336 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



very commonest species, but nobody ever found it truly wild anywhere except on 

 a sea-coast. There are many species exactly like this, one of the best known 

 being Dalbergia monosperma, which is absolutely limited to the coast, and 

 will not even grow elsewhere. I know it is given in Mr. Birdwood's list of 

 Mahableshwar plants, but this is, of course, a slip, though I wonder what 

 the species is that has been mistaken for Dalbergia monosperma. "What 

 Mr. Woodrow says of Scoparia dulcis is also most interesting, but it is very 

 much otherwise on this side of India, for the species has spread throughout 

 both the Shan Hills and the Kachin Hills, and yet, from the fact that Roxburgh 

 omits it, we may safely conclude it was not in Bengal a hundred years ago, 

 although it is one of the commonest and one of the most intractable of our 

 weeds now. 



D. PEAIN, Sukg.-Capt. 

 Calcutta, August, 1897. 



No. XXIII.— THE BLUE EOCK THEUSH (PETROPHILA SOLITARIA). 



Mr. H. Littledale, in the last number of this Journal, speaks of a Blue 

 Eock Thrush (P. cyanea ? ) tackling a lizard, but he seems to think that 

 the bird only did so through mistaking the lizard's tail for a worm. 

 Probably, however, the thrush knew perfectly well what he was about, 

 for all his kind are most omnivorous feeders, and lizards are not at all out-of- 

 the-way articles of diet for them. I once collected a great number of the 

 birds of this genus with a view to obtaining connecting links between cyanea 

 and solitaria, and amongst these birds I shot one which had swallowed a 

 lizard so long that at least the final three inches of the tail was still projecting 

 from its mouth although the head was firmly fixed in the gizzard and was 

 rapidly undergoing digestion. I suppose in a short time the whole of the 

 lizard would have been taken in and used, as the bird did not seem at all 

 inconvenienced by its strange meal. The bird looked very queer hopping 

 about with a huge tongue-like affair hanging from its mouth, and a gentleman, 

 Mr. H. Pearson, who was with me, and I also, made the most wild speculations 

 as to what it was until we had shot it. 



I have found grain in their stomachs sometimes and also a small fruit 

 or two, but their main diet had always been animal, and I think small snails, 

 slugs and worms were the favourite articles. 



E. C. STUAET BAKEE. 

 Haflong, Cachak, 12th July, 1897. 



No. XXIV.— THE MIGEATION OF BUTTEEFLIES. 



Will you kindly give me space to invite the attention of members of the 



Society to a subject which has received less attention than it deserves — I mean 



the migrations of butterflies. Euplcea core is not ordinarily a migratory 



insect. It remains with us all the year, and may be found in the larva state at 



