188 Ornithological Notes, chiefly on some birds [No. 3, 



780. Carpophaga sylvatica, Tickell. I am obliged to dis- 

 sent from Dr. Jerdon's account of the distribution of this bird. He 

 says — it inhabits the whole of India in forest countries. Now this is 

 constantly asserted of Malay forms, and I am persuaded that in many 

 cases it is a mistake. I have been all through the immense forests of 

 the lower Nerbudda and Taptee valleys, and I never saw an imperial 

 pigeon in them, nor did I ever meet with the bird near Chanda. I 

 first came upon it near Sironcha and thence it occurred down the 

 Grodavery, and I have shot it in Orissa. My belief is, that its range is 

 rigidly restricted to the great forest country inhabited by Gall us 

 ferrugineus and Rucervus Duvaucelii, and that it does not occur in the 

 woods of Central* or Western India. This makes it the more probable 

 that Mr. Blyth's O. pusilla is a really distinct race, confined to Malabar, 

 or perhaps like other Malabar forms ranging northwards along the 

 Western Grhats". It may also occur on the hill plateaus about Salem 

 and Trichinopoly. In the same manner I have scarcely a doubt but 

 that Jerdon's C. cuprea will prove, when compared, distinct from C 

 znsignis, Hodgson. 



I also never yet saw an Osmotreron nor a Chalcophaps in the 

 country west of Nagpiir, or in the Nerbudda valley. I much regret 

 now that I did not collect birds in the Nerbudda and Taptee 

 valleys, as I might have noted several interesting points regarding their 

 distribution. 



Order RASORES. 

 Family Pteroclid^e. 

 803. PterOCleS faSCiatUS, Scopoli. I can confirm Dr. Jer- 

 don's account of the crepuscular habits of this bird. For two or three 

 years I noticed occasionally, when camped beside streams in jungle, 

 that some bird frequently flew along the course of the stream with a 

 most peculiar tri-syllabic cry, after dark in the evening, or before it was 

 light in the morning. At last I caught sight of the bird one morning, 

 and recognised it by its flight as a Pterocles, and as Pt. exustus is 

 never found in forest, it must have been Pt. fasciatus. The closely 

 allied Pt. Lichtensteini occurs in immense numbers near the Abyssinian 

 coast, and this also flies to water in the dusk of the morning and eveii- 



* When Jerdon speaks of this bird's breeding in Central India, I believe he 

 means Basta, not Nagpur, and still less Malwa. 



