508 

 THE SHOOTING SEASON, 1908-1909 



BY 

 N. B. KlNNBAR. 



In the spring of 1909 the Honorary Secretary sent out with No. 1, 

 Vol. XIX, of the Journal a form on which members were requested to fill in 

 the results of the past Small Game Shooting Season. Owing to unavoidable 

 delays the report has not been published earlier, but it is hoped that when 

 the forms, which are being sent out with the present Number, are returned 

 there^will not be such a delay in reporting on them. 



Twenty-eight returns relating to some thirty districts have been sent 

 in, and we are specially grateful to Col. Waller Barrow, R.A.M.C., for 

 obtaining a number of reports from Officers stationed chiefly in the N.-W., 

 without which this report would hardly have been worth publishing. 



The information asked for in the forms was unfortunately too brief, and a 

 mistake was made in not making the forms larger, as there was barely 

 room for the information asked for ; this, however, is being remedied in the 

 Schedules sent out with the present issue. 



Before giving some details as to the various districts, it may be as well to 

 mention briefly what the rainfall was like in different parts of the country. 

 According to the Indian Weather Reveiw of the Annual Summary there 

 was an abnormal rainfall in the N.-W., it being the largest departure from 

 the normal since 1875, i. e. + 8'75 as compared with + 6*74 in that year. 



In the East part of Central India, the greater part of the C. P., Hyderabad 

 South and Malabar, the rainfall was all above normal, and in Rajputana 

 West there was nearly 15" more rain than the normal supply. In the 

 Bombay Deccan, Central India West, Mysore, and Madras South-East the 

 fall was below normal, but nowhere was the deficit more than 11 per cent. 

 Through Eastern Bengal, Behar and the East of the United Provinces 

 there was a deficit of over 20 per cent., but in the Bay Islands and Orissa 

 there was an excess of about 20 per cent. In Assam the fall was slightly 

 below the average, but in Burma it was a little above. 



QUAIL. 



Quail appear to have been fairly good in the Gurdaspur district, especially 

 at Bakloh, Ajmer, Etah, Sita Road, Nasirabad, Neemuch, Deesa, Bhandara, 

 Aurangabad and in the Bahraich district in Oudh, though bad in the 

 adjoining district of Gonda. From Dera Ismail Khan, Multan, Abu Road, 

 Gonda district, Champarum and Dharwar, the returns are not good, the last- 

 named being " very bad." Apparently the reason for quail being in small 

 numbers at such places as Dera Ismail Khan, Multan and Abu Road was 

 the excessive amount of water about and the sodden condition of the 

 ground at the time of the southward migration, which was no inducement 



