98 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



to the coast. He has also identified one crake ; there are probably 

 more remaining for any one who will take them up. 



As regards the bald coot, his observation confirms mine, that the 

 want of water is the only thing that keeps it out of any part of the 

 Konkan. Of the three tanks on which Mr. Inverarity saw large 

 flocks, each is the largest sheet of water in its taluka. I have no 

 doubt that the bald coots may breed at Vehar, and probably they do 

 so at Bhiwandi. At Panwell they don't. 



As regards the purple coot, the notice is very interesting be- 

 cause, for three or four years previous to the famine, I was very 

 intimate with the Bhiwandi water-works and Vehar lakes. The 

 former, I should add, was then in its present form a new lake, 

 having been greatly improved about 1873-4. Now in those years I 

 never saw a purple coot upon either lake, so they must have been, 

 at best, but rare visitors. Mr. Inverarity's notes appear to begin 

 with the next season ; the earliest date he gives is October 1887 (and 

 this not for the present bird) ; and it will be remembered that the 

 Deccan famine was followed by serious failure of rain in Gujarat, a 

 great country for purple coots. This may have set them wandering 

 south'ard, until some found out Vehar and Bhiwandi, and stayed 

 there. I have, since that, seen this bird at Nagotna, and have 

 noticed it, in Gujarat, to straggle a good deal in May ; and 

 as far as the climate goes, there is nothing to hinder it from 

 being here, as it is found as far south as Ceylon. 



We shall probably have both the coots breeding on the Tansa 

 lake, if it is only protected. 



The tank by the old cantonment at Kalyan has always been a 

 great place for both species of Jacana ; and I have no doubt they 

 breed there or thereabouts. The Bronze-winged Jacana apparently 

 breeds at one point near Panwell (on the road to the Kalhe Pass), at 

 Nagotna, and at Ashtami ; for you may see young birds there in all 

 years. The woodcock shot near Tanna must have been a " strag- 

 gler ?' but I should think it possible that the woodcock occurs 

 along the crest of the Ghats more frequently than we suppose. 

 I never got one in India myself. 



I have, in several places above, alluded to pumice stone as the 

 abode of barnacles, annelides and corals, which may require expla- 

 nation. The fact is, that two years after the great eruption of Krakatoa, 

 pumice stone began to drift in to the Bombay coast in considerable 

 quantities. It had got to the Seychelles the year before, so probably 



