Correspondence 19

Copulation lasted eight seconds. During this time, both birds River. The bird was initially identified by its typical calls. Later it called. After mating, the birds sat next to each other for two was confirmed based on dark streakings on underparts, white minutes before they took off. throat and breast, and rufous undertail coverts. The habitat where A perusal of the literature indicates that displays and copulation we saw bird had tall reeds along the water body [32], distributed of Pallas’s Fish Eagle have not been well documented (Ferguson- in an area of about an hectare. Later, Sheila Castelino and Esha Lees & Christie 2001; Orta et al. 2020). There are nine other Munshi also photographed the bird on 16 February, and 20 species of Haliaeetus in the world, and we reviewed literature and February 2020, respectively. Recently, Amit Sharma reported six online videos of these species (Anonymous 2020a; Anonymous birds at the same spot on 29 June 2020. 2020b). Predominantly, these birds copulate in the nest, or in a tree in which nests are built. Copulation is often preceded by an aerial display. The pre-copulation behaviour of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle H. leoucogaster included behaviour in which the birds soared and duetted on a lakeside tree 600 m from the nest (Debus 2008). The pair flew in tandem and copulated twice, for five, and seven seconds. In case of Bald EaglesH. Ieucocephalus all records documented them mating on a tree near the nest (Anonymous 2014; Anonymous 2020c), or in the nesting tree (Kron 2017). A video footage of the African Fish Eagle H. vocifer showed them mating on the ground, near a waterbody where their copulation behaviour was similarly initiated (Rudman 2016; Beech 2018). In these sequences, the birds were calling loudly many times before the female bowed and allowed the male to 31. Rufous-vented Grass Babbler spotted at Ottu Lake, Sirsa, Haryana. November 2020. land above it and copulate. We thank our drivers, Hemu Negi, and Nasir for their skilful driving and parking at a safe distance without disturbing the birds.

References Anonymous. 2014. Bald Eagle mating on sky [sic.]. Website URL: https://youtu.be/ BXbn8-ThZmk. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Anonymous. 2020a. Bald Eagles nesting season—a review of dates and events. Website URL: https://hancockwildlife.org/hancock-wildlife-reference/bald-eagle-biology/ K Goyal Sanjeev Both: bald-eagle-nesting-season/. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Anonymous. 2020b. National Eagle Centre. Website URL: https://www. nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-nesting-young/. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Anonymous. 2020c. Website URL: https://www.raptorresource.org/2020/02/06/ courtship-copulation-and-other-things-romantic/. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Beech, A., African Fish Eagles mating. Africa Watering Hole cam. 25 March 2018. 32. Habitat of Rufous-vented Grass Babbler. Website URL: https://youtu.be/58gu92TaBHE. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] Debus, S. J. S., 2008. Biology and diet of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster breeding in Northern Inland New South Wales. Australian Field The Rufous-vented Grass Babbler is classified as Near Ornithology 25: 165–193. [Accessed 15 March 2020.] Threatened (BirdLife International 2020), and is endemic to the Ferguson-Lees, J., & Christie, D. A., 2001. Raptors of the world. 1st ed. London: Indus Valley in Pakistan and adjacent areas in north-western India Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–992. along river banks in Punjab and, sporadically, eastwards to Delhi; Kron, T., 2017. Washington, DC Eagles 2.1.17 Liberty & Justice Mating on the nest. Website URL: https://youtu.be/DCbTRt_iJHA. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] a disjunct subspecificnepalicola population is found in the south- Orta, J., Christie, D. A., Kirwan, G. M., & Sharpe, C. J., 2020. Pallas’s Fish- eastern terai region of Nepal (Madge 2020; Rahmani 2012). It Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), version 1.0. In: Birds of the World (J. del is described as uncommon from Punjab (Grimmett & Inskipp Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, & E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab 2003). Vyas (2019) included it as an unverifiable report from of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY USA. Website URL: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow. Delhi, based on the records provided in Ganguly (1975). Islam pafeag1.01. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] & Rahmani (2004: 419) mentioned that Kalsi (1998) reported Rudman, L., 2016. African Fish eagles calling & mating. Website URL: https://youtu. it from Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kurukshetra, Haryana, but be/67CDeatG_sA. [Accessed on 20 May 2020.] – Amith Rao & Balakrishna Kulkarni followed S. C. Sharma in assessing it a case of misidentification. Amith Rao, # 60 Eureka Colony, Keshwapur Kusugal Road, Hubli 580023, Karnataka, India. They subsequently removed it from the Kalesar list (Islam & Balakrishna Kulkarni 201 Mahalaxmi Elegance, Vidyagiri layout, Shirur Park, Hubli, Karnataka, Rahmani 2016). It was presumably reported from Ottu Lake in India. E-mail: [email protected] October 2003, but no photographs could be taken (Rahmani 2012). Kalsi et al. (2019) listed it as unconfirmed from Haryana. Rediscovery of Rufous-vented Grass Babbler Laticilla The only prior definitive report, from the state of Haryana, are the burnesii in Haryana and its distribution status in India specimens collected by Walter Koelz in 1933 from Sirsa (UMMZ On 20 October 2019, we photographed a Rufous-vented Grass #80762) and Parwali (= Pirawali) in Hissar District (UMMZ Babbler Laticilla burnesii [31] in the western part of Haryana at #80763-68, 80839; Website URL: http://portal.vertnet.org/sea Ottu Barrage (29.50°N, 74.92°E) near Sirsa, on the Ghaggar rch?q=Laticilla+burnesii+india). 20 Indian Birds Vol. 17 No. 1 (Publ. 29 March 2021)

The species was first described asEurycercus burnesii and Agricultural Research. Pp. i–xv, 1–301. named after the collector, Sir Alexander Burnes, who collected it Grimmett, R., & Inskipp, T., 2003. Birds of northern India. 1st ed. New Delhi: Oxford from the Indus Territory in Pakistan (Blyth 1844) . Jerdon (1863) University Press. Pp. 1–304. Islam, Z.-u., & Rahmani, A. R., 2004. Important Bird Areas in India. Priority sites for observed this species in Monghyr (=Munger), Bihar, near the conservation. 1st ed. Mumbai: Indian Bird Conservation Network: Bombay Natural River Ganges, from where there are no recent records. Whistler History Society and BirdLife International (UK). Pp. i–xviii, 1–1133. (1912) observed L. burnesi, and its nest. in tall grass jungle along Jerdon, T. C., 1863. The birds of India being a natural history of all the birds known to the Sutlej River in Ferozepore (=Ferozpur) District, Punjab. He inhabit continental India: with descriptions of the species, genera, families, tribes, (Whistler 1919) also described it from near the bridge on the Sutlej and orders, and a brief notice of such families as are not fou nd in India, making it River at Ladhowal village, Ludhiana. Betham (1916) described the a manual of ornithology specially adapted for India. 1st ed. Calcutta: Published by the author (Printed by The Military Orphan Press). Vol. II.-Part I. of 2 vols. Pp. 1–439. species from a narrow stretch of reeds along the GT road near Kalsi, R. S., 1998. Birds of Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary, Haryana, India. Forktail 13 Ferozpur, the place he described as ‘Bulbul Cantonment’. (February): 29–32. We searched bibliography and accessed online data available Kalsi, R. S., Sharma, S. C., & Choudhary, J. R., 2019. Birds of Haryana—a field guide. on http://www.ebird.org, http://www.xeno-canto.org, and http:// Haryana, India: Unique Publications. Pp. 1–602. www.facebook.com (accessed on 01 August 2020). The records Madge, S., 2020. Rufous-vented Grass Babbler (Laticilla burnesii), version 1.0. In Birds of from Delhi (Vyas 2019), and Kalesar, Yamumanagar, (Kalsi et the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). al. 2019) are not verified. The earlier record as mentioned by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Website