OF SOME BIRDS IN BURMAH. 83 



hole devoid of liuing. This was in one of the low valleys below 

 Darjeeling. 



These eggs are also broad ovals, white but with a decided 

 creamy tinge, the shell very fine, and with a considerable amount 

 of gloss. Three eggs were found, two of them measure 1*07 and 

 1-13, both by 093. 



Thus, while Hodgsoni lays four nearly pure white eggs, oreskios 

 would seem to lay only two, and these of a very decided though 

 pale cafe au lait colour. The eggs of the latter are, as might 

 have been expected, smaller, but both species lay normally very 

 broad oval, glossy eggs. — Ed., S. F.] 



127 bis,— Pelargopsis burmanica, Sharpe. 



I am rather diffident about writing a note on the finding of 

 the eggs of this bird, as they were found by myself personally 

 in a made nest in the fork of a bamboo growing near the bank 

 of a choung, a thing contrary to the habits of all kingfishers. 

 Moreover, though I fired at the bird as she flew off the nest, I 

 missed her. In my own mind there is not a ghost of a doubt 

 that the eggs in question belong to the above species, as I had 

 a close look at the bird, as she sat on the nest, with a pair of 

 binoculars, at not more than 15 yards distance. The nest was, 

 as I have already said, placed in the fork of a bamboo near 

 water. It was a loosely constructed shallow cup of rough grass 

 roots, wholly unlined, at a height of about 4 feet from the ground. 

 The eggs, three in number, are broad ovals, and glossy white in 

 colour. They were found on the 10th April.'" 



[The eggs are very round ovals, pure white and very glossy. 

 They measure 1-16 x l'O, 1-13 x U*99, 1*2 x 098. They 

 are too small for Coracias indica, and a fortiori for Eurystomus 

 orientalis, but I have not a sufficient series of the eggs of 6. affinis 

 to assert that they might not have belonged to this species. 

 But then G. affinis no more builds a nest such as Capt. Bingham 

 describes, than do the ordinary run of kingfishers. Again, 

 Nyctiornis Athertoni, the only other bird that I know of, that 

 occurs in this locality, and that could, I should have thought, 

 possibly have laid these eggs, also breeds in holes in trees. 



They are not pigeons' or doves' eggs — that is certain — they 

 belong to the Merops, Roller or Kingfisher groups — and incred- 

 ible as it may at first sight appear, I incline to believe that the 

 eggs really are those of P. burmanica. No doubt some birds do at 

 times go and sit upon other bird's nests, which they find unpro- 

 tected by the real owners, but I never heard of a kingfisher 

 doing this, and Capt. Bingham could not have been mistaken in 

 the bird, which he knows well. 



