HA Hall, The Jungle and the Snows. [ivt''"(Vi. 



genera, found in the canal tanks, have done the same. My 

 attention was constantly called to a small species of Heron 

 policing the overflows from those great artificial water-courses. 



The Indian Jacana {Hydrophasianits) was common in certain 

 of the tanks containing water-lilies witli their floating leaves. 

 Many of these sacred tanks, several hundred years old, have had 

 the famil}- line of the species carried on during the same long 

 ages. The difference in the summer and winter plumage is as 

 great as with our Maliiriis male, the change in the male being 

 from bronzy-brown to a head and neck of gold, white, and black. 

 I saw a moulting bird. When I met the first ffock they were still 

 in their winter gregarious group. Upon disturbing them they 

 were able to hide by partially sinking, mostly below the water 

 among the liHes. 



In March in the Punjab I saw a Gull with a black head. If 

 this were the Black-headed Gull it would be interesting, because 

 of its geographical range from the Black Sea to Tibet in the summer 

 and Northern India in winter. Off the Maldive Islands, in 

 February, I saw what I take to be Sterna sinensis, a species we 

 find also in Australia. If this is so, it will be its most westerly 

 limit. Off the group of islands the weather was perfect. Though 

 we wTre travelling to windward 500 miles out of our course on a 

 coal shortage, we had a certain amount of enjoyment — that is, 

 I had, and would have had more but for the prospect of a ;^30,ooo 

 salvage account. 



That interesting single species of the sub-family Dronias, or 

 Crab-Plover, flew across the bow of our steamer when entering 

 Bombay. This harbour certainly provides good food and shoals, 

 and on the quieter beaches one may well expect it to deposit its 

 single white egg in its deep burrow. I had rather a longing for 

 its skin, to examine the webbed toes and pectinated claw. It was 

 once thought to be an aberrant form of Tern, and, with Chionis, 

 a bird I often met on Kerguelen, a link between the Plovers and 

 the Gulls. 



Among the Limicoline birds I saw the Stint (Pisobin yii/ico/lis), 

 one that goes south as far as Tasmania and north to Siberia, 

 where I have seen it in July nesting in the Arctic sub-region and 

 wintering in the Bassian sub-region in December. This particular 

 flock in February, off Bombay, was just possibly making up from 

 South Africa, but more probably wintering on Indian shores. 

 The tide being low, many species were seen but not identified. 



I made two other observations on the inland swampy ground 

 after landing at Bombay — the Snipe and the Woodcock. The 

 striping u])on the head in the first and the barring in the second 

 were what I could go u])()n. The Snipe is smaller than is (Jallinai^o 

 aiislralis. 



The game of Patiala is protected bv thr Mahariijah, with the 

 result tliat it is easy to see from the railway a tlock of Peafowl 

 and a herd of black buck, numbering quite fifty nl the (Iter. The 

 Government of tln' Punjab sets out to l)c a protcctoi' of its game 

 and useful birds. 



