OF SOME BIRDS IN BUBMAH. 81 



On the 25th of March, happening to pass this tree, I saw the 

 falconet fly out and settle on an adjoining tree, where I shot it. 

 I then sent a man up and while he was examining the hole, the 

 other falconet, which proved to he the female, flew out and settled 

 close by and I also shot her ; on enlarging the hole, sufficiently 

 to admit a man's hand, it was found that there Were no eggs, but 

 at the bottom of the hole, which was abotit 18 inches deep, was 

 a soft pad composed of flies and butterflies' wings, mixed with 

 small pieces of rotten wood. On dissecting the female I found 

 in her a fully formed hard-shelled egg, but unfortunately broken 

 by the shot. This egg was pure white without spot or streak of 

 any kind, the texture was fine and close, and when held up against 

 the light it exhibited a very faint yellowish or greenish tint." 



This I may mention was near Bankasoon at the extreme south 

 of Tenasserim. 



It will be noticed that both species build in holes in trees, 

 line the bottom with a pad of the wings of Lepidoptera, Neurop- 

 tera, and the like, and lay white eggs. — Ed. S. F.J 



2Zter.— Astur poliopsis, Hume. 



Passiug through a toungyah or cultivation clearing, belonging 

 to a Karen of a village near ray camp, I noticed a hawk 

 fly off a nest placed on a large branch of a Pymma tree 

 ( Lager strcemia Flos Regbue) which grew horizontally out at a 

 height of fully 40 feet above the ground ; it (the nest) was 

 rather difficult of detection, as it was placed above a large 

 bunch of orchids which prevented it from being seen from below, 

 and it was only by retiring to some rising ground two or three 

 hundred yards off and using my binoculars that I made it out. 

 After waiting for sometime, and finding the bird did not return, 

 I retraced my steps to my camp. This was on the 11th April. 



Next day 1 returned, and secured the three eggs, very hard 

 set they were, which the nest contained, and shot the female as 

 she sat on a neighbouring tree after flying off the nest. This 

 latter was very like that of A. badius, a poor affair of sticks 

 very loosely put together. The eggs too very much resemble 

 those of its near relative. 



[To judge from these specimens, the eggs are rather longer 

 than those of A. badius. They measure 1*69 by 124, 1*7 by 

 1*27 and 1'63 by 1*13 ; the average of a large series of badius 

 is 1'55 by T22, and the longest I have measured was only 1*65 

 in length. 



These eggs are the usual pale greyish-bluish wdiite, devoid of 

 real markings, though stained and dirtied here and there. The 

 shells very fine and compact, but with very little appreciable 

 gloss.— Ed., S. F.l 



