74 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



[This species, unlike P. burmanica, is eminently a Sea-water 

 Kingfisher. It occurs along the sea coast about the mouths of 

 tidal creeks, and up these creeks only so far as the tideway 

 reaches. I noticed it first in the Yea River, near its mouth ; 

 again at Amherst in the Waghrau Creek, where it was not un- 

 common ; at Mergui, about the numerons creeks, it was quite 

 common, and I noticed it also frequently along the coast to 

 the south of this, as far as Junk Ceylon, (about 8° N. L.) but 

 did not meet with it further south. 



Iu voice, food, flight, &c, it resembles the other members of 

 the genus. — W. D.] 



129.— Halcyon smyrnensis, Lin. (17). 



(TongJioo, Rams.) Palipoon ; Myawadee ; Kaukaryit Houngt.hraw R. ; 

 Thatone ; Moulmein ; Meetan ; Karope ; Amherst ; Tavoy ; Mergui ; Pukchan. 



Common throughout the less-elevated portions of the pro- 

 vince. 



[I found this species everywhere moderately abundant, occur- 

 ring alike on the sea coast, along the banks of streams, in 

 marshy land, in gardens, clearings, both cultivated and aban- 

 doned, and even occasionally in thin tree jungle. If it does 

 give any preference to any of these localities, it is perhaps to 

 moderately-wooded cultivated land. It never, that I am aware, 

 plunges into the water after its food, but picks it off the 

 ground. 



To the southward it extends quite to the south of the Malay 

 Peninsula, as at Singapore and Johore. 



The skins of this species are collected and exported to China. 

 I have seen at Moulmein and Singapore shops kept by China- 

 men, which contained many hundred flat skins of this bird ; 

 each skin is said to be worth four annas. The skius of the 

 other species, though as brightly colored, are not valued.— 

 W. D.] 



130.— Halcyon pileata, Bodd. (38). 



Thatone ; Karope ; Amherst ; Tavoy ; Pabjin ; Mergui j Tenasserim Town ; 

 Pabyin ; Pakchan ; Bankasoon. 



Confined to the central and southern portions of the 

 province. 



[I did not notice this species in the most northern portion 

 of Tenasserim that I visited, but to the south I found it in 

 some places very common, at others rare, and in the same 

 places too the numbers varied according- to the season. For 

 instance, in January and February I found it excessively 

 numerous along the higher portions of the Pakchan, 60 or 70 