URL: https://doi.org/10.2173/ bow.ruvpri1.01. Rahmani, 2012 are also not verified. Recent records suggest Rahmani, A. R., 2012. Threatened birds of India: their conservation requirements. that the species is recorded mainly from Punjab, mostly from Mumbai: Indian Bird Conservation Network; Bombay Natural History Society; Royal the Harike Bird Sanctuary, with the remaining records are from Society for the Protection of Birds; BirdLife International; Oxford University Press. Ferozpur, Faridkot, and Jalandhar. Two records are from Jammu & Pp. i–xvi, 1–864. Kashmir (Jourian and Samba), and one record is from Suratgarh, Vyas, S., 2019. The birds of the Delhi area: An annotated checklist. Indian BIRDS Rajasthan (Fig. 1). Monograph 1: 1–128. Whistler, H., 1919. Some birds of Ludhiana District, Punjab. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 26 (2): 585–598. Whistler, H., 1912. The Long-tailed Grass Warbler (Laticilla burnesi, Blyth). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 21 (3): 1080–1081. – Sanjeev K. Goyal, Rakesh Ahlawat & Vivek Goyal Sanjeev Kumar Goyal. E-mail: [email protected] Rakesh Ahlawat. E-mail: [email protected] Vivek Goyal, Associate Professor, Government National College, Sirsa, Haryana, India. E- mail: [email protected] [Corresponding author]

A high elevation record of the Yellow-legged Buttonquail Turnix tanki from Nainital, Uttarakhand We report a recent sighting of a single immature female Yellow- legged Buttonquail Turnix tanki in Nainital, Uttarakhand (Rawat et al. 2020). The bird [33] accidentally entered CR’s residence from an adjacent forest patch at 1630 hrs on 11 July 2020, at an altitude of 1,992 m (29.38°N, 79.45°E). We identified the bird by the distinct yellow legs and bills in comparison to the Fig. 1. Sites for Rufous-vented Grass Babbler in India. other two buttonquails, i.e., the Small T. sylvaticus and Barred T. suscitator. The bird had uniform upperparts without any scaly We would like to acknowledge various birders who have or striped pattern and the buff coverts had distinct black spots contributed their records on the various online resources which (Grimmett et al. 2011). The bird was later released in the same are used for the compilation of this note, namely, Parth Parikh, adjacent forest patch immediately. This bird was found in a highly Roozbeh Gazdar, Varinder Naturaphile, Ritvik Singh, Varinder populated residential area of Nainital with scattered trees of Naturaphile, Gurpartap Singh, Mukesh Sehgal, Parvez Shagoo, Quercus leucotrichophora and Cornus macrophylla, mainly with , Ramit Singal, James Eaton, Saurabh Sawant, Lars Petersson, the stinging nettle Urtica dioica in the surroundings. However, Frédéric Pelsy, Gagan Bedi, Mike Prince, Swarn Singh, Parmil the upper region of the present location has lush green Q. Kumar, Manish Ahuja, Sanjiv Khanna, Shubham Nagla, Vivek leucotrichophora forest. Saggar, Sandeep Beas, Arpit Deomurari, Sheila Castelino, Esha The present sighting is the first photographic evidence of Munshi, and Amit Sharma. this bird from high elevations of the Indian Himalayan region. The species is known to chiefly occur below 1,200 m (Ali & References Ripley 1980; Kazmierczak 2000; Rasmussen & Anderton 2012; Betham, R. M., 1916. Birds nesting round Ferozepore. Journal of the Bombay Natural Debus & Kirwan 2020) but exceptionally reported to occur History Society 24 (4): 829–833. at higher altitudes – upto 2,000 m (Ali & Ripley 1980, Baker BirdLife International. 2020. Species factsheet: Laticilla burnesii. Downloaded 1928, Kazmierczak 2000) in South Asia, while other references from http://www.birdlife.org. [Accessed on 16 August 2020.] include a slightly higher altitude as 2,200 m (Baker 1928, BirdLife Blyth, E., 1844. Appendix to Mr. Blyth’s report for December meeting, 1842. [Continued International 2020, Madge & McGowan 2002, Robson 2005). from vol. XII, p. 1011.]. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal XIII (Part I No. 149 New Series 65): 361–395. Geo-referenced eBird data revealed that the three highest Ganguli, U., 1975. A guide to the birds of the Delhi area. New Delhi: Indian Council of altitudes for this species, recorded in the Indian Subcontinent,