262 CICOlTEIDiE. 



are so frequent that there is no difficulty, in the course of a 

 morning, in finding accessible ones in plenty. 



" November lith was a trifle too early. Many nests were still 

 being built ; others had no eggs in them, and only a few had the 

 full complement of three eggs. 



" The nest is made entirely of coarse sticks, and it is of such a 

 size that the sitting bird cannot be seen from below, except when 

 she stretches her head out. It is wedged into a fork as near the 

 exterior of the tree as possible, whether at the top or side. ^ 



"The eggs, three in number, are originally pure white and 

 tolerably, in some specimens very, smooth to the touch. As in- 

 cubation proceeds the shell gets much stained and becomes a dark 

 earth-brown. The interior lining is very dark green. They are 

 very regular ovals, much the same shape at both ends. Size from 

 2-82 to 3-1 by 2-OS to 2-25. 



" These Adjutants utter only one sound, and it resembles the 

 lowing of a cow when separated from her calf. It was the only 

 sound heard in these gloomy forests." 



Major C. T. Bingham visited a well-known breeding haunt of 

 this bird near Moulmein, and I quote a portion of his interesting 

 account of the trip. He writes : — 



" To the south-east of Moulmein, about twenty-five miles up 

 the Attaran Eiver, a low but excessively steep and scarped range 

 of limestone rocks, called the Needong hills, run nearly at right 

 angles to the river on the north bank, and overhanging the vcater 

 present a strikingly bold and picturesque aspect. On the south 

 bank this range is broken into four or five isolated masses rising 

 abruptly from the surrounding plain. 



"In the latter end of November and in December these almost 

 inaccessible cliifs afford safe nesting-sites to the two species of 

 Adjutants, Lejptoptilus dtihius and javanicus. 



" Last January twelvemonth, while going, up the Attaran River 

 on a shooting-trip with a friend, I had seen the Adjutant in im- 

 mense numbers feeding their young on the topmost pinnacles of 

 these rocks ; and, concluding from this that their laying-time must 

 be some time in November or December, I there and then deter- 

 mined to make a raid on their nests at the end of the year. De- 

 tained by my duties in the frontier forests till the first week in 

 November, and having on my return to Moulmein a lot of work to 

 do, I began to fear that for this year I should be unable to carry 

 out my project. However, an opportunity at last presented itself 

 on the 27th of November. * * * * 



" As we passed under the hill overhanging the left bank of the 

 river, I was delighted to see the Adjutants in full force, two or 

 three crowning each pinnacle, and here and there through the 

 green foliage showing white against the blue rock. I could see 

 the large guano-soiled masses of sticks which composed their 

 nests. * * * * 



" Having got clear of the paddy, we entered a gently undulating 

 plain covered with dense evergreen bushes and a few small bamboo 



