NOTES ON THE NIDIFICATION OF SOME HOKNBILLS. 461 



rutherfordi squealing over it and bustling about with sticks in 

 their bills. I was again too early for eggs. 



On the 22nd February my work again took me for two days 

 near Myat-jo's village, and I found the old man in a terrible 

 state of impatience lest some of the eggs marked down should 

 be hatched off. 



He announced a goodly list, and for the next two days I was 

 simply walked off my legs, for having finished my regular 

 work, and returned to camp about 2 p.m. I had just time to 

 snatch a hasty lunch and be off again, tramping both days 

 till well after dark. But I had my reward, in taking eight nests 

 of D. cavatus, two of H. alhirostris, one of R. undulatns, and 

 one of 0. tickelli with eggs and visiting several of E. subrujicol^ 

 lisy and two more of 0. tickelli, not laid in yet ; besides shoals 

 of Harpactes orescius, one or two of Woodpeckers, one of 

 Loriculits vernalis, etc., all with eggs. S. rutherfordi, strange 

 to say, had not laid even yet, though both birds were about the 

 nest. 



The following is a detailed account of the nests of the Horn- 

 bills visited and the eofojs taken :— 



oo 



140. — Dichoceros cavatus, Shaw. 



Of the eight nests visited and eggs obtained, four contained 

 two eggs each, and four, one each. These were laid in natural 

 hollows in various trees — Pyma [Lagerstrcemia flos regince), 

 Myoukchaii (Homalum tomentosum), Thingau [Hopea odorata), 

 and two in immense, Ficus-encircledj old teak trees. The height 

 of the nest holes from the ground varied from 25 to 70 feet, 

 and the trees selected were invariably close to some Ficus 

 in fruit. 



To five of the nests I ascended myself, and found the open-* 

 ing much narrowed in every one with a plastering of earth, 

 leaf-mould, and the birds' own droppings. The stench of decay- 

 ing vegetable matter from one or two of the nests was quite 

 unbearable, and altogether the inside of the nest and the old 

 hen themselves presented a filthy sight ; but these latter were 

 all able to fly when released and did not seem a bit cramped. 

 The way, though they hissed and quacked and fought for 

 their eggs, was a caution ; my arms are black and blue from: 

 their ferocious digs and bites. In a few cases the males came 

 and looked on, but took no part in the fight, not even to the 

 uttering of a croak in encouragement to their mates. 



The eggs vary in color from a dead, somewhat chalky, white 

 to the dark rusty shade of a hard-set Shell^Ibis' egg. Of 

 course^ those of the latter color were rather sat upon, but the 



