504 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



did not expect to see the hole closed up again. No account that I had seen 

 or heard mentioned the fact that after the emergence of the mother, the 

 parents shut up the remaining young again just as the mother was shut up ! 

 The female, I may mention in distinction to Mr. Home's account which 

 describes an emerged female he saw as having lost many of her feathers 

 and being in bad condition, was exceedingly well-looking and in beautiful 

 plumage. She was easily distinguished from the male by being slightly 

 smaller and darker in plumage. 



AVhen the female came out the hole was again reduced to a feeding slit, 

 but as we thought the young were out too we did not watch for the hole 

 being filled up, and I cannot say if the young birds helped to plaster the 

 hole from inside as their mother had done. 



We were much surprised at seeing the hole again blocked. From April 

 22nd till July 2nd the hole remained a mere slit. The male and female 

 fed the young at frequent intervals from light till midday and then seemed 

 to take cover from the heat themselves till about 4 p.m. The surface of the 

 bark below and at the sides of the hole became quite worn and smooth. 

 The food was given from two positions, the parent would alight on a bough 

 near at hand and then fly to the hole, clinging on to the trunk below it with 

 legs wide apart, and feed directly into the open beaks of the young. Or 

 the bird would feed from one side of the trunk stretching its neck round 

 the curve of the trunk to the hole. During the preliminary rest in which 

 the food bringer often indulged, the bird frequently regurgitated the 

 food it was about to give, shortening and stretching its wonderfully 

 elastic neck and gulping with great swellings of the throat. 



The diet was very mixed, but had certainly carnivorous elements in it. 

 The sweeper's boy told me he had seen grass-hoppers being picked up off 

 the ground and fed to the young, and Colonel Farmer, Superintendent 

 of the Civil Veterinary Department of the Punjab, staying with us on 

 June 22nd, saw the same distinctly. On June 26th, one of the parents 

 brought a headless mouse (or lizard possibly) with a white underside. The 

 young took it eagerly. The head was regurgitated and given separately. 1 

 think it was a mouse for the young toyed a long time Avith it — the opening 

 was open that day as I shall mention later — and 1 saw them throwing the 

 guts up and down playing with them on the windowsill of the hole. 



A variety of food would be brought at one beakful. Pipal figs were 

 much used, but once I noticed a green leaf regurgitated and fed in morsels 

 to the young and the feed ended with a pipal fig. My husband on June 

 26th, saw one beakful consist of no less than seven figs. They were gulped 

 up by the bringer one by one, but the last two were rejected by the young 

 and thrown out. The male patiently picked them up several times and 

 offered them again but they were refused. I have seen a fig thrown out 

 by the young and caught in the beak of the mother and handed back to 

 the young again ! 



On Thursday, June 29th, the diet for two hours was as follows, observed 

 with field glasses from the balcony. 



8-25 a.m., green leaf brought by male who flew off directly. 



8-27 one of the first ripe jaman berries, brought by the male, rejected 

 by the young and swallowed by the male himself. 

 9-7 „ green leaves, fed by the female. 



9-10 „ do. do. 



9-12 „ green leaf regurgitated and fed by the male. 



9-30 „ green loaf and then pipal fig fed by the male. 



9-33 „ something undeterminable brought by the male. 



9-40 „ do. do. 



10-25 „ fig, which was refused by young, brought by the male. 



