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160 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 94 (1997) . heuglini which seemed to me as large and dark on winters eastwards to China (Bourne 1994). , theback as aGreat Blackback, andhas a wing-length The curious feature ofthisrecord is surely not mm mm of 405-469 compared to 447-523 (and an that Meinertzhagen misidentified a difficult gull in overall length of64-78 cm, just as large as a goose) his youth, but that he failed to correct the in the latter (Cramp and Simmons 1983). While identification when hebecame older and supposedly heuglini normally winters further west, there is a wiser. Possibly he forgot about it, or thought that subadult from the Whistler Collection in the British other people had done so, but he had a curiously Museum (Natural History) taken on the Ganges at dismissive attitude to mistakes. Thus, when I wrote Patna, Bihar, on 11th March 1939, so that to him in the early 1950s asking what else he saw Meinertzhagen’s bird could well have belonged to when he made field notes on the feeding behaviour this form instead. of the rare Raza Lark Calendrella razae Heuglin’s Gull is usually treated as a race of (Meintertzhagen 1952), he replied “he had nothing either the Herring GullL. argentatus, or much more to add to what he had already written”, when it later appropriately the more marineLesserBlack-backed became notorious that he had never set foot on the Gull L. fuscus but the breeding distribution of all only island where this lark occurs (Crocker 1989). , these birds may overlap around the White Sea, with But while in this case he may also have been some intergradation along the River Volga, and L. unwilling to admit an error, it seems unnecessary to heuglini is now regarded by some Russian dismiss the record as a fraud while there is a natural ornithologists as a distinct species (Stepanyan 1990, explanation for misidentification available. Filchagov 1994). Most nominate heuglini appear to BOURNE winter on the west side ofthe Indian Ocean, and the August 26, 1995 W.R.P. Patna bird may be the most easterly record, whereas Department ofZoology, most similar gulls wintering around the coasts ofthe Aberdeen University, Indian subcontinent appear to belong to its paler- TdlydroneAvenue, backed eastern ally orraceL. (h?) taimyrensis which AberdeenAB9 2TN, Scotland. , References Ali, S. & S.D. Ripley (1981): HandbookoftheBirds ofIndia examined. Ibis 135: 320-325. and Pakistan. 2nd edition, Vol. 3, Oxford University Meinertzhagen, R. (1900): Reputed occurrence of Great Press, New Delhi. Black-backed Gull Larusmarinus) whileshootingin ( Bourne, W.R.P. (1994): Theneedtodistinguish between the Rajputana. J. Bombay not. Hist. Soc. 13: 374. Lesser Black-backed and Heuglin’s Gulls in the Meinertzhagen,R. (1935): TheracesofLamsargentatusand Pacific. Pacific Seabirds 21(2): 7. Larus fuscus: with special reference to Herr B. Crocker, M. (1989): RichardMeinertzhagensoldier, scientist Stegmann’srecentpaperonthesubject.Ibis. (5)2: 762- and spy. London. 773. Cramp, S. & K.E.L. Simmons (eds.) (1983): The Birds ofthe Meinertzhagen, R. (1952): Review of the Alaudidae. Proc. Western Palearctic Vol. 3 Waders to Gulls. Oxford. Zool. Soc. Lond. 121: 81-132. Filchagov, A.V. (1994): Contactzones ofLarusargentatus- Roberts,T.J. (1991): TheBirdsofPakistan,OxfordUniversity cachinnans-fuscus Gull Complex in Eastern Europe Press, Karachi. and Northern Asia. J. Om. 135 (suppl): 44. Stepanyan, L.S. (1990): Conspectus of the ornithological Knox, A. (1993): Richard Meinertzhagen a case of fraud fanua ofthe USSR. Moscow. (In Russian). 20. NOTES ON GROWTH AND MATURITY IN THE INDIAN ROOFED TURTLE KACHUGA TECTA) (. Sayaji Baug Zoo, Vadodara, Gujarat, Indiahas (.Kachuga tecta) since 1991. The firstbatch ofseven been successfully breeding the Indian roofed turtle hatchlings were maintained in an enclosure MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 161 Table l The following measurements were taken once LIST OFPLANT SPECIES CONSUMED BY KACHUGA ayear: Straightcarapace length (CL), carapace width TECTA IN CAPTIVITY* (CW), plastron length (PL), shell height (H), and Coriandrum sativum. body weight (W) (Table 2). Four hatchlings died 1. 2. Hydrilla verticillata. during the first year, possibly due to some fungal 3. Lemnagibba. and parasite (Ascaris sp.) infections. . 