ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM COCOAWATTE ESTATE. 291 



commenced. As it was five miles off in jungle, I sent him again ten 

 days later to report progress before going to examine it myself, and to 

 my disappointment lie said it was deserted. He said the nest was only 

 just commenced when he found it — only a dozen or more thin sticks 

 put together in a thorny bush about 10 feet high. He saw one of 

 the birds carry a stick to it, and he knows the species well, so the 

 little information given is probably correct. Colonel Legge does not 

 describe the immature bird of this species, so the following rouoh 

 description of a young male killed on August 6th may be of interest:— 

 Iris, brown ; bill, greyish-green ; legs and feet, pale bluish-grey. 

 Instead of the handsome scarlet face of the adult bird the youno- 

 has only a small bare patch of brick-red skin round the eye, 

 without any of the peculiar papillose growth. The feathers of the 

 crown are edged with dull-grey instead of white as in the old bird, 

 and the markings do not extend down the back of the neck. Tail 

 about 2 inches shorter than in the adult, and with the white tips to 

 central feathers only half an inch deep and tinged with fulvous ; while 

 the breadth of the central pair of feathers (across ttie web placed 

 fiat on the rule) is 1^% inches against If inches in the old bird. Chin, 

 and sides of neck and chest, greyish with black centres to the feathers. 

 The black feathers on the throat and chest are more striated with 

 white than in the mature specimen, and the narrow stiff' feathers are 

 confined more to the centre of the thi-oat. Abdomen, thighs, and 

 under-tail coverts strongly tinged with fulvous. 



34. Zanclostomus viridirostris^ Jerd., the Green-billed Malkoha. — 

 Not uncommon, but by no means abundant. 



35. Centropus ruflpennis, 111., the common Coucal. — Very common. 



36. Taccocua leschenaulti^ Less., the Dark-backed Sirkeer.— .Fairly 

 common up to 3,000 feet. Have seen as many as five here in a 

 day. Always single or in pairs. 



37. Harpactes fasciatics, Forster, the Malabar Ti'ogon. — Sannassy. 

 my bird-nesting coolie, who has been carefully trained and is pretty 

 reliable, brought me three eggs on May 7th, which he said beloncred 

 to this species. He said that, noticing a likely looking hole in a stump 

 in jungle, he threw a stone up against it, when out flew a trogon hen. 

 The stump was quite rotten ; hole about 12 feet up ; the entrance was 

 not quite large enough to admit the man's hand, and in enlarging it 



