150 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



cation, dated March, 1894, (vol. viii, page 554) the following measurements 

 of a tiger's skull are, I think, worth recording :— 



Length, between uprights ... 15"10 inches. 



Width do. ... 10-50 „ 



This skull is larger than the specimen in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 

 which has been so often referred to. 



The tiger was shot in Kanara, on the 10th May last, by Mr, Phelips, Executive 

 Engineer, and the skull is now in his possession. The animal is described as 

 being a very large one, but it only measured 9' ih" on account of its excep- 

 tionally short tail. The measurements of the skull have been most carefully 

 taken. 



P. A. HILL. 



Kaewapv, N. Kanaka, July, 1895. 



No. VII.— THE IDENTIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



I notice Mr. Oates' remarks in the last number of this Journal (No. 4, vol. ix, 

 page 486,) on a young bird I described some months ago in the Asiatt as being 

 an immature Dicrurus ater, and which Mr. Oates identifies as being Surniculus 

 lugiibris. I have to thank him for his correction ; quite possibly I was wrong, 

 but unfortunately the specimen is now at home. At the same time Mr. Gates' 

 extreme sensitiveness has caused him to read somewhat crookedly, and I think, 

 if he refers to my notes again, he will find that I referred to this specimen as 

 being rather an abnormal one. Several that I had procured before were, as a 

 rule, exceedingly black and freely splashed with white, so that the peculiar dis- 

 tribution of the markings in this specimen struck me as worthy of mention. 

 Had Mr. Oates' 3rd volume then been available, I probably should not have 

 made this very easily made mistake, but the young of all birds are, as a rule, in 

 most works, very poorly described. 



I think the only time I hinted at Mr. Oates' description of a bird being 

 actually wrong was in his description of Dicceum cruentatum^ where be says the 

 young resemble the female. This, as far as my experience goes, is not correct. 



No one values Mr. Oates' work more than I do. 



H. A. HOLE. 



Cachab, 6th August, 1895. 



No. VIII, — THE FOOD OF THE BULL-FROG. 

 "While living near Government House, Parel, I had in my compound two 

 broods of guinea-fowl chicks of about a dozen each, the one brood being a 

 fortnight older than the other. When the younger brood were about a week 

 old, both they and the elder brood began mysteriously to disappear, at least one 

 and sometimes two per day becoming missing. Of course, I suspected the ser- 

 vants, as we always do in such cases, and my suspicions were specially directed 



