368 A TENTATIVE CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF 



Konkan. — Northern Kanara, Thana, Kolaba, and Bombay 

 (in part). 



Sahyadri Range. — Many parts still quite unworked. 



Necessarily this list must be incomplete when so many of the 

 districts it includes are still blanks for us ; and it is only from the 

 fact that their physical conditions in many cases are apparently 

 identical tvith those of others which have been move or less 

 satisfactorily worked, that I am able to hope that, as regards 

 the plains portion of the tract dealt with, the list will be found 

 tolerably exhaustive. But the case of the Ghats is totally 

 different, and I feel that many species occurring" in these and 

 their neighbourhood, in the vast and almost wholly unworked 

 jungles and forests that they include, must very certainly have 

 been omitted. 



Besides ray own collections and some of those of Mr. Laird, 

 which he has occasionally allowed me to glance at, I have con- 

 sulted the following authorities : — 



Col. Sykes' Birds of the Deccan, P. Z. S., 1832, 77 and 149. 



Lieut. Burgess' Notes on the Habits of Indian Birds, P. Z. S., 

 1854, pp. 1, 45, 102,142, 158, 255 ; 1855, 27, 32, 70, 79, 184. 



Jerdon's Birds of India, 3 Vols. 



Stray Feathers, edited by Allan Hume, Vols. I to VIII. 



Major Lloyd's List of Konkan Species. 



Mr. Vidal's List of the Birds of the South Konkan, Stray 

 Feathers, IX., p. 1. 



To all these authorities I am greatly indebted, as well as to 

 the Editor for his assistance in rewriting this paper ; but I am 

 compelled to say (though I have always duly quoted his state- 

 ments) that I think some of Major Lloyd's specimens must 

 have been erroneously identified.* It is simply incredible, for 

 instance that Propasser rhodochrous should have occurred at 

 Matheran. On many occasions in the course of this list I have 

 been obliged to notice that certain common Deccan birds, as 

 I consider them, are not included in Messrs. Davidson's and 

 "Wenden's list of the birds of that region ; but it must not be 

 supposed that 1 intend by these remarks to impute any care- 

 lessness to these gentlemen to whom I am otherwise much 

 indebted. Their list was avowedly hastily compiled, merely 

 to give some idea of the avifauna of certain districts with 

 which they were more or less acquainted. It had even less 



* I entirely concur. At least a dozen species are included in Major Lloyd's list that 

 I should say certainly never could occur in the Konkan, while other birds that certainly 

 do occur are omitted. It would be useful if Major Lloyd would state whether he 

 preserved specimens of every bird he includes, and whether these have all been 

 identified by a competent ornithologist. If he can give us these assurances, then of 

 course we can accept all his species, despite the a 'priori incredibility of the occur- 

 rence of a good number. At present all ornithologists out here, who know that part 

 of India, treat his list as a record of—" Not what there is, but what there might have 

 been."— Ed., S.F. 



