MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 717 



seen this bird so near the sea (within three miles) or so far from forests 

 although it is not uncommon inland in the forest tracts of Gumsur. 



C. E. C. FISCHER, I. F. S. 

 Chatrapur, Ganjam District, 

 dth March, 1904. 



No. XIII.— BIRDS BATHING IN CLOUDY WEATHER. 



I daresay many people who have kept birds will have noticed that their 

 pets choose to take their baths, not as one might expect on hot sunny days, 

 but in dull overcast weather, when it is rather cooler than usual. 



This has puzzled me for a long time. The only explanation I can find for it, 

 and I cannot say it is one I am altogether satisfied with, is that in such weather 

 evaporation is retarded, and the bird feels by instinct that it is less likely to 

 take a chill. 



Last Christmas Day, however, I noticed a circumstance which accentuates 

 this curious habit. 



It was a cold day and slightly overclouded. About half an hour before sun- 

 set I saw some sixty crows of two species (C. .splendens and corrone), all busily 

 engaged in splashing about in a shallow tank. Now what could have induced 

 these birds to choose one of the coldest days in the year, and just before 

 going to roost too, to thoroughly saturate themselves, I am at a loss to discover, 

 and perhaps some of our readers can throw some light on the subject. 



A. NEWNHAM, Major. 



Lucknow, March, 1904. 



No. XIV— NATURAL CHECKS ON OVER-INCREASE. 



It seems to me an investigation into the above subject is one which would 

 repay the trouble and bring to light many interesting facts. Out in India, 

 where man, as a destructive agency, has probably less influence than in any 

 other country in the world, we get things more or less in their natural state, 

 and should be able to study the question under exceptional advantages. The 

 particular phase of the subject mentioned in my heading, however, is the 

 apparent absence of any check in the case of certain animals and birds. 



For example, monkeys. Natives, of course, will not kill them, and few 

 Europeans care to. They have no natural enemy to diminish their numbers, 

 though panthers may occasionally catch them in wooded country. Take the 

 ordinary case of monkeys in the plains, living near villages. They have 

 abundance of food all the year round and apparently no natural check what- 

 ever to their unlimited increase, yet, as far as I can make out, one never 

 hears of such an increase in their numbers as to make them a source of 

 danger or serious damage to man's food supply, as, for instance, is caused 

 by lemmings or locusts. 



The Sadar Bazar here is full of monkeys, but from enquiries I have made 

 I find their numbers have remained stationary. One possible explanation 

 may be their family arrangements, according to which the lord of the harem 



