Zoology

ANIMAL life is not only abundant in British India, but it is remarkably varied. The contrast between the damp, tropical, richly wooded hill ranges of Malabar or Tenasserim and the cold barren islands of Ladakh in the Upper Indus drainage area is absolute, and the difference in the animals found is as great as in the climate. The beasts, birds, reptiles, and insects that inhabit the dense forests east of the Bay of Bengal and the mangrove swamps of the Burmese coast, where the annual rainfall exceeds 100 inches, could not exist in the almost rainless deserts of Sind and the Punjab. Although the Fauna of the dry regions is poor, that of the damp forests of Malabar, the Eastern Himalayas, Assam, and Burma is singularly rich; and the combined effect of local richness and of great differences of climate is that the number of kinds of animals inhabiting India and its dependencies is very large, far surpassing, for instance, that of the species found in the whole of Europe, although the superficial area of Europe exceeds that of the Indian Empire by about one-half.

The following figures show the number of genera and species of Vertebrates described in the eight volumes of the Fauna of British India (1888–98). The lists include animals found in Ceylon as well as those of India and Burma:—

A few additions have since been made, but the increase is small except in the fishes. The number of Indian Invertebrata is very large, but few groups are sufficiently known for a trustworthy estimate to be made. Of moths alone 5,618 species were described by Sir G. Hampson as having been discovered up to 1896, and some hundreds have since been added.

Nearly the whole Indian area is included within the zoological region known as Indo-Malay, Oriental, or Indian, which comprises South-eastern Asia and the neighbouring islands. The Punjab, Sind, and Western Rajputana, however, have a Fauna differing considerably from that of other parts of India, and resembling that found in South-western Asia and Northern Africa, whilst the animals of the Higher Himalayas and the Upper Indus Valley resemble those of Central Asia; and both of these areas belong to the zoological region extending over the greater part of Asia and all Europe, and known as Holarctic or Palaearctic. After distinguishing these two areas as the Punjab and Tibetan provinces or sub-regions, the remainder of the country may be divided into three well-defined zoological areas, each characterized by marked features. These are:—

(1) The Indian Peninsula, from the base of the Himalayas and as far east as the head of the Bay of Bengal, together with Ceylon;

(2) The forest-clad Himalayas, Assam, and Burma, as far south as the neighbourhood of Mergui; and

(3) Southern Tenasserim, which is part of the Malay Peninsula, and belongs, with the greater part of the Malay Archipelago, to the Malayan sub-region.

The first is known as the Indian or Cis-Gangetic sub-region; the second, which includes Southern China, Siam, and Cochin China, as the Himalo-Burmese or Trans-Gangetic. It will easily be understood that animal life is by no means uniform even within these subdivisions: thus, the forests of the Konkan, Malabar, and South-western Ceylon harbour a far richer Fauna than that found in the Bombay Deccan, the Carnatic, or Northern Ceylon; and while the animals of the Eastern Himalayas closely resemble those of Burma, the Burmese types die out gradually in the Himalayas to the westward and are replaced by kinds inhabiting the temperate parts of Asia.

It is proposed in the present sketch to pass briefly in review the principal Vertebrate animals of India, beginning with the higher forms. The Mammals will therefore be first noticed, and among them the monkeys, as being the most highly organized. To deal with the Invertebrata in a similar manner would require more space than can be spared.

Mammals

The monkeys of India are numerous, and some of them are among the commonest wild animals of the country. The Apes (Simiidae), distinguished by the absence of tails, are no longer found in India itself or the Himālayas, though they may at one time have been reckoned among the inhabitants, for remains of animals closely related to the Chimpanzee of Africa and the Orangutan of the Malay Archipelago occur in the Pliocene Siwalik beds at the base of the Western Himalayas. But two species of Gibbon (Hylobates), which, although much smaller, resemble man in some details of structure as much as do the Gorilla and Chimpanzee, are found in Assam and Burma. One of these is the White-browed Gibbon or Hoolock, the latter name being derived from the animal’s call; the other is the White-handed Gibbon. Both inhabit forests in large parties, and are conspicuous by their agility and by the speed with which they travel, holding on by their long arms and throwing themselves from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. They feed chiefly on fruit, but partly on insects, the eggs of birds, and such small birds as they can capture. Wherever they are found they make their presence known by their loud and not unmusical calls, frequently uttered in chorus.

The common monkeys (Macacus), called bandar in Northern India, are found almost throughout the Empire. Eight or nine species are known within Indian limits, comprising the long-tailed Macaque or Crab-eating Monkey (M. cynomolgus) of Burma and the Malay countries; the similarly long-tailed Bonnet Monkey (M. sinicus) of Southern India, and the Toque Monkey (M. pileatus) of Ceylon; the shorter-tailed Bengal or Rhesus Monkey (M. rhesus) of Northern India, with its ally the Himalayan Monkey (M. assamensis), which is found throughout the Himalayas; the Lion-tailed or Silenus Monkey (M. silenus), often wrongly called ‘Wanderoo’ by European naturalists, from the hills near the Malabar coast; the Pig-tailed Monkeys (M. nemestrinus and M. leoninus) from Burma and Malayana; and a monkey with a very short, almost rudimentary tail, known as the Brown Stump-tailed Monkey (M. arctoides), also Burmese. All of these live in flocks of considerable size, and inhabit trees, but often descend to the ground. They are active animals, though much less so than the next group. None are large; they rarely exceed in size a fox terrier, and generally are about as big as a domestic cat, but old males greatly exceed ordinary members of the flock in dimensions. They live chiefly on fruit, grain, seeds, &c., but all eat insects as well; one kind subsists largely on crabs and other crustacea, and individuals have been seen devouring lizards and frogs. All are occasionally tamed and many are very gentle and affectionate, but they are rarely docile and often ill-tempered. Among those most commonly tamed are the three long-tailed species, and the Rhesus, all of which are carried about by jugglers and mountebanks throughout India, and taught to go through various performances. Those who have only seen monkeys in cages are apt to form a low idea of the intelligence, love of fun, and power of imitation which these animals possess.

The last genus of Indian monkeys consists of the Langurs or Hanumāns, renowned in Indian legend for having aided Rāma in his expedition to Ceylon in pursuit of Rāvana, the ravisher of Sita. They are larger monkeys, with longer limbs and tails, than the Macaques; and flocks of the common Hanumān of Northern India (Semnopithecus entellus), being generally protected and even regarded as sacred animals by many Hindus, are commonly found in groves near villages, or even in the village trees, and it is not unusual to see them perched on the roofs of houses. They are purely vegetable feeders, their food consisting of the young shoots and leaves of trees, with fruit and grain. They are very active, whether on the ground or on trees, and run, or rather bound, on all fours with great rapidity for a short distance. Their calls are loud and peculiar, the principal being a joyous, rather musical whoop, uttered when bounding or playing about; another is a harsh guttural note, denoting alarm or anger—a familiar signal to many sportsmen, for it is the sound uttered by the Hanumān who has seen a tiger. In confinement Langurs are sedate and indolent, and sometimes morose and savage, and they are but rarely long-lived. Two grey species (S. entellus and S. priamus) inhabit the Indian Peninsula, one in the north and the other in the south and in Ceylon, in the more open parts of the country, while at least four other species of darker hue are found in the hills and forests of Southern India and Ceylon. One of these (S. johnii), which is quite black, occurs on the plateau of the Nilgiris and in the Anaimalai and Travancore ranges; another kind, the Purple-faced Monkey (S. cephalopterus), is met with throughout Ceylon at low or moderate elevations. It is to these Ceylon Langurs that the name Wanderoo, wrongly applied to the Malabar Lion-tailed Macaque by European naturalists, properly belongs. A large kind of Langur (S. schistaceus) is found in the Himalayas from Kashmir to Bhutan, at elevations of from 5,000 to 12,000 feet, and has been observed sporting amongst fir-trees loaded with snow. Five more species are met with in parts of Assam and Burma.

The majority of the living forms of Lemurs are peculiar to Madagascar, but two species inhabit the Indian area. One of these, the Slender Loris (Loris gracilis), is met with in the lowland forests of Southern India and Ceylon; the other, the Slow Loris (Nycticebus tardigradus), occurs throughout the countries east of the Bay of Bengal, from Assam to Borneo and Java. No kind of Lemur is found in Northern India or the Himalayas. Lemurs are nocturnal and arboreal animals, and slow in movement; they feed on leaves and shoots of trees, fruit, insects, birds’ eggs, and young birds.

The Carnivores include the wild beasts of story, the bêtes fauves of the French; and comprise, in India, cats, civets, ichneumons, hyenas, dogs, martens, weasels, badgers, otters, and bears, while an aberrant member of the raccoon family is found in the Himālayas. Seals are the only important section of the Order not represented in the Indian Fauna.

Of the family of cats (Felidae) no less than seventeen species are found within Indian limits. Three of these, however—the Ounce or Snow Leopard (Felis uncia), Lynx (F. lynx), and Pallas’s Cat (F. manul)—are confined within our area to Tibet and the Higher Himalayas, while the Lion, now almost extinct in India, and the Indian Desert Cat (F. ornata) inhabit only the drier north-western parts of the country. The Caracal (F. caracal) and the Hunting Leopard (Cynaelurus jubatus) have, like the Lion, a wide range in Western Asia and in Africa, and both occur sparingly throughout a considerable portion of the Indian Peninsula, but not in the southern extremity nor in Ceylon. On the other hand, the Rusty-spotted Cat (F. rubiginosa) is peculiar to Ceylon and Southern India, while three kinds—the Clouded Leopard (F. nebulosa), the Marbled Cat (F. marmorata), and the Golden Cat (F. temmincki)—occur in the Eastern Himalayas and range through Burma to the Malay countries. The remaining Indian cats, five in number (neglecting the doubtful F. torquata)—the Tiger, Leopard or Panther, Fishing Cat (F. viverrina), Leopard Cat (F. bengalensis), and Chaus or Jungle Cat (F. chaus)—are more or less generally distributed throughout India and Burma. The distribution of the family Felidae affords a fair epitome of that of the animal kingdom generally within the Indian Empire.

The larger cats are too formidable and important to be passed over without special mention. The lion was formerly found throughout the greater part of North-western and Central India. In the early part of the nineteenth century lions occurred in Hariana, Khandesh, and Rewah, and as far east as Palāmau, whilst up to 1860 or 1870 many existed in Kāthiāwār and parts of Rājputāna. Now the last remaining Indian lions are said to be confined to the Gir in Kāthiāwār. Tigers, though their numbers have been greatly diminished, are still found in all the wilder parts of India and Burma; but none occur, or, so far as is known, ever have occurred, in Ceylon, a circumstance which may indicate that the tiger is a comparatively modern immigrant into Southern India, and did not exist there when Ceylon formed part of the continent. Tigers ascend the Himālayas occasionally to a height of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, though they generally keep to the base of the range. The lion is an inhabitant of rocky and sandy ground with brushwood, the tiger chiefly of forest and high grass near water. Both live on deer, antelope, and wild hog, and when they have an opportunity, kill cattle, horses, and even camels, for food. Both attack human beings occasionally; but the destruction of human life by tigers in India is mainly, if not entirely, due to a small minority of these animals. Ordinary tigers never kill men for food; the terrible man-eater is a tiger, or perhaps more often a tigress, which, owing to age or partial disablement, or to the need of finding food for its young when game is scarce, has through hunger got over its fear of man, and has learned that he is the easiest prey to find and kill. Owing to the steady destruction of tigers in India, the tale of human victims has diminished, and only 866 deaths caused by tigers were reported in 1903, whilst forty years ago 700 people were said to be killed yearly in Bengal alone. Male tigers in Northern India weigh about 450 to 500 pounds, tigresses 350 to 400 pounds; but in Southern India the weights appear to be rather less.

Leopards or panthers are more widely distributed than tigers, and are scarcely less destructive. They are bolder and careless for the neighbourhood of water; hence they are often found both in rocky hills and in gardens about villages. They vary in size and markings so much that many people, both Europeans and Indians, are of opinion that there are two different kinds in India; and in some parts of the country, as in the Central Provinces, there appear to be two distinguishable varieties, one much larger than the other. But when many are compared it is impossible to find any constant distinctions. Black individuals occur not unfrequently in particular areas, as in Travancore, in Cachar, and again in the Malay Peninsula. (A black tiger was once recorded in Chittagong.) Leopards live upon any animals they can kill, and they have a particular liking for dogs. Several cases are on record of leopards that have become regular man-eaters.

Of the other cats, the Fishing Cat haunts the banks of rivers and marshes, and feeds chiefly on fish; the Ounce inhabits the Higher Himālayas and kills sheep and goats, wild or tame; the Clouded Leopard, Marbled Cat, Golden Cat, and Leopard Cat are forest hunters, living much in trees; and the Chaus and Rusty-spotted Cat prefer grassy plains.

The Hunting Leopard, generally known in Europe as the Cheetah (a name signifying ‘spotted,’ and quite as often applied in India to the panther), is placed in a different genus (Cynaelurus) on account of its claws being only partially retractile and of its lighter build. It is not a common animal in India, and would attract little attention but for the circumstance that it has from time immemorial been tamed and used for hunting antelopes, which it catches by means of its extraordinary speed. The Indian antelope or black buck is, for its size, one of the swiftest animals known, yet a good observer records that he saw one with a start of 200 yards run down by a hunting leopard before it had traversed 400 yards more. This great speed can be exercised by the hunting leopard for a short distance only.

The civet family (Viverridae) is represented in India and Burma by twenty-one species, eight of which belong to the sub-family of ichneumons or mungooses. The true civets are four in number: the Large Indian Civet (Viverra zibetha), found in Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Burma, &c.; the Malabar Civet (V. civettina), a representative form on the Malabar coast; the Burmese Civet (V. megaspila), occurring in Burma and the Malay countries; and the small Indian Civet (Viverricula malaccensis), inhabiting nearly the whole of India and Burma, with Southern China, Siam, &c. All are somewhat arboreal in their habits, and live partly on small animals and birds, partly on fruits and roots. The drug known as civet is obtained from these animals, which are kept in cages for the purpose of collecting it. Allies of the civets are the Linsangs or Tiger-civets (Linsang or Prionodon), represented by one very pretty spotted species (L. pardicolor) in the Eastern Himalayas and Burma, and by a larger form (L. maculosus) in Tenasserim; and the Palm Civets (Paradoxurus), often called in India toddy-cats. The latter are common in all wooded parts of India and Burma, but owing to their nocturnal habits are but rarely seen. They have long tails, and are grey and black or brown in colour; they live on small animals, birds, lizards, and insects, and also on fruit and vegetables. Not infrequently individuals come into houses. The last of the sub-family, the Binturong or Bear Cat (Arctictis binturong), called the Monkey Tiger (myouk-kya) in Burma, is larger than the Paradoxuri, and measures about $2\frac{1}{2}$ feet from nose to insertion of tail. It is a forest dweller, and is found east of the Bay of Bengal from Assam to Sumatra and Java. The colour is black. The most remarkable peculiarity about this animal is its possession of a truly prehensile tail, by which, at all events when young, it can suspend itself. It is the only known animal of the old continent—Europe, Asia, and Africa—that has this power.

