Ill Mill Mil AMT H< 



Porzana akool, Sykes. 



Yernaciilar Names.— [ 



LTHOUGH it doubtless may so occur, I can find no 

 authentic record of the occurrence of this species 

 in Ceylon or anywhere in the Peninsula of India 

 south of about the 20th degree of N. Latitude. 



One gathers, from its being included in his list 

 of the birds of that region, that Colonel Sykes must 

 have procured it somewhere in the Deccan, but he 

 gives on localities, and no subsequent observer has again met 

 with it there. 



North of this line it occurs, but for the most part very spar- 

 ingly, in suitable localities in certain districts of the Central 

 Provinces (e.g., Sambalpur north of the Mahanadi, Raipur, 

 Saugor), in Northern Guzerat, where, during the breeding season, 

 it is common, in parts of Chota Nagpore, Bengal, the North- 

 Western Provinces (especially about Jhansi, and in Bundelkhand 

 generally), Oudh and the Punjab, Cis-Sutlej, at any rate in 

 Delhi and Gurgaon. It also occurs in the south-eastern 

 portions of Rajputana (i.e., Bhurtpore,) the Sambhar Lake, 

 Ajmere, Erinpura, and in the immediate neighbourhood of, and 

 even high up upon, Mount Abu. We know nothing of its 

 occurrence in North-Western Rajputana, in the trans-Sutlej 

 portion of the Punjab, or in Sind, nor, I may add (though it 

 must surely occur in the former), in Kathiawar or Cutch. 



In many districts of the North-Western Provinces it is rare to 

 a degree, and the same may be said of Bengal, Oudh and the 

 Central Provinces. Dr. Jerdon says that it is rather common in 

 Lower Bengal, but it is really, as Blyth had long previously 

 correctly stated, rare there. 



It is most common, in Upper India, in the Duns, Tarais, 

 and Bhabars that skirt the southern bases of the Himalayas ; 

 but though ascending Mount Abu, it does not appear to ascend 

 these mountains, as I have never seen a specimen procured at 

 a greater elevation than two thousand feet ; and I know of its 

 having been found in the summer, and breeding, in the Dun, 

 the Kumaun Bhabar and the Sikhim Tarai. Hodgson, I may 



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