490 



GLEANINGS FROM THE CALCUTTA MARKET. 



921.-— Ardea goliat, Tern. 



Several specimens of this species were obtained in the 

 Calcutta Bazaar in 1845-46 by Blyth. But from that day to 

 this no further trace of the species has ever, to the best of my 

 belief, been obtained* in Calcutta or anywhere else in the Empire. 



It is one of the very few species unrepresented in our museum 

 by Indian-killed specimens. 



There is a mystery about Blyth's specimens. I have shown 

 them to every fowler employed in supplying the market, but no 

 one admits ever having seen the like, and several of these fowlers 

 have been 40 years at the trade. I have offered a, to them, 

 enormous reward for a specimen, but as yet without success. 



I cannot understand how, in 1845-46, they were so plenti- 

 ful and thenceforth utterly disappeared. They must be local 

 in their distribution, and probably come only to some one 

 locality worked in 1845-46 by some men who died thereafter, 

 and not now known to or worked by other Shikarees. I have 

 been at work for years to get specimens of the species aud 

 learn something about their distribution, habits, &c, but I can 

 get nothing and learn nothing, and no person, I believe, has ever 

 certainly seen, let alone shot any (since Blyth bought these 

 birds in the bazaar) anywhere in the whole Empire. 



All these are 



923. — Ardea cinerea, Lin. 

 924. — Ardea purpurea, Lin, 

 925. — Herodias torra, Buck. Ham. 

 926. — Herodias intermedia, Hasselt. 

 927. — Herodias (?) garzetta, Lin. 

 929. — Bubulcus coromandus, Bodd. 

 930. — Ardeola grayi, Sykes. 



93 1 . — Butorides javanica, Horsf. 

 932. — Ardetta flavicollis, Lath. 

 933. — Ardetta cinnamomea, Gm. 

 935. — Ardetta sinensis, Gm. 

 936. — Botaurus stellaris, Lin. 



brought in, now and 

 again, in ones and 

 twos. Sometimes for 



} months not a Heron 

 is brought, and then 

 again for a while one 

 or two come in every 

 day or nearly so. 



Except cinnamo- 

 mea, which breedsfree- 

 ly all about Calcutta, 

 and which is brought 

 in twenty times at 

 least every season, all 



}• the rest are rare ; 

 the Bittern, I have 

 only seen twice, and 

 the Black aud Yellow 

 Bitterns are not seen 

 above once or twice 

 in a season. 



* See however S. F., I., 105. 



