t624 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



and ending, I know not when, as I got fresh eggs in June before leaving. 

 Their nests are of the usual Shrike type compact, massive and well-built, all 

 sorts of material being used and the nest is Well finished and lined. It is usu- 

 ally placed in a low thorny bush in the open and not difficult to find. If one 

 sees a pair of birds, ten to one if breeding, you have only to search" ■^he few 

 bushes round about, when the nest will be found. 



PooNA, R. M. BETHAM, Major, 



July 2&th, 1902, 8th Bombay Infantry. 



No. XXIX.— WEEVILS IN MANGOES. 



I send a Weevil taken out of a Mango seed, which I obtained, together 

 with some interesting information about its habits, from Mr.Vinayak Laxuman 

 Bhave. He finds a very large percentage of the fruit of two trees in his 

 garden infested with this insect, while the rest are quite free. He brought me 

 fifteen mangoes, nearly ripe, which I cut open and found mature weevils in 

 three and a grub in one. They had consumed a portion of the cotyledons in 

 each seed, but they had not touched the shell of it, nor was there any mark 

 whatever outside of the seed to betray their presence. From this I infer that 

 the egg must be laid before, or very soon after, the fruit begins to form. Mr. 

 Yinayak says that the weevils do not emerge until the mango has been eaten 

 and the seed thrown away. It is difficult to account for their attacking 

 two trees and neglecting others which are in all respects the same, but Mr. 

 Yinayak tells me that these two trees come into fruit a little later than the 

 others, so it may be that, when the weevils are ready to lay their eggs, the 

 development of the fruit in all the other trees has advanced too far. 



In the first volume of " Indian Museum Notes," at page 45, there is an interest- 

 ino extract from a paper by Mr. W. J. Simmons on a Mango Weevil, which he 

 calls Cryptorhjnchus mangi/era, and which is very probably the same species, 

 though the writer speaks of it as an insect which was at that time spreading 

 westward and northward from the region of Dacca, to which it was formerly 

 restricted. Arguing from the extent lo which the people of India depend 

 upon the mango, especially in seasons of scarcity, he is apprehensive that the 

 depredations of this weevil may become a very serious matter ; but it 

 is difficult to follow his argument in view of the fact (stated by himself) that 

 the insect does the edible part of the fruit no harm. Of course it might 

 restrict the natural reproduction of mango trees to an appreciable extent by 

 destroying the seeds. 



E. H. AITKEN. 

 Idth August 1902. 



No. XXX.— BIRDS' NESTING IN KUMAON. 

 The following notes on some nests and eggs taken this season in Kumaon 

 maybe of interest as they are either not recorded, or doubtfully only, in 

 Hume's "Nests and Eggs" :and Gates' and Blanford's " Birds " (Fawm o/ 



