Birds of Kattiawar, Western India. 401 



some of the cold-weather months and retire to wooded regions 

 for the hot weather and rains ; or lastly, it may be due to a 

 desire for lower temperature, as exemplified, apparently, by 

 Gallus sonnerati, which in the Southern Konkan, where the 

 species is common, invariably quits the lowlands on the ap- 

 proach of hot weather and betakes itself to the forests on the 

 summit of the Ghauts and other elevated ranges. In Katti- 

 awar many instances of this migratory impulse are observable. 

 Thus Lanius arenarius, L. vittatus, and L. erythronolus quit 

 the country when the breeding-season approaches; while Acri- 

 dotheres ginginianus and Ploceus bay a arrive in numbers to 

 breed, and disappear afterwards ; Palaornis rosa appears in 

 flocks in the plains during the rains and cold season, retiring 

 to the Geer for the hot weather; while Corvus levaillanti, 

 Cyornis jerdoni, Graucalus macei, and many others visit the 

 plains in the cold weather, but spend the hot weather and 

 rains in the Geernar and Geer forests. 



It has been stated by one who has contributed much to- 

 wards our knowledge of Indian ornithology, that the cha- 

 racter of the avifauna of a country is determined as much by 

 the forms absent as by those present ; and he has so far acted on 

 the theory as to record the forms which he failed to meet with 

 in his somewhat restricted experience of a particular district. 

 In view of the curious impulse which leads many species to 

 quit districts at different seasons of the year, any generaliza- 

 tion of the nature referred to must, I think, be taken with 

 much reservation. An experience ranging over every season 

 of the year and extending to every part of Kattiawar would 

 alone justify an observer in recording the absence of a parti- 

 cular form from the province ; and the same may be said, I 

 believe, of every other district in India. 



In order to furnish as complete information as possible of 

 the avifauna of a tract of country so little known to ornitho- 

 logists as Kattiawar, I have included in the following list all 

 species met with during my residence in the country, distin- 

 guishing those of which I never actually shot an example. 

 My thanks are due to Mr. R. B. Sharpe for assistance in 

 identifying some of my specimens and for the kind manner 



