884 NOTES ON A VISIT TO THE LUCKNOW MUSEUM. 



which is evidently profitable, for one patch of snch jungle as 

 they frequent; (another may be miles away,) is leased for this 

 purpose for Rupees 20 and upwards. 



Jerdon, I find in " The Birds of India/' says the Alexan- 

 drine Paroquet breeds elsewhei'e during the winter, in the 

 months of December and January, and if this information is 

 correct, as I presume* it is, it is noteworthy that they should 

 breed in the Sundurbuu in the summer. 



H. James Rainey. 



ilotcs on a bisit to tjie f itcluiofo Htuscnm. 



By Andrew Anderson, F. Z. S. 



I wish to avail myself of the pages of Stray Feathers fjr 

 the purpose of offering a few remarks on some of the birds in 

 the Lucknow Museum, which, through the courtesy of Dr. 

 Bonavia, 1 have recently had an opportunity of closely 

 examining. 



My visit, however, having been of short duration, I shall 

 confine myself for the present to a notice of the rarer birds of 

 prey, a group which claimed my first attention, and one to which 

 I am rather partial. 



18.— Erythropus pekinensis, Swlnlwe. 



The Indian Lesser Kestrel (recently separated by Swinhoe 

 from E. cenchris, Naum, under which term it was erroneously 

 jidmitted into Jerdon's work) was represented by three remark- 

 ably well set-up specimens, viz., two adult males and one in 

 immature dress. The taxidermist informed me that these ex- 

 amples were captured alive in the neighbourhood of Lucknow, 

 bv a shikaree who is in the habit of supplying the museum 

 with birds ; and the soiled state of some of their wing-feathers 

 clearly indicates that they were taken with bird-lime. 



This pretty little Falcon is decidedly rare in Northern India. 

 Umballa and Delhi ai'e localities cited by Mr. Hume ( ' Scrap 

 Book,' Pt. 1, p. 105,) where it has been known to occur, and 

 Brooks ('J. A. S.' 1874, p. 239) records the capture of "a 

 mature male, a young male in changing plumage, and an adult 

 female,"" in April last, near Dinapore. I have now studied the 

 Raptorial birds of the North- Western Provinces generally for 

 some years past, and the present three examples are the only 

 instances known to me of its occurrence in this part of the 

 country. It is just possible, however, that the bird is not so 



* But see Mr. Field's note on this subject, ante, p. 329, and Nests and Eggs, Botigh 

 Draft, p. 115.— Ed. 



