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C. Daniel, P. V. Bole & A. N. D. Nanavati DECEMBER 1978 Rs. 40 75tfi Jubilee &ear 1886-1979 NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS Contributors of scientific articles are requested to assist the editors by observ- ing the following instructions: 1. Papers which have at the same time been offered for publication to other journals or periodicals, or have already been published elsewhere, should not be submitted. 2. The MS. should be typed (double spacing) on one side of a sheet only, and the sheets properly numbered. 3. All scientific names to be printed in italics should be underlined. 4. Trinomials referring to subspecies should only be used where identifica- tion has been authentically established by comparison of specimens actually collect- ed. 5. Photographs for reproduction must be clear and show good contrast. Prints mijst be of a size not smaller the:: 8.20 x 5.60 cm (No. 2 Brov/nie) and on glossy glazed paper. t , 6. Text-figures, line drawings, and maps should be in Indian ink, preferably on Bristol board. 7. References to literature should be placed at the end of the paper, alpha- betically arranged under author’s name, with the abridged titles of journals or periodicals underlined (italics) and titles of books not underlined (roman type), thus : Banerji, M. L. (1958): Botanical Exploration in East Nepal. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 55(2): 243-268. Prater, S. H. (1948): The Book of Indian Animals. Bombay. Titles of papers should not be underlined. 8. Reference to literature in the text should be made by quoting the author’s name and year of publication, thus: (Banerji 1958). 9. Synopsis: Each scientific paper should be accompanied by a concise, clearly written synopsis, normally not exceeding 200 words. 10. Reprints : Authors are supplied 25 reprints of their articles free of charge. In the case of joint authorship, 50 copies will be given gratis to be distributed among the two or more authors. Orders for additional reprints should be in multi- ples of 25 and should be received within two weeks after the author is informed of the acceptance of the manuscript. They will be charged for at cost plus postage and packing. 11. The editors reserve the right, other things being equal, to publish a mem- ber’s contribution earlier than a non-member’s. Hornbill House, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Bombay 400 023. Editors, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society . DIAMOND JUBILEE ISSUE VOLUME 75 (3) : DECEMBER 1978 Date of Publication 22-10-1979 CONTENTS Page Editorial i Bombay Natural History Society — The Founders, the Builders and the Guardians — Part I. By Salim Ali. ( With four plates ) . . 559 Changes in the bird fauna of a forest area: Simlipal Hills, Mayurbhanj Dis- trict, and Dhenkanal District, Orissa. By S. Dillon Ripley . . 570 Forest Days. By Tom Norman . . 575 How Man modifies climate. By Anna Mani .. 580 Recent advances in inland aquaculture in India. By V. G. Jhingran. {With five plates ) . . 589 A COMPARATIVE FIELD STUDY OF THE INDIAN AND NEW ZEALAND REPRESENTATIVES of the Genus Ruppia Linnaeus. By Charles McCann. {With three plates and three text-figures) . . 600 The shape of the shell of ti-ie chambered Nautilus. By Nathaniel Grossman. {With a plate) . . 611 Emotive kinships in the study of mammals. By M. Krishnan .. 613 Moth migration in Mombasa — 1955/1977. By D. G. Sevastopulo .. 618 Microarthropods and soil ecosystems. By T. N. Ananthakrishnan . . 625 The changing Wildlife of Kathiawar. By K. S. Dharmakumarsinhji. {With four plates) . . 632 The present status of mahseer (fish) and artificial propagation of Tor khudree (Sykes). By C. V. Kulkarni and S. N. Ogale. {With two plates and two text-figures) . . 651 Oceanographic research in India — past, present and future. By S. Z. Qasim. {With a plate) .. . . 661 The status of Gharial {Gavialis gangeticus) in U.P. and its rehabilitation. By V. B. Singh. {With two maps and a plate) .. 668 Rare and threatened flowering plants of south India. By A. N. Henry, K. Vivek- ananthan and N. C. Nair . . 684 Bilateral symmetry in the reproductive structures of some palms. By T. An- tony Davis and C. Bhattacharya. {With twelve figures) . . 698 On factors governing the distribution of wild mammals in Karnataka. By S. Narendra Prasad, P. Vijayakumaran Nair, H. C. Sharatchandra and Madhav Gadgil. {With five plates and seven text figures) . . 718 The birds of Great and Car Nicobars with some notes on wildlife conserva- tion in THE islands. By Humayun Abdulali. {With four plates) . . 744 Ecology of the black-and-orange flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa (Jerdon) in southern India. By Mohammad Ali Reza Khan. ( With two plates and a text- figure) 773 Rodent research in India. By Ishwar Prakash . . 792 Proto-fiddlers and fiddlers: Pathways to waving in Indian Brachyuran crabs. By Rudolf Altevogt. ( With four text- figures ) . . 800 Competition and co-existence in Griffon vultures: Gyps bengalensis, G. indicus AND G. fulvus IN Gir Forest. By Robert B. Grubh . . 810 Distribution and status of the Nilgiri Tahr ( Hemitragus hylocrius ) — 1975-78. By E. R. C. Davidar. (With two plates ) . . 815 Peregrine falcon. By S. M. Osman. ( With a plate ) . . 845 Notes on the Green Keelback snake (Macropisthodon plumbicolor) . By Thomas Gay . . 854 Population change of the Hanuman Langur ( Presbytis entellus), 1961-1976, in Dharwar area, India. By Yukimaru Sugiyama and M. D. Parthasarathy . . 860 The Nanda Devi Sanctuary — 1977. By Lavkumar Khacher. (With a plate and five maps) . . 868 Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and its adjacent areas. By V. S. Vijayan . . 888 New Descriptions: A new species of lmpatiens Linn. (Balsaminaceae) from south India. By M. Chandra- bose. (With nine text-figures) . . 901 Two new species of spider of the genus Tharpyna Koch from India (Family: Thomi- sidae). By B. K. Tikader and Bijan Biswas. (With six text-figures) .. 903 A new species of Peliococcus Borchsenius from India (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) . By Rajendra Kumar Avasthi and Shaikh Adam Shafee. (With fifteen text- fi- gures) . . 905 A new species and a new record of the interesting genus Smicromorpha Girault (Hy- menoptera: Chalcididae) from oriental region. By T. C. Narendran. (With six text-figures) . . 908 Studies on the scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of north-eastern India: A new species and notes on other Indian species of subgenus Strandius, genus Onthophagus. By S. Biswas. (With three text-figures) .. 911 Reviews: .. 914 1. The Tiger (J. C. Daniel) .. 914 2. Field Guide to the birds of the Eastern Himalayas (Biswamoy Biswas) . . 915 Miscellaneous Notes: Mammals: 1. Occurrence and observations on Tadarida aegyptiaca (E. Geoffroy, 1818) (Molossidae: Chiroptera) : The wrinkle-lipped bat in East-Nimar District, Madhya Pradesh (India). By S. K. Kashyap (p. 917); 2. Observations on ecology and behaviour of the Rhesus monkey Macaca mulatto, in Asarori. By S. C. Makwana (p. 919); 3. A note on the breeding and longevity of the Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) in captivity. By L. N. Acharjyo and S. Mohapatra (p. 921). Birds: 4. The bronzewinged Jacana Metopidius indicus (Latham) in Saurashtra at Jamna- gar. By Lavkumar Khacher (p. 923); 5. On the occurrence of the black-naped green wood- pecker, Picus canus hessei Gyldenstolpe (Piciformes: Picidae) in Orissa. By N. Majumdar (p. 924); 6. Sighting of the Indian Pitta Pitta brachyura in Pakistan. By Kamal Islam (p. 924); 7. A new bird for Nepal and notes on other scarce species. By lohn Geoders (p. 925); 8. On the phenomenon of nocturnal flights of some resident birds at Lunglei, Mizoram, N.E. India. By K. R. Rao and R. Zoramthanga (p. 927). Reptiles: 9. Notes on distribution, sexual dimorphism and growth in captivity of Geoche- lone elongata (Blyth). (With a text-figure) . By S. Biswas, L. N. Acharjyo and S. Mohapatra (p. 928); 10. Hearing ability of brown tree snake ( Dendrelaphis tristis) . By Shaeque Ahmad Yahya (p. 930). Insects: 11. Record of Pteromalus puparum Linn. (Pteromalidae : Hymenoptera) from the pupa of lemon butterfly, Papilio demoleus Linn, at Ludhiana, Punjab (India). By M. Ramzan and Darshan Singh (p. 931); 12. New record of Dimeromicrus vibidia (Walker) (Hymenop- tera: Torymidae), a parasite of the Gall Fly Procecidochares utilis (Stone) (Diptera: Tephri- tidae) from Nepal. By V. C. Kapoor and Y. K. Malla (p. 932). Araclinida: 13. Uroctea indica Pocock (Family: Urocteidae) as a new record from Rajas- than, India. (With five text-figures). By U. A. Gajbe and S. Bhadra (p. 933). Botany: 14. Records of plants growing at high altitudes. By N. C. Shah and D. P. Badola (p. 934); 15. Additions to Poaceae of Karnataka State. By R. S. Raghavan, N. P. Singh, U. R. Deshpande and B. G. Kulkarni (p. 935); 16. The genus Ophioglossum in Rajasthan. By O. P. Sharma, T. N. Bhardwraja and C. B. Gena (p. 938); 17. Taxonomical notes on a few species of Adiantum. By N. C. Nair and S. R. Ghosh (p. 939); 18. Additions to the flora of Bihar and Orissa-II. By H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam (p. 941); 19. Notes on distribution of some plants. By P. K. Hajra (p. 942); 20. Dispersal in some Loranthaceae of the Nilgiris. By Priya Davidar (p. 943); 21. A note on some Entomogenous fungi attack- ing preserved dragonfly collections. By Brij Kishore Tyagi and Vijay Veer (p. 946). . EDITORIAL The editorial to the Golden Jubilee issue of the Journal volume 50(4) described the his- tory of the first fifty issues of the Journal published between the years 1886 to 1952. The Journal then had four issues per volume and hence the additional 16 years to complete fifty volumes. With this issue and 26 years later we com- plete the 75th volume of the Journal. The comments made in the introductory para- graphs of the 50th issue editorial apply equally well today and are quoted below. “For a natural history publication conduct- ed by a private society purely out of re- venues derived from its membership sub- scriptions, with practically no financial aid from Government or extraneous sources, this is indeed a praiseworthy achievement. Add to this the general lack of interest in natural history in India that had to be contended with for keeping up the Society’s membership strength, also the fact that con- tributions for publication were gratis and voluntary and therefore not always to be depended on — -and the achievement be- comes doubly creditable. The contributions to the Journal at first consisted largely of sporting and popular articles written mostly by members of the Society who were generally observant sportsmen and field naturalists — ‘amateurs’ it is true, but in the best sense of the term. The scope of these contributions has steadily expanded, and serious scientific papers by acknowledged experts have now become a regular feature of its pages. Finally, the fact that throughout the years the editors of the Journal have all been en- tirely honorary — business or professional men with plenty of enthusiasm but limited time at their disposal is not the least not- able feature of this remarkable achieve- ment.” It would also be useful to quote the objec- tives of the Journal as published in the 1st volume dated January 1886. “In accordance with the character which this Society has assumed from the begin- ning, the aim of its journal will be, as far as possible, to interest all students of nature, ever remembering that there are many natu- ralists, in the highest sense of the term, who have not such a technical knowledge of any particular branch of science as to be able to enter with interest into questions of nomenclature and the discrimination of closely allied species. The Secretaries of the Sections would therefore invite sportsmen and others to communicate anything inte- resting or worthy of note, which comes under their observation, bearing on the nature and habits of animals and plants.” Today perhaps only the miscellaneous notes meet these objectives. The Journal has become more technical for the methods of enquiry have become more sophisticated. Apart from technical papers the Journal today leans more towards conservation and ecology of wildlife. Hunting as a sport has almost no room in present day conditions and the members pre- fer to look at nature through the camera than over the sights of a gun. The natural history notes are equally rewarding, however, and the photographs are a better trophy as witness the works of Loke Wan Tho, E. P. Gee and M. Krishnan which have appeared in this last i 1 EDITORIAL quarter of the Journal's history. This issue of the Journal blends the old and the new not only subjectwise but also in the authors. Several contributions being from per- sons trained at the Society. It would pertinent to list the editors who had, with the same zeal as was exhibited by their predecessors of the first 50 volumes maintained its high standards. The Editors’ Who’s When Vol. 51 (1952-53) Salim Ali, S. B. Setna, H. Santapau Vol. 52-56 (1954-59) Salim Ali, H. Santa- pau Vol. 57-59 (1960-62) H. Santapau, H. Abdulali Vol. 60-61 (1963-64) H. Santapau, Z. Fute- hally Vol. 62-63 (1965-66) H. Santapau, D. E. Reuben, Z. Futehally, J. C. Daniel Vol. 64-67 (1967-70) H. Santapau, Z. Fu- tehally, J. C. Daniel Vol. 68-70 (1971-73) Z. Futehally, J. C. Daniel, P. V. Bole Vol. 71-75 (1974-78) J. C. Daniel, P. V. Bole, A. N. D. Nanavati The Editors’ Who’s Who I. Humayun Abdulali One of India’s leading ornithologists and author of two regional checklists. He was the Society’s Honorary Secretary from 1954 to 1962 when there were many changes in its or- ganisation. It was the period when the Society cut its umbilical chord with Phipson & Co. and the Natural History Section of the Prince of Wales Museum. His most notable contribu- tion was the successful negotiation with the Government of India and the Prince of Wales Museum for the building to house the Society’s offices — Hornbill House. 2. Salim Ali Salim Ali has had a long and active asso- ciation with the Society. Elis chief interest is birds, particularly the field aspects of their study, and he is the author of several books on Indian birds. He served as one of the edi- tors in 1927-28 (vols. 32 and 33), and resum- ed his connection with the Journal in 1944 (vol. 45), collaborating with S. H. Prater and C. McCann. Upon their leaving India, Salim Ali took over as General Editor assisted by Dr. S. B. Setna for a year, when Fr. H. San- tapau joined the board. His editorial asso- ciation with the Journal terminated when he commenced work on the 10 vol. handbook OF THE BIRDS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN. He continues to serve the Society as its President and Doyen. 3. P. V. Bole Professor of Botany at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay is actively associated with the Blatter Herbarium and the Society for almost 30 years. He has contributed papers on floristics of W. India, plant ecology and survey of eco- nomic plants as well as on ethnobotany. In- terested in conservation of natural habitat and propagation of indigenous plants for breeding purposes. 4. J. C. Daniel Studied at the Madras Christian College and the Madras University Zoology Research Laboratory. He joined the Society as a Re- search Assistant in 1950. Joined the Natural History Museum at Darjeeling as Curator in 1955 and returned to the Society as its Cura- tor in 1960. His interest in natural history are eclectic, with a leaning towards reptiles and wildlife conservation. n JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 5. Zafar Futehally Took over from Humayun Abdulali as Honorary Secretary. An avid birdwatcher, Zafar has the ability to communicate his en- thusiasm to others. It was during his steward- ship that the Society stopped being introspec- tive and widened the scope of its activities. Zafar has been the founder of the Birdwat- chers’ Field Club of India and editor since its inception in 1960 of the Newsletter for Birdwatchers’ now in its 19th volume. 6 . A. N. D. N a n a v a t i Was the first medical man to take over the administration of the Society. A virologist, he was Asstt. Director of the Haffkine Insti- tute at Bombay till his premature retirement in 1974. Dr. Nanavati’s dispassionate assess- ment of issues has strengthened the Society’s handling of problems that arise. 7 . D. E. Reuben An ex member of the ICS who retired as Chief Justice of Bihar before settling in Bom- bay. Mr. Reuben’s meticulous hand was of considerable help when Salim Ali retired as Executive Editor. Mr. Reuben though his name was on the editorial board only very briefly was a de facto editor of the Journal over several volumes. 8 . H. S a n t a p a u Studied at the Imperial College of Science | and Technology, London, and in Kew Gardens and specialized in Plant Taxonomy. He was particularly interested in the botany of Wes- tern India and has done intensive explorative work in Khandala, Purandhar, Mahableshwar and in Saurashtra. He was director of the Biology Department of St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. Fr. Santapau was later the Director of the Botanical Survey of India. 