OF SOME BURMESE BIRDS, II. 43 



'fellows, 150 feet high and more, and with a smooth branchless 

 trunk of 80 to 100 feet. These are the trees selected by the 

 Pelicans. 



I was out that day till 3 p.m., continually moving, and must 

 have walked at least twenty miles in various directions, but 

 never from first to last was I out of sight of either a Pelican's 

 or Adjutant's nest. From what I saw, and from what the Bur- 

 mans told me, I compute the breeding place of these birds to 

 extend over an area about twelve miles long and five broad. 



I shall describe the Adjutants' nests presently, but with re- 

 gard to the Pelicans' I noticed that no tree contained less than 

 three nests, and seldom more than fifteen. Some birds select 

 the upper branches, placing their nest in a fork, but others, the 

 majority, placed their nests on the nearly horizontal branches of 

 the tree not far from the trunk. In all cases, the nests on one 

 branch touch each other, and when these nests were on a 

 horizontal branch, they looked like enormous beads. 



Judging from the size of the bird I should say the nest is 

 about two feet diameter, and when in a fork, to be about eight- 

 een inches deep. Others on flat branches were shallower. 

 They are composed entirely of twigs and small branches, and I 

 could detect no lining in those nests which were thrown down 

 to me. 



The eggs are invariably three in Dumber, and on the 11th. 

 November all I took were either fresh or only slightly incubat- 

 ed. The female bird sits very closely, and frequently I found 

 that the bird would not fly off her eggs till I fired a gun. It 

 was a most ludicrous sight to see the sitting birds stretch neck 

 and head out of the nest to have a look at us, as often hap- 

 pened. 



The only trees which the Burmans can climb on the spur of 

 the moment are those which their arms can encircle. To be 

 able to climb any tree it is necessary to make bamboo spikes 

 the day before. These are driven into the trunk as the man 

 mounts, and the operation, even for the tallest tree, does not 

 take very long. 



Notwithstanding the millions of birds which breed in this 

 forest, a most wonderful silence prevails. The Pelican seems to 

 be perfectly mute, and the Adjutants only bellow at intervals. 

 The only sound which is constantly heard, and after a time 

 even this sound passes unnoticed, is a sort of iEolian harp caused 

 by the movement of the wings of innumerable birds high in 

 air. 



The eggs of this Pelican are pure-white at first. As incuba- 

 tion proceeds they change to a brown, and before hatching, 

 become in some cases almost black. In texture, they are very 



