MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 581 



ProbaLly the nursery of these Hobbies had originally been built by 

 crows ( C. macrorhynchus) and had been altered to suit the requirements of 

 the former, the members of this genus rarely, if ever, building an entirely 

 new nest but simply effecting a few structural alterations. 



In the Fauna B. I., Aves, Vol. iii, page 417, Blanford remarks in 

 reference to the nesting economy of the shahin (jP. peregrinator) " the 

 nest of this falcon, a mass of sficJcs" &c. This is by no means invariably 

 the case, vide the Journal, B. N. H. S., Vol. XXII, No. 3, page 629, wherein 

 the late P. T. L. Dodsworth records the taking of two eggs of this falcon^ 

 "the eggs were reposing on the bare ground." Moreover, three eggs of 

 this species which I took this year also rested on the ground. These 

 remarks also apply, I think, to the kestrel (7". alaudarius),. the merlin 

 {^/E. regulus), the peregrine (E. •pevegrinus) and the luggar {F. jugger). 



When the eggs of any of the above are found in nests, it will usually be 

 found that the falcon has taken possession of the deserted home of some 

 other species. Whether the red-headed merlin {yE. cMcquera) differs in 

 these habits would appear to be a moot point. Certainly in one instance, 

 at least, I once found the eggs of this species in an old nest, probably that 

 of Corvus sjjleiidens. 



A. E. JONES. 



Simla, September IQth, 1914. 



No. X.— THE CUCKOO {CUCULUS CANORUS) IN THE 

 CENTRAL PROVINCES. 



With reference to your footnote in the above article, I could show you a 

 skin of the common Cuckoo shot at Nagpur in June. Cuckoos are 

 regularly heard here in that month, but both the specimens which I shot 

 were males. Comparing these with a male taken on the Darjeeling 

 Himalayas, they are decidedly smaller, the latter exceeding them by about 

 an inch in the total length. The wing measurements are 8'75" and S'S" 

 as compared to 9" in the hill bird and the undertail coverts of the C. P- 

 specimens are rather irregularly banded with black. 



E. A. D'ABREU, f.z.s. 

 The Museum, Nagpur, 

 'dth March 1914. 



No. XI.— THE RED TURTLE DOVE {(ENOPOPELIA T. 

 TRANQ UEBARLCA) . 



In reply to the query in Misc. Note, No. XVII, Vol. XXIII, No. I, the 

 following dates may be of interest. The flocks of males in Chanda, 0. P., 

 were noted on the 22nd April 1913 and on the 24th March this year. I 

 saw a male in Dera Ismail Khan where they are rare. 



I found this dove fairly well distributed throughout the Chanda District, 

 where it was breeding during April — a nest C/2 with fresh eggs was taken 

 on 8th April 1913 and a pair were observed building on the I9th of that 

 month. 



Tank, N. W. F. P., C. R. S. PITMAN, 



15th September 1914. 27th Punjabis. 



No. XII.— THE LESSER FLORICAN (SYPHEOTIS AURITA, 

 Lath.) IN THE PUNJAB. 

 The Lesser Florican is so seldom met with beyond Delhi in Upper India 

 that the following records may be of interest. On 21st July last my 



