MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1155 



ounces and was shot in March. In reference to this statement, it may 

 perhaps be worth mentioning that in February 1901, I killed a Woodcock 

 outside Ootacamund that weighed exactly 16 ounces. I weighed it several 

 times to make sure, and finally sent to the local taxidermist, Mr. Van- 

 Ingen to have it set up, as it was certainly the finest bird I had ever seen. 



H. R. BAKER, Major, 

 Cannanore, 11th February 1911. 73rd Carnatic Infantry. 



No. XVI— OCCURRENCE OF THE GREAT SNIPE (GALLINAGO 

 MAJOR) NEAR BANGALORE. 



On the 28th October 1910, a specimen of Gallinayo major, the Great, a 

 Double Snipe was obtained by Capt. A. Boxwell, of the 119th Infantry, near 

 Bangalore, this being the second record of its appearance in India. This 

 specimen is that of a very young bird, probably of a late June hatching, and 

 is remarkable for the amount of colouring in the outer tail, feathers, 

 exceptional even for a bird of this age. It is, however, easily distinguishable 

 from the Fan-tail by its great size and from our other large snipe, solitaria 

 and nemoricola, by the shape of its tail feathers. From solitaria it also 

 differs in its much shorter wing and from nemoricola in the comparative 

 length of primaries and secondaries. From megala and stenura it can be 

 separated at once merely by a glance at its tail feathers, none of which are 

 attenuated. 



Capt. Boxwell writes concerning this specimen in a forwarding letter and 

 a subsequent note as follows : — 



" The bird weighed 7 ounces. It got up from a piece of loose mud on the 

 edge of a stream which divided some sugar-cane from a rice-field." 



" It made no noise as it got up except the flutter of its wings which I 

 thought was more noticeable than that made as a rule by a snipe, but I did 

 not realize that it was not an ordinary snipe till its size on the snipe stick 

 drew my attention." 



Dacca, E. C. STUART BAKER, p.l.s., 



30th December 1910. F.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



No. XVII.— MUTE SWAN (CYGNUS OLOR) ON THE MEKRAN 



COAST. 



At 6-30 a.m. on the 11th of February my cook Abdul Aziz informed me 

 that two geese had settled on the Kalingi-Ab, about half a mile from the 

 Telegraph Concession. I was too ill to go myself, so roused Mr. Griffiths, 

 of the Indo-European Telegraph Department, who occupies the same rooms. 

 He dressed and took his double barrelled gun with him. The ground 

 adjoining the abovementioned patch of water affords no cover, so 

 Mr. Griffiths, therefore, took a few cartridges containing ball. He fired at 

 the birds from a distance of about 100 yards, hitting the male bird through 



