BRINJAL OR EGG-PLANT. 55 



tion, viz., about the size of a Stone Chat, and possessing the same 

 habits, of a uniform greyish mud oolour, with black-tipped tail 

 and a little white about the head. The thing, however, which attracted 

 my notice most of all was its power of imitation. I heard it myself 

 imitating most loudly and distinctly the common grey partridge. 

 In fact, the first time it completely took me in. A man in the 

 Engineer Department there informed me that he had also heard it 

 imitate a puppy squealing so truthfully, that his dogs became 

 quite excited and began hunting about for tho supposed puppy in 

 distress. It then commenced crying like a peewit. It should come 

 from some country where the grey partridge is found, as it could 

 not very well have picked up the cry of the latter in Afghanistan, 

 where the grey partridge does not, as far as I know, occur; but at 

 the same time I do not remember ever reading about powers of 

 mimicry in any bird answering to the description of this one, 

 which is found in the same localities with the grey partridge 

 (0. pondicerianus) . 



Another beautiful little bird, not uncommon in the rivers in 

 Afghanistan, is the Red-winged Wall-creeper (Teichodroma muraria), 

 an Alpine bird. It has wings of a lovely crimson and black, the 

 first three primaries being strikingly spotted with white. It is 

 very confiding and will run up a bank in its quick jerking way 

 within a few feet of you, uttering its shrill pipe. 



I will now conclude these few observations with the hope thab I 

 may be able at some future period to contribute something of greater 

 interest than the bleak hills of Afghanistan can afford. 



INSTANCE OF TERATOLOGY IN THE BRINJAL OR 



EGG-PLANT {SOL ANUM MELON GEN A). 



(See illustration.) 



Triple Fruit from a Single Flower. 

 This form of teratology is not common. The pistil — the part of 

 the flower which develops into fruit— is more subject to suppression 

 than to multiplication. This is believed to be due to the position 

 of the pistil in the centre of the flower (where it is subjected to 

 pressure) and also to the fact that it is the last developed of the 

 parts of the flower. Instances, however, do occur in which the 

 carpels are increased. In tho present instance there seems to be a 



