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“ These birds often descend to the ground, and I have frequently come on one dusting itself 
like any old sparrow on the roadside. I have also several times seen them clinging on tit-like to 
the hark of trees, peering into and picking out little insects from the crevices.” 
To the eastward this Bee-eater ranges into Cochin China. Dr. J. Anderson met with it on 
the second defile of the Irawaddy ; and M. Tiraut says (Bull. Com. Agric. de la Cochin Chine, ser. 3, 
vol. i. p. 97) that it is “most common at Tra-vinh, where it occurs with M. viridis, though 
inhabiting different localities ; I never saw it at Thudau-mot nor at Saigon.” There is, I may add, 
a specimen in the Tweeddale collection from Canton, China. 
In the Malay peninsula it is met with down to Penang, whence it is recorded by Mr. Hume 
(Str. Death, viii. p. 48) ; and Lieut. Kelliam says (l. c .) that he shot both the present species and 
Merops sumatranus at Kwala Kangsar, Perak, in Pebruary 1877, where they were flying about a 
sand-bank near the river. I give above some notes from the pen of Major Bingham respecting 
the habits of this Bee-eater ; and Col. Legge, writing respecting its habits as observed by him in 
Ceylon, says (B. of Ceylon, p. 313) “The banks of rivers which flow through forest or the 
borders of jungle-begirt tanks are the favourite localities of this bird in the low country. In the 
Central Province I have seen it principally in the vicinity of rivers in the deep valleys leading to 
the Mahawelliganga, on roads leading through jungle, and in spots studded with high trees on 
the sides of steep ravines. It is usually in pairs, and is very arboreal in its habits, sitting on the 
topmost or most outstretching branches of high trees overhanging water, and darting thence on 
its prey, much after the manner of a Plycatcher. It takes short flights, and often returns to the 
same perch again. It is a very pretty object, with its bright green plumage and glistening 
rufous head, as it darts from the fine old trees lining the forest-rivers down to the edge of the 
sparkling stream, and glides over the sandy bed, quickly catching up some passing insect. A 
pair may sometimes be seen seated on a dead twig, touching one another, so very sociable is it in 
its disposition. It has a soft note, differing from that of either of the foregoing species, which it 
generally utters from its perch.” 
Dr. Jerdon says that it “pursues insects from its perch on a lofty tree and generally returns 
after having captured one. It breeds in holes in banks, generally, but not always, close to 
water.” 
Major Bingham writes to me : — “ These Bee-eaters dig their holes, so far as I have observed, 
only in the banks of streams, making a tunnel from four to seven feet deep, inclining downwards 
at a slight angle. Like that of Merops viridis this ends in a rounded chamber, somewhat greater in 
diameter than the tunnel, which is never lined. The eggs vary from three to five in number, and 
are a shade larger than those of M. viridis, from which they are undistinguishable in colour and 
shape. In Tenasserim this Bee-eater lays in March, April, and May.” Mr. Layard, in his “ Notes 
on the Ornithology of Ceylon ” (Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1853, xii. p. 174), says that “ the present 
species affects the hilly forest-region. Here it pursues its insect prey among the lofty tree-tops, 
seldom descending to the ground, except in the breeding-season, when it frequents steep banks for 
the purpose of providing a suitable habitation for its young : this is generally effected by scooping 
a hole in the soil, to the depth of about 18 inches, terminating in a domed chamber, in which the 
young are hatched on the bare ground. The eggs, two in number, resemble those of the Kingfisher 
in shape and colour : they are hatched in April.” 
Col. Legge says ( l . c.) that he “ found the nest of this bird on the banks of the Cindurah 
in the month of April. The hole was excavated in the soft mould near the top of the 
bank, went in about 2 feet, with an average diameter of 2 inches, and at the end widened 
