THE 



NESTS AND EGGS 



OP 



INDIAN BIRDS. 



Order HALCYONES. 



Family ALCEDINID^. 

 Subfamily ALCEDININ^. 



Alcedo bengalensis, G-mel. The Little Indian Kingfishei: 



Alcedo bengalensis, Gmel., Jerd. B. Inch \, p. 230 ; Hume, Rough 

 Braft N. ^ E. no. 134. 



The breeding-seasou of the Little Indian Kingfisher seems to 

 vary very materially according to locality. In Madras Davison 

 found, as he considers, a nest in January ; in the Nilghiris and the 

 Deccan it lays in March. I got them in the Doon and in the 

 Terai below Darjeeling during May, and Captain Cock obtained 

 them in June in Cashmere. They bore a very narrow hole, rarely 

 exceeding 2 feet in depth and often scarcely half so long, in some 

 bank immediately overlooking water (running water by choice) at 

 a height of from 6 inches to 5 feet above the water-level. The 

 passage, which is barely 2 inches in diameter, terminates in a httle 

 circular domed chamber, perhaps 5 inches in diameter and 3 or 4 

 in height, in which the eggs, from five to seven in number, are 

 deposited. Every nest that I have seen contained a quantity of 

 hair-hke fish-bones, and in one case the eggs reposed on a little 



VOL. III. 1 



