526 JOURNAL. BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



Xo. XIV.— OCCURRENCE OF THE BMKAL OR CLUCKING TEAL 

 (NETTION FORMOSUM) IN NORTH BEHAR. 



I find on page 164 of Mr. Baker's book on '' Indian Ducks and their Allies " 

 that there is only one recorded instance of the Baikal or Clucking Teal being 

 found in India, since the year 1898. 



It may interest you to know that ;i male Baikal Teal was caught in 

 Muzuft'urpur district (in North Behar) towards the end of the cold season 

 of 1907. 



It was brought by some professional fowlers to Mr. H. de Yitre, of Runi 

 Syedpur Indigo Factory, and kept by him iu his tealery. I was able to identify 

 it as a Baikal Teal, by means of Oates' book " The Grame Birds of India." The 

 bird was one of a pair but its companion had died before I happened to arrive 

 at the Factory. Mr. de Vitre had the bird mounted by a Calcutta firm, but 

 unfortunately it was completely spoilt by them. 



Stillokgan Pakk, G. J. MONAHAN, I.CS. 



Blackrock, Co., Duislin. 

 Ireland, ^th March 1909. 



No. XV.— INTELLIGENCE IN BIRDS. 



Having read a letter on the " Injury feigning habit of parent birds," iu whicli 

 the writer on pages 916, 917, and 918 of Vol. XVIII of the Journal discusses 

 the point as to whether the birds are acting in such cases by instinct or with 

 intelligence, I should like to record the action of a tame Magpie, which belong- 

 ed to me, and which I think certainly showed " intelligence " of a very high 

 order. The bird in question was Pica hottanensis, the black rumped Magpie, 

 which is so similar to the common European Magpie, Picancstica, that it is really 

 only an Eastern form of that species. I took the bird out of the nest in July 

 1893 in a high valley in Ladakh and took it down to the plains of India with 

 me. The bird was so tame that I allowed him the free use of his wings, which 

 I never cut, and he flew about the bungalow, inside and out, as he liked. At a 

 station in Central India, when I was on detachment with Capt. M. of my regi- 

 ment, in 1894, I being then a subaltern myself, he and I and a Captain of the 

 R. A. M. C. occupied one bungalow togetlier. The R. A, M. C. Captain had two 

 very fine bull- terriers, a dog and a bitch, with which the Magpie was on very 

 friendly terms, and they never molested him in any way. One day in the hot 

 season, Capt. M. called to me from the dining-room, saying : " Come over here 

 quietly and see what your Magpie is doing." I went over to him and he took 

 mc to the door by the front verandah. We saw the Magpie walking round 

 the two bull terriers, examining both very closely for some time We could 

 not understand at first what he was driving at, but from what followed it was 

 ([uite evident that he was trying to ascertain whether the two dogs, which were 

 lying full length in the shade in the verandah, were really asleep or only 

 dozing. Having satisfied himself that both were asleep, he deliberately walked 



