11(30 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HI>ST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



into their heads to tiy in a circle round the tree, prior to settling. It was 

 all np, a long shot was chanced, a few feathers fell to the ground and the 

 storks betook themselves to pastures new. We did the same. I made a 

 bee line for the forest country while the fieldman consoled himself with a 

 Brahminy Kite and made for the Bungalow, shooting en route a pair of 

 Greenshanks and a Black Vulture. In the forest country I secured a pair 

 of Hose Finches, a Crested Goshawk and a large Cuckoo-Shrike. The 

 Bose Finch is a migratory bird with us, the hen is a plain bird resembling a 

 hen-sparrow while the cock is of a beautiful rose tint. It is a common 

 cage bird in parts of India, especially in Behar, where it is termed the Tuti. 

 They never seem to survive through the warm weather. On my return 

 to the bungalow at about 1 p.m. a smell seemed to petvade the whole 

 place and the vulture was pointed out to me as the source of the same. 

 There was no getting away from it, it could be perceived in all the rooms, 

 even the breakfast that day had a taint of it. However the bird had to 

 be dealt with, but it took us some time to make up our minds to skin it, 

 nevertheless we had his skin off by sunset but we took care to sprinkle 

 some spirit over him to deaden the smell. We had him fixed np before 

 noon the next day and his carcase was thrown away and it was not long 

 before the crows spotted it and this attracted the kites and other vultures- 

 As there were no vultures in the museiim we decided to finish off with them 

 as we were about it, so a white-backed one [Vseudogj/ps benyalensis) was shot. 

 It dropped into a nullah and while I was hunting for it a crowd of servants 

 came calling forme saying that the ' burra saheb' wanted to see me. This 

 was the Deputy Commissioner who was passing through and hearing the 

 crack of my gun came to see what I had shot. He was much interested in 

 natural history and examined with keenness the specimens I had already 

 collected, moreover, he very kindly offered to help the expedition, an offer 

 which was heartily accepted. Our second vulture did not smell so bad as 

 the first and on close inspection looked quite a handsome bird ; his bill 

 was of a fine bluish tint, his neck was grey, his back spotlessly white and 

 his black underparts were striated with white, while roiind his neck was a 

 collar of white down . 



The jheel was visited again the next day but it was deserted, only a 

 Darter and another bird were sitting on the trees patronised by the storks. 

 The Darter soon made himself scarce but we bagged the other bird which 

 turned out to be the Little Cormorant {Phalacrocorax javanicus). 



Our attention was now exclusively devoted to the forest country. 

 Sambhar, spotted deer and wild pig were very plentiful and we frequently 

 disturbed them as we shot at small birds with our ' fourten.' Once I shot 

 at a minivet and a pig jumped up a few feet from the place I stood. We 

 came across the pugs of bears and panthers but never saw any in the flesh. 

 One evening we disturbed a spotted deer with a very good head and that 



