5% JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XIV. 



were four people sleeping outside this house, but that noue of them heard' 

 the slig:htest sound. I made arrangements for sitting up that night {i.e., the 

 night after the kill took place). The animal put in his first appearance about 

 9 p.m., again at 11 p.m., and for the last time at one o'clock. During each of 

 these visits I thought it advisable not to shoot as I could see nothing of the 

 animal owing to darkness, although I could distinctly hear him at the 

 body. 



On April the 21st I again heard of a kill (Somnapur village). This time 

 the beast had actually gone into a house and dragged away the body to one 

 side of a village only 100 feet from one of the houses and on an open plain. 

 There were two children asleep in the house where the body was taken 

 from but they were not disturbed. 



In order not to be disappointed a second time owing to darkness, I thought 

 it best to try a hurricane lamp which I fastened to a pole about 5 feet off the 

 ground and about 20 feet off the body and I took the precaution to cover up 

 part of the globe of the lamp with a dark cloth so as to allow a dark side for 

 the animal to approach from. At 11 p,m. 1 noticed the animal having a quiet 

 search round and as soon as he got down to the body I fired. The photograph- 

 reproduced shows exactly how I found the bodies, as I left a tcan all night tO' 

 see that nobody should remove them until 1 came the following morning to 

 take the picture. I might remark that the body was only mauled at the- 

 chest, neck and head, and that from these parts a good deal of flesh had been 

 devoured. 



The Government reward for the animal was Rs. 50, 



W. A. CONDUITT. 



Seoni District, 2lst Novemher 1901. 



No. VIII.— NOTES ON BIRDS NESTING IN THE SOUTHERN SHAN 

 STATES OF BURMA. 



(10.) Pica uustica — The Magpie. 

 This Ma^ie is common in the valleys East of Taunggyi, keeping to the 

 open cultivated land round villages and bazaars. On the 21st March, while on 

 the way to Fang Long (4,000 feet) we saw a nest in a low tree by the side of 

 the road. My companion at once got off his pony and started up the tree, fronj 

 his language it appeared that the Magpies were not such fools as they had 

 seemed as the tree trunk was covered with huge thorns. My friend, however,, 

 at length managed to get up, and brought down six eggs which were slightly 

 incubated. The sight of the eggs awakened my old love of nesting and have 

 the honour of being No. 1 in my present collection. The nests here seem 

 much larger than those at home, probably owing to their being undisturbed 

 and so enlarged from year to year, otherwise exactly the same. The eggs alsc 

 seem iiirger in size 1"4" to 1*47" by 1-05". Greenish-white, marked sparingly 

 ■with sepia, and in fact more like the English Jackdaws. 



