HALCYON. 17 



Colonel Legge says : — " In the west and south of Ceylon this 

 species breeds from January till April, and in the north I have 

 found its nest as late as July." 



A correspondent of the ' Asian ' writes, probably from Cachar, 

 under the name of " Kekab " : — " Krst of course may be mentioned 

 the fact that it sometimes breeds, as do other Kingfishers, by 

 making" a hole in a bank as a receptacle for the eggs. Even in 

 this case it places in the chamber at the end of the shaft a 

 quantity of moss, neither making a nest of bones, as do some of 

 this family, nor depositing them on a few leaves or the bare soil, as 

 is the usual custom. It has, however, another and, at least as far 

 as their bills are concerned, a far more general habit of buUding a 

 nest for itself, which may be said to roughly resemble a large untidy 

 edition of an English AV^ren's place of abode. 



" The first time I found this out was by having some King- 

 fisher's eggs brought to me by a native, who said that he had taken 

 them from a moss nest built amongst the overhanging roots of a 

 tree growing at the side of a nullah. Some time after, more eggs 

 were brought, and the description given of the nest was the same ; 

 but as on this occasion I went with the man to the nullah from 

 which the nest was said to have been taken and we could find no 

 trace of it, so I concluded he had only been lying. The native, a 

 Bachari, was, however, very positive in his assertions, and went 

 away swearing at my incredulity. Within a few days — three, I 

 think — he came back with two newly laid eggs, a quantity of 

 moss, and a hen Kingfisher of this species alive in a basket. In 

 this case he bad found t1ie nest imbedded in a hollow in a rock 

 and, setting a noose for the parent bird, had, on catching it, 

 brought it to me, together with the remnants of the nest and the 

 two eggs. A rupee extracted a promise from him that he would 

 leave the next nest he found untouched until I could go myself 

 and make a personal inspection of it. Before this, however, I was 

 fortunate enough to find one for myself whilst out shooting. I 

 was creeping down a deep nullah, along the bottom of which a little 

 water was trickling, and making a false step I splashed into a little 

 pool, the noise frightening a Kingfisher, which flew from the bank 

 close to my head, and looking up I saw the nest — a mass of moss, of 

 a large oval in shape, wedged into a hollow between two stones, 

 covered at the top with another, and supported underneath by a 

 projecting root. It contained four eggs, ^^'hich I took ; but the 

 nest feU to bits on being removed, and appeared to be merely a 

 lot of moss pushed into the hollow and then roughly fashioned 

 into a hollow oval. The next year a pair of these birds were seen 

 to frequent a nullah running near a camping house where I was 

 then halting. On some natives and myself searching about, one of 

 the former discovered a nest just commenced to be built in a 

 hollow, caused by a large oval stone, which had been previously 

 half imbedded in the earth, falling out. Dismissing ray men, I 

 seated myself on the opposite banlf about twenty-five or thirty 

 yards ofi — seating myself behind a bush so that, as long as I 



TOL. III. 2 