4. L. perpusilla. Sexual-dimorphic featuresbecame apparent in 5. Vallisneria sp. the third year. Males had comparatively longer and 6. V. spiralis. thicker tails than the females. Body shape of male 7. Sagittaria sagittifolia 8. S. guayanensis. became oblong and female became oval during the same period. * Listed as per preference ofterrapin. At theend offifth year the terrapin CLreached measuring 2.0 x 2.5 m. three times and the weight was twenty times more The enclosure has ahalf-metrehigh periphery than the size at birth. wall and the centre with 80 x 80 x 60 cu cm water About the aspect of reproductive maturity in with necessary slopes. The top of the enclosure is turtles, there are two divergent views among turtle covered with wire-mesh for protection against workers. One is that it is related to the age of the predators. turtle (Risley, 1938) and the other view regards the The turtle hatchlings were daily fed with attainment of maturity to be primarily size related various species of plants (Table 1) in adlibitum and not age related (Hidebrand, 1932; Cagle, 1948). quantity. Cockroaches, crickets and earthworms were The present study shows that male turtles attain also offered once a week, up to the age of one year. maturity earlier than females, at the age of three, Turtles were less interested in insects and worms. when average ofCLwas6.5 cm. According to Verma Table2 MEASUREMENTS OF CAPTIVE HATCHLINGS OF INDIAN ROOFED TURTLE AT SAYAJI BAUG ZOO, VADODARA, GUJARAT. MEASUREMENT IN CM, WEIGHT IN GM Sample Date of carapace carapace Plastron Shell Body Remarks size measurement length width length length Weight 7 Birth 3.52 3.08 3.06 2.33 9.14 Allhatchlings May 91 (3.37-3.67) (2.95-3.17) (2.96-3.14) (1.96-2.20) brightlycoloured 3 5.73 4.86 5.06 3.25 36.6 Four hatchlings May 92 (5.59-5.90) (4.78-4.97) (4.85-5.20) (3.20-3.30) (35-40) died 3 6.50 5.43 5.93 3.53 51.60 Jun 93 (6.20-6.80) (5.20-5.70) (5.55-6.30) (3.50-3.55) (45-60) 2 7.44 6.03 6.80 3.90 71.6 Sexual-dimorphic May 94 (7.20-7.93) (5.80-6.45) (6.40-7.40) (3.83-4.05) (65-85) features 2 8.43 6.70 7.87 4.32 103.0 May 95 (8.42-8.45) (6.70-6.70) (7.85-7.90) (4.20-4.45) (100-105) 2 10.45 7.86 10.06 5.19 182.5 May 96 (10.0-10.9) (720-8.52) (9.70-10.42) (5.00-5.38) (60-205) Numbers in parenthesis arerange 162 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 94 (1997) . and Sahi (1996) the male attains maturity at the Zoo, Vadodaraforthe supportand facilitiesextended. size of CL > 6.0 cm, which supports the present study. October 3, 1996 RAJU VYAS The maturity in turtles is related either to age Sayaji Baug Zoo, or size, and requires more study. Vadodara-390 018, I thank V.A. Jadeja, Curator ofthe Sayaji Baug Gujarat, India. R EFE ENCES Cagle, F.R. (1948): Sexual maturity in the male turtle musk turtle Stemotherus odoratus. J. Morphol. 63: 307- Pseudemys scripta troostii. Copeia 108-111. 317. : HidebIUnd, S.F. (1932): Growth ofdiamondback terrapins, Verma, A.K. & D.N. Sahi (1996): On the size at maturityin size attained, sex-ratio and longevity. Zool. 9: 557-563. the male freshwater turtles, Kachuga tecta and K. smithi Risley, P.L. (1938): Seasonal changes in the tests of in Jammu. Zoos Print. 11(7): 3 & 5. RECORDS OF THE GHARIAL GAVIALIS GANGETICUS (GMELIN) FROM THE 21. BARAK RIVER SYSTEM OF NORTH-EASTERN INDIA (With one text-figure) The Barak river and its tributaries drain the plentiful’ in the upper reaches of the Barak, southern areas of north-eastern India, notably parts especially near its confluence with the Tipai. The of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and the site ofconfluence is know'n as Tipaimukh. Theriver entire southern Assam (Fig. 1). The main tributaries Tipai marks theboundary ofthepresentdayManipur of the Barak are the Irang, Makru, Tipai (Tuivai), and Mizoram states. Jiri, Chiri, Madhura, Jatinga, Sonai, Dhaleswari Although Singh (1991) mentioned the (Tlawng) with its distributary, theKatakhal, Shingla reference ofCooper(1951a, b), hemistook theBarak and the Longai. Near Badarpur, the river bifurcates river system to be that ofthe Brahmaputra and also into two - the Surma and the Kushiyara and then did not mark it on the map. flows through Bangladesh. During field survey in different parts of the Occurrence of the gharial in the Barak river riverbasin over the pastdecade, I came across a few system was not reported in any of the recent authentic reports on the species, and also visited all publications on the species (Whitakerand Basu 1982; the recorded localities. These reports are presented Singh, Kar and Choudhury 1984; Singh 1991). Smith chronologically. (1931) also did not mention specifically. However, 1934-35: One gharial seen in broad daylight Choudhury (1989, 1992) mentioned itsrecentreports in Katakhal river, a tributary ofthe Barakriver, near from a tributary of the Barak river. Matijuri in Hailakandi district, Assam. It was alarge An excellent account ofthepast abundance of specimen, 4-5 m long (A. Mazid Choudhury, pers. the gharial in the Barak river system is found in comm.). Cooper (1951a, b). His Tepi’, Macrup and Irung are 1948: One recorded in the Kushiyara river, now known as Tipai (Tuivai), Makru and Irang Karimganj district, Assam. The Kushiyarariver also respectively, all tributaries ofthe Barakriver. Heand marks the Indo-Bangladesh international border. his companions shot a few of these reptiles in the 1950: One killed in the Dhaleswari river near upper reaches of the Barak and in the Tipai rivers. Hartaki, about 32 km downstream of Sairang in The first one was shot in 1906 up the Tipai river. In Mizoram. The river is locally called by the Mizos the twenties, he found the gharial to be “fairly as Tlawng.