MISCELLANEOUSNOTES During this time, five birds started courtship Kushlan(1984)mentiona briefruby-red flushof display. Ofthese, two had a pale red iris. The the iris (from yellow) prior to egg-laying in the bills were black, the orbital skin bright green, largeegretinAustraliaandNorthAfrica.Theydo andthetibiapale fleshcoloured. Theotherthree notmentioniriscolourchangeinthemedianegret, birds had a pale orange iris, the orbital skin and butreportitinthelittleegretEgrettagarzetta(turns bill coloration was as in the other two, but the red during the height ofcourtship) and the grey tibiawasbrightfleshcoloured. Twoofthebirds heronArdea cinerea (changes from deep yellow withorange irisespairedoffandstartednesting. to deep orange). My observations on the change It was noted that the pale red or pale orange in iris colouration in the large and median egrets colourofthe irispersisted inbrightsunlightand are interesting, as ithas notbeen reportedfor the in the shade. In earlier observations of 10-30 median egret, or for E. garzetta or A. cinerea in breeding median egrets, from 1991 to 1996, the India. The significance of the changes in iris iris under bright or diffused sunlight was light coloration, the colourvariations under shade and orange to bright red in some of the birds. But sunlight, and why they do not appear in all wheninshade (aswhenthebirdducksto accept individualsofacolony, isyettobeknown. nestmaterialfromthemate),theirisrevertsback to the normal yellow colour. March 27, 1999 V.GURUSWAMI Change iniriscolorationhasbeenrecorded Simpson Estate, for certain egret species elsewhere. Hancock and Chennai 600 001, TamilNadu, India. References Ali,S.&S.D.Ripley(1987):HandbookoftheBirdsof London. Pp.178-179. India and Pakistan. Compact Edition. Oxford Hancock, J. & J. Kushlan (1984): The Herons UniversityPress,Bombay.Pp.18. Handbook. CroomHelm.London.Pp.288. Brown, L., E.K. Urban & K. Newman (1982): The Roberts,T.J.(1991):TheBirdsofPakistan. Volume I. Birds of Africa. Volume I. Academic Press, OxfordUniversityPress,Oxford.Pp.89-92. SIGHTING OF THE BLACK STORK CICONIA NIGRA AND 8. LESSERADJUTANT-STORKLEPTOPTILOSJAVANICUS ATNAGARHOLENATIONALPARK,KARNATAKA Nagarhole National Park (NP) (643 sq. Kabini River Lodge at Karapur village, located km), along with the Bandipur Tiger Reserve about 8 km to the east of Sunkadakatte Forest (875 sq.km)andMudumalaiWildlife Sanctuary RestHouse, NagarholeNationalPark, I decided (325 sq. km) to the southeast and the Wynaad to take ajeep ride into the Park. After about 15 Wildlife Sanctuary(350sq.km)tothesouthwest, minutes from the Bisalvadi waterhole, the jeep form a part of Nilgiri biosphere, the largest reachedarivuletamidstaverydenseforesttract. protected forest tract in peninsular India. The Whilescanningthebanksforwaders, Iobserved bird life in this region is impressive, due to a two large birds, the lesser adjutant-stork denseforestcoverinterspersedwithinnumerable Leptoptilosjavanicus and black stork Ciconia rivulets that feed the Kabini river. The existing nigra. The scarlet red beak and legs of the birdlisthasnearly270species(Anon 1987),and C. nigra were perfectly illuminated by the sun during my visit to the National Park between and the white underparts were unmistakable. January 12-14, 1999, 1 sighted 97 bird species. Iobservedthebirdsforagood 15minutesbefore On the last morning of my stay at the returning to the lodge. On mentioning -the JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 98(3),DEC. 2001 443 MISCELLANEOUSNOTES m sighting to Mr. Sarath, the chief naturalist, c. 900 alt.) and the Gangetic plain to eastern Kabini River Lodge, I gathered that though Assam, souththroughRajasthanto aboutKutch L. javanicus had been occasionally sighted, no and northern Gujarat. It is considered to be rare one had ever come across a Ciconia nigra, in inDeccan, southofc. 