212 F. Stoliczka — Mammals and Birds inhabiting Kachh. [No. 3, 



note down and to collect what was possible, without interfering with my 

 other more important work. The list of the mammals and birds will be 

 given in the following pages ; on the reptiles and amphibians I have already 

 reported, (see Proc. A. S. B., for May, 1872, p. 71) ; and the examination 

 of the fishes was kindly undertaken by Surgeon Major Day, whose paper 

 on the subject follows the present one. 



However, before entering upon any details, it will be probably desira- 

 ble to say a few words regarding the principal physical features of the coun- 

 try, particularly in connection with the mammals and birds to be met with ; 

 only adding here that my remarks solely apply to the aspect of the country 

 during the cold and dry season between November and February. 



The province of Kachh extends for about 150 miles along the Tropic of 

 Cancer, having a breadth of about 40 miles on either side of it, and the Meri- 

 dian of 70° eastern longitude passes through it a little eastward of the centre. 

 The main land stretches along the seacoast from the most eastern 

 branch of the Indus to Kathivar, from which it is separated by the Gulf of 

 Kachh ; to the North and East it is entirely isolated from Sincl and the 

 eastern Rajputana states by the so-called Ran, wbich was no- doubt formerly 

 an arm of the sea, but is now very much silted in. It has a varied breadth 

 from 40 to nearly 100 miles. During the dry and hot weather some por- 

 tions of it are under water and others are so thickly covered with a saline 

 deposit, or almost pure salt, that the ground becomes unfit for the support 

 of animal life. A wild ass may be seen in the distance, or a desert-lark 

 (Certhilauda desertorum) mnning along the trodden track, but scarcely any 

 other animal exists, unless a bird may accidentally migrate from one place to 

 another. During the rainy season by far the greatest portion of the Ran 

 is inundated, and a good number of the larger water birds are said to be seen 

 on it. The slightly elevated ground, which locally forms strips in, the Ran 

 proper, supports a very scanty vegetation of rough grasses (Ch/peracece) , and 

 of a few scattered bushes of tamarisk &c. ; this part is called the Buni and, if 

 the monsoons are not heavy, it affords rich pasture for cattle during that 

 time, but in the dry season even the nomadic Sindees are often obliged to 



Of freshwater shells which, however, also occur in slightly brackish streams, I met 

 with the following : Planorbis exustus ; Plan. n. sp., allied to Cantoris ; Lymncsa luteola 

 and amygdalus, the latter closely allied to acuminata ; Paludina dissimilis, (melanastoina) 

 exactly identical with South Indian and Ceylon specimens ; Bythinia pulchella and 

 two other species of the same genus ; Melania tuberculata ; TJnio c&ruleus and leioma ; 

 and a small Corbicula, apparently very rare. 



Of landshells I found Bulimus insularis, B. abbysinicus, B. punctatus, B. camopictus. 

 and two other Bulimi, allied to the last, one slightly and the other very much, thinner, 

 almost cylindrical ; Ennea bicolor (cylindrical and perfectly smooth variety) ; Stenogyra 

 gracilis ; Helix fallaciosa and Tranquebarica, Macrochlamys pedinus, SuccmeOj vitrea 

 and crassiusculaj. With the exception of Bui. insularis none of the shells is common. 



