702 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 
mouth of the bottle was closed, After the 14th the stopper and water were 
removed and the food renewed daily.) 
May 14-16—Dry and very hot. 
i 17—Thunderstorm. 
»,  18-19—Fine and very hot. 
_ 21—Heavy rain for a shori time. 
» 22-23—Fine and dry. 
» 24-25—Rain in afternoon, 
», 26-27—Hot and dry. 
ip 28—Tremendous downpour from 5 p.m. to 7-30 p.m. 
M., subdita is a scarce insect at Trincomalie, and, so far, I have only met 
with the rain-season form, which is curious, as this is an exceptionally dry 
climate, except in November and December. 
N. MANDERS, F.ES., Masor, R.A.M.C, 
TRINCOMALIE, CEYLON, 9th February, 1901. 
No, XIV.—A VISIT TO THE NULL AFTER THE FAMINE. 
It may be of interest to our members to hear how various aquatic birds, our 
winter visitors, have absented themselves from the Null this year, First as 
to the Null itself. This is a large inland lake between Gujerat and Kathia- 
war, extending for about fifteen miles, and being about four miles across, It is 
of no great depth, and the water contains quantities of weeds on which 
wild fowl feed. There are large tracts of rushes in it, and the shores around 
and the numerous islands are covered in a great part with high rushes. It 
is the winter home of countless nurbers of ducks, geese, snipe, flamingoes, 
pelicans, coots, and other waterfowl. Snipe are generally there in large wisps, 
and,strange to say, are always wild there, Duck, too, are also very wild, and 
a large bag is seldom made there although they are so numerous, Last year 
(the famine year) the Null was absolutely dry and, of course, no wildfowl 
stayed there, I was curious to know what would happen this year and 
whether the duck, etc,, would return to their old haunts, Although the 
rainfall was deficient around the Null this year, the Null had guite the 
average amount of water init. Thewater runsinto it from various small 
streams, and I believe that the river ut Wadhwan flows into it, There isno 
outlet. Some of my friends reported to me that they had their Christmas 
camps at the Null, but there were no duck or snipe there, I have been there 
at Christmas time about ten times, This year I was not in India at Christmas, 
but on the 16th February I arrived on the Null and spent afew days on it. 
My local shikaries reported there had been no snipe whatever there, but that 
lately a fair amount of duck had arrived. I found there were a fair amount 
of duck at one end of the Null, but no snipe, a few pelicans and flamingoes, 
Geese Iheard in the night. There were not the usual amount of coots, and, 
strange to say, I did not see a single purple coot. There were no quail about 
