miscella:S'JEOus notes. loso 



good home capon. They are terrible gardeners; bnlbs have no chance at 

 all and any root they think good to eat is speedily dug np and demolished. 

 I am sorry to say they are all female birds. The only cock was damaged 

 by a fox and had to be put out of his misery. They spend a good deal of 

 their time, especially in the evening, on the roof of the house and call 

 splendidly, often about the same time as the Moslem Mullahs call to 

 evening devotion. This certainly is the habit of these birds, to group in 

 the evening on their mountain resorts, before they climb up into cliffs 

 for the night. Eagles, and in the summer months foxes, are their deadliest 

 foes. They are not easy to shoot, as they are wary to a marvellous extent, 

 and their feeding grounds are pretty much the same as the Markhor 

 and Ibex, and one rarely sees them therefore except when stalking the 

 two latter lords of the mountains, and a shot gun has no place then. 



W. G. APPLEFORD. 



GiLGIT, KaSHMIK, 



2^th Januarij 1912. 



No. XXII.— WOODCOCK {SCOLOPAX BUSTICULA) 

 IX SOUTH ANDAMANS. 



I saw a Woodcock near the town of Aberdeen, South Andaman, on 

 the 26tli January. I send you a note of the occurrence as I do not 

 remember to have heard of the woodcock being reported as yet from these 

 Islands. 



J. H. WHITEHEAD, Major, 



93rd Burma Infantry. 

 Port Blair, Andaman Islands, 

 Brd February 1912. 



Xo. XXTII.— XOTE OX THE HABITS OF SWINHOE'S PtEED- 

 WAPtBLER ( UROSPHENA SQUAMICEPS ) AND ON THE 

 NESTING OF THE BURMESE GREAT WOODPECKER 

 r THRIPONAX FEBDENI). 



I posted to you yesterday a box containing skins of (1) Swinhoe's Reed- 

 AVarbler ( Urosphena squamiceps ) and (2) Tweeddale's Scimitar Babbler 

 ( Pomotorhinus nuchalis ). 



Of the former bird Oates writes in the ''Fauna of British India " ( Birds, 

 Vol. I) : ''This rare Warbler has been once procured at Bankasun in the 

 South of Tennasserim, by Davidson * * * * '"" Nothing is known of 

 its habits." 