18°N. (Sholapurdistrict). spite of a close vigil by many visiting field However, there are sporadic records ofthe bird biologists and naturalists. from peninsular India, as can be seen from Althoughthelesseradjutant-storkhasbeen Table 1. sightedintheWesternGhatsonseveraloccasions Inthelightoftheabovementionedrecords, (Anon 1987,Ali 1969,Baker 1935,Jerdon 1839- one can safely concludethat, forreasons notyet 1840), its true status and movement within the clear, there seems to be a distinct southward biogeographiczoneisnotclear.However,reports movementofthe bird, which a few decades ago of its breeding in Periyar Tiger Reserve have was never known to even stray into these areas. confirmed the existence of a small viable Madsen (1988) speculated that this may be due population in south India. tothe severedroughtinthenorth. However, this According to Ali and Ripley (1987), southwardmovementmayhavebeenforcedupon C. nigraisawintervisitortowestPakistan,north the species by the loss of precious habitat in India from Baluchistan, Sind, North West Pakistan, West, North and Northeastern India FrontierProvince andPunjab throughNepal (to (Khachar 1976, Khacher 1986, Himmatsinhji Table 1 SIGHTRECORDSOFBLACKSTORKINPENINSULARINDIA Nameofarea District State No.of. Date Source Storks RatapaniWildlifeSanctuary Bhopal MadhyaPradesh NM 6Mar. 1994 Misra, 1994 KanhaNationalPark Mandla MadhyaPradesh 1 Jan. 1995 Andheria,1995 NM GirSanctuary Junagadh Gujarat 11 Baskaran 1995 ShindovaniLake Pune Maharashtra 6 NM Naik, 1989 JanunaLake Buldana Maharashtra 5 Winter1990 Sawji, 1990 Rollapadu Kumool AndhraPradesh 2 Nov.1985 Manakadan,1988 Rollapadu Kumool AndhraPradesh 6 Dec. 1985 Manakadan,1988 Bolarum Hyderabad AndhraPradesh 1 5Apr. 1987 Kanniah&Ganesh, 1990 Parambikulam WildlifeSanctuary Palakkad Kerala 1 14Feb. 1984 cf.Neelkantanet.ai, 1983 Parambikulam WildlifeSanctuary Palakkad Kerala 1 16Feb. 1986 cf.Neelkantan Chamravattom Malappuram Kerala 1 7Jan. 1987 cf.Neelkantanet.al.,1983 Malampuzhareservoir Palakkad Kerala 11 16Feb. 1987 cf.Neelkantanet.al., 1993 PeriyarTigerReserve Idukki Kerala 1 24Feb. 1987 cf.Neelkantanet.al., 1993 Walayardam Palakkad Kerala 7,8, 14 12, 16,25,Jan. cf.Neelkantanet.al., 1993 1991resp. Walayar Palakkad Kerala 14 8Jan. 1994 Praveen, 1997 NearMunnar —Idukki Kerala 1 4Feb. 1997 Prasad,1997 & KaliveliTank Pondicherry 1 30Jan. 198 Perennou and5Feb. 1988 Santharam,1990 Helawe&Baguraplane Kumana SriLanka 1 20Mar. 1938 Phillips,1940 MadangiriSaltWork UttarKannada Karnataka 3 13Dec. 1987 Madsen,1988 GothehalliVillage Belgaum Karnataka 2 26Feb. 1994 Sant,1994 (NM:NotMentioned) 444 JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 98(3), DEC. 2001 : . MISCELLANEOUSNOTES 1985, Pandey 1989, Buckton and Morris 1990, Acknowledgements Sivasubramanian 1992, Barman and Talukdar 1995, Gandhi 1995, Barua et. al. 1997), where I thank Dr. S. Subramanya, University of it is known to exist in greater numbers. Agriculture Sciences, Gandhi Krishi Vigyan There is also aremote possibility ofsome KendraCampus, Bangalore, forprovidingvital