The genus Herpestes, comprising the ichneumons, contains eight Indian or Burmese species varying in size and colour. Of these the best known is the Common Indian Mungoose (Herpestes mungo), renowned as the deadly enemy of snakes, and famous in Indian folk-lore for its reputed acquaintance with an antidote to the poison of the cobra, a herb or root known as munguswel. The story is apocryphal: the mungoose is so quick and agile that it generally avoids the snake’s fangs and seizes its adversary by the head; but if effectively bitten the mungoose, although apparently less quickly affected than other animals of a similar size, succumbs to the poison. Besides the common mungoose, which weighs about 3 lb., and is found throughout India and Ceylon, there is a smaller species (H. auropunctatus) inhabiting Northern India and Burma, and others occur in Southern India and Ceylon, one of which (H. vitticollis) is the largest Asian ichneumon. Another large kind (H. urva) inhabits the Himalayas and Burma, and is said to haunt the neighbourhood of streams and to feed on crabs and frogs.

The Striped Hyena (Hyaena striata) is the only member of the family Hyaenidae now occurring in India, though remains of the Spotted Hyena, at present confined to Africa, have been discovered in the Pleistocene deposits of the Kurnool caves, and several species are represented in the Pliocene Siwālikas. Hyenas are not found in Ceylon, nor in countries east of the Bay of Bengal; but they are common throughout the Peninsula of India, chiefly in fairly open country, where there are rocky hills and ravines. The striped hyena lives chiefly on dead animals, often on the bones which have been picked by vultures, and which it breaks with its powerful jaws; but it occasionally carries off dogs, goats, and other small beasts. Its presence, wherever it occurs, is easily recognized by its peculiar dog-like tracks, in which the marks of the hind feet are much smaller than those of the fore feet, and by its droppings, which are hard, white, and not readily decomposed.

The dog family are represented by two wolves, a jackal, two so-called wild dogs, and five foxes. One of the wolves appears to be a race of the European Wolf (Canis lupus), and is found in the Punjab and Sind; while another variety of the same species, sometimes black in colour, inhabits Tibet. The Indian Wolf (C. pallipes), chiefly distinguished by smaller size, is met with throughout the Peninsula. Neither wolves nor foxes are known to occur in Ceylon or Burma. The Indian wolves, despite their smaller size, are dangerous animals, and in parts of the country carry away many children, besides numerous goats and sheep. They also kill antelopes, hares, and other small animals, such as foxes and occasionally dogs. There is, however, in many parts of India, a great aversion to destroying wolves, in consequence of a widespread belief that the blood of a wolf, if shed on the lands of a village, renders them unfruitful. Stories about children carried away and reared by wolves are common in Northern India, but it is doubtful whether any are authentic. The children said to have been thus brought up appear always to have been idiots.

The Indian Jackal (C. aureus) is one of the commonest and most familiar animals of the country, inhabiting the whole of India and Ceylon, but is very rare east of the Bay of Bengal. He is the common scavenger of towns and villages, feeding on carrion and offal of all kinds, from which he drives off the crows and vultures; but he also occasionally kills small animals or poultry, and at other times lives on fruit or sugar-cane. His cry, a long wailing howl three or four times repeated, followed by a succession of usually three yelps, also repeated two or three times, is well-known to all who have lived in India; and another call, believed to be an alarm cry, is uttered by a jackal when a tiger or leopard is in the neighbourhood, and probably on other occasions. The animal producing this cry is known as pheal or phnew in Northern India, and as bhalū or kol bhalū in the south; and it is the jackal that is said in Indian folk-lore always to accompany a tiger. There can be very little doubt that some breeds of domestic dogs are derived from jackals, as others are from wolves; and jackals breed freely with dogs.

The two kinds of Wild Dog (Cyon) differ in their teeth from wolves and jackals, having two true molars instead of three on each side of the lower jaw; and they are thus, in opposition to the view not uncommonly entertained, less nearly connected with domestic dogs than jackals and wolves are. They are forest animals of a rusty red colour, and occur in all the well-wooded parts of India and Burma, and even in the highlands of Tibet. They hunt in packs and kill many deer, antelope, wild sheep, hog, &c.; but they rarely attack domestic animals, and have never been known to assail men. Throughout India there is a general belief that wild dogs hunt and kill tigers, but it is still an open question whether the story is credible.

Of the Indian foxes, one very small species (Vulpes cana) is found only in Baluchistan, another (V. ferrilatus) is Tibetan, a third (V. leucopus), a small animal allied to the common European fox, is common in the dry regions of North-western India, while a fourth is a race of the common European fox inhabiting the Himālayas. The fifth, the Indian Fox (V. bengalensis), a small greyish animal with a black tip to its tail, is common in all open parts of India proper, from the Himālayas to Cape Comorin and from Sind to Assam.

Martens and weasels are poorly represented, and are unknown in the plains of India and Burma. The Indian Marten (Mustela flavigula) inhabits the whole of the Himalayas, and is also found in the higher ranges of Burma and the Malay Peninsula. A dark form occurring on the hills of Southern India is by some authorities regarded as a distinct species (M. gwatkinsi). The European Beech Marten (M. foina) is met with in Afghanistan, Ladakh, and Kumaun. A polecat (Putorius larvatus) has been obtained in Ladakh and Tibet; and another species, the Mottled Polecat (P. sarmaticus), which inhabits parts of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, is not rare about Quetta in Baluchistan. Six species of stoats and weasels are also found in the Himalayas, and two of them range into the Burmese hills.

Badgers are represented by two species of the genus Helictis, one of which is Himālayan, the other Burmese; by the Indian Ratel (Mellivora indica), found in the Indian Peninsula and in parts of Western Asia; and by two species of Hog-badger (Arctonyx), which are met with in the Eastern Himālayas, Assam, Burma, and the countries to the east and south-east.

Three kinds of otter are known from India. One of these, having a very wide distribution, appears not to be distinguishable from the Common Otter of Europe (Lutra vulgaris); a second of the same size, but with a very differently shaped head, (L. macrodus) is also found throughout India and Burma; while the third (L. cinerea), the Clawless Otter, is a much smaller species, inhabiting the Himālayas, Bengal, Assam, Burma, Southern China, and the Malay countries, but only found in Southern India on the Nilgiris and some other hill ranges. The habits of all are similar. Otters are easily tamed, and are kept by fishermen in several parts of India, as the Bengal Sundarbans and Sind, being used to drive fish into nets.

One of the most interesting members of the Indian Fauna is the Cat-bear or Himalayan Racoon (Aelurus fulgens), now generally recognized as belonging to the Racoon family (Procyonidae), the majority of which are American. The Aelurus is a brightly rufous animal, measuring two feet from nose to tail, with a tail of about eighteen inches. It is a forest haunter, and is met with in Nepāl, Sikkim, the Eastern Himalayas, and Yunnan; it is, like most Carnivora, nocturnal in its habits, but feeds chiefly on fruits, bamboo sprouts, and roots. It is the only living member of the genus, but within the last few years remains of other species have been found fossil in late Tertiary deposits both in Britain and in Hungary. A curious black and white bear-like animal inhabiting Eastern Tibet (Aeluropus melanoleucus) is now ascertained to be a second Asiatic member of the Racoon family.

The last family of the Carnivora is that of the bears (Ursidae), with four Indian representatives. A variety of the European Bear (Ursus arctus), sometimes distinguished as the Isabelline Bear, is found in the Higher Himālayas above the forests; the Himālayan Black Bear (U. torquatus) is met with at a lower elevation, in the higher forests, occurring not only to the eastward in Assam, Burma, and South China, but also in parts of Afghanistan and Baluchistan. The Malay Bear, a small forest form, with especially arboreal habits, ranges from the Malay countries through Burma to the Eastern Himālayas, and has quite recently been found in Sikkim. The bear of the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, commonly called the Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus), belongs to a different genus, having much smaller and rather fewer teeth and more powerful claws than the typical bears. It is a smaller animal than the European bear, and is even more uncouth and clumsy. It is black and covered with long coarse hair, but appears nevertheless not to be very sensitive to heat, for it inhabits some of the hottest parts of India. It haunts bush- and forest-jungle and hills, and passes the day in caves, or in shady ravines, or beneath bushes, wandering about at night for food, which consists chiefly of fruit and insects. Among the latter are the combs of the termites or white ants, which the bear digs out of the ground from a depth sometimes of four to six feet. The holes made, easily recognized by the marks of the bear’s claws, afford unmistakable evidence of the animal’s neighbourhood. Although generally a timid animal, the Indian bear is occasionally savage and makes unprovoked attacks upon men whom it meets, frequently injuring them about the head and face. Bears when taken young are, as a rule, easily tamed.

The next Order of Mammals comprises the tree-shrews, hedgehogs, moles, and shrews, together with a very remarkable animal of doubtful affinity—the flying lemur. The tree-shrews (Tupaiidae) are only known from the Indo-Malay region; and the typical genus Tupaia is represented by one species in the Indian Peninsula, another in Burma and the Eastern Himālayas, and a third in the Nicobar Islands. They are arboreal animals, closely resembling squirrels externally and with very similar habits, but living on insects as well as on fruit. They may at once be distinguished from squirrels by their differently shaped ears, and of course by their teeth.

The hedgehogs (Erinaceidae) are represented by two groups belonging to distinct sub-families. True hedgehogs are found in India proper, but not in the Himalayas or Burma; four species occur in North-western India, and one (Erinaceus micropus) in the plains of the Carnatic. The other subfamily (Gymnurinae) does not inhabit the country west of the Bay of Bengal or the Himalayas; but one species (Hylomys suillus) is found in Burma, and the typical form (Gymnura rafflesi) in Southern Tenasserim. Both inhabit the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago. They somewhat resemble large rats, having a pointed head and a naked tail, but their teeth are like those of hedgehogs.

Two moles have been reported from the Himālayas, but the presence of one of these, which is identical with the Common Mole of Europe, needs confirmation. The second kind (Talpa micrura) is common in the forests of Nepāl, Sikkim, and the Assam hills, at an elevation of about 5,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea. A third species (T. leucura), usually brown in colour with a short white tail, inhabits the ranges south of Assam and the Burmese hills.

Shrews are numerous and ubiquitous. A genus of brown-toothed shrews (Soriculus), with three known species, is found in the Eastern Himalayas and Manipur; while the white-toothed division is represented by four genera—Crocidura, with thirteen species, very widely distributed; Anurosorex, with one kind, found in Assam; and two water-shrews. The best-known of Indian shrews is the Grey Musk Shrew (Crocidura caerulea), widely and unfavourably known as the ‘Musk Rat.’ It has a peculiar, rather fetid, musky smell, due to the secretion of large glands, one on each side of the body. Its diurnal haunts generally retain the scent, but it does not communicate the smell to anything it merely walks over, although it is commonly believed to do so. It is nocturnal in its habits, and frequents houses at night, feeding on cockroaches and other insects, never on grain or vegetables. Singularly enough, this large grey shrew has not been observed far from human habitations; but a very similar, rather smaller animal of a brown colour (C. murina) is common throughout the Indo-Malay region, and Dobson has suggested that the grey shrew may, like the cockroaches on which it feeds, be a semi-domesticated variety—a commensal, in fact, of man.

The two water-shrews live in streams, one (Chimarrogale himalayica) in the forests of the Himalayas and Northern Burma, the other (Nectogale sikhimensis) in Upper Sikkim at 10,000 to 15,000 feet elevation. The latter has beautiful deep-brown fur sprinkled with glistening white, and the soles of its feet are furnished with suckers.

The so-called Flying Lemur (Galeopithecus volans) inhabits the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, ranging into Siam and Southern Tenasserim. The body is about as large as a rabbit’s, but a lateral expansion of the skin begins from the throat, includes all the limbs to the toes, and extends to the end of the tail. This expanded skin serves as a parachute, and enables the animal to glide from tree to tree. The Flying Lemur is said to be purely herbivorous, and is by many naturalists regarded as forming an Order distinct from the Insectivora.

No less than ninety-five species of bats were enumerated from within Indian limits when the mammalian section of the Fauna was published in 1891, and two or three have since been discovered. Eleven of these belong to the Pteropodidae or fruit-eating bats, the largest of which are known as flying foxes. One of these (Pteropus edulis) is the largest bat known, having an expanse of wings of fully five feet; it inhabits the Malayan Peninsula and Archipelago, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and parts of Southern Tenasserim. The common Flying Fox of India and Burma (P. medius) measures about four feet across the expanded wings, and is very common in many parts of the country. These bats remain hanging in trees during the day, many hundreds often occupying one particular tree, and fly off singly, not in flocks, each evening, in search of food, which consists entirely of fruit. The other fruit-eating bats are smaller.

The insectivorous bats belong to four distinct families—the Rhinolophidae, which have a nose-leaf consisting of a peculiar series of foliaceous skin-processes arranged more or less in the form of a shield around the nostrils, but want the tragus, a lengthened process arising inside the margin of the ear; the Nycteridae, which have a small nose-leaf and also a tragus; and the Vespertilionidae and Emballonuridae, which have a tragus but no nose-leaf. Most of the species are rare, the forms most commonly met with being a yellowish brown bat (Nycticejus or Scotophilus Kuhl), and a very small species of Pipistrelle (Vesperugo or Pipistrellus abramus); and one reason why these two are so often seen is that they appear on the wing rather early in the evening. The species of Megaderma, belonging to the Nycteridae, have a peculiar dentition; they feed on other bats, and also on frogs. The remainder of the species are insectivorous.

This is another large Order of small animals, comprising squirrels, marmots, rats and mice of various kinds, porcupines, and hares, all distinguished by a peculiar dentition with two large chisel-shaped incisors in the front of each jaw. As many as 106 species were known from the Indian area in 1891, and seven species have since been added, so that considerably more than a quarter of the Mammals found in India and its dependencies belong to the present Order.

