724 B. B. Osmaston — Social Instinct in the Common Babbler. [No. 4, 



369. *Hasora (Parata) chromus, Cramer. 



Sumba (Doherty). Recorded by Doherty ns Parata malayana, Felder, 

 which is said to be a synonym of H. chromus, Cramer. 



370. Hasora (Parata) simplicissima, Mabille. 



.Bali, Sambawa? Sumba? (Doherty). Mr. Doherty says that a 

 second species of " Parata" occurs both in Sambawa and Sumba which 

 be did not identify. It is probably the present species. 



371. Bibasis sambavana, Elwes and Edwards. 



B. sambavana, Elwes and Edwards, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. xiv, p. 305, 

 pi. xxvii, fig. 96, clasp of male (1897). 



Sambawa {Doherty) 



372. Badamia exclamations, Fabricius. 

 Bali, Sambawa, Sumba (Doherty). 



373. Rhopalocampta subcaudata, Felder. 

 Bali (Doherty). 



On the manifestation of Social Instinct in the Common Babbler (Crateropus 

 canorus). — By B. B. Osmaston, Indian Forest Service. Communicated 

 by the Natural History Secretary. 



[Received November 25th ; Read December 1st, 1897.] 

 The existence of a " moral sense " in animals is so often questioned 

 that I feel bound, in justice to the birds, to put on record an account of 

 a scene of which I was a witness, which seems to prove that in some 

 kinds of birds at least social instinct at all events is present in a highly 

 developed form. 



In the summer of 1895 I caught and trained a young " Shikra," 

 the Indian Sparrow Haw r k, (Astur badius), to catch Mynahs and other 

 small birds. One morning in August, while walking round my garden 

 with the Shikra on my hand I saw a party of " seven sisters " (the 

 Jungle Babbler, Crateropus canorus) feeding on the ground. At my 

 approach they all flew up into a tree, and as I came still nearer they 

 began to fly across one by one to another tree. I threw the Shikra up at 

 one of them, which she succeeded in capturing after a short chase, bring- 

 ing it down to the ground in her firm grip. The rest of the Babblers, 



