72 
and very characteristic, and is always uttered when an enemy approaches the tree in which its 
young are.” 
Its food consists of insects of various kinds, which it obtains chiefly by darting from its perch 
and catching them on the wing, but it also picks them up from otf the ground. Dr. Meyer remarks 
that in the stomachs of those he examined he often found many beetles with very hard elytra. 
There appears to be little doubt that, like its congeners, the present species makes its nest in the 
hollows of trees and deposits white eggs. Pere Armand David (Z. c.) certainly states that “it con¬ 
structs its nest, which somewhat resembles in form that of our Common Jay, at the base of the most 
elevated branches; ” but he must have mistaken the nest of some other bird for that of this Eoller. 
Mr. Thompson, writing from the Terai below Kumaon, informed Mr. Hume that “ in April the Broad- 
billed Boilers arrive, begin to breed in May, and finally leave the forests in July and August. They 
breed in holes in the higher branches (never less than 50 feet from the ground) of the loftiest sal 
trees. They extend from the Sardah to the Ganges, but particularly abound in the Kotree Doon, 
where they breed in company with Eulahes intermedia in the dense and lofty sal forests, to which 
they are strictly confined.’ Jo this Mr. Oates adds, in the second edition of Mr. Hume’s ‘ Nests and 
Eggs of Indian Birds, “Mr. F. W. Bourdillon writes from Travancore:—‘ On March 17th I was 
attracted by hearing the chattering of a pair of these Boilers. On going to the spot I found them 
engaged in ejecting from a hole in a vedu-pla stump [Callenia excelsa\ about 40 feet from the ground, 
a pair of our Hill-Mynahs {Hulahes religiosa). One of the Boilers was in the mouth of the hole, and 
enlaiging it by tearing away with its beak the soft rotten wood. The other Boiler, seated on a tree 
close by, was doing most of the chattering, making an occasional swoop at the Mynahs whenever 
they ventured too close. I watched the birds for some time until the Mynahs went off, and there 
and then began building in a pinney tree {Calo^hyllum elatum) within the distance of 100 yards. 
Ten days after I sent for some hillmen, who managed to ascend by tying up sticks with strips of cane, 
in the way that they erect ladders to obtain the wild honey from the tallest trees in the forest. 
It was past six o’clock in the evening before a man reached the hole in which the birds had bred. 
He found not the slightest vestige of a nest, but a few chips of rotten wood, upon which were laid 
the thiee eggs. Hiese I found to be slightly set. While the man was climbing the tree, the birds 
behaved in a veiy ridiculous and excited manner: seated side by side on a bough, they alternately 
jeiked head and tail, keeping up an incessant harsh chatter, and as the crisis approached, and the 
man drew nearer their property, they dashed repeatedly at his head. After the eggs were taken the 
biids disappeared tor about a fortnight, but returned, and I believe laid again in the same position. 
I did not molest them this time, wishing to get the young. Unfortunately I had to leave home, 
f and on my return I found the birds, old and young, had disappeared.’ ” 
Mr. 1. Fulton Bourdillon also found a pair breeding in a hole in a dead tree, but did not 
take the nest; and Dr. Guillemard, in his notes on this Boiler in the Sulu Archipelago, says that 
in the month of May he watched a pair constantly passing in and out of a hole in a lofty tree 
in which they appeared to have young ones. 
Eggs of this Boiler, sent to Mr. E. W. Oates from Mynall by Mr. Bourdillon, “ closely 
resemble, he says, “ those of the Indian Boiler, but are somewhat larger, though not quite so large 
as those of the European Boiler. They are very broad ovals, pure white, and faintly glossy.” In 
length they vary from 1*34 to 1*42 inch, and in breadth from IT4 to 1T6. 
The specimens figured (specimens a and h in my collection) are to show the extreme variation 
between the green and blue forms, and those described are specimens a, c, li, i, and I, also in my 
own collection. 
f 
