502 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Madras, and long ago I heard of its occasional visits to the 

 Dekhan, but it is only since I have visited Bengal that I have 

 seen it in its native haunts.^' 

 To besrin with Bengal — 



Blyth says '' not very common in Bengal/' and this is exactly 

 my experience and the result of all my enquiries. 



It very seldom comes into the Calcutta Market — rarely I 

 should think more than half a dozen specimens in a season. 

 Mr. Rainey tells me it is most rare in Jessore. In the Howrah, 

 Dacca, Furreedpoor and Sylhet Districts, I am told that it is 

 very scarce. Nowhere can I hear of it as common. 



Can any one tell us any place where it is common, and also 

 when they found it so ? Because in many parts of the country 

 it seems only to appear during the rains. 



Thus, if I remember rightly, Mr. 0. Shillingford informed 

 me that near his place in the south of the Purneah District it 

 only appeared (and not even then in large numbers) during 

 the monsoon^ 



From Upper Assam Colonel Graham reported it, but there 

 too it was rare. Where, in Bengal, and at what season can 

 Jerdon have found it common ? 



Then he says : — " Found at times througliout Northern 

 India." It is absolutely unknown, I believe, throughout the 

 greater portion of the North- Western Provinces and the whole 

 of the Punjab and Rajpootana. No one has ever reported it 

 from the Central Provinces. It does occur, but apparently as 

 a rare straggler and only during the rains, in Oudh, and 

 Anderson says he once shot a female in Futtehpoor. Nothing 

 can be more misleading than to say that it occurs throughout 

 Northern India. 



In Central and Southern India it seems equally almost un- 

 known except on the east coast, where it does occur occasionally 

 in the Pulieat Lake, whence I have a specimen, and whence 

 the specimens procured by Jerdon in the Madras Market were 

 doubtless obtained. Ball reports it, but as not common, in 

 Manbhoom and Chota Nagpore. 



In the Deccan it is so rare that neither Davidson nor 

 Wenden ever saw it, though Fairbank once met with a speci- 

 men near Ahmednugger and McMaster once shot it at Secun- 

 derabad. 



It is unknown in Tenasserim, and scarce in Upper Burmah, 

 and Blyth adds, Aracan. 



It does not apparently occur outside our limits. We have 

 not met with it in the Malay Peninsula, and it is not reported 

 from Siara or China. 