9. S. B. Setna Studied under Dr. J. Gray, Professor of the Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge University, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree. He was the Director of Fisheries, Bombay State, since the inception of the department in 1945. In this capacity he was responsible for the deve- lopment of freshwater and marine fisheries in the State and also for the maintenance of the Taraporevala Aquarium. He was elected a Fellow of the National Institute of Science of India in 1947 and was awarded the first Chandra Kala Hora Memorial Gold Medal in 1950 for conspicuously important contribu- tions to the development, of the fishing industry. Costs then and now In 1891 four issues of the Journal with 6 coloured plates printed in England cost Rs. 4316. In 1900 the Journal cost including 10 colour plates was Rs. 6338. In 1930 the cost of a volume with 10 colour plates was Rs. 15562. In 1952 the cost was similar approximately Rs. 15000 but without any colour plates. In 1960 a volume of three issues cost Rs. 20,811.86. In 1970 the cost of volume of three issues was Rs. 34,773. In 1977 the cost was Rs. 60,117.73. iii JOURNAL OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY 1978 DECEMBER Vol. 75 No. 3 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY — The Founders, the Builders and the Guardians Part 1 Salim Ali (With jour plates) On the eventful completion of the 75th volume of the Society’s Journal after an un- broken run of publication since its inception in 1886, it is pertinent to look back and take stock of the men who contributed to the building up of the prestige it now enjoys as a scientific periodical within the country and abroad. For a small private Society started by a tiny group of eight nature loving resi- dents of Bombay in 1883 for ‘exchanging notes, exhibiting interesting specimens, and otherwise encouraging one another’* to have risen to its present stature is a saga of achieve- ment for gratification and pride. All the more praiseworthy is the success when it is remem- bered that the Society never was an affluent institution and has always had a hand-to- mouth existence, dependent more or less en- tirely on the modest annual subscriptions de- * ‘The Founders of the Bombay Natural History Society’ by W. S. Millard, Vol. 35: 196. rived from its regrettably meagre membership. How then was the Society able to achieve so much? This was surely due overwhelmingly to the sagacity and foresight of its dedicated Founders, Builders and Guardians — the men who were directly responsible for the conduct of its affairs over the years — and those who nurtured it with their pioneering attainments in the field of natural history, and with their original scientific contributions to its develop- ing publication. All honour to these men, but who were they? To answer this question, and at this distance of time, I felt it would be worth- while to research the obituaries that have been published in the Journal from the earliest days. Between the year 1903, when the first obituary appears in Vol. 14 (there are none in the preceding 13 volumes), and the latest in 1973 in Vol. 70 — 104 in all, though we know of some others who have escaped men- tion. They are notices chiefly of men who in various ways contributed significantly enough JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 to the reputation of the Society and the Journal to be remembered with special grate- fulness. Apart from the persons responsible for the material well being of the Society, the Founders and the Builders, I have selected a number of others, the Guardians — scientists, field naturalists and sportsmen — who by their researches and their experiences and writings, or by their prowess as hunters, or their zeal as nature conservationists have aided substan- tially in the evolutionary process of the Soci- ety. Fortunately this category is not strictly confined to the names in the obituaries: we still have many living amongst us today who by their diverse benefactions are helping to add lustre to the Society and scientific prestige to its journal and thus to keep its image shining. First priority in this Roll of Honour must of course be accorded to the Founders, and the Builders who followed them. The excerpts here culled from the obituary notices in the Journal deal mainly with the nature of their respective associations with the Society, but I have included such additional information as was readily available from other sources. For more biographical particulars the interest- ed reader is referred to the Journal, (volume and page indicated in brackets after each name). The Founders Edward Hamilton Aitken (‘eha’) 1851-1909 (Vol. 19: 540) by T. R. B(ell) The son of a Scottish missionary, born in Satara and educated in Bombay. He served first in the Education Department and later in the Customs. He retired to Edinburgh in 1906 and died two years later of Bright’s Disease. EHA was one of the eight original foun- ders of the Society in 1883 and co-editor with R. A. Sterndale of the earliest issues of the Journal. He was interested in all branches of Zoology, but particularly so in birds and insects, chiefly butterflies. For many years he was in charge of the Society’s Entomological Section, a position which he took over from Lionel de Niceville on the latter’s death in 1901. He had a special genius for seizing the striking and characteristic points in the appear- ance and behaviour of individual species, and a happy knack of translating them into print so as to render his descriptions unmistakable. He was a shrewd observer of humanity too as his book behind the bungalow testifies. This book is an Anglo-Indian classic and will remain a lasting monument to the memory of the author. His first literary venture was entitled the tribes on my frontier describ- ing the animals ordinarily met with in and around an Indian bungalow. Another book of his is THE COMMON BIRDS OF BOMBAY which treats of the birds met in the town of Bombay and its vicinity in a manner that makes it easy for anyone to recognize each individual when he sees it. A less known book the na- turalist on the prowl written when he was in Kanara and ‘full of the scent of the jun- gles’ is perhaps less generally known. All his books are full of accurate knowledge pleasant- ly imparted, and with a quaint humour which cannot but appeal to the reader, and the joy- ousness of living which expresses so well the nature of the writer. Aitken was the first Honorary Secretary of the Society and conti- nued as such till his departure from Bombay. The first number of the Journal was produced in January 1886. It met the need for putting on permanent record whatever was of value or interest transacted at the Society’s meetings. In introducing the first number the editors ex- pressed the hope that “The introduction of this Journal will stimulate lovers of Nature 560 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY to record and communicate their observa- tions.” This hope has been more than realiz- ed, and the papers published in the Journal since its commencement have borne splendid testimony to the debt owed by naturalists in India to Messrs Aitken and Sterndale. The late Sir Norman Kinne-ar related to me (SA) an amusing story connected with EHA’s death. The parish newspaper of the obscure little Scottish village to which EHA’s father had belonged, thought it its duty to publish a fitting obituary of such a distinguished son of the village. The editor had probably never heard of the man or his interests and writings until his death got reported in outside news- papers. However, not to be outdone by his city confreres he ingeniously added to EHA’s laudatory qualifications that “Mr. Aitken who had lived all his life in India was an expert on Frontier Tribes and Bungalow Economy.”! A surprising detail I also gleaned from Sir Norman was that inspite of his humorous and seemingly effortless style EHA was in fact a slow writer and usually had to do a lot of laborious scratching out, re-writing, and meti- culous chipping, changing and polishing be- fore he was satisfied with his compositions. Col. Charles Swinhoe M.A. (Oxon) 1836- 1923 (Vol. 29: 1042) Anon. Another of the 8 founders of the Society in 1883. He reached India just after the Mu- tiny of 1857 and served with the Bombay Staff Corps, evidently largely in Sind, till his retirement in 1893. He went through the Af- ghan War and was with Lord Roberts in Kandahar. Col. Swinhoe was a man of many parts: a keen shikari of the old school who had accounted for between 50 and 60 tigers, and a devotee of most outdoor sports. He was interested in birds. A collection of 70 skins made by him in Sind and presented to the Society is listed in Vol. 2: 56. There is an incredible statement by E. C. Stuart Baker both in the fauna of British India, Birds (Vol. 5, p. 268) and in his game birds of INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON (Vol. 2, p. 269) that Col. Swinhoe obtained three specimens of the Coronetted Sandgrouse {Pterocles co- ronatus atratus) at Dhar in the Mhow area of Madhya Pradesh, which is entirely out of the bird’s distributional range. An examination of the original collector’s label still intact on one of these skins (now in the British Museum col- lection) shows that the specimens were actu- ally obtained by Col. Swinhoe at “Maiwund” [near Kandahar] in February 1881, therefore evidently during the campaign in Afghanistan. However, it was as an entomologist that he attained international fame. He published on “The Lepidoptera of Karachi and its Neigh- bourhood” in Volumes 2 and 3 of the Jour- nal. On the death of Frederick Moore, Col. Swinhoe was entrusted with the completion of that magnificent work on Indian butterflies lepidoptera indica; the portions dealing with the Lycaenidae (Blues), Hesperidae (Skip- pers), and a part of the Pieridae (Whites) were compiled entirely by him. But, the He- terocera or Moths is the section in which he excelled; of these he had amassed a collec- tion of 40,000 specimens comprising 7000 dif- ferent species. It included no less than 400 types of the new species described by him. He remained active to his 87th year, just be- fore which he had completed “A revision of the genera of the family Liparidae” covering some 1130 detailed entries. Col. Swinhoe was universally recognized as an expert on all matters connected with Lepidoptera and was the recipient of many international honours for his services to entomology. He was well known as a lecturer on such subjects as mi- 561 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 micry. A paper of his on “Mimicry in Butter- flies for Protection” appears in Vol. 2: 169. John Coussmakf.r Anderson 1851-1930 (Vol. 35: 185) by W.S.M.(illard) Son of General William Coussmaker Ander- son; born at Dharwar, Bombay Presidency. Read at Inner Temple and was called to the Bar. Came out to India in 1878 and practised in the Bombay High Court for 25 years. Re- tired from India in 1901. J. C. Anderson was one of the eight origi- nal founders of the Society. “He was a keen lover of Nature and helped the Society in many ways.” In Vol. 4(1) 1889 there is an interesting paper by him entitled “Sporting Rambles round about Simla”, and he pre- sented to the Society’s museum a large num- ber of specimens of birds and mammals col- lected by him in the Simla neighbourhood. Herbert Musgrave Phipson 1850-1936 (Vol. 39: 152) Anon. Son of T. W. Phipson, Q.C. of Lincoln’s Inn. First came out to India in 1878. Estab- lished the firm of Phipson & Co., Wine Mer- chants, in 1883; left India in 1906. He was in England when the eight original founders of the Society met at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Bombay, on 15 September 1883. He joined the Society on his return from Eng- land in the same year, and in January 1884 offered a room in his offices at 18 Forbes Street as a more central place for the Socie- ty’s meetings and for keeping its collections. The removal of the Society’s offices to a central situation in the city, and Phipson’s enthusi- astic association with it, gave an astonishing impulse to its growth. The need for finding better accommodation for its rapidly increas- ing collections becoming urgent, Phipson again provided the solution by offering the Society part of the larger premises he had acquired at 6 Apollo Street (now Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road). The Society’s collections and offices were transferred there in 1886, and remained until 1958, when the gracious old single- storey- ed colonial type building (the former residence of the Chief Justice of Bombay) was due to be pulled down to give way to an ugly ‘modern’ concrete monster. Phipson’s interest in natu- ral history and his zeal for the Society were contagious. He interested his numerous friends in the Society’s work and imparted his de- votion to the young men who came out to India to assist him in his business. His advice to the young European in India was ‘develop a hobby’, and to him there was no finer hobby than natural history. Thus commenced, and thus continued, the long association of the Society with the Company which bears Phip- son’s name. His successors in business took over his post of Honorary Secretary and Edi- tor of the Journal and have each in their time made their contribution to the Society’s pro- gress. Fom March 1886, when he took over the office of Honorary Secretary from E.H. Ait- ken — more familiarly known from his books as EH A — to April 1906 when he left India, Phipson was the heart and soul of the Society. Initiating and directing its early activities he brought it to vigorous maturity. Through these twenty years he edited the Society’s Journal — for a year in collaboration with Robert Sterndale, then as sole editor for 15 years, and finally jointly with W. S. Millard, his immediate successor in office. His business and the management of the Society’s affairs left Phipson little time for contributing in print the wide knowledge he had acquired of the Indian natural history of 562 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Salim Ali : BNHS Plate I Herbert Musgrave PMpson 1850-1936 Plate II J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Salim Ali : BNHS Walter Samuel Millard 1864-1952 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY which his favourite branch was Snakes. His rare contributions to the Journal centre round this subject, and among them is a paper on ‘Poisonous Snakes of the Bombay Presidency’ (Vol. 2, p. 244). In his day Phipson was the presiding genius of the Society, which had come to be known as ‘Phipson’ s Museum’. He welcomed visitors great and small and taking them round the collections would treat them to a wealth of interesting facts and anec- dotes drawn from his wide fund of knowledge and experience. He was charming: always in- teresting and ever ready with shrewd and amusing comment. The numerous offers of live animals which the Society was receiving gave Phipson the idea of establishing a zoological garden conducted and managed by the Soc- iety. What at first seemed a promising venture failed because the Municipality were unwill- ing to allow the use of the site selected by Phipson for the purpose. In his ambition to provide Bombay with a really fine natural history museum Phipson was more success- ful; the admirable Natural History section of the Prince of Wales Museum is largely the fruit of his initiative and exertions. Phipson’s name as a naturalist is fittingly commemorated by zoologists describing several new discover- ies after him, e.g. the sea snake Hydro phis phipsoni (-H. cyanocinctus) , the earth snake Silybura phipsoni (= Uropeltis rubrolineatus) , the scorpion Isometrus phipsoni, the whip scorpion Phrynicus phipsoni and the galeod spider Rhagodes phipsoni. The beautiful fly- ing squirrel Petinomys phipsoni, though dis- covered by the Society’s Mammal Survey long after his departure from India, was also nam- ed in his honour to perpetuate the memory of his dedicated association with the Society and with Indian natural history. The Society owes a tremendous debt to Phipson for its growth and prosperity, and the prestige it now enjoys. Few men have striven more earnestly and more continuously to advance such a purely unselfish cause, and few have laboured for the advancement of science and for the general good in a more self-effacing and un- obtrusive spirit. Phipson was always ready to help anyone, and as one friend with whom he lived observed ‘He monopolized the self-de- nial of the whole house!’ Walter Samuel Millard 1864-1952 (Vol. 50, p. 910 — photo) by N. B. Kinnear Seventh son of Rev. J. H. Millard of Hun- tingdon, England. Came out to Bombay as assistant to Herbert Musgrave Phipson in his wine business in 1884, by which time Phip- son & Co. along with Bombay Natural His- tory Society had shifted to 6 Apollo Street. To reach his office it was necessary to pass through the Society’s museum which, in addi- tion to various stuffed animals and jars con- taining fish and reptiles, generally housed a live cobra or two and a large python. Millard joined the Society soon after his arrival and in 1893 was made assistant editor of the Jour- nal though he had doubtless been helping Phipson with the work of the Society for some time previously. On Phipson’s retirement from India in 1906, Millard took his place in the Society and as editor of the Journal which, under Phipson’s editorship, had become the most important scientific publication east of Suez. The Society’s journal remained unique among scientific publications in the East since it not only published important scientific papers but also natural history and shikar articles of general interest to readers. It was through Millard’s personal interest, and under his careful supervision of details when on leave in England, that Stuart Baker’s serial on ‘Indian Ducks and their Allies’, which had JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 started in the Journal as long ago as 1897 was published by the Society in book form. It proved an immediate success, and ran out of print faster than anticipated. He followed up the success of this first major venture of the Society by the publication of the two other volumes on Game Birds by Stuart Baker, the palms of India by Fr. E. Blatter and beautiful Indian trees by himself and Fr. Blatter. The title of the last is slightly misleading since it includes a number of trees that are not Indian. Though Millard took in- terest in natural history generally, his parti- cular hobby was gardening, especially the cul- tivation of flowering trees and shrubs. The grounds of the bungalow where he lived on Malabar Hill, Bombay, were soon developed into a beautiful garden with a great variety of trees and shrubs and a large fernery full of foliage plants, orchids and other tropical flowers. It was the most important private garden at the time, and “guests staying at Government House were frequently sent to inspect its treasures”. He took a deep and active interest in beautifying the city by in- troducing attractive flowering trees in differ- ent localities. Among the more outstanding of his introductions are the Burmese Cassia re- nigera and the Padauk Pterocarpus indicus with fragrant yellow flowers which, inspite of its name, is also a native of Burma. One tree of the latter species he had planted in the grounds of Bombay University, and such was his continuing interest in his introductions that years after he had left India for good in 1920, he wrote to the Society enquiring how this particular tree was thriving! Millard, on the goading of R. C. Wroughton, a retired Indian Forest Officer, was instrumental in launching the much needed Mammal Survey of India, Burma and Ceylon, 1910-14, when it had to be terminated on the outbreak of World War I. The vast collections made by the survey in different parts of the erstwhile ‘British Indian Empire’ provided the basis for the publica- tion of the standard volumes on the mamma- lian fauna of the subcontinent by Pocock and Ellerman. The starting and success of the Mammal Survey was entirely due to Millard, and only those who were in close association with him at the time have any idea of the amount of time and work he spent in the raising of the money and the organizing of the survey. All this was done in addition to at- tending to the Society’s other business and editing the Journal, to say nothing of looking after his own business of Messrs Phipson and Co. and the many other honorary social and charitable activities in which he was involved. Every visitor to the Society’s rooms in Apollo Street will remember the Great Indian Hornbill, better known as ‘William’ or the ‘Office Canary’, which lived in a cage be- hind Millard’s chair in Phipson & Co.’s office for 26 years and died in 1920, soon after Millard left India. It is said that death was caused by swallowing a piece of wire, but in the past William had swallowed a lighted cigar without ill effects and Millard’s obitua- rist— a colleague — firmly believed that the loss of his old friend was the principal cause. By nature Millard was of rather a shy and retiring disposition, but all that vanished when he had anything to do on behalf of the Society. His wife Sybil assisted her husband in many ways, and her presence at the meetings of the Society was always welcome, where her charming personality made the shy visitor feel at ease. It was the routine in BNHS during Millard’s secretaryship that every afternoon at 2.30, after the lunch hour, the accountant Baburao (?) would bring up his Day Book, ledger and vouchers to be checked. Baburao, loaded with 564 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY the books, would first timidly push the spring door ajar and peep in. Then, on a nod from Millard he would nervously tiptoe in. As soon as he got to his desk, Millard would look up and over his reading glasses straight into the man’s eyes and with mock solemnity declaim “Baburao I suspect you! Whenever you are making an entry in your cash book say to yourself ‘Mr. Millard suspects me!’ That will keep you out of temptation.” I (SA) personally have very special cause for gratefulness to Millard for the inordinate amount of interest he took in that diffident little schoolboy who once approached him with the mangled carcase of a Yellowthroated Sparrow for identification, in the year 1906 or thereabouts. It was largely the fatherly en- couragement I received from him at the time, and continuingly thereafter, that set me off on a lifetime of enjoyable and rewarding bird study. Norman Boyd Kin near 1882-1957 (Vol. 54: 928 — photo) by S. H. Prater The son of C. H. G. Kinnear an Edinburgh architect, he started his natural history car- eer as a voluntary worker in the Royal Scot- tish Museum at Edinburgh under the expert guidance of Dr. Eagle Clarke, the Director, and a distinguished ornithologist. He came out to India in 1907 as the Society’s first sti- pendiary Curator to organize and look after the considerable zoological collections, parti- cularly of vertebrates, that had been amassed by its enthusiastic amateur members from all over the erstwhile ‘Indian Empire’ during the first quarter century or so of the Society’s progress and development. Till then this mass of material, housed in the Society’s rooms at 6 Apollo Street, was looked after and main- tained by several keen and devoted amateurs who gave up their evenings after office hours to this work — and one callow youth fresh from school who served as a general factotum! Kinnear gave invaluable service to the Society by placing the whole of its museum on a sound scientific basis through the re- arrangement, labelling and cataloguing of the collections. His gift for organization and meticulous attention to detail not only bene- fitted the museum as a whole but also con- tributed substantially to the training of the small staff working under him. He also pro- vided more effective assistance to members of the Society who sought his help, and gene- rally guided the work in directions which pro- duced greater scientific gains. Kinnear threw himself wholeheartedly into the direction and control of the systematic survey of the Mam- mals of India, Burma and Ceylon which the Society had started with the preliminary spade- work of Millard. He identified the geographi- cal areas that needed to be worked by the collectors with special coverage of those where earlier mammalogists had obtained Types but which were missing, with a view to replacing them by Topotypes. To him fell the arduous task of assembling the enormous col- lections obtained by the Mammal Survey; of provisionally identifying and cataloguing them and arranging for their despatch to the British Museum in London. The great advances in systematic mammalogy through the medium of the Survey were largely due to Kinnear’s organization and the painstaking care with which the preliminary work was carried out. During World War I when Kinnear was at- tached to Brigade Headquarters in Bombay as Intelligence Officer, he constantly encourg- ed members of the Society serving with the Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia to make collections of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects for the Society and kept up a volumi- 565 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 nous and painstaking correspondence of help- ful instructions, advice and guidance with them. He found time to prepare a pamphlet on the ‘Animals of Mesopotamia’ for circu- lating among the officers and men and thus provided an invaluable reference book for all those who were collecting specimens. The scientific results of the large zoological col- lections so accumulated appeared in a series of papers in the Society’s Journal between the years 1918 and 1923 and are a fitting tribute to Kinnear’s intimate involvement in the en- terprise. To his building the Society owes the progress and development of its museum on sound scientific lines, and the staff the train- ing which stood them in such good stead in after years. Kinnear, who during his tenure as Curator also served as one of the editors of the Journal, resigned his post in 1919 to take up a special appointment as assistant in the Bird Department of the British Museum where he steadily rose to become Assistant Keeper of Zoology and then Keeper, finally ending up as Director of the Museum in 1947. He had contributed outstandingly to the pro- gress of the Society and is remembered by all who knew him as a kindly and generous helper and friend. Since Kinnear’s resignation the Society had undertaken the Vernay Scien- tific Survey of the Eastern Ghats, an area whose ornithology was very imperfectly known. The important bird collections ob- tained by this Survey were worked out by him in collaboration with Hugh Whistler, another distinguished ornithologist, and the results are published in the Society’s Journal under their joint authorship. Kinnear was knighted in 1950. Philip McDonell Sanderson 1884-1957 (Vol. 54: 930 — photo) by R. A. Spence The son of Launcelot Sanderson a former master of Harrow School. He came out to India in 1905 to join the firm of Phipson & Co. the partners in which, H. M. Phipson and W. S. Millard, were responsible for the nurture of the Society’s Journal and museum. With Phipson and Millard as co-workers, it was natural that Sanderson took an interest in the Natural History Society’s affairs, and this was increased when Norman Kinnear came out to work in the Society’s museum in 1907. He joined up on the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and saw service in Mesopotamia where he was badly wounded during the trench battles for the relief of Kut. He was a popular officer, and “Because he was so thin he was known among his men as ‘Pull- through’ and to us, from the resemblance of his nose to the Great Hornbill in Phipson’ s office, as ‘The Bird’.” When W. S. Millard left India in March 1920, Sanderson joined R. A. Spence as Joint Honorary Secretary of the Society and, with Norman Kinnear, the three edited the Journal. In 1934 he became the sole Honorary Secre- tary and edited the Journal with the help of S. H. Prater and later, Salim Ali. Sanderson was very keen on Prater’s work to make a real Museum of Natural History in the Prince of Wales Museum, and he had the privilege of running the arrangements for the Golden Jubilee of the Society in 1933 and the formal opening of the Natural History section. He left India in 1939 on the outbreak of the Second War, and later took over from Mil- lard as the Society’s representative in England. Sanderson was a good natured extrovert, hail-fellow-well-met with all visitors to the Society’s rooms, and in many ways a useful public relations man for the Society. But his uninhibited light-hearted banter sometimes un- wittingly landed the Society in awkward situ- ations, as for instance in the case of the long 566 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Salim Ali : BNHS Pi ait III ■■HI Philip McDonell Sanderson 1884-1957 Reginald A. Spence 1880-1961 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate IV Salim Ali : BNHS BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY forgotten review of a pot-boiler shikar book published in the Journal which led to the Society and the reviewer having to pay con- siderable legal damages to the allegedly ag- grieved author years afterwards! He was a keen yachtsman and small game hunter, but left no significant mark as a naturalist or in his capacity as Honorary Secretary since he left the running of the Society largely in the able hands of the Curator, S. H. Prater. Stanley Henry Prater 1890-1960 (Vol. 57: 637 — photo) by Salim Ali Born in the Nilgiris, died in London, the son of William Prater, a coffee planter in S. India. From his early schooldays in Khandala he came under the influence and tutelage of such distinguished Jesuit naturalists as the Rev. Fathers Dreckmann (snakes), Assmuth (termites) and Blatter (plants), who fostered his interest in natural history. Prater joined the Society’s service in 1907, first working under the guidance of E. Comber and later as assistant to the first stipendiary Curator, N. B. Kinnear. After a 4-years’ probationary period following the latter’s resignation in 1919 Prater was confirmed as Curator of the Society and of the Natural History Section of the Prince of Wales Museum which was then under its management. To qualify him for the stewardship of a really first class na- tural history museum, which the Prince of Wales aimed to become, he was deputed by the Board of Trustees in 1923 to the United Kingdom to learn the art of modern taxider- my, and in 1927 he was again sent abroad I to study the techniques of modern natural history museum exhibition and management in England and America. The fruits of all the skill and aptitude he thus acquired are evidenced by the artistically designed exhibi- tion galleries and the superb dioramas, in the Natural History Section, acclaimed to be the finest in the East. The outstanding progress made by the Society between the years 19 and 1937 was due entirely to the dynamic combination of two dedicated personalities, namely Sir Reginald Spence and S. H. Prater, the former as Honorary Secretary of the Society and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Prince of Wales Museum, and the latter as the versatile Curator. He possessed the gift of transmitting the knowledge and experience gained abroad to his co-workers and staff in a way that extracted their whole-hearted co- operation and helped to achieve the highest results. The Natural History Section is a stand- ing monument to Prater’s genius. He was for- tunate in having as his lieutenant an excep- tionally competent naturalist and skilful crafts- man in the person of Charles McCann. Mc- Cann readily lapped up the imported techni- ques, adapted them to local needs and con- ditions, and put them into masterly execution in the museum’s galleries. For nearly a quarter of a century prior to his retirement in 1948 Prater’s name was al- most synonymous with the Bombay Natural History Society. For the last 27 years of his service he was the executive editor of the Journal and was largely responsible for the high standard and international recognition it earned as the foremost natural history perio- dical in Asia. He was a voracious reader, particularly of natural history books and journals, and had a flair for guzzling through heavy scientific literature, then picking out the essentials of what he read and translating the substance into simple jargon-free language for the layman. He was blessed with a remark- ably retentive memory and could usually lay his hands on anything he had read on a sub- ject, maybe years before, without hesitation 567 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 or fumbling. Prater’s forte was compilation — an art in which he excelled. He wrote in a readable, easy and often humorous style, and his many contributions in the Journal convey an idea of the wide range of his natural his- tory interests and his versatility. The familia- rity he acquired with the Society’s natural history collections during his long stewardship gave him a wonderful all round grasp of Indian animals. Though his own leanings were more particularly towards mammals, birds and snakes he was equally at home with almost all other groups, and could not only name straightway practically any specimen brought in by members, but usually also give something of their distribution and habits. His intimate involvement with mammals dur- ing the Society’s Mammal Survey between 1911 and 1923, both as a field collector and while handling specimens as they came in from the field or back from the British Museum after identification, accounts largely for the authenticity and success of his book of Indian animals, first published by the Society in 1948 and now in the 4th edition. The crying need for wildlife preservation in India was brought home to the public and the government largely by his able exposition in the Introduction to the admirable series on ‘Wild Life Preservation in India’ which he initiated in the Journal in 1935, and by his constant ‘plugging’ of the problem through numerous well-informed editorials, and news- paper articles before and since. Prater was in truth a remarkable man — capable, versa- tile, sociable, ambitious, and a striver after perfection as many of his handiworks clearly show. His sociable disposition, keen sense of humour and considerateness for his subordi- nates and staff endeared him to all who came in contact with him. He will deservedly en- joy an honoured place in the annals of the Society as one of its most stalwart and cap- able builders. Reginald A. Spence 1880-1961 (Vol. 58: 776) by Editors, JBNHS Came out to Bombay in 1901 as assistant in the firm of Phipson & Co. then under the management of H. M. Phipson and W. S. Millard. From the very beginning of the Society Phipsons have been closely associated with it. In keeping with this tradition Spence took an active interest in the Society’s wel- fare, and on Millard’s retirement from India in 1920 took over as Honorary Secretary, con- tinuing to serve in this capacity until he left India in 1934. During this period the Society expanded its activities in several fields includ- ing the establishment of the Natural History Section in the Prince of Wales Museum. This was achieved predominantly through the un- tiring efforts of Sir Reginald Spence who was also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Prince of Wales Museum. The negotia- tions begun by his predecessors H. M. Phip- son and W. S. Millard for the transfer to the Government of Bombay of the financial res- ponsibility for the housing and proper care of the Society’s collections were finalized by him, and detailed plans for the beautiful n Natural History wing of the Prince of Wales Museum were drawn up before he left India though he was not here to see them actually carried out. Spence’s genial personality won him many friends, and the esteem in which he was held by the public and the Government was of immense value to the Society. Spence was one of the editors of the Journal from 1907 to 1933. Towards the end, owing to the increasing demands on his time by business and public-spirited social work he had to leave much of the actual editing to his col- l 568 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Salim Ali : BNHS Norman Boyd Kinnear (1882-1957) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Salim Ali : BNHS Stanley Henry Prater (1890-1960) BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY leagues. His outstanding contributions to the Journal , both written jointly with S. H. Pra- ter, are ‘The fish supply of the west coast of India’ (Vol. 34: 973, 35: 77) and ‘Game fishes of Bombay, the Deccan and the neigh- bouring districts of the Bombay Presidency’ (Vol. 36: 29). He was knighted in the year 1926 and left India to settle in England in 1934. {To be continued) CHANGES IN THE BIRD FAUNA OF A FOREST AREA: SIMLIPAL HILLS, MAYURBHANJ DISTRICT, AND DHENKANAL DISTRICT, ORISSA S. Dillon Ripley1 In this world of uncertainty, nothing is more certain than the fact that no single state of nature ever quite stays the same. Ecological studies have shown over and over the fallacy of surveying a spatial area of land or water, documenting the population composition of species, and from those terms of reference as- suming that stability can be proved to have been the rule at a later period of time. Such fallacious assumptions have been developed in the past in surveys by government agencies for the setting up of parks or reserves. As no accurate method seems to have been devised for measuring the amount of space which a complex of interacting species in nature need to survive in balance, and to main- tain a reproductive minimum critical size, aside of course for some classic laboratory observations, it seems likely that the study of parks or reserves and their creation, is far more complicated than previously thought, and requires much further refinement. Biolo- gical and ecological research, coupled with the development of mathematical models would seem to be a priority in assessing the future of species themselves as well as the preservation of suitable habitat. A case in point may be the observations made by Dr. Salim Ali, my wife and myself in Mayurbhanj District, in the Simlipal Hills of Orissa in February, 1975 and southwards. Here we were fortunate enough to spend three weeks of observation from Chahala in 1 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560, U.S.A. the north, south to the Mahanadi River and the adjacent Dhenkanal District. During this visit we were the guests of the Government of Orissa, whose forestry service, under then Deputy Secretary Shri D. K. Chatterjee I.A.S., Mr. Jee, Chief Conservator of Forests, Mr. Das, the Department Wildlife coordinator, all were kindness itself. Our special thanks are due to Shri Saroj Chaudury, the special Con- servator of Wildlife and the great tiger autho- rity, for his generosity and help to us during our visit. Dr. Salim Ali and I had both visited and made observations in the hills of northern Orissa in 1947, twenty-eight years before. We thus, in perhaps a somewhat crude way, were able to compare observations of the occurrence of bird species in the same area over a quar- ter century apart. Obviously these notes are perhaps of only marginal significance, but it seems worthwhile to write them here, due to the paucity of field observations in this inter- esting area. It is to be hoped that Salim Ali’s collections of 1947 will eventually be at least listed with localities, and published in order to give a baseline against which to judge later collecting and field observations. In my own case observations alone must suffice. Once we entered the reserved forest areas of the Simlipal Hills of Mayurbhanj