390 - Generar Notes. [April, 
superintendent of the Government cinchona estates at Mong- 
phoo, near Darjeeling, has noticed the same thing with regard to 
the allied Northern species, Micropternus phaloceps, and the pecu- 
liarity probably extends also to the allied species found in Bur- 
mah, Siam, &c. : 
r. Gammie thinks that when an ant’s nest has been taken pos- 
session of by the bird that the ants desert the nest. This is a 
point on which I cannot, speak with certainty. Mr. Gammie has 
taken nests of the Northern species in which, although the bird 
had laid, the ants remained, and he has taken other nests where 
not a single ant remained, but there is nothing to show that these 
nests were not deserted before the bird took possession. I, my- 
self, have taken nests of the Southern form, in which, though the 
eggs were partially incubated, the ants remained, showing that 
some considerable time must have elapsed since the bird took 
possession. This is a point that I hope to be able to elucidate 
within the next few months, when the birds will be breeding. 
When Micropternus is breeding, the feathers of the head, tail 
and primaries of the wings are yet covered witha viscid matter, 
having a strong resinous smell, and this substance is usually rather 
ye studded with dead ants (vide “ Stray Feathers,” Vol. VI, p. 
145). 
| Two specimens of kingfishers also to my knowledge nidificate 
in ants’ nests, viz., Halycon occipitalis, confined to the Nicobar 
islands, and Æ. chloris, which ranges from India as far south as 
Sumatra. : 
At Mergni, in South Tenasserim, I found a nest of Æ. chloris 
in a hornet’s nest, and although I saw the birds repeatedly enter 
the hole they had made in the hornet’s nest, the hornets did not 
seem to mind it; but they resented in a very decided manner any 
attempt to interfere with the nest.— Wm. Davison, Nature, March 
12, 1885. 
Tuer Soarinc oF Birps.—Mr. Hendricks, in the NATURALIST 
for March, intimates that I misinterpret the phenomenon of soar: 
ing, “for it is well known that the upward lateral force would 
| arrest the downward motion, so that the cause of the upward 
motion would be immediately withdrawn.” 
It would seem that the “ downward motion” could only be arrested 
by resisting the lateral force. On his own showing the gravity 
_ of the Jody cannot do it, as this “ is descending uniformly through 
tance equal to its weight” There is no air condensed nor driven 
out of the way in the lateral motion, so that the only resistanc® 
to the lateral force is that of -atmospheric friction on the sm 
surfaces of the plane, and this is very little. 
= To enable the weight to resist the lateral force it would have 
_ to be created, as the original amount is fully occupied. 
