68 bucbeotidjE. 



Mr. H. Parker wiites : — " A^ril to June. In Ceylon this Bee- 

 eater usually breeds in small colonies, numbering from three to ten 

 pairs, and prefers secluded river-banks, but will nest in road- 

 cuttings, or even under roads, or in almost level ground." 



Writing from Tenasserim, Major Bingham says : — " On the 2nd 

 April, halting for a day high up on the Oukreen choung, a feeder 

 of the Thoungyeen river, I went roaming about in the vicinity of 

 the camp, searching for eggs. I was unlucky, however, and found 

 but one nest, that of this species. 



" A tunnel, sloping upwards, had been dug by the bird into 

 the sandy bank of the choung. It was about 3| feet deep 

 and 2 inches in diameter, terminating in a chamber rounded like 

 the bulb of a retort, and rather more in depth and width than the 

 tunnel ; it was unlined, and resting on the bare ground were four 

 bard-set, rather glossy, white eggs ; these measure 0-9 by 0*75, 

 0-9 by 0-74, 0-9 by 0-74, and 0-9 by 0-76." 



Mr. W. Davison, also referring to Tenasserim, says : — " I found 

 them breeding in Tenasserim, and on the 26th March, 1874, I 

 took five egga out of a hole running about two and a half feet in 

 to the bank of a stream, at a place some thirty miles north of 

 Yea." 



These eggs are of the usual Bee-eater type, pure white, very 

 glossy, almost spherical. They are smaller than those of M. 

 jihilippinus and a fortiori than those of M. apiaster, but they are 

 considerably larger than those of M. viridis. 



They vary in length from 0-82 to 0-92 inch, and in breadth from 

 0-72 to 0-81 inch, but the average of a large series is 0-87 by 0-76 

 inch 



Order BUCEROTES. 

 Family BUCEROTIDiE. 



Dichoceros bicornis (Linn.). The Great Pied EorMll. 

 Homraius bicornis {Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 242. 

 Dichoceros homrai (Jlodgs.), Hume, Rough Draft N. ^ E. no. 140 

 Dichoceros bicornis {Linn.), Hume, t. c. no. 140 bis. 



Col. Tiokell gives us the following account of the nidification of 

 the Great Pied Hornbill : — 



" Kyik, on the Houngthrau River, February 16th, 1855. On 

 my way back to Moulmein from Mooleyit (a celebrated peak in the 

 Tenasserim Eange), when halting at Kyik, I heard by the merest 

 chance from the Karen villagers that a large Hornbill m as sitting 

 on its nest in a tree close to the village, and that for several years 



