726 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL IllSr. SOCIJbJTY, Vol. XXI. 



birds, i.e., over 18 months, will not often be found with a wing of 

 less than 9". 



Inglis sends me a note on the soft parts of a female shot by 

 him in Behar as follows : " Bill dusky red, culmen dark brown, 

 gape and base of lower mandible yellow ; iris j^ellow tinged with 

 red; legs dull dusky yellow." 



Adult male in ivinter 'phbmat.ie. — Similar to the female, but 

 ]-etaining a considerable amount of white on the wing. 



Young male. — Like the female. 



Xestling. — " An almost uniform dirty pale yellow colour, with 

 an unclosed V (i.e. v) on the crown of the head in dingy black, 

 and blotches, rather stripy, of black on the wing, back and sides, 

 and about the ears ; legs and beak a colour between pale blue and 

 pale pink ; and on the tip of the beak a little lump of pale pearly 

 white." (Davidson as quoted by Hume.) 



Bidrihution. — In " Game Birds " Hume thus describes the 

 habitat of the Lesser Florican : — 



" I find great difficult}^ in defining the limits within which the 

 Lesser Florican occurs ; firstly, because it is irregularly migratory 

 and secondly because individual birds straggle in the most un- 

 accountable manner hundreds of miles beyond the furthest districts 

 which it at all regularly visits." 



" Dr. Jerdon tells us that ' this species is found throughout 

 India, from near the foot of the Himalayas to the soiTthermost 

 districts,' but this conveys, I think, a somewhat erroneous idea of 

 its distribution, which is not nearly so wide as this might seem to 

 imply." 



" Although a certain number are probably permanent residents 

 of Khandesh, Nasik and Ahmednagar, the real home of the Lesser 

 Florican is in the drier portions of the Peninsula, lying east of the 

 Western Ghats and south and east of the Godavari." 



" It is, of course, confined to plains and open country, and does 

 not ascend any of the hills, though a single specimen was once 

 killed, I hear, on the slopes of the Nilgiris, between Neddiwattum 

 and Pykarra, going down to the Wynaad." 



'' During the rains when it breeds, although many breed in the 

 Deccan, as, for instance, about Sholapur, the majorit}^, I think, 



