Jottings on common Indian Birds.



259



several times in Ceylon. The Black-winged Stilt ( Himanotopus

Candidas) is quite common in the marshes and by the edges of jhils ;

one sees flocks which must sometimes number many hundreds.


I do not intend to go into details of all the Waders seen, but

must first mention this curious little happening : that one evening

as Mr. Elwes and I were sitting on the verandah of the dak

bungalow at Chakrata a Woodcock alighted on the gravel at the foot

of the bungalow steps. A bird that was quite new to me was the

Wood-Snipe ( Gallinago nemoricola). I never saw one alive, but Mr.

Bhys Williams shot one in the Nepal Terai, and I skinned it for

him. He said it got up in some cover. It is very like the Common

Snipe {G. coslestis) but is larger, and is without the rakish look of our

sporting bird.


The Little Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax javanicus ) as also the

Darter ( Plotus melanogaster) , was often seen. From the train one

evening we saw an immense congregation of Little Cormorants pre¬

paring to roost. There had been a break in a dam and much of the

country was flooded, and all along by the side of the line was a vast

collection of birds, among them Glossy Ibis ( Plegadis falcinellus) , here

and there a White Ibis ( Ibis melanocephala) , and of course many

Herons and Egrets. Curiously enough I cannot remember seeing

any Common Storks, but in the Nepal Terai the White-necked Stork

(Dissura episcopus) was often seen. From observation of it there

I should have said that it was far more of a wood than a plain bird,

I do not, of course, mean that I ever saw it in a real forest, but it was

always in pairs round about the jungle. It had a most beautiful eye.

The name of the Painted Stork ( Pseudotantalus leucocephalus)

reminds me of a most delightful morning spent on the lake in

Udaipur. Udaipur is one of the four original states of Bajputana,

and is now, I suppose, the most mediaeval state in Upper India. Its

immense granite and marble palace hangs on a ridge above the lake

to which its 100 ft. walls descend. (You may see—I did—three or four

hundred wild swine come in from the jungle every evening to feed

on maize thrown down for their supper). There are islands in the

lake with white marble building's on them ; it is all very beautiful.

Unfortunately this lovely lake bids fair to become choked with a fast¬

spreading weed which has got into it. We ran the boat ashore on



