MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 93y 



No. X.— BLACK BUCK v. MOTOR. 



I expect many of your readers who have niotored through black buck countrv 

 have noticed the interesting habit the latter animal has of racing a motor car. 

 One drives along a road through open country and sees buck, perhaps a small 

 herd, say one hundred yards off to the left "of the road. The buck have the 

 whole country on that side of the road to retreat into but they apparently never 

 seem safe until they have crossed the road in front oi the car. They gallop along- 

 side the car (I have taken a doe up to 33 miles an hour) and edge closer and 

 closer to the car when, choosing their time, they clear the road in front of the 

 car with one dehghtful bound, sometimes with only a yard or so to spare. I 

 have seen many scores of black buck behave as described but never a chinkara. 

 There seems to be a sort of fatal fascination about a car. I wonder whether 

 buck do it with a mottjr cycle. Once across the road they go straight away 

 across country never taking up the race again on the other side of the road. It 

 is an interesting habit and the reason for it I have never yet fathomed but per- 

 chance some members of the Society have a simple explanation. 



JOHN BUDDEX. 

 5tli March 1921. 



No. XI.— ROUGH NOTES ON THE AVIFAUNA OF THE NELLIAM- 

 PATHY HILLS. 



1. Geography of the Hills. — The Nelliampathy Hills form the Northern 

 boundary of the Western Ghats in their Southern Division. Thes-i Ghats 

 are broken by a level cultivated plain some 15 miles wide from N. to S. known 

 as the Palghat Gaji. The Northern boundary of this gap is formed by the 

 Palghat Hills and the Southern by the Nelliampathios. These latter join into 

 the Anamallios which in turn extend southwards into the Travancore High 

 Range and so through the Peerraade Hills, the Cardamom Hills, etc., to the 

 final Southern limit of the Western Ghats, the Asambu Hills, som? 15 miles 

 North of Cajie Comorin. 



The general character of the Nelliampathy Hills may be summarised as fol- 

 lows : — 



I. The Northern slopes, which rise precipitously from the plains, the 

 clifEs, cut by an occasional gully, clothed in deciduous jungle. 



II. The Plateau Country, undulating land covered with dense evergreen 

 forest, varied by patches of coffee cultivation, lemon grass and lantana. 



III. The Higher Ranges, which rise from the Plateau Country up to 

 an elevation of some 5,000 feet above sea level. These peaks and downs are 

 composed of grass land interspersed with sniall evergreen sholas. 



IV. The Southern slopes. The Hills drop away gradually to the South 

 into the huge forest clad Nelliampathy Valley. These slopes are covered with 

 evergreen forest almost down to the Valley especially towards the centre and 

 western parts of the Hills. To the East the forest is more deciduous. 



2. General.— This list of the birds of the Nelhampathies is by no m^ans 

 exhaustive. It is merely a list of such birds as I have personally observed on 

 these hills at various times during the past ten years. I have so far not touched 

 the warblers and noted very Uttle as regards the nightjars and the owls. 



The following common birds, however I know, do not occur on the Hills at 

 any time*: — 



1. Corvus splendens. — Common Crow. 



2. Corvus macrorhynchiis. — .lungle Crow. 



3. Eudynamis honorata. — The Koel. 



*The scientific names are from Blandford's notes. 

 37 



