MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 807 



The villagers look on these birds as semi-sacred and will not allow any one 

 to disturb or molest them, so they return to build there year after year, and 

 have done so for years past. 



C. E. RHENIUS. 



Toticokin, 10th July 1906. 



No. II— FOOD OF PREDACEOUS FLIES. 



I was under the impression that the fact that the Asili kill other insects 

 — in much the same way as Falcons kill other birds — was well known, but as 

 there appears to be some doubt on this subject I give below some instances of 

 their predatory habits. 



Many years ago, when in Kanara, I noticed an inch-long yellow A silus 

 frequenting the denser forest tracts in open situations. One day I saw one of 

 them fly from the top of a dead stalk of grass at a three- inch long dragon-fly 

 and collide with it. The result was, much to my surprise, the immediate col- 

 lapse of the latter which fell to the ground at my feet. The A silus flew back 

 to its perch, whether owing to my presence I know not. The dragon-fly was 

 just kicking when I picked it up and expired nearly at once. 



Another time I captured one of this same species of fly immediately after 

 it had caught a large Cicada, many times heavier than itself ; and it had its 

 proboscis buried in the prey. I have still got the pair in my collections in 

 Karwar. 



I have often seen the smaller Asili hawk butterflies and occasionally 

 diptera and suck them dry. A fact worth noting is that they will, with per- 

 fect equanimity, hawk their own species ; and it is a matter of frequent occur- 

 rence to see a female sucking a male. One has only to watch these flies re- 

 gularly and the most sceptical person will soon be convinced of their preda- 

 ceous and cannibal habits. 



I have many species, perhaps eight or twelve, in my collections and all of 

 them were caught in the act of hawking or sucking other insects. My species 

 vary from an inch-aud-a-half (the big yellow one first mentioned above) to 

 delicate little green-eyed specimens of four or five millimetres in length caught 

 in the desert places of Sind. 



T. R. BELL, i.f.s. 



Belgaum, 27th July 1906. 



No. Ill— SNAKE-BITE INFLICTED BY MELANELAPS MCPEERSONI. 



I have just received another specimen of Melanelaps mcphersoni, the poison- 

 ous snake I described as new, last year. This specimen, like the first one, was 

 procured in Dthalla,Aden Hinterland, and I am indebted to Lieut. A. C. In- 

 gram, I.M.S., for it. It is of about the same size as the first specimen, and agrees 

 with it very closely. I note the following differences however. The 4th 

 supralabial only touches the eye. The anterior sublinguals touch 4 infrala- 

 bials. The ventrals are 239, and the subcaudals 31 . The scales, 2 heads-lengths 



