216 [No. 3, 



Note on Colonel Monaster's list of birds from Nagpore &c.,— 

 by W. T. Blaneord. 

 The occurrence of several Malabar birds at Chikalda in the 

 Gawilgarh hills is a very interesting circumstance, as it adds an 

 instance to those already known in which animals with decidedly 

 Malay affinities are met with on isolated hills in India, while they 

 are wanting in the surrounding lowlands. Whether the cause of 

 this circumstance be climatic, and due to the greater dampness of 

 these hill tops, I cannot say, probably it may be ; but it is also 

 probable that the animals, thus found isolated, once inhabited 

 the plains of India, and were driven by a chano-e in the 

 climate (which may have been in its turn caused partly by the 

 destruction of the forests), to take refuge on the hills, their 

 place in the lowlands being supplied, in part at least, by the 

 numerous desert types which are spread over the Indian plains, 

 such amongst the birds as Neophron, Aquila fulvescens, Pterocles 

 exustus, Ammomanes phcenicurus and Pyrrhulauda grisea. l?hat the 

 hill birds have not migrated from other regions, but have really 

 occupied tMe intervening country at one time, is rendered probable 

 by the circumstance that animals incapable of traversing long 

 distances, such as ground snakes ( Uropeltidce), and land shells, have 

 the same peculiar distribution, and the same is the case, to some 

 extent at least, with plants. 



The Malabar forms mentioned in Col. McMaster's notes as found 

 at Chikalda are Brachypternus chryso?iotus, Ochromela nigrorufa, 

 Myiophonus Horsfieldii, Sypsipetes Ganeesa, Phyllornis Malaharica^ 

 and Dendrocitta leucogastra. Otocompsa jocosa (f 0. fuscicaudataj 

 and Merula nigropileus too, are not, so far as I am aware, found 

 in the plains of Berar and the Central Provinces. 



It is very desirable to learn to what extent any of these Mala- 

 bar forms occur at Pachmari and on Mount Abu. A Malabar 

 fauna has been found on several hills in Southern India. My 

 brother and I ten years ago* called attention to the occurrence of 

 land shells of Nilgiri species on the Shevroy, Kolamully, Patcha- 

 mully and Kalryenmully hills, and on one or two minor peaks. 



* J. A. S. B„ xxx, p. 365. 



