1850.] Note on an Inscription from Oujein. 475 



its prey ; he is of a dark black hue with red about him, but at this 

 distance of time, now three years, I cannot remember his exact appear- 

 ance. I brought one down with me from the summit of the mountain 

 Maruk, which is eleven hundred feet above the Ganges, and he mea- 

 sured six inches across the legs when set up. It was in the web of 

 this very spider that I found the bird entangled, and the young spiders 

 (about eight in number and entirely of a brick-red colour) feeding 

 upon the carcass. The bird was much decomposed and enveloped in 

 web, but the beak and feet being visible I sketched them, a copy 

 of which sketch I enclose for your satisfaction.* The bird hung with 

 his head downwards, his wings were closely pinioned to his sides by 

 the entwined web, and was nearly in the centre of the web. The old 

 spider which I secured was above the bird about a foot removed. 



Had we not been a half-starved party, we should have bottled the 

 bird, spider and young ones ; but we were at the end of a five-days' 

 roam amongst these steep hills, covered with wet grass, without beds 

 or covering, in the height of the rainy season, so you may imagine 

 our commissariat was at too low an ebb to afford brandy for such a 

 purpose ! 



Note by Mr. Blyth. This communication from Capt. Sherwill is 

 the more interesting, since the total demolition of Madam Merian's 

 account of a bird-eating spider in Surinam, by Mr. W. S. McLeay, 

 in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society/ 1834, p. The species 

 would appear to be an Epeira, most probably undescribed, and re- 

 markable for the "bright yellow colour" of its web. 



Note on an Inscription from Oujein ; by Rajendralal Mittra, 

 Librarian, Asiatic Society. 

 Sometime ago Mr. R. N. C. Hamilton of Indore presented to the 

 Asiatic Society a fac-simile of a Grant discovered in digging a ruin in the 

 vicinity of Oujein. The character of the Inscription is the Kutila of 

 the 1 0th century, engraved on two tablets of copper the last of which 

 has on it a figure of Gaduda, the vehicle of Vishnu. The style is 

 extremely pompous and figurative, quite characteristic of the age in 

 which it was written, and the document itself is imperfect as a 



* A Nectarinice apparently, and probably N. asiatica. — E. B. 



