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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES communication, IlearntthatthebirdwasringedinMongolia at44.25°N, 105.19°E,asanestlingonJuly 18,2001 onanElm (Ulmus)by Prof. Dr. Michael Stubbe from the University of Halle,Germany. This was perhaps the first concrete evidence of migrationofMilvusmigranslineatusfromMongoliatoIndia. I thank Dr. R.K. Ranjan Singh ofManipurUniversity for locating the ringed bird and informing me. I also thank Jessica ScheiderofFrankfurt forconfirming the Mongolian information. April3,2003 ANWARUDDIN CHOUDHURY TheRhinoFoundationforNatureinNEIndia, c/oAssamCo., Ltd., Bamunimaidam, Guwahati781 021,Assam, India. Email:[email protected] REFERENCES Au,S.&S.D.Ripley(1987):CompactHandbookoftheBirdsofIndia NewDelhi. andPakistan togetherwith thoseofBangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan Choudhury,A.U.(2000):TheBirdsofAssam.GibbonBooks&WWF- and Sri Lanka. Second edition. Oxford University Press, IndiaNERO,Guwahati. MAMMALIAN PREY SPECIES OF THE FOREST OWLET 8. HETEROGLAUX BLEWITTI HUME The Forest Owlet (Heteroglauxblewitti) is one ofthe TheForestOwletisfoundinopenwoodedhabitatnear least known endemic birds ofIndia. It wasconsidered tobe stream beds dominated by Teak and other tree species such extinctfor 113yearsuntilitsrediscoveryinToranmalReserve as Boswellia serrata, Anogeissus latifolia, Lanea grandis, Forest in Maharashtra (King and Rasmussen 1998). Little Lagerstroemiaparvifoliainterspersedwithlowlyingbushes has been published on the diet of the Forest Owlet and grass. (Rasmussen and Ishtiaq 1999; Ishtiaq et al.2002). Earlier Pellets werecollectedregularlyfromfourpairsatfour studies on the foraging ecology ofthe Forest Owlet reveal different locationsforseventeen months(November2001 to thatitsfoodconsistsof58.8% skinkandotherlizards, 15.8% June 2003). The location coordinates, altitude and numbers field mice and rats, 2.3% birds, 1.8% grasshoppers, 0.6% ofpelletswererecorded.Allthepelletswerecollectedfroma caterpillars, 0.6% frogs and 20.5% unidentified prey item diurnal roostofForest Owlet. Efforts were madetocollecta (Ishtiaq et al. 2002). However, according to the pellet largenumberofpelletsandcarewastakentoavoidcollection analysis by Jathar and Rahmani (2002), insects is the main of pellets of other owl species. All pellets were sun-dried, dietoftheForestOwlet(41%)followedbymammals(36%), numbered and kept in polythene bags, with collection reptiles (16%) and remaining (7%) comprised of birds, data. arachnidsandamphibians. Informationonmammalianprey The pellets were dissected using standard techniques speciesoftheForestOwletisanecdotal.Theprimaryaimof (Yalden and Morris 1990). The material was segregated this note is to describe mammalian prey species of the according to class: arachnids, insects, amphibians, reptiles, ForestOwlet. birds andmammals. Prey items were identifiedtothe finest The study wasconducted inToranmal Reserve Forest possible taxonomic level at the Zoological Survey of of Shahada taluk in Nandurbar district, Maharashtra, India, Pune by the second and third author. Jawbone and , India. The study area liesbetween21°47' Nand74°28' Eto skull pieces showing key characters like molars, incisors, 21° 49' N and 74° 29' E, at an altitude of450 m to 550 m. nasals,pallet,mandibleswereusedforidentifyingmammals Toranmal lies in the Akram hills ofwest Satpura mountain up to species level, using Corbet and Hill (1992) and ranges. Agrawal(2000). 