342 



Harpactes oreskios (Temra.). The Yellow -breasted Trogon. 

 Harpactes oreskios (Temm.), Httme, Cat. no. 110 bis. 



Mr. W. Davison writes from Tenasserim : " On the llth of 

 February 1 took my first nest of Harpactes oreskios, containing two 

 fresh eggs. The eggs were laid on a few chips of decayed wood at 

 the bottom of a hole scooped out (evidently by the bird) at the top 

 of a decayed stump about 4 feet high, and was placed on the very 

 edge of the path. The following day I took two more nests, each 

 containing three eggs slightly incubated. One was in an exactly 

 similar situation to the first nest ; but the other was in a bit of 

 dead wood about 9 inches long that was stuck in a creeper, and 

 was about 12 feet above the ground. 



" There is no doubt that the nest-holes are hollowed out, or at 

 any rate enlarged, by the birds themselves. Besides the three 

 nests I obtained with eggs, I found several more without eggs, and 

 in one instance actually saw the hen Trogon at work excavating 

 the hole. A very rotten stump is chosen, so that the bird can 

 without difficulty chip out the wood. 



" The eggs I took vary much in shape and size ; two from one 

 nest and three from another are very short and broad, while three 

 from another are very long and narrow. They are all of the same 

 colour, a delicate pale cafe-au-lait, almost the same colour as the 

 eggs of Clialcopliaps indica, and vary from O99 to 1*18 in length 

 by 0-8 to 0-86 in breadth. 



"I think that the full number of eggs laid by this species is 

 three. A nest that I found, however, containing young, had only 

 two of these." 



Major C. T. Bingham writes : " On the 21st February, 1877, 

 as I was on the march from the village of Toungdee to the village 

 of Tagooncline, on the southern bank of the Winges River in the 

 Tenasserim Provinces, I was so fortunate as to find a nest of this 

 handsome Trogou. 



" My order of march was, generally, first my guide, next myself, 

 then my interpreter, lastly my peons in single file, as the paths 

 through the dense forests here are narrow. On this occasion, 

 however, I had loitered behind to shoot a jungle-fowl that had 

 been crowing lustily some distance off the road, and my men were 

 waiting for me. As I came up I noticed something like the tail of 

 a bird sticking apparently out of a dead branch in a zimboni tree 

 (Dillenia pentayyna) right over the head of one of the peons. 

 Examining it closer, I saw it was a long-tailed bird of some kind 

 seated in a most uncomfortable position seemingly in, or rather 

 on, a hollow in the branch, its head drawn in and its tail sticking 

 over its back. As soon as it observed me watching, it flew off, and 

 then with a great jump of my heart into my mouth I saw it was a 

 female Harpactes oreskios. I was up the tree in a second, telling 

 one of my men to watch the bird ; the branch was not 12 feet 



