Stray Notes on Indian Birds.



33i



Yellow-throated Sparrow. Gymnorhis flavicollis.


Oates says about the bird that “ its affinities for the

Sparrows are not very great.” I have only studied it in captivity,

but from what I saw of it I should call it a most obvious

Sparrow.


Tree-Sparrow. Passer montanus.


This bird takes the place of the House-Sparrow in

Darjeeling ; in Mussoorie I found no Sparrows at all, though the

House-Mynah ( Acridotheres tristis ) was there.


Large Pied Wagtail. Motacilla maderaspatensis.


This is given in the “ Fauna ” as a permanent resident

throughout India, I only once saw one at Calcutta, in winter.


Grey Wagtail. Motacilla melanope.


A specimen with the two inner tertiaries white, forming a

V when the wings were closed, appeared in the Indian Museum

grounds for at least three winters consecutively. On February

16th, 1902, I saw a similar one by the Rhinoceros tank in the

Calcutta Zoo ; I had previously seen what I took to be the

original bird by the Museum poud.


Crested Lark. Galerita cristata.


Oates gives the bill of this bird as yellowish ; I have

found it horny blue. Specimens I bought were much infested

with ticks, though I never found these vermin on any other

birds.


Fulvous-breasted Pied Woodpecker. Dendrocopus macii.


Some nestlings I kept were plantigrade, and readily ran

backwards ; they had a warty pad on the hocks. They were very

tame.


Golden-backed Woodpecker. Brachyptemus aurantius.


The young of this bird, like the last, are plantigrade, with

a warty heel-pad. The barbs on the horny tip of the tongue are

not developed by the time the feathers are showing. These

young have the white underparts tinged with yellow, and the

feet leaden blue, not dark green as Blanford gives them, pre¬

sumably for the adult. Young females, as Blanford says,

usually want the white spots on the forehead, this being plain

black ; but in July, 1906, I got one which had the spots—another



