MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 519 



(Myristicivora bicolor) and Sheldrake {Tadorna cornuta). The pigeon was 

 obtained at St. Andrew's Bay, Sandoway, on February 12th, and the duck 

 at Nyangye, Kyankjn District on 31st January of this year. 



The occurrence of these birds in Arracan is of great interest and as 

 Mr. Hopwood writes " neither of these birds have been recorded from 

 Arracan before." Within our boundaries the Pied Imperial Pigeon has 

 a very limited distribution being only a seasonal visitant to the Andamans, 

 but a resident in the Nicobars and according to Blyth, it is found in the 

 Mergui Archipelago. Outside the Indian Empire, it is found in Siam, 

 Cochin China, and some of the Indo-Malayan Islands. 



There is no mention in Indian Diccks and their Allies of the Sheldrake 

 occurring in Burma and in Bengal it is only of rare occurrence. Major 

 Harrington has kindly informed us that a Sheldrake was shot by Mr. A. J. 

 Jardine " at Meiktilla about 1887, and that it was identified on the spot 

 by Colonel Adamson (late of the Burma Commission) and afterwards by 

 the Bombay Natural History Society." We have been unable to find any 

 reference to the skin either being sent for identification or presented to 

 the Society. 



N. B. KINNEAR. 

 6, Apollo Street, Bombay, July 1910. 



No. XIV.— A BREEDING GROUND OF THE IBIS-BILL 

 {IBIDORYNCHUS STRUT HERSI). 



In the last week of April this year I was marching up the Bhaghirathi 

 Valley and found that Ibidorynchus was fairly numerous at between eight 

 and nine thousand feet. From Jalla to Harsil (where I first took these 

 eggs in 1906) and up to and beyond Derali the river runs in several 

 branches and with no great fall, through a wide valley and among large 

 shinglebeds, and on these the Ibidorynchus breeds. 



They are specially fond of nesting on the little islands, which are numer- 

 ous and sometimes rather hard to get at ; the nest is always placed right in 

 the open ; I never saw one under the shelter of a stone or stranded log as 

 mentioned in the Birds of India, a common site is near the edge of a shingle- 

 bank. The nest is easily found by keeping a sharp look-out ahead, and the 

 bird will be seen running stealthily away ; if the nest is not then immedi- 

 ately discovered the bird will return to it in a short time. I found fourteen 

 nests in a few days, the eggs were mostly well incubated although I was 

 a fortnight earlier than in 1906. In four nests, I found incubated clutches 

 of three eggs, so it seems they sometimes lay three only. The nests have 

 already been described, all I saw were made as before of little smooth 

 black stones. 



It is curious the egss of this bird should have remained unknown so long-. 



