STRAY FEATHERS.
UNDER this title has been published for many years
a magazine devoted entirely to the ORNITHOLOGY of
the BRITISH ASIAN EMPIRE and the circumjacent
countries.
No one can make any satisfactory progress in the
Ornithology of India without the assistance of this
magazine, which is strongly recommended to all who
may be led by a perusal of " T H E GAME BIRDS," to
desire to know something about the multitudinous other
families, genera and species of Birds that inhabit this
Empire.
The magazine for the current year, and its volumes
for most of the past years, may be procured from
THE CENTRAL PRESS,
5, COUNCIL HOUSE ST., CALCUTTA.
S U B S E Q U E N T to the publication of Volumes I. and I I . and the
printing off of Volume III., a few notes have been received in
regard to some of the species therein treated of. Another
Tragopan has been added to our Avifauna, and the female of
the Crestless Moonal, unknown when Volume I. was published,
has been procured.
The additional information thus made available is reproduced
below.
THE GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD. (Vol. I., pp. 7, et scq)—
In the first place I was wrong in supposing that this species does not cross the
Tumni northwards, and eastwards into the North-Western Provinces. It is shown
that it is a permanent resident of parts of the Mozuffcmuggur district, occurs in
Saharaupur, and prohably in Meerut likewise.
Mr. Frederic Wilson writes I "There are always, at this time of the year
(November roth), a few of the Great Indian Bustard east of MoziilTeniuggur, 011
the high ground just before the dip into the Ganges Kadir. My son had a rifle
shot at one, and so had my assistant, both missing. I myself came across a (lock
of sixteen one day, hut did not get a shot. I shall probably go down in that
direction this cold weather, and will try and send you one."
And Mr. 1*\ W. Butler says ; " You say that the Great Indian Bustard docs not
occur in the North-Western Provinces, north and cast of the Jumna, but some
few birds of this species are really always to be found in the Momffernuggur district
all through the year.
**I yesterday put one up about six miles from my house, a cock. I saw a dead
bird some years ago, that had been killed for Mr. George Palmer, c s. Au inspector
of mine wounded a cock badly last January, Some years ago, while riding'across
from Roorkee to Bijnour, I saw a number of birds on some sandhills, which I then
believed to be Vultures- I had then never seen the Great Bustard. I was struck
by the birds, and watched them for sometime. Eventually I rode into them, and
put them up ; this was during the rains, I have no doubt now, especially after
reading your remarks (p. 11,) that these birds were Bustards.
" Between the line of the railway and the Ganges canal, from near Roorkee to,
I believe, Ghazccabad, there runs a broken range of sandhills. Along this tract,
right and left of the range, the land is high and sandy [bhoor), and here Bustards
are to be found. I cannot positively assert that they extend into the Meerut district,
but I believe such to he the case ; and certainly a bird is to be occasionally seen
during the rains in the Saharaupur district, east of Deobund.
" In this district (MozuiTemuggur) they are to be found all the year round, and
one was caught alive here some years ago for Mr. Craigic Halket by some
bakdias,
"The Bustard I saw yesterday, I flushed wi1l1i.11 a quarter of a mile of the Grand
Trunk Road, (Meerut to Roorkee) on some bhoor land close to a police outpost.
•'In 1871, I was in the Mirzapur district. I was told by natives, and also I think
by Mr, Pollock, c.s., that both Bustard and Florican were to be found some miles
from the station, along the great Deccan road.
"Mr. Ward Smith, an Assistant Engineer, D. P. W., stationed here, tells me he
frequently sees Bustard about Jowlee in the Mozuffurnuggcr district."
I wrote somewhat doubtfully of the occurrence of this species in Mirzapur and
Rewah. As to the former Mr. Butler, as above, confirms what I had heard, and
as to Rewah, Major Mclnroy writes: " I do not know why the Bustard should
not be found in Rewah, for it is, or Uoed to be, exceedingly common all round
Nagode.