58 MEEOPID^. 



slightest vestige of a nest, but a few chips of rotten wood, upon 

 which were laid the three eggs. These I found to be slightly set. 

 While the man was climbing the tree, the birds behaved in a very 

 ridiculous and excited manner. Seated side by side on a bough, 

 they alternately jerked head and tail, keeping up an incessant 

 harsh chatter, and as the crisis approached, and the man drew 

 nearer their property, they dashed repeatedly at his head. 



" After the eggs were taken the birds disappeared for about a 

 fortnight, but returned, and I believe laid again in the same 

 position. I did not molest them this time, wishing to get the 

 young. Unfortunately I had to leave home, and on my return I 

 found the birds, old and young, had disappeared." 



Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon, also writing from Travancore, 

 says : — "April 20th, 187^. A pair of these birds built in a hole in 

 a dead tree, and we endeavoured to get tbeir eggs or young on the 

 above date. But the tree was so large and slippery that the coolie 

 could not elirab it. Soon after this the birds disappeared, so the 

 young must have been nearly full-grown at this date. They come 

 to us about the beginning of August and leave towards the end of 

 April, after breeding. They are not very common, but, like the 

 Grreat Hornbill, almost every estate has its pair, which generally 

 are to be fouYid at about 1000-2000 feet above sea level." 



Eggs of this species sent me from Mynall by Mr. Bourdillon 

 closely resemble those of the Indian Eoller, but are somewhat 

 larger, though not quite so large as those of the European Eoller. 

 They are very broad ovals, pure white and faintly glossy. 



The specimens I have vary in length from 1-34 to 1'42, and in 

 breadth from 1-14 to 1-16. 



Family MEROPID^. 



Nyctiornis athertori (Jard. & Selby). The Blue-bearded 

 Bee-eater. 



Nyctiornis athertoni (J. Sr S.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 211 ; Hume, Rouqh 

 Draft N. ^ E. no. 122. 



Mr. E. Thompson informs me that the Blue-bearded Bee- 

 eater breeds in holes in trees in April and May in the Sub- 

 Himalayan forests of the Kumaon Terai. I have never obtained 

 or seen the eggs. 



Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim ; — " On the Tth March, 

 while going up to the Sinzaway Eeser^-e, I had to encamp at a 

 place called Minzee for an hour, to enable my men to cook their 

 food, and wandering about, gun in hand, I happened to light on a 

 Blue-ruffled Bee-eater, flying out of a hole in a tree, which my 

 Burmese peons called Ma-u. Concluding rather hastily that the 

 bird was certain to have eggs in the hole, I shot it, but on cutting 



