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JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1691. 



birds given in the list should not be confined to the breeding season alone. Such 

 birds are useful adjuncts to all agricultural and arboricultural operations and to 

 the growing crops, and ought therefore to be permanently protected for the 

 services which they thus render. 



I have not attempted, in any of the lists now submitted, to quote any authority 

 for the dates of the breeding season. The reason why authorities, whose notes are 

 available to the reading public, vary so much in their dates for the breeding 

 season, is because the ruling factors which govern bhe breeding seasons are both 

 heat and moisture together, which mean abundance of food at those seasons. But 

 as these factors vary with the varying conditions imposed on a locality by its geo- 

 graphical position, topographical features, and general environment, so also do 

 the breeding seasons vary in their periods of times according to locality. Hence 

 what is true as regards a given locality or tract of country, may not be true for 

 another tract of country differently localised. 



The dates which I have ventured to insert in the lists have been acquired by 

 personal observation, continued and corrected by a residence of more than twenty 

 years in these Provinces. For the dates of breeding seasons given in the accom- 

 panying lists I am solely responsible. 



A kingfisher (Halcyon fuscus) has been introduced in List A. But the fact is 

 that the habitual food of this kingfisher consists of lizards, mice, crabs, and a few 

 insects. This bird is, however, trapped and killed for the sake of its feathers in 

 ever-increasing numbers everywhere in these Provinces, and unless speedy protec- 

 tion is afforded to it, this kingfisher is certain to disappear from the living fauna 

 of the country. It has already, during the course of the last 20 years, become 

 extremely rare in the Southern, Western and Eastern districts of the Central 

 Provinces. It is in these districts that the operations of the professional bird- 

 catchers have been and are still being carried out with fatal effect against this bird. 

 I therefore venture to hope that any measure now introduced for its protection is 

 justified for reasons above given. 



B. — A List of Game Birds which breed in the Central Provinces. 



