464 



and WxnL 



By W. Edwin Brooks. 



Having obtained two months' leave, with the intention of 

 spending it with my late friend Major Cock at Shillono-, his 

 untimely death caused me to alter my plans and go to Darjeel- 

 ing instead. 



My principal object was to get a good series of my new 

 Reguloides mandellii, and to note carefully its voice and habits. 

 In this I was disappointed, for I only got one example, and 

 this a rather faded one, near Punkabaree, and I don't remember 

 hearing its note. Major Cock assured me that it is found at 

 Shillong at all times, and the three first specimens obtained of 

 the species were Shillong birds. They were procured by Mr. 

 Cockburn, then in Mr. Hume's service as a collector. 



For collecting small birds, it is very necessary to have a 

 small gun. The one I use is a double-barrelled 24 bore, and 

 the barrels are 2 feet 3 inches long. They were longer, but 

 shooting badly, I cut them down 3 inches, and now the shoot- 

 ing is every thing that could be wished. 



Hard wadding should not be used for little birds, but a little 

 ball of soft paper or ordinary newspaper, worked till its stiff- 

 ness is gone. I load with half a dram of powder, then the 

 paper wadding, and on this the same bulk of dust shot as pow- 

 der, and more paper wadding to keep it in. This charge does 

 for all ordinary small bird shooting ; but if I am shooting 

 where the trees are very high, I increase the charge up to f or 

 even one dram, and shot in the same proportion. 



I very rarely damage a bird so much that it won't make a 

 fair specimen. Using an ordinary Fowling Piece, small birds 

 are, as a rule, smashed or missed. 



The Darjeeling hill shikaries have an ingenious device for 

 calling small birds within shot. They use a small bit of bam- 

 boo pipe, with which a whistle is made resembling the call-note 

 of a small owl. I used this whistle, and sometimes I was 

 surrounded by so many inquisitive little birds of all sorts that I 

 hardly knew what to fire at first. The two birds that evidently 

 have the greatest antipathy to the owls' call are Reguloides 

 maculipennis and Ixulus flavicollis. The hillmen also imitate 

 the cry of distress a small bird makes when seized. This cry 

 invariably brought number of others to the assistance of the 

 supposed bird in distress, and on one occasion it brought a fine 



