MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 221 



I remember to have seen a larder some years ago in a small babul bush, but 

 I have forgotten the details, but I remember the owner was not visible. 



J. R. J. TYRRELL, Capt.,I.M.S. 



SlRDARPORE, BHOPAWAR AGENCY, C. I., 



16th April 1910. 



No. XXII. -OCCURRENCE OF THE LESSER FLORICAN OR 

 LIKH {SYPHEOTlb AUR1TA) OUT OF SEASON. 



On two occasions last week while motoring near here I flushed a Lessei 

 Florican from off the side of the road. On both occasions the bird got up 

 about the same place, so it may have been the same bird. 



On the 13th instant while out riding in quite the opposite direction I again 

 put up a florican. They all looked like females but may have been males in 

 winter plumage. A good many florican come here during the rains, but I 

 have not heard of them being seen so late as April. There is a good deal of 

 long grass all about and water in several nallas. 



J. R. J. TYRRELL, Caet., I.M.S. 



SlRDARPORE, BHOPAWAR AGENCY, C. I. 



15^ April 1910. 



No. XXIII— SHRIKES' LARDERS. 



Shrikes' larders in India, concerning which there would appear to be some 

 scepticism, I for one can vouch for. Incidentally in my wanderings I have 

 come across at least three of the Rufous-backed Shrike (Lanius erythronotus). 

 One such was in the Vale of Kashmir, the meat being a fat black cricket 

 impaled on a thorn within 10 yards of a nest of this Shrike. 



Two others were in Bannu, the meat in one case being either a wasp or a 

 cricket (I cannot now quite recollect which) impaled in a rose bush. In the 

 other a small piece of what looked like dirty butchers' meat impaled ob 

 one of the sharp pointed leaves of a small date palm just outside the walls 

 of the City. The Shrikes were seen flying up from the bushes in the case 

 of the last two. In addition I have a note dated January 10th of a larder 

 of The Grey Shrike (L. lahtora) which I discovered in a thorn bush in a 

 desert track in Bannu. It was stocked with a large locust and a species of 

 striped moth. 



These larders were situated in dense and prickly bushes and were quite 

 safe from crows. I have no observation to show that the contents of any 

 suffered especially from ants or other insects or what subsequently became 

 of them. 



While on this subject I may mention that last hot weather in my garden 

 in Bannu a Rufous-backed Shrike rifled a nest full of young Purple Sunbirds 

 (Arecnecthra asiatica). As the Shrike could hardly have devoured all the young 



