MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. ' 357 



Reliable information can only be obtained from the personal experience of 

 the individual and the whole story put together by the collation of these 

 individual experiences. 



Personal experiences bearing on the following heads will therefore be 

 acceptable : — 



(1) Period of 'heat " — the dates when the female is observed to be on 



heat. 



(2) Dates of birth of young. 



(3) Number of young at birth (or number of embryos carried.) 



(4) Number of young reared. 



(6) Duration of the period of lactation. 



(6) The association of male with female, pairing season and duration, 

 till birth of young or later. 

 It seems highly improbable that the date of coition aiid birth of young 

 wiU be known for any particular individual in a state of nature. The 

 period of gestation therefore vail be obtained only from a comparison (1) 

 and (2). The nature of the oestrous cycle too, whether monoestrous or 

 polyoestrous, will only be determined by the seasonal length of (1). 



It is known that in many cases climatic and environment changes appre- 

 ciably modify the breeding season and it is therefore quite possible that the 

 seasons may vary in difi'erent localities. A note of the locality is therefore 

 desirable. 



Nawabganj, Cawnpore, H. M. LEAKE, 



13th October 1915. (Economic Botanist to Govt. W. P.). 



No. VIII.— OCCURRENCE OF CHELIDORHYNX HYPOXANTHUM, 



THE YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER, NEAR 



AM BALA, PUNJAB. 



On January the 30th I shot a specimen of the above species within 3 

 miles of Ambala Cantonments. It was hawking insects from a mulberry 

 tree in.a; mango tope. Its actions much resembled those of liemichelidon 

 sibirica for which I mistook it till I had it in my hand. 



A. E. JONES. 

 Simla, September 1915. 



No. IX.— DISTRIBUTION OF EMBERIZA LEUCOCEPHALA, 

 THE PINE-BUNTING. 



The distribution of this bird is given in the " Fauna ", Birds, Volume II, 

 page 265,, as: — " A winter visitor to Gilgit, Kashmir and the Himalayas 

 down to Garhwal. At this season the Pine-Bunting is also found in 

 Afghanistan and Europe, but in summer it is confined to Northern Asia ". 

 In the Journal B. N. H. S., Volume XXIII, page 153, Mr. Hugh Whistler 

 records this species being obtained in the Jhelum district. On 12th 

 February 1911 I obtained two specimens of this bird, both males, one adult 

 and one immature, from a small flock feeding on rice stubble at Lahore. 

 Again during the early months of 1914 and 1915 I often came across these 

 birds near Ambala. From the above it would appear to be a common, 

 though local, winter migrant to the plains of the Punjab. 



A E. JONES, 



Simla, September 1915. 



