58 Indian Vol. 14 No. 2 (Publ. 28 March 2018)

I ruled out Western Reef Egret Egretta gularis after referring to Grimmett et al. (2011), as it’s dark morph has a whitish throat, and besides, it looks more like a Little Egret E. garzetta. An earlier record exists, of a grey Cattle Egret, from Dona Paula, Goa, India, on 19 November 1995 (Willoughby 2001). Singh (2013) spotted a melanistic at Alinganagar village, in Jharkhand. There seem to

be no more cases of colour aberration in this species from India Chakraborty Rajarshi (Mahabal et al. 2016), though these have been noted in other countries (Siegfried 1971; Willoughby 2001; Scheres 2002; Carr 2015). It still has not been established whether a dark morph of Cattle Egret exists, like it does for Little Egret, in spite of the reports of birds, in various shades of grey, from all over the world. 38. Male Falcated X hybrid. I retrieved relevant literature from the online ‘Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology’ (Pittie 2017).

Table 1. Reports of hybrid x Gadwall, from India References Site Date Reference Carr, P., 2015. Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis in the British Indian Ocean Territory: where did Pathshala, April 1917 Robinson (1918) Pinky come from? Birding ASIA 23: 54–55. Harike, Punjab December 2003 Anonymous (2003) Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 2011. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press & Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–528. Asan Barrage, Uttarakhand January 2008 Anonymous (2008) Mahabal, A., van Grouw, H., Sharma, R. M., & Thakur, S., 2016. How common is Fulbari, West Bengal January 2009 Tharkuta (2009) albinism really? Colour aberrations in Indian birds reviewed. Dutch Birding 38: Maguri Beel, Assam February 2015 Sengupta (2015) 301–309. Maguri Beel, Assam December 2015 Phukan (2015) Pittie, A., 2017. Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology. URL: http://www. Pobitora, Assam February 2016 Das (2016) southasiaornith.in. [Accessed on 20/10/2017.] Scheres, W., 2002. A partly melanistic Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis. A Rocha Portugal Kaziranga, Assam March 2016 This paper Observatory Report 2002 15. http://www.arocha.org/pt-en/413-DSY/version/ Dighal, Haryana December 2016 Ghosh (2016)* default/part/AttachmentData/data/pt-report-2002.pdf. *Hybrid combination putative Siegfried, W. R., 1971. Plumage and moult of the Cattle Egret. Ostrich 9 (Suppl.): 153–164. Singh, S., 2013. Probable first sighting of dark morph of Eastern Cattle-Egret (sic) Acknowledgements Bubulcus coromandus from Lakhimpur kheri, , India. Journal of the We would like to express our gratitude to Bubul Borah, for providing us transport into Bombay Natural History Society 109 (3): 199 (2012). KNP and helping with the requisite permits, and Dave Appleton, for confirming the Willoughby, P. J., 2001. Melanistic Cattle Egret. British Birds 94: 390–392. identification of the bird.

– Leons Mathew Abraham References M. R. Mallik Arcade, 3rd Floor, Near Flyover, Panjabari Road, Six mile, Khanapara, , Guwahati 781022, Assam, India Anonymous. 2003. Falcated Duck falcata (December 2003 mystery bird). E-mail: [email protected] Delhibird-The Northern India Bird Network. Website URL: http://speciesguide. Received on 26 October 2017. delhibird.net/internal/9/falcated_duck.htm. [Accessed on 22 November 2017.] Anonymous. 2008. Falcated Duck Hybrid (presumed): January 2008 Assan Barrage, northern India. Website URL: http://www.harrisbirds.com/Falcated%20Duck%20 A Falcated Duck falcata x Gadwall M. strepera Hybrid.htm. [Accessed on 22 November 2017.] hybrid at Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India Das, A. K., 2016. Falcated Duck Anas falcata hybrid. Website URL: http://www. A male hybrid between a Falcated Duck Mareca falcata and orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=216&Bird_Image_ID=115716. Gadwall M. strepera was spotted at 1647 hours, on 25 March [Accessed on 9 January 2018.] 2016 in Kaziranga National Park (henceforth, KNP), Assam, eBird. 2018a. Maps: Gadwall (Marcera strepera). Website URL: http://ebird.org/ebird/ india/map/gadwal. [Accessed on 15 January 2018.] India. The bird was spotted [38] in an open wetland (26.61°N, eBird. 2018b. Maps: Falcated Duck (Marcera falcata). Website URL: http://ebird.org/ 93.34°E) belonging to the central range (Kohora) of KNP. At the ebird/india/map/falduc. [Accessed on 15 January 2018.] time of observation, the bird was feeding in a shallow portion Ghosh, S., 2016. Falcated Duck x Gadwall Anas falcata x Anas strepera—Hybrid. of the wetland, near a mud bank amongst a group of , Website URL: http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=216&Bird_ Eurasian M. penelope, and a few Indian Spot-billed Image_ID=130675 [Accessed on 9 January 2018.] Anas poecilorhyncha. Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 1998. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 1st ed. Both, Falcated Ducks, and Gadwalls are winter migrants to the London: Christopher Helm, A & C Black. Pp. 1–888. north-eastern Indian Subcontinent (Grimmett et al. 2011; eBird Johnson, K. P., & Sorenson, M. D., 1999. Phylogeny and biography of dabbling ducks (: Anas): A comparison of molecular and morphological evidence. The Auk 2018a; eBird 2018b) including KNP, where we have recorded 116 (3): 792–805. them in previous seasons. Falcated Duck x Gadwall is one of Phukan, P. J., 2015. Falcated Duck x Gadwall Anas falcata x Anas strepera—Male. the most common waterfowl hybrids found in the wild because Website URL: http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=216&Bird_ they are sister species (Johnson & Sorenson 1999). There are Image_ID=113352 [Accessed on 9 January 2018.] a number of instances, since 1918, wherein Falcated Duck x Robinson, H. C., 1918. On two abnormal specimens of ducks in the collection of the Gadwall hybrids, or presumed hybrids, have been reported from Zoological Survey of India. Records of the Indian Museum 15: 47–48. the country, indicating that they are regular in our region too Sengupta, S., 2015. Falcated Duck x Gadwall Anas falcata x Anas strepera—1st winter (Table 1). male. Website URL: http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ ID=216&Bird_Image_ID=102946 [Accessed on 9 January 2018.] Tharkuta, A., 2009. Falcated Duck x Gadwall Anas falcata x Anas strepera—Male. Correspondence 59

Website URL: http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=216&Bird_ Image_ID=113351 [Accessed on 9 January 2018.]

– Oishik Roy, Tushar Mouli Chakraborti & Rajarshi Chakraborty Oishik Roy, 39/40 Dumdum park, Park Tower, Flat No. 3, Kolkata 700055, West Bengal, India E-mail: [email protected]

Tushar Mouli Chakraborti, Department of Geology, Presidency University, 86/1 College Street, Kolkata 700073, West Bengal, India E-mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author] Rajarshi Chakraborty, WWF-India Western Arunachal Landscape Programme, Tezpur, Assam 784001, India. E-mail: [email protected] Received on 23 November 2017.

