78 BIRDS OP TENASSERIM. 



Another young male which is precisely like the adult, (except 

 that the blue nape line is little developed, and that there is just 

 a trace of black barring on the gape stripe,) has a tiny pale buff 

 speck or spot just at the tips of all the wing-coverts. While 

 again another, in every other respect perfect adult male, has 

 the coverts hair brown instead of deep ultramarine, margined 

 everywhere with a rather brighter ultramarine, ' tinged just 

 inside this greenish, and in the middle of this tinge a small 

 buff-colored spot. 



These birds were severally sexed by dissection, and it seems 

 rather inexplicable now, that beginning as the nestling male does 

 almost precisely like the adult, there should be an intermediate 

 stage, in which the wings are slightly spotted, recalling the 

 female garb. 



The adult female is like the male, except that the inter- 

 scapulary region coverts, (except the primary greater ones,) 

 outer portions of secondaries, visible portions of tertiaries 

 and scapulars, are all green, all the feathers of the coverts and 

 scapulars, with a conspicuous buffy white sub-terminal spot, and 

 that the smalt of the middle of the rump is decidedly less silvery. 



There is no doubt, I believe, that this is the plumage of the 

 adult female ; all the five females we obtained were in this plu- 

 mage, the younger ones only differing in the somewhat duller 

 colors ; the larger size of the spots and traces of transverse 

 dusky hair line barring on the upper abdomen, sides, and flanks. 



132.— Halcyon chloris, Bodd. (22). 



Tbatone creek ; Amherst ; Yea ; Mergui. 



Confined apparently to the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 sea-coast and to the southern half of the province. 



[About the creeks and sea shore at Amherst and southwards, 

 I found this species not uncommon. It was perhaps most 

 numerous about Mergui. In December, when I was in Mergui, 

 I found that this species kept entirely to the sea-coast and 

 banks of the creeks, but in June, after the rains had commenced, 

 they became very numerous about the gardens, and even in the 

 town itself, and I noticed them often seated on the house-tops, 

 they w T ere then pairing and were excessively noisy, chasing one 

 another from tree to tree with their harsh laughing call. 



Like H. occipitalis, this species also nests in deserted ants' 

 nests. I found a nest in such a situation at Mergui, but failed 

 to secure the eggs, as the nest was also tenanted by a swarm of 

 Hornets, who resented my interference, and whom the owner of 

 the garden in which the nest was refused to allow me to smoke 

 out on the absurd grounds that they would probably bother 

 him after I had left.— W. D.] 



