154 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF. TEN ASSERIM 



127 bis. — Pelargopsis burmanica, Sharpe. 



Found all over the country, but not so numerous in the 

 Thoungyeen valley, as I have noticed it elsewhere. 



It breeds in the Thoungyeen in the latter end of February, 

 in March, and in the beginning of April, commencing and 

 finishing the digging of its nest-hole long before the eggs are 

 laid. 



On the 23rd March, being encamped just on the bank of the 

 Meplay close to its mouth, I noticed, while seated outside my 

 tent in the afternoon, a pair of these birds going in and out of a 

 hole in the bank opposite. On inspecting it closer, it proved to 

 be the opening to a tunnel t\ inch in diameter, and going in for 

 fully five feet, where it ended in a rounded chamber, consider- 

 ably larger than the passage, in which lay four roundish glossy 

 white eggs. There was no lining of any kind, the eggs reposing 

 on the bare ground. 



They measure respectively, 1*19 by 1'05, 1*17 by 1*03, 

 1-18 by 108, and 1-15 by 1-03. 



129.— Halcyon smyrnensis, Lin. 



I have procured this bird all over the province. In the 

 Thoungyeen it is by far the commonest Kingfisher, and I have 

 Been it far from any water in dry Eng (Dipterocarpus) jungle. 



One specimen, a male, shot at Kaukarit on the Houndraw 

 river, on the 15th November 1879, is remarkable as having 

 very little white on the chest, which is further confined by 

 an incomplete chestnut bar at the base of the throat. It 

 measured in the flesh : — 



Length, 11*0 ; expanse, 16*5; wing, 4-6; tail from vent, 

 3'15 ; tarsus, 0*6; bill from gape, 2*71. 



Bill dark coral red, suffused with horny at the edges and near 

 the nostrils ; irides nut brown ; legs and feet dark coral red, 

 tinged with black in front. 



130.— Halcyon pileata, Bodd. 



In the rains this species wanders far up the rivers inland. 

 In September and October I found it especially plentiful at 

 the head waters of the Thoungyeen, and along its numerous 

 feeders down to its mouth. 



132 ter,— Carcineutes pulchellus, Horsf. 



This lovely forest Kingfisher is found throughout the 

 Thoungyeen valley ; in some places, as in the valley of the 

 Meplay, it is very common. On the western side of the Dawna 

 range I have only once procured it, and that was just at the 