individuals straying from their normal course references and deliberating on the initial during migration to the Subcontinent from manuscripts. Hisinterestinthisarticlehasbeen Eastern Europe. However, it would be difficult inspirational throughout. I also thank Mr. to ascertain this. Samba Kumar, Program Officer, Wildlife Consideringthese facts, I sincerelyappeal Conservation Society India Program, to all fieldbiologistsandbirdwatcherstokeepa Bangalore, forinformationonvariouslocations close watch on the movements ofthe stork, so in the Park. thatwecanmakeaconcertedeffortatprotecting the new emerging haunts of Ciconia nigra in July 8, 1999 ANISHP.ANDHERIA SouthIndia. Also, weneedto stepup ourefforts 2, SagarBuilding, V. P. Road, to ascertain the true status of Leptoptilos Andheri, Mumbai 400 058, javanicus within the Western Ghats range. Maharashtra, India. ReferENCES Ali,S.(1969):BirdsofKerala.OxfordUniversityPress, andgeographicaldistribution,anddescriptionofnew, NewDelhi. doubtfulandimperfectlydescribedspecies. Madras Ali.S&S.D.Ripley(1987):HandbookofbirdsofIndia J. Lit. Sci. 10: 60-91, 234-269; 11: 1-38, 207-239; andPakistan.OxfordUniversityPress,Bombay. 12: 1-15, 193-227. Andheria, A.P. (1995): A checklist ofbirds ofKanha Kanniah,P.&T.Ganesh(1990):OccurrenceoftheBlack NationalPark, 19-21 Jan. 1995.Unpublished. storkCiconianigranearHyderabad. Mayura 7& 8: Anonymous (1987): Apreliminary checklistofbirds of 46-48. Nagarholeandenvirons.Unpublished.WildlifeDept., Khachar,Shivrajkumar(1976):OccurrenceoftheBlack Karapur,JungleLodgesandResortsLtd. stork (Ciconia nigra) in Saurashtra. J. Bombay nat. Baker,E.C.S.(1935):ThenidificationofbirdsoftheIndian Hist. Soc. 73:390-391. Empire,4.London:Taylor&Francis. Khacher, L. (1986): The White and Black storks. Barman,R.&B.K.Talukdar(1995):NewrecordofBlack NewsletterforBirdwatchers26(3&4): 12-13. Stork Ciconia nigra in Deepoor Boel, Assam. Madsen, S.T. (1988): Black storks in Nepal and India. NewsletterforBirdwatchers35: 15. OrientalBirdClubBull. 11 34-35. Barua, M., G.C. Chettri & P. Bardoloi (1997): Manakadan, R. (1988): The Black stork Ciconia nigra Endangered birds sighted in Pobitora Sanctuary. (Linnaeus) in Kurnool District (Andhra Pradesh). J. NewsletterforBirdwatchers37: 109. Bombaynat.Hist. Soc. 84:675-676. Baskaran, T. (1995): An audio guide to the birds of Misra, M.K. (1994): Stork watching at Ratapani. southernIndia,andnotesonNightheronsandBlack NewsletterforBirdwatchers34: 118. storks.NewsletterforBirdwatchers35:50. Naik,S.(1989).BlackStorks(Ciconianigra)nearPune. Buckton, S. & P. Morris (1990): India and Nepal, NewsletterforBirdwatchers29(7&8): 1 December 1989-June 1990.Unpublished. Neelkantan K.K., C. Sashikumar & R Venugopalan Gandhi,S.S.(1995):NewandraresightingofBlackstork (1993):AbookofKeralaBirdsWWF-1,KeralaState nearDehraDun(UP).NewsletterforBirdwatchers35: Committee.Pp. 11-12. 97-98. Pandey, S. (1989): Black stork. Newsletter for Himmatsinhji,M.K.(1985):TheBlackstorkinKutch:old Birdwatchers29(1 &2):9. recordconfirmed.JBombaynat.Hist. Soc. 82:403. Perennou,C.&V.Santharam(1990):Statusofsomebirds Jerdon,T.C.(1839-1840):Catalogueofthebirdsofthe in southeastern India. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 87: peninsulaofIndia,arrangedaccordingtothemodem 306-307. systemofclassification;withbriefnotesontheirhabits PhillipsW.W.A.