on Feb- ruary third, 1975, it became rapidly appar- ent that we were in a virtual monoculture situation. The tropical dry deciduous or moist deciduous forests of these areas are comple- tely dominated by a monotonous planting of 570 CHANGES IN THE BIRD FAUNA OF A FOREST AREA sal, Shorea robusta, which has been rigorously cultivated as a dominant forest product. Rela- tively mature plantations of these trees ranging in age from 25-60 years occupy the landscape as an exercise in silviculture. The understorey in these vast stretches of plantation is similar- ly monotonous with strobilanthes, ferns and grasses present being dominant, presumably due to fire and man-made clearing. As Cham- pion and Seth state (1968:121), “Planned forest management has intensified its (sal) dominance in many areas by selective remo- val of other competing species.” However, these authors do not speculate on the conse- quences of this enforced dominance. Here and there one can still find small irre- gularities, nullahs where sal has not been planted. In these nullahs depending on steep- ness and general size, may be found patches of so-called “miscellaneous forest,” in the forester’s term, and here remnant samplings of tropical moist deciduous forest species occur. Here we found rattan and pandanus, examples of Terminalias, Bombax, Cassia fis- tula, Adina, Erythrina and Dillenia as ex- amples. Whether these patches represent original forest or are secondary, the result of shallow stony soil conditions, exposure, erosion and cutting through activities of the Kohl and Khariya people is hard to say. Some of each tribal group have now been employed for two generations in the promotion of these forest reserves, and the forests are continually be- ing seasonally burned and cleared of under- growth. In any case, here and there one had at least a temporary impression that in the thickest parts of these clumps along a stream bed, there still occurs a microclimate approa- ching the tropical semi-evergreen type of vegetation, especially in the presence of a few stands of climbers like rattan. Calamus ssp.. Pandanus, and bamboos, including the thorny B. arundinacea, Dendrocalamus strictus, and Imperata grass. In 1947, these stands of sal were less pre- valent in the sense that much less of the plan- tation form was in evidence, more mixed jungle remained, and consequently there was a different, less parklike, less artificial situa- tion. Both of us were struck by the extreme paucity of birds in the thick stands of sal. We were impressed by the occurrence of birds along the stream beds and remnant patches of miscellaneous forest. Only here and there flowering bushes, W oodfordia or Indigofera were left along the roadside, might one see small birds such as sunbirds or honeyeaters attracted to feed, passing through the sal plantation enroute. A good deal of current literature concerns the important observation that, “the diversity of bird species increases with increasing vege- tation diversity,” (Mulsow 1977), although most of the current studies are being under- taken in temperate Western Europe and North America. Bezzel (1974, 1976, 1977) has stu- died breeding bird populations with grid- mapping and has shown clearly that uncheck- ed economic expansion affects bird popula- tions directly. Therefore “the quality of an environment can be measured by its birdlife,” and ecological planning as well as impact assessment can be developed through bird study. This is paralleled in the work of Rei- chholf (1973-1976) on butterflies, Egloff and Brakel (1973) on stream pollution and a diversity index, Tramer and Rogers (1973) on fish population in streams, and Woodwell (1974) on biotic impoverishment, and numer- ous other papers such as Lack and Lack (1951). In our own case we had fourteen days of observations in these areas of reserved forest. 571 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 In the sal plantation areas, we found on the average only the following species working their way through the mid-storey of the forest below the closed leafy canopy (for in this area sal has only a two to three week period of being deciduous at the end of the dry season) : I. Species observed in sal plantations. Number (from synopsis, 1961) 501. Treron bicincta 987. Sturnus malabaricus 1067. Tephrodornis virgatus 1070. Tephrodornis gularis 1091. Pericrocotus cinnamomeus 1264a. Turdoides striatus (flocks pass through sal plantations) 1419. Muscicapa westermanni 1448. Culicicapa ceylonensis 1503. Prinia hodgsonii 1590. Phylloscopus inornatus 1838. Sitta frontalis 1892. Dicaeum agile (flowering bushes, e.g. Wood- fordia ) 1917. Nectarinia asiatica „ „ „ 1927. Aethopyga siparaja „ „ „ 1933. Zostero ps pal pebrosa 1949. Petronia xanthocollis II. Species observed in “miscellaneous forest”, i.e. tropical dry deciduous and patches of tropical moist deciduous, perhaps the clos- est to “moist peninsular valley sal” of Cham- pion and Seth (1968). I exclude open coun- try species observed during our visit such as waterbirds including lapwings, owlets such as Athene brama, bush-larks, jungle crow, com- mon bulbuls, migrant shrikes, pipits and wag- tails, seen frequently along streams in winter. The following list then is essentially of the closed forest: 1 Picus canus gyldenstolpei represents a new re- cord for Mayurbhanj District, another example of the presence in the northern Orissa hills of Himalayan foothill species such as the bulbul, Pycnonotus melanicterus flaviventris, or such II. Species of patches of closed forest 138. Accipiter badius 211. Falco peregrinus 278. Galloper dix lunulata 299. Gallus gallus 504. Treron phoenicoptera 511. Ducula badia 542. Chalcophaps indica 557. Psittacula cyanocephala (on flowering trees) 617. Otus scops 631. Bubo zeylonensis 636. Glaucidium radiatum 642. Ninox scutulata 67 1 . Caprimulgus indicus 682. Caprimulgus affinis 709. Hemiprocne longipennis 710. Harpactes fasciatus 775. Anthracoceros coronatus (heard locally but now increasingly rare due to human predation for medicinal purposes.) 780. Megalaima zeylanica (forest patches in Mayurbhanj) 784. Megalaima lineata (forest patches in Dhenkanal dist. possibly replacing zeyla- nica?) 792. Megalaima haemacephala 799. Picumnus innominatus 810. Picus canus 1 813. Picus flavinucha 814. Picus chlorolophus 830. Dryocopus javensis (seen in Dhenkanal dist.) 847. Picoides mahrattensis 851. Picoides nanus 861. Chrysocoiaptes lucidus 972. Dicrurus remifer 973. Dicrurus paradiseus 1009. Acridotheres fuscus 1017. Gracula religiosa (only in Dhenkanal dist.) 1032. Dendrocitta vagabunda 1065. Hemipus picatus 1083. Pericrocotus flammeus babblers as Stachyris ruficeps and Dumetia, and Macronous gularis implying a recent distribution since the last colder, pluvial period with no sub- specific or recognizable differentiation. CHANGES IN THE BIRD FAUNA OF A FOREST AREA 1103. Chloropsis aurifrons 71109. Irena puella (an unverified sight record, which implies that this species should be looked for in the future.) 1115. Pycnonotus melanicterus 1154. Pellorneum ruficeps 1173. Pomatorhinus schisticeps 1210. Stachyris ruficeps 1222. Dumetia hyperythra 1228. Macronous gularis 1264a. Turdoides striatus (flocks passing sal plantations also) through 1389. Alcippe poioicephala 1438, Muscicapa polio genys 1451. Rhipidura aureola 1457. Rhipidura albicollis 1465. Hypothymis azurea 1522. Prinia sylvatica 1578. Phylloscopus tytleri2 1604. Phylloscopus trochiloides 1734. Zoothera citrina 1831. Sitta castanea 1899. Dicaeum erythrorhynchos (near thus ) Loran- 2011. Carpodacus erythrinus It is possible to state unequivocally that the bird species enumerated above preferred the “miscellaneous forest”,, tended to be confined there, and would be found in sal plantations only enroute from one preferred patch of habitat to another, or if, occasionally an iso- lated older climax forest tree should be for some random reason left isolated amidst the sal, and at the same time be in fruit or in flower. This would be an accident if it occurr- ed. Thus our observations showed that some fifty-five species of forest birds in their habi- tat in Orissa are now confined to strips or 2 The record of Phylloscopus tytleri in forest near the Mahanadi River in Dhenkanal District is an interesting one as it extends the winter range considerably east from the Tapti River in M.P. ribbons of forest preserved by accident in so- called “reserved forest”. This represents a factor of more than three to one in abundance of species compared to the sal plantations. Their presence is not a function of the reserv- ed forest itself. Thus reserved forest in the sense of the term is a human artifact and not a habitat for wildlife except by accident. Forest cultivation can therefore not be des- cribed as being in the first instance beneficial to wildlife, and an important lesson in the future survival of wild species has still to be learned. How much “miscellaneous forest” or preferred habitat for species diversity must be maintained to prevent the gradual erosion of native fauna and flora in the Indian subcon- tinent? Research in this subject is a priority, for it implies preservation of far more than merely obvious species such as birds, but rather all the elements in the food chain which make for natural diversity including soil con- stitution chemistry, and the entire web of in- teractions between rock, soil, bacteria, inver- tebrates and lower plants. Meanwhile what of the birds we did not see? In open country vultures and kites were notable by their absence. Cuckoos were scarce, certain owls (our search for Athene hlewitti was unavailing, Ripley 1976) were not seen, small kingfishers, and of course many passe- rines of numerous families and subfamilies which might occur seasonally or merely be overlooked. The net impression, however, was one of scarcity, with little if any song, and small aggregations of feeding flocks. These observations indicate the importance of field work which would include grid mapping, range plotting and extensive sampling to deter- mine biotope health and prospects for conti- nued environmental health all over India. 573 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 References Bezzel, E. (1977) : Zur Zusammensetzung von Landvogelgesellschaften in der Agrarlandschaft. Journ. /. Ornith. 118 (3): 307-8. (1976) : Vogel als Bewertungskriter- ien fur Schutzgebiete-einige einfache Beispiele aus der Planungspraxis. Natur und Landschaft 51 (3) : 73-78. — and Ranftl, H. (1974): Vogelwelt und Landschaftsplanung. Eine Studie aus dem Wer- denfelser Land (Bayern). Tier und Umwelt 11/12, 92 S. (English Summary 1974 Verlag Detlev Kurth, Barmstedt: 86-87). AND Reichholf, J. (1974): Die Di- versity als Kriterium zur Bewertung der Reichhal- tigkeit von Wasservogel-Lebensraumen. Journ. f. Ornith. 115 (1) : 50-61. Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. K. (1968): A re- vised survey of the Forest Types of India, Delhi: Govt, of India Press. Egloff, D. A. and Brakel, W. H. (1973) : Stream pollution and a simplified diversity index. Journ. Water Poll. Control Fed. 45:2269-2275. Lack, D. and Lack, E. (1951) : Further changes in bird-life caused by afforestation. Journ. Anim. Ecol. 20:173-179. Moss, D. (1978) : Song-bird populations in For- estry Plantations. Quart. Journ. Forestry 72: 5-14. Reichholf, J. (1973): Die Bedeutung nicht be- wirtschafteter Wiesen fur unsere Tagfalter. Natur und Landschaft 48 (3) : 80-81. (1975) : Vogel als Bioindikatoren. Jahres. Deutsch. Orn. Ges. Wien, Kurz. d. Vort: 34-35. Ripley, S. D. (1976) : Reconsideration of Athene blewitti (Hume). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 73 (1) : 1-4. Tramer, E. J. and Rogers, P. M. (1973): Diver- sity and Longitudinal Zonation in Fish Populations of Two Streams Entering a Metropolitan Area. Amer. Midi. Nat. 90:366-374. Woodwell G. M. (1974) : The Limits of Im- poverishment. Amer. Assn. Assoc. Sci. Symposium on Endangered Species. San Francisco, Feb. 28. FOREST DAYS Tom Norman1 For fourteen years from 1947 to 1961 my wife and I had the privilege of living beside the forest that used to form a continuous belt between Naga Hills and the Assam Valley. Much of this forest was outside the Naga Hills District inner line, belonging administra- tively to the appropriate Assam Valley Dis- tricts, and covering both plains areas and the lower foothills. Like all the rain forests of S. E. Asia it teemed with a huge variety of wildlife, from elephant and sambar, birds and magnificent orchids, down to innumerable in- vertebrate species. Being a continuous belt, often many miles broad, it formed a corridor within which wildlife had free movement for several hundred miles, and was a self-sufficient eco-system. Now, alas, much of the forest has been cleared for cultivation from both sides of the inner line, and in the narrower parts of the belt the two clearances have met, turn- ing the former corridor into a series of forest islands and causing the isolation of wildilfe populations. We must be thankful for what little remains, however much we may regret what has been lost. Sadly we must accept that for the present unfettered evolution in the world’s rain forests has come to an end, to be replaced by a quite different form of evo- lution in isolated populations: it has been well worked out with regard to oceanic islands in particular that this sort of isolation leads to a rapid reduction in the total number of species and eventually to a high degree of specialisation amongst many of those that remain. Even if the Assam Government had 1 The Old Rectory, Winterborne Houghton, Blandford, Dorset DT11 OPD. been years ahead of world thinking on con- servation, and had been able and willing to prevent forest destruction within its adminis- trative boundary, breaks in the forest belt would still have occurred as a result of the Nagas pushing outwards and eventually tak- ing over (and destroying) what were former- ly Reserved Forests belonging to the plains Districts. Not only has evolution been inter- rupted: we shall now never see and record many species, some at least of which would have been of the greatest taxonomic and gene- tic importance. Even in a group as well known as butterflies, as late as the fifties and in an area as accessible as the forests of Sibsagar District, I was able to find very distinct spe- cies new to science. Nostalgia and sadness for the happiness of past days and for so many losses in the con- servation battle have nearly diverted me from what I had planned to be the theme of this article — the pleasantness and above all the safety of India’s north-eastern rains forests, a fact which one cannot take for granted in many other parts of the world. For the four- teen years we were in Assam my wife and I spent every available spare hour in the forest. Given reasonable weather, we spent the whole of Sunday there and one afternoon a week, as well as our annual holiday of two weeks; and since my practice lay for 20 miles along the forest belt I was frequently able to have my lunch in the forest on working days. In all this time I can remember only two inci- dents of real fright and perhaps half a dozen others when the adrenalin began to circulate rather too fast for comfort. Normally, un- 575 2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 we certainly never gave it a thought. Of the minor nuisances, leeches and mos- quitoes were always with us. Liberal appli- armed and unescorted, we felt as safe as in our own compound. Such safety from attack at all levels is taken for granted in India, and cations of di-methyl-phthalate (which has the unfortunate property of dissolving nylon) kept most of the attacking hordes at bay, but a few always got through our defences and we sel- dom returned without blood dripping from our feet and ankles. Nothing looks more cosy than a leech comfortably embedded between the toes! One very quickly learnt that the quickest and easiest way to deal with an at- tached leech was to lift it off with a finger nail under the sucker. The bite is going to go on bleeding in whatever way you may remove the creature since it has already in- jected anti-coagulant for this very purpose: the story that the bleeding is caused by leav- ing its mouthparts behind unless it has been caused to release its hold voluntarily, by e.g., the application of a lighted cigarette end, is a zoological myth. In previous times there had always been the danger that a leech bite would become infected and develop into a tropical ulcer (“Naga Sore” in Assam), but this un- pleasant disease virtually disappeared in the late forties. When thinking of invertebrates I am sure that we in India were never suffi- ciently thankful for the absence of another pest, the various species of Schistosoma, so that we were able to wade or bathe in any fresh water with no danger of contracting bil- harziasis — the scourge of fresh waters in Afri- ca and further east in Asia. Neither did we have crocodiles lying in wait for us on mud- banks, nor shoals of piranhas to tear the flesh from our bones in deeper water. Scorpions I only met once in the forest, in a pile of shingle deposited by a prospecting oil company, a man-made habitat in any case. The large spi- ders which lurked in the tea and bit our labourers, with such unfortunate results, were never apparent in the forest, and we were mercifully spared the horror of the Black Widow and other lethally poisonous S. Ame- rican and Australian spiders. On the same plane of nuisance value as the leech was the tree ant {Oecophylla smaragdina), whose first reaction is to nip whatever comes in its way. Brushing against one of its walk-ways, or re- ceiving a cascade over one’s head after a high shot for some choice Arhopala, were experi- ences not forgotten in a hurry, even if, as with spiders, our Indian ants are not a real danger to man as are certain southern hemi- sphere species. Possibly the worst and least avoidable invertebrate menace was the danger of walking into a hanging wasps’ nest when pushing through thick under-storey or secon- dary scrub. I did indeed do this on several occasions and eventually developed a danger- ous allergy, so that wasps became for me an ever present anxiety and I had numerous near- misses. Have you ever heard of anyone dying from snake bite in an Assam forest, or even receiv- ing a serious bite? I have heard mythical tales of people being chased by hamadryads, but the fact that these tales do not end in disaster speaks for itself. During nine months in North Borneo (now Sabah) we saw more snakes in the forest than during the whole of our 14 years in Assam, and had five narrow escapes from poisonous bites whereas we had never been near to being bitten in Assam — as far as we knew! One thinks of the plant kingdom as being harmless, and in Assam we were only bother- ed by a “nettle” (whose name I never knew) with glabrous leaves. Contact with these large but inconspicuous plants gave no immediate 576 FOREST DAYS warning sting but for a week afterwards there was the most intense burning irritation with- out any visible skin reaction. I