MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
791 
birds, but even to this day specimens thence are very poorly represented in the 
British Museum. If any response is forthcoming I shall be pleased to supply 
the names of the actual species. Collecting without method provided birds 
are collected properly is not a waste of time or bird life, though I quite grant 
more could be done if collectors knew what was particularly wanted in their area, 
but they must make themselves known first. 
Birds of Mesopotamia. 
( FoZ. XXVIII, No. 1, page 222). 
In Dr- Ticehurst’s “ Birds of Mesopotamia” pubhshed in your last issue, he 
omits perhaps the one and only interesting fact in the nidification of the Hooded 
crow ( Corvus cornix) in Mesopotamia, which is, that in the absence of date 
palms it will nest in the dense reed beds (Hamar Lake). 
Kotah, Rajaputana, T. R. Livesey, Capt. 
2bth February 1922. 
Notes on Lizards, Frogs and Human Beings in the Nilgiri District, 
( Vol. XXVIII, No. 2, page 493.) 
A parallel to Col. Wall’s interesting researches into the habits of Reptiles and 
Amphibians in the Nilgiris pubhshed in Vol. XXVIII, No. 2, of the Society’s 
journal may be foimd in an interesting article pubhshed in the September issue 
of the Magazine of Natural History (Journal of the American Museum of 
Natural History). Mr. Kingsley Noble, Curator of Reptiles in the American 
Museum of Natural History, recounts the methods employed by him in his at- 
tempts to discover the life histories and habits of the reptiles and amphi- 
bians, especiaUy the remarkable frogs of the Andean region. The most interest- 
ing of these is the Marsupial Frog the female of which is provided with a pouch 
in which she carries the eggs until well developed. In the pouch the young 
are reared until an advanced stage in the tadpole existence. Many interesting 
details in the life history of this Frog remain unsolved. Little is known about 
its habits, its pouch, its egg laying and the manner in which the egg reaches the 
pouch which, by the way, is situated on the frog’s back. It was towards help- 
ing to solve some of these problems that Mr. Noble particularly directed his 
efforts. Col. Wall spent much time and patience in discovering that, the httle 
“ Castanet ” Frogs were the authors of the “ Clap like sounds ”, which 
every visitor to the Nilgiris during the rains is familiar with. Mr. Noble’s 
methods may therefore commend themselves to the gallant Colonel or anyone 
desirous of following in his footsteps. Mr. Noble writes: “There is only one way 
of delving into the home hfe of a frog, i.e., to steal upon him at night when his 
amorous caUing betrays his place of hiding. With an electric flash light the 
task is easy for the frog seems to be as little concerned over one’s presence 
as he is over the Are flies which flit across his world. His callings, love 
making, nest building, may be examined in as great detail in the open as in 
his structure in the laboratory. It was obvious that if we were to investigate 
the marsupial frog into reveahng any of his great secrets it would have to 
be done at night.” Recounting his esperiences Mr. Noble writes : — 
“ I started off alone toward a bannana patch where I had heard 
the previous evening the hammering of a dozen carpenters. There was 
something about the quaUty of the hammering which told me the ‘ Carpenters ’ 
28 
