Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 19.djvu/503

 1850.] Note on an Inscription from Oujein. 475

its prey; he is of a dark black hue with red about him, but at this distance of time, now three years, I cannot remember his exact appear- ance. I brought one down with me from the summit of the mountain Maruk, which is eleven hundred feet above the Ganges, and he mea- Sured six inches across the legs when set up. It was in the web of this very spider that I found the bird entangled, and the young Spiders (about eight in number and entirely of a brick-red colour) feeding upon the carcass. The bird was much decomposed and enveloped in web, but the beak and feet '_ being visible I sketched them, a copy of which sketch I enclose for your satisfaction.* The bird hung with his head downwards, his wings were closely pinioned to his sides by the entwined web, and was nearly in the centre of the web. The old Spider which I secured was above the bird about a foot removed.

Had we not been a half-starved party, we should have bottled the bird, Spider and young ones; but we were at the end of a ﬁve-days’ roam amongst these steep hills, covered with wet grass, without beds or covering, in the height of the rainy season, so you may imagine our commissariat was at too low an ebb to afford brandy for such a purpose!

Note by Mr. Blytb. This communication from Capt. Sherwill is the more interesting, since the total demolition of Madam Merian’s account of a bird-eating spider in Surinam, by Mr. W. S. McLeay, in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ 1834, p. The Species would appear to be an Epeira, most probably undescribed, and re- markable for the “ bright yellow colour” of its web.

Note on an Inscription from Oujein; by RAJENDRALAL MITTRA, Librarian, Asiatic Society.

Sometime ago Mr. R. N. C. Hamilton of Indore presented to the Asiatic Society a fac-simile of a Grant discovered in digging a ruin in the vicinity of Oujein. The character of the Inscription is the Kutila of the 10th century, engraved on two tablets of copper the last of which has on it a ﬁgure of Gaduda, the vehicle of Vishnu. The style is extremely pompous and ﬁgurative, quite characteristic of the age in which it was written, and the document itself is imperfect as a


 * A Nectarinice apparently, and probably N. asiatica.—-E. B.