Indian squirrels belong to several types. There are no less than three different genera of flying squirrels, which have their limbs connected by a membrane or parachute to enable them to glide from tree to tree, and are distinguished from other squirrels by being nocturnal. One of these, the Woolly Flying Squirrel (Eupetaurus cinereus), an inhabitant of Tibet, is very imperfectly known; but the members of the genera Pteromys and Sciuropterus are generally distributed in all well-wooded parts of India; the majority of them, however, inhabit the Himalayas or Burma. The ordinary squirrels are now divided into three groups, one of which, constituting the genus or sub-genus Ratufa, is represented in the forests of the Indian Peninsula by the Large Indian Squirrel (S. indicus), a very beautiful kind, chestnut and black above and buff beneath; by the Large Malay Squirrel (S. bicolor), black above and buff beneath, in the Himālayas and Burma; and by a third kind, the Grizzled Indian Squirrel (S. macrurus), in Southern India and Ceylon. All these vary much in colour. The sub-genus Sciurus, as restricted, is wanting in India proper and Ceylon, but is represented by a large number of species, varying greatly in coloration, in the Eastern Himālayas and Burma. The third section (Funambulus) consists principally of striped squirrels, less arboreal than the others, and less restricted to high forest. Of these the best known is the common so-called Palm-Squirrel (Sciurus vel Funambulus palmarum), which is a familiar inhabitant of gardens and groves near human habitations, and is often seen feeding on the ground under trees. The name ‘palm-squirrel’ is misleading, as this animal is far more frequently seen about mangoes, banyan, or pipal trees than on palms. The members of this group are not all striped; one (S. locria), inhabiting the Eastern Himālayas and Assam hills, so closely resembles S. locroides, a typical squirrel found in the same forests, that the skins of the two are not easily distinguished. On the other hand, some very small striped typical squirrels (S. macclellandi) are common in the forests of the Himālayas and Burma.

Of marmots, which are nearly allied to squirrels, three species are found in the Higher Himalayas and Tibet. Two of these (Arctomys himalayanus and A. hodgsoni) are of a greyish tawny colour and differ chiefly in size; but the third, which occurs in Northern Kashmir, is orange tawny in hue, and has a comparatively long tail, hence its name (A. caudatus). It is large, measuring about three feet, of which the tail forms a third.

The jerboa family (Dipodidae) is represented by a single species (Alactaga indica), belonging to a genus common in Central Asia. Despite its name, this species is not Indian; it is found around Quetta in Baluchistan, but not farther to the eastward. The next animal to be noticed, the Malabar Spiny Mouse (Platacanthomys lasiurus), has long been regarded as an ordinary rat, but has recently been referred by Mr. Thomas, as it was by its original discoverer, Blyth, to the dormouse family (Gliridae). It is not unlike a dormouse in both coloration and form, and it has a similar bushy tail, but the fur is mixed with spines. It lives on trees in the Anaimalai and Travancore hills.

The rats and mice (Muridae) comprise in India three sub-families: the gerbils, the true mice and rats, and the voles and hamsters. The gerbils (Gerbillus) are unknown in the Himalayas and Burma; but one species (G. indicus) occurs throughout India and Ceylon, and four others are met with in Sind, Baluchistan, and the Punjab. All are graceful, active creatures, with hairy tails tufted at the end. The Indian Gerbil, known in Northern India as harma mus or Antelope Rat, is one of the species that occasionally increase greatly in numbers and destroy the crops. It is nocturnal; but another kind (G. hurrianae), which swarms in the Indian desert in Sind, Rajputana, and the Punjab, is diurnal in its habits. It is characteristic of the Aryan people inhabiting Northern India that this animal, which is purely frugivorous, is not used as food, although the common Indian species and other rats are eaten by some of the tribes in Southern India, especially by the Waddas or tank-diggers.

The mice and rats proper comprise three arboreal genera, all of which are Burmese, while only one (Vandeleuria oleracea) is found in India. This, a long-tailed mouse of light chestnut-red colour, makes a grass nest in which it rears its young on a bush, tree, or bamboo. The genus Mus comprises twenty-three or twenty-four Indian species. Of these the most important are the common Indian Rat (Mus rattus), of which the European Black Rat is a variety; the Brown Rat (M. decumanus), and the domestic mice. The Common Rat (M. rattus) is clearly indigenous, and is found everywhere in forest and cultivated ground, as well as about houses; while the Brown Rat, the pest of the world, is an immigrant, for it is confined to seaports and towns on the principal lines of traffic. House mice are of two kinds: one, a variety of the common M. musculus of Europe, is generally distributed throughout India and Burma, while the rather shorter-tailed and more brightly coloured Persian House Mouse (M. bactrianus) occurs in North-western India. In Burma the rat commonly found about houses is M. concolor, a smaller species than M. rattus. One other kind, the metad or Soft-furred Field Rat (M. mettada), peculiar to the Peninsula of India, requires notice on account of its becoming at times, like Gerbillus indicus in India, and like some species of vole in Europe, a pest on account of its numbers and the destruction it causes to the crops.

The Indian Mole-rats and Bandicoots form the genus Nesocia, distinguished by robust form and in some cases by large size. The Common Mole-rats (N. hardwickii and N. bengalensis) are about as long as a black rat, but stouter, and they throw up, beside the holes they make in fields and banks, small heaps of earth, which have erroneously been attributed to moles; while the Bandicoots (N. bandicota of the Indian Peninsula and N. nemorivaga of Bengal, the Eastern Himālayas, and Burma) are very large rats, N. bandicota weighing as much as 2½ to 3 lb. and measuring 12 to 15 inches without the tail, which is nearly as long. The name bandicoot is a corruption of the Telegu pandí-koku or ‘pig rat,’ a term conferred because this rat is said to grunt like a pig. The North African and Western Asian Spiny Mouse (Aeomys dimidiatus) has been obtained in Sind; and a blunt-headed yellowish brown bush rat with coarse hair (Golunda elliotti) is found throughout the Peninsula and Ceylon, where it proved at one time very destructive to coffee trees.

About a dozen kinds of Vole (Microtus or Arvicola) are found in the Himālayas and Tibet, most of them being inhabitants of Kashmir or Ladakh. One species only, of a peculiar section, is met with in the Eastern Himālayas, and one in the Kakhyen hills north of Burma. A species of Ellobius, a mole-like rodent allied to the Voles, has been obtained at Quetta. Three kinds of Hamsters (Cricetus) of an ashy grey colour have been brought from Gilgit.

The Bamboo-rats (Rhizomys), are stoutly-built animals, with cylindrical bodies, short limbs, large claws, and rudimentary tails, belonging to the family Spalacidae, the members of which are sometimes called ‘rodent moles.’ Three or four kinds of Bamboo-rat, of which the largest is the size of a rabbit, inhabit the Eastern Himālayas, Assam, and Burma.

Four Porcupines occur in our area. The Indian Porcupine (Hystrix leucura) inhabits India with Ceylon, and ranges into Western Asia. Two other species of Hystrix and one of the brush-tailed porcupine Atherura (of which another species is West African) are found in the Himalayan forests and in Burma.

The Hares and Pikas form a group which differ considerably in structure from other rodents. Hares are found in most of the open parts of the Indian area, but not in forest. Two species, one northern (Lepus ruficaudatus) and one southern (L. nigricollis), inhabit the Indian Peninsula; another (L. dayanus) occurs in Sind; a fourth (L. peguenensis) in Burma; three kinds are found in the highlands of Tibet and on the Himalayas above the forest; and one species, the Hispid Hare (L. hispidus), is met with at the base of the Himalayas from Gorakhpur to Upper Assam. This last is a little-known species, and is said to burrow. The Pikas or Mouse-hares (Lagomys) are considerably smaller than a rabbit, and are chiefly confined to Central and Northern Asia. Of five kinds occurring within Indian limits, four inhabit the Higher Himalayas and Tibet, and one is found in the neighbourhood of Quetta.

To the next Order belong elephants, horses, rhinoceros, tapirs, oxen, antelopes, goats, sheep, deer, camels, and swine, besides several generic forms not now found in India. Some of these, however—for instance species of giraffe and hippopotamus—inhabited the country in past times. All the most valuable domestic animals are Ungulates.

The Indian Elephant, one of only two existing species of the Proboscidea, of which no less than seventeen extinct kinds flourished in India in the later Tertiary times, differs widely from all other Ungulates. ‘The beast that hath between his eyes a serpent for a hand,’ although specialized to an extraordinary degree, so much so that its gait, its method of feeding, and its dentition are quite peculiar, is nevertheless in many respects inferior in organization to other members of the Order to which it is assigned. The numbers of the Indian elephant have decreased greatly in India and Ceylon during the course of the last century, though east of the Bay of Bengal the great beast is more common. Elephants are still found wild in places along the base of the Himalayas, as far west as the Dehra Dün; a few are met with in parts of the great forest tract east of long. 80° E. between the Ganges and the Kistna; and a larger number in the wild hill ranges that extend from Mysore to Cape Comorin. They generally live in herds, the males, as with other Ungulates, being often found solitary; and they usually haunt forest, and live on grass and bamboos, wild plantains (Musa), and the leaves and bark of particular trees, especially of kinds of Ficus. As a rule elephants are timid inoffensive animals, but solitary males, known as ‘rogues,’ are sometimes savage and cause many deaths of men and animals. In India, elephants very rarely breed in confinement, though they often do so in parts of Burma and Siam. The greater number by far of the tame animals belonging to the Government of India, to native princes, and to private individuals, have been caught and tamed when adult. As a rule elephants are captured in stockades (kheddas) into which whole herds are driven, a few are caught in pitfalls, others are run down and noosed by men riding fast tame animals.

Wild horses, rhinoceros, and tapirs are not widely distributed in India and Burma. They form the group of odd-toed or Perissodactyle Ungulates. The only wild horses or asses are the ghorkhar of Western India and Baluchistan, found in herds in the Indian desert in places from Cutch to Bikaner, and also west of the Indus near Mithankot; and the kiang of Tibet. These appear to be merely varieties of one species (Equus hemionus). Of rhinoceros three kinds are met with, two of which are one-horned, one two-horned. Of these the largest is the Great Indian Rhinoceros (R. unicornis), still inhabiting Assam and found in very small numbers in the Nepāl tarai, but formerly occurring along the base of the Himalayas to Peshawar, where in the early part of the sixteenth century it was hunted by the Emperor Babar. It lives in high grass as a rule. The second one-horned species, often called the Javan Rhinoceros (R. sondaicus), occurs in the Bengal Sundarbans, in Eastern Bengal, and locally through Burma to the Malay countries. It is rather smaller than R. unicornis, and may be recognized by different markings on the epidermis and by the great folds of the skin being differently arranged. The third kind, the two-horned R. sumatrensis, is the smallest of the three, and has been met with from Assam, where it is rare, to Borneo, being rather common in Tenasserim. The Malay Tapir is only found within our limits in Southern Tenasserim south of about 15° N. lat.

The even-toed or Artiodactyle Ungulates are much more numerous. Of wild cattle alone no fewer than five species are met with in different parts of the area. Of these, one, the Wild Yak (Bos grunniens), is peculiar to the Tibetan plateau, and only just comes within Indian limits in the Kashmir territories, but tame yaks are kept throughout the Higher Himalayas. The Wild Buffalo (Bos bubalus) is met with in Assam, Bengal, and Orissa, and here and there in the forest country to the westward as far south as the Kistna river; it is also common in the lower parts of Ceylon, being chiefly found in grassy plains near water and often in marshes. The Gaur (Bos gaurus), the Gayal (B. frontalis), and the Tsine or Banteng (B. sondaicus) form a particular group of typical oxen, distinguished by flattened horns, a high dorsal ridge terminating about half-way down the back, and peculiar coloration, very dark and often almost black on the upper parts, with the legs white from above the knees and hocks. In the Tsine the cows and young are reddish, in the other kinds dark-brown; the white too extends in the Tsine up the inside of the legs and to the buttocks. The Gaur (bison of Anglo-Indian sportsmen) is a magnificent animal, almost the finest, if not actually the grandest, of living bovines. Large bulls sometimes measure over six feet in height at the withers, whilst their horns are occasionally each three feet long and as much as eighteen to twenty inches round the base. Cows are smaller. This noble wild bovine is found in all the great hilly forest tracts of India, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula; but owing to the extension of cultivation and the more general use of guns its numbers in India are rapidly diminishing, and in many places it must soon, unless preserved, completely disappear. The Gayāl or Mithan is known only in a domesticated or semi-domesticated state. It is thus kept by several tribes north and south of the Upper Assam valley, but the original wild animal has never been satisfactorily identified. Some writers regard the Gayāl as a domesticated race of the Gaur, which inhabits the same tract, but the differences in the form of the skull and horns are opposed to this view. The Tsine or Banteng is smaller, of rather slighter build than the Gaur, and appears to be less of a hill animal, being found chiefly in grassy plains. It is met with locally throughout Burma and to the southward as far as Java and Borneo, but the Burmese race is said to differ somewhat in coloration from the Malay. This animal is domesticated in Java. Both the Yak and the Buffalo are domesticated. Tame yaks are kept only at considerable altitudes in the Himalayas and in Tibet; tame buffaloes are common throughout the plains of India and Burma. They are chiefly kept in India as milch cattle, though they are also used for draught and for the plough, and in some cases as baggage animals. In Burma, where milk is not used, a very fine race of buffaloes exists, especially in Pegu. Another very fine breed is that owned by the people of the Toda tribe on the top of the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India.

The common humped cattle of India (B. indicus) belong to a perfectly distinct species from European cattle (B. taurus). The two kinds differ in structure, coloration, markings, habits, and voice. The prevailing colour of B. indicus is a pearly grey with a few black markings, especially on the fetlocks. The origin of the humped cattle is quite unknown; no similar animal exists now or is known to have existed in former times in a wild state, although common cattle, in India as elsewhere, have run wild occasionally. Humped cattle are found domesticated throughout Southern Asia and in Tropical Africa. The two species of cattle breed together, or with the yak and the gayal, never with the buffalo.

Wild sheep are found within Indian limits in the Himalayas, and in hilly parts of the Punjab and Sind. The Great Tibetan Sheep (Ovis hodgsoni), an animal standing from 3½ to 4 feet high at the shoulder, and with very massive horns in the male, and the Great Pāmir Sheep (O. poli), which, although slighter and smaller than its Tibetan ally, carries huge spiral horns sometimes measuring more than six feet apiece round the curve, only just appear within the boundary of British India. The Tibetan sheep has long been called Ovis ammon, but that name properly belongs to an even larger kind inhabiting the Altai Mountains in Siberia. The remaining two species, the uriāl or shā (Ovis vigneï) and the bharal (O. nahura), have stronger claims to be included in the Indian list. In O. vigneï two varieties are comprised: the typical upland form or shā, which is larger, has slightly thicker horns, and is found in the Upper Indus Valley and parts of Afghānistan; and the uriāl of the Punjab Salt Range, and koch or gad of the Sulaimān Range and Sind hills. By some the two are regarded as distinct, but they differ very little and pass into each other, although the Sind sheep is met with close to the sea-level and the Ladākh shā at 12,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea. The bharal is met with throughout the Higher Himālayas above the forest limit, and is in both structure and habits a link between sheep and goats. Like the latter it often takes refuge in cliffs and rocky scarps, while the true sheep keep to plains or moderate slopes.

