26S JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL BLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



No. XXIX.— NESTING OF THE OSPREY OR SEA-HAWK. 



Some three years ago I found a nest of these birds on Round Island, a 

 lonely rock about 100 feet high on the seaward side of Aden. I have 

 however not been able to make out when the rearing of the young takes 

 place. The weather is too rough to permit of the landing on the rock 

 throughout the year, so I suppose that like the vultures that breed on the 

 cliffs here, the young were reared in the monsoon months. This year 

 however a new nest has been built in the month of December at 

 least, that is when I first saw it. I enclose a photo* of the rock and the 

 two nests which are both on the top ridge and built of sticks brought from 

 the Shumshvim valley just opposite. I have never seen more than one 

 pair of birds at this place, so conclude they are the same ; there are several 

 pairs fishing in and around the harbour and they are so tame that they 

 wi]l allow you to approach quite close in a boat. From observations made 

 with glasses in this way and from fish picked vqy under the nest I note 

 that when the osprey has taken a fish he places it longitudinally between 

 his feet on arrival at his perch and commences at the head. 



He will often throw the fish away after eating the head only, the small 

 ribbon fish is one he often catches and to judge from what we have picked 

 up under the nest throws it aAvay after eating the head. I admire the 

 discrimination shown as the ribbon fish is a mass of bones and altogether 

 impossible. 



S. E. PRALL, Lt.-Col., i.m.s. 

 Aden, August 1911. 

 * [The photo was too small for satisfactory reproduction. — Eds.] 



No. XXX.— EUROPEAN GREAT BUSTARD IN CHITRAL. 



On April 10th Captain R. A Lyall forwarded us a skin of a Great Bustard, 

 Otis tarda which had been shot by Lieut. Stirling on 30th March. In a letter 

 accompanying the skin Capt. Lyall remarks "I found that the Chitralis had 

 got a name for the bird (dio dagh) though it was said to be very rare.'' The 

 skin is that of an immature female with the pectoral band only showing 

 slightly at the sides and not so distinct in Captain Simond's specimen. 



N. B. KINNEAR. 

 Bombay, April 1911. 



No. XXXI.— WOODCOCK IN KULU. 



In Mr. Stuart Baker's article on the Woodcock, Scoloi)ax rusticula in 

 Vol. XX he states on page 15, four lines from the bottom, that : " the largest 



