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 Bay, 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 Sind and the 
eastern Rajputdna states by the so-called Ran, which 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 
( Certliilauda desertorum) running 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 tbo 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 ( Cyperacece ), and 
of a few scattered bushes of tamarisk &c. ; this part is callod 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 exnstus ; Plan. n. sp., allied to Cantoris ; Lymncea luteola 
and amygdalus, the latter olosely allied to acuminata ; Palviina dissvmilis, (melanastoma) 
exactly identical with South Indian and Ceylon specimens ; Bythinia pulchella and 
two other specieB of the same genus ; Melania tuberculata ; Unto car ulcus and leioma ; 
and a small Corbicula, apparently very rare. 
Of landshellB I found Bulimus insularis, B. abbysiniens, B. punctabus, B. comopictus 
and two ether Bulimi , allied to the last, one slightly and the other very much, thinner, 
' almost cylindrical ; Ennea tier, lor (cylindrical and perfectly smooth variety) ; Stenogyra, 
gracilis; Helix fallaoiosa and Tranquebarica, Macrochlarmjs pedinus, Succinea vitrea 
and crassiuscula, With the exception of Bui, in sulwris none of the shells is common. 
