MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 549 
stayed there otherwise than by their own choice, when Kashmir was within a 
couple of hours flight of them. 
It was noticeable that the first two Garganey obtained had the lower plumage 
heavily stained with rufous, I suppose from the red mud of the river, and 
in consequence appear to have been there for a considerable period: the pair 
ehot on the 19th July show no signs of such staining and the inference is that 
they were recent arrivals. The drake Garganey shot on 6th June 1921 still 
retained his drooping shoulder-plumes, while that shot on 19th July 1921 had 
shed them. 
All June birds had the secondaries much worn : in the case of the Shovellers 
they were reduced to the shaft only for the ultimate half of the feathers. I 
should have expected that the primaries would have shown more signs of wear 
than the secondaries. 
On three different days in July my shikari reported that there were Pintail on 
the river. He is usually quite accurate in such matters, and is little likely to 
have made a mistake with such a conspicuous bird. I could not discover any 
myself, but sent him down with my gun to try and obtain some specimens, and 
he reported having missed some on 20th July. Baptista (the Society’s Collector), 
who was with him, supports his statement. 
Our first heavy rain fell on the 15th of July, and the birds I saw after this date 
seemed to be quite a different lot to those which had been on the river before. 
They were about in flocks, the specimens I obtained were in much brighter 
plumage in spite of the very dirty water in the river, and there were many 
more birds about. This continued till the end of July when we had heavy 
and continuous rain. Immediately all the big duck vanished and their place 
was taken by several flocks of teal, who also disappeared a couple of days 
later ; this in spite of the fact that very heavy rain continued to fall and 
conditions seemed particularly favourable for their stay. 
It seemed to me that an entirely fresh set of birds passed through at the end of 
July, and were replaced by a fresh set of teal. If this is correct the question 
immediately arises, ‘‘ Where did they come from ?”’. 
Again why were there so many birds in the driest period of a bad drought, 
which all disappeared when the conditions became, apparently, more favourable ? 
It looks as if many more birds stop down in the plains voluntarily than is 
usually supposed, and that the drought drove them to collect where there was 
permanent water ; and that, the heavy rains having filled up their usual small 
ponds and tanks, they dispersed again. 
I put this explanation forward because I cannot think of a better one, 
Perhaps some other member of the Society will help me ont. 
C. H. STOCKLEY, 
Major, 66th Punjabis. 
CHAKLALA, PUNJAB, 
28th August 1921. 
No. XVII.—OCCURRENCE OF THE FLAMINGO (P. ROSEUS) IN THE 
CENTRAL PROVINCES. 
Not being able to find any record of the occurrence of the Common Flamingo 
{Phenicopterus roseus) in the Central Provinces, I write to report that on July 
24th last I observed a small flock of 7 of these birds resting on a mud flat in 
the Gorewara tank near Nagpur. The birds were in beautiful plumage and were 
