BIEDS OF TENASSEMM. 69 



The following are the dimensions, fee, of a male and female 

 recorded in the flesh : — 



Male. — Length, 135 ; expanse, 18'0 ; tail from vent, 5*75 ; 

 wing, 5 2 ; tarsus, 065 ; bill from gape, 2 3 ; weight, 312 oz. 



Female. — Length 14 - 12 ; expanse, 18'5 ; tail from vent, 

 5*62 ; wing, 5*5 ; tarsus, 0*7 ; bill from gape, 2"2. 



Legs and feet dull greenish brown ; claws bluish horny ; 

 bill dark horny brown, bluish at base of lower mandible ; 

 irides brown. 



122 bis.— Nyctiornis amicta, Tern. (29). 



Thoungya Sakan ; fifty miles South of Yea ; Pakchan ; Falaw-ton-ton ; Banka- 

 soon ; Malewoon. 



The Red-bearded Bee-Eater is confined to the southern and 

 southernmost central portions of the province. 



[The most northern point at which I saw and obtained this 

 species in the plains was at a village, four days' march south 

 of Yea, about 14° 30' N. Lat. From this point it gets 

 less uncommon as one goes south. In the hills, however, it ex- 

 tends further north, and on the slopes of Mooleyit I got it 

 in nearly 17 Q N. Lat. This species less often occurs away from 

 forest than athertoni, but although, keeping, as a rule, to the 

 woods, it avoids the denser portions, frequenting those parts 

 where the larger trees are somewhat scattered, and where 

 plenty of sun light penetrates ; favorite places are the banks 

 of large streams, and the borders of swamps and shallow la- 

 goons surrounded by forest. 



The note of this bird is something similar to that of N. 

 atliertoni, and is a hoarse quo-qua-qua-qua uttered at irregu- 

 lar intervals. When one calls it is usually answered by its 

 mate, the birds being generally found in pairs, seldom singly, 

 and never that I know of in parties. "When uttering its note 

 the bird leans forward, stretches out its neck, and puff's out the 

 feathers of its throat, and at each syllable of its note bobs 

 its head up and down. 



It breeds, I should say, about March and April, as on the 

 20th of March I shot a female, out of which I took an egg 

 that was fully formed, but still quite soft ; but I was unable 

 to find the nest. 



I have not noticed that either this bird or athertoni were 

 crepuscular. Occasionally on a clear moonlight evening, about 

 about 7 or 8 o'clock, I have heard the note, but there are 

 numbers of birds that, of a bright evening, or if they have 

 been in any way disturbed, will call. Like the true Bee-eaters 

 it lives entirely on insects which it takes on the wiDg. — W. D.] 



