08 . BUCEKOTIDJE. 



Mr. H. Parker writes : " April to June. In Ceylon this Bee- 

 eater usually breeds in small colonies, numbering from three to ten 

 pairs, and prefers secluded river-banks, but will nest in road- 

 cuttings, or even under roads, or in almost level ground." 



"Writing from Tenasserim, Major Bingham says : " On the 2nd 

 April, halting for a day high up on the Oukreen choung, a feeder 

 of the Thoungyeen river, I went roaming about in the vicinity of 

 the camp, searching for eggs. I was unlucky, however, and found 

 but one nest, that of this species. 



" A tunnel, sloping upwards, had been dug by the bird into 

 the sandy bank of the choung. It was about 3| feet deep 

 and 2 inches in diameter, terminating in a chamber rounded like 

 the bulb of a retort, and rather more in depth and width than the 

 tunnel ; it was unlined, and resting on the bare ground were four 

 hard-set, rather glossy, white eggs ; these measure 0-9 by 075, 

 0-9 by 0-74, O9 by O74, and 0-9 by 076." 



Mr. W. Davison, also referring to Tenasserim, says : " I found 

 them breeding in Tenasserim, and on the 26th March, 1874, I 

 took five eggs out of a hole running about two and a half feet in 

 to the bank of a stream, at a place some thirty miles north of 

 Yea." 



These eggs are of the usual Bee-eater type, pure white, very 

 glossy, almost spherical. They are smaller than those of M. 

 pliilippinus and a fortiori than those of M. apiaster, but they are 

 considerably larger than those of M. viridis. 



They vary in length from 0'82 to 0-92 inch, and in breadth from 

 0-72 to 0-81 inch, but the average of a large series is 0*87 by 0'76 

 inch 



Order BUCEROTES. 

 Family BUCEEOTID^E. 



Dichoceros bicornis (Linn.). The Great Pied Hornbill 



Homraius bicornis (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 242. 



Dichoceros homrai (Hodys.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 140. 



Dichoceros bicornis (Linn.}, Hume, t. c. no. 140 'bis. 



Col. Tickell gives us the following account of the nidification of 

 the Great Pied Hornbill : 



"Kyik, on the Houngthrau Eiver, February 16th, 1855. On 

 my way back to Moulmein from Mooleyit (a celebrated peak in the 

 Tenasserim Range), when halting at Kyik, I heard by the merest 

 chance from the Karen villagers that a large Hornbill was sitting 

 on its nest in a tree close to the village, and that for several years 



