136 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



made their appearance in due course, and I repeatedly saw the 

 nine feeding together of an evening. But in the evening of the 

 11th inst. I saw no less than twenty-one Hoopoes feeding, 

 within a space of thirty yards by ten, in the soft ground where 

 the grass was still green, the whole of the rest of the soil in the 

 neighbourhood being parched by the drought. Whilst the 

 young ones were newly out of the nest they very often sat in 

 the verandah, and I was struck by the shortness of their bills. 

 The birds themselves are not very much smaller than the 

 parents, whilst their bills appeared to me not above half the 

 length. To the best of my belief the female during the time of 

 sitting is entirely fed by the male, and is only off the eggs for a 

 minute or two, and frequently not so long, once or twice a day 

 for the purpose mentioned before. 



There is a curious circumstance with regard to the King- 

 Crow {Dicrurus macrocercus) which may be worth noting. I was 

 returning from my morning ride on April 23rd, when I saw two 

 King-Crows on the ground attacking something. Before getting 

 near enough to see what it was, one flew up carrying what 

 appeared to be a very large moth or butterfly, and, flying about 

 a hundred yards, again settled on the ground. Before I got to 

 it, it again flew ; and as it had some difficulty in carrying its 

 burden, I cantered up, and it then went off leaving its prey on 

 the ground, which proved to be a fully fledged young one of 

 one of the small Wren-Warblers. It was quite insensible, but 

 did not seem particularly injured, and by the time I reached 

 home was perfectly well ; so I let it loose in my garden. What 

 did the King-Crows intend doing with it ? They kill and eat, I 

 know, insects of almost all sizes, but certainly I never heard of 

 their killing young birds. 



Umballali, June 18th, 1866. D. ScoTT. 



Simla, June 22nd, 1866. 

 Sir, — Very little seems to be known about the Choughs of 

 the Himalayas. Dr. Jerdon admits two species — First, Fregilus 

 himalayanus, Gould, which is closely allied to the Cornish Chough 

 and has a red bill and legs. 



