518 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



about 9 a.m. I saw the eagles soaring and watched them almost out of sight. 

 About mid-day it cleared up and I did not see the eagles again till the other 

 day. They arrived as before in the evening and I said to myself, I wonder if 

 their arrival portends another storm. The weather though warm was quite 

 clear. Sure enough at night a thunderstorm came on and it simply poured. 

 It has rained off and on for 3 days now and the eagles are still here and I can 

 hear them occasionally. I have just got my nets ready and a nice fat pigeon 

 for a bait, so I hope to keep them here a bit longer this time. 



C H. DONALP. 

 Bhaparwa, Kashmir, Hth June, 1905. 



No XXV.-FIRST RECORD OF THE NIDIFIOATION OF THE 



INDIAN HOBBY (FALCO SEVERUS). 



On the 13th May I found The Indian Hobby (F. severus) breeding on the 



banks of the Nujit-tha river in this district. The nest was in a hole in the cliff 



about 30 feet above the water level. I should rather say the solitary young 



bird was in the hole as there was no nest. 



I am sending you a skin which although sufficient for identification has 

 suffered fearfully during the long journey in without preservatives. 



I have kept the young Hobby which has now developed from an exaggerated 

 powder-puff into a very handsome little bird. He is very tame and if a 

 success I will send you a copy of a photograph I had taken of him yesterday. 



K. C. A' ACDONALD (i>. s. p.) 

 Takokku, Upper Burma, 5th June, 1905. 



[The bird sent is without doubt a specimen of Falco severus, and the 

 above record is therefore of great interest. 



E. COMBER, 

 Honorary Secretary, Bird Section, 

 Bombay Nat. His. Soc] 



No. XXVI— A WOODPECKER'S DILEMMA. 



During the X'mas holidays of 1904, while out shooting in Upper Burma, one 

 of the Burmans picked up a Thit-touk (wood-tapper) at some little distance 

 from any tree. Jt proved to be a Red-rumped Green Woodpecker, Gecinus 

 nigrigenis (Hume). The bird was very thin and his tail feathers very sticky, due 

 to some resinous substance. The cause of his sad plight was soon apparent, for 

 under the right wing, affixed to the primaries, was a large cylindrical mass of 

 gum an inch and a half long, one and a quarter in circumference and weighing 

 ninety grains, and which the Burmans said was the gum exuded by the Gwe-bin 

 (Spondias mangifera). 1 imagine when he had finished his examination of the 

 tree he had proceeded to fly to another, but the loss of the use of his primaries 

 probably resulted in his downfall. I do not know if woodpeckers are help- 

 less on the ground ; if they are, this may account for his thin condition, as it is 

 possible he may have spent some time there. 



