462 Letters, Announcements, ^fc. 



appeared to be very rare. It was much less so, though still 

 very far indeed from common, in the great forests upon the 

 Pranhita and Godavery rivers about Siroucha, This is five 

 hundred miles south of Franklin's supposed original locality, 

 and still further from Behar, whence Mr. Hodgson is said to 

 have obtained specimens. It is very probable that the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Godavery is the principal locality for this bird, 

 and that the specimens obtained to the northward were strag- 

 glers. It is curious that Dr. Jerdon did not meet with it in 

 Bustar, which is not very far from Siroucha and is a portion of 

 the same great forest tract, which, indeed, stretches from the 

 Godavery to Midnapoor, and is the largest extent of "jungle" 

 in India. 



Salpornis is not very wary. It has much the appearance of a 

 Sitta, clinging to the largest trees, running round and round 

 their trunks in all directions, and searching for insects. I 

 found Coleoptera in their stomachs. In April the sexes were 

 paired, and the birds evidently breeding; but I had not the 

 good fortune to obtain the eggs. 



I once saw, I believe, Rhinoptilus bitoi'quatus, Jerdon (B. Ind. 

 ii. p. 628), but failed to obtain a specimen. The birds, three 

 in number, were in open forests near Siroucha; and similar 

 country extended for many miles around. I was looking for 

 bigger game (to wit, Gaur), and I had no missile smaller than 

 a No. 14 bullet with me ; but I rode on horseback close to the 

 birds, and distinctly made out the gorget and broad white 

 supercilium. In their carriage and general appearance, mode of 

 running, and so forth, the birds were intermediate between 

 Courier-Plovers and Lapwings. 



I thrice saw colonies of Hirundo fiuvicola, Jerdon ; but it is a 

 rare bird. Their nests were in every case massed together, as 

 described by Dr. Jerdon (B. Ind. i. p. 162), beneath an over- 

 hanging bank, below which was deep water. My friend Mr. 

 Fedden, who was with me in the same district, told me that 

 he met with a colony beneath a waterfall on the Pem Gunga 

 river, and the birds flew in and out of their nests through 

 the water. In every case the nests were in places which would 

 be covered by the river during the wet season. I was told by 



