raí m i l i i M i t i á ! í i um
Sypheotides aurita, Latham.
Vernacular Ñames.—[Ker mor, Gttzerat; Tun mor, Deccan and Marathi
Districts; Chini mor, Belgaum; Khartítar, Bheels; Likh, Chota Charat,
N. W. Provinces ; Charas, Chulla Charas, Southern India; Kannoul, (Canaresé)
; Niala nimili, (Telugu) : Wurragu Koli, (Tamil) ; Bursati, or Kala
Tugder, Rchtak, Gurgaon.\
FIND great difficulty 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 unaccountable 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
southernmost 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 Wyndd.
During the rains when it breeds, although many breed in the
Deccan, as, for instance, about Sholapur, the majority, I think,
move northwards and westwards, extending over the western
parts of the Central Provinces, the Central India Agency, the
southern and central portions of Rajputana, Khandesh,
Guzerat, Cutch, Kathiawar and Southern Sindf.
The migration is, however, irregular, as in some years it
extends much further than in others. The birds are plentiful in
one year, where in the next none or very few are to be met with.
* Even in the winter, however, stragglers will be found far outside the limits thus
indicated, e.g., below the ghats in S. Canara, (Jerdon) and in Ratnagiri and Dapoli,
Southern Konkan (G. Vidal), in Sambalpur (one shot at Sohela, n t h January), in
the Meerut district (two shot at Ghazi-ud-din-Nagar, in December) & c , &c.
t A few couple are annually shot in August, on the Moach plain, near Kurrachee,
and other similar localities within a circle of 20 or 30 miles of that station.