984 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XlX. 



About mid-April this year I noticed seveial with chestnut furelieads, and 

 pointed this out to my bird friends in the Regiment, Major Sealy, a ^eiy keen 

 observer and field naimahst and Mi. Kennedy a lellcw aviculluiist. "Wanting 

 a couple of pairs for my aviary I set a "drop-net" near a floweiing shrub 

 the birds visited and soon had a bird. I was lalher disappointed to find the 

 forehead only rusty coloured. I put it down as a hen, correct but a fluke 

 Her mate (or rather a mate; was jaught the next day, and he had a fine chtst- 

 nut forehead. The hen died at once ; it is a bad season to " meat ofi. " ia and 

 I determined to wait for others till auiumn if tie cock cied. Ee did not die, 

 so about Ist May I set the net again and caught ttn in under two Lours and 

 could have caught more. Ail these and the othei-s fl.>ing about uncaught had 

 bright chestnut foreheads. In fact about tl.is time 1 taw none ihal ■neie not 

 coloured in this way. In plumage the sexes were indislii guiilable. but I 

 found that I had five pairs. Wiih the aid of a four-ccmpartment wire cage 

 I separated out two true pairs and let go the rest. I am pretty certain that 

 these birds had not then started nesting, ihough there were sevtral ncbts lower 

 ia the station, 



I left the station to go further up the hill where there are no White-eyes, 

 on '2Gtli May ; by that time I noticed my While-eyes were losing their chest- 

 nut. I returned on 6th June. Mine had lost all colour, and the wild ones 

 I saw had lost theirs, but MijoL- Sealy told me that he had lately seen some 

 " coloured " ones abouu. I went up the hill again on the 8th June, leturning 

 on the 20th June. I made a special search for culouivtd ones without success. 

 A few days later Mr. Kennedy showed me a nest with young in his compound ; 

 we watched ihe old birds feeding the young from a very short distance. They 

 were normally coloured. 



ily five are as fit and as happy as their wild relations, but they remain com- 

 mon or garden Indian White-eyes {^ 2iot,terujis pdjjebiusu) and chain.iiig as 

 they are, of no special interest lo any one but m}stlf. Sail 1 have hopes that 

 they will attempt breeding next year. 



Of course, I know that to make a good record one ought to kill and send 

 down a skin. I plead laziness with a dash of sentiment. I make the lecord 

 such as it is, as several things strike me as curious about it. The bird is a very, 

 common one, why has such a ciiange not been recorded before ? I believe it has 

 not been recorded. How w«s it that I noticed it in 1901 and then not 

 again till 1909? I certainly did not keep a special look-out for it ; but the 

 chestnut is very noticeaule and I set lo work to catch my l9Ui bird on that 

 account. Both sexes don the chestnut, but keep it. such a short time. Men 

 (and women) have been known to drop fine raiment soon after matiimony. 

 Can one apply a similar reasoning V Is it a species in the making? 



a. A. PEHRKAU, Capt.. F.Z.S., 



4th Guikha Rifles. 



I'.AKi.ou, Punjab, Slh August, 1909. 