would very much like to know the mechanism of this. We were spared such horrors as the poison ivy of America or the poison-dripping tree of the Borneo forests. I keep an open mind on natural phenomena, and whilst accepting ob- served facts I find that the deduced cause is not always correct, so I was distinctly curious about this tree. The story went that a man could take shelter under it during a rain storm and would later develop a massive der- matitis and die. Eventually I saw one such case who was desquamating and ulcerating over his entire body surface — fortunately he was cured with modern drugs and good nursing. These things can happen from nu- merous causes, but he stated that he had in fact been caught in a storm beneath the sus- pected tree. I obtained a piece of the wood and rubbed it on my forearm, giving myself a blister and later a patch of dermatitis which remained for many months; and it was only then I realised that the itchy blisters around my ankles were caused by dead leaves from this same tree scuffed from the forest floor into my socks. Looking back on our times in the forest I am sure we put ourselves in greatest danger by the quietness of our progress. We were both engrossed in our own pursuits — mainly butterflies for me and birds for my wife and did not talk much, and in any case did not make unnecessary noise in order to avoid disturbing the life around us. Our few real frights were indeed due to this cause, and I suppose we were fortunate never to round a bend and find ourselves facing a tiger, as hap- pened to a friend. Of the larger animals the commonest and potentially the most dangerous was the elephant. It was a common experience to find ourselves close to or even in the midst of a feeding herd, when the danger would have been from a panic reaction if we had been discovered suddenly. Much more fright- ening, because of the lack of warning, was to be moving quietly through the forest and suddenly to realise that the stock-still shape not far ahead was a lone tusker: a dignified and unhurried retreat and avoidance of that sector of the forest for the rest of the day was sufficient on all but one memorable oc- casion. On the day in question we had gone with two friends and our dog for an evening walk down our nearest forest track. This was a time of day I usually avoided because my- opes do not see well in the fading light, but there was always the chance of something unusual — there might be a crepuscular Hes- periid, and it was at dusk along this track that we had seen a peacock pheasant ( Poly - plectron bicalcaratum) displaying to his mate. We had turned towards home again when we realised that a large tusker was occupying the track — and we had no feasible alternative route back to the safety of the land rover. He appeared to be comfortably set to medi- tate there all night, so we tried shouting, which he gave no sign of hearing. Foolishly perhaps, but the light was rapidly going and we had a fair distance still to walk, we then lobbed stones onto the track near him, and this sti- mulated him into immediate action — in the wrong direction! — for he began to chase us. I have never had such a nightmare experience, and just as in a true nightmare my legs seem- ed to have turned to lead and refused to ans- wer my will, but although they felt numb they carried me round the next few bends, by which time our pursuer had apparently lost interest and left the track. There remained the problem of what he was doing since he was by now perfectly silent. In any case we 577 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 really had no alternative to returning quietly back towards the land rover — with further moments of panic when our dog slipped off to investigate in the bamboos. Leopards were as rare as tigers were plenti- ful, and I always hoped that the latter would not be lying up too near human or game tracks or that their very keen senses would alert them before we had approached too close. We saw fresh tracks most days, but this was the closest we ever got while on foot. We were never on foot in buffalo country, but our second major fright was caused by walk- ing into the middle of a herd of resting gaur. We were walking quietly along a game path through moderately high grass between a salt lick and the near-by river when there was an upheaval like an earthquake all around us — which ended before we fully realised what had happened, leaving us with a fleeting im- pression of the grass erupting with large dark, white- stockinged, forms. We could have wish- ed for a more leisurely view, from a slightly safer distance, of the only herd of gaur in that part of Assam! (This was, in fact, an import- ant encounter, since it had not been certain until then that the rumoured herd existed.) The animals I have mentioned so far have all been creatures one would treat with res- pect because of their size and strength as com- pared with man, but the one which the older generation of tea planters warned us to avoid like a bogey was, curiously, the wild dog. It was said to be the most dangerous animal in Assam, invariably attacking man on sight and killing him by weight of numbers. This always seemed to us most unlikely. The literature did not support these stories, nor did contempo- raries intimately familiar with forest life, such as E. P. Gee. His experience was the same as ours: on the few occasions when we met the wild dog face to face it was just as anxious to escape from the proximity of man as is any other forest animal. The most potent cause of fear is the un- known: the crashing in the forest around you no longer causes panic when you know that it is nothing worse than elephants, which you have met many times before and with which you are familiar. Quite different are the noises one cannot place, and of these I can recall two very clearly. On the first occasion we were going up a yard wide dry nadi in heavily forested hills near Moreh on the Manipur-Burma border. Ahead of us we could hear something moving over the dry leaves, and then we realised that it was steadily ap- proaching. By this time I had made a personal rule never to go back, whatever was heard in the surrounding forest — it would generally be harmless or minding its own business, but meanwhile, whatever was approaching us? There had been talk in the bazaar the previ- ous evening about a tiger which had taken a cow — or could it be a bear? It grew ever larger in imagination as the noise of trampl- ing on the dry leaves increased in volume, magnified explosively by the -surrounding still- ness and the narrow cleft in the hillside. Final- ly we stood still and awaited our fate — and a couple of otters bounded into view! On another occasion we were nearer home, walk- ing along a small tributary of the Jhanzi River. In front of us there was a screen of thick bushes obscuring the approach to a large | rock which ended a couple of feet from the stream. From the hillside above the bushes there was a ponderous tread coming slowly towards us — again it was the dry season and the hillside and the dead leaves exaggerated sounds. We froze, and waited for what seem- ed an age — to be rewarded by nothing more 578 FOREST DAYS alarming than the snout of an outsize monitor lizard appearing past the rock on its way to the stream. Of all the forest noises of our earlier years the two most characteristic were made by Man and his relations. The echoing call of the hoolock gave us a cheerful welcome on each visit to the forest, and in those days could often be heard from our bungalow. Man him- self, in the form of parties of Nagas going to and from the local markets, made a sort of low-pitched antiphonal grunt with a remark- able carrying power. These parties of bare breasted loin cloth’d Nagas ceased after the start of the Naga War, just as the hoolocks became much scarcer at about the same time. Looking back, this was really the turning point of our life in Assam. For obvious rea- sons we could no longer obtain an inner line permit for the nearest hills, nor for the very exciting and relatively little known (in the natural history sense) Angami country around Jhakama and the high peaks of Japvo and Tentpo. We had numerous friends amongst the Nagas, some of whom turned up at my hospitals in moments of medical crisis, and I also employed most knowledgeable Ao and Angami collectors. Quite suddenly all this changed. The local Nagas no longer came to the plains bazaars, and any parties we met were likely to be armed and from the interior, neither side being quite at ease at these forest encounters. Perhaps we were foolish to con- tinue our forest walks as before, but one has to take life as it comes. We knew there was no animus against us personally and that any harm would be accidental, and unlikely — al- though a party came down on one occasion with the intention of kidnapping the manager of the tea estate on which we lived, possibly as a hostage. Wherever we have lived we have always seemed to be at the forest edge. We saw it retreating fast in Assam, and even faster in Borneo. Now here in England the fight con- tinues for the small patches of woodland and downland, wetland and heath that yet remain “unimproved”. May you in India be able to continue the magnificent work begun with Kaziranga, the Gir Forest and other specific sanctuaries, where individual species have al- ready been saved from extinction, extending the principle of conservation now to whole ecosystems. Large areas of the old province of Assam call for this treatment before it is too late, and it would be a happy thought if the proposed enlargement of the Manas Re- serve could be regarded as the first step to- wards such an extended reserve. This would indeed be a fitting tribute to our loved and distinguished past President, Dr. Salim Ali, who more than any other person has made wildlife conservation respectable in India and India’s achievements known and respected overseas, and to the late E. P. Gee to whom the same words equally apply, particularly in the context of Assam. HOW MAN MODIFIES CLIMATE Anna Mani1 Introduction Large forests, vast expanses of water and desert, and fertile soils are the products of the general climate of the earth over which man normally has no control. But man in the process of reshaping his environment has modified these features, by the destruction of forests over large areas, the conversion of arable land into pastures and agricultural tracts, the drainage of large swamps, the con- struction of large scale irrigation works, mani- 1. Contaminants (a) condensation nuclei and particles (b) gaseous admixtures 2. Cloudiness 3. Fog, winter 4. Precipitation 5. Relative Humidity 6. Radiation, global solar 7. Air Temperature, annual mean 8. Windspeed, annual mean 9. Sunshine duration pulation of surface and ground water, and urbanization and industrialization. Such acti- vities have changed the physical and atmos- pheric environment and affected its suitability for human habitation and for agricultural pursuits. The question which arises is whether these activities of man have changed or will change the climate of the locality or the re- gion or even perhaps the climate of the whole globe. There is no doubt that whenever man chan- 1 Raman Research Institute, Bangalore 560 006. ges the landscape he modifies the microcli- mate of the area. Winds, air temperature and humidity and soil moisture around a build- ing or a ploughed field are different from those in its natural surroundings. In a city or town consisting of buildings, roads and paved areas, the local climate is quite different from that of surrounding areas. The effect or urbaniza- tion on local climate is well documented and the average changes in climatic parameters caused by urbanization has been given by Landsberg (1970) as follows: — 10 times more 5 to 25 times more 5 to 10 per cent more 100 per cent less 5 to 10 per cent more 2 per cent more 15 to 20 per cent less 0.5 to 1.0°C more 20 to 30 per cent less 5 to 15 per cent less These climatic changes are caused by the increased surface roughness, the changed al- bedo, the accelerated run off of water and the changed heat storage capacity in a city or town, resulting from the replacement of forest and fields by buildings and roads .But the influence of these processes does not extend significantly beyond the built-up areas. Man’s activities influencing climate The climate of a locality is usually defined by the long term statistics of the variables that describe the weather at the locality, such HOW MAN MODIFIES CLIMATE as temperature, rainfall, cloudiness, winds and so on. Climate is conveniently represented by the mean values and the variances of these variables, provided such statistics are based on records for at least 30 years (SMIC, 1971). Man’s activities which can modify climate are many. To the extent man destroys or conserves forests, pollutes air and water, alters the land surface and manipulates surface and ground water and improves or exhausts soil fertility he does control climatic factors local- ly. Thousand of years before the Industrial Revolution in the West and in countries where industrialization is yet to take place, agricul- tural and animal grazing practices have exer- cised a profound influence on large regions of the world. Effect of deforestation The earliest and most widespread modifi- cations of the climate by man has thus been quite inadvertently achieved by the conver- sion of natural vegetation into arable land and pastures. During the last eight thousand years dense forests of the mountainous areas in Europe and Asia have been cut down to meet his agricultural needs. And the savannah grass- lands of the tropics are entirely man-made. Increasing areas have been converted from steppe and forested steppe into arable land, and grazing by domestic animals especially goats have reduced parts of Africa and South West Asia to semi-deserts. In India the con- version of forests into arable land has predo- minated and now covers at least 107 square Km. In North West India an original steppe has been changed into a semidesert without any appreciable recent variation of precipita- tion. Bryson (1971) has argued that the Raj- putana desert is man-made. Noting that the vertically integrated water vapour content is comparable with that over some tropical forest regions, he suggests that the tropospheric dust loading from the desert has increased atmos- pheric subsidence, this inhibiting precipitation. Archaeological and pollen studies indicate that the desert was relatively fertile several thousand years ago and that it contained a fresh water lake that supported an early civi- lization. Deserts are apparently spreading with speed of about 1 to 2 km per year depending on the density of the population. The problem is equally acute in the Hima- laya, Western Ghats and the Nilgiris, where the widespread use of wood for fuel and de- forestation without adequate replanting has led to permanent damage to the landscape, water systems and normal patterns of run-off and caused widespread erosion. Vast areas of the Himalayan foothills have been stripped of forest and only fragments remain. The plains and lower hills are almost bare of vege- tation of any kind. The only exception is in northern Assam where the problem is less severe on account of the smaller populations and the immensity of the rain forests. The natural cycle of precipitation, percolation, evaporation and transpiration have been dis- turbed by the drastic alteration of the vege- tation cover, humidity and temperature of the Western Ghats and Nilgiris which play a vital ecological role affecting the climate and the water regime of a vital hinterland. It is even more acute in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, whose unique tropical rain forests are its richest natural endowment. The removal of forests in the tropics where there is considerable rainfall and where the vege- tation depends for its existence on retaining the essential minerals in a relatively thin layer of humus can be disastrous. Surface run-off under nonforest conditions may often result in severe soil erosion and in flash floods down- stream. The forests of the Andaman and Nico- 581 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 bar Islands are the only Indian forests that have escaped the withering effect of interfer- ence by man, fire and cattle till very recent times. The introduction of colonisation since independence had led to large-scale clearance of dense forests in the Andaman group of Islands and partly in the Nicobar group of Islands. Due to the peculiar geological strata, the sandy soils of the islands have no water holding capacity and drainage is very rapid. The extensive clearance of the dense forests would naturally result in severe soil erosion and expose the cleared areas to its ravages and transformation into grasslands or barren desert, after one or two growing seasons when the highly weathered soils are devoid of their ground cover and when the humus layer is washed away. Tropical Rain forests are a non-renewable resource and the Government of India realis- ing the importance of preserving this unique heritage, appointed a multidisciplinary com- mittee to carry out a comprehensive land use capability survey and suggest measures to protect and conserve these forests for future generations. The Government also enforced a moratorium on forest felling for settlement or plantation agriculture in 1975. It is hoped that legislation action will be taken to ensure that substantial areas of the remaining virgin forests are set aside and regarded as inviolate and all offshore islands which have not suf- fered substantial interference through tree fel- ling or settlement are declared as nature re- serves. We should mention here that the destruc- tion of a rain forest is almost an irreversible process. Soil moisture is no longer retained and in addition the soil dries rapidly and may release clouds of dust into atmosphere chang- ing the regional radiation balance. Modification of the natural vegetation af- fects several significant climatic parameters, the surface roughness, the surface albedo and the apportionment of the available net radi- ation into sensible and latent heating of the atmosphere. In the Rajputana Desert formerly covered by vegetation, the ration of sensible to latent heat is 2.0 to 6.0, while it is about 0.3 over tropical jungles. Destruction of forests thus causes the replacement of large latent heat sources by large sensible heat sources and might have a significant effect on the gener- ation and dissipation of tropical easterly waves. This deforestation might also affect the dynamics of the general circulation through a series of non-linear interactions (SMIC 1970). Forests modify climate, not only in the area they occupy, but also around them. Within a forest, the air and soil mean temperature are lower, humidities higher, light intensities 50- 90 per cent less and precipitation as much as 25% higher, evaporation 1/3 to 1/2 that in the open and winds 70-90% less depending on its