108 Cont/)-ihitions to the Ornitliology of India, Sfc. 



It flitted and twisted about in the grass just like a Prinia, or 

 B. gracilis. It clearly belongs I think to the Drymoicinm, and is 

 not one of the Timalinm, in which Jerdon has placed it. Chatarrhaa 

 caudata was common in this very grasS;, running- rat-like with 

 tail straight behind it along the ground^ and nothing could be 

 more different than the action of the two birds. Sylvias of the 

 currioca type were very abundant in the babool and tamarisk 

 bushes, of two distinct sizes. I killed a female of each. Their 

 dimensions were — 



Of the smaller^, length 5*32, of the larger, 5*6 

 Expanse 7-3, ' 8-3 



Tail a- a-3 



Foot length 0-95, 1-3 



Breadth 07, 0-9 



Wing 2-3, 2-6 



Weight 0-3 oz., 0-5 oz. 



I examined carefully both birds, and they seemed to be unques- 

 tionably both young females, but the ovaries even under a 

 m^icroscope were mere colourless membranes. 



Burnesia gracilis was, as usual, very common. I saw a pair of 

 Leucocirca aureola. I shot one which strikes me as differing 

 slightly in some respects from our North-West specimens. I shot 

 also a Collyrio of the caniceps type, very conspicuously different 

 from the true erythronotiis ; out of a flock of pipits passing 

 I dropped one that proved to be AntJius spinoletta, Linn. (A. 

 aipiaticus , Bechs-y* a species that I have already introduced into 

 our Indian Avifauna. 



A party of the professional fishermen of these parts (Mhors by 

 caste or tribe, I can^t say which) passed me with a tame otter. I 

 fancied it was trained to fishing, and stopped them and had 

 them questioned. They told me the most extraordinary story 

 which I put on record quantum valeat. It appears (so they 

 affirm, but I utterly disbelieve it,) that otters are the favourite 

 tit-bit of the river porpoises (delphinus gangetictis) which 

 literally swarm here. A pole is stuck in the water where 

 this is from 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet deep, and to this pole 

 the otter, when quite tame, is tethered by a cord some 20 feet 

 long. Light, very obtuse-angled, conical, stick frames, about 7 feet 

 in diameter at the base and some 4 feet high, are used in many 

 parts of India lined with a strong net, for catching fish in 

 shallows, by dashing down the frame-work over them as they pass 

 upwards against stream. Three or four men armed with machines 

 of this nature, but stouter than I have elsewhere seen, stand near 

 the otter, and when a porpoise makes a dash at the little beast, 

 one of the men plunges the cone down on the assailant. Like 



