MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 1045 



This year however on 19th June in the same district I noticed them in 

 very large numbers on an open bit of ground that was once a Government 

 babul plantation (it has nearly all been cut down now). I commenced to 

 count a flock and fovmd there were 26 cocks and a few hens. 



I soon saw a bigger lot: this numbered over 50 including both sexes. In 

 another flock there were over a hundred birds of this species. 



They were all busyfeeding — this was early in the morning — in dense flocks 

 which consisted entirely of this species as a rule. The whole bit of " usar " 

 there was dotted with these flocks, the colour of the flocks making very 

 conspicuous patches. They were breeding now as I took the first nest on 

 May 6th. A couple of days later I took two eggs from one nest and three 

 from another, all in the same babul tree. 



The nest is so flimsy that it takes quite a lot of finding. In that tree 

 was also a nest of the Large Grey Babbler containing eggs. There appear- 

 ed to be several other Red Turtle Doves nests without eggs in this tree and 

 they were evidently not deterred by my attentions as I took yet another 

 ne.=t on 17th June from this same tree. 



This babul tree was evidently particularly popular with this species — it 

 was not far from where 1 had seen so many of them — as I only found one or 

 two other nests, in difl'erent trees, towards the end of Jime. 



The place where I noticed these birds so numerous, was a spot I often 

 visited while out nest huntingso presumably they were not all breeding in the 

 neighbourhood at that time an any rate. 



LucKNOw, loth August 1919. G. O. ALLEN, i.c.s. 



No. XII.— ACCIDENTS TO VULTURES. 



In Vol. 13 (1861) of the Ibis, Capt. Irby has recorded an instance of an 

 Indian Long-billed Vulture {Gyps indicus) being caught inside a horse's 

 belly. An interesting accident was described to me in August 1915 (I did 

 not witness it myself) shortly after it had been observed. 



A moribund ox was lying by the side of the Chakrata road in Dehra Dun. 

 Vultures were hard at it and had picked out its eyes. One had evi- 

 dently gone for the tongue and to do so had put its head right inside the 

 ox's mouth. As an expiring effort or by some involuntary muscular 

 contraction the mouth had closed tightly over the vulture's head the bird 

 helplessly flapping its wings in its eSbrts to extricate it. The other vultures 

 evidently realizing something was wrong held oft". 



LucKNOW, 10^^ August 1919. G. O. ALLEN, i.c.s. 



No. XIII.— HOVERING HABIT OF THE SPOTTED OWLET 

 {ATHENE BRAHMA). 



Is it a common habit with ^4 Mene brahma to hover ? I happen to have 

 twice noticed it. The first occasion was in February 1917 at Jaunpur when 

 this little owl at dusk flew out from a tree and several times hovered for 

 some considerable time over a barley field in difl'erent places. I saw 

 exactly the same thing at Pinjaur in November 1918. 



G. O. ALLEN, I.c.s. 

 LucKNOw, \Qth August 1919, 

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