Turnix joudera, Hodgson.
Vernacular Names.—[ Lowa, Upper India ; Pedda dttbba gúndhi (Telega); ]
LITTLE skulking thinly-distributed species, rarely seen,
and still more rarely shot, our information as to its
distribution is very meagre. Jcrdon says it occurs in
the upland districts of Malabar, and Mr. F. Bourdillon
sent me a skin from South Travancore, but I have no
other records of its occurrence so far south. I do
not know of its occurring in Ceylon or in any part of
the Peninsula south of the latitude of Madras, save only in
Travancore and Malabar, as above. It has not been reported
from Mysore. It is very rare in the Deccan, and neither Sykcs,
Fairbank, Davidson nor Wcnden appear ever to have met with i t;
but Captain Butler has shot it in the neighbourhood of Poona during
the rains. Jerdon says it occurs in the Eastern Gháts. Beyond
this I regret to say I have no authentic record of its occurrence
south of a line drawn from Ganjam to Bombay. North of that it
is generally, but usually sparingly, distributed in Orissa, the Tributary
Mehals, the Central Provinces, the Central India Agency,
Khandesh, the PánchMaháls, and Guzerat,throughout ChotaNagpore,
Bengal,* west of the Brahmaputra, and the North-Western
Provinces and Oudh, penetrating during the summer into the
warmer valleys of the outer ranges of the Himalayas, and being
found up to elevations of 3,000, to 4,500 feet in Sikhim, Nepal,
and Kumaun. Whether it extends westwards of this in the
Himalayas, I do not know.
It occurs, but very thinly and locally distributed and only, I
think, as a rainy season visitant, in the less arid portions of
the Punjab, south and east of the Chenab, of Rajputana, Sind,
Cis-Indus, of Cutch and Káthiáwár.
Whether it extends eastwards of the Brahmaputra or up into
the valley of Assam, I cannot say. Major Godwin-Austen
records it from the Naga Hills, but very possibly his bird may
have been maculosus, as the Hill Tipperah bird certainly is.
This is I feel a very vague and unsatisfactory account of the
distribution of this species, but materials are wanting, and
* "Seen in the cold weather occasionally In Jessore"—//. y- Rainey.