BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 21 



Captain Feilden remarks : " The f emale, as far as I know, does 

 not assume the red head till she is at least two years old. The red 

 begins on the shoulders and extends gradually to the forehead. 

 I have a specimen wholly red, except a small patch on the fore- 

 head and another only just tinted with red on the shoulders, but 

 I cannot say how long the head is in becoming entirely red. I 

 fancy that the head of the male also becomes red at a still more 

 advanced age, but I am not certain of this. I have a male 

 with a few red feathers on the shoulders, and I saw both a red 

 and a grey-headed bird following a female during the breeding 

 season. I shot the grey-headed male and the female, but lost the 

 other red-headed bird, which I conclude was a male. I cannot 

 say whether the male or the female is the larger, as their tails 

 are almost always much broken ; but in one pair that I obtained 

 with unbroken tails, the male was slightly larger. 



" The food consists of insects, with an occasional mouse, snake, 

 or lizzard. The ordinary note of this bird is like that of the 

 White-eyed Buzzard, but of course not so loud. During the 

 pairing season, its call-note is a kind of whistling hoot, which 

 appeared to me to resemble f tooey/ the 'too/ very much 

 prolonged. I once saw a pair meet, when they uttered a succes- 

 sion of loud harsh screams, which resembled the cries of a flock 

 of Red-wattled Plovers when disturbed, but before they rise. 

 They pair about the last week in January. I found an unshelled 

 egg in March (on dissection). I think I found an old nest in 

 the fork of a tree as I shot a young bird a short distance off, but 

 I only mention this as a help to others in looking for the nest. 

 It resembled a small Hawk Eagle's nest both in make and 

 position. 



" The habits of these birds are very peculiar, in some things 

 resembling those of the Magpie. They perch exactly like a 

 Falcon; but if they wish to move along a branch, they hop 

 sideways, or, if the branch is pretty upright, walk up it, foot 

 over foot, if I may use the expression, in the same manner as a 

 Magpie. When at all alarmed they jerk their tail, and when 

 much excited by the approach of any one, lower their heads exactly 

 in the same way as some of the Owlets. Altogether, when moving 

 about the branches of a tree, they might at a short distance be 

 mistaken for a Magpie, except for the shape of the head. The 

 flight is also peculiar, a few tolerably rapid strokes ending, if 

 I remember rightly, in a slightly upwards jerk, then a short 

 sail through the air, and then a few more strokes, and so on. 



" I have invariably found them on cleared ground in the mid- 

 dle of jungles seated on trees, and once on a fallen hut. The 

 only exception to this being when I have found them at a spot 

 where several jungle roads meet and form an open space, or on 

 low gravelly hills thinly covered with bushes, and an occasional 



