KETTAPUS COROMANDELIANUS. 49' 



Mr. J. W. Carrington records having shot it near fSujawal in Scind, 

 and Mr. E. L. Barton records the followino- from Guzerat : — 



1897. On 17th January, at Purdi, Surat 5 Cotton-TeaL 



51 V '^■*ttl „ ,, ,, 1 ,, 



„ „ 13th February ,. ,, 9 „ 



1898. „ 18th December, at Lohderea, Ahmedabad . 1 ,, 

 „ „ 23rd ,, at Ahdura 1 „ 



E. M. Young reports it as occurring in fair nuniljers in the Panch 

 Mahals, and it is also reported from Guzual hy A. H. Mene. 



In Orissa they are common enough, and in parts of Madras fairly so ; 

 from Malabar I can find no record of its occurrence, though I believe 

 there is one somewhere could I only remember it. In Ceylon it appears 

 to be more or less confined to the north and east of the ishmd. 



Legge writes (' Birds of Ceylon,' p. 10(37) : "This pretty little bird is 

 common in the tanks of the northern and eastern parts of the island, 

 breeding in many secluded spots, and moving about considerably during 

 the rainy weather. To the Western Province and south-west of the island 

 it is apparently chiefly a N.E. monsoon migrant, as about Christmas-time 

 it is met with on the Kotte and Ka?sbawa lakes and other similar sheets of 

 water." 



In Burmali it a])pears to be found everywhere as far south as Tenasserim 

 and Tavoy. 



Butler reports it in his list of Andaman birds as having been obtained 

 by G. Wardlaw-Ramsiiy and ( -aptain Wimberley. 



In certain of the drier portions of its habitat this bird is semi-migratory 

 in its habits, only visiting them in the rains, and leaving again for some 

 more suitable place as the haunts in the former begin to dry up. 



Hume, referring to the vast numbers seen every day during the cold 

 weather in the Calcutta market, says it is a mystery to him where they 

 come from. Having myself shot over some of the vast bhils and back- 

 waters of the Ganges and B]'ahma[)Ootra, I think it would take a very 

 large number indeed to surprise me. In the places mentioned they simply 

 swarm in thousands and are only outnumbered by the Whistling-Teals. 

 I suppose everyone knows how the fishermen of the Sunderbuns and other 

 parts net the vast numbers of duck that are daily sent into the Calcutta 

 market ; but in case there are some who do not, the following may explain. 

 Over a great stretch of shallow bhil they erect nets some fifteen to twenty 

 feet high, usually selecting the end of a large ])atc]i of water where it 



E 



