OF MIGRATORY WADERS AND WATER BIRDS. 171 



I am Dot able to give an exhaustive list of all the species 

 which, although absent this season, have been regular visitants 

 in preceding ones ; but having known the district for six years, 

 and having collected vigorously for two season, I will attempt to 

 contrast as accurately as I can the past with the preceding season. 



The tract I refer to is a narrow strip of lowland lying be- 

 tween the Western Ghats and the sea, and extending from 

 Bankot, or Fort Victoi'ia on the north, to Ratuagiri on the 

 south, in length about seventy miles, and with a breadth vary- 

 ing from thirty-five to forty-five miles. The whole country is 

 rugged and broken, more open and undulating towards the 

 Ghats, and subsiding near the coast into a series of plateaus 

 capped with weather-stained laterite, and intersected by deeply- 

 scoured ravines and valleys. 



There are three principal rivers — the Savitri, the Vashishti 

 and the Shastri — which are tidal and navigable for some twenty 

 miles or more into the interior, besides innumerable smaller 

 creeks, bays and back waters. The estuaries and tidal sections 

 of the lai'ger rivers and creeks are fringed with extensive mud 

 flats, salt marshes, and mangrove swamps, with here and there 

 patches of reclaimed rice land. 



The average rainfall for the last twenty-eight years has been, 

 as recorded at Ratnagiri on the coast, 101*49 in(?hes, and the 

 fall for 1878 was 168*66, being by many inches the highest on 

 record. Generally speaking, the rainfall increases gradually 

 from the coast to the Sahyadri range, the only exception 

 to this rule being one or two isolated hills of considerable ele- 

 vation near the coast, which show a higher average than 

 stations at the foot of the Ghats. 



The relative humidity of the district is shown by the 

 meteorological returns, as might be expected to be greater than 

 that of any other tract, excepting other parts of the Konkan, 

 in the Bombay Presidency. 



In ordinary years the South Konkan is visited during the 

 cold weather by a considerable variety of waders and aquatic 

 birds. The numerous lagoons and swamps, the mud banks of 

 the rivers, and the large inundated area of paddy fields offering 

 to birds of these orders irresistible attractions, and a seemingly 

 inexhaustible supply of tempting food. In particular a favour- 

 ite ground may be mentioned at the junction of the Vashishti 

 and Tagburi rivers. Here, year after year, are seen large flocks 

 of Widgeon, often five hundred or more together, and a 

 sprinkling of other ducks, besides countless Egrets, Herons, 

 Cormorants, Snake Birds, Ibis, Plovers and Sandpipers. On one 

 occasion I have obtained on this ground in one morning, Cotton 

 Teal {Nettopus coromandeliamis) , Whistling Teal {I)endroc7/gna 