penetration. More than the actual effect in precipitation the effect on its destination by forests in great- er. By breaking the violence of rain, increas- ing the absorptance capacity of the soil cover, preventing erosion and checking surface run- off, forests increase underground seepage in general. Forest soils have great water holding capacity and precipitation, which without the forest cover is rapidly disposed of by surface run off, is retained in the soil. The connec- tion between forests and groundwater needs to be emphasized. Forests being much less compact than comparable grassland or open soils, it absorbs all available rainfall during the wet months and releases the water slowly during the dry months. The Famine Commis- sion of 1880 had referred to many areas, where several streams which had been extant for 582 HOW MAN MODIFIES CLIMATE decades had dried up, because of the cutting down of forests in surrounding regions. Forests may not increase total precipitation but cer- tainly help to dispose of it more economically and more fruitfully than does land devoid of forest. The influence of forests on local climate is best illustrated by shelter belts placed at right angles to prevailing winds, which reduce winds on both the wind and leeward sides, resulting in reduction of evaporation, lowering of tem- perature, increasing humidity and soil mois- ture. Although statistical evidence on the effect of deforestation on climate is lacking, it has been observed that temperature is 1-2°C lower in the forest than over denuded areas, average wind speeds 7-10 times as great on denuded areas in winter and 30-40 times greater in summer and precipitation 17-18% greater. The climate differences except in precipitation can be attributed definitely to forest denudation. The disastrous effects of floods have also been observed in two watersheds, one of which retains its protective cover and the other is burnt. Both watersheds had the same preci- pitation during one storm; while flood waters swept out of the burnt valley and through a town destroying 200 homes and taking 34 lives, in the unburnt valley, just a few kilo- metres away, the storm was easily handled by the existing channel and there was neither flood nor water damage. Effect of air pollution One of the most clearly evident influences of man on his environment is his direct cont- amination of the atmosphere, by injecting gaseous and solid affluents into the air. The increase in the particulate load of the atmos- phere arises from both industrial activity, trans- portation and the burning of waste crops and vegetation, a practice in many tropical area for many thousands of year. Particles scatter and absorb solar radiation and also have an effect on the outgoing infrared radiation from the surface. So these man-made products will in- fluence the heat balance over wide areas. The primary contributions to atmospheric dust are soil and rock debris from the arid regions of the world, which have their greatest expanses in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Man has played a part in creat- ing this source of dust, particularly in the de- serts of northern Africa and south west and central Asia. In India, measurements over the Rajasthan desert have shown the dust to ex- tend to heights of 10 km over north and central India in summer and the particle concentration to be as high as 1200 /*g/ cm.3 The dust was seen to be mostly silica or sand on analysis. Meas- urements of atmospheric turbidity at a num- ber of stations in India during the last two decades have shown a two to four fold in- crease in the particulate load, particularly in more highly industrialised regions (Mani et al. 1971). A measurement -of condensation nuclei and dust content have also shown a seven fold increase since 1930 (Mani & Huddar 1972) at Poona. It is also well known that the carbon diox- ide content of the global atmosphere has been rising due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas and it is expected that it will go up by another 20% by 2000 A.D. Surface transportation of people and foods contributes to the modification of the climate in two ways, first by emission into the atmos- phere of particulate and gaseous exhaust pro- ducts that can impact on radiation fields and precipitation and second by the modification of the reflective and thermal properties of the land surface by highways. The land surface 583 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 covered by roads in a developed country such as the United States is 1% of the whole coun- try, a not insignificant quantity. Automobiles contribute approximately half of some air pollutants observed in US cities and the same is true of other industrialized countries. In India the number of automobiles is a small fraction of those in the West but the exhausts from vehicles on Indian roads are many times those of the automobiles in the West, where strict laws on exhaust control and air quality are enforced. Internal com- bustion engines are a major source of aerosols such as lead particles and of gaseous precur- sors of photo chemical smog. Another rapidly escalating activity of man is air transportation, unique in that most of its products are injected directly into the at- mosphere at levels well above the surface, in the high troposphere and the lower stratos- phere. For the first time in the history of man, he can now put material directly into the stra- tosphere in the form of combustion products such as water vapour, nitrogen oxides and other gases and particles. The potential effects of supersonic aircraft on climate and on the ozone layer in the stratosphere which shields life from harmful ultraviolet radiation are well known. It has been estimated that commercial aviation will double its fuel consumption every five or six years in the next decade or so. With the expected increase in aircraft flights, we may expect at least a threefold increase in the pollution from aircraft by 1985. There are in- dications that jet traffic has already caused a small increase in cirrus cloudiness in heavily travelled areas and this will have a small ef- fect on the heat balance of the atmosphere. Since the supersonic transports fly in a region where the average residence time of their ex- haust products is one or two years, there is a chance for the concentration to build up. The danger of injection of radioactive ma- terial into the stratosphere from nuclear ex- plosions is equally great. With the enforce- ment of the nuclear test ban treaty there has fortunately been a decrease in the amount of radioactive debris in the stratosphere. Another danger is that from the debris from hundreds of satellites that orbit the earth. This is comparatively less significant but like- ly to increase in future. The chief pollutants that can react with atmospheric ozone and cause a reduction in the amount of ozone present in the stratos- phere are oxides of nitrogen, chlorine and bromine as well as chlorofluoromethanes such as CFCls and CF2C12. While the currently planned supersonic aircraft may not signi- ficantly affect the ozone layer, a large fleet of SST flying at greater altitudes will have a noticeable effect. So also the increased pro- duction of nitrous oxide at the surface by the increased use of agricultural fertilizers and of nitrogen fixing vegetation leading to an increase of NOx in the stratosphere and the increased release into the atmosphere of chlorofluoro- methanes, leading to rapidly increasing amo- unts of CLOx in the atmosphere. Since the re- moval rate of CLOx concentration is very slow, the stratospheric CLOx will continue to increase for several years, even after all emis- sions of chlorofluoromethanes into the atmos- phere ceases, due to the slow rate of difusion through the stratosphere. Thereafter, the re- covery rate would be of the order of a few decades. The possible destruction of ozone and the danger of increased solar ultraviolet radiation penetrating to the earth’s surface and causing adverse biological effects on man, animals and crops and adverse climatological consequences has been a matter of great concern to every- one involved. Since solar ultraviolet is very 584 HOW MAN MODIFIES CLIMATE strongly absorbed by ozone, the temperature of the stratosphere is largely maintained by a balance between absorption of solar radiation by ozone and emission of infrared radiation by ozone, carbondioxide and water vapour. Any change in the stratospheric heating rates will directly affect the temperature distribution in the stratosphere and possibly in the tropo- sphere. And these temperature changes will effect the patterns of the general circulation and the weather and climate. An average temperature decrease of up to 10°C in the upper stratosphere is expected to result from reduction of ozone due to man’s activities. Calculations indicate the correspond- ing temperature change at ground level of only a fraction of a degree. Because of the comple- xity of stratosphere-troposphere interactions it is not possible to infer with any reliability what the full consequences will be on the earth’s climate. The potential threat of a considerable de- pletion of ozone having been established, the World Meteorological Organisation is now conducting an experiment for the continued long-term monitoring of ozone and other trace gases in the atmosphere, as well as ozone destroying radicals such as N20, chlorofluo- rothanes and other halogen compounds. By the end of the next decade we should be nearer finding scientifically sound answers to questions concerning the role of anthropoge- nic pollutants in reducing the quantity of ozone in the stratosphere and on the possible impact of changes in the stratospheric ozone content on climate. Thermal pollution or the release of heat in- to the atmosphere from industrial, transporta- tion and domestic sources, rivers, lakes and oceans is a matter of importance to be consi- dered with the escalating demand by man for more and more power. With the doubling of the present world population by the year 2000 A.D., coupled with an expectation of more energy to be used per capita, the production of energy of all kinds will rise by a factor of five by 2000 A^.D. There may eventually be industrialized zones extending for thousands of sq. km. the additional input of energy may equal the net radiation from the sun. The main effect of this heat input on the local scale is the creation of a stationary 3 -dimensional heat island. The intensity of this heat island reaches a maximum at night time when the air temperature is a minimum, when the sur- rounding rural areas are cooling under the effect of the net outgoing radiation. The mini- mum intensity occurs shortly after noon when the sensible heat flux of the surrounding areas is more or less equal to the input of artificial heat. Under stable conditions with light winds the effect is restricted to a shallow atmosphe- ric layer five hundred metres in thickness, the surface warming being of the order of 2 to 6°C. Measurements in Bangalore, Bombay and Poona have been shown the existence of such heat islands less intense in Bangalore (1-2°C) and most pronounced in Bombay (4-6°C). Changes in climate due to alterations of the earth's surface Man has been changing the landscape in many ways for thousands of years ever since the creation of a shepherd-farmer culture. His impact on the environment has been some- times for the better as in the draining of swamps and often for the worse as by scarring the country side by urban and industrial spr- awl and creating semideserts and arid regions by destructive agricultural practices and over- grazing by animals, and mining and drilling for oil and gas even in the oceans. Urbanization and industrialization in prin- JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ciple influence the parameters determining climate although they are difficult to quantify at present. Any process that changes the heat balance of the atmosphere can influence cli- mate at least locally and surface albedo changes, heat injection and material injection do just that. The changes in climatic para- meters due to urbanization have already been listed in para 1. Manipulation of surface and underground water Another influence of man is his manipula- tion of the surface waters by building dams, creating lakes, draining swamps and directing rivers. River flows have become so regulated by the building of dams such as the High Aswan Dam on the Nile that the large an- nual flooding of the Nile delta has been re- duced to a small fraction. Some of the lakes are so large such as Lake Nasser as to appear on maps of the world. All this has its influence upon the atmos- phere. Open water has an albedo substantially lower than that of other surfaces. It has a much greater heat capacity and it adds water vapour to the air. Both the amount and the seasonal distribution of absorbed solar heat can thus be changed by altering the area cov- ered by water. Since the water surface may have a temperature quite different from that of land at the same location, the distribution of heat among longwave radiation, sensible heat and evaporation will be significantly dif- ferent. This is particularly true of a water body in an otherwise arid area such as Lake Nasser in Egypt. In this case the heat absorb- ed by the surrounding dry area is indirectly used to increase evaporation. Downwind the water vapour content of the air is increased, creating effects on the radiation balance and eventually on precipitation itself. Measure- ments at Aswan have shown this is actually so, there being an increase in cloudiness and a decrease in solar radiation since the cons- truction of the High Aswan Dam. Another process modifying climate is irri- gation. Much of the irrigation water evapo- rates and the 1700 km3/ year of nonreturned irrigation water represents a change of about 5 per cent in the run-off of the land areas and 2 per cent of the total annual evaporation of land areas. The direct influence of the energy used for evaporation of irrigation water is to speed the hydrological cycle. All the heat used in evaporation is returned to the atmosphere where condensation occurs. Apart from local effects which are large, the global climatolo- gical impact will depend on such indirect in- fluences as changes in cloud cover and result- ing effects on the radiation balance. One indirect effect is quite significant. An irrigated area grows vegetation that has an albedo significantly lower than the ground cover it has replaced. The interesting conse- quence is that while the local temperature is lowered by irrigation because of the increas- ed evaporation, global temperature is raised because of the decreased reflection of incom- ing solar radiation. Budyko (1971) has cal- culated that present day irrigation leads to an increase of earth’s mean surface temperature by 0.07°C. With the estimated five fold increase in irri- gation, industry, energy production and water- works, the amount of evaporating water will be three times higher. The total effect of irri- gation on global albedo and the effect of man’s activities on the hydrological cycle must be expected to increase substantially. Another important by product of man’s acti- vities is the effect of mining underground or fossil water that has accumulated in climatic 586 HOW MAN MODIFIES CLIMATE eras when there was more precipitation than now. For example agriculture in Sahara is made possible by tapping subterranean reser- voirs of fossil ground water preserved to a large extent from the last ice age with a radio carbon age of 20,000 to 25,000 years. The fossil water below the Rajasthan desert has been carbon dated to be 8000 years old. The observed drop of twenty to thirty metres of the groundwater level in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu in the last decade can only interpreted as a consequence of the overexploitation of the ground water and the increasing imbalance of the actual water budget caused by the exploi- tation of fossil water reserves at a faster rate than can be replenished under present climate conditions. The groundwater stored in the pores and fractures of soil and rock constitute about 5% of the total free water in the world and at the rate at which this essentially irre- placeable source of water is consumed and salt water moves in to replace fresh water along sea coasts, man is changing the natural balance of the earth, though not necessarily its climate. Weather modification Sustained weather modification in seeding clouds with freezing nuclei such as silver iodide crystals or salt particles will change the cli- mate over a period of time, but there is no general agreement of the success in attempts in many countries including India to modify the weather. There is no doubt that seeding can modify clouds but whether it increases precipitation depends on many factors. Arti- ficially induced rain might largely evaporate leading to an intensification of the exchange rate in the hydrological cycle. Or most of it may run off, resulting in a redistribution rather than net increase in rainfall. Hail suppression experiments in the USSR and Switzerland have been considered to be a success as well as fog dissipation trials else- where. Such experiments and efforts at con- trol of cyclones or hurricanes will offer man the opportunity to exert a considerable in- fluence on climate. All such measures must be carried out with great care and with consi- deration for more than local and immediate effects. Considering the military uses to which weather modifications has been put in the past, the United Nations have recently passed a resolution which precludes the use of wea- ther as a weapon of war. The World Meteorological Organisation, a specialized agency of the United Nations has organised Precipitation Enhancement project which is expected to serve as a rallying point for the scientific efforts in weather modifica- tion. Conclusion There can be little doubt that man in the process of reshaping his environment in many ways has changed the climate of large regions of the earth and he has probably had some influence on the global climate as well, exact- ly how much it is we do not yet know. While we do not know how to predict man’s impact on climate, the distinct possibility that it could occur as a result of man’s activities warrants every effort to understand the mechanisms that govern climate and climatic change. (Kellogg 1975). Considering the profound implications of climate modification, the World Meteorolo- gical Organisation has organised a Climate Dynamics programme for the study and un- derstanding of the physical basis of climate. While the ability to predict natural fluctua- tions of climate is valuable, a knowledge of 587 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 the longterm climatic effects due to human activities may well be even more important since human activities are perturbing the at- mosphere in ways which have no analogue in the earth’s history. The programme will in- clude enhanced global observations of key physical qualities and increased intensive efforts at climate modelling and numerical ex- perimentation, with the hope that we shall be R E F E Bryson, R. A. (1971) : Climate Modification by air pollution. Conference on Environment Future, Helsinki. Budyko, M. I. (1971): Climate and Life. Hydro- logical Publishing House, Leningrad. Kellogg, W. W. (1975): Climate change and the influence of Man’s activities on the global en- vironment. The changing Global environment pp. 13. Edited by S, F. Singer, Roidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland. Landsberg, H. E. (1971) : Climates and urban thus nearer an understanding of the fluctua- tions of climate and the response of climate to the increasing inadvertent influence of mankind on the environment. “ Samudra Mekhale devi parvatha sthana mandale pada sparsam Kshmaswa me" “Oh Mother Earth, girdled by the oceans and the mountains, pardon me for trespassing on you” e n c e s planning. Urban climates. World Meteorological Organisation, Geneva. Mani, A. and Huddar, B. B. (1972): Studies of Surface Aerosols and their effects on atmospheric electricity parameters, Pure and applied Geophysics 100: 154-166. , Chacko, D. and Iyer, N. V. (1971): Atmospheric turbidity over India from solar radi- ation measurements. Solar Energy 14: 185-195. SMIC, (1971): Report of the Study of Man’s Impact on climate. