804 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



me to be the absence of protection against heavy night dews. For 16 hours 

 out of the 24, the dry game has to endure a cold bath, and their constitution 

 will not stand it. 



W. B. COTTON, c.s. 

 Basti, U. p., dth January 1914. 



No. XX.— THE SMALL INDIAN PRATINCOLE {GLAREOLA 

 LAC TEA, Temm.) 



In working at the plumage of this common species I have lately had 

 occasion to look up its history and distribution, and have been struck by 

 the paucity of records regarding it. In the Fauna, Vol IV, p. 217, its 

 distribution is summed up as follows: — "Resident in suitable places 

 throughout the plains of India, Ceylon and Burma, as far west as the 

 Indus. Found in Kashmir, but not observed elsewhere in the Himalayas. 

 Unknown outside our area." 



Now this is not quite correct, for in portions, at all events, of its range 

 it is highly migratory ; for instance, Capt. Whitehead in his "Birds of 

 Kohat and the Kurram Valley " writes : — " A summer visitor from April till 

 August. Col. Rattray found it breeding freely on the banks of the Kurram 

 River in April. It was very common when we passed through Thall in 

 April and on our return in May." 



In my own experience I have found it as a very numerous summer 

 visitor from roughly March to October on some of the Punjab rivers ; here 

 on the River Jhelum it occurred in extraordinary numbers this past year. 



Now, even if the bird is a resident species, generally speaking, it is not 

 so in the Punjab and N.-W. F. P., which, therefore, supply an enormous 

 number of individuals that must appear as winter visitors in some other 

 portions of our area ; the suddenness of their departure and arrival points 

 to the migration being a real one, and not merely a gradually southerly or 

 northerly movement dependent on the approach or cessation of cold 

 weather. Is there then any portion of our area in which the species is a 

 winter visitor only ? Or do these birds disperse over a large area which 

 has its own resident population ? And is that area so large that the addition 

 of these Punjab birds makes no appreciable difference ? These are ques- 

 tions to which I can find no answer : perhaps some of our members can 

 enlighten me. It should be an easy matter to clear up. The species is 

 entirely confined to our area ; it is very common and most easily recognized, 

 and is known to both sportsmen and naturalists. 



Surely, if each member wrote on a postcard the places and months 

 where and when he has met with the bird ; and any other particulars he 

 may be able to add about nesting and migration, and these postcards 

 were sent to a common destination, e.g., one of our Committee, the material 

 thus forthcoming might be sufficient to throw light on the problem ? 



HUGH WHISTLER. 



Jhelum, 21st January 1914. 



No. XXI.— SWINHOE'S SNIPE {G. MEGALA) IN BURMA. 



I enclose what I believe to be the skin of Gallinago megala, Swinhoe's Snipe, 

 shot by me in the Tharrawady District on the 5th November. The bird 

 was flushed in some tall king grass while shooting Fantail and Pintail. 



