Notes on the London Zoological Society's Indian Collection 185



NOTES ON THE LONDON ZOOLOGICAL

SOCIETY’S INDIAN COLLECTION

(July, 1920)


By E. W. Harper, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., in charge of the collection.


After waiting for two months for a suitable steamer, thes.s. Gamaria

was generously placed at our disposal by the British India Steam

Navigation Company, and on May 29, 1920, the collection embarked

at Calcutta, arriving in the London docks on July 16, a voyage of

forty-nine days. Except for a few days of rough weather in the Indian

Ocean, when the decks were awash, the voyage was a pleasant one.

The master, Capt. Evans, did all he possibly could for the welfare of

the collection.


The collection was made of mammals (including a large elephant

and a pair of tigers), birds, reptiles, batrachians, and fishes ; but my

remarks must be restricted to the birds, of which the following is a list

of the species which arrived : —


Tickell’s Ouzel, Blue-headed Ilock Thrush, Yellow-cheeked Tit,

Yellow-eyed and Jungle Babblers, Silver-eared Mesia, Sliama, Black¬

headed Sibia, Spotted-wing, Gplden-fronted Chloropsis, White-cheeked

and White-eared Bulbuls, Collared Jay-thrush, Black-naped and Indian

Golden Orioles, Racket-tailed and Hair-crested Drongos, Crow-

pheasant, Blue Lies, Wandering Tree-pies, Blue-cheeked and Green

Barbets, Fishing Eagle, Brahminy and Indian Kites, Pondicherry and

Bengal Vultures, Indian Loriquet or Hanging Parrot, Cattle Egret,

Ceylon Spur-fowl, Chukot- Partridge, Burmese Pea-fowl, Jungle Bush-

quail, Indian and Little Bustard-quail, Common Crane, Sarus Crane, and

Indian Porphyrio.


Many of the cages for the smaller birds were made entirely of

split bamboo, about 31 feet, long, divided into compartments of about

a cubic foot each, every compartment having a deep water-tin that

could not be upset, and a metal food-dish turning on a pivot, which

could be replenished without putting the hand inside the cage. Being

a great believer in barred floors for the transport of birds and small

mammals, I had most of the cages thus constructed ; some of the box-

cages had wire-netting stretched a couple of inches or so above the



