558 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



Family Meropidce. 

 (468) Nyctiornis athertoni.— The Blue-bearded Bee-eater. 

 Hume, No. 122. 

 The burrows made by this bird may be met with in the cuttings of 

 nearly every road in North Cachar, no matter what the elevation may 

 be, and, as far as I can make out, all the year round newly-made ones 

 may be found with a little trouble, for, when not breeding, this species 

 appears to amuse itself in burrowing places merely to use as sleeping 

 accommodation, and for this purpose to require a new hole every few 

 weeks. To find a nest-hole containing either eggs or young is a very 

 different matter, and this may cost the collector both time and trouble, 

 more especially as little reliance can be placed on their time of breeding. 

 Thus in March, 1890, early in the month, I observed one of these 

 birds about some holes in a roadside bank and, after investigating the 

 interior of several of these with a long twig, found the one in which 

 was the nest. Early as it was in the year the twig dragged from the 

 chamber at the end of the hole a mass of beetle wings, (fee, showing 

 that it had been occupied some time, so that I expected to find the 

 eggs all laid, if not partially incubated. When the chamber, however^ 

 was arrived at, after a long time occupied in digging, it was found to 

 be empty, the young being hatched, fledged and departed two or three 

 days previously. Another time, late in June I obtained a single egg 

 quite fresh, and two days after this opened another burrow in which 

 the eggs had not then been laid. Most birds will be found breeding 

 between early March and the beginning of May. A good way of 

 ascertaining whether there is any chance of getting eggs out of the 

 burrow is to insert a very long elastic twig into it, first having tied the 

 end into a small loop. This should be pushed in with the tip pressing 

 against the roof, so that no egg, should there be any, may be injured 

 and, when the end of the burrow is reached, dropped and then slowly 

 and gently dragged out. If no bees' wings, beetles' legs or similar 

 remains are produced, it may be taken as very nearly certain that the 

 eggs are not yet laid, for the parent-birds seem to have a habit of 

 devouring their prey inside the burrow, and by the time the eggs are 

 all laid there is always a quantity of these remnants, increasing greatly, 

 of course, in amount as the young are hatched and also have to be fed. 

 As a rule, in old burrows, or by the time the young are fairly old, there 