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. RECENT ADVANCES IN INLAND AQUACULTURE IN INDIA V. G. Jhingran1 ( With five plates) The inland aquaculture resources of India are estimated as 1.6 million ha of freshwater ponds and tanks, 2.0 million ha of brackish- water lagoons and impoundments, 0.72 mil- lion ha of natural lakes and 2.0 million ha of man-made reservoirs. India is perhaps one of the few countries in the world which have vast inland aquaculture resources. Unfortu- nately, a significant part of this potential re- source is unutilized and even the part that is in use is under-utilized. The contribution of inland fish production in India is about 40% of the total fish production of the country, of which at least 50% is contributed by aqua- culture resources alone. It is unfortunately not realised that the potentials of aquaculture re- sources are so great that, if properly develop- ed and exploited, these could contribute 15 to 16 times more than their present yield. In the following pages I outline some of the import- ant achievements in inland aquaculture in India in the last few years. 1. Fry/fingerling production The first research programme undertaken after independence was increasing the survival rate of spawn and fry of cultivable carps ( Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala) during their nursing. The mortality rate of spawn in nursery ponds was as high as 97% which was almost reversed as a result of detailed researches conducted at the Central 1 Director, Central Inland Fisheries Research In- stitute, Barrackpore. Inland Fisheries Research Institute and a sur- vival of about 50% made easily possible under field conditions with the application of the new- ly developed techniques. Further improvements have been effected in the technology in recent years. The rate of stocking in nursery ponds initially was 1 million spawn /ha which has now been increased to ten times, i.e. 10 mil- lion/ha. The concept of well-manured, pre- dator— and weed-free, nurseries, with abun- dance of natural fish food (zooplankters) which is simultaneously supplemented by pro- tein rich organic feed of vegetable origin, has been developed. Great emphasis is now laid on the water quality (pH, DO, ammonia, alka- linity, phosphates and nitrates). Despite such a high rate of stocking, a survival of over 66% is possible with the addition of cobalt (0.01 mg/fish/day) in the feed. This techno- logical development enables production of a very large number of fry /unit area which is es- pecially advantageous in view of the paucity of nursery space in the country. Similarly, the development of a three-tier system of culture, i.e. growing the fry obtain- ed from nursery into another set of ponds called rearing ponds, before finally stocking them in larger water sheets for production of table-sized fish has proved itself to be greatly advantageous in handling the young ones and increasing survival rates. Fingerling rearing techniques have been developed and a survival of over 80% is now obtained in such opera- tions when the stocking density is as high as 350,000 fry/ha. A 3-month rearing gives a 589 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 crop of fingerlings which in terms of weight is of the order of 3,000 kg/ha, each individual fish growing to 100-150 mm which is a suitable size for stocking larger sheets of water. A sur- vival of over 90% from well-prepared stock ponds can be expected in all cases where large- sized fingerlings are stocked. 2. Pond preparation Considerable work had to be done during the course of rearing experiments on develop- ing the techniques of pond preparation and fertilization. As the import of derris-root pow- der, which was used as a fish toxicant for eradication of predatory and weed fishes at the research farms, was stopped, the need to find a suitable indigenously available substi- tute was felt. A large number of plant toxins were screened and the root and bark of Bar- ringtonia acutangula, seed of Milletia pachy- carpa and M. piscida, and Croton tiglium found quite effective. However, non-availabi- lity of these products on a commercial scale resulted in the popularisation of the use of mahua oilcake ( Bassia latifolia), despite its requirement in large quantities as an efficient piscicide at 2,500 kg/ ha-meter and a longer detoxifying period. The fish killed by the appli- cation of mahua oilcake is fit for human con- sumption unlike certain chemical piscicides. Ammonia (15 ppm N) too is an effective pis- cicide, weedicide and a nitrogenous fertiliser. Studies on the effect of various types of or- ganic and inorganic fertilizers and their dos- ages indicated that an application of univer- sally available cowdung at 10,000 - 20,000 kg/ ha results in an abundant growth of fish food organisms in nursery, rearing and stock ponds. In acid soils, this application is preceded by treatment with lime at 300 kg/ha. Use of poul- try manure has been found to be very effec- tive and much smaller quantities than cowdung constitute an effective dose. In recent years, utilization of inorganic fertilisers has also found a place in pond preparation. Urea for slightly acidic to neutral and ammonium sul- phate for alkaline soils are suggested for pond preparation. Calcium-ammonium nitrate is an- other suitable fertiliser for acid soils which provides both calcium and nitrogen at the same time. For stock ponds, liming followed by an initial high dose of cowdung (5,000-10,000 kg /ha) or mahua oilcake (2,500 kg/ha-m) fol- lowed subsequently by alternate application of inorganic and organic fertilisers every month is generally recommended in systematic fresh- water carp culture. 3. Fish breeding The cultivable carps of India namely catla (Catla catla), rohu ( Labeo rohita) and mngal ( Cirrhinus mrigala) breed annually in flooded rivers and contiguous fields during the mon- soon months. Naturally, these resources there- fore constitute the collection grounds for the young ones of these species. Natural collec- tions from the rivers and flooded fields are but a mixture of both desirable and undesir- able species of fish as most of the predatory and weed fishes also breed during the same season. This results not only in wastage during collection but also during subsequent handling, rearing and transport where the undesirable fish seed is either responsible for large-scale predation or competition for food, space and oxygen. It was, therefore, necessary to deve- lop a technique whereby the cultivable carps could be bred exclusively for their seed and at will. The practice of breeding these fishes at will by creating semi-natural conditions is already known for a long time in certain dis- tricts of Bengal and Bihar. This technique. 590 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Jhingran: Fish Culture Plate I Glass Jar hatchery. ( Photos : Author) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Jhingran: Fish Culture Plate II Bumper catch from a composite fish culture Pond. Haul of healthy magur fed on dried marine trash fish. ( Photos : Author) ADVANCES IN INLAND AQUACULTURE known as bundh breeding, has now been con- siderably improved and extended to various parts of the country. However, of the two types of bundhs, wet and dry depending upon the availability of water either throughout or a part of the year, the dry type yield better quality seed and are more dependable than the wet ones. The ge- neral unsuitability of the site and construc- tion, maintenance and operation costs have been the main impediments in the multiplica- tion of dry bundhs in seed production. The technique, wherever possible, is certainly ad- vantageous for mass production of fish seed and has also been successfully used for expe- rimental spawning of the Chinese major carps (grass carp and silver carp) which are now in great demand in India. An important landmark in the history of freshwater aquaculture research and develop- ment has been the spawning of cultivable fishes by administration of fish pituitary gona- dotropins known as induced breeding or hypophysation. The technique of induced breed- ing was first developed in India in 1955 and not only the indigenous carps but also the exotic carps as well as several species of cat- fishes, air-breathing fishes and mullets can now be spawned within a 2 x 1 x 1 m box-like cloth chamber, hapa, fixed half or three-fourths sub- merged in water. Mature males and females when injected with the pituitary gland extract, ovulate and spermiate either naturally or by application of gentle pressure on the abdomen of the brood fish after a lapse of a few hours of injection. The dosages for the different spe- cies have been standardised and the technique is increasingly being used for the production of fish seed for aquaculture in the country. The techniques for hatching the eggs were also very poor and generally resulted in heavy mortality. However, the use of double-walled 3 . cloth hapas (the outer one of muslin cloth and the inner one of round-meshed mosquito netting) which is a sort of an open box with- in a box, has helped in increasing the hatch- ing and the survival rate of the young hatch- lings. Yet another development during the last five years has largely done away with the va- garies of nature as the hapas have to be fixed in ponds where high temperatures, heavy winds or fluctuating water levels, algal blooms, crabs and trash fish, generally create havoc resulting in mass mortalities or poor survival. The new technique makes use of continuous- ly running water through a series of glass jars, where the eggs are kept, virtually buoyant, and provided with sufficient aeration. The hatchlings, drifting out through the jar spout on to an open conduit, are collected in a se- parate receptacle where again a continuous shower provides adequate aeration. Since the glass jar hatchery is put on land under a shed, the field hazards to which hapas are exposed are largely done away with as also the recur- ring expenditure on cloth hapas which hardly last a season. 4. Composite fish culture Considerable attention has been paid in re- cent years to increase the per hectare pro- duction of table fish from stock ponds. Expe- riments in this direction conducted from the early sixties initially gave productions of 3,000- 4,000 kg/ha/yr. However, in course of time further experimentation resulted in higher and higher rates of fish production so much so that production as high as over 9,000 kg/ha/ yr was obtained in experimental ponds. This technology involving the use of indigenous (C. catla, L. rohita and C. mrigala) and exotic ( CtenopharyngGdon idella, Hypophthalmich - thys molitrix and Cyprinus carpio) major 591 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 carps coupled with a set of management prac- tice is termed as composite fish culture. Stock- ing densities from 3,000 to 10,000 fingerlings/ ha have been used and densities around 5,000 to 7,500 fingerlings /ha found easily manage- able. As in the case of nursery and rearing ponds, the concept of well-manured, predator- free ponds with a natural abundance of fish food organisms is also the rule in composite fish culture. In order to achieve high produc- tions, periodic fertilisation of the ponds and daily feeding of fish with supplementary food items like groundnut oilcake and rice bran (1:1) at 2-3% of the body weight of the fish stock is necessary. The various species stocked in the pond are so proportioned that the natural food is utilised without much com- petition between the different species. These proportions have been carefully worked out in the course of a decade of experimentation. Surface feeders (catla and silver carp) con- stitute about 35%, followed by mid-feeders (rohu and grass carp) which account for about 30%. The bottom feeders (mrigal and com- mon carp) constitute another 35%. Since silver carp feeds on the primary producers (phyto- plankton) which are always in a greater abun- dance than the secondary producers (zoo- plankton), a higher percentage of silver carp (25%) than catla (10%) is stocked in a pond. Of the mid-feeders, rohu browses on a wide variety of planktonic algae and organic debris and constitutes 20% of the stock as against grass carp which forms 10% of the total density. As grass carp can be raised on aqua- tic or land weeds resulting in economy of sup- plementary feed, a variety of aquatic or land vegetation, cattle fodder and various vegetable wastes, are provided in a floating enclosure in the pond for its consumption. Supplemen- tary feed in the form of a dough is provided on feeding trays, hung \ to 1 m below the water surface, only after the grass carp are satiated. The bottom feeders, mrigal (15%) and common carp (20%), obtain their natu- ral feed from the bottom detritus, decaying organic matter and semi-digested faecal mat- ter passed out by the voraciously feeding grass carp. The unutilised faecal matter of grass carp acts as a fertiliser. This synergistic equation is the crux of composite fish culture. 5. Domestic sewage/ livestock wastes as fish pond fertilisers The practice of utilising domestic sewage for fertilising fish ponds is in vogue in several parts of the world and also in India around Calcutta for a very long time. Domestic wastes are available in every village, town and city. They pose a great problem in large cities and are discharged into the river courses which they pollute causing considerable damage to the total aquatic life in general and fishes in particular. Use of this waste is aptly made by its introduction, either as such in the raw form, or after dilution or as a supernatant effluent after initial settlement, in large ponds. This is one of the cheapest and the richest fertiliser for fish ponds. Alternately, fish ponds afford one of the simplest and cheapest means of abating pollution due to domestic sewage. The wastes are recycled in ponds and high quality fish protein obtained. Rates of fish production are also high without the use of supplemen- tary feed in this system of culture. Productions as high as 9,350 kg/ha/yr of Tilapia mossam- bica have been obtained from ponds irrigated j by sewage effluents. A production of 7,200 kg/ | ha/yr has been obtained by carp culture in these ponds. A very high stocking density is also possible because of the abundance of the natural fish food organisms and their repeated regeneration. However, oxygen deficiency and 592 ADVANCES IN INLAND AQUACULTURE high BOD occasionally cause a havoc resulting in mass mortality in such ponds. Diseases due to parasites are also a common feature. One has, therefore, to be extremely careful while utilising sewage effluents for fish ponds. Use of cattle / poultry / duckery / piggery wastes is also made in fish ponds. However, the techniques for their use are not yet stand- ardised in India and attempts in this direc- tion are being made at the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute. Preliminary re- sults on the use of wastes from pig-sties and duck-houses have resulted in high fish pro- duction without fertilization and feeding. This has a great future for India as the feed costs in composite fish culture account for about 50% of the total expenditure. 6. New systems of culture Some catfishes and air-breathing fishes are in great demand in certain parts of India. However, there has been no systematic culture of these species until recently. Early attempts made to culture murrels ( Channa sp.) result- ed in a failure. In recent years, attempts to de- velop a new system of culture — air-breathing fish culture/catfish culture — have been made. The important air-breathing species such as singhi ( Heteropneustes fossilis ), magur (Cla- rias batrachus) and murrels (sal, saul and lata, Channa sp.) are now being cultured in swamps, derelict waters, freshwater ponds and cages in both swamps and freshwater ponds. As the air-breathing species can withstand poor oxygen conditions swamps and derelict waters can be conveniently used for their cul- ture. This is just one way of utilising the aban- doned waters in the country. The techniques }f mass breeding the air-breathing species by lypophysation have been perfected and the losages utilising the carp pituitary for the pur- pose standardised. The difficulties in hatching and rearing the young ones have also been surmounted by use of nylon hapas which pre- vent the entry of macroscopic planktonic forms known to be preying on tiny hatchlings while, at the same time, allowing a free exchange of water. Supplementation both by choice food organisms and artificial feed comprising boil- ed egg powder further helps in increasing the survival rate of the young ones. The greatest difficulty experienced in the past while culturing these either carnivorous or piscivorous species was the provision of large quantities of living organisms or fishes throughout the year in culture ponds. This has been solved outright by providing a diet of dry, marine trash fish to the fingerlings of these species on which they feed avidly and grow well and fast. A production of 5,000 kg/ ha/ 5 months of magur and 4,042 kg/ ha/ 7 months of sal ( Channa marulius) has been obtained under the new systems of culture in swampy and derelict ponds. Magur and singhi have also been cultured in freshwater ponds in combination with carps or without them. A production of 1,200 kg of magur/ha/4-J months was obtained from a small shallow pond under carp culture, the contribution of carps being 2,108 kg/ha/9^ months. Cage culture of singhi and lata (C. puncta- tus) has also been done and a production of 9 kg/m2/ 7 months and 5.2 kg,/m2/6 months respectively has been obtained. The fish in these cages have been fed on a mixture of cowdung + silkworm pupae + oilcake. Cage culture of singhi in carp ponds and magur culture in ponds with water changing facili- ties are presently being experimented with for high yields. 