MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1043 



They were all typical inornata nests. Attached to the leaves of the 

 shrub, grass, or sugar-cane, I do not know the scientific name for ' Akhora ' 

 plant, but it is a very common shrub about here, and a very favourite nesting- 

 place for P. inornata, P. socialis and Tailor bird. The eggs also are a 

 replica of the blue variety, only with the ground, white in place of blue. 

 The markings are verj^ beautiful shinnig up well on the white ground. 

 Some have the etchings, but others only large blotches of colour of two 

 shades, one clutch having hardly any of the white shining owing to their 

 being clouded one with claret brick red. 



•~ ft 



There can be no doubt that these eggs are those of P. inornata. I was 

 doubtful on shooting one bird, as it none resembled the description of 

 P. hianfordi, but I sent it to Hugh Whistler who kindly identified it and 

 confirmed the identification as P. inoniata. 



Now, nearly all these eggs have been taken in one locality, viz., Wasir- 

 gung in this District, only two nests having been taken at Gonda itself. 

 Of course it may be that this bird in other localities also lays white eggs 

 as personally I have only examined nests in these two places, but my 

 friend Mr. Hutchison, who has collected eggs in Gonda District for years 

 has never come across this white variety : How can this be accounted for 

 that in only one locality, practically in all India nearly every bird of this 

 species lays white eggs ? At Wasirgung, I only came across 4 nests with 

 blue eggs. The general features of Wasirgung are in no way different 

 from other parts of the District, except that there are some large pieces of 

 water. Lakes in fact, but this cannot account for it. 



As I think this is worth placing on record, I am sending you this note 

 for the Journal, I am also sending you a bird skin, a nest, and a clutch of 

 these eggs for the Society's Museum. 



F. REED 



Gonda, Oudh, 1th Sept. 1919. 



No. VII.—NOTE ON THE I^IGWIJAR (CAPRIMULGUS JEGYPTICUS)- 



I saw a curious sight the other day, which may be worth recording. J 

 was motoring along the Gurmat Ali road at 4-30 p.m., on the 8th August 

 and saw a number of Egyptian Nightjars (C. m/>ipticus) flying slowly and 

 aimlessly about in the hot sun, they were not feeding at all, and the onlj^ 

 explanation I can think of is that the excessive heat had made the ground 

 too hot to sit on ! The temperature on this particular day registered 

 121-7° It is curious, if my theory is correct that the birds had not 'the 

 sense to settle length wise on the palm branches for the time being. 



W. M. LOGAN HOME Major, m.e.f. 

 Mesopotamia, Aur/ust 1919 



No. VIII.— strange BEHAVIOUR OF A WILD BIRD. 



Whilst walking on the sands at Birchington, Kent, with my wife, I saw a 

 Guillemot at the water's edge, so we walked over to look at it. It resisted 

 my efiorts at picking it up and managed to peck me once or twice ; finally I 

 managed to lift it up. It then became quiet and allowed us both to scratch 

 its head. As several small boys were playing near by, I carried the bird out 

 on to the rocks and threw it into deep water ; it swam out to sea for a short 

 distance, then turned round and faced me. I offered it a shrimp so it swam 

 in and took it from my hand, finally climbing on to the rocks at my feet. 

 We both again scratched its head and put it back into the water, being ra- 

 ther afraid the small boys might get hold of it. We then went home to tea 



