LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 167 
night the river had unexpectedly risen, and my island had 
disappeared. On the 3rd April [ again went down, and cross- 
ing the river made as thorough a search as was possible. On 
the sandy bank just below Kotri, I found it very trying work, 
as my crutches (I could not dispense with them) sank several 
inches into the mud at every step. My diligence was rewarded 
by finding three nests (or holes would be the more correct 
term) containing, respectively, two, two, and one egg, all hard 
set, not so much, but I made decent specimens of them. The 
two pairs were of the usual type, but the single eee was very 
deficient in color, and densely clouded at the larger end with 
pale underlying patches of purple. I attribute the fact of 
there being but one or two eggs in each batch to the birds 
having commenced to lay on the island before it was flooded, 
and were forced to finish laying in the nearest suitable place. 
The spot where I procured these eggs was not an unfrequented 
one, neither was it a spit of land running into the water, and 
scores of people passed it daily, yet the eggs were not in any 
way concealed. This, I believe, is contrary to their usual 
habits. 
I can only find a record of one specimen of Tehitrea paradisi 
having been obtained in the province. I shot a second one in a 
babool grove to the east of the camp. There seems also a 
* doubt of the occurrence of Gallicrex cinereus. I flushed one 
from a caper thicket in 1879 during the inundation. I was not 
aware at the time of its rarity, so did not preserve the skin ; 
there is no mistake, I know the bird well, having examined 
specimens in the Kurrachee Museum, and in addition the desic- 
cated remains were seen by Mr. Murray a day or two after. 
Iam not aware that any eggs of Coccystes jacobinus have 
been recorded as taken in Sind. I took one on the 20th August 
1879 from a nest of Chatarrhea caudata. 
H. E. Baryes. 
Iiyprrapap Sinn, 
26th April 1881. 
Sir, 
ReGaRDING the “ Great Indian Bustard” let me inform 
you that I shot one some years ago, three miles west of 
Arupacottah, a large village in the Madura district. On that 
occasion I saw seven or eight Bustard. I have repeatedly seen 
eight or ten of a morning near the same place, which is on the 
borders of Madura and Tinnevelly. 
The Tamil name for the Bustard seems to me very appro- 
priate. It is called the Kanal-Myle (the “1? is not pronounced 
