5 
can penetrate, and its favourite haunts are the banks of large streams and borders of swamps 
surrounded by forest. It is, unlike most of the Bee-eaters, said to be solitary in its habits, being 
seldom seen in flocks, and is not shy, but stupid, and confiding rather than timorous, Capt. 
Bingham informs me that he met with it in Tenasserim, where it affected the denser forests, and 
was solitary in its habits, being usually seen in pairs. It is, he adds, “ a very silent bird, and once 
only have I heard its note, which is a deep croak ending in a guttural k-r-r-r. This was on the 
Kaukarit and Meeawuddv road, when a pair came and sat on a branch of a tree not ten feet 
above my head. One of them, the male as it proved to he, when I had shot it, several times 
uttered its croak, bobbing its head at each utterance and swelling out its pectoral plumes. It 
is a stupid bird, not easily frightened, as I found in the above ease when I shot the male first 
with one barrel, and the female afterwards with the second, though they were seated scarcely 
three feet apart.” Mr. Mottley says (l. c.) that “ its note is something between the croak of a 
frog and the c churr ’ of a Eern-Owl, often repeated and sustained perhaps half a minute.” 
Lieut. Kelham obtained two alive and put them into his aviary, where at first they did well, 
feeding on plantains and hopping about most cheerfully, every now a ad again flirting up their 
long tails after the manner of Copsychus musicus ; but after a few days they sickened and died. 
These birds have, he adds, a peculiar and most aromatic smell about them. 
Mr. W. Davison states ( c Stray Leathers,’ vi. p. 69) that the most northern point in Tenasserim 
where he saw and obtained this bird in the plains was at a village four days’ march south of Yea, 
about 14° 30' N. lat., and adds that from this point it gets less uncommon as one goes south. 
In the hills, however, it extends further north, and on the slopes of Mooleyit he got it in nearly 
17° N. lat. “ This species,” he writes, “less often occurs away from the forest than Nyctiornis 
athertoni ; but although keeping, as a rule, to the woods, it avoids the denser portions, frequenting 
those parts where the larger trees are somewhat scattered, and where plenty of sunlight penetrates ; 
favourite places are the banks of large streams and the borders of swamps and shallow lagoons 
surrounded by forest. 
“ The note of this bird is somewhat similar to that of Nyotiornis athertoni, and is a hoarse 
quo-qud-qua-qud, uttered at irregular intervals. When one calls it is usually answered by its 
mate, the birds being generally found in pairs, seldom singly, and never, that I know of, in 
parties. When uttering its note the bird leans forward, stretches out its neck, and puffs out the 
feathers of its throat, and at each syllable of its note bobs its head up and down. 
“ It breeds, I should say, abont March and April, as on the 20th of March I shot a female, 
out of which I took an egg that was fully formed, but still quite soft ; hut I was unable to find 
the nest. 
“ I have not noticed that either this bird or Nyotiornis athertoni were crepuscular. Occa- 
sionally on a clear moonlight evening, about seven or eight o’clock, I have heard their note ; hut 
there are numbers of birds that of a bright evening, or if they have been in any way disturbed, 
will call. Like the true Bee-eaters it lives entirely on insects, which it takes on the wing.” 
So far as I can ascertain, nothing definite is known respecting the breeding-habits of this bird. 
Oapt. Bingham believes that it breeds in holes in the ground, like the other Bee-eaters, and about 
the end of April or the beginning of May ; for the pair he shot on the 28th of April showed on 
dissection that they were breeding. I think, however, that they will be found to breed in hollow 
trees, and, in all probability, the eggs are pure white. Mr. Everett writes (‘Ibis,’ 1877, p. 6) 
that “ a nest containing two eggs was brought me at Belidah in January. The eggs were 
rather small in comparison with the size of the bird, nearly equal at both ends, and spotted with 
