Rosson & Kioss : Birds of West Sumatra. 235 
Iris black (very dark brown), bill and feet orange 
minium. The immature birds have the bills of a duller 
colour. 
Wings, ¢ 58,57; 2 58, 61, 61, 64 mm. 
Females (March and May) had developed ovaries. 
This species lives in secondary jungle, bush country 
and wooded swamps. Its food consists chiefly of water- 
insects and their larvae. I once found a nest of this species 
in a swamp near Muara Kiawai. The nest was dug out in 
the clump of earth which still adhered to the roots of a 
fallen tree. It was a tunnel of about arms length and 
slanting upwards, no nest material was used. I found it 
because I saw the old bird coming out of it; in the nest 
I found the young No. 4694. This bird is white below 
washed with tawny on breast and flanks : there is scarcely 
any trace of majenta on the upper parts, the scapulars are 
black with greyish white bases, the flight-feathers of the 
wings are black with a broad greyish-white bar and the 
coverts are rufous. 
80. Haleyon chloris cyanescens (Oberholser). 
Halcyon chloris R. & K., I, p. 128. 
36,246 juv., 52. Fort de Kock, Padang High- 
lands, 920 M. 
@. Sandaran Agung, Korinchi Lake, 733 M. 
2¢, 2. Bencoolen town. 
A female (January) had developed ovaries. 
Iris black (very dark sepia), upper mandible horn 
black, lower mandible white horn tinged with pink, tip and 
tomium black, feet brownish black, soles dirty brownish 
yellow. 
Wings, ¢ 112, 112, 109, 105, 104, 107 juv., 105 juv. ; 
Cate 2 109: 109, 107, 105, 100 mm. 
The upper mandible in the young birds is distinctly 
hooked at the tip. 
H. chloris is the most common of all the kingfishers 
in Sumatra. It is to be met, generally in pairs, sometimes 
in larger numbers, in gardens, even in the centre of large 
towns, in villages, ricefields, bush and plantations, but 
never in the dense forest. By preference it will choose 
some prominent bough or other place of advantage, e.g. 
telegraph wires, from where it can look out for its prey, 
consisting of all kinds of insects, small crustacea, worms 
and reptiles. I once saw a bat, attacked by a H. chloris, 
which dashed on it and stabbed it with its bill in mid air. 
The bat was killed on the spot, but the kingfisher did not 
pick it up, being perhaps intimidated by my presence. 