(1940):TheoccurrenceoftheBlackstork JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 98(3),DEC. 2001 445 . MISCELLANEOUSNOTES (Ciconianigra)inCeylon.Ibis4(14thseries):333-334. NewsletterforBirdwatchers34(2):39. Prasad, A. (1997): BlackstorkinKerala.Newsletterfor Sawji, P.G. (1990): Black storks in Maharashtra. Birdwatchers37:65. NewsletterforBirdwatchers30(11& 12): 11 Praveen, J. (1997): Storks ofWalayar. Newsletterfor Sivasubramanian,C. (1992): Indian SkimmerRynchops Birdwatchers37:9. albicolli—s Swainson and Black stork Ciconia nigra Ramani, R. (1985): Black storks. Newsletterfor (Linn.) newadditionstotheavifaunaofKeoladeo Birdwatchers25(3&4): 15. National Park, Bharatpur. J. Bombaynat. Hist. Soc. Sant,N. (1994): SightingofBlackstorknearBelgaum. 89:252-253. 9. LONG-BILLED VULTURE GYPSINDICUSINDICUSNESTING ON TREES IN THE THARDESERT, RAJASTHAN (With oneplate andone text-figure) There are two subspecies of longbilled 1916) and the nests were on trees. I took some vultures GypsindicusintheIndiansubcontinent, photographsandmadenotesonthebirdandnest differentiated on the basis oftheir distribution, (Plate 1, Fig. 1). nesting habits and physical features. The long- Icameacrossanothernestofthesamebird billed vulture (Gyps indicus indicus) is in December, 1997 near Saanchu in Bikaner, distributed south of the Gangetic plain, except Rajasthan (Fig. 1). The nesting bird was paler extreme southwest India and Ceylon. The and the neck ofthe subadult was covered with Himalayan long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus whitishdown. Theneckofthebirdguarding the tenuirostris) isfoundintheGangeticplainnorth nest was partially covered with down. One was toandalongthelowerHimalayasthroughNepal, sitting onthe sametree andthe otheron another BengalandAssam,whereitisverycommonand tree some 15 m away. The feathers on the legs ineasternAssamandBangladesh(AliandRipley extendedwellbelowthekneejoints.Thebilland 1987). cere had a yellowhorn-like colour. Nest-site selectionisthemainbehavioural The nest was placed on the highest crotch m differencebetweenthetwosubspecies.Thelong- ofa Prosopis cineraria tree about 8 from the billed vulture nests on ledges of cliffs and hill ground,andwasopenfromallsides.Itmeasured forts, while the Himalayan long-billed vulture 68 cmx 90 cm and had a depth of 103 cm. The nests on trees in small colonies (Roberts 1991). measurement ofonly one nest was taken, after The breeding season for both ranges from thejuvenile had left it. November to end of February, or latest up to ThenestmaterialsweretwigsofCapparis March. decidua Prosopis cineraria Acacia arabica , , , The long-billedvulture hasbeenobserved Brassica campestris stubble from a nearby field nesting on cliffs in many areas of Rajasthan, and some pieces ofcloth. The tree on which the while the Himalayan long-billed was reported nest was placed was surrounded at its base by breeding in Ambala district, Haryana (Jones Capparis decidua Prosopisjuliflora and an , 1916). WhenI foundfive nests ofthe longbilled unidentified thorny bush which grows to 2 m. in Nagaur district, Rajasthan in May 1994 on AllthefivenestswereonProsopiscinerariatrees Prosopiscinerariatrees,Iassumedthattheywere growing in about one sq. km area. nests of the Himalayan long-billed vulture, This subspecies was confirmed by John because the species is already reported from Schmitt, abirdartistfromUSA, withthehelp of Ambala inthe adjoining state ofHaryana(Jones aphotographofthelongbilledvultureonitsnest. 446 JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 98(3), DEC. 2001