THE 



NESTS AND EGGS 



OF 



INDIAN BIRDS. 



Order HALCYONES. 



Family ALCEDINID^l. 

 Subfamily ALCEDININ.E. 



Alcedo bengalensis, Gmel. The Little Indian Kingfisher. 



Alcedo bengalensis, Gmel., Jerd. B. Lid. i, p. 230 j Hume. Rough 

 Draft y. E. no. 134. 



The breeding-season of the Little Indian Kingfisher seems to 

 vary very materially according to locality. In Madras Davison 

 found, as he considers, a nest in January ; in the Nilghiris and the 

 Deccan it lays in March. I got them in the ' Doon and in the 

 Terai belo\v Darjeeling during. May, and Captain Cock obtained 

 them in June in Cashmere. They bore a very narrow hole, rarely 

 exceeding 2 feet in depth and often scarcely half so long, in some 

 bank immediately overlooking water (running water by choice) at 

 a height of from G inches to 5 feet above the water-level. The 

 passage, which is barely 2 inches in diameter, terminates in a little 

 circular domed chamber, perhaps 5 inches in diameter and 3 or 4 

 in height, in which the eggs, from five to seven in number, are 

 deposited. Every nest that I have seen contained a quantity of 

 hair-like fish-bones, and in one case the eggs reposed on a little 



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