4 ALCEDINir^. 



small minnow-bones. I once found what may have been intended 

 for a nest in Madras towards the latter end of January, in a well ; 

 what I supposed to be the nest was placed in a hole in the masonry 

 lining of the well, and round the entrance of the hole was accu- 

 mulated a rather large quantity of small partially decayed fish and 

 fish-bones ; but these had been placed there apparently not as a. 

 lining, but with the object of keeping the eggs in the hole, as it 

 was one left when the scaffolding was removed, and consequently 

 had a perfectly flat floor. I should, however, add that though the 

 bird was in the hole, it contained no eggs, and may therefore have 

 been only a resting-place." 



Mr. J. DarHng, Junior, says : — " I found a nest of this bird at 

 Neddiwuttum on the Mlghiris, at about 6000 feet above the sea, on 

 the 19th April, 1870. The nest was in the bank of a large stream, 

 about 2 feet from the water, a circular passage 4 inches in dia- 

 meter and 2 feet deep, terminating in a chamber about 8 inches by 

 4. There were a few fish-bones scattered about, and plenty of 

 decaying insects and small fish, making a fearful stench. There 

 were six quite fresh eggs. In Wynaad they breed plentifully from 

 March to May. I have unfortunately always got young ones down 

 here." 



Writing from Burma, Major Wardlaw Eamsay remarks : — " I 

 found a nest in the side of an old ^ell in some thick jungle near 

 Rangoon, at about 5 feet from the surface ; it contained seven 

 eggs." 



Colonel Legge writes, in his ' Birds of Ceylon ' : — " In South, 

 West, and Central Ceylon the breeding-season of this species is 

 from February until June, but in the north I have known it to 

 nest in November." 



The eggs are exquisitely glossy, and, when blown, china-white, 

 little ovals, or, some few of them, almost spherical. They are very 

 like those of Merops viridis, but more glossy, and, as a rule, some- 

 what less round. When unbloM"n, tliey are pinky white. 



In length they vary from 0-75 to 0-87 inch, and in breadth from 

 0-65 to 0-72 inch ; but the average, yielded by a large series of 

 measurements, is 0-8 by 0-68 inch. 



Alcedo grandis, Blyth. The Great Indian Kingfisher. 



Alcedo em-yzona, Temm., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 231. 

 Alcedo grandis, Blyth, Hume, Cat. no. 135. 



A correspondent of the ' Asian,' apparently writing from the 

 north-east part of the Empire under the name of " Eekab," says : — 



" I have taken only two nests of this bird, and one other I have 

 had shown me after the eggs and hen bird had been taken and 

 brought to me. All three nests were placed, as is usual, at the 

 end of a tunnel dug in the earth by the bird itself. In one the 

 nest was placed in a chamber at the end of a burrow scarce a foot 

 deep, and in another case the burrow was hardly two feet ; but 



