THE KINGFISHERS 1837 



with a chest band of black and white feathers, and the sides of the body are also 

 barred with black. The female is like the male in color, but does not show the 

 tinge of rufous on the cheeks and breast band which are to be seen in the male. 

 The under wing coverts and axillaries are pale rufous, thus showing the sexual dif- 

 ferences which are one of the characteristics of the genus. Writing of a nest with 

 young found in the Northwestern Himalayas, Mr. Hume states that ' ' the entrance 

 was a large hole, fully four inches in diameter, and at the end was a chamber fully 

 ten inches across, in which were four young birds; in the chamber was a quantity 

 of fish bones and some grass. The eggs are three or four in number, and the birds 

 are in the habit of carrying to their young fishes from six to seven inches in length,, 

 and these are always swallowed whole. ' ' Mr. Stuart Baker writes that ' ' I have seen 

 but three nests of this bird. The first nest taken was found in July, and was placed 

 at the end of a short tunnel in a bank of one of the biggest rivers in North Kachar, 

 the Diyung. The burrow itself was about two feet long and the egg chamber was 

 over seventeen inches long by nearly ten broad, the height being almost as much. 

 The eggs, of which there were four, reposed on a quantity of malodorous fish bones, 

 these extending nearly a couple of inches up the sides of the walls and partially 

 burying the eggs, so this unpleasant material must have been added after the eggs 

 were laid. The soil in which these were found was loose and sandy. The second 

 nest was found by a Naga in a small stream called the Mahor, running between 

 thickly- wooded banks, nowhere much over fifty yards from bank to bank, and, where 

 the nest was taken, under thirty yards across. This nest was in dimensions much 

 the 'same as that already described, the entrance tunnel being a few inches shorter. 

 The fish bones also were not so abundant in the nest, doubtless owing to its being 

 newer, as the eggs when found were quite fresh, whereas in the last they were very 

 hard set, indeed almost on the point of hatching. This hole was made in a rather 

 harder soil than the other, but still not in a clay or really stiff material. The only 

 other nest I have seen was found on the tenth of April, 1893, the day before this 

 was written. The female bird I shot as it left the nest, and the male as it came up 

 calling loudly to its mate. The burrow, chamber and all, was complete when 

 found, but was quite empty, containing neither eggs nor nest. The tunnel in this 

 case was not six inches long, and the chamber was about fifteen inches long- by 

 about seven broad and six high. The soil in which this nest hole was excavated 

 was composed of clay and sand mixed, and was decidedly stiff. Judging from the 

 three nests above described, it seems probable that the bird only makes very short 

 burrows. Halcyon smyrnensis, Alcedo ispida, and many other kinds of kingfishers, 

 would have dug out a hole some four to six feet deep in the ground in which the 

 first nest was taken, and would certainly have made them of over three feet in the 

 other places. In texture and shape the eggs do not differ from the majority of 

 other kingfishers' eggs, although they are unusually small in size. Amongst the 

 bed of bones found in the first and second burrows, there were a good many which 

 must have belonged to fish fully six inches long, but the greater number of them 

 were those of very small fish. The Kacharis tell me that as a rule this bird only 

 lays two or three eggs, and that my finding four was exceptional, but a Kachari's 

 word is not particularly reliable. They are also said to breed principally in May, 



