SYPHEOTIS AURITA 203 



" Dr. Jei'clon tells us that ' this species is found throughout 

 India, from near the foot of the Himalayas to the southernmost 

 districts,' but this conveys, I think, a somewhat erroneous idea 

 of its distribution, which is not nearly so wide as this might seem 

 to imply. 



"Although a certain number are probably permanent residents 

 of Khandesh, Nasik and Ahmednagar, the real home of the Lessor 

 Florican is in the drier portions of the Peninsula, lying east of the 

 Western Ghats and south and east of the Godavari. 



It is, of course, confined to plains and open country, and does 

 not ascend any of the hills, though a single specimen was once 

 killed, I hear, on the slopes of the Nilgiris, between Neddiwattum 

 and Pykarra, going down to the Wynaad. 



" During the rains, when it breeds, although many breed in the 

 Deccan, as, for instance, about Sholapur, the majority, I think, 

 move northwards and westwards, extending over the western parts 

 of the Central Provinces, the Central India Agency, the southern 

 and central portions of Eajputana, Khandesh, Guzerat, Cutch- 

 Kathiawar and Southern Sind. 



" The migration is, however, irregular, as in some years it extends 

 much furtlier than in others. The birds are plentiful in one year 

 where in the next none or few are to be met with. 



" In years when the rainfall is plentiful, they are pretty common 

 during the monsoon a little south of Delhi, in Eohtak and Gurgaou. 

 Generally, there are a good many about Jhansi and so on, but 

 except as stragglers, they are not found in those parts of the country 

 that I know further north than a line joining Sirsa and Delhi, nor 

 do they cross the Jumna in any numbers. 



" Although I have known single specimens killed near Lucknow, 

 Sultanpur, and other places in Oudh ; though I have myself shot 

 single birds occasionally in the Meerut and Etawah districts ; 

 though Ball got a specimen in Serguja, Hodgson others in the 

 valley of Nepal ; though Jerdon says he has known of their Occur- 

 rence in Purneah, and Parker tells me they have occurred in 

 Nuddea ; though one specimen has been killed on the Mekran coast 

 near Gwader and another at Sandoway in Arrakan, I do not, as at 

 present informed, consider that either Beluchistan, the Punjab, 

 the North- Western Provinces, north and east of the Jumna, Oudh, 

 Chota Nagpore or any part of Bengal or the countries eastwards, 

 can be properly included within its normal range. It occurs 

 nowhere out of India." 



It will be seen that Hume refers to a bird shot at Sandoway on 

 the Arrakan coast. This record is from the ' Bengal Sporting 

 Magazine ' for i«35, where a writer, on p. 151, records the shooting 



