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 to a 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 in the 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 unfrequen^ly the 

 case ; and partridge-shooting would then afford as good sport as snipe- 

 shootino- 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' eggs in this 