230 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 102 (2), May-Aug 2005 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Table 1: Percentage occurrence and biomass of the mammalian prey species of the Forest Owlet found in pellets (n= 193) Species No. of Frequency of Total Mean Total Percentage of Total individuals occurrence frequency weight of Biomass of Biomass biomass (a) animal theanimal (in grams) * (in grams) (b) (a x b) Insectivores Suncus spp. 7 3.63 ' - - - Suncus stoliczkanus 10 5.18 5 50 6.18 17.10 Suncus etruscus 9 4.66 10 90 11.13 Suncus murinus 7 3.63 23 161 19.92 Rodents Mus spp. 89 46.11 - - - Mus booduga 9 4.66 10 90 11.13 Mus musculus 4 2.07 17 68 8.41 Mus phillipsi 4 2.07 17 68 8.41 Mus saxicola 3 1.55 1 59.06 26 78 9.65 Mus platythrix 1 0.52 26 26 3.21 Tatera Indica 1 0.52 163 163 20.17 Vandeleuria oleracea 1 0.52 14 14 1.73 Rattus sp. 2 1.04 ' - - - Unidentified 46 23.83 23.83 - - - Total 193 311 808 * Weights of all insectivores were taken from BNHS collection records and weights of all rodents were taken from Ellerman (1961) Analysis ofthe 37 pellets revealed adiet comprising ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 574 prey items of which 193 were small mammals. Thus, mammals accounted for 33.62% of the prey. Altogether WeexpressourgratitudetotheMinistryofEnvironment eight species of rodents (mice and rat) and three species and Forests, Government of India for funding this project. of insectivores (shrews) were recorded from the pellets. We specially thank Mr. S.H. Patil, Deputy Conservator of 89 samplesofmiceMuscouldnotbeidentifieduptospecies Forest,NorthDhuledivisionforhisgreathelp.Wealsothank level and 46 samples were not identified due to lack of Dr. Anil S. Mahabal, Jt. Director and Officer-in-charge jawbones and skulls. ZoologicalSurveyofIndia,Pune,forprovidingfacilities.We thankMr.NareshChaturvedi,CuratorBNHSandMr.Vithoba Preyfrequencyandpreybiomass Hegde for their kind cooperation. We also thank Mr. Bharat Mus spp. were the most frequent prey of the Forest Raut (driver) and Mr. Sayasing Vasave (field assistant) for Owlet during the study period. Suncusstoliczkanus was the theiroutstanding help during data collection. second most frequent prey followed by Mus booduga and July22,2005 G.A. JATHAR1 SuncusTheotruugshcursel(aTtaibvleea1b)u.ndance ofprey species within the S.S. TALMALE2 M.S. PRADHAN2 ForestOwletsterritorywasnotestimated,itappearsthatsmall RAHMANP A.R. mammals especially Mus spp. were hunted in proportion to 'BombayNaturalHistorySociety,Hombill House, theirrelative abundance. Studies on the Barn Owl Tytoalba (Evans and Emlen 1974) have shown that the change in S.B. SinghRoad.Mumbai400023,Maharashtra,India. Email:[email protected] consumption ofprey is related to the periodic change in the population of the prey species. The relationship between 2ZoologicalSurveyofIndia, rainfall and population increase in rodents and theirrelative Sector29,RawetRoad,Vidyanagar,NearAkurdiRly. consumptionby BarnOwlshasbeenshown by Debrotet. al. Stn. PCNTDAPost,Pune411044,Maharashtra, India. 2001. Email:[email protected] 1 Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 102 (2), May-Aug 2005 231 2 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES REFERENCES Agrawal. V. C. (2000): Taxonomic studies on Indian Muridae and Ishtiaq, F., PC. Rasmussen & A.R. Rahmani (2002): Ecology and Hystricidae(Mammalia: Rodentia).Rec.zool. Sum. India, Occ. behaviour of the Forest Owlet. Pp. 80-88. In: Ecology and PaperNo.180. Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. Conservation ofOwls(Eds: Newton, L, R. Kavanagh,J. Olson Corbet, G.B. & J.E. Hill (1992): The Mammals ofthe Indomalayan and I.Taylor). CSIROpublishing,Australia. 363 pp. Region. Oxford University Press. UK. Jathar,GA. &A.R. Rahmani(2002): Ecological studiesontheForest Debrot, A.O., J.A. de Freits, A. Brouwer & M.V.M. Kooy (2001): SpottedOwletAthene(Heteroglaux)blewitti. P'Annual report, TheCuracaoBarnOwl :Statusanddiet. 