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MISCELLANEOUSNOTES for its importance as the habitat of the Bengal majorityofthegaurpopulationofDibangValley. florican Eupodotis bengalensis, white-winged The protection measures in Mehao, however, wood duck Cairina scutulata, tiger Panthera need to be strengthened as they are inadequate tigris, elephant Elephas maximus, wild buffalo at present. Bubalus arnee and as an important flyway of migratory waterfowl including the common October27, 1998ANWARUDDIN CHOUDHURY crane Grus grus (Choudhury, 1996). This Rhino Foundationfor Nature in NEIndia, proposedprotected area, along with the existing c/o Assam Co. Ltd. Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary, willhelpprotect the Bamunimaidan, Guwahati 781 021, Assam. References Bhattacharyya, S., G.G. Biswas & A.U. Choudhury Choudhury, A.U. (1996): Survey ofthe White-winged (1997):Acollaborativestudyongaurs(Bosgaurus woodduckandtheBengalfloricaninTinsukiadistrict H. Smith) in north Bengal, West Bengal, India. andadjacentareasofAssamandArunachalPradesh. WWF-lndiaEasternRegion,Calcutta. The Rhino Foundation for Nature in NE India, Choudhury, A.U. (1994): A report on bird survey in Guwahati. Dibru-SaikhowaWildlifeSanctuary,Assam,India. Choudhury,A.U.(1998):Mammals,birdsandreptilesof Report presented to the Oriental Bird Club, UK. Dibru-Saikhowa Sanctuary, Assam, India. Oryx, PP- 71. 32(3): 192-200. 5. LESSERFRIGATEBIRD,FREGATAMINORALDABRENSISMATHEWS ON THE KERALA COAST ThelesserfrigatebirdbreedsontheIndian OnAugust9, 1997 onebirdwas collected Ocean Island, Aldabra (10° S lat. 45° E long, (found exhausted, died later) from Kannur in approx.)andonSeychelles(5°S lat. 55°Elong). Kerala by C. Sashikumar and sent to BNHS. It It is reported as a rare straggler during the is an adult female. monsoon in India (Ali and Ripley, 1968 Measurement ofthe specimens in mm: HANDBOOKOFTHEBIRDSOFINDIAANDPAKISTAN,Vol. I p. 48). The BNHS collection has a male bird, Wing Bill Middletoe Tail from collected on 24.vi.1927 by L.A. Lampard, from feathers Quilon, Kerala. Therearetwofemalespecimens from Sri Lanka, one in the Colombo Museum Male 520 100.5 50,50.5 388 and the other in the British Museum. (IH585-603 116-130 48-57 392-410) In 1982, one specimen was received by Female 620 110 52.5,53.5 435 BNHS from S.N. College, Quilon, Kerala for (IH605-621 130-150 48-57 395-430) identification; its photographs are available at BNHS. Itseemstobeasub-adult,thedorsalside October27, 1997 SARASWATHYUNNITHAN fullblack and the ventral side, throat andbreast Bombay Natural History Society, whitelikethefemale,butwithabroadblackband HornbillHouse, SB. Singh Road, across the chest. Mumbai 400 023. 6.PONDHERONINPINVALLEYNATIONALPARK, SPITI, HIMACHALPRADESH The Indian pond heron or paddy bird up to an altitude of2150 m in the Nilgiris, and (ArdeolagrayiigrayiiSykes)hasbeenrecorded to about 1500 m in Kashmir and Nepal (Ali and JOURNAL. BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 96(2), AUG. 1999 313 MISCELLANEOUSNOTES Ripley 1983). This species didnotfigure among recollect having seen such a bird before. The the 93 confirmedspecies and4probable species species is not a migrant, and it is therefore that Koelz (1937) recorded for the entire Spiti improbable that it landed in the area en route. area. Wewishtorecordanaltitudinalextension February 11,1997 NIMA MANJREKAR* of this species, one individual of which was PRACHIMEHTA observedinAugust 1995,atanaltitudeof4050 m, Wildlife Institute ofIndia in Pin Valley National Park, in the Trans- P. B. No. 18, Chandrabani Himalayan Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh. Dehra Dun 248 001 The bird was seen in the vicinity of a riverine *PresentAddress: patch ofwillow (Salix sp.) in the Chohyam area No. 1, 12th Cross, V.V. Mohalla, ofthe National Park. Local people also did not Mysore 570 002, Karnataka. References Ali,S.&S.D.Ripley(1983): HandbookoftheBirdsofIndiaandPakistan.Compactedition.OxfordUniversityPress, Delhi,pp.737+ 113colourplates. Koelz,W.(1937):NotesonthebirdsofSpiti,aHimalayanProvinceofthePunjab.Ibis 79:86-104. THE PAINTED SPURFOWL GALLOPERDIXLUNULATA VALENCIENNES 7. INRANTHAMBHORENATIONALPARK, RAJASTHAN In the JBNHS Vol. 93 No. 1, there is southernRajasthanoreasternRajasthan, oreven mention by Shantanu Kumar on the occurrence in the adjacent areas of Madhya Pradesh. The ofthepaintedspurfowlintheRamgarhSanctuary nearestpopulation ofthis bird that I know ofis ofBundi dist., Rajasthan, and by Ashok Kumar intheSatpuraNationalParkofMadhyaPradesh, Sharma on the occurrence of this bird in the below the Pachmarhi massif. It would be JamwaRamgarhSanctuaryinJaipurdist.,asalso interesting to know whether any other sightings in the Ranthambhore National Park and its of the painted spurfowl have occurred in adjacent sanctuaries. Rajasthan outside this ‘belt’ starting from I have also watched a pair of painted Ramgarh Sanctuary in Bundi to the Kailadevi spurfowlatclose quarters andwas ableto take a Sanctuary in Karauli dist., or in the forests of number of photographs of them in the northwestern Madhya Pradesh. RanthambhoreNationalParkin 1989.However, this appearstobe a disjointedoccurrence ofthis September 19, 1997 M.K. RANJITSINH bird and these adjacent protected areas may WWF-India, perhaps even hold a relict population of this 172-B, Lodhi Estate, spurfowl, since there are no reports of it in NewDelhi 110 003. 8. MORE ONTHE LESSERFLORICANSYPHEOTIDESitiDICA ATROLLAPADU WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, KURNOOLDISTRICT, ANDHRAPRADESH The Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary (area: (called enclosures by the Forest Department), 6.14 km2), Kumool dist., Andhra Pradesh was which are surroundedby grazing lands andcrop setup in 1982toprotectthe greatIndianbustard fields of the villages that border it. However, Ardeotis nigriceps. The Sanctuary consists of due to demands fromthe local graziers, onlythe threegrazinganddisturbancefreegrasslandplots main enclosure (Enclosure-I: 320 ha) is well 314 JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY. 96(2) AUG. 1999