FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 21 



if any, of the hill species ever descend eastwards to the dry 

 Deccan plains. The western Green Barbets, the Spotted 

 Dove, the Rose-headed Paroquet, the Jungle Myna, and the 

 Red-whiskered Bulbuls, which are seldom if ever seen at any 

 distance to the east of the main range, are yet more or less 

 common throughout the sub-ghat littoral, from the sea to the 

 Ghats. Numbers of similar instances might be quoted. The 

 comparatively heavy rainfall of the Konkan, as compared 

 with the Deccan, is obviously the true explanation of this 

 difference in forms. As Mr. Hume pointed out in his 

 article in Stray Feathers (Vol. VII., p. 502) " the average rain- 

 fall is the most potential factor in determining the distribution 

 of species where birds are concerned." The whole of the 

 Konkan, from the coast to the summit of the Sahyadri Range, 

 falls within the moist zones of 70 inches and upwards rainfall. 

 The eastern slopes and spurs of the great Ghat range, before 

 reaching which the rain clouds have spent their fiercest force, 

 belong to the intermediate zones, wherein the rainfall ranges 

 from 50 to 70 inches. The dry zone, of between 15 and 30 

 inches rainfall, is reached a few miles east of the main range, 

 where the spurs subside into the Deccan plains. 



The Ghats are crossed at intervals by steep mountain passes, 

 the least precipitous of which are passable by pack bullocks. 

 During the last twenty years much has been done in improv- 

 ing the communication of the district. At three of these passes 

 in the Ratnagiri and Savant Vadi districts good cart roads 

 have been made. The Kambharli Ghat road brings the old 

 port of Chiplun on the Vashishti river in direct communica- 

 tion with Karad and the cotton districts between Sattara and 

 Kolapur. The Phonda Ghat road places Kolapur and Nipani 

 in communication with the Ratnagiri ports of Rajapur, 

 Vijaydurg, Devgad and Malvan, while the Ambola Ghat road 

 provides an easy outlet from Belgaum to the coast at 

 Vengorla. During the fair season there is an active traffic 

 along all these roads. Cotton, food grains, molasses, ghi, gall 

 nuts, oil nuts, turmeric, chillies, tobacco, and other produce of the 

 Deccan passes over the Ghats, to be shipped at the nearest Ratna- 

 giri ports for Bombay and the Malabar Coast, while by the reverse 

 route piece goods and metals are carried from Bombay to the 

 Deccan districts. Ordinarily no food grains are sent eastwards, 

 but during the famine of 1876-77 about 90,000 tons of grain 

 were poured into the affected tracts of the Deccan. A fourth 

 cart road passing over the Amba Ghat direct from Kolapur 

 to Ratnagiri is now under construction, and the new road from 

 Mahableshwar to Mhar, at the head of the Savitri river, con- 

 nects the Northern Ratnagiri districts with Sattara. 



