THE ZOOLOGY OP ERITISH INDIA.. IG7 



Gallinaceous group is, we think, very satisfactory, and will, without 

 doubt, be of the utmost interest to the numerous sportsmen of the 

 East, who have been hitherto utterly without a guide to a knowledge 

 of the numerous varieties of Indian game-birds. At the end of the 

 Gallinaceous group, Dr. Jerdon rightly places the four Indian 

 members of the aberrant family Turniciclce, which, however, we 

 believe, can hardly be associated with the American Tinamoos. The 

 latter birds, as recently shown by Mr. Parker, offer a still more 

 remarkable approximation to the Struthiones. 



Dr. Jerdon rightly commences his account of the Grallatorial 

 order, which we now enter upon, with the Bustards {Otis). Two 

 fine species of these noble birds frequent the bare open plains of 

 India, and two others, commonly known by the Anglo-Indian name 

 of " Plorikin," resort to the grassy tracks which intersperse the 

 jungles of the peninsula. Our author then proceeds to discuss the 

 numerous Indian species of Plovers, separating from them as distinct 

 families, rather unnecessarily, we think, the Couriers (Ctcrsorius) 

 and the Pratincoles (Glareola). These three groups together em- 

 brace about twenty Indian species. Next to the Plovers, Dr. Jerdon 

 arranges the cosmopolitan Turnstone {^trepsiJas), the remarkable 

 form Dromas, and the Oyster- catcher {Hamafopus), each of which 

 has a single Indian representative. Dromas, we, however, may 

 remark wiU, we are of opinion, when everything is brought into its 

 correct position, be removed into a different order of birds, and 

 placed, as Bl}i:h has already located it, next to the Terns {Sterna). 

 The Cranes (Gruidas), which now succeed, have four representatives 

 in India. Amongst them is our European Grus cinerea, a visitant 

 to India during the cold season, arriving in flocks and committing 

 great havoc among the wheat and rice crops of Central India and 

 Bengal. Certamly, no mistake could have been greater than to 

 have associated these grain-feeding birds with the carnivorous Herons 

 or Storks, and we are glad to see Dr. Jerdon fully alive to the errors 

 of former naturalists upon this subject. 



The ScolopacidaB, which are next treated of in Dr. Jerdon's work, 

 are numerous in India as in other parts of the world. Some thirty 

 species, amongst which we recognize almost all our well-known 

 friends of the woods and marshes of Europe, occur within the limits 

 to which our author confines his attention, and keen observation 

 will doubtless increase the list of this wandering group of birds. 

 The Stilt and the Avocet, which succeed, are regarded as belonging 



