Getting the bird
Sir. It is not often that one can write about conservation success but India is home not only of the greatest, Project Tiger, but more recently a bird, previously thought extinct, was 'rediscovered'. Evelyn Joll's review (11 June) of Errol Fuller's excellent Extinct Birds (Viking/Rainbird £20) missed one important fact.
On 14 January 1986 a tribal hunter, Aitanna, in the Lankamalai Hills of Andhra Pradesh (South India) trapped a Jerdon's Courser (Cursorius bitorquatus). The previous sighting was by Howard Campbell in the Penna River Valley near Anantapur in 1900. Despite surveys by outstanding ornithologists such as Whistler and Kinnear in 1929 and 1931, by Dr Salim All in 1932 and post war surveys by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) along the Godavari River, no individual was sighted. Salim Ali was, however, not convinced.
In 1985 under the joint Government of India and US Government sponsored En- dangered Species Projects carried out by BNHS, Dr Bharat Bhushan surveyed the dry scrub covered hill country where Jer- don first collected a sample courser in 1841.
Salim Ali's doubts were vindicated and this extremely rare nocturnal bird has been `rediscovered'. It is now hoped that the Andhra Pradesh Government will take up the offer of financial aid from the Central Government in New Delhi and declare the Lankamalai Reserve Forest a Sanctuary under the 1972 Wildlife (Protection) Act. Toby Sinclair
C-274 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024, India
P.S.: (With apologies to Ian Samuel.) Another bird, also feared extinct, is the Mountain Quail, which may be found on a few hillsides to the north of Mussoorie.
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