the difference of bird- 

 life on the two is very marked. 



I did not collect below 4000 feet, and seldom so low as 

 this, which may account for the omission of Barbets and 

 Woodpeckers, of many of which I could recognize the calls 

 when I stood on the spurs looking into the valleys below. 

 No birds met with beyond a radius of about five miles from 

 Kalaw have been included in this paper, and I got few more 

 of any interest until I had gone about 80 miles further east. 

 The inclusion of familiar Burmese water-birds, shot or 

 observed at a swamp about IG miles east of Kalaw, and again 

 at Fort Stedman, on the Inlc lake, appears to be useless. 



I have inserted in the present paper the names of a few 



