84 PSITTACID^E. 



(Arundo karJca, Linnaeus), along the banks of streams ; and as vast 

 flocks of them congregate", in the same place every night, where 

 tbey remain for about a month, if undisturbed, before dispersing 

 themselves all over the surrounding country, they are easily caught 

 in large numbers with bird-lime in the following manner. Slender 

 sticks of split bamboo with their upper ends well smeared with 

 bird-lime are placed in those parts of the Nal jungle where the 

 birds are likely to settle for the night, and the next morning the 

 flocks fly away, leaving those of their companions that have been 

 caught, with the bird-lime, to captivity for life. Many are secured 

 in this way, which is evidently profitable, for one patch of such 

 jungle as they frequeut (another may be miles away) is leased for 

 this purpose for 20 rupees and upwards. 



" Jerdon, I find, in ' The Birds of India,' says the Alexandrine 

 Paroquet breeds elsewhere during the winter, in the months of 

 December and January ; and if this information is correct, as I 

 presume it is, it is noteworthy that they should breed in the Sun- 

 durbun in the summer." 



Mr. J. Inglis remarks of this species in Caehar : — " Very 

 common. Breeds throughout the summer in the holes of trees." 



Mr. Gates, writing from Lower Pegu, says : — " I procured three 

 hard-set eggs on the 25th Tebruary out of a hole of a large cotton- 

 tree about 25 feet from the ground; colour pure white, much 

 soiled with incubation and vidth very little gloss. Dimensions of 

 these three eggs :— 1-4, 1-35, 1-37, by 1-03, 1-01, and 1-03 respec- 

 tively." 



Mr. J. Darling, junior, found the nest of this Paroquet in 

 Tenasserim. He says : — "Dec. 10th. Took four eggs of this bird 

 at Weppitau, a small village at the mouth of the Moulmein River, 

 on the opposite bank to Amherst, some two miles from the sea- 

 shore. The nest was in the hole of a tree in light jungle, border- 

 ing the side of one of the numerous creeks, and which is always 

 flooded at high water. It was 32 feet from the ground ; the 

 entrance was four inches in diameter, and seemed to have been 

 made by the bird in order to get to the hollow in the stump. The 

 eggs were about 2 feet 3 inches below the entrance ; there was 

 no lining of any sort, only a few chips on which the eggs were 

 laid. 



" One egg was fresh, and the others were slightly incubated." 



The eggs are regular ovals, generally slightly pointed towards the 

 small end, rather broader, though in other respects much the shape 

 of a hen's egg. The shell is stout, rather coarse in its texture, 

 showing many tiny rugations, especially towards the large end, 

 but has withal a slight amount of gloss. The colour is abso- 

 lutely pure and spotless white. The eggs of all this subgroup are 

 so precisely alike, that although those of one race may average a 

 little larger than those of another, it would be almost quite 

 impossible to separate small eggs of the one form from large eggs 

 of the other. 



The four eggs of the present species procured by Mr. Darling 

 measured from 1-31 to 1-35 in length by 0-99 to 1-05 in breadth. 



