580 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



hunted as they always are by the snaring tribes, but that they have not only 

 done so but also increased and multiplied exceedingly there can be no doubt. 

 As regards quail the fact that at the beginning of the season there was a 

 fair number would be borne out by the probability that the majority of 

 these were rain-quail who, as stated above, bred in immense numbers, but who 

 being partially migratory would leave the district early in the cold season. 



The reasons for this increase in local game are not far to seek. In the first 

 place a dry year is always a good year for all ground game, i. e., for all classes 

 who like partridge, grouse and quail breed on the ground, for in an ordinary 

 year the wet kills number of young birds and thousands of nests are swamp- 

 ed out. 



In the second place the large area of waste and uncultivated lands afford- 

 ed excellent cover for the young broods and also provided a good supply of 

 food and also such food-supplies as there were, were reserved for them alone, 

 and had not to be, as formerly, shared with the invading hordes of emi- 

 grants. 



A third reason has I see been suggested in the pages of the Journal, viz., 

 the absence of predatory birds and beasts. This was most noticeable. Early 

 in the year the rats of two species, neither of them the Jerboa, swarmed 

 over the roads and open spaces in Mount Abu, in a manner which would have 

 been suicidal had there been any hawks or owls about, but there were none. 



The advantages of a dry year for ground game has received a further and 

 far less desirable proof in the plague of rats which has coverd the whole face 

 of the country in a way which has to be seen to be realized. They are I 

 believe now falling victims to the usual laws of over-crowding and having 

 no City Improvement Trust to look after them, are dying by thousands. 

 Anyhow the first really wet year will finish them off. 



This brings me to the end of my remarks and briefly to summarise I would 

 suggest that the following points stand out as the results of these three sad 

 famine years : — 



(1) The feeding grounds have been ruined, 



(2) The whole stock of Gujrat emigrants have been destroyed. 



(3) The stock of indigenous game has much increased. 



As regards future probabilities, it would seem possible that a good breed- 

 ing season will replace the losses, but that it may take some years before 

 the feeding grounds of the duck and snipe will recover themselves. The 

 future, however, is a matter I prefer to deal with after the event. I can 

 only state that if the good wishes of the community are of any use to 

 the game birds of Gujrat they have our most sincere prayers for their 

 well-being and I will end this paper by wishing good luck to the Shooting 

 Season of 1902-1903, 



H. D. OLIVIER, 



Lt.-OoL., K.E., F.Z.3. 



Bombay. June 1902. 



