MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



163 



No.. XIII— SMALL GAME IN THE KHARAGEORA DISTRICT. 



I do not know if any of the members of the Bombay Natural History 

 Society send in returns of their season's shooting, but in case it may be of 

 interest I write to send you a memo, of what I have shot, to my own gun, 

 during the shooting season now closing. I think it would be interesting if 

 members from different parts of the country kept records of their shooting 

 and sent them to you. My shooting has extended over six months, October, 

 1896 to March, 1897, and with the exception of 55f couple of quail shot at 

 Deesa in the beginning of October, it has all been obtained just round 

 Kharaghora. 



I find I have been out on 55 occasions, and of these I was shooting with 

 others on 16 occasions, but what they shot is not shown. 



Kharaghora, 23rci March, 1897. H. BULKLEY. 



[We quite agree with Mr. Bulkley that such lists are of interest, and hope next season 

 other members will keep records of their " bags " and publish them in this Journal. The 

 value of such lists depends, however, principally on the careful identification of the species. — 

 Ed.] 



No. XIV.— ON THE OCCURRENCE OF ASIO ACC1PITRINUS, 

 PALLAS, IN CEYLON. 



In some previous notes (Vol. X, page 284), I mentioned that a single speci- 

 men of Asio accipitrinus had been killed at Jaffna in November, 1891. I 

 find I was misinformed as to the date, which should have read November 

 1893. As this is, I believe, the only recorded occurrence of the species in 

 Ceylon until this year, a note on six specimens obtained in the island durino- 

 the last monsoon may be of interest. 



In November last a native taxidermist came upon seven short-eared owls 

 in a morning at Jaffna, and succeeded in shooting five of them. Two of these 

 birds were sold to the Colombo Museum ; the other three are now in my 

 possession. On the 22nd of February last a sister specimen was killed by 

 Mr. T. Farr on the Horton Plains, at an elevation of 7,000 feet. This bird 

 was flushed from a stunted rhododendron bush, and, once disturbed, it was 

 too wary to allow of a second approach. The next day it rose from another 

 bush at nearly the same spot, and Mr. Farr shot it. In both bushes the bird 

 had made a seat like a hare's form ; in each of these were one or two pellets 

 of the fur of a field mouse. 



I have seen a specimen of this owl, which, though not actually killed in the 

 island, was captured on a steamer within a few hours' sail of Colombo in 

 1881. 



Ceylon, March, 1897. A. L. BUTLER. 