1987-1989.Caribbean Bombay Natural History Society. 38 pp. Journal ofscience 37(3 <£ 4): 185-193. King, B.F. & PC. Rasmussen (1998): The rediscovery of the Forest Ellerman,J R. (1961): The FaunaofIndia including Pakistan, Burma OwletAthene (Heteroglaux) blewitti. Forkrail 14: 51-53. and Ceylon. Mammalia ( nd edition) Vol 3, (Part 1 & II), ZS1 Rasmussen, PC. & F. Ishtiaq(1999): Vocalization andbehaviourofthe Calcutta. Pub. ManagerofPublications, Delhi. ForestOwletAthene(Hetroglaux)blewitti. Forktail 15: 41-49. Evans, F.C. & J. T. Emlen Jr. (1974): Ecological notes on the prey Yalden, D.W. & P.A. Morris (1990): The analysis of owl pellets. selectedby a Barn Owl. Condor49: 3-9. MamnudSociety, Occ. Publ. No. 13: 1-24. London, UK. 9. SIGHTING OF LONG-EARED OWL (ASIO OTUS IN BANNI REGION ) OF KACHCHH DISTRICT, GUJARAT, INDIA The Long-earedOwlAsiaotusisan uncommonwinter during his survey. visitortoIndia(KazmierczakandSingh 1998).OnJanuary 17, Thisspecieshasbeenreportedtobearesidentmigrant, 2000,weweresurveyingintheAndaui villageofBanni region breeding in Baluchistan and Kashmir up to c. 2000 m and of Kachchh, Gujarat, close to the Greater Rann, forrare and wintering in Pakistan and N. India (Ali and Ripley 1995). endangered plants. Standingon adry village pond, oneofus Grimmettetal.(1999)callthespeciesawintervisitortoPakistan (JJ) saw something that resembled adead stump ofa branch and northwest India, also with records ofbreeding. among the foliage ofone of the Acacia nilotica trees. On a It was said to occur in the hilly forest in summer and closer look, we found it to be a bird, and that tooan owl. grassy low-land jungle (Ali and Ripley 1995) and among The owl was brownish orange in colour, with heavy stunted trees and popular plantations (Grimmettetal. 1999) streakson the breast, belly and flanks, and tosomeextenton in winter. Our sighting was in a small patch ofA. nilotica the upper parts. It had long ear tufts with an orange brown forest, which hadbeen severely lopped, buthadgrown again facial disc and orangish brown eyes. intoathickclosedcanopy, located at the edge ofthe Rann in On scanning the other trees nearby, we spotted three the once extensive Banni grasslands. more birds.Theywereperchedon branchesclosetothe main trunk. The average height of the trees was 3 m. The birds April2 2003 JUSTUS JOSHUA were perched between 1 m to 2.5 m from the ground, with 1, NISCHAL M. JOSHI dense coveron all sides. The canopy was very dense, as the V. VIJAY KUMAR branchesofthetreeshadgrown afterthevillagershadlopped PANKAJ N. JOSHI them. These have probably given them adequate protection SUBBA RAO S.V. andcoverfromdisturbance,especiallyfromcrows.Wecould YOGESH SHARMA approach the edge ofthe canopy (< 2m) without disturbing RAMNARESH GULERIA the birds. GujaratInstituteofDesertEcology, TheLong-earedOwl islistedinAppendixAinthebirds PostBox 83,Opp.ChangleshwarTemple, of kutch (Ali 1945). Ali has mentioned that sightings ofthis MundraRoad, Bhuj-Kachchh, bird were reported from Kutch by Dr. F. Stolickza andA.O. Gujarat370001, Hume in the early 1870s, but the species was not spotted India. REFERENCES Ali,S. (1945):The BirdsofKutch. OxfordUniversityPress,Bombay. Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (1999): Pocket Guide to the Pp. 171. BirdsofIndianSubcontinent.OxfordUniversityPress,NewDelhi All S. & S.D. Ripley (1995): A Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Pp. 82. Indian Subcontinent. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay. Kazmierczak, K. & R. Singh (1998): ABirdwatcher’s Guide to India. Pp. 1 10. Prion Ltd. Sandy. Devon. U.K. Pp. 305. 232 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 102 (2), May-Aug 2005