SARCIDIORXIS JIELAMONQTA. 25 



' Asian ' on tho subject to the following effect: — "'I am happy to state 

 that it not only occurs, l)ut that it breeds in the Punjauli^ Trans-Sutlej. A 

 friend of mine, an enoineer on the Baree Doab C-anal, sent me a female 

 Sarcidiorms for identification from Bhambe, in the Lahore district. On 

 openino- the l)ird I found a perfectly-fornied eo-g ready to l:»e laid, and 

 from other investigation it seemed clear that there Avas a nest in the 

 vicinity. During the rains the neighbourhood of Bham1)e in one direction 

 is fairly under water, and canna brakes are very common, with patches of 

 water between, and dotted liere and there with large trees, just the place 

 for the Xukhta. It was at one siicli place that my friend saw the pair 

 often, and on the day he shot the female, had fired one or two shots 

 unsuccessfully at her or the male ; but was rather surprised at the way in 

 which Ijoth returned, wheeling round and round without going away any 

 distance. As soon as the female was shot, the male Avent further off, and 

 did not afford another shot ; but the whole circumstances go far to prove 

 that there must have been a nest at hand.^^ 



In ( 'achar it is In' no means very rare. I have seen it in Sylhet. and 

 again have had notice of its occurrence sent me from the North Looshai 

 Hills. As regards the Sunderbunds, Jessore was the district in which I 

 first made the acquaintance of this species — a distant acquaintance only, it is 

 true ; but in the next district (Khoolna) we came into closer contact with 

 one another. Here a pair of iSTukhtas formed part of a bag of 140 couple 

 of Duck and Teal got l)y my father, Mr. T. Wilcox, and myself, in the 

 jNIoolna bhil, a vast extent of swamp and water, covering fully twenty square 

 miles of the conntrv. This was in the cold weather, the end of January 

 1883. In Cachar, Sylhet, and Looshai, the birds remain all the year 

 round and breed as they do in most other parts of their habitat ; but in the 

 Sunderbunds I should think they are very probably migrants, though 1 

 have no evidence on this point. 



In Burmah, Oates reports them as common in Pegu, and it is almost 

 certain that tliey have l)een, oi- will l)e, recorded throughout that ]n"ovince, 

 extending through the Indo-Burmese countries. 



Out of India their habitat ma}' be descril)ed roughly as Africa south of 

 the Sahara, an<l tliey are also found in Madagascar, though they do not 

 seem particularly common there. Hume says that they do not ascend the 

 hills, but in North Cachar and in Looshai they are, at all events, found u]) 

 to about 2000 feet, if not considerably higher. Mr. V. G. Scott, an 

 engineer on the Assam-Bengal liailway, told me that once late in April 

 one of these birds flew quite close to him as he was walking down one of 



