ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



crossing it, also having its end pointing outwards. In this way the insect continues 

 until a space is enclosed by the wall thus made, any body who may be incautious 

 enough to touch this wall of hairs with their hands will repent, for the hairs having 

 fine sharp points at once enter the skin, and becoming detached from the wall 

 remain in the skin causing an intolerable itch with great swelling. 



I had a box with one of these cocoons in it. which was tightly closed and placed 

 in an inner room. On going into this room one day, I was surprised to find a great 

 many confertas busily flying round the closed box ; on opening it, to find out the 

 cause, I found my moth had just come out a perfect female ; all those flying in the 

 room were males. 



Apart from the extraordinary fact of the males having found out that there 

 was a female there, their mode of ingress was curious, as to get into the 

 r,)om they had first to pass through a doorway opposite which a chick was 

 suspended, they had then to cross the outer room and go through another door- 

 way before they were in the room which contained the prisoner. I made good use 

 of this habit by leaving her where she was and selecting the best specimens of 

 males in the room. 



This habit of finding out and coming to a female in captivity is even more 

 strongly developed in one of our English moths, which is commonly known as the 

 Oak Egger. 



On one occasion in a single day I captured over thirty male Oak Eggers with 

 one female, and have no doubt I could have taken fifty. There is yet another use 

 to which Nepita Conferta apparently puts the hairy wall, for I have seen several 

 cases of the femule laying her eggs on top of the deserted cocoon. 



The perfect insect is on the wing during June, and another brood appears in 

 August. 



Carwar, H.S.WISE. 



September 1st, 1886. 



BIRD-NESTING NOTES FROM CUTCH. 



I can corroborate Mr. Littledale's assertion that C. affiuis (the Indian swift) takes 

 possession of the nests of H- erythropyyius (the Red-rumped Swallow) for on 

 March 6, in Bhujia Fort, I caught two of these swifts in separate nests of 

 H. erythropygia. One nest contained two fresh eggs, but the other was empty. 

 C. affinis is not the only bird however that avails itself of the ingenious nest of 

 H. erythropygia. On April 25 I took 3 eggs of P. JlavicoUis (the yellow-throate^ 

 Sparrow) out of one of them. To make quite sure of its identity, I shot one of the 

 parent birds. Also 1 am nearly certain that seme eggs which my shikari brought 

 me last year out of a nest of Plocevs mumjar (striated Weaver bird) must have 

 belonged to this species, i.e., P. flavicollis, but I never had an opportunity of seeing 

 the bird. April 15 I shot a pair of Strlx Javanica (the Indian screech owl) which, 

 as far as I know, has not been recorded from this province before. The female on 

 dissection showed no signs of nidification. Since then I have seen a third. 

 Within the last month, i.e., April I have seen Peregrine Falcons on two occasions, 

 and also C. aeruginosus (the Marsh Harrier). Surely this is very late for winter 

 visitants to be stopping, unless they are breeding. May 2 I found a partridge's 

 nest in a very unusual situation. It was placed in a hole in the rock about 10 feet 



