THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 543 



watched them for some minutes. I repeatedly saw them make a dash 

 into the foliage of the plants round about and then come out and 

 swallow something- I could not make out what they were at the 

 time, but afterwards, when the attention of many leeches made me 

 " move on," I shot one bird and found its stomach full of spiders. 

 Since then I have seen them catch spiders, darting at them as they sat 

 in the centre of their webs, and speaking one day about this to Mr. H. 

 A. Hole, he told me that he also had found spiders in their stomachs 

 more than cnce. 



(447) Halcyon smyrnensis. — The White-breasted Kingfisher. 

 Hume^ No. 129. 



I must here modify certain of the statements which appeared under 

 my nom de plume of " Rekab " in " The Asian^^ or rather not modify 

 but add to them. 



At the time when I then wrote I had not visited any of the larger 

 streams during the breeding season of this bird. 



I have now been down the Diyung several times during early April 

 and, as far as the big rivers are concerned, the eggs of this bird will 

 only be taken between the 25th March and the end of April. 



After that date floods are always liable to come down and the bird 

 knows this of course, so that nearly all eggs are laid by the 10th of 

 April. It is possible going down the river, the Diyung, to take as 

 many as forty nests in a day, and I have myself, without hunting for 

 them, taken over twenty. 



From this, of course, it will be seen that normally this kingfisher, 

 like all others, m_akes its burrow in a bank and lays its eggs at the end 

 of it in a chamber. Away from the river, strange as it doubtless 

 seems, it often makes a large wren-like nest of moss, which I described 

 in detail in my old article. 



(448) Halcyon coramanda.- — The Ruddy Kingfisher. 

 Hume^ No. 131. 



A very rare bird in North Cachar. 



Its eggs cannot be distinguished from those of H. smyrnensis nor 

 its burrow from the normal one of that bird, but it is generally placed 

 in far more secluded spots. 



I have seen this bird on tiny streamlets in dark ravines, far from 

 any stream or river other than the trickling one at the bottom of the 



