ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 222 



NOTE ON LOCALITY. 

 By Mr. A. T. H. Newnham, S. C, 10th N. I. 



Extraordinary Coincidence. — During a recent visit to Ceylon I happened to 

 go again to a certain spit of shingle on which I had a month previously found 

 several eggs of 8terna melanog aster. I was again successful in finding two 

 eggs of the above-mentioned bird, and on lifting the eggs up to deposit them in 

 cotton-wool, my eye was caught by something glittering on the spot from which 

 I had just removed the eggs. On picking it up, I found it to be an " entomological 

 pin," and presumably one which I dropped when I was there before, as it is in 

 the highest degree improbable that any one else would have had entomological 

 pins in such an out-of-the-way place. The question arises, was it a mere coinci- 

 dence that the Tern laid its eggs on that very spot, or was it attracted by the 

 glittering appearance of the pin ? 



The Bower-bird of Australia, I believe, collects gaily-coloured and glittering 

 objects and places them round about its nest. Could then this Tern have been 

 actuated by some similar freak, and have brought the pin from some place where 

 it had found it ? 



A. T. H. N. 



NOTE ON THE BREEDING OP PARRA INDICA. 



By Lieut. H. Edwin Baenes. 



Mr. Hume in his Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds lays stress upon the 

 alleged fact that the Bronze-winged Jacana lays a much greater number of 

 eggs than its nearest Indian ally, the Pheasant-tailed Jacana (Hydrophasianus 

 chirurgus). 



At page 591 of the above-quoted work, Mr. Hume writes : — " Of six nests 

 examined, none contained more than seven, but the boatmen averred that the birds, 

 sometimes at any rate, laid ten" 



Again, on the next page, quoting from Mr. K. Blewitt's experiences in the 

 Jabulpur, Saugor, and Jhansi Districts, he writes : — " The regular number of eggs 

 I have not been able to ascertain accurately, but from eight to ten may be taken 

 as the maximum number." 



I have had opportunities of examining great numbers of these nests in situ, 

 and I have never yet found more than four eggs in any one of them, 

 although many have been in an advanced stage of incubation ; the fishermen, 

 too, assert that four is the number invariably laid. I cannot help suspecting that 

 pome mistake has occurred. I actually took with my own hands over two 

 hundred eggs, on four different dates, in August and September 1880, from jheels 

 in the vicinity of Neemuch, and I have taken at least fifty eggs from the Saugor 

 and Chundrapur Lakes this season, and had I wished,could easily have taken four 

 times as many. The Saugor Lake is within half a mile of my bungalow, and 

 is much frequented by these birds, and as I am continually boating and fishing 

 upon it, I have exceptional opportunities of noting facts in reference to their 

 habits and nidification. 



