MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 273 



condition and feather, exhaustion may have been the cause of its falling 

 such an easy victim, 



I have not seen any similar birds down in this part before, nor does 

 Dewar mention the Sula among the birds of Madras. 



H. R. BAKER, Major. 

 Cannanore, 20i7« July 1911. 



[From the above description there appears to be no doubt that the bird is a 

 masked booby, Sulacyanops. An example was caught at the new Docks, Bomljay, 

 in August 1909.— Eds.] 



No. XXXVI.— THE OCCURRENCE OF CYGNUS BEWICKI AND 

 OTHER SWANS IN INDIA. 



During the cold weather of 1910-11, the exceptionally cold wave which 

 occurred in Northern India during the months of November, December and 

 January had the effect of sending us a large number of rare visitors 

 amongst which Swans have been prominent. 



No less than four of these — two beautiful skins and two heads — have been 

 sent me from our Society, together with other rare birds, that I might have 

 the pleasure of inspecting and noting on them. The most important and 

 interesting of the swans is a beautiful female, correctly identified as Cyr/nus 

 beioicJci by Major P. C. Elliott-Lockhart, who shot it on the 30th December 

 1910 near Maidan on the North- West Frontier. He records the length as 

 3 ft. 9 in. and the weight as 12 lbs. 



To these notes the following measurements should be added: — wing 20"0", 

 Bill, from top to cere along culmen 2-18'' and to edge of feathering S'ol", 

 along commissure to gape 8"32" ; tarsus 3'32". 



Attention should here be drawn to the fact that Salvadori's measurement 

 of the tarsus, 4"8", as given by me on p. 14 of Vol. XI of the Journal, is a 

 mistake for 3 "8". I do not think the tarsus of this little swan is ever much 

 over 4*0" if measured from joint to joint at the side. 



A second specimen of Cygnics hexoichi was obtained by Mr. Hornsby on the 

 2nd January ; this is a magnificent male, and has a bill which upsets all 

 previous theories as comparative measurements between this and other 

 species of Swans, 



The dates given on the ticket are ''Tubi, Campbellpur." Measurements 

 after skinning, expanse wing 77^", length wing 21", length 69". 



The bill of this bird measures no less than 4' 2" from tip to edge of 

 feathering, a full 3" longer than I have seen in any other spicimen of 

 beioicki, but the colouring is very typical of that species. The lores 

 and immediately adjacent parts seem to have been bright yellow when fresh, 

 deepening to an orange yellow where this colour meets the black. This 

 35 