The Indian wild goats are five in number, of which three belong to the genus Capra and two to Hemitragus. Like the sheep they are chiefly but not exclusively Himalayan, one species of Hemitragus inhabiting Southern India. The members of the genus Capra are the Asiatic Ibex (Capra sibirica), the Märkhor (C. falconeri), and the Persian Wild Goat (C. aegagrus). The Asiatic Ibex is widely distributed on the mountains of Central Asia, and is found in the Higher Himalayas as far east as Garhwal, but not, it is said, east of the Sutlej drainage area. The Asiatic differs from the European ibex by the shape of the horns and the presence of a distinct beard in the male; but there is some variation in the horns and more in the coloration of the fur in different Asiatic ranges. The colour varies also with the time of year, age, and sex. The Persian Wild Goat is found throughout South-western Asia, its eastern limit being in the Sind hills, where it is often called the ‘Sind ibex.’ It has the horns compressed and sharply keeled in front. This animal is the wild stock, from which tame goats are principally derived. The Märkhor, the finest of all wild goats, is found

in the hill ranges north and south of Kashmir, in parts of Afghanistan, and in the Sulaiman and neighbouring ranges west of the Punjab as far south as Quetta, where it meets the Persian wild goat. It inhabits steep hill slopes at a moderate elevation, below those on which ibex are found. Markhor vary greatly, and the shape of the horns is very different in Kashmir from what it is in the Sulaiman range. In the Pir Panjal, south of Kashmir, the spiral is open, and even more so in Astor; while in the range to the west of the Punjab, the horns are straight with their anterior and posterior keels wound spirally around them. Heads from the neighbourhood of Kābul are intermediate in character. The two species of Hemitragus, which possess much smaller horns than Capra, are the Tahr (H. jemlaicus), found throughout the Himalayas, and the Nilgiri Wild Goat, or ‘ibex’ of European sportsmen (H. hylocrius), found on the ranges of Southern India in the neighbourhood of the west coast, from the Nilgiris to Cape Comorin. The only other species of the genus that is known occurs in Southern Arabia. All these goats occur in small herds, the males being frequently solitary, and they keep chiefly to crags and precipitous cliffs.

The goat antelopes are nearly allied to the true goats, from which they are distinguished by more rounded horns and by the absence of the peculiar strong odour characteristic of male goats. They have a very different distribution, for they are wanting in Europe, Western Asia, and the Indian Peninsula, but represented in the Himālayas, Burma, China, Japan, the Malay countries, and in North America. The Himālayan Serow (Nemorhaedus bubalinus) and the Gural (Cemas goral) are members of this group. The Serow inhabits the Himālayan forests from Kashmir to the Mishmi Hills at moderate elevations; it is also found in the Assamese and Burmese hills. It is, as a rule, a solitary animal. Several races have been distinguished, varying in colour from rufous brown to black, but it is doubtful whether there is any constant difference. The Gural is a much smaller animal than the Serow, being about the size of a roe-deer, and it inhabits rugged grassy slopes in the forest area, usually in small parties not exceeding six or eight in number. It is found throughout the Himālayas, has been reported from the ranges south of Assam, and quite recently has been discovered in Upper Burma.

The true antelopes form a very important portion of the Indian Mammalia, because three genera out of the four occurring in the Peninsula are peculiar to the area and no antelopes are found elsewhere in the Indo-Malay region. These three Indian antelopes are the Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), the Four-horned Antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis), and the Indian Antelope or ‘black buck’ (Antelope cervicapra). All these inhabit a large part of India, and the Hindus themselves sometimes define their country (Hindustan) as corresponding with the range of the Indian antelope. This antelope is found in suitable localities, chiefly open plains with grass of moderate height, from the Indus to Assam, and from the base of the Himalayas to the neighbourhood of Trichinopoly. Formerly it was far more abundant, and in the first half of the nineteenth century it was seen occasionally in vast herds 8,000 to 10,000 in number; but its numbers have been greatly reduced since rifles have become common. The Nilgai is an inhabitant of open forest more often than of grassy plains, though in places it haunts cultivated tracts, and when numerous it is met with in herds; while the Four-horned Antelope is chiefly found in hilly countries covered with brushwood or forest, and is usually solitary or in pairs. A variety with only two horns, the anterior pair not being developed, is said to be common locally in the Madras Presidency, and certainly adult two-horned individuals are occasionally found, but all young males possess only the posterior pair. In the Nilgai, Four-horned, and Indian Antelopes the females are hornless. The Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni), with fine sub-lyrate horns, is found only on the higher Tibetan plateaus, and is said never to descend much below about 15,000 feet. It occurs in the higher portions of Ladakh. Three true gazelles are met with within Indian limits, but two of these only just come within the boundary. These are the Tibetan Gazelle (Gazella picticaudata), peculiar to the Tibetan plateau; and the Persian Gazelle (G. subgutturosa), which has a wide range in Persia and Turkistan, but is known within Indian limits only about Pishin, north of Quetta. It probably inhabits the higher parts of Baluchistan. Both these species, like Pantholops and Antelope, have hornless females, but in the Indian Gazelle (G. bennetti) the females have small horns. The Indian Gazelle is found in North-western, Western, and Central India, as far east as Palamau and as far south as western Mysore. It usually occurs singly or in small parties, and is called chinkara in Hindi, while the antelope is hiran, a name often applied loosely, like the English ‘deer,’ to various ruminants.

The deer family (Cervidae), though less numerous than the bovines, are abundantly represented. The first to be mentioned is the Muntjac or Barking-deer (Cervulus muntjac), a small kind, deep-chestnut in colour, the males bearing short horns on bony pedicels as long as the horns themselves or longer. This is an animal of hill forest, found in suitable places throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma, and on the slopes of the Himalayas up to 5,000 or 6,000 feet. Its name of ‘barking-deer’ is derived from its call, which resembles the bark of a dog. A second species (C. feae) has been obtained on Muleyt mountain, west of Moulmein. The genus Cervus is represented by six different species. One of these belongs, like the European Red Deer and the American Wapiti, to the Elaphine group, distinguished among other characters by having two tines, the brow and bez tines, near the base of each horn. This fine deer, the hangal or Kashmir Stag (C. cashmiriianus), inhabits the pine forests of Kashmir between 9,000 and 12,000 feet above the sea in summer, coming lower in winter. The other Indian deer belong to the Rusine section, and have a brow but no bez tine. The bārasingha or Swamp Deer (C. duvauceli) has, when full-grown, five or six tines on each antler, all but one on the terminal bifurcated portion. It inhabits open grass plains in Northern India, from Upper Assam to Sind, and as far south as the Godavari, but is very locally distributed. The Brow-antler Deer or thamin, which replaces the bārasingha in Manipur and Burma, has a peculiarly curved long brow tine: it is chiefly found on flat alluvial ground in the Irrawaddy Valley and to the eastward in Cambodia and Hainan. The finest of Indian deer, with exception of the Kashmir stag, is the sämbar or jarau (C. unicolor), which is found almost throughout the Indo-Malay region wherever there is hilly or undulating country covered with forest. It occurs on all the hill groups of India, ascends the Himalayas in places to 9,000 or 10,000 feet, and is met with up to the summits of the ranges in Southern India and Ceylon. The next species to be mentioned, the Spotted Deer (C. axis), is certainly the most beautiful of Indian deer and perhaps of the whole family. It is smaller than the four species already noticed, and rufous-fawn in colour spotted with white. It retains its white spots throughout the year, in this differing from the Hog Deer. The Spotted Deer is met with at the base of the Himalayas but does not ascend the hills like the sämbar, and it ranges throughout the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon but is not found east of the Bay of Bengal. Its usual haunts are brushwood and thin forest, and especially bamboo jungles in the neighbourhood of water. Spotted Deer are more gregarious than other Indian species, and occasionally associate in large numbers. The last deer on the list is also the smallest of the genus, and it bears the smallest horns. This is the Hog Deer (C. porcinus), which inhabits the alluvial flats of the Indo-Gangetic plain from Sind to Assam, and is also found abundantly in similar localities in Burma. It does not occur in the Indian Peninsula generally; and, though it is found in part of south-western Ceylon, its presence there is due to its having been introduced by man. It is a brown animal, spotted in summer but not in winter, and is not gregarious.

The only other Indian representative of the Cervidae, if it belongs to the family, is the hornless Musk Deer (Moschus moschiferus), which is common in the Higher Himalayas and in parts of Central Asia. It is a dark-brown animal, about the size of a roe-deer, with coarse brittle hair, and is chiefly known as the source of musk, which is the secretion formed in a glandular sac on the abdomen of the male. In winter about an ounce of musk is obtained from each male animal. The flesh has no musky flavour.

The Chevrotains (Tragulidae) differ greatly from true deer in structure, but resemble them in form, and like the Musk Deer are hornless. All are small, some very small. One species, the Indian Chevrotain or Mouse Deer (Tragulus meminna), inhabits Ceylon and the Indian Peninsula, but is not known north of the Narbadā; while two species (T. javanicus and T. napu) occur in Southern Tenasserim and range into Malaysia. The Indian Chevrotain and T. napu are about a foot high at the shoulder, T. napu being the larger; the little T. javanicus is considerably less. All inhabit dense thickets in forest country.

Three different pigs belong to the Indian Fauna. The Indian Wild Boar (Sus cristatus) stands higher on its legs than the European animal, and is much less shaggy; it has a more developed crest or mane, and the molar teeth exhibit well-marked differences. The common tame pig of India is doubtless descended from the wild animal and certainly breeds with it. Wild swine occur everywhere in India and Burma, and are often as common in cultivated land as in wild forest. No animals do more damage to crops. Spearing wild hog from horseback, or ‘pig-sticking,’ as it is called in India, is the favourite sport of the country, and owes its attraction to the extraordinary courage of the wild boar. The Andaman Pig (S. andamanensis) is a much smaller kind, peculiar to the Andaman Islands; and a still smaller species, not more than a foot high, known as the Pigmy Hog (S. salvanius), is only known from the grass jungles of the tarai at the base of the Himālayas in Nepāl, Sikkim, and Bhutān. A wild pig found in the Nicobars has just been named S. nicobaricus, but is probably a variety of the Andaman species.

Several kinds of whales and porpoises inhabit the seas around India, and two species are found in some of the larger rivers. Though no Right Whale (Balaena) has been seen in Indian waters, four kinds of Fin Whale (Balaenoptera) have been more or less clearly indicated, although none of them has been thoroughly identified. One of these, which has received the name of B. indica, is 80 or 90 feet in length, or as large as the B. sibbaldi of Northern seas, which exceeds in size any other known animal, extant or fossil. This great whale is not rare off the Baluchistan coast. A kind of hump-backed whale (Megaptera) also appears to have been seen near the coast of India on more than one occasion. The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) has been hunted in the Bay of Bengal, and the Small Sperm Whale (Cogia), the size of a porpoise, was obtained by Elliot at Vizagapatam. Porpoises and dolphins abound, and fifteen species have been recorded from Indian seas, varying in size from the little Indian Porpoise about four feet in length to the Indian Pilot Whale, a representative of the Caaing Whale of European seas, measuring over fourteen feet. The two forms that particularly deserve notice are those inhabiting the rivers. In the Irrawaddy from below Prome to above Bhamo there is found a blunt-nosed porpoise (Orcella fluminalis), about seven to eight feet long, closely allied to a species (O. brevirostris) that inhabits the Bay of Bengal. This Cetacean is not known to occur in any other river. A far more interesting kind is the Gangetic Dolphin or susü (Platanista gangetica), living in the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra and their tributaries; for the family to which it belongs (Platanistidae), once probably widely spread, has only three surviving representatives: one (Inia) in the River Amazon, a second (Pontoporia) in the Rio de la Plata estuary, and the Indian type. This last is provided with a long compressed beak-like rostrum, and is blind, having only minute rudimentary eyes without a crystalline lens. It is quite confined to the rivers, never so far as is known, entering the sea.

The Dugong (Halicore dugong) inhabits the shores of the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Australia, and has been found on the coasts of Malabar, Ceylon, the Andaman Islands, and the Mergui Archipelago. Formerly it was more common; but as it yields excellent meat and a valuable oil, and is also, by all accounts, tame, stupid, and easily killed, it is approaching extermination in Indian seas.

The last Order of Mammals is represented in the eastern tropics by the Pangolins (Manis), of which three species occur within Indian limits. These are the Indian Pangolin (M. pentadactyla), in the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon; the Chinese Pangolin (M. aurita), in the Himalayas; and the Malay Pangolin (M. javanica), in Burma and other countries to the south-eastward. All are covered with large imbricate horny scales, and resemble a reptile rather than a mammal. They are toothless and live chiefly on ants. The Indian species is popularly regarded as a fish, and one of its vernacular names, ban-rohu, means ‘jungle carp.’

Birds

The birds of India have been more extensively collected and better observed than any other group of animals, and the number of kinds is so large that only the most conspicuous and important can be noticed here. Of the 1,617 species enumerated in the Fauna, 936, or considerably more than half, belong to the Order of Passeres, and of about thirty species added since the Bird-volumes of the Fauna were published a large majority are Passerine. No two authors agree as to the classification of the Passerine Order; the system used in the Fauna is here followed.

The first family (Corvidae) has been divided into three sub-families; one (Corvinae) comprising the crows, magpies, jays, nutcrackers, and choughs; the second (Parinae), the tit-mice and their relations; the third, Paradoxornithinae. By many writers these three groups are regarded as distinct families.

The common crows, which are ubiquitous in India, are the grey and black Indian House Crow (Corvus splendens), which is the common scavenger of the country, abundant in every town and village; and the black Jungle Crow (C. macrorhynchus), which keeps chiefly to forests and wild tracts. The former is represented by an allied form, rather darker in colour (C. insolens), in Burma. Of the Raven (C. corax), one very large race inhabits the Higher Himalayas, and a smaller form, by some regarded as distinct and named C. lawrencii, is found in the Punjab, Sind, and Western Rajputana. The Carrion and Hooded Crows, the Rook and Jackdaw are met with in the North-western Punjab and parts of Kashmir, but are for the most part winter visitors. The Common Magpie (Pica rustica) is found in Kashmir, in Baluchistan, and also in Upper Burma, while a black-rumped species (P. bottanensis) has been obtained in Upper Sikkim and Bhutan. Long-tailed Blue Magpies (Urocissa) and the Racket-tailed Magpies (Crypsirhina) inhabit the Himalayas and Burma; Green Magpies (Cissa) occur in the same countries and in Ceylon; while the Tree-pies (Dendrocitta) are generally distributed. Jays (Garrulus) of different species occur in the Himalayas and Burma; two kinds of Nutcrackers (Nucifraga) are Himalayan; and in the higher ranges of that chain both the Cornish Chough and the Alpine Chough are found.

