1120 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, VoL XXVIII. 
may be of interest to record two consecutive shots from a 16 bore loaded with 
No. 6 shot, i.e., one goose with the first barrel and two with the second- — and 
then two with the first and one with the second — all fljdng. Nothing is claimed 
beyond the “ fluke ” of it. 
I cannot bear out Magrath’s statement of geese “roosting during the day 
well out on the bare desert.” Surely geese roost at night and not in the day 
time ? I found it their custom to return to the water about 11 a.m. to rest 
and wash before gomg out to feed agam about 3-30 p.m. I found the geese 
at Legait frequenting the bare desert regularly in the mommgs from davm to 
nearly midday — and from about 3-30 p.m. to dusk for the purpose of feeding. 
I was much puzzled by watching them — as I have by the hour tlirough field 
glasses — feedmg reedily on apparently bare sand ; later I discovered that they 
cropped a fine grass from beneath the surface of the sand which explained mat- 
ters. I have never heard of geese going inland to sleep before. 
Has no one seen domesticated geese resembling grey lay geese very closely 
in Mesopotamia ? I seem to remember them but cannot say for certain now. 
The weight of these geese varied from 8-10 lbs. {i.e., the largest were heavy 
birds of their kind). 
(ii) Purple Heron. 
Doubt as to its breeding in Mesopotamia is expressed. I had several young 
ones brought me at Hilla and kept some in my aviary at Musaiyib where they 
were very tame and used to sit on their “ hocks ” in an amusing way. 
(iii) Woodcock. 
I shot one at Musaiyib in a date garden — but cannot recall the time of year, 
(iv) Common Sheldrake. 
I have seen several pairs in the desert in May — just before they were breed- 
mg — and definitely foimd their breeding burrows on two occasions : — 
(i) Lr the desert at Legait about ^ mile in from the Hamar Lake ; and 
(ii) Li the desert between the Euphrates and Tigris in the Musaiyib dis- 
trict and a long way from water. 
T. R. LIVESEY. 
NO. III.— THE GAME ANIMALS OF INDIA. 
I find Major Stockley’s “ Notes on Lydekker’s Game Animals of Lrdia”, in 
the Vol. XXVIII, No. 2, of the Journal, especially interesting in view of the fact 
that I contributed some five or six columns under the same heading to the Asian 
newspaper on January 22, 1901, on the appearance of the first edition of the 
book. In my Notes several of the matters referred to by Major Stockley were 
dealt Avith. I think the best account of the Gaur (Indian Bison) is that given 
by Mr. Inverarity in Vol. 4, No. 4, of the Journal, in 1889. My Notes above 
referred to point out that the Black Buck becomes more or less brown during 
the hot weather, and that the blackest hue is assumed during the rutting season, 
■with which this form of coloration is probably connected. It was also remarked 
that it would be interesting to know whether a similar change of colour has been 
observed in other antelope, as for example the Blue Bull, but this does not appear 
to have been commented on elsewhere. In the Deccan some specimens of the 
Black Buck appear never to become black, and these are distinguished in the 
vernacular by the term “ Bahmani.” The finest head I have seen in the Deccan, 
with 24-inch horns, was from a buck almost as lightly coloured as a doe. 
