Correspondence 57

– Amit Sayyed, Gokulkrishnan G., Rajgopal Patil & Anil Mahabal Amit Sayyed, Wildlife Protection and Research Society, Satara, Maharashtra, . E-mail: [email protected]. [AS] Gokula Krishnan G., 17/A2 Kamaraj Nagar, Sirumugai 641302 Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: [email protected] [GK] Rajgopal Patil, Institute of Natural History, Education & Research (INHER) B1-602, Kumar Parisar, Kothrud, Pune 411038, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] Anil Mahabal, Institute of Natural History, Education & Research (INHER), B1-602 Kumar Parisar Kothrud, Pune 411038, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author] Received on 16 November 2017. Gokulakrishnan G. 35. Malabar Whistling Thrush feeding on rat snake. A colour aberrant in Guwahati, Assam While birding in Khanapara Veterinary College (26.13°N, 91.82°E), to a tree, with the snake in its bill, and started to swallow it. Soon Guwahati, Assam, on 06 October 2017 at 1640 hrs, I observed the got disturbed and flew away into the denser areas of the an oddly plumaged Bubulcus ibis foraging with other, forest, continuing to hold the snake in its mouth. white-plumaged Cattle . The flock was in a grazing area Members of the Muscicapidae feed predominantly on meant for the research farm . The overall appearance, and other arthropods, and also a very wide range of other prey and behaviour, of this bird were quite similar to that of its flock. I such as woodlice (Isopoda), snails (Gastropoda), took some pictures of the bird to confirm that the colour on the (Oligochaeta), and some seeds and small fruit, principally bird was not the result of a mishap [36]. I could take just one berries. Instances of muscicapids preying on snakes have been picture of the bird that day. rare. In Africa, the Chat-flycatcherAgricola infuscatus is known to On 22 October 2017, at 0930 hrs, I spotted the bluish Cattle take blind-snakes (Typhlops sp.), and Fraser’s (African) Forest- Egret following a cow. This time it was foraging in an unused flycatcher Fraseria ocreata was once observed to catch a newly piece of land within the campus. I was able to click several hatched small snake (Taylor 2017). photographs and better appreciate the greyish-blue colours of The current observation is an interesting addition to the rare the bird. Its , and limbs seemed like those of a normally records of snake-eating among muscicapids. coloured Cattle Egret. It was quite hard to spot the bird due to The Malabar Whistling Thrush varies in length between 240 this disguising colour [37]. mm and 250 mm (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012). Given that the snake was bigger than the bird, this could probably be one of the largest prey items recorded for the Muscicapidae. Ali & Ripley (1998) recorded the food of Malabar Whistling Thrush as chiefly insects, snails, worms, crabs, small , etc., as well as drupes, and wind-fallen figs and berries. Recently, Munnar & Kallettumkara (2017) recorded an instance of a Malabar Whistling Thrush feeding on a shieldtail snake (family Uropeltidae). The present record adds to the food sources in the diet of the bird, and the deftness with which the bird captured the snake indicates that snakes might be a part of its regular diet.

References Ali, S., & Ripley, S. D., 1998. Handbook of the of India and Pakistan together with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Robins to wagtails. 2nd (Hardback) ed. Delhi: (Sponsored by Bombay Natural History Society.) Oxford 36. Dark morph Cattle Egret. University Press. Vol. 9 of 10 vols. Pp. i–xviii, 1–310, 10 ll. Collar, N., 2017. Malabar Whistling-thrush (Myophonus horsfieldii). In Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E., (eds.). https://www.hbw.com/species/malabar-whistling-thrush- myophonus-horsfieldii. Accessed on 14 November 2017. Munnar, K., & Kallettumkara, R., 2017. Website URL: https://ebird.org/ebird/india/view/ checklist/S35365375. [Accessed on 27 November 2017.] Praveen, J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2016. A Checklist of the birds of India. Indian Birds Abraham Mathew Leons Pics: 11(5&6): 113–172. Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2012. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. 2 vols. Pp. 1–387; 1–683. Taylor, B., 2017. Old World Flycatchers and Chats (Muscicapidae). In: Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A., & de Juana, E. (eds.). https://www.hbw.com/family/old-world-flycatchers-and-chats- muscicapidae. Accessed on 14 November 2017. 37. Dark morph Cattle Egret. 58 Indian BIRDS Vol. 14 No. 2 (Publ. 28 March 2018)

I ruled out Western Reef Egret 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 bird 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 Duck X Gadwall hybrid. I retrieved relevant literature from the online ‘Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology’ (Pittie 2017).

Table 1. Reports of hybrid Falcated Duck x Gadwall, from India References Site Date Reference Carr, P., 2015. Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis in the British Indian Ocean Territory: where did Pathshala, Assam 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, Uttar Pradesh, 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 Anas 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 Mareca 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 Gadwalls, Website URL: http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=216&Bird_ Eurasian Wigeons M. penelope, and a few Indian Spot-billed Image_ID=130675 [Accessed on 9 January 2018.] Ducks 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 (genus: 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.