Among the Titmice, members of the typical genus Parus and of the much handsomer yellow and black Machlolophus are found almost throughout the Empire; while species of the Long-tailed Titmouse (Aegithaliscus) occur in the Himalayas and in the hill tracts of Burma; and Crested Tits (Lophophanes) are common in the Himalayas, chiefly above 6,000 feet elevation. One genus (Silviparus) is restricted to the Himalayas and Assam ranges.

The Paradoxornithinae are classed among the Corvidae in the Fauna, but are by many ornithologists regarded as a section of the next family (Crateropodidae). They are birds varying from the size of a sparrow to that of a thrush, having copious soft plumage, strong legs, and a stout bill resembling a finch’s. They are an interesting group on account of their peculiar structure and their distribution, for they are confined to the Himalayas with the hills of Northern Burma and Southern China. The principal genera are Paradoxornis and Suthora.

The family Crateropodidae (or Timalidae) is an exceedingly large and varied group, to which eighty-six genera of Indian birds, comprising 253 species, have been referred. Very few, if any, are migratory. About the position and relationships of some of the sub-families, six in number, there is much question, but the typical forms belong to the first two sub-families. Of these the first (Crateropodinae) contains the Laughing Thrushes and Babblers or Babbling Thrushes, of which the larger number, including the genera Garrulax, Trochalopterum, and Pomatorhinus, are hill birds chiefly occurring in the Himalayas and Burma, but with representatives in the hills of Southern India and Ceylon; while a smaller section, consisting of the true Babblers, belonging to the genera Argya and Crateropus, inhabits the Peninsula of India and Ceylon, with a few representatives in Burma, Assam, and the neighbouring countries.

All these birds are excessively noisy chatterers; they are found in small flocks, and keep to bushes or the ground. They are about the size of a thrush, with strong legs, small wings, and rather long tails. One of the best known species is Crateropus canorus, the sāt-bhai (‘seven brothers’) of Bengal.

The Timeliinae are smaller and rather quieter, but their structure and habits are similar. The majority are but little known. By far the larger number are Himalayan, Assamese, and Burmese; and only one species, the Yellow-eyed Babbler (Pytorhis sinensis), is commonly found throughout the greater part of India and Burma.

The Brachypteryginae are less characteristic forms, for some of them resemble thrushes, whilst others are nearer in appearance to wrens. The most important genus referred to the group is Myiophoneus, containing the Whistling Thrushes, very dark-coloured birds with the plumage strongly tinged with rich blue. They have a peculiar whistling note, and inhabit the Himalayas and the hill tracts of India and Burma.

The Sibiinae are forest birds, often with bright plumage and of small size, and with one exception they are absent from India proper and Ceylon. The exception is the genus Zosterops, comprising the White-eye or White-eyed Tits, yellowish or olive green birds, which range almost throughout the tropics of the Old World from Africa to Australia, and are very doubtful members of the present sub-family. Sibiinae are abundant in the Eastern Himalayas and Assam ranges.

The Liotrichinae chiefly differ from the Sibiinae by having the sexes differently coloured. The typical forms (Liothrix, Cutia, Pteruthius, Mesia, and Minla) are found within our limits only in the Himalayas and the Burmese hills; but the common Iora (Aegithina tiphia), and various species of Chloropsis, commonly known as ‘green bulbuls,’ are common birds throughout the Empire. The Fairy Blue-bird (Irena puella), of which the male is clad in gorgeous ultramarine plumage (the female is less brilliant), inhabits the evergreen forests of Ceylon, Malabar, the Eastern Himalayas, the Assam ranges, and Burma.

The last Crateropodidine sub-family, Bulbuls (Brachypodinae), are short-legged birds, in general about the size of a nightingale or rather larger. Some of them are familiar types, frequenting gardens. The majority of the seventeen genera found within Indian limits are Himalayan or Burmese; but members of the genera Molpastes, Otocompsa, and Pycnonotus, distinguished by having the under tail coverts either crimson or bright yellow, are the common bulbuls of India. Another genus deserving notice is Hypsipetes, dark-coloured, hill-forest birds, with red bills and forked tails, found in the Himalayas and the hills of Burma and South India.

The Nuthatches (Sittidae), small bluish or slatey-blue birds, which climb up the stems of trees or occasionally the surface of rocks, are represented in India by eleven species, which are non-migratory and for the most part of limited distribution; but one or more of them are to be found wherever there are trees, and one species (Sitta tephronota) even where there are none, in Baluchistan.

The Drongos (Dicruridae), of which the more common species are generally called ‘king-crows’ in India, form a well-marked family, having with few exceptions glossy black plumage and long forked tails. There are several genera, the common and familiar ‘king-crows,’ found in almost every garden, being members of the typical genus Dicrurus. Two species, the Larger and Smaller Racket-tailed Drongos (Dissemurus paradiseus and Bhringa remifer), are handsome birds, with the outer tail feathers greatly prolonged and their shafts bare for some distance, though webbed near the ends. All Drongos hawk insects in the air, and have musical voices; all, moreover, are given to imitating the notes of other birds.

Of the Tree-Creepers (Certhiidae), six species of the typical genus (Certhia) occur in the Himalayas, Assam hills, and Northern Burma, and a species of Salpornis is found in the forests of the Indian Peninsula. The latter is remarkable, because the only other known species of the genus, a very near ally, is African. The European Wall-Creeper (Tichodroma muraria) is a winter visitor to the Himalayas, and occasionally to the plains of Northern India.

Wrens, generally placed in a distinct family (Troglodytidae), are represented by several species belonging to four or five genera in the Himalayas and Burma, but not in the Indian Peninsula. The European Goldcrest (Regulus cristatus), which belongs to a separate family (Regulidae), is also Himalayan.

Warblers (Sylviidae) comprise a great number of very small birds, usually with plain plumage; many of them are migratory. Among those generally distributed are Grasshopper Warblers (Locustella), Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus), Tailor Birds (Orthotomus), Fantail Warblers (Cisticola), Wren Warblers (Franklinia and Prinia), and Willow Warblers (Phylloscopus and Acanthopneuste). Members of the genera Hypolais and Sylvia, allies of the European Whitethroat, Blackcap, and Icterine Warbler, are common in the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, but wanting to the eastward. The Tailor-birds are well-known from their habit of sewing two leaves together with a piece of grass as a receptacle for their nest.

Shrikes (Laniidae) are common throughout the Empire. Besides the true Shrikes (Lanius), the Pied Shrikes (Hemipus), Wood Shrikes (Tephrodornis), Minivets (Pericrocotus), and Cuckoo Shrikes (Camphagha and Graucalus) are distributed throughout the better-wooded tracts. Some of the Minivets are brilliantly coloured, the males being crimson and black, and the females yellow and black. The Swallow Shrikes (Artamus), dull-coloured birds with a peculiar flight slightly resembling a swallow’s, are found all over India and Burma.

There are no less than eight species of Golden or Yellow Orioles (Oriolidae) found within Indian limits, many of them local, but some widely diffused. A ninth species (Oriolus traillii), inhabiting the Himalayas and Burma, has black and chestnut plumage instead of black and yellow.

The Grackles, Talking Mainas, or Hill Mainas (Eulabetidae), glossy black in colour with rich yellow cheek lappets, are well-known cage-birds with wonderful powers of imitating the human voice. Though often classed with the starlings, they are apparently distinct. Four representative species occur in the hill forests of the Himalayas, India, Ceylon, and Burma.

The Starling family (Sturnidae) contains the true Starlings, the Rosy Pastors, and the Mainas. Of true Starlings (Sturnus), six closely allied species are found in Northern India, most of them being migratory. The Rosy Pastor (Pastor roseus) is also migratory, but it abounds throughout a great part of the Indian Peninsula in winter, and is notoriously destructive to grain crops, especially to millet. The Mainas are resident and numerous. The Common or House Maina (Acridotheres tristis) is a familiar bird around human habitations almost throughout the Empire. The Bank Maina (A. ginginianus), the Blackheaded Maina (Temenuchus pagodarum), the Jungle Maina (Aethiops fuscus), and the Pied Maina (Sturnopastor contra) are all common.

The next family, that of the Flycatchers (Muscicapidae), comprises rather more than fifty Indian species of small size. Though generally distributed, these birds are not of much importance. Perhaps the best-known kind is the Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi), of which the immature birds and females are black and chestnut, while the mature male has the chestnut replaced by white. The tail in the male is very long, sometimes exceeding a foot in length.

Thrushes and their allies form the family Turdidae, divided into several sub-families. Of these the first is that of the Saxicolinae, comprising the Bush-chats or Whin-chats, Stone-chats, and Wheatears, mostly migratory birds, of which several species are winter visitors to Northern India, and a few are more generally distributed. The Redstarts and their allies (Ruticillinae) are more numerous, but are chiefly hill birds. The Indian Robins (Thamnobia) are, however, common throughout the Indian Peninsula, whilst the Indian Magpie Robin or Dayal (Copsychus saularis), and that well-known songster, the Shama (Cittocincia macrura), range throughout the greater portion of the Empire, and the Indian Redstart (Ruticilla rufiventris) is a winter visitor to almost the whole of India with Assam and Manipur. Other forms are the Forktails (Henicurus) and their allies, black and white birds haunting banks of streams in the Himalayas and Burma; the migratory Blue Throats (Cyanecula), Ruby Throats (Calliope), and several others.

The Turdinae comprise the Thrushes and Blackbirds, which are in India almost confined to the hill ranges, the only forms found in the plains being the Migratory Blue Rock Thrushes (Petrophila), and some equally migratory Ground Thrushes (Geocichla). Of the other two sub-families belonging to the Turdine family, the Dippers (Cinclinae) and the Accentors (Accentorinae), none of the members range south of the Himalayas, and but few are found away from the higher mountains.

The Ploceidae comprise two sub-families, the Ploceinae or Weaver Birds, and the Viduinae or Munias, both found throughout the Indian Empire. The Weaver Birds are finchlike, and generally the males are more or less yellow in the breeding season; they make curious flask-shaped grass nests, which may often be seen hanging from trees or bushes, some of them having long tubular entrances. The Munias and Avadavats are even smaller, and comprise several common cage-birds.

The Finch family (Fringillidae) are divided into the Hawfinches (Cocothraustinae), True Finches (Fringillinae), and Buntings (Emberizinae). The Hawfinches or Grossbeaks are scarcely Indian; five species are known from the Himalayas, chiefly from the higher forests; but one of these ranges as far as Manipur and the Burmese Shan States. Among the True Finches the great majority are Himalayan. Bullfinches, a Crossbill, Rose Finches of several genera and many of them beautifully coloured, a Goldfinch, two Linnets, a Siskin, a Greenfinch, and several Mountain Finches inhabit parts of the higher ranges, while a single migratory Rose Finch (Carpodacus erythrinus) visits India and Northern Burma in the winter. The Yellowthroated Sparrow (Gymnorhis), a bird with African affinities, inhabits the Indian Peninsula, and the House Sparrow is found wherever there are human habitations. Three more species of Sparrow are found in Burma; and two others, with the Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) and the Desert Finch (Erythrospiza githaginea), are met with in the Punjab or Sind. The Buntings are mostly migratory. Of the fifteen species found within Indian limits the majority are winter visitors to the Himalayas or to North-western India or to both; five are found in the Eastern Himalayas and Burma; one (Emberiza striolata) is resident in North-western India; and two migratory birds, the Corn Buntings (E. melanocephala and E. luteola), are common winter visitors to India, the first being notorious for the ravages it commits in corn-fields. The Crested Bunting (Melophus melanicterus), of which the male is a rather handsome bird, black and chestnut, is resident in many parts of India and Burma.

In the Swallow family (Hirundinidae) are included, besides the true Swallows, the Martins (Chelidon), Sand Martins (Cotile), and Crag Martins (Ptyonoprogne). The House Martins are chiefly Himalayan, though stragglers have been found in various parts of the Empire. Sand Martins of two closely allied species are very widely distributed. Crag Martins are met with about cliffs in the Peninsula of India and the Himalayas, but are not known with certainty from Burma. Ten species of true Swallows occur within Indian limits, some of them migratory but the greater number resident. Among them are the common European Swallow (H. rustica), a winter visitor everywhere; the Wire-tailed Swallow (H. smithii), with the shafts of the outer tail feathers produced beyond the webs; the Indian Cliff Swallow, which breeds on the high banks of rivers in large societies; and several forms of Striated Swallow, with the lower surface streaked.

Pipits and Wagtails combine to form the family Motacillidae, and both comprise many species, and are found almost everywhere. The Larks (Alaudidae) are represented by no less than ten genera, but several of these are very restricted in range. Thus the Desert Lark (Alaemon desertorum), an African species, is met with in India only on the deserts of the Indus plain. The Calendra Lark (Melanocorypha) does not occur much farther to the eastward, while the Crested Larks (Galerita) and the Finch Larks (Ammomanes and Pyrrhulauda), common in India, are unknown east of the Bay of Bengal. The Eared Larks (Otocorys) are Himalayan. Skylarks (Alauda) and Bush Larks (Mirafra) are met with throughout the Empire.

The Sun-birds (Nectariniidae) are of small size and have long narrow bills. The males of one sub-family (Nectariniinae) almost rival the Humming-birds of America in the brilliancy of their plumage, and they are occasionally, though wrongly, called ‘humming-birds’. Some of the species are found throughout India and Burma, but more kinds are peculiar to the hill forests. The other sub-family, known as Spider-hunters (Arachnotherinae), are rather larger and of a dull olive colour; their bill is longer. They inhabit the Himalayas, Burma, and the hills of Southern India.

The Flower-peckers (Dicaeidae) are small forest birds with a short triangular bill and the edges of both mandibles minutely serrated, as are also those of the Sun-birds. They are pretty generally distributed throughout India, but are more common in the Himalayas and Burma. Some of them have brilliantly coloured males.

The last Passerine family is that of the Pittidae, handsome birds about the size of a large thrush, living on the ground in woods and forests. One species (Pitta brachyura) inhabits Peninsular India and Ceylon; three are met with in the Eastern Himalayas; and the number of species increases in Burma, and especially to the southward in Tenasserim.

