74 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



in males the blue on these parts is assumed quickly, in females very slowly 

 and some trace of ferruginous in these latter is generally present. 



Iris dark brown ; eyelid dark grey ; gape and base of bill orange ; 

 remainder of bill black ; legs bright red ; claws red. The fully adult 

 female has the bill the same colour as the male. Young birds have most 

 of the lower mandible red and the tips of both white. 



Length 6'2 inches, tail 1-2, wing 2'5, tarsus -3, bill from gape 1'8. The 

 female is of the same size. 



From an examination of a magnificent series of these birds in the British 

 Museum and of a dozen or more specimens shot by myself in Burmah, I 

 have come to the conclusion that there is only one species inhabiting 

 India, Burmah and the Indian archipelago. The bars on the head vary in 

 colour from rich purple in Borneo, Java &c. to rich blue or even bluish 

 green in Burmah ; but the transition is very gradual, and some of the 

 Burmese birds show a distinct tint of purple on the nape. The lower 

 plumage is very uniform in all, young and old alike. It is shown beyond 

 all doubt by sexed females in the British Museum collected by Mr. Wallace, 

 and by birds shot by myself in Burmah, that the fully adult female has 

 the cheeks and ear-coverts blue like the male, but generally intermingled 

 with a little ferruginous until she becomes aged. 



The Malayan Kingfisher is somewhat locally distributed. I found it 

 abundant in the Pegu hills a few miles north of the town of Pegu and also 

 in a patch of dense jungle a couple of miles north of Kyeikpadein. Lord 

 Tweeddale received a specimen from Tonghoo. Mr. Davison states that 

 it occurs sparingly throughout Tenasserim ; and he and Mr. Hume make 

 two species of the birds found in that Division, the richer-coloured bird 

 being recorded from Bankasoon only and the greener and duller bird from 

 elsewhere. 



It has a wide range, being found in many parts of the peninsula of India 

 from the north to the extreme south. It occurs in Cochin China, the 

 Malay peninsula, the Andamans, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and some of the 

 further islands. 



This species is restricted to the dense forests where the ground is broken 

 up by nullahs and ravines. I think it always darts on its prey from a perch 

 and does not hover in the air. I have found numerous nests of this bird 

 in July in Pegu. The eggs, four to six in number, are laid on the bare 

 soil in a chamber at the end of a tunnel dug in the perpendicular face of a 

 bank of a ravine among thick vegetation. 



