449 



% %wi of girds jrtrserwd in flte neijjhtavkod of 

 dptaman, £. gtfjjltaiustam 



By H. E. Barnes. 



At p. 212, et seq, I submitted some few notes in regard to the 

 nidification of certain species of birds whose nests I had met 

 with in and about Chaman. 



Of course besides collecting eggs, I collected, and so far as 

 I was able, observed, all the birds 1 could, but my time was 

 so fully occupied with public duties, camp regulations against 

 straying outside very narrow limits were so strict, and the 

 country at times so disturbed, that, although stationed at 

 Chaman from October 1879 to October 1880, and doing my 

 best at birds throughout this period, I should never have dreamt 

 of coming forward with any list of the Avifauna, had any one 

 better qualified shown any intention of undertaking the task.* 



As it is, in the absence of better men, and after patiently 

 waiting for nearly a year to give one of these the chance of 

 speaking, I venture at last, for fear that nothing at all should 

 be put on record, to submit my own imperfect list, believing, 

 that with all its defects it will at least be better than none. 



If any one is surprised that, despite a whole year's residence, 

 this list is nevertheless so very meagre, containing, as it does, 

 only 100 species, I must be allowed to urge that I worked in no 

 peaceful time, that my leisure was almost nil, and that my 

 rambles were curtailed by camp regulations, which were not 

 to be disobeyed with impunity, as many an imprudent camp 

 follower, whose hacked and mangled body bore witness to the 

 wisdom and necessity of the restrictions imposed, discovered 

 to his cost. 



At times my work was so incessant as to preclude my ever 

 touching a gun for weeks together, and at other times it often 

 happened that after snatching an hour that I could ill spare 

 from my desk, I have had to throw birds away unidentified as I 

 did not recognize them and could not find time to skin them. 



Moreover there were long periods during which the state of the 

 country rendered ornithological explorations, however limited, 

 simply impossible. After the murder of poor Major Waudby 

 in April, the country was for many weeks in too disturbed a state 

 to permit the prosecution of any out-door pursuits, and matters 



* Although I have long had in hand a list of the Birds of Afghanistan and 

 Beluchistan founded on all the notes and specimens forwarded to me by numerous 

 officers during the past three years, I think it better to publish Mr. Barnes' paper as 

 it stands than merely, as he privately suggests, to incorporate it in my own. — Ed. 