The Broadbills, although nearly allied to the Passeres, are distinguished by anatomical characters. The geographical distribution of the Order is restricted, none being found outside the Indo-Malayan or Oriental region, while within that region species occur in the Himalayas, Burma, Siam and Cambodia, the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago as far as Borneo and the Philippines, but not in the Indian Peninsula or Ceylon. The Broadbills are small forest birds, living in little flocks among high trees and feeding as a rule on insects. Some are very beautifully coloured. Among the most noticeable are the Long-tailed Broadbill (Psartisomus dalhousiae), which ranges from Mussoorie in the Western Himalayas to Borneo; two kinds of Eurylaemus, found in Burma; the Dusky Broadbill (Corydon sumatranus), met with in Tenasserim and the Malay countries; and the grass green frugivorous Calyptomena, with the bill almost concealed by the loral feathers, having the same distribution.

Woodpeckers are very common and conspicuous throughout the Empire, no less than eighteen genera and fifty-five species of true Woodpeckers being found, besides two ‘Piculets’ (Picumnus and Sasia) and the common Wryneck (Iynx torquilla), which is a winter visitor. The Woodpeckers and Piculets are not migratory. A large proportion of the genera are found, within the area, only in the Eastern Himalayas, Assam, and Burma; others are represented in the hills of Southern India; but the kinds generally distributed throughout India and Burma are not numerous. The two commonest in India are the Golden-backed Woodpecker (Brachypternus aurantius) and the Yellow-fronted Pied Woodpecker (Liopicus mahrattensis). Several species of Green Woodpeckers (Gecinulus), Pied Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus), and Pigmy Woodpeckers (Iyngipicus) are found in the hill tracts. Among other interesting forms are the Great Slaty Woodpecker (Hemilophus pulverulentus) of the Himalayas and Burma; the Black Woodpeckers (Thriponax), represented within our limits only in Burma and Malabar; and the three-toed Tiga, which is similarly distributed, but also represented in the Himalayas.

This Order, which resembles the Woodpeckers in having two toes, the first and fourth, directed backwards, but differs in several structural characters as well as in appearance and habits, comprises two families represented in India, the Honey Guides (Indicatoridae) and the Barbets (Capitonidae). Only one species belongs to the first, and that is a very rare Himalayan bird (Indicator xanthonotus); but it and a Malayan species are closely allied to the African birds so well known for the assistance they afford in the discovery of bees’ nests. Barbets are fruit-eating birds; and all Indian and Burmese species, with one exception, are more or less grass-green in colour. The exception is a Malayan bird (Calorhamphus hayi), found in Tenasserim. Among the other Indian Barbets are birds as large as a jay belonging to the genus Megalaema, with one Himalayan and one Burmese and Chinese species, and smaller forms representing the genera Thereiceryx, Cyanops, and Xantholaema, some of which are found in all well-wooded parts of the Empire. These Barbets have peculiar calls of one, two, or three syllables repeated in a monotonous manner for some minutes; the best-known species being the little ‘Coppersmith’ (Xantholaema haematopoehala), found in most Indian gardens, and recognized by its monosyllabic metallic call.

Next we have a somewhat heterogeneous group, comprising the Rollers (Coraciae), Bee-eaters (Meropes), Kingfishers (Halcyones), Hornbills (Bucerotes), and Hoopoes (Upupae). All are well represented throughout India.

The Indian Roller (Coracias indica), commonly called the ‘blue jay’ (it is not related to the true Jays), is resident throughout India and Ceylon, being replaced by a nearly allied species (C. affinis) in Burma. It is a familiar bird, conspicuous by its blue plumage, and is often seen in gardens and orchards, where it hawks insects, and sometimes feeds on lizards or mice. It is associated with the worship of Siva. The European Roller (C. garrula), a migratory species, visits North-western India during migration and breeds in Kashmir and Central Asia. The Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus orientalis), a forest type, is found in the Himalayas, Burma, the Malabar forests, and Ceylon.

The Bee-eaters are slender-billed birds with, for the most part, green plumage. One of the smallest species (Merops viridis) is common almost throughout the Empire, except in the Himalayas. Besides several other species of Merops, the two kinds of Nyctiornis, rather larger forms, known as the Blue-bearded and Red-bearded Bee-eaters, should be mentioned: the former occurring in the Himalayas, Burma, the Malabar forests, and near Sambalpur in the Central Provinces; the latter in Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula.

Of Kingfishers eighteen species are recorded within Indian limits. The principal are the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida), a small variety of the European bird, which is generally distributed; the Indian Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle varia), a black and white species closely allied to the South European and African C. rudis, also met with throughout the Empire; a large form of Ceryle, found in the Himalayas; and the equally large blue and buff Pelargopsis, three species of which occur on the sea-coast and along estuaries and large rivers. The White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), which is chiefly insectivorous, is common throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma.

Hornbills, sometimes wrongly called Toucans, are rather typical Indian birds, although the only kind found generally in the Peninsula is the Common Grey Hornbill (Lophoceros birostris), a small species. Two other forms of the same genus are met with in Malabar and Ceylon and others in Africa, but none occur in the Himalayas or in Burma, where, however, there are numerous kinds of the great Black and White Hornbills, belonging to the genera Dichoceros, Rhytidoceros, and Aceros, birds 3½ to 4 feet in length; and other genera again are found in Southern Burma. The largest of all (Dichoceros bicornis), the garuda of many Hindus, with a broad concave casque, is also met with in the forests of the Western Ghats; and the smaller Pied Hornbills of the genus Anthracoceros are represented in the forests of South-western Bengal, as well as those of Malabar and Ceylon, and in the Himalayas and Burma. All are mainly frugivorous, and have a remarkable habit of the female remaining built into a hollow tree during incubation, and being fed through a small cleft by the male. The larger kinds attract attention by the extraordinary noise they make when flying.

The common European Hoopoe (Upupa epops) visits India in winter; the Indian Hoopoe (U. indica), which is only just distinguishable from the European species, is a resident and found almost throughout the Empire.

The next group includes the Swifts (Cypseli), Nightjars (Caprimulgi), and Frogmouths (Podargi). The relationship of these forms is an open question.

The Swifts comprise several species of Cypselus, among which is the Common Indian Swift (C. affinis), resident in the larger towns and breeding upon old buildings. It is replaced east of the Bay of Bengal by the Malay House Swift (C. subfurcatus). The European Swift (C. apus) and the Alpine Swift (C. melba) are winter visitors to India. The little Palm Swifts (Tachornis), common about fan-palms, in which they breed, are also represented by distinct species east and west of the Bay of Bengal. To the genus Chaetura, comprising the Spinetail Swifts, belong two large species, one Himalayan only, the other Indian and Burmese; they are probably the swiftest of all birds and the most powerful flyers. There are also two smaller species; one (C. sylvatica) occurring in some of the larger Indian forests, and the other (C. leucopygalis) in Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula. The genus Collocalia consists of the small species sometimes called ‘swiftlets,’ chiefly inhabiting the sea-coast, and famous as the producers of the edible nests prized by the Chinese. One species, however, is common in the Himalayas. Last come the Crested Swifts (Macropteryx), with the sexes differing in colour. One species inhabits well-wooded tracts and forests almost throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma; two others are found in Southern Tenasserim.

The Nightjars or Goatsuckers (Caprimulgus) are represented by seven species, all widely distributed. They are nocturnal, and have peculiar reiterated notes, chiefly uttered in the earlier and later parts of the night, and resembling strokes by a hammer on a plank, or a stone striking ice. The Large-eared Nightjar (Lyncornis cerviniceps) is found in Burma, the Eastern Himalayas, and Travancore.

Three species of Batrachostomus or Frogmouth, the Asiatic representative of the Australian Podargus, occur within Indian limits: one in Ceylon and Travancore; a second in the Eastern Himalayas, Assam, and Burma; and the third in Tenasserim. They are shy nocturnal birds, and appear to be rare, but they resemble nightjars in appearance and habit.

Trogons, distinguished by the structure of their feet, the first and second toes being directed backwards (not the first and fourth as in Woodpeckers, Barbets, Cuckoos, and Parrots), and by their peculiarly soft and often beautifully coloured plumage, are found in the tropical forests of America, Africa, and the Indo-Malay region. Three species of Pyrotrogon or Harpactes, the Asiatic representative of the Order, occur in Burma, one ranging to the Eastern Himalayas; and a fourth is found in the forests between the Ganges and the Godavari, those near the western coasts of India, and in Ceylon.

Indian Cuckoos belong to one family (Cuculidae), and comprise fifteen genera and thirty species, divided into two sub-families not very easily distinguished. All members of the first family (Cuculinae) are parasitic, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, while the majority of the second sub-family (Phoenicophainae) build their own nests. To the first family belong four species of true Cuckoo, one of which, the Common Cuckoo of Europe (Cuculus canorus), is widely distributed throughout India, and breeds in the Himalayas, and apparently also in Chotā Nāgpur and some other tracts, where its well-known call is frequently heard in April and May. There are also four Indian or Burmese species of Hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx), which resemble birds of prey even more than the common Cuckoo does. One of these (H. varius), found throughout India and Ceylon but not in Burma, has received the name of ‘brain-fever bird’ from its monotonous repetition of its call-note in the hot season. The Crested Cuckoos (Coecystes) and several smaller genera also belong to the sub-family; one of these (Surniculus) is remarkable as being an almost exact imitation in form and plumage of the common ‘king-crow’ or Drongo, and thus affording one of the best examples of what is known as ‘mimicry’ in the animal kingdom. Another small genus (Chrysococcyx) has glossy metallic plumage, bright-green in the male in one species, violet in another.

Amongst the Phoenicophainae two well-known birds are found throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma. One of these is the Koel (Eudynamis honorata), a frugivorous cuckoo, with the male glossy-black and the female brown and spotted. The loud note of this cuckoo may be heard from March to July in almost every grove in India, especially about dawn. Unlike most of the Phoenicophainae, the female Koel is parasitic and lays its eggs in the nests of crows. The other familiar member of this sub-family is the Coucal (Centropus sinensis), often called ‘crow-pheasant’ in India. The genus Centropus, of which there are several species, is distinguished by having a long hind claw. The remaining members of the sub-family are long-tailed ground cuckoos of feeble flight, living in scrub, and belonging to several genera.

The majority of the Indian Parrots, including all the common forms, are Paroquets belonging to the genus Palacornis, distinguished by its long tail and prevailing green colour. Of this no less than fifteen species occur within Indian limits, but this number includes one species peculiar to the Andamans and two to the Nicobar Islands. The best-known kinds are the Large Paroquet, of which four different races inhabit Ceylon, India, Burma, and the Andaman Islands respectively; the Blossom-headed Paroquets, of which one race (P. cyanocephalus) is found west and the other (P. rosa) east of the Bay of Bengal; and, commonest of all, the Rose-ring Paroquet (P. torquatus). The only Indian parrots not included in Palacornis are two members of the small, short-tailed Loriculus, birds not larger than a starling, one inhabiting Ceylon, the other the Malabar forests, the Eastern Himalayas, and Burma; and the little Malayan Parrot (Psittinus incertus), which is found in Southern Tenasserim.

Thirty-seven species of owls have been recorded within Indian limits, belonging to eight genera. Foremost among these is the Barn Owl (Strix flammea), of almost world-wide distribution. Other Indian owls are: (1) two species of Photodilus, small Screech Owls, one inhabiting the Himalayas and Burma, the other Ceylon; (2) the Long-eared Owl (Asio otus), an occasional visitor to Northern India, and the Short-eared Owl (A. acipitrinus), found throughout the area; (3) several Wood Owls belonging to the genus Syrnium, very handsome birds, of moderate size, without aigrettes but with feathered tarsi; (4) three kinds of Fish Owl (Ketupa), larger birds with naked tarsi, usually found near water and living chiefly on fish and crustacea; (5) Eagle Owls, belonging to the genera Bubo and Huhua, all of large size, with aigrettes and feathered tarsi; (6) several small owls belonging to the genera Scops, Athene, and Glaucidium; and (7) the Brown Hawk Owls (Ninox), one of which is said to be the ‘devil-bird’ of Ceylon, so named from the extraordinary sounds it makes. Of these the commonest and best-known forms are the Brown Fish Owl (Ketupa zeylonensis); the Rock Horned Owl (Bubo bengalensis), so often seen sitting on rocks or trees in hilly country throughout the Peninsula of India; the variable Scops Owl (Scops giu), one form or another of which may be met with almost everywhere in India and Burma; and the Spotted Owlet (Athene brama), which is even more widely spread, and, being less purely nocturnal, is much more frequently seen.

Indian birds of prey belong to three families, one containing the Osprey alone, the second the Vultures, the third Eagles, Kites, Harriers, Buzzards, Hawks, and Falcons. The number and variety of diurnal birds of prey in India are very great, no less than eighty-two species having been recognized, representing thirty-five genera.

The Osprey is a winter visitor throughout India and Burma, and may be seen about large rivers and the sea-coast where fish, on which it lives, are numerous.

Vultures abound throughout India and Northern Burma; they are less common in Tenasserim, and wanting in Ceylon. The Cinereous Vulture (Vultur monachus) and the Griffon (Gyps fulvus) are met with only in Northern India; but the Black Vulture (Ologyps calvus), the Indian Long-billed Vulture (Gyps indicus), and the White-backed Vulture (Pseudogyps bengalensis) are everywhere seen—the first, however, being by no means abundant, while the last is extremely common. Two other species of Gyps also occur in the Himalayas. The White Scavenger Vulture (Neophron ginginianus) is ubiquitous in India, and haunts the neighbourhood of human habitations; but it is very rare in Ceylon, and unknown in Burma or even in Lower Bengal.

First among the Falconidae comes the Bearded Vulture or Lämmergeyer (Gypaetus barbatus), supposed in the Alps to live upon lambs and occasionally upon children, but found in the Himalayas, where it is common, to subsist upon carrion and to have a particular preference for bones. Besides the Himalayas, this great bird haunts the higher ranges in the Punjab and Sind. Of the true eagles, the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetus) is found in the Himalayas, and the Imperial Eagle (A. heliaca) is far from rare throughout Northern India, chiefly, however, as a winter visitor. The Steppe Eagle (A. bifasciata) is another North Indian migrant. The small Tawny Eagle (A. vindhiana) is common throughout the greater part of India and in Upper Burma, while the Spotted Eagles (A. maculata and A. hastata), the latter peculiar to the Indian Peninsula, inhabit the neighbourhood of marshes. Bonelli’s Eagle (Hieractus fasciatus) and the Booted Eagle (H. pennatus) are also Indian, but the latter only is Burmese. The various Hawk Eagles (Lophotriorchis, Ictinaetus, and Spisaetus) are woodland birds, one or the other of which is found in all Indian forests; while the European Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) is found throughout India but not farther east, and the Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela) is to be met with almost throughout the Empire, and is easily recognized when soaring by its strongly banded wings and tail. It varies greatly in size and somewhat in colour. Two other species of the same genus occur in the Nicobars and Andamans. Next to the true eagles come the small Buzzard Eagles (Butastur), with three species; five kinds of Fishing Eagles or Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus and Polioaetus), all of large size; and the Brähmani Kite (Haliastur indus), associated with the Hindu deity, Vishnu. This handsome bird, with a maroon back and the head and lower parts white, lives chiefly on fish, and is found commonly in the neighbourhood of water.

