MISCI.LLANEOUS NOTES. 369 



India, Burmah and Ceylon " (Hume and Marshall), so I think there 

 can be no doubt that my identification is correct. My reason for 

 writing is that none of these authorities give Manipur in the range 

 of this species, and it may be of interest to your readers to know that 

 it occurs there. I endeavoured to shoot one of the cocks 1 heard calling in 

 order to verify the fact of its being the Chinese Francolin, but was unable 

 to put one up, as the scrub jungle was too thick. But the peculiar call 

 (which one of Hume's correspondents so aptly renders " kuk kuk kuich 

 ka-ka") makes it impossible that I could have been mistaken, especially as 

 the Nagas and Manipuris, who were with me, told me that the bird was the 

 Kabaw urengbi (Kawab partridge). They told me that the bird was not 

 uncommon in the south of the Manipur Valley and could be heard frequently 

 in the neighbourhood of Meirang, a village in the south-west of the valley. 



J. C. HIGGINS, i.c.s. 



Imphal, Manipur State, 29iA May 1914. 



No. XXV.— THE GHAEIAL {GAVIALIS GANGETICUS). 



Last year (March 1913) while shooting at Ferozpore in the River Sutlej 1 

 shot a crocodile {Gavialis gangeticus). It was a splendid female specimen, 

 its measurements are as follows : — ■ 



Length from the point of the snout to the end 



of the tail.. .. .. .. .. .. 9 feet 7 inches. 



Girth round the abdomen . . . . . . . . 3 feet 2 inches. 



Skull — 2 feet 3 inches long with 88 teeth on each side. 



The animal was lying on the river bank basking in the sun ; it was un- 

 usually quiet, due, as was afterwards found, to two bullet wounds previously 

 caused. One of the bullets had broken the skull (the right auditory capsule 

 and the squamosal bone along with the quadrate), and the second one the 

 backbone ; the wounds appeared to be some days old and were choked with 

 sand yet they had not proved of a fatal nature. The animal was shot 

 underneath the right armpit, the bullet passing through the lungs pierced 

 the heart but did not come out of the body on the other side. 



On being dissected it was found that the belly was filled with the very 

 much coiled and enlarged oviducts which were full of eggs. The right one 

 contained 32 complete eggs in the lower part and a large number of unripe 

 ones in all stages, round some the yolk was being secreted and round other 

 the shell-membranes had been formed but the shell was not yet formed. 

 The left oviduct contained 24 complete eggs. The shell in these complete 

 eggs also was not quite perfect, in some there was a hole at one point or 

 another, while in others a very thin calcareous layer had been secreted to 

 complete the gap. 



The measurements of an egg are as follows : — 



Length 3-6 inches ; breadth 2-8 inches at its widest point 



The shell is rather rough and of a white colour. The shell membrane is 

 very tough, and forms a perfect bag round the contents ; in some cases 

 where the shell was removed it was seen that the shell membrane was of an 

 oval appearance, though perfectly flat at one end. 



The air space in the egg is rather large, in some it was more than one- 

 third of the whole esse. 