Spot-bellied Eagle-Owl Bubo nipalensis feeding on Indian Flying Fox Pteropus giganteus 40. Spot-bellied Eagle Owl feeding on an Indian flying fox. The Spot-bellied Eagle-Owl Bubo nipalensis is a resident species in Uttarakhand (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012), and occurs in the lower Himalayas upto c. 2100 m asl (Ali & Ripley 1981). a dead Indian flying fox Pteropus giganteus in its talons, and MS has recorded its presence throughout the year in Corbett was feeding on it. The owl was identified as Spot-bellied Eagle Tiger Reserve (MS pers. obsv.). Its habitat has been described Owl, based on such features as: large size, large black-and-white as ‘dense evergreen and moist deciduous forest, usually near horizontal ear-tufts, large yellow beak, fully feathered tarsii, and water, montane wet temperate forest and riparian gallery forest’, prominent spotting on the underparts. and that it ‘hunts also in scrub, bamboo jungle, thin deciduous As per del Hoyo et al. (1999), bats are incidental prey items forest, sometimes edges of clearings’ (del Hoyo et al. 1999). for many owls but, except for one species, owls do not specialise The species is ‘largely nocturnal, spending the day dozing on in preying upon bats. We could not locate any previous records of a densely foliaged bough in the forest, but sometimes on the the Spot-bellied Eagle Owl feeding on bats, and hence this note. move and even hunting during daytime’ (König et al. 1999). It has been recorded taking fair-sized mammals, birds, and reptiles (Resmussen & Anderton 2012). A formidable hunter, it is Acknowledgements recorded taking Kalij Pheasant Lophura leucomelanos, and Red MN wants to thank Naveen Chandra Singh for informing him about the owl, and MS Junglefowl Gallus gallus from their night-time roosts (del Hoyo wants to thank Rakesh Bhatt for bringing the record to his knowledge. To retrieve relevant et al. 1999). Kannan (1995) recorded it preying on the Indian literature we searched the online ‘Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology’ (Pittie 2017). giant squirrel Ratufa indica, and Nandini (2005) found it feeding on an Indian chevrotain Moschiola indica. Its diet is described References consisting of game birds including pheasants, jackals, hare, fawn Ali, S., Ripley, S. D., 1981. Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan together with of barking deer, lizards, snakes and fish (Ali & Ripley 1981). those of , Nepal, Bhutan and Ceylon. Stone Curlews to Owls. 2nd Garjia Village (29.47°N, 79.15°E; 437m asl) is located on (Hardback) ed. Vol 3 of 10 vols. Delhi (Sponsored by Bombay Natural History the banks of River Kosi, on the eastern boundary of Corbett Society.): Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xvi, 1–327. Tiger Reserve (Uttarakhand, India). The village is surrounded by del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, J., (eds.) 1999. Handbook of the birds of the world. mature moist, mixed, and semi-deciduous forests, dominated by Volume 5. Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. 1st ed. Vol. 5 of 17 vols. Barcelona: Lynx sal Shoria robusta on its western side, and a narrow stretch of Edicions. Pp. 1–759. river valley on its eastern, with similar mature forest habitat on Kannan, R. 1995. Forest Eagle Owl (Bubo nipalensis Hodgson) - a predator of the the opposite bank of the river. On 12 January 2018 at c. 1720 Indian Giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 91: (3) 454. hrs, Naveen Chardra Singh (verbal comm.) informed MN about König, C., Weick, F., & Becking, J-H., 1999. Owls. A guide to the owls of the world. a large owl being seen in a tree by the side of the road at Garjia. Robertsbridge, UK; New Haven: Pica Press; Yale University Press. Pp. 1–462. MN photographed the owl at c. 1730 hrs [39, 40]. It was holding Nandini, R. 2005. Predation by Forest Eagle-Owl Bubo nipalensis on Mouse Deer Moschiola meminna. Indian Birds 1: (5) 119–120. Pittie, A.,2018. Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology. URL: http://www. southasiaornith.in. [Accessed on 15 January 2018.] Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. Pp. 1–378; 1–683. – Manoj Sharma [MS] & Mohd. Nafees [MN] Manoj Sharma, Village Shankarpur, Ramnagar 244715, District Nainital, Uttarakhand, India. E-mail: [email protected] Mohd. Nafees, Village & P O Dhikuli, Ramnagar 244715, District Nainital, Uttarakhand, India. E-mail: [email protected] Received on 21 January 2018. Pics: Mohd. Nafees 39. Spot-bellied Eagle Owl feeding on an Indian flying fox.