MISCELLANEOUlS SOTES, 505 



Nothing more was brought between then and 11 u.ni., after which time 

 observation ceased. 



On .lune 30th observation was as follows: — 



10- 1 1* a.m., some small black thing, like an ant, fed by the female. 



10-17 .. pipal tig brought by the female. 



10-26 ,, black ant brought by the female. 



10-40 ,, something undeterminable brought by the male. 



10-43 ,, mixed food ending with a fig, brought by the female. 



After the young had left the nest, the old birds continued to feed them 

 as they sat on the trees. 



The arrival of the parent with food was nearly always announced by the 

 young with a loud cry and we were able to run to a window and see what 

 was being fed to them. Even when the parent sat on a bough and did not 

 approach the hole at first, the young seemed to be able to see through 

 their narrow slit that food was at hand. 



On June i'4th we heard this cry from another direction than the nest and 

 rushed out, thinking the young were out. Strange to say the hole was 

 opened, but the young hornbills were ttot those from this nest bvit two young 

 ones just emerged from another nest in a mango tree in another part of the 

 garden. The young in the jaman tree nest remained in and were regu- 

 larly fed. We now watched very closely as the hole was open and we 

 expected the young to come out any moment. But on June 27th the male 

 was seen carrying lumps of mud to the hole and on the 28th the hole was 

 rather smaller again, and on the 29th very distinctly filled up. On the 

 30th a very heavy rain with wind came and I conceived it possible that the 

 hole had been closed on second thoughts because of the premonition of rain. 

 The hole of the mango tree nest did not face the wind, the jaman tree did. 



On the 2nd of July the hole was again opened, but the young remained 

 in and were fed. On one day in July, in spite of much observation, the young 

 birds flew without my being present. There were only two as in the other 

 nest, and in each case the young birds were very little smaller than the 

 parents and had apparently mature plumage. The birds, young or old, never 

 came near the hole agaiii, though there are nearly always hornbills 

 sitting or flying in the garden. 



A thing that could not but be remarked on was the accuracy of the 

 young birds in voiding their ordure through the narrow slit, as well as the 

 distance to which they propelled it. The ground quite a distance from the 

 tree was white with their droppings as well as sprinkled with bits of 

 dropped pipal figs burst. But I never saw any bones of castings such as an 

 owl voids. 



GuRDASPUB, Punjab, ELEANOR FRANCES HALL. 



October 29t/i, 1917. 



No. XIV.— NOTE ON KALIJ PHEASANT, ESPECIALLY ON 

 A SPECIMEN FROM THE GOALPARA DISTRICT, ASSAM. 



Some years ago my friend Mr. E. O. Shebbeare of the Forest Service 

 sent me the skin of a cock kalij shot by him at Bengtol Camp, Goalpara, 

 on the 21st March 1909. He had provisionally marked it Gennaus 

 leucomc'lanus, but on receipt of the skin it did not appear to me to belong 

 to any described species. I sent the skin to Mr. Ogilvie Grant at the 

 British Museum for identification. Not hearing from him for a long time, 

 I wrote him about the skin and he replied that he had passed it on to 

 Mr. E. W. Oates, who was at that time working on this group of pheasants 

 and that Mr. Oates had promised to write to me ; but as he did not do so, 

 he said that Oates placed it as Gennceus mearsi. 



