472 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE NIDIFICATION 



122. — Nyctiornis athertoni, Jard. and Selb. 



I cannot positively vouch for the four eggs said to belong 

 to this species which I have procured. The case stands thus : 

 On the 23rd April a Karen, named Myat-jo, in ray employ, 

 brought me four roundish white, very glossy eggs, and the 

 dead body of a bird of this species, which on dissection proved 

 to be a female, evidently breeding. His story was, that he 

 watched the bird go into a hole in the sandy bank of the 

 Meplay stream, and dug it out, catching it alive seated on the 

 four eggs he had brought me. As the place was not more 

 than a mile or so from where 1 had pitched my camp, I went 

 ofF at once with him to inspect the spot. Examination of the 

 ruined nest and further questioning of Myat-jo elicited the 

 following :— -A tunnel had been dug by the birds into the soft 

 bank to a depth of seven or eight feet, ending in a rounded 

 chamber. The eggs reposed on the bare ground, there being 

 no attempt at a nest. The bird pecked vigorously at Myat-jo's 

 hand, when from time to time he put it in to ascertain bow 

 much further he had to dig. The eggs were very hard set, 

 and I had much difficulty in cleaning them out. They measure 

 1-13 X 1'05, 1-16 x 1-02, 1-12 X 104, and 1-17 X 1/02. 



Myat-jo being an aboriginal Karen, and belonging to a 

 village to which missionaries have not yet penetrated, I myself 

 have little doubt that the eggs are authentic. I have more- 

 over never yet found him trying to impose on me. 



[On the whole I also am inclined to accept the eggs. There 

 is no doubt that they are undistinguishable from the eggs of 

 Halcyon smyrnensis, but there are nevertheless several reasons 

 for believing that they may really belong to N. athertoni. In 

 the first place I have never known Halcyon smyrnensis bore 

 anything like so deep a tunnel. In the second place the female 

 specimen of N. athertoni, said to have been caught on the eggs, 

 proved to be a female that had been then recently laying. It 

 had been caught and not shot, and if he did not catch it in the 

 hole, it is difficult to understand how the Karen could have 

 got hold of it. In the third place the eggs are precisely what 

 the bird might have been expected to lay. 



At the same time it must be admitted that we have hitherto 

 had reason to suppose that this bird bred in holes of trees, and 

 Captain Bingham himself once shot a breeding bird issuing from 

 such a hole, and very few species of birds lay both in holes of 

 trees and in holes in sandy banks. — A. 0. H.] 



168, — Mulleripicus pulverulentus, Tern. 



Last year during the rains I found that one of the very 

 largest Kany in trees (Dipterocarpus alatus) had been blown 



