684 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL RIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



the bottom. The usual depth of the hole, however, seldom exceeds 12"-18", 

 Hume says that they are onlj^ a few inches in depth. 

 ■' Carlton Grove,'' P. T. L. DODSWORTH, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



Simla, l&th November 1911, 



No. XXXI.— MARBLED DUCK AT BARODA. 



A bag of 78 duck made near Baroda on the 19th November included 

 three specimens of the Marbled Duck {Marmaronetta awjustiro&tris) which 

 I had not previously met with. I shot two of these and a gadwall out of 

 a small pack of four duck flying past. The remainder of the bag consisted 

 mostly of pochards and gadwalls. These duck were much more grey in 

 colour than those figured by Mr, Stuart Baker. 



R. G. BURTON, Lt.-Oolonbl, 



Baroda Camp, '■2^tli Novemher 1911. 94th Russell's Infantry. 



No. XXXII.— the sooty TERN {STERNA FULIGINOSA) 

 IN CACHAR. 

 The Sooty Tern is one of these essentially sea-birds which generally 

 haunts ocean islands and is but rarely found even on the coast of an Indian 

 continent ; its appearance, therefore, so far inland as Cachar, 170 miles in a 

 bee line from the nearest sea, is most remarkable. This specimen in 

 question was shot by one of my collectors, Mahomed Ismail Mia, on the 

 Silcoorie bhil on the 3rd of June this year, 1911, whilst he was engaged in 

 shooting for me a pair of baya-birds. He was watching the baya-birds at 

 their nests and waiting until he could select a specimen in perfect plumage, 

 such as I required, and noticed this tern fly past. It struck him as some- 

 thing new to him and on its again flying past he shot it and sent it home 

 to me. Ismail is a thoroughly reliable man who has worked for me for over 

 twenty years and worked for Hume before then, moreover, he has not been 

 out of Cachar and Sylliet this year so could hardly have got it anywhere 

 else. The specimen obtained was quite a young bird in complete " sooty " 

 plumage except for a few white feathers from the breast which shewed up 

 over the shoulders of the wing. It was probably driven inland during the 

 heavy gales of May and then instead of returning to the sea-coast worked 

 its way up some of the big rivers into the Surma Valley. 



E. 0. STUART BAKER, f.z.s., f.l.s. 

 Broadstairs, l>^t Novemher 1911. 



No. XXXIII.— NOTES ON THE SOUTHERN MIGRATION 

 OF SNIPE NEAR CALCUTTA, 1911. 

 This year the first Snipe were shot near Calcutta during the last week 

 of August ; they had in all probability come in with the moon which was 



