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



who identified it as No. 359, Aedo7i familiaris, the Grey-backed Warbler. Mr. 

 Gates remarks that it is not likely to be found breeding in any part of the 

 Empire, but it was so commonly at Thull. 



R. H. EATTRAY, Major, 

 22nd Punjab Infantry. 

 MuEKEE, 2bth May, 1899. 



No. XVII.— BIRDS TAPPING AT WINDOW PANES. 



I have read Mr. Ernest Green's letter in the Miscellaneous Notes, page 415, 

 of this Volume with much interest. A couple of years ago a brother of mine 

 had the same experience with a magpie. The bird used to come regularly every 

 morning after sunrise, perch on the window-sill and peck industriously at the 

 glass, if " shoo'd " away it returned after a brief interval and began tapping 

 again until frightened off. It became such a nuisance to a man who disap- 

 proved of early rising that it was destroyed after turning my brother out of 

 bed about 5 o'clock every morning for a fortnight. The house where this 

 occurred stands alone amid a surrounding of forest trees on the shores of 

 Lough Sheelin, Co. Cavan. 



E. D. CUMING. 

 20, Pembroke Road, 

 London, \Qth May, 1899. 



No, XVIIL—TRAWLING IN INDIAN WATERS. 

 The Investigator's Successful Cruise, 

 After a careful inspection of the personnel and detention ashore of those 

 few of the crew who were at all feverish, the R.I.M.S. Investigator put 

 to Sea from Bombay, on October 10th, on her seven months' surveying 

 cruise. The programme for the season comprised for the first three to 

 four months the survey of Moulmein River from its mouth to the town of 

 Moulmein as well as the approaches to the river, and for the remainder of 

 the season the Western Coast of the northern part of the Andaman Islands. 

 As the Investigator was obliged to take in coal and some other necessaries 

 in Colombo, and as the Ceylon quarantine authorities have ordained that 

 no ship be given free entry into their porta within ten days of departure 

 from Bombay, this necessary period of probation was most usefully and 

 successfully employed in deep sea trawling off the West coast of India and 

 Ceylon at varying depths of from 40 to 1,000 fathoms. When the bottom 

 of the sea is suitable for trawling — sand or mud — the method adopted on 

 the Investigator is very simple. The trawl for dragging along the bottom 

 and capturing the dwellers thereon consists of a stout iron frame work, to 

 which is attached a bag-net some fifteen feet long with an oblong open 

 mouth of ten feet wide by about 2| feet deep. From this net animals are 

 prevented from escaping, once they have entered, by a second smaller bag- 



