228 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I.— PEARLS IN THE THANA CREEK (W. INDIA). 



I see that Mr. Comber refers in his paper on " The Economic Uses of Shells," 

 printed in a recent number of the Society's Journal (No. 3, Vol. XVI.), to the 

 existence of pearls in the Thana Creek. When I was Assistant Collector in 

 charge of Salsette Taluka in 1903, the right to collect oyster shells at the mouth 

 of the creek near the village of Trombhe or Trombay was still a subject of 

 considerable competition. So far as I recollect, the price realized was three or 

 four times the amounts quoted by Mr. Comber. Presumably then either the 

 pearl oysters are now more plentiful in the creek or the value of the small 

 pearls has increased. The heaps of oyster shells lying about in all the villages 

 in the strip of country running down the Thana Creek between it and the range 

 of hills to the east are quite a noticeable feature. 



E. L. SALE, I.C.S. 



Larkana, Sind, 1st October 1905. 



No. II— NESTING OF THE MALAYAN BANDED CRAKE 

 (RaLLINA F ASCI AT A). 

 On the 29th June I found a nest of the Malayan Banded Crake with 5 eggs, a 

 note on which may be of interest, as the eggs were unspotted, and in this respect 

 unlike the remainder of the family except R. superciliaris. The eggs were 

 white, rather glossy, nest-stained, although only very slightly incubated, and 

 measure on the average 1'18" x '94". The nest was a pad of dead bamboo 

 leaves with a few dry twigs placed on the ground under the thin cover of a small 

 bush. I had many attempts to secure the old bird — one including three drives, one 

 cast with a fishing net in the day time, twice shot at (once on the nest) and the 

 setting of noozes ; in spite of all these failures, I was lucky enough to get the old 

 male caught on the nest at night with a cast net ; probably the bird I missed on 

 the nest was the female. The power of the old bird in concealing itself was 

 extraordinary j it seldom, as far as I know, ever ran more than 10 yards from 

 the nest when disturbed ; the undergrowth was not thick, and although once or 

 twice I had 6 or 8 men hunting for it, we could never find it ; it ran away very 

 fast and seemed to disappear into the earth ; probably squatting half hidden in 

 leaves, etc. ; it took wing only once, the first time I fired at it, and then it was 

 some way from the nest and had not been actually driven from it. The locality 

 is roughly longitude 21 0# 35' north, latitude 94 0- 22' east, and the nest was in 

 a small patch of bamboo tree jungle, rather dark, not very thick undergrowth, 

 in the bend of a stream which dries up in the hot weather, leaving perhaps a 

 pool or two, but was at this time a flowing stream. The nest was within 15' of 

 the edge of the water, and was probably only just above high flood level. The 

 surrounding country is hilly and the place is a small valley at the junction of 

 3 streams, where a few Burmans have squatted and cultivate a few acres of 

 paddy land when possible ; the particular patch of jungle was torderirg the 



