Pelargopsis burmanica, Sharpe.
The Burmese Stork-bill Kingfisher.
Pelargopsis hurmanica, Sharpe, Hume, Cat. no. 127 bis.
Major C. T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim ; - " I am rather diffident about writing a note on the finding of the eggs of this bird, as they were found by myself personally in a made nest in the fork of a bamboo growing near the bank of a choung, a thing contrary to the habits of all Kingfishers. Moreover, though I fired at the bird as she flew off the nest, I missed her. In my own mind there is not a ghost of a doubt that the eggs in question belong to the above species, as I had a close look at the bird, as she sat on the nest, with a pair of binoculars, at not more than 15 yards distance. The nest was, as 1 have already said, placed in the fork of a bamboo near water. It was a loosely constructed shallow cup of rough grass-roots, wholly unlined, at a height of about 4 feet from the ground. The eggs, three in number, are broad ovals, and glossy white in colour. They were found on the 10th April."
The eggs are very round ovals, pure white and very glossy.
They measure 1.16 x 1.0, 1.13 x 0.99, 1.2 x 0.98. They are too small for Coracias indica, and d fortiori for Eurystomus orientalis, but I have not a sufficient series of eggs of C. a_^»is to assert that they might not have belonged to that species. But then C. affinis no more builds a nest such as Major Bingham describes, than do the ordinary run of Kingfishers. Again, Nyctiornis athertoni, the only other bird that I know that occurs in this locality, that could I should have thought possibly have laid these eggs, also breeds in holes in trees.
They are not pigeons' or doves' eggs - that is certain; they belong to the bee-eater, roller, or kingfisher groups, and, incredible as it may at first sight appear, I incline to believe that the eggs really are those of P. hurmanica. No doubt some birds do at times go and sit upon other birds' nests, which they find unprotected by the real owners, but I never heard of a Kingfisher doing this, and Major Bingham could not have been mistaken in the birds, which he knows well.
The circumstance borders on the marvellous, but I think it cannot be rejected.
Major Bingham subsequently found the nest of this Kingfisher in holes of banks. He says :- " It breeds in the Thoungyeen in the latter end of February, in March, and in the beginning of April, commencing and finishing the digging of its nest-hole long before the eggs are laid.
" On the 23rd March, being encamped just on the bank of the Meplay close to its mouth, I noticed, while seated outside my tent in the afternoon, a pair of these birds going in and out of a hole in the bank opposite. On inspecting it closer, it proved to be the opening to a tunnel 1 1/2 inch in diameter, and going in for fully five feet, where it ended in a rounded chamber, somewhat larger than the passage, in which lay four roundish glossy white eggs. There was no lining of any kind, the eggs reposing on the bare ground.
" They measure respectively 1.19 by 1.05, 1.17 by 1.03, 1.18 by 1.08, and1.15 by 1.03."
The eggs are of the usual type, small perhaps for the size of the bird, being little if anything larger than those of Halcyon smyrnensis, very broad ovals, in some specimens quite spherical, pure white and lery glossy.
The Burmese Stork-bill Kingfisher.
Pelargopsis hurmanica, Sharpe, Hume, Cat. no. 127 bis.
Major C. T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim ; - " I am rather diffident about writing a note on the finding of the eggs of this bird, as they were found by myself personally in a made nest in the fork of a bamboo growing near the bank of a choung, a thing contrary to the habits of all Kingfishers. Moreover, though I fired at the bird as she flew off the nest, I missed her. In my own mind there is not a ghost of a doubt that the eggs in question belong to the above species, as I had a close look at the bird, as she sat on the nest, with a pair of binoculars, at not more than 15 yards distance. The nest was, as 1 have already said, placed in the fork of a bamboo near water. It was a loosely constructed shallow cup of rough grass-roots, wholly unlined, at a height of about 4 feet from the ground. The eggs, three in number, are broad ovals, and glossy white in colour. They were found on the 10th April."
The eggs are very round ovals, pure white and very glossy.
They measure 1.16 x 1.0, 1.13 x 0.99, 1.2 x 0.98. They are too small for Coracias indica, and d fortiori for Eurystomus orientalis, but I have not a sufficient series of eggs of C. a_^»is to assert that they might not have belonged to that species. But then C. affinis no more builds a nest such as Major Bingham describes, than do the ordinary run of Kingfishers. Again, Nyctiornis athertoni, the only other bird that I know that occurs in this locality, that could I should have thought possibly have laid these eggs, also breeds in holes in trees.
They are not pigeons' or doves' eggs - that is certain; they belong to the bee-eater, roller, or kingfisher groups, and, incredible as it may at first sight appear, I incline to believe that the eggs really are those of P. hurmanica. No doubt some birds do at times go and sit upon other birds' nests, which they find unprotected by the real owners, but I never heard of a Kingfisher doing this, and Major Bingham could not have been mistaken in the birds, which he knows well.
The circumstance borders on the marvellous, but I think it cannot be rejected.
Major Bingham subsequently found the nest of this Kingfisher in holes of banks. He says :- " It breeds in the Thoungyeen in the latter end of February, in March, and in the beginning of April, commencing and finishing the digging of its nest-hole long before the eggs are laid.
" On the 23rd March, being encamped just on the bank of the Meplay close to its mouth, I noticed, while seated outside my tent in the afternoon, a pair of these birds going in and out of a hole in the bank opposite. On inspecting it closer, it proved to be the opening to a tunnel 1 1/2 inch in diameter, and going in for fully five feet, where it ended in a rounded chamber, somewhat larger than the passage, in which lay four roundish glossy white eggs. There was no lining of any kind, the eggs reposing on the bare ground.
" They measure respectively 1.19 by 1.05, 1.17 by 1.03, 1.18 by 1.08, and1.15 by 1.03."
The eggs are of the usual type, small perhaps for the size of the bird, being little if anything larger than those of Halcyon smyrnensis, very broad ovals, in some specimens quite spherical, pure white and lery glossy.
