250 LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED IN THE 
Mist of Birds collected in the dicinity of Aibandala, Mababa- 
leshwar, and Aelgaty, along the Sabpadri Mountains ; 
and near Ahmednagar iv the Dakhan. 
By Rev. S. B. Farrpanx, M.A., 
Missionary of the A.B.C.F.M. 
REFERENCE has often been made in “‘Srray Fratuers” to 
Khandala and Mahabaleshwar, but no general account has 
appeared of the birds found at these places or at any other place in 
the same region. The list now given is necessarily incomplete, 
because I have not had the opportunity of collecting at any 
place on the hills, throughout the year. With the exception 
of a visit to Mahabaleshwar in the cold season, my opportu- 
nities have been confined to the hot months of March, April, 
and May. The avi-fauna varies greatly, from the coming and 
going of birds, during these three months, and doubtless the 
same process goes on in other parts of the year. At least, 
many species of birds may be found in the autumn and winter 
that have disappeared before the beginning of March. How- 
ever, an authentic list, though incomplete, is better than none. 
My collections have been made principally at Mahaba- 
leshwar ; but this year some birds were collected at Khandala, 
and last year for a few weeks in the Eastern frontier of the 
Goa and Sawant Wade Territories. These localities are similar 
to each other, in that they are all on the crest of the Sahyadri 
mountains, and some forty or fifty miles east from the sea-coast. 
Khandala is in about 18° 40’ North Latitude. It is somewhat 
south of east from Bombay, and about forty miles distant, as . 
the crow flies. The village and railway station are 1,970 feet 
above sea-level. 
The adjacent hills are several hundred feet higher. On the 
Goa frontier there are fewer hills rising above the level of the 
Dakhan than at Khandala. There the Dakhan plains seem 
suddenly broken off, and there is a precipitous descent into 
the Konkan. The hills rise to 4,700 feet at Mahabaleshwar, 
higher than at any other habitable place north or south of it 
for two or three hundred miles. The trees are preserved for 
ten miles around the sanitarium. So the plateau, which 
may contain ten square miles, is thickly wooded, as are also 
parts of the adjacent hills and valleys. Other parts are kept 
mostly bare of trees by the fires that are sure to overrun them 
every year when the grass is dry. The villagers are full of 
complaints because the trees are preserved. They would like 
to pollard the trees yearly and burn the leafy branches on their 
