718 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV, 



allows no intrusions by the younger males. Yet this does not entirely explain 

 it, for the same system prevails amongst many gregarious animals whose num- 

 bers are enormous in spite of many natural enemies. Monkeys are certainly 

 subject to plague, but I have not heard of any serious mortality on this 

 account nor by any other epidemic. 



Turning to the bird-world, take the common parrot. Its numbers are 

 incredible in certain districts — Guzerat, for instance— and they do a lot of mis- 

 chief. But why are their numbers not even greater ? Few birds of prey can 

 catch a parrot. They roost in safety and nest in comparative safety, and food 

 they must be able to obtain at all seasons of the year, otherwise they would 

 migrate. Yet their numbers remain about the same, for one never sees in re- 

 venue reports any reference to a plague of parrots as a reason fur a deficient crop. 

 I think this is a subject on which the experiences and opinions of some of our 

 members, scattered as they are over the whole of India, would be very inter- 

 esting ; and it is in the hope of calling forth such that I have broached a topic 

 on which I personally confess to ignorance. 



Lucknow, March, 1904. A. NEWNHAM, Major. 



No. XV.— THE OCCURRENCE OF RARE BIRDS IN INDIA. 



On the 7th instant a fine male specimen of the pink-footed goose (Anser 

 hrachyrhynchus) was brought to me by a native shikari The bird was one of 

 a flock of about forty geese, probably not all of this species, and was shot on 

 the banks of the Brahmaputra whilst working up stream preparatory to migra- 

 tion to North-East China. The colours of the soft parts were as follows :— 

 Iris red-brown ; feet, brilliant crimson-pink ; bill, brilliant crimson-pink ; com- 

 missure of lower mandible, yellowish ; nail, black, but the edges paler. 



Mr. N. S. Mondy saw two birds, which he believed to be of this species, in a 

 lar<?e gaggle of geese on a chur in the same river. He could not get near 

 enough for a shot, but, even at the distance he was, the feet and bill were 

 rendered conspicuous by their brilliant colour. 



Mr. More shot two female ducks {A nas zonorhyncha) on the Sissi bheel on 

 the 6th March. The birds were two out of a flock of about forty. It would 

 seem, therefore, that zonorhyncha and not pcecilorkyncha is the typical form of 

 spot-bill found in the extreme East of Assam. In Cachar, Manipore and 

 Gowhatty the form is poecilorhyncha, 



E. C. STUART BAKER, F.Z.S. 



Dibuugarii, Assam, 22nd March, 1004. 



No. XVI— A LARGE BAOBAB TREE. 



In the Journal, Vol. XV., page 131, there is a note on a large Adansonia 

 difjitata, and, as I happen to be living at present in a compound in which seven 

 baobabs grow, I have been induced to measure the largest, and find that two of 

 them exceed the dimensions given by Mr. G. M. Woodrow. 



The largest (at 4' from the ground) measures 4<S'-2" in circumference, and 

 has an estimated height of 82'. 



