90 FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 



•wind veering gradually round from south-east and south 

 to south-west became a regular cyclone. A more miserable 

 journey, in the teeth of this hurricane, till I was safely landed 

 in my own house at midnight, drenched and limp, I never had. 

 Each small ferry crossing was like the British Channel in a 

 sou-wester. Hundreds of native craft, totally unsuspicious of 

 all danger, were wrecked close to shore. Many more were 

 broken to pieces while anchored in fancied security in the 

 snug little fair-weather ports all down the Coast. Few that 

 were taken aback by this hurricane lived to tell the tale, and 

 for days and weeks the seaboard was strewn with spars and 

 bales, with here and there the corpses of the drowned, and 

 knots of anxious men and women gathered round, fearing to 

 identify a missing comrade or relation. The day after this 

 disastrous storm no Herons or Egrets of any description 

 could I see about the tidal swamps. There were many wise 

 men and old inhabitants who doubted that this cyclone was 

 the bursting of the true monsoon. But the birds knew better 

 and they proved right. No more Egrets were seen till the fol- 

 lowing September. It is possible that some of the Egrets may 

 stay to breed on the Vashishti and Savitri. I can only 

 answer for none being found at Ratnagiri during the rains. 

 I am inclined to think that the rainfall is everywhere too 

 heavy to make the business of nidification a comfortable 

 employment. Butorides javanica, the only species of the 

 Ardeidce, which I know for certain to breed in the district, 

 must, from the dates on which I have found its nests, get 

 the work over before the heavy rains have set in. 



930.— Ardeola grayii, Sykes. 



| Mahapral. 

 Very abundant throughout the wet area of the district. 

 Dons its breeding plumage at the end of April. I have never 

 found its nest. 



931-— Butorides javanica, Horsf. 



Eatnagiri. I Mahapral. 



Khed. 

 ) Vaghotan. 



Common and widely distributed both inland and on the 

 Coast. On the 15th April 1878 I have found a nest in a thorny 

 bush, a few feet from the ground, on the banks of a small 

 creeklet funning into the Savitri river The nest was a small 

 stick platform, very shallow, with only a slight depression. 

 Two fresh eggs of the usual eau de nil colour were secured. 

 In shape they were almost perfect ovals, measuring about 162 X 