The Common Indian Kite (Milvus govinda) swarms about towns and villages throughout the Empire, and its peculiar squealing call is almost as well known as the call of the Indian crow. A larger kite also occurs, but is rare. Six or seven different Harriers are winter visitors to the country; among these the commonest is the Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus), of which the handsome adult, so rare in Europe, is frequently seen in India. Two other species, the Pale Harrier (C. macrurus) and Montagu’s Harrier (C. cineraceus), are commonly noticed hawking over open grassy plains; and to the eastward the pied Harrier (C. melanoleucus) is found, especially in flat marshy tracts. Buzzards are represented by the Indian race of the Common Buzzard (Buteo desertorum), widely distributed but rare; by the Long-legged Buzzard (B. ferox) in the Himalayas and North-western India, where it is common in winter; and by two kinds, both rare, one of them a Rough-legged Buzzard, in the Himalayas only. The Goshawk (Astur palumbarius) is also Himalayan and is largely tamed for hawking, while the Shikra (A. badius), a much smaller form, is common and resident all over India and Burma. It too is tamed and trained to be flown at quails, partridges, and especially crows. The Crested Goshawk (Lophospizias trivirgatus) is a rare forest bird. The common Sparrow-hawk (Accipiter nisus) is a winter visitor, and the resident Besra Sparrow-hawk (A. virgatus) is rather locally distributed. The Honey Buzzard (Pernis cristatus), easily recognized by the closely feathered sides of the head, is not uncommon.

Passing over the rare genera, Baza and Machaeramphus, the next birds requiring notice are the true falcons. The Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) is a winter visitor, while the more deeply coloured Shâhin Falcon (F. peregrinator) is resident in the Indian forests; the Barbary Falcon (F. barbarus) and the Saker or Cherrug (F. cherrug) inhabit North-western India; and the Laggar (F. jugger) occurs throughout the Peninsula in open and cultivated country. All these birds are occasionally reclaimed for hawking, but the sport has greatly declined in India during the course of the last century. The Hobby and Merlin are winter visitors, almost confined to Northern India. The Indian Hobby (Falco severus) is found in the Himalayas and scattered over India and Burma, while the turumti or Red-headed Merlin (Aesalon chicquera) is common and resident in many parts of the Indian Peninsula. Kestrels (Tinnunculus alaudarius) are generally distributed; the majority are winter visitors, but a few breed in India. The Smaller Kestrel (T. cenchris) and the Eastern Red-legged Falcon (Erythropus amurensis) are rare migratory forms, only occasionally seen. The only other members of the Falcon tribe requiring notice are the Pigmy Falcons or Falconets (Microhierax), small birds scarcely larger than a lark, feeding on insects, inhabiting open tracts in forests, and differing from all other Accipitrine birds by laying their eggs in holes in trees, like owls and parrots. One species (M. eutolimus), with much rufous beneath, is found in the Himalayas and Burma; a second (M. melanoleucus), pure white beneath, in Assam; and a third (M. fringillarius), in Tenasserim.

Pigeons and Doves are common birds in all parts of India and Burma, and no less than six different groups, families, or sub-families are represented. The first of these, the Green Pigeons (Treroninae), are birds of yellowish-green plumage, often with patches of chestnut or lilac on the upper surface. All have feet adapted for perching; they live in flocks among the trees, and feed on fruit. The commonest forms are species belonging to the genus Crocopus, which are often met with near towns and villages, and which haunt the Banyan and Pipal when those trees are in fruit. The other species are forest birds, and are not found in the cleared and cultivated parts of the country.

The second group is composed of the large Imperial Pigeons, most of which are dark-green or coppery-brown on the back and grey below. They keep to the forest tracts, such as the Himalayas, Burma, Orissa, and the Malabar coastlands, and feed on fruit. One black and white bird, the Pied Imperial Pigeon, inhabits the Malay Archipelago and extends its range to the Andamans and Nicobars. The same area is inhabited by the only member of the third group, the beautiful Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), which has long neck-hackles and a prevailing coloration of metallic green with bronze reflections; it breeds in enormous numbers on Batti Malv, an uninhabited island of the Nicobars. The fourth sub-family is also represented in India by a single species, the Bronze-winged Dove (Chalcophaps indica), which haunts damp and thickly wooded tracts and, like the Nicobar Pigeon, feeds on the ground. The True Pigeons (Columbinae) comprise the Indian Blue Rock Pigeon, a very near ally of the Blue Rock of Europe, and found, like that bird, breeding on rocks or buildings, and, very commonly in India, in the sides of wells, and also eastern races of the Stock Pigeon or Stock Dove and Wood Pigeon; but while the first-named species is widely spread, the two latter are found only in North-western India. Several kinds, allied to the Wood Pigeon but belonging to distinct genera (Dendrotreron and Alsocomus), are met with in the forests of the Himalayas, Burma, Southern India, and Ceylon; but they are rare forms, whilst the Doves, of which eight species occur in India, furnish some of the commonest birds in the country. The only remaining group (Geopeliinae) is represented by a single Malay species, found within our limits only in Southern Tenasserim.

The Sand-grouse are intermediate in structure between Pigeons and the true Game Birds. They are chiefly found in open country, being most abundant in the dry semi-desert tracts of Sind and the Punjab. They are as a rule about the size of a pigeon—a few being larger—and of a yellowish-brown colour; they are swift of flight, they always rest and feed on the ground, and they fly to water at particular hours in the morning and evening. Seven species occur in India, but none are known in the countries east of the Bay of Bengal, and only two of the seven are met with elsewhere in India than in the Punjab, Sind, Rajputana, and the United Provinces, while one species, belonging to a different genus (Syrrhaptes tibetanus), is peculiar to Tibet.

The Game Birds proper, Peafowl, Jungle-fowl, Pheasants, Partridges, Quails, &c., include fifty-eight species enumerated in the Fauna, a number raised to seventy-one in Mr. Oates’s Game Birds of India. The difference depends partly upon the limits assigned to the area, and partly on the question whether certain pheasants should be regarded as species or varieties; but some of Mr. Oates’s additions are recent discoveries within Indian limits.

Peafowl are met with throughout the greater part of India, Ceylon, and Burma; but the Burmese and Malay species (Pavo muticus) is distinct from the Common Peacock of India and Ceylon (P. cristatus), having the neck green instead of blue, and a different crest. In some parts of India peafowl are considered sacred by Hindus, and they live in a semi-domesticated state around villages in Gujarat, Rajputana, and Sind.

The great Argus Pheasant (Argusianus argus), a Malay species, is known within Indian limits only in Southern Tenasserim. The Grey Peacock Pheasant (Polyplectrum chinquis) inhabits the forests of the Lower Himalayas east of Sikkim, and the hill ranges of Assam and Burma.

The Indian Jungle-fowls are three in number. The Red Jungle-fowl (Gallus ferrugineus), from which all domestic fowls are derived, inhabits a large part of South-eastern Asia, including Burma, Assam, the Lower Himalayas throughout, and the Peninsula as far south as the Godavari to the eastward, but not west of about 80° E. long. The remainder of the Indian Peninsula is inhabited by the Grey Jungle-fowl (G. sonnerati), easily recognized by yellow and white spots of peculiar structure on the neck-hackles of the male; while a third species (G. lafayettii) is peculiar to Ceylon. Each has its own peculiar call-note or crow. The Burmese race of Red Jungle-fowl differs from the Indian by having a red instead of a white ear-lappet, and it is said to be more easily tamed.

Jungle-fowls are very nearly allied to Pheasants, of which however, using the name as generally understood, none inhabit India proper or Ceylon, while four Himalayan genera are unknown in any other part of the Empire. These are the Chir Pheasant (Catreus wallichi), the Koklas or Pucras (Pucrasia macrolopha), the Monals (Lophophorus refulgens and L. impeyanus), and the Blood Pheasant (Ithagenes cruentus). The Horned Pheasants or Tragopans, sometimes wrongly called Argus Pheasants, are represented by two species in the Himalayas, one (Tragopan melanocephalus) to the westward, and the Crimson Horned Pheasant (T. satyra), in Nepál, Sikkim, and Bhutan, while a third species (T. bythi) is found in some of the higher hill ranges south of Assam. All of these genera are Central Asiatic and are represented in parts of China. The true pheasants of the genus Phasianus, occurring throughout temperate Asia, are represented by two species (P. humiae and P. elegans) in Northern Burma and Manipur; while the beautiful Amherst Pheasant (Callophasis amherstiae) has been met with on the frontier between Burma and Yunnan, and one species of the Malayan Fire-backed Pheasants (Lophura rufa) ranges into Southern Tenasserim. The genus Gennaeus, containing the Silver Pheasants of China and the Himalayan Kalij, comprises four species in the Lower Himalayas (one of them also inhabiting the ranges south of Assam), and several Burmese kinds, the precise number being rather uncertain, as they show a tendency to pass into each other. To the eastward these birds approach the Chinese Silver Pheasant in plumage and size; to the westward they resemble more nearly the Himalayan Kalij. They are known as Silver Pheasants in Burma.

The Spur-fowls (Galloperdix) are about the size of a partridge. They keep to forests and are found only in India and Ceylon, being unknown east of the Bay of Bengal and west of the Indus river, though one species occurs at the base of the Himalayas in Oudh. Their name is derived from the presence of two or more spurs on each tarsus in the male, and sometimes in the female. Two kinds inhabit the Indian Peninsula, and one is peculiar to Ceylon. A bird known as the Western Bamboo Partridge (Bambusicola fytchii), found in the hills of Northern Burma and Assam, and congeneric with species inhabiting Southern China and Formosa, may represent the Spur-fowls of India.

A considerable number of small Indian gallinaceous birds not having any very definite relations to each other may for convenience be classed collectively as Quails. The most important are the Common or Grey Quail (Coturnix communis), a winter visitor to India and Burma, and the Black-breasted or Rain Quail (C. coromandelica), a resident species. To the eastward a few individuals of the Japanese race of the Grey Quail (C. japonica) are said to have been obtained. Next in importance are five species of Bush Quail: two of Perdicula, peculiar to the Indian Peninsula, except that one of them occurs in Northern Ceylon; and three of Microperdix, two of which inhabit the Indian Peninsula, while the third has recently been discovered in Manipur. Then there is the Blue-breasted Quail (Excalsforia chinensis), resident in swampy country throughout the Empire; and two species which only just come within our limits—the Mountain Quail (Ophrysia superciliosa), of which a very few specimens have been obtained at Mussoorie and Naini Tal; and the Green Wood Quail (Rollulus routroul), a Malay bird found in Southern Tenasserim.

Another group may be classed as Partridges. This includes in the first place five species of Francolinus, beginning with the Black Partridge or Common Francolin of the Mediterranean countries (F. vulgaris), found throughout Northern India, but replaced in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies generally by the Painted Partridge (F. pictus), and in Northern Burma by the Chinese Francolin (F. chinensis). Two other Indian partridges, by many arranged in a different genus (Ortygiornis), are the common Grey Partridge, found throughout India and Northern Ceylon, and also westward as far as the Persian Gulf, but not east of the Bay of Bengal; and the Kyah or Swamp Partridge, which inhabits the high grass jungles of the Ganges and Brahmaputra plains. The remaining partridges are not found in the Indian Peninsula. They are the Chikor (Caccabis chucar) and the Sisi (Ammoperdix bonhami), Western Asiatic types, both found in the hills of the Punjab and Sind, and the Chukor also throughout the Western Himalayas; a species of true Partridge (Perdix hodgsoniae), allied to the European bird but inhabiting Tibet; and the Hill Partridges (Arboricola, Tropicoperdix, and Caloperdix), three of which, belonging to Arboricola, are Himalayan, and five more Assamese or Burmese. All are about the same size as the common partridge, and they are rather handsome birds, inhabiting forest.

In the Higher Himalāyas are found the Snow Partridge (Lerwa nivicola), a bird much resembling Red Grouse in size and appearance; and two species of Snow Cocks (Tetraogallus), fine birds about the size of a Capercaillie.

Lastly, in the Nicobar Islands, a species occurs of the family Megapodiidae, the other members of which family inhabit the Philippines, Celebes, Papuasia, and Australia. Like their allies, the Nicobar Megapodes lay their eggs in mounds of decaying vegetable matter built by themselves and supplying the heat necessary for incubation.

Although differing in several important anatomical characters, the five species of Hemipodes (Turnix) found in the Indian Empire much resemble quails in size, appearance, and plumage, but are distinguished by having no hind toe. Females are larger than males, and while the latter sit on the eggs and guard the young brood, the females challenge and fight each other. These birds are generally found singly in grass.

The next Order consists of Rails, Finfeet, Cranes, and Bustards. The Rails (Rallidae) comprise nineteen species belonging to ten genera. Several are Water-rails, belonging to the genera Rallus, Hypotaenidia, and Porzana; there are three kinds of banded Crakes (Rallina), and other Crakes, Water-hens, and Moor-hens, referred to Amaurornis and Gallinula. These are seldom seen, as they hide in grassy swamps; the only birds at all commonly observed are the White-breasted Water-hen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) and the common Moor-hen (Gallinula chloropus); both of which are widely distributed throughout India and Burma. The Kora or Water Cock (Gallicrex cinerea) inhabits warm swampy plains, especially in Bengal and Assam, and is often kept tame by natives. The Purple Moor-hen (Porphyrio poliocephalus) is common among high reeds around large marshes, and climbs about the reeds like a gigantic Grass-warbler; and the Common Coot (Fulica atra), though very locally distributed, is found on many of the larger pieces of inland water.

The Masked Finfoot (Heliopais personata), the toes of which are lobed like a Coot’s, is the only Asiatic representative of the family Heliornithidae, the few other existing members of which are African or American. It is found on the coast, or on rivers, from Assam through Burma to Malacca and Sumatra.

Six kinds of Cranes (Gruidae) are met with in India or Burma. Of these the Demoiselle (Anthropoides virgo), the Common Crane (Grus communis), and the Great White Crane (G. leucogeranus) are winter visitors to Northern India, the Demoiselle and Common Crane being found as far south as the Deccan, often in large numbers. The Saras Crane (G. antigone) and its Burmese representative (G. sharpii) are resident species, large and beautiful birds, generally protected and seldom or never molested by the inhabitants of the country. They are consequently very tame. Another Crane (G. monachus), a species of North-eastern Asia, has recently been obtained in Assam.

