2o8 Notes on Natural History in India, [Sess. 



eighteen or twenty inches long, or kites twenty-five inches 

 long. It is a shrike, and feeds chiefly on grasshoppers and 

 crickets. 



Banda is inferior to the Himalayas and the south of India 

 in its number of pretty common birds, just as it is in its 

 number of sweet-singing birds. In Banda, the prettiest are 

 the bee-eater (Merops mridis) and the roller (Coracias indica), 

 a near ally of which has lately been shot in Mull, and a 

 paper on it was read at the last meeting of the Physical 

 Society. The bird shot in Mull, the Coracias garrula, is 

 common in Western India. It is not found in Banda. The 

 common Indian species, Coracias indica, is a sacred bird all 

 over India, for the following reason : Once on a time the 

 earth was covered all over with some poisonous fluid. The 

 great god, Mahadao, assumed the form of a Coracias indica, 

 which up to that time was a bird of ordinary plumage, and 

 drank up all the poison. The only inconvenience that 

 resulted was that the bird became of a blue colour, which 

 colour it still retains. One of the most meritorious actions 

 a Hindoo can do is to buy one of these birds from a bird- 

 catcher, and let it loose in honour of the god Mahadao. 

 Birds for this purpose are generally for sale in most large 

 towns. It is very lucky to see this bird when you are out 

 walking, unless it crosses your path. 



With regard to reptiles, snakes are exceedingly common — 

 more so than in any part of India I have ever visited. I 

 have myself killed in Banda many cobras, one carpet viper, 

 and one keeled viper, the last allied to the British adder. 

 Lizards and frogs are exceedingly common. With regard to 

 insects, mosquitoes and flies are abundant at all times ; and 

 every year or two a flight of locusts comes from Eajpootana, 

 and lays waste all the fields where they happen to alight. 

 Silkworms are found in the southern uplands. The true 

 silkworm, which feeds on mulberries, is not met with, but 

 there are four other species of silk - making caterpillars : 

 (1) the Atlas moth caterpillar ; (2) the Ailanthus-feeding 

 caterpillar ; (3) the Castor-oil tree caterpillar ; (4) the Ter- 

 minalia tree caterpillar. This last yields the tussar silk, which 

 is much imported into Britain. It is stronger than true silk, 

 but it does not dye weU. Of myriapods, the centipede, and 



