Correspondence 119

Kemp, A. C., & Boesman, P., 2018. Oriental Pied ( albirostris). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E., (eds.). Handbook Correspondence of the of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (Accessed from https:// www.hbw.com/node/55904 on 13 May 2018). Anthracoceros albirostris hunts Poonswad, P., Tsuji, A., & Ngampongsai, C., 1986. A comparative ecological study of an adult Common Myna Acridotheres tristis four sympatric (Family Bucerotidae) in . Acta XIX Congressus Internationalis Ornthologici. Vol. II: June 22–29, 1986, Ottawa, Canada. University The Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris is a frequent of Ottawa Press. visitor to the city of Dehradun (30.3165°N, 78.0322°E), Primrose, A. M., 1921. Notes on the “Habits of Anthracoceros albirostris, the Indo- Uttarakhand, which is surrounded by moist deciduous . In Burmese Pied Hornbill, in confinement.”Journal of the Bombay Natural History large campuses with good green cover, like the Forest Research Society 27 (4): 950–951. Institute (henceforth, FRI) and the Wildlife Institute of , a few – Naman Goyal & Akanksha Saxena pairs have been recorded as year-round residents. Wildlife Institute of India, PO Box 18 Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001, Uttarakhand, India. E-mail: [email protected] On 01 June 2013 at 1500 hrs we saw a flock of adult Common Mynas Acridotheres tristis perching on a sandalwood Santalum album tree in the FRI campus. Shortly, a single male Noteworthy records from Virajpet, Kodagu District, Oriental Pied Hornbill flew into the flock, grabbed a myna by its Karnataka neck, and carried it off to another tree. It held the dead myna in This note describes four interesting photographic records, made its beak, tossing it and catching it, perhaps trying to align the in February–March 2018, from the outskirts of Virajpet (12.18°N, properly to eat it. This method of feeding was similar to the one 75.78°E), Kodagu District, Karnataka. described by Ali & Ripley (1987) for the A. malabaricus. It struggled with the myna for sometime, but Lesser Florican Sypheotides indicus: A female was photographed couldn’t balance it properly, probably due to the weight of the sitting in a grassy field, and then in flight [117], on 22 February dead bird in its beak [116]. Eventually, it gave up, and dropping 2018. BM had seen and photographed this in the the myna to the ground, flew off. same area six years ago, on 19 March 2012 (Monnappa 2012). There are no other reports from the district (Betts 1951, 1952; Narasimhan 2004; Narasimhan pers. comm.). The most recent record from southern Karnataka was from Bengaluru District in 2012 (Raghavendra 2012). Bishan CM

117. Lesser Florican.

Western Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus: A dark morph/

Akanksha Saxena melanistic bird, probably a male, based on smaller size, was seen 116 . The male Oriental Pied Hornbill with the Common Myna on 24 February and photographed [118] on 26 and 27 February 2018. This is a colour aberration, which is occasionally reported The Oriental Pied Hornbill is primarily a frugivore, feeding on wild for both sexes of this species, including juveniles (Naoroji 2006; berries, figs, and drupes, apart from various insects, centipedes, Orta et al. 2018), and was also photographed recently in Kole millipedes, scorpions, spiders, snails, earthworms, and lizards. It Wetlands, Kerala (Nair 2018, George 2018) on 25 February—just is also known to occasionally hawk in flight, take live fish a day after our sighting. from shallow pools, and feed on reptiles, small birds and nestlings (Primrose 1921; Baker 1927; Ali & Ripley 1987; Poonswad et al. 1986; Arora 2013; Kemp & Boesman 2018). This instance of it predating on a healthy adult myna seems noteworthy. We would like to thank all our colleagues at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, in motivating us to write this note.

References Ali, S., & Ripley, S. D., 1987. Compact handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan together with those of , , and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xlii, 1 l., 1–737, 52 ll. Arora, G., 2013. Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris albirostris­—Male with Bishan CM prey. Website URL: http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=330&Bird_ Image_ID=74933&p=13. [Accessed on 13 May 2017.] Baker, E. C. S., 1927. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. 2nd ed. London: Taylor and Francis. Vol. IV of 8 vols. Pp. i–xxiv, 1–471. 118 . Western Marsh Harrier.