526 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
SIR, 7 
_In your book on the “Game Birds of India” you request 
your readers to send you any information they may be able 
to furnish with respect to the same birds or to new species not 
mentioned. 
I have jotted down a few notes which, though of small 
value as containing little or nothing that is new, may perhaps 
help to corroborate information received from other sources. 
I give a list of all the game birds that are to be found in 
Khorda, Orissa. 
Khorda is a sub-division of Pooree ; my father, Mr. W. C. 
Taylor, has been sixteen years resident here as Settlement 
Officer, and in his final Settlement Report, not yet sent up, 
he includes the following list of game birds of Khorda, all of 
which he has shot. 
. This list also includes the Uriya names of most of the birds. 
The Uriyas, however, are not very observant of birds. They 
are first class botanists, but their nomenclature of birds is 
very defective, and a great deal pirated from other Oriental 
languages. Khorda lies between parallels 19° 41’ and 20° 26’ 
North and 84° 59’ and 85° 56 East. 
- You will notice names of birds mentioned which you refer 
to as not having been met with so far south or in this part 
of the country. 
- Khorda is bounded by the greater portion of the Chilka 
lake, a splendid shallow tract of water 45 miles long by 11 
miles broad, connected by anarrow outlet with the sea. The 
water is brackish all the year round, slightly so during the 
autumn and winter months, but getting considerably salter 
towards March and April owing to the southern winds. 
The Chilka, for two or three miles out from the Khorda 
shore, is but three or four feet in depth. This shallowness 
is especially the case at the northern end of the lake 
and on the south eastern side ; it is covered for the greater 
part with a light feathery weed, which grows in compact 
masses, and affords both food to the wild fowl and also. grand 
concealment to a wounded Blue-winged Teal or Pochard. 
I have myself shot all the birds entered in the subjoined list, 
except the Peacock, the Painted Spur Fowl, the Grey Partridge, 
the Rain and Bush Quails, the Comb Duck, the Pink-headed 
Duck and the White-eyed Pochard. I have however seen 
all except the Pink-headed Duck and the Painted Spur Fowl. , 
_The list I send is, I should say, nearly exhaustive. The 
Wigeon may occur, and should do so, but we have not 
come across it, and I am nearly certain I saw the Burrow 
Duck last year, but I do not ‘add it to the list,as I am 
not quite sure, not having shot it or seen it close enough 
