MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 139 



The natives, however, assured me that at this time there are usually 10 

 varieties breeding and that later on 3 more come. They gave me the Tamil 

 names of these. With the exception of A. manillensis the birds were in 

 thousands and I must have seen many thousands of eggs during the day. 



At the bottom of page 239 of the article above quoted occurs the following 

 passage: — " Can it be that any of the birds that breed in the South in Decem- 

 ber and January breed again with us in July. 1 ' 



That the birds are the same I am satisfied. Anastomus oscitans was> 

 without exception, in grey plumage. I saw many specimens of P. fuscicollis 

 with white breasts and saw many on the nest3 without the white tuft behind 

 the ear coverts. Some specimens of N. griseus were in very bedraggled 

 plumage, it being evidently their second brood, and the young of the first 

 brood appeared to be with them. 



Of A. manillensis there were perhaps 8 or 10 pairs, but these birds were so 

 shy that I had great difficulty in identifying their nests, and only really 

 managed to satisfy myself in one case. 



I believe the sole difference between the nests of A. manillensis and A, 

 cinerea is that the former have some pretence at lining in the form of rather 

 smaller sticks whilst the latter have none. 



A. oscitans kept entirely to themselves. P. fuscicollis and N. griseus did 

 not appear to like each other, but appeared to put up with the 2 larger 

 herons. 



The eggs of A. oscitans were in all stages of incubation, the number of 

 eggs in a full clutch being invariably five. The degree of incubation is per- 

 fectly easy to estimate from the amount of dirt on the shell, and in the same 

 clutch may be found a perfectly white fresh egg and a dirty thing ready to 

 hatch. 



The young of A. cinerea are able to stand immediately on leaving the egg 

 and it was interesting to watch them hatching. I saw birds that could not 

 have been more than three or four days old picking vermin from each other. 



This vermin appears like magic — there is no sign of it in the nests with 

 eggs, which are of such construction as to give very little cover to insect life ; 

 but no sooner are the young hatched than they become infested. 



The water in the tank is very oily and foul, and I was told tnat not even 

 cattle would drink it. 



If I had gone ten days later, I should, I think, have got very few full clut- 

 ches and certainly no fresh ones. 



H. N. PACKARD, Capt., R. A. 



Ootacamund, January 1903. 



No. IX —QUEER FIND OF A PAINTED SNIPE'S EGG. 



On 26th October last, Mr. H. A. Gass, Conservator of Forests, who was 

 •staying with me, told me that about a week before when he was dining with 

 Mr. Jackson, I. F. S. at Coimbatore, the latter, when eating a snipe, came on 



