MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 503 



very rare bird. On Ejettinjr home Messrs. Mitchell (P. W. D.), Salusbury, 

 (T.C.S.) jviul myself hiokod tlio bird up in Blanford and Oatos. It tvas 

 undoubtedly the Fink-headed Duck {lihodonessa canjiq)hyllacca, Lath.) 



A. H. MARSHALL, 

 GuKDASprR, Punjab, (Indian Police). 



Uh October 1917. 



[In Vol. XXIV, page 590 of the Journal, Mr. H. AVhistler recorded seeing 

 two of these ducks in the Ambala District in March 1910. — Eds.] 



No. XII.— FOOD OF BULBULS. 



I am sending you separately a lizard which formed the meal of a young 

 bnlbul hatched out only about 5 — 6 days. The bulbul, one of a family of 

 three Common IJed-vonted Bulbuls [Molpastes hcemorrhous), was found lying 

 on the ground below the nest at its last gasp with the hind feet and half an 

 inch of tail of the lizard sticking out of its mouth. 1 pulled the lizard out 

 and the bird appeared better but died later. It seems rather curious for 

 the bird to have tackled a mouthful nearly as big as itself. 



B. D. RICHARDS. 

 LoxAVLA, \oth October I9I7. 



[The lizard, a young Calotes versicolor, measured 3^ inches in length. 

 The circumstance is remarkable as this bulbul is chiefly a fruit eater — Eds.] 



Xo. XIII.— NOTES ON THE NIDIFICATION OF THE 

 COMMON GREY HORNBILL {LOPROCEROS BIROSTRIS). 



Our garden at Batala, Gurdaspur District, has usually had these horn- 

 bills nesting in it. One season a predecessor of ours, the Rev. F. Lawrence, 

 used to feed the imprisoned female hornbill from the end of a fishing rod. 

 But this year. 1017, we had unusual opportunities of observing the details 

 of the incubation period closely, as there was a hornbill nesting in a " jaman " 

 tree in a hole about eighteen feet from the ground. A good view of it was 

 commanded from an upper window and also from a first floor verandah of 

 which the creeper-covered balustrade gave perfect cover to the observer. 



The hole was on the outward side of the tree and had presumably been 

 used by parrots. For when the hornhills were investigating the hole with a 

 view to nesting, there was vociferous competition from the parrots. On 

 the 2nd of April the hornbiUs began enlarging the hole, on the 3rd the 

 female went in. 



In the account by Mr. Home given in Hume's Nests and Eggs of Indian 

 Birds, Rough Draft, it is stated that the hole observed was filled up from 

 inside by the female with her own ordure. I cannot think that a hole 

 could have been stopped up with merely the droppings of one bird for two 

 days in the case of my hornbills. They had a large hole to reduce to the 

 dimensions of the small upright feeding slit, and I observed the male 

 bringing pellets of mud from the garden irrigation channels where the 

 water had just been running. The pellets he handed to the female appear- 

 ed to be quite round, like the pellets of which a swallow's nest is built. 

 She plastered them on from inside making the opening smaller inside than 

 out like the slit windows in a Fort : it had a downward slope too like a 

 windowsill. Then the hole was reduced till it had only a narrow slit which 

 allowed a little more than the stretch of an open beak. From the time that 

 the hole was plastered up about April (ith the female did not appear till 

 April i'2nd. The male was assiduous in feeding her. But being apparently 

 a iiDrmal case we did not make any special observations. When on April 

 22. id, we saw the hole enlarged, we thought the female must be out and 



