THE KHAN JAN 245 



Pied Wao:tail live and breed in and around 

 the river Sangam which flows past that 

 city, while ten miles out of it, you will 

 have to search hard to find a single 

 bird. The city of Madras, for some 

 reason or other, attracts large numbers 

 of these birds, while many other towns 

 of the Madras Presidency are not as 

 lucky in harbouring these lively crea- 

 tures as that city. This bird is very 

 common on the shrunken river-beds of 

 Chota Nagpur. In the Himalayas, it 

 does not range very high up, though 

 it has been noticed in Sikkim and Mus- 

 sorie. It is rare about Darjeeling. In 

 the hills of the Deccan, it has been found 

 as far up as 8000 ft. It is scarce in the 

 desert-lands of Rajputana, but a few live 

 and breed about the lakes of Mount 

 Abu. It is plentiful in all the well- 

 watered portions and the great river 

 systems of Northern India. In Bengal, 

 a few stray birds are likely to be met 

 with in those portions of the border dis- 