7. Control of aquatic weeds and their re- cycling Of the four methods of weed clearance viz . 593 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 manual, mechanical, chemical and biological, biological methods are the cheapest. A weed- eating fish of Chinese origin viz. grass carp ( Ctenopharyngodon idella) was introduced in India in 1957 along with a planktivorous fish viz. silver carp ( Hypophthalmichthys mclitrix) for biological control of higher aquatic weeds and algal blooms respectively. While it has been possible to control submerged and float- ing weeds of various types by introduction of grass carp in various water sheets, silver carp has not proved useful in the control of algal blooms in fish ponds. A lepidopteran in- sect larva ( Erastr aides curvi fascia ) has been recently discovered to be a potent biological control agent for the effective control of the floating weed, Pistia stratiotes. Manual methods of weed clearance are the cheapest and perhaps the best for small water bodies but for larger water sheets and dense infestations, mechanical or chemical mefhods are necessary. Mechanical methods have been tried in India and several types of weed har- vesters developed but the initial high cost coupled with subsequent operational costs have hindered the popularisation of these me- chanical devices. Chemical methods thus re- main the only solution. Several chemicals have been tried in the course of the last 25 years and effective methods of controlling the nox- ious floating and emergent weeds like Eichhor- nia crassipes. Nymphaea spp., Ipomoea carnea, Pistia stratiotes , Cyperus sp. by use of sodium salt of 2, 4-D without any adverse effect on fish or fish food organisms developed. Aqueous ammonia is equally effective in controlling the submerged weeds. However, use of sodium ar- senite, copper sulphate and simazine, though effective, is not generally recommended as it results in gradual accumulation of toxic ions in aquatic animals and proves harmful to hu- man beings in the long run. 8. Culture of fish food organisms In ponds, fertilisation offers a means of in- creasing the abundance of fish food organisms. This, however, is a laborious, time consum- ing and expensive process and may not always result in the abundance of required organisms. Moreover, excessive fertilisation might also cause blooms which are detrimental to fish life in culture ponds. Large scale culture of choice food organisms is, therefore, necessary in a separate environment wherefrom they could be collected and fed to the growing fish. Mass culture of Chloreila vulgaris and Daphnia similis has been done and a simple and inexpensive method developed using in- organic fertilisers and poultry manure as nu- trient source. Freshly-cultured Chloreila is used as food for Daphnia similis. Mass culture of Navicula cryptocephala, N. rynocephala and Pinnularia acrosphaeria is done in polythene bags containing water fertilised with urea, single superphosphate and sodium silicate. Culture of Moina dubia and Daphnia lumholtzi has also been done. It is hoped that this deve- lopment would result in establishing natural fish food farms. 9. Freshwater prawn rearing The two important species of freshwater prawns vzz, Macrobrachium rosenbergii and M. malcolmsonii have not yet been systema- tically cultured in India despite their immense export and domestic market. Both M. mal- colsonii and M. rosenbergii can now be bred in a confined environment. M. rosenbergii has recently been bred and reared through its larval stages in the laboratory. The young prawns so produced were reared in ponds at 5,650 /ha and a production of 284 kg/ha/4 months obtained. Experiments on propagation and culture of M. malcolmsonii at Badampudi 594 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Jhingran : Fish Culture Plate III A beginning in the establishment of fish food farms. ( Photos : Author) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Jhingran: Fish Culture Plate IV A view of the Brackish water fish farm, Kakdwip (West Bengal). Selective stocking of mullet pays high dividends. ( Photos : Author) /UJVANCES IN INLAND AQUACULTURE (Andhra Pradesh) and Cuttack (Orissa) have been in progress for some time past. M. mal- colmsonii, stocked at 50,000 and 75,000/ha has given a production of 212 to 314 kg/ ha and 94 to 270 kg /ha respectively in 10J months. The survival rate has been very poor being 7 to 51%. At Cuttack, however, net pro- ductions have ranged from 285-380 kg/ha/yr when stocked at a density of 20,000 juveniles/ ha. Attempts are also being made to rear and culture M. birmanicum var. choprai which is available in considerable abundance in some streams draining into river Gaiiga in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. 10. Coldwater fish culture Not much attention was paid in the past to- wards the development of hill -streams and up- land lakes in India except in a few cases where trouts were introduced either in late last, or early present century. Mirror carp, introduced in certain regions, has well established itself in the lakes but its large-scale propagation for food still remains to be achieved. Establish- ment of commercial trout farms in the upland areas would not only provide a highly delicious fish to the people of the region but also sport at the same time. This aspect could also be utilised for promotion of tourism and as a source of foreign exchange. The survival of trout through its various stages of life history was, until recently, very low in the farms of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir. Experiments conducted on determin- ing causes of mortality have led to the deve- lopment of techniques for obtaining higher survival. Hatchery practices have now been standardised and the survival from green egg to swim-up fry stage increased to about 89%. Malachite green, used as a fungicide in hatch- ing troughs, results in increasing the survival rate greatly. The mortality in fingerling trout was found to be mainly due to poor feed. Experiments with compound and pelletised artificial feeds, with different levels of crude protein (28-39%), gave a high production and survival rate. A conversion ratio of 1.4 with feed containing 35-39% crude protein and 1.7 with 35% crude protein was noted in rainbow and brown trout respectively. Breeding of brown trout in Uttar Kashi (Uttar Pradesh) was taken up recently and an overall percent- age of survival from green egg to fry stage of about 58% achieved. Ensuring high survival rates through use of modern techniques and highly nutritive feed would result in making trout culture a lucrative proposition in the up- lands of India. Techniques for breeding and rearing the mirror carp, which result in higher survival rates, have also been developed. 11. Dangers of pesticide pollution Pisciculture may be treated as an adjunct to agriculture. Large-scale use of pesticides in agriculture is likely to affect fish life in ponds and tanks, beels and jheels and also in rivers/ estuaries. The latter form the main source of fish seed of freshwater and brackishwater spe- cies. Bio-assay studies on pesticides such as Gammexane, DDT, Folidol, ethyl parathion, Endrin, malathion and Rogor have been con- ducted using freshwater fishes, zoopiankters (rotiger, copepods and cladocerans) and ben- thic organisms (oligochaetes, chironomids, gastropods and bivalves) as test animals. In- vestigations on pesticide pollution have indi- cated that DDT is one of the most dangerous pesticides which gradually accumulates in the body of the fish and even in sublelhal con- centrations is likely to affect human beings in the long run. The fish itself may die when the accumulated concentrations become lethal. It has to be seen to that while intensive culti- vation using high yielding cereal varieties in- 595 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 volving application of fertilizers and pesticides continues, fish culture is not adversely affect- ed by the use of chemicals in agriculture. Judi- cious choice and use of pesticides would help find a solution to the problem. Aquaculture is to be treated as much a national activity as agriculture. . . Brackish water aquaculture In brackishwater, fish culture technology has not made the strides in India as in the case of freshwaters though there exists a traditional system of brackishwater fish and prawn culture. 1. Fish and prawn seed resources Until recently, there did not exist a trade in brackishwater fish or prawn seed. Numerous seed collection centres have been located in Hooghly, Rupnarayan and Matlah estuaries and Chilka and Pulicat Lakes and in the vici- nity of Brackishwater Fish Farms in a few States. Investigations on artificial induction of spawning in mullets (M. cephalus and Liza macrolepis) have been made and experi- mental success attained. M. cephalus could be spawned in brackishwater and the induced- bred spawn reared in the laboratory. At least two specimens could be reared for varying periods — one for 150 days (72 mm/ 6 g) and the other for 325 days (100 mm/ 12 g) — for the first time in India. It is expected that techniques of hatching and rearing mullets in confinement would be soon understood and a breakthrough in brackishwater fish farming in India soon achieved. 2. Culture of mullets Mullets being the most important species of brackishwater fishes, techniques of raising them in ponds have been given utmost atten- tion. Techniques of nursery rearing of L. par- sia and L. fade have been developed. Mono- culture of L. parsia, mixed culture of mullets and polyculture of mullets and prawns have been tried. A production 2,400 kg/ha/yr has been obtained in monoculture of L. parsia. In a six-species combination of prawns and mullets (P. monodon, P. indicus and M. mono - ceros and L. parsia, L. fade and M. cephalus ) a net production of 2,617 kg/ha/yr has been achieved. 3. Prawn culture Brackishwater prawns (P. indicus, P. mono- don and Metapenaeus spp.) have a great ex- port market. Rearing techniques of P. mono- don and P. indicus have been evolved and detailed methodology for the culture of P. monodon developed. While three short-term (100-120 days) crops of P. monodon have been obtained giving a total production of 1,055 kg/ha in 320 days, attempts to raise four crops by shortening the period of each crop to 90 days have been made. A produc- tion of 305 kg/ha/90 days was obtained in the first rearing. Long-term (320 days) rear- ing of P. monodon results both in lower pro- duction (872 kg/ha) and poor survival rates though in larger sizes. Polyculture of P. mono- don and P. indicus and chanos, L. fade and L. parsia gave a production of 2,580 kg/ha /9 months and P. indicus and chanos gave a pro- duction of 1,396 kg/ha/6 months. 4. Culture of fish food organisms A breakthrough has been achieved in labo- ratory culture of Artemia salina which needs to be imported for rearing the larval stages of prawns and several species of brackish- water fishes. Sustained culture of brine shrimp has been possible in field conditions at water temperatures of 26 + 2°C and a salinity of 596 ADVANCES IN INLAND AQUACULTURE 35 ppt. Sun-dried eggs have been preserved for future use. Mass culture of certain phytoplankters ( Gyro sigma angulatum, Nitzschia closterium and Navicula lanceolata ) has also been done. Future programmes in aquaculture 1. Culture of Hilsa ilisha Hilsa is an important fish both from the point of view of taste and market demand. It contributed sizeably to the fisheries of Indian rivers and estuaries but the catches have been dwindling for the last many years due to dam conduction on the rivers. Experi- ments on artificial propagation of hilsa con- ducted with a view to stock the rivers with the juvenile fish, though begun early in the present century, were not very successful. However, in recent years, a new concept has developed that besides stocking the rivers, the fish could also be cultured in freshwater ponds. With this end in view, induced propa- gation of hilsa was initiated in the mid-sixties and it v,as possible to strip, fertilise and hatch the eggs and rear the spawn in nurseries in 1968. The fish could even be reared in ponds for over two years. Though the growth was slow but the possibility of rearing the fish has been indicated by these experiments. It is necessary that the techniques of breeding, hatching and rearing are soon developed to make these valuable fish available to the con- sumers. 2. Statistical and economical evaluation of cultural operations Both agriculture and animal husbandry have advanced greatly as the experiments in the related fields have been statistically designed and economically evaluated. Paucity of a large number of ponds has been the major hinder- ance in experimentation on statistically based designs in aquaculture. Aquaculture scientists in India had to remain contented with the meagre facilities that have been available to them. To help solve this problem a large 150 ha Fish Farm is being constructed at Dhauli (near Bhubaneswar) in Orissa where experi- ments based on statistical designs on all as- pects of freshwater fish culture will be con- ducted. This farm will not only be useful from the point of finding out a scientific basis for the various results but also in conducting experi- ments on several aspects of aquaculture which have not been handled properly so far. In order to be acceptable to the entrepre- neurs, the profitability of fish culture opera- tions together with detailed analysis of the costs involved needs to be demonstrated. A beginning in certain aspects of freshwater aquaculture has already been made which needs to be intensified in the coming years. Economic evaluation of methods of spawn production by various sources such as riverine, bunclh breeding and induced breeding has been done and it has been concluded that though spawn produced through bundhs and induced breeding costs more when compared to riverine collection, the production strategy needs to be planned in the context of regional aquaculture development programme as a comparison of spawn production economics on a countrywide basis may be misleading. Detailed analysis has been done in respect of the cost structure of the experiments on the new technology of composite fish culture. The per hectare expenditure has been found to be the maximum (Rs. 15,067/-) in the western region (Maharashtra and Haryana) and the minimum (Rs. 6,904/-) in the southern re- gion (Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh). The cost of fish production, however, has not been found to vary greatly, being Rs. 2.38 in the 597 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST , SOCIETY, Vol. 75 central region, Rs. 2.67 in the southern re- gion, Rs. 2.73 in the western region and Rs. 2.93 in the eastern region. The feed costs con- stitute the major share of expenditure (50- 60%) followed by labour costs. A study of composite fish culture undertaken by fish far- mers in West Bengal indicated that the index of untapped yield reservoir from freshwater fish culture source alone is of the order of 4.4 and the average production could be rais- ed by 450% through adoption of the new technology of composite fish culture. The average gross profit per hectare of culturable water area has been found to be as high as Rs. 16,000/- at current price structure. 3. Fish diseases High density, mono- or poly-culture of fin fish and/or shell-fish, is bound to create pro- blems of fish diseases which may even assume epidemic proportions at times. Fish parasites in freshwater and brackishwater fishes have been studied in India for a long time but fish diseases have been studied only from fresh- water ponds. Treatment methods in respect of several of these have been developed but research efforts need to be intensified to un- derstand the various bacterial and viral dis- eases which are likely to be encountered in future. 4. Fish nutrition Oil cakes and brans (wheat and rice) con- stitute the traditional items of fish feed in India. While certain combinations of these items are used to feed the fish both in fresh- water and brackishwater aquaculture in asso- ciation with, at times, some animal waste pro- ducts, these have, strictly speaking, no scienti- fic basis. Nutritional studies on the cultivable species of fish need to be conducted and their requirements in different stages of growth, during different seasons of the year and at different temperatures made known to enable formulation of well-balanced, pelletised feeds. 5. Fish genetics The role of genetics in agriculture and ani- mal husbandry and its contributions in in- creasing the crop, milk, egg and meat pro- duction is well known. Fish genetics is so far undeveloped. It is time that the genetic basis of various culture systems of fin-fish and shell- fish is understood, selective breeding and hy- bridisation conducted to improve seed produc- tion and fish yields in fresh and brackish- water aquaculture. Despite all shortcomings, aquacultural de- velopments in India have been sufficiently great during the past few years especially in carp culture and it has put us on the thres- hold of fish revolution or “aquaplosion”. With the application of improved aquaculture tech- nology, both in fresh and brackishwaters. India can hope to produce over 6 million ton- nes of fish from aquaculture alone as against its estimated total requirements of 8.5 million tonnes (see table below). It is not difficult to obtain an average production of 4,000 kg/ ha/ yr from freshwater fish culture ponds. A pro- duction of 500 kg/ha/yr can be easily obtain- ed from the swamps and derelict ponds. Though the present status of brackishwater technology is not very high, a production of 1,000 kg/ha/yr of fish and prawns is not im- possible. Aquaculture alone can thus contri- bute 74% of the fish-protein requirement of the country. 598 Plate V J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Jhingran: Fish Culture Penaeus monodon has great export market potential. Schematic representation of rural aquaculture using agricultural and animal wastes, providing quality protein and gainful employment. ( Photos : Author) ADVANCES IN INLAND AQUACULTURE Production potential System of culture Resources Minimum yield Total available with improved production technology (in m tonnes) 1 2 3 4 Carp culture 1 m ha 4 tonnes /ha 4 Air-breathing Fish Culture 0.6 m ha 0.5 tonnes/ha 0.3 Brackishwater Fish Farming 2 m ha 1 ton /ha 2 Reservoir Fisheries 2 m ha 25 kg /ha 0.05 TOTAL : 5.6 m ha 635 A COMPARATIVE FIELD STUDY OF THE INDIAN AND NEW ZEALAND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GENUS RUPPIA LINNAEUS Charles McCann1 (With three plates and three text-figures) Introduction Botanists frequently encounter difficulty on determining aquatic plants as the original des- criptions are often based on dried herbarium material with the essential characters distort- ed. The delicