LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 267 



search next day in hopes of finding the nest, but without suc- 

 cess. Still I think that I have found enough to warrant niv 

 saying that RhyncJuea bengalensis breeds in this locality in the 

 month of December. Should you consider it worthy of notice, 

 please mention this fact in Stray Feathers. — M. Forbes 



CoESSMAKER. 



Chahrajnagar, 20th December 1874. 



Sir, 



I shot the other day under the Erie Hill a kind of 

 Sand Grouse (P. coronatus) * which is new to me. 



I have shot P. senegallus, which are common enough in 

 many places, but coronatus I have only seen in one place under 

 the Soorjana and Erie Hills, where we go for Ibex ; and the 

 species appears little known to even old Sindhees. It is very 

 like senegallus, but has a black patch on each side, above the 

 bill, and another down the throat. The plumage is altogether 

 lighter in shade, and their cry and flight is different from those 

 of senegallus. — Frank Wise. 



KURRACHEE DISTRICT, 



Sindh, 10th December 1874. 



Sir, 



As some of your readers may be interested to learn 

 that Cursorius coromandelicus does appear, occasionally at least, 

 in Lower Bengal, in spite of Dr. Jerdon's remarks to the con- 

 trary, I may state that I have now twice shot these birds 

 close to Calcutta, that is to say, at Muddenpore (where there is 

 a station of the Eastern Bengal Railway,) 33 miles distant from 

 our city. 



When the nature of the country in that neighbourhood is 

 taken into consideration, there is nothing surprising that this 

 species should be found there, for nowhere I should imagine is 

 the country more suitable to its habits. The whole district ex- 

 tending from Muddenpore to Kanshrapara and far inland from 

 the Hooghly is comparatively speaking high dry ground. Here 

 and there are deep hollows, in which water collects and forms 

 lake-like expanses, permanent, and not mere shallow jheels, 

 and these, with the high ridges here and there dotted with fine 

 trees, give a very pleasing appearance to the country in general. 

 The higher parts are sparingly cultivated with such crops as 

 grow well on dry soil, Tobacco, Linseed, Tilseed, &c, but a 

 good deal is still grass land, and it is on these undulating 



* Fully described S. F., Vol. I., p. 224 — when I recorded its occurrence for the 

 first time within our limits. My specimen was from the extreme north-west of Sindh ; 

 we now have it in the same Province from a great deal further south. — Ed. 



