BREEDING SEASONS. 5 
A knowledge of the habits and seasons of birds is’ especially useful 
to sportsmen who seldom have the time for ascertaining the breeding 
seasons of game birds by personal observation, and in consequence of 
the want of this information many of our Indian game birds are slaugh- 
tered while they have eggs or young chicks, even by men who would 
be the first to condemn the deed if it were done wittingly. In England 
long experience has rendered every one familiar with such things, but 
in this country the seasons are known only toa few. At present no 
means exist for others of readily ascertaining them, and sportsmen are 
helpless in the matter. A case in point quite recently came under my 
observation. A large bag of the likh florikin (Sypheotides auritus) had 
been made inthe very height of the breeding season, but no idea that 
such was the case had ever entered the head of the man (a true sports- 
man) who had shot them, and he was quite ignorant of the extent of 
the damage unconsciously inflicted. I feel sure that the publication 
of any facts that will aid in preventing this misdirection of sport will 
be welcomed by all, and if each will supplement the existing knowledge 
of the subject by carefully recording his own personal experiences, we 
should in a few years have sufficient materials accumulated for a complete 
record of the breeding seasons, and the way would be paved at all events 
for an unwritten law, known and honoured by all sportsmen for the 
observation of close seasons, and then, but not till then, India will 
become, as it ought to be, equal to the best country in the world for a 
day’s small game shooting. The occasional holiday with a gun, so 
looked forward to by many, would no longer result in a weary trudge 
with a nearly empty bag at the end, as is now not unfrequently the 
case; and partridge-shooting would then afford as good sport as snipe- 
shooting does at present, but which is in the latter case entirely owing 
to the fact that the snipe by removing themselves en masse to other 
countries inaccessible to sportsmen, when the breeding season comes 
round, are able to carry on their domestic arrangements in peace and 
security. 
But to return to the birds’ nesting, the real reason why the difficulties 
arise out here, is the irregularity in season of breeding in tropical climates 
as compared with temperate climates. In the latter, breeding among 
birds is almost universally confined to the spring and early summer 
months. On coming out to India, people naturally assume that the 
rule holds good out here, which is only very partially the case, and 
the first difficulty that besets a beginner in collecting birds’ eges in this 
