508 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY , Vol. XII. 



the officers of the settlement that he once saw an entireh/ light blue bird among 

 a large flock of this species. Both he and his wife watched this bird for a 

 consiHe>a!)le time while an orderly was despatched, fr a gun, before the 

 arrival of which the rara avis and its companions had dei arted to fresh fields 

 and pastures new, 



1150. L iiRicT Lus VERNALis, Sparrm. Blanf., Ill, p. 2GI ; " Str. Feath.," 

 TI, p. 185 ; Butler, Journ. "Bom. N. H. S., XI. p. 736." 



The little Loriquet is very common in the Andamans, but according to 

 Blanf ord, ' has not been observed in the Nicobars.' I see, however, that Mr, 

 Hume notes (" >tr. Feath,," ii, p. 186) — "on thp nurrhern shores of the 

 Great Nicobiir, Mr. Wood-Mason saw and watched, but failed to secure, 

 a LoriculuH which may have belonged to this species or to the Malayan 

 galgulus.'"' 



1 have seen them caught by a bird-limed twig l osely fitted into a hole in 

 the end of a long tapering bambo", which is gradually pushed up among the 

 foliage in which the, love-bird is feeding until the limed twig touches the bird's 

 wing, to which it instantly adheres, sticking the primaries together and pre- 

 venting its esc ipe. This method of capture requires considerable dexterity ; 

 unless there is plenty of leaf on the tree the bird sees the stick and when there 

 was any foliage I inv.iriably ■• anaged to stick the twig gracefully to a leaf 

 half-way between myself and the Lorik' et ! 



Davison found a nest at Port Blair on the lUih o April, Apparently this 

 species does not line its nest h h- j the Ceylon biid, Loriculus imlicus does, the 

 only two or three nests I have seen being lined with a thick pad of green 

 leaves and halves of leaves. I have since found and described in this journal 

 a nest which was lined with leaves. 



1152. S IRIX FLAMMEA, Linn, ' lanf.,111, p. 264 ; "Str. Feath." Ill, p. 390. 



Very scarce in the Andamans, the specimens which have been obtained 



being mostly captured in buildings, I heard of one which had for months 



been living in the roof of a bungalow on the small island of Viper in Port 



Blair harbour, sallying out regularly every evening at dusk. 



Mr, Blanford says " <S/r2a; cZ<'rfPyj.'</or/)5 is founded on a very small tawny 

 specimen from the Andaman Islands, with the wing only 9"8, the face 

 suHused with ferruginous, and even the spots on the back durk tawny 

 instead of white. No other skin of this race has been obtained, but all 

 the points of difference are repeated in other insular races of S. flnmmea. 

 There are. however, two skins of this Andaman race in the Indian Museum, 

 where I lately examined them. The race is a vorv well marked one, but 

 all races of SlHx flammea are now included under the one species. 



Since writing the above I have been fortunate in shooting a fine specimen 

 of this rare race. Measurements. — Length 1.;^, wing 10^, tail 4^, tarsus 

 2?, bill, gape to tip of upper mandible If, expanse 36 inches. I also heard 

 another on several occasions, and after many attempts got a long snapshot 



