BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 67 



[This Trogon occurs throughout Tenasserim, but is, I should 

 say, less numerous in the north and south than in the central 

 portion, that is between Moulmein and Tavoy. It is less ex- 

 clusively addicted to heavy forest than any of the other species 

 with which I am acquainted, occurring in thin tree jungle, 

 bamboo forest, and even in isolated clumps of trees, provided 

 they are not too far off from some considerable extent of forest. 



In habits and food it resembles the other Trogons. 



It lives entirely on insects, chiefly bugs and beetles, which 

 it habitually catches on the wing, darting from its perch like 

 a Flycatcher or Roller, but rarely returning with its prey to 

 the same perch. Not unfrequently it descends to the ground 

 to pick up insects, and I once shot one dusting its feathers in 

 the middle of the road like a sparrow or a fowl. 



They are very tame birds, very easy to shoot, but owing to 

 their flimsy skins very difficult to skin, and in consequence of 

 the feeble attachment of their feathers, numbers of which fall 

 out if the bird drops from a height of only a few feet, still 

 more difficult to make into really perfect specimens. — W. D.] 



117.— Merops viridis, Lin. (21). 



{Karen Hills, Tonghoo Hills, Earns.) Dargwin ; Pahpoon ; Kedai-Keglay ; 

 Moulmein ; Amherst ; Tavoy ; Mergui. 



Common throughout the more open portions of the province 

 to an elevation not exceeding* 3,000 feet from Mergui north- 

 wards. 



[Occurs as far south as Mergui ; further south in Tenasserim 

 I did not observe it. By preference it frequents open land, 

 such as paddy land, open downs, covered with short turf, and 

 avoids forest. 



Everywhere north of Mergui, in the plains outside heavy 

 forest, it is excessively abundant, but it never seems to get 

 south of Mergui, and I never saw it in the Malay Peninsula. 

 — W. D.] 



118.— Merops philippinus, Lin. (3). 



(Tonglioo, Rama.) Thatone ; Amherst ; Baukasoon. 



Apparently rare in Tenasserim, and only appearing there 

 occasionally. Armstrong got a specimen or two at Amherst, 

 and Davison says : — 



[Only on one or two occasions have I met with this Bee-eater 

 in Tenasserim ; once, quite at the latter end of February 1875 ; 

 a small flock appeared at Malewoon, out of which Mr. Hough 

 shot one ; on the 27th February the same flock, apparently, 

 appeared at Bankasoon, settling on the fences and dead trees 

 about, and hawking over the paddy land : next morning they 

 had all disappeared, probably migrating further north. 



