MISCELLA NEO US NOTES. 1 1 7 



Not satisfied with my own identification, I took the skull with mo to Madras 

 and showed it to Dr. Thurston, the Superintendent of the Madras Museum, 

 who agreed with me that it was undoubtedly a skull of ( 'rocodilua pekpsus. My 

 only doubt then was whether the specimen might not have been mixed up with 

 others in General Cullen's possession, and have been sent to the Museum with 

 notes that applied to another skull. To clear up this, the only way was to got 

 another specimen from the same locality. The natives here are agreed that 

 there are two sorts of crocodile, one they call " Chingany," the other " Muthala," 

 and after trying in vain to get any satisfactory description of the difference 

 between them, I offered a reward for specimens of the " Muthala." 



Specimen after specimen of pulustris was sent in to me, and some were 

 identified by the natives as undoubted "Muthalas," and still they failed to show 

 any difference or to explain why they gave different names. At last, from the 

 same locality as General Cullen's specimen, came an undoubted Crocodilus 

 porosus, about 7 ft. 6 inches long ; it is now in the Museum, and the curious 

 thing is that the natives can see no difference between it and a specimen of 

 ',' pedustris," and do not admit that it is a " Muthala." 



H. S. FERGUSON. 



Trevandrum, March, 1801. 



VII.— VICTORIA CROWN PIGEONS BREEDING IN CONFINEMENT. 



Victoria Crowned Pigeons (Coura Victoria?). — In 1888, three specimens, a male 

 and two females, were received in the Trevandrum Zoological Gardens from 

 Calcutta. This year the females began to fight and had to be parted. The pair 

 left began to build a nest, and being supplied with sticks and fibre made a 

 flat arrangement on a platform there was in the cage, about 8 ft. from the 

 ground. One egg was laid, and in about three weeks a young one was hatched, 

 and is now just fledged and goes about with its parents. I should think it is 

 unusual for these birds to breed in captivity, and so record it. 



Continuing the subject of breeding, I may mention that the Mouse Deer 

 (Mcmina indica) have bred in the gardens, and the period of gestation is, as 

 near as possible, five months. 



H. S. FERGUSON. 



■Trevandrum, March 1801. 



VEIL— INDIAN OTTERS. 



In the first volume of the "Fauna of British India" Mr. Blandford says that, 

 "owing to the circumstance that the next species, L. Ellioti, has only lately 

 been clearly distinguished, the relative distribution of the two (L. vulgaris and 

 L. Ellioti) cannot be precisely ascertained." Both occur in Travancore, but 

 L. vulgaris is by far the commoner and is fairly abundant. There was at one 

 time a specimen of L. vulgaris and two of L. Ellioti in the gardens at the 

 same time, both species having been captured close to Trevandrum ; the differ- 



