MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 487 



No. III.— THE PROTECTION OF GAME IN SIND. 



I beg to enclose copy of a circular recently issued by Mr. James, Commis- 

 sioner iu Sind, because I feel sure that you and other members of the Society 

 will be glad to hear that the difficulty of protecting birds from wholesale 

 destruction during the breeding season has been surmounted in Sind. 



In this Province the right over " fur and feather" has always been reckoned 

 a strict Government monopoly, and has descended to the British Government 

 from the late Amirs. It is to this day exercised by selling the privilege of 

 catching wild fowl on the different lakes, such as the Manchar, for instance. 



About half a century ago the old Amirs fell foul of the British Government 

 on account of the strictness of their game laws and their refusal to permit wood 

 being taken from their " Shikargalis" or preserves, and even now H. H. Mir Alii 

 Mui-ad Khan Talpur, G.C.I. E., who is the last of the reigning Amirs, enforces 

 very strict game laws. It seems a very great pity that former rulers through- 

 out India were not equally conservative of their sporting rights, and it is a 

 question whether Government might not now generally assert them by law. 



W. S. HEXTON. 



Hyderabad, Sind. 23rd October, 1891. 



Circular No. 1525 or 1891. 

 General Department. 



Commissioner' s Office, 



Karachi, 23rd September, 1891. 

 Memorandum. 



The Commissioner is informed that persons have been in the habit of snar- 

 ing and destroying, for the purpose of selling their plumage, the Black Franco- 

 line Partridge, the Blue Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensisj, and several species of 

 Egrets and other birds, and to so great an extent that several species, useful for 

 food as wlel as ornamental, have been rendered nearly extinct in some parts of 

 the Province. Two persons have recently applied to the Deputy Commissioner, 

 Thar and Parkar, for permission to destroy ornamental birds for the sake of 

 their feathers, on the Eastern Nara, on the ground that they have cleared the 

 species out of the Delta of the Indus. 



2. The Commissioner desires, therefore, to remind District Officers that 

 the right to destroy ferce naturce as well as fish, has, in Sind, always been a 

 Government royalty, and the privilege is sold in certain localities. No one, 

 therefore, can be allowed the privilege gratis as against Government, and the 

 Deputy Commissioner, Thar and Parkar, has, therefore, properly refused to 

 grant the permission sought for. 



S. Revenue and Police Officers are now directed to inform persons who 

 have not paid for the right that they will not be permitted to destroy birds for 

 the sake of their plumage, and to prevent their doing so. 