The Bustards are six in number. None of them occur in Burma or in Ceylon. The Great Bustard and Little Bustard of Europe have been occasionally obtained in the extreme North-west of the Punjab only. The Great Indian Bustard (Eupolotis edwardsi), males of which often weigh 25 to 30 lb., is resident; it haunts open plains in North-western India and the Deccan as far south as Mysore. The Houbara (Houbara macqueeni), a much smaller bird, is a winter visitor to the Punjab, Sind, Rājputāna, and Northern Gujarat. The two Floricans (Sypheotis) are peculiar to India and breed in the country; the smaller of them (S. aurita) being found throughout the Peninsula, while the larger species (S. bengalensis) is met with only in the plain of the Ganges and Brahmaputra. In both the male becomes black in the breeding season.

The next Order contains, besides the Plovers and Snipes, several families of wading-birds of small or moderate size.

The first of these families contains the Stone Curlews or Stone Plovers (Oedicnemidae), represented by the Common Stone Curlew, often called the Bastard Florican in India (Oedicnemus scolopax), an inhabitant of stony plains, and also two species of Esacus, the Great Stone Plover (E. recurvirostris), found on the banks of rivers, and the Australian Stone Plover (E. magnirostris), which lives on the shores of the Andaman Islands. The next family (Dromadidae) contains a single species, the Crab Plover (Dromas ardeola), a white bird the size of a pigeon, found locally on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The third family (Glareolidae) comprises the Coursers and Pratincoles. The Coursers or Courier Plovers include two species of Cursorius (C. coromandelicus), peculiar to India, and a European bird (C. gallicus), found in the Punjab, Sind, and Rajputana. These birds inhabit open plains; but the third Courer (Rhinoptilus bitorquatus), a member of a genus that is with this exception purely African, is found in thin forests from the Godāvari valley to the neighbourhood of Madras. Of Pratincoles or Swallow Plovers (Glareola), three species are Indian, two being widely distributed and breeding, whilst the third is the European Collared Pratincole, which has been found in Sind. A fourth family (Parridae) consists of the Jaçanas, marsh birds with enormously long toes and claws, by means of which they can run over floating leaves of water-lilies and other plants. Two species are Indian, the Bronze-winged Jaçana (Metopidius indicus) and the Pheasant-tailed Jaçana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus), both found throughout India and Burma in suitable localities.

The Plover family (Charadriidae) includes, besides Plovers and Snipes, a considerable number of waders, many of which are migratory, and it may be divided into four sub-families. The first of these (Charadriinae) contains, besides the Plovers proper, the Turnstone, a rare winter visitor to the sea-coast. Then come several birds more or less allied to the Lapwing (Vanellus vulgaris), itself a winter visitor to North-western India. These are the Red-wattled (Sarcogrammus) and Yellow-wattled Lapwing (Sarcophorus), common Indian types, known by their peculiar cries, that of the former being anglicized as ‘Did-you-do-it’ (‘Pity-to-do-it’ is nearer the bird’s cry). A species of Sarcogrammus occurs in Burma, but no Sarciophorus ranges east of the Bay of Bengal. Another allied form is the Indian Spur-winged Plover (Hoplopterus ventralis), found on the banks of rivers, usually singly, in Central and North-eastern India and Burma. Here also belong some migratory birds included in the genera Microsarcops and Chettusia, which visit parts of Northern India in winter. The typical migratory plovers are the Eastern Golden Plover (Charadrius fulvus), found in open country throughout the Empire in winter; the European Golden Plover (C. pluvialis), occasionally obtained in North-western India; the Grey Plover (Squatarola helvetica), not common but widely distributed; and several species of Aegialitis or Sand and Ring Plovers, one of which, the Little Ringed Plover (Ae. dubia), common throughout the Empire, breeds in large numbers in India, although even in this case the majority of the birds seen in winter are migratory. The Kentish Plover (Ae. alexandrina) also breeds at times in the Indian Peninsula.

The next sub-family (Haematopodinae) contains the Sea-Pie or Oyster-catcher (Haematopus ostralegus), a winter visitor to the Indian coast; the Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus candidus), a common, and the Avocet (Recurvirostris avocetta), a rare winter visitor, the former alone extending its range to Burma; and the Ibis-bill (Ibidorhynchus struthersi), formerly known as the Red-billed Curlew, a Central Asiatic bird, found resident on the Higher Himalayas and the Nāga Hills in Assam.

The Totaninae contain the Curlews, Godwits, Sandpipers, and Stints. Both the Curlew (Numenius arquata) and the Whimbrel (N. phaeopus) are winter visitors, and so is the Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa belgica), while the Bar-tailed Godwit (L. lapponica) has hitherto been obtained within Indian limits only in Sind. Sandpipers and Stints are found everywhere, the commonest forms in India being the Wood Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus), both known as ‘snippets’ by Indian sportsmen. Redshanks, Spotted Redshanks, Greenshanks, Ruffs and Reeves, Sanderlings, Little Stints, and other kinds of Tringa, Dunlins, and Red-necked Phalaropes are among the migratory waders that visit India in winter, while some other forms, as the Grey Phalarope, have been obtained occasionally. The Red-necked Phalarope is common on the Baluchistan coast, where it spends the day in flocks on the sea, often several miles from land.

The Woodcocks and Snipes, with long, soft sensitive bills, form the last sub-family (Scolopacinae). The Woodcock breeds on the Himālayas, and in winter visits the Nilgiris and other hill ranges of Southern India in considerable numbers. The Snipes found generally in India belong to two species: the Common Snipe, or Fantail (Gallinago coelestis), identical with the European bird; and the Pintail Snipe (G. stenura), an eastern species, distinguished by having twenty-six tail-feathers instead of fourteen or sixteen, the outer eight on each side being narrow and stiff, and by some slight differences of plumage, especially by the wing-lining and axillaries being richly barred with blackish-brown. The Common Snipe is the more abundant to the westward in India, the Pintail is the prevalent form in Burma. The Jack Snipe (G. gallinula) is rare, except occasionally in Northern India. Two large snipes, the Wood Snipe (G. nemoricola) and the Himālayan Solitary Snipe (G. solitaria), inhabit the Himālayan and Assam hills, and the former is also found in the hills of Southern India. The Painted Snipe (Rostratula capensis), a non-migratory bird of weak flight, with the sexes differing in plumage, is found throughout India, Burma, and Southern Asia, and also in Africa and Madagascar.

Gulls and Terns form an Order by themselves, nearly allied to the Plovers, as might be inferred from the similarity between the eggs.

Seven kinds of Gull are found on the coasts of Sind and Baluchistan; of these only four are known from the Bay of Bengal, and only two in Ceylon, there being a considerable diminution in the numbers to the eastward and southward. The commonest kinds in India are the Laughing Gull (Larus ridibundus), the Brown-headed Gull (L. brunneicephalus), and the Yellow-legged Herring Gull (L. cachinnans), with, to the westward, the Sooty Gull (L. hemprichi), the Slender-billed Gull (L. gelastes), and the Dark-backed Herring Gull (L. affinis). The first three are often seen about rivers and large marshes inland. None breed in the Indian Peninsula.

Terns are more numerous in India than gulls, there being twenty-one species known, including two kinds of Noddy (Anous), only found on the open sea, and three other oceanic terns. The common terns found inland about rivers and marshes are the Whiskered Tern (Hydrocheliodon hybrida), the Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia), the Gull-billed Tern (Sterna anglica), the Indian River Tern (S. seena), and the Black-billed Tern (S. melanogaster), the last being one of the commonest of Indian water-birds. The Indian Skimmer, or Scissors-bill (Rhynchops albicollis), with both mandibles of the bill compressed and the upper the shorter, is very tern-like in appearance, but differs in many respects. It keeps to rivers and large pieces of fresh water.

Richardson’s Skua (Stercorarius crepidatus) occurs in winter on the Makrān and Sind coasts, and individuals of two other species of Skua have been recorded within Indian limits.

Pelicans, Frigate-birds, Cormorants, Gannets or Boobies, and Tropic-birds, all distinguished by having the four toes united by a web, form the next Order. Only the Pelicans and Cormorants are found inland; members of the other three families are oceanic; two kinds of Frigate birds, three Boobies, and three Tropic-birds have been observed in the Indian seas.

Four kinds of Pelicans occur in India; but of these the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelicanus crispus) is only found in winter in the north-western part of the country, and P. onocrotalus is rare as an Indian bird. The other two species, the Eastern White Pelican (P. roseus) and the Spotted-billed Pelican (P. philippensis), are more generally distributed, the latter being the commonest, and breeding in the country.

Three Cormorants are among the resident Indian waterbirds: the Large Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), the Indian Shag (P. fusicollis), and the Little Cormorant (P. javanicus), the latter being by far the commonest. The Indian Darter or Snake-bird (Plotus melanogaster) is also generally distributed. Of the four Indian members of the Cormorant family, the Large Cormorant alone is met with on the sea.

The Petrels are oceanic birds. Five species have been recorded in the seas around India, and others indicated. Small Stormy Petrels are not rare, and probably two or three species are represented, but very few specimens have been obtained. A Shearwater (Puffinus persicus) is met with off Bombay and Sind, and another species (P. chlororhynchus) has been occasionally recorded from Ceylon and Makrān.

The Ibises, Spoonbills, Storks, and Herons form a far more important part of Indian bird life. The Ibises are the White Ibis (Ibis melanocephala), a near relative of the Egyptian Sacred Ibis; two kinds of Black Ibis (Inocotis papillosus of Northern India, and I. davisoni of Southern Burma); and the Glossy Ibis. All except the last are resident, and even the Glossy Ibis breeds in Sind and in Ceylon. Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) are somewhat local, but they occur and breed in several parts of India, though not in Burma.

Among Storks, the common White Stork (Ciconia alba) and the Black Stork (C. nigra) are winter visitors to Northern India, while the White-necked Stork (Dissura episcopus), a common Indian bird, the great Black-necked Stork (Xenorhynchus asiaticus), two kinds of Adjutant (Leptoptilus dubius and L. javanicus), the Painted Stork (Pseudotantalus leucocephalus), and the curious Open-bill (Anastomus oscitans) are resident. The Larger Adjutant (L. dubius) was formerly common in Calcutta from March to October, being attracted by the heaps of refuse; but improved sanitary regulations have banished both offal and Adjutants from the city. All the storks named are widely distributed, but Anastomus is particularly common in the great plain of Northern India.

The Heron family (Ardeidae) is represented by eleven genera and twenty-one species. The principal of these are the Common Heron (Ardea cinerea), the Eastern Purple Heron (A. manillensis), and the three White Egrets (Herodia alba, large; H. intermedia, smaller; and H. garzetta, smaller still), with the Cattle Egret (Bubulcus coromandus), which is white in winter, but becomes buff-coloured in the summer. All of these are common and widely distributed. The Reef Herons (Lepterodus) keep to the coasts, and present the remarkable peculiarity of some individuals being pure white, others slaty grey. The small Pond Herons, or ‘paddy-birds’ as they are commonly called in India, belong to the genus Ardeola. One of them (A. grayi) occurs throughout the Empire and is very common; it is dull greyish-brown when sitting, but makes a startling display of its white body and wings when it flies away. A second species (A. bacchus) inhabits Burma. The Little Green Heron (Butorides javanica) and the Night Heron (Nycticorax griseus) are crepuscular in their habits, as are the Malay Bittern (Gorsachius), several species of Little Bitterns (Ardella), the Black Bittern (Dupetor flavicollis), and the European Bittern (Botaurus stellaris), the latter alone being migratory. None of the Bitterns are common; all hide in long grass and reeds during the day.

Two Flamingoes are found in India and Ceylon, none being known to the east of the Bay of Bengal. The Common Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is locally common, especially in the north-west of India. The Lesser Flamingo (P. minor) is a rare bird.

Two kinds of swan, the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and the Whooper (C. musicus), have been obtained as rare stragglers in North-western India. Of geese, five species visit the country in winter, but only two are anywhere common. These are the Grey Lag (Anser ferus), which is a visitor to Northern India and Northern Burma, and especially to North-western India; and the Barred-headed Goose (A. indicus), which is common in winter in Northern India and Burma, and rarer, though occasionally met with, as far south as Mysore.

Ducks are numerous, most of the common European kinds visiting India, and there are several resident species as well. Altogether twenty-one genera are represented, or, including Smews and Mergansers, twenty-three. The majority are winter visitors; and of these the Sheldrake, Mallard, Widgeon, and Marbled Duck, as well as some occasional visitors, such as Falcated Teal, Baikal Teal, Eastern (or Baer’s) White-eyed Duck, Scaup, and Golden-eye, appear only in the northern part of the country; others, like the Gadwall, Shoveller, Pochard, Red-crested Pochard, White-eyed and Tufted Ducks, range about as far south as Mysore in India and Ava in Burma, but are rare or wanting farther to the southward. A few, however, of which the principal are the Ruddy Sheldrake or Brähmani Duck, commonly seen in pairs on the banks of rivers, the Pintail, Common Teal, and Blue-winged Teal or Garganey, are found almost throughout the Empire in winter. The Mallard and White-eyed Duck breed in large numbers in Kashmir.

The resident Ducks, which breed in tropical India, are the following: the Comb Duck or Nukta (Sarcidiornis), widely distributed; the rare White-winged Wood Duck of Assam, Burma, and the Malay countries; the Pink-headed Duck (Rhodonessa), almost peculiar to Upper Bengal; the two Whistling Teals (Dendrocygna), found generally throughout the Empire, the smaller kind (D. javanica) being very common; the little Cotton Teal (Nettopus coromandelianus), with similar distribution; the Spotted-billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha), common in India and Northern Burma, but replaced in parts of the Shan States by the allied Chinese species (A. zonorhyncha); and the Andaman Teal, almost peculiar to the Andaman Islands, though it has been obtained in Pegu.

Smews visit Northern India in winter, and the Goosander (Merganser castor) is common along the base of the Himālayas at the same season. The Goosander has also been found in parts of Bengal and in Northern Burma, and it breeds in the interior of the Himālayas. The Red-breasted Merganser is a rare visitor in winter to the coasts of Sind and Bombay.

The Indian Little Grebe (Podiceps capensis, v. albipennis) is a permanent resident generally distributed in India and Burma. The Great Crested Grebe (P. cristatus) visits Northern India and Burma in winter; and the Eared Grebe (P. nigricollis) is of much rarer occurrence.

Reptiles