218 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



No. VIII.— BIRDS FEEDING THEIR YOUNG. 



On page 227-228 of his valuable book Birds of the Plains Mr. Dewar dis- 

 cusses the possibility of birds storing water in their crops and subsequently 

 bringing it up in order to feed their young. I have a small female Blue- 

 winged Paroquet (Palaeornis columboides) , which is now about one year old. 

 I have been observing her for the last three weeks and several times have 

 noticed that she brings up her food, chews the same and again swallows it. 

 She especially does this when slightly annoyed. She runs about loose (her wings 

 being cut) and invariably tries to bite anyone who passes her. I have taken 

 great care to see that she has nothing in her mouth. On placing my finger 

 near her, she tries to bite, but owing to the finger nail can do no damage. On 

 these occasions, it is quite easy to see that she has nothing in her mouth. She 

 then makes a beckoning motion with her head and brings up a light yellow 

 substance, very much like a chewed piece of plantain. 



G. S. P. PERCIVAL, A. S. P. 



Meecaea, COOEG, 1th January 1910. 



No. IX.— NIDIFICATION OF THE SARUS CRANE. 

 In Vol. XIX, No. 2 (p. 524) of the Journal, Captain O'Brien mentions finding 

 a newly hatched sarus chick on the 12th February, remarking that he thought 

 saius ( Grus antigone ) laid during the monsoon. Is that the case ? I certainly 

 was of the same belief ; but in 1903 I found a sarus sitting on a half-set egg, 

 on strangely enough the same date as Captain O'Brien mentions, the 12th 

 February. This was also in the Mahi Kantha Agency (Mahisa District). 



Camp Malwasae, A. H. MOSSE, Captain, I. A. 



Okhamandal, 

 Kathiawae, 12*7$ January 1910. 



No. X — THE FOOD OF THE RUFOUS-BACKED SHRIKE 

 (LANIUS ERYTHRONOTUS). 



Returning one day from shooting in the Bannu District and while driving 

 along the Bannu Dera Ismail Khan Road, which runs through a marshy 

 locality, I observed flying up from a stream by the roadside a Rufous- 

 backed Shrike (Lanius erythronolus) with a small fish (Chilwa) about 2 inches 

 long in its beak. Whether the fish was taken alive from the stream I cannot 

 say ; but it is probable that it had been so captured by the Shrike in shallow 

 water. It was conveyed by the bird to the telegraph wires near by and there 

 broken up and devoured. 



I have never previously heard of a Shrike catching fish and would be glad to 

 know if any of our members have ever noticed this abnormal habit in any of 

 the Shrikes ? 



London, 11th December 1909. H. A. F. MAGRATH, Majoe. 



