OF SOME BURMESE BIRJDS. 455 



The following day I took two more nests, each containing three 

 eggs, slightly incubated. One was in an exactly similar 

 situation to the first nest, but the other was in a bit of dead 

 wood, about 9 inches long that was stuck in a creeper, and was 

 about 12 feet above the ground. 



There is no doubt that the nest holes are hollowed out, or at 

 any rate enlarged, by the birds themselves. Besides the three 

 nests I obtained with eggs, I found several more without eofgs, 

 and in one instance actually saw the hen trogon at work ex- 

 cavating the hole. A very rotten stump is chosen, so that the 

 bird can without difficulty chip out the wood. 



The eight eggs I took vary much in shape and size — two from 

 one nest and three from another, are very short and broad, while 

 three from another are very long and narrow. They are all of 

 the same color, a delicate pale cafe au lait, almost the same color 

 as the eggs of C/ialcophaps indica, and vary from 099 to 1*18 

 in length by 0'8 to 0*86 in breadth. 



Captain Bingham has also obtained the eggs, vide S. F., V., p. 

 50. Keferring to Mr. Hume's remarks, V., p. 83, 1 think that the 

 full number of eggs laid by this species is three. A nest that 

 I found, however, containing young had only two of these. 



139.— Serilophus lunatus, Gould. 



This species breeds, I should say, from April to July. On the 

 4th of April, at the village of Om-ben-gwen on the road to 

 Tavoy from Moulmein, I found a nest of this species, shooting 

 the female as she left it. 



The nest was empty and not completely finished ; it was 

 built at the end of a small branch overhangino- a stream, 

 and in appearance was like that of a huge nest of Arachnecthra 

 asiatica. 



At Amherst, on the 11th July, my Burman Shikaree brought 

 me four partially-incubated eggs, together with the female 

 bird shot off the nest. Unfortunately he had destroyed the 

 nest (thinking it of no value), but he described it as a mo- 

 derately large globular mass of dry grass, small twigs and dead 

 leaves, with the entrance on one side, suspended from the 

 extreme tip of a branch of a bush about four feet from the 

 ground. 



The nest was found in thin tree jungle at the base of the 

 hills. The dimensions he gave would make the nest about 6 

 inches in diameter and 7 to 8 high. 



On the 28th July I found an old nest clearly belonging to 

 this species. The young had flown, but in the nest was 'one 

 addled egg, pure white and similar in shape to those brought 

 to me, but somewhat smaller— no doubt one of those abnormally 



