on some Burmese Birds. 
471 
tically on the banks among the fishermen’s houses hard by, 
or stand motionless on the water’s edge, whilst others are 
circling and wheeling about overhead in large flocks mingled 
with innumerable Pelicans.” 
At the end of October and the beginning of November 
Adjutants pass over Tonghoo, flying southwards in incredible 
numbers. Whence they come I cannot say; but their desti¬ 
nation we know, from what has been said above, to be the creeks 
which cut up the greater part of the Pegu, Rangoon, and other 
districts bordering on the sea, where they spend the dry 
months of the year. 
The approach of one of these migrating armies is announced 
nearly a quarter of an hour before it arrives by the loud 
noise which the birds make with their wings. Their flight is 
very slow; and the usual order is single file, or at the most 
four abreast. I have known one of these flocks to occupy 
more than twenty minutes in passing over my house. Fre¬ 
quently in the course of a flight the leading birds, or sections 
of birds, may be seen to wheel to the right or left and com¬ 
mence flying round and round. Each bird as it arrives at 
the wheeling-point does the same, until the whole flock is one 
revolving mass; and shortly afterwards it begins to unwind 
itself, and the order of flight is resumed as regularly as before. 
616. Gallicrex cinereus. 
A common bird, which breeds in the Tonghoo district in 
August and September, when I have found its nest. 
621. Hypotasnidia striata. 
The Blue-breasted Rail breeds at Tonghoo in August and 
September. I took a nest on the 20th September 1874 con¬ 
taining five eggs of a dull cream-colour, speckled and blotched 
with reddish brown and purplish stone-colour, particularly 
towards the larger end. The bird is common at Rangoon 
and Tonghoo. Jerdon^s description (vol. iii. p. 726) of the 
soft parts does not tally with mine. He says, “ Bill yellowish 
green, irides red, legs dull green •” but all the Blue-breasted 
Rails that I have examined in Burma have had the bill 
bright plum-colour, the irides red-brown, and the legs' dirty 
