NOVELTIES. 51 



dead branch in a zimbora tree (Dillenia pentagyna) rio-bt 

 over the bead of one of tbe peons. Examining it closer I 

 saw it was a long-tailed bird of some kind seated in a most 

 uncomfortable position seemingly in, or rather on a hollow 

 in the branch, its head drawn in and its tail sticking over its 

 back. As soon as it observed me watching it flew off, and 

 then with a great jump of my heart into my mouth I saw 

 it was a female Harpactes oreskios. I was up the tree in a 

 second, telling one of my men to watch the bird : the branch 

 was not 12 feet above the ground, and I almost tumbled off in 

 my delight, on finding a cup-shaped hollow on the upper 

 side, some three inches deep by three and a half in diameter, con- 

 taining two roundish, creamy white eggs, quite fresh, laid on 

 the bare wood. 



I looked round now for the bird, and saw her, joined by 

 her mate, seated on a bamboo not ten yards off. Slipping down 

 the tree quietly I took my gun and fired, hoping to brino- both 

 down as they were seated close together, but succeeded only 

 in securing the male. 



It rather surprised me to find a nest, or even to see Troo-ons 

 in such open dry forest as I was going through ; and the nest 

 too in a tree on the very border of the high road (though it 

 is a mere pathway after all) from Maulmain to the Shan 

 country. 



I cannot say whether the hollow in the dead branch was 

 made by the Trogons themselves or not : the wood was rotten 

 enough to be easily pecked out by any bird, but I rather sus- 

 pect the cavity must have been hollowed out first by a Wood- 

 pecker, and that then a portion was afterwards broken off or 

 more probably fell off. 



Sobcltics. 

 iEthopyga Waldeni. 



Like M. saturata, Sodgs. and M. sanguinipectus, Walden, hut sides o f 

 neck, maroon; entire chin and upper portion of throat, non-metallic 

 black; entire crop and two narroio lines leading up thence to gape, 

 metallic purple ; entire abdomen, vent, and lower tail-coverts, slightly 

 yellowish olive green. 



This species is clearly distinct from saturata, and also, if Lord 

 Waldeu's description (A. and M. N. H. June 1875, p. 400, 

 republished, S. F. III. 402) is accurate, equally so from sanguini 



pectus. 



