Mr. A. Hume un Indian Ornithology. 29 



took their departure next morning before noon without being 

 further molested. At the time I was unfortunately too much of 

 of a mere sportsman and too little of a naturalist to take much 

 note of a bird which had nothing gamelike in its plumage, and 

 which proved unfit for the table. 



Years passed away, during which (gun in hand though I 

 always was when I could spare the time or could get leave) I 

 never once met with a single specimen of the bird. Soon after 

 the mutiny, however, in 1859, I succeeded in shooting one out 

 of a flock of some five and twenty, which I found in a large 

 "jheeP^ or shallow rain-water lake, in the north of the Etawah 

 district, about halfway between Agra and Cawnpore. 



During the winters of 1865-6 and 1866-7 I have procured 

 and preserved a number of specimens in the same neighbour- 

 hood, and have had many opportunities of watching them pretty 

 closely. 



They are very probably to be found during the cold weather 

 in suitable localities throughout the plains of the north of India ; 

 but the only place where I have observed them, out of the 

 Himalayahs, is in a tract of country lying to the north of the 

 Etawah and south of the Myupoorie districts, in the middle of 

 the '^Duab,^^ or Mesopotamia, of the Gauges and Jumna, and, 

 as I said before, about halfway between Agra and Cawnpore. 



That they themselves are rare, and that localities suited to 

 their tastes are not numerous, may be inferred from the fact 

 that, apparently, Dr. Jerdon, when he published his work, had 

 never seen one ; while, as far as I know, until I last year sent 

 a pair to Madras, there were no specimens in any of our 

 museums. The locality in which, during these last two winters, 

 I have seen and procured, comparatively, so many of these 

 beautiful birds is somewhat peculiar. A broad straggling belt 

 of Dhak [Butea frondosa)-]\xw^Q, some ten miles in width — at 

 one time doubtless continuous, but now much encroached upon 

 and intersected in many places by cultivated lands, runs down 

 through nearly the whole of the " Duab," marking, I suspect, 

 an ancient river-course. Just where the northern and southern 

 boundaries of the Etawah and Mynpoorie districts, lie within 

 this belt, the latter encloses a number of large shallow ponds 



