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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I -STRANGE BEHAVIOUR OF CROWS. 



Is it known that the common crow, amongst his other qualities, displays 

 intelligence to such an extent as to make himself your self-constituted and 

 rather successful shikaree ? 



When out the other evening trying to pick up a partridge or two for 

 the pot, I got off the grassy plain on to a knoll covered, not thickly, with 

 bamboo clumps and a variety of trees, some in flower and some not. In the 

 very centre there were a couple of huts and a patch of cultivation. While 

 looking about, a green pigeon betrayed itself, and consequently a whole flock 

 by fluttering in a tree about 50 yards away. 1 got a couple and lost sight of 

 the rest as they flew round, but the shot also disturbed the never-to-be-got- 

 away-from crows round the huts. These saw me pick up the dead birds 

 and then flew away, but not to their old ground. They came back in a 

 minute or so and went away again, and repeated the operation so often 

 as to make me watch them and ultimately follow the line they took. On 

 reaching the tree which they invariably went to, away went the pigeons 

 out of the next one, and I got another. Away also went the crows, but 

 only to repeat their former performance with a similar result. In this way 

 they took me four times to the pigeons before the latter forsook the 

 knoll altogether. 



Now, what I want to know is, is this a well-known and common occurrence 

 or did the crows, by watching me pick up the dead birds, merely see a chance 

 of gratifying their thirst for mischief accidentally ? 



W. SUTHERLAiJD. 



Southern Shan States, Bukma, January^ 1896. 



No. II.— THE POISONOUS PLANT ^B.'EU'LK—^AMORPEOPHALLUS 

 COMMUTATUS, ENGLER). A CORRECTED DESCRIPTION. 

 By Dr. J. C. Lisboa. 



My intention in writing this note is to recall attention to the plant Sheula 

 which has been the subject of a previous communication to the Society by 

 Dr. Kirtikar. 



It is of special interest on account of the difficulties met with in its study 

 from the fact that the leaf and inflorescence appear at different seasons and 

 the general resemblance between this and some allied plants. The remarks 

 I have to offer are the result of unremitting attention to the subject during 

 the last two years, the observations of the past year having been carefully 

 checked during the current year, 

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