MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 317 



paradisi), Golden Oriole {Oriolus hundoo), King Crow (Dicrurus ater), White- 

 browed Fantail {Rhipidura albifrontd), Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis), 

 Dusky Crag Martin {Ptyonoprogne concolor), Brown-backed Indian Robin 

 ( Thamnolia cambaiensis ), the three Mynahs, Small Minivet [Pericrocotus 

 peregrinus), White-eyed Tit ( Zosterops palpebrosa ), Pied-crested Cuckoo 

 ( Coccystes jacobinus), Bay-backed shrike (Lannis vittatus), Pond Heron 

 (Ardeola grayi), and Cattle Egret (Bubulcus coromandus). I have obtained 

 the eggs of all the above. I have found the nest of the Red-rumped 

 Swallow {Hirundo crythropygia), but it contained young : also those of the 

 Wire-tailed Swallow ( Hirundo smithii), Large Cuckoo Shrike (Graucalus 

 macei), and Black-headed Cuckoo Shrike {Campophaga syJcesi), whose eggs 

 I hope to get later. 



This, I think, is rather a record— the nests of the Paradise Fly-catcher, 

 Golden Oriole, King Crow, White-browed Fantail and Madras Bulbul, all on 

 one babul tree in the Public Gardens ! 



R. M. BETH AM, Captain, 



8th Bombay Infantry. 



Camp Baroda, 11th July, 1897. 



No. IX.— PEARL FISHING IN THE BASSEIN DISTRICT 

 (BURMA). 



Extracts from a Reporc by Capt. F. D. Maxwell, Deputy Commissioner, 

 Bassein, to the Commissioner of the Irrawaddy Division, dated 

 1st February 1897. 



I have the honour to supply the following information concerning the 

 pearl fisheries of this district — information which I have gleaned from men 

 who have known these parts for many years and who have collected oysters 

 for eating for a long time. 



As regards the habits of the mussel, it lives on mud, sand, or on rocks. 

 Beds appear and disappear either during or at the end of the rains — some say 

 the former, some the latter. The more general opinion seems to be that they 

 appear about November, when the water is getting salt. In the paper marked 

 A I send some shells of the Placuna taken out of the river about five miles 

 above its mouth on the 2nd January. The man who shewed me this bed 

 informed me that the bed appeared last November. I pressed him as to 

 whether the bed had not really appeared in the rains, but that it was in 

 November he knew of it for the first time. He would not allow, however 

 that the bed had appeared before November, and said that he was daily over 

 the place during the monsoon and saw no signs of any oysters. 



As to the appearance, disappearance, and breeding of the oyster, none of 

 the Burmans whom I examined could give me any information on the 

 subject. An answer to the question is, however, to be found in Theobald 



