32 NATURAL HISTORY. 



might compile a list of the Marathi, Guzerati, Sindhi, Canarese, 

 Bhil, &c, names of the better-known birds. I have already made a 

 beginning at such a list of the Guzerati names. 



The Indian stork-billed kingfisher, P. gurial, has not, Mr. Barnes 

 says, been recorded from Guzerat. Certainly it is not in Captain. 

 Butler's list, but I shot one in a banyan tree on the bank of Jaoli 

 tank, 20 miles north of Baroda, on the 3rd of November last, and 

 Mr. Davidson writes to me that " this species breeds at Godhra 

 behind the Collector's bungalow." The little Indian kingfisher, 

 Mr. Barnes says, lays five or six eggs. Last year I three times found 

 seven eggs in a nest. On the 27th August 1884, in the middle of 

 the rains, I found a nest with five fresh eggs near my house : about 

 three months later than they are usually supposed to breed. 

 Mr. Barnes is partly mistaken in saying that the Pied Kingfisher 

 never resorts to wells or tanks. On the tanks hereabouts they reside 

 and breed commonly. And why does Mr. Barnes tell us nothing 

 about the wonderful breeding habits of the Hornbills ? 



As regards the koel, every naturalist has a different tale to tell ; 

 but I have found koel's eggs in crow's nests in which there was 

 no crow's egg : it seems improbable that the koel would have 

 laid in an empty nest. Once I actually found near Baroda four 

 koel's eggs, ready to hatch, in a crow's nest in which there was no 

 crow's egg ! This looks as if the koel, sometimes at least, removed 

 the crow's eggs, unless, indeed, we suppose that the crow having no 

 family of her own had adopted the koel's ! Birds do such queer 

 things ! I once found a Pariah kite sitting close on a hare's skull ! 



On page 137, No. 235 is misprinted 205, and I remember noticing 

 an unnecessary d in the middle of Planforcl somewhere. No. 238, 

 Dieceum minimum, I have several times met with here, and I have 

 found one nest, which was, however, deserted afterwards, having 

 incautiously been touched. Mr. Barnes could have found sufficient 

 information about this species in Hume's " Nests and Eggs." Of the 

 beautiful nest and eggs of Piprisoma agile, the thick-billed flower- 

 pecker, Mr. Barnes gives no particulars. As it is not in Butler's 

 Guzerat list, I may state that I found three nests at Baroda in last 

 May and June. 



The black-headed cuckoo shrike {V. syhesii) comes about June 

 1st, breeds about Baroda in the end of June and beginning of July, 

 and leaves about November. I found four nests last season. The 

 large grey cuckoo shrike ( Graucalus macei) is a permanent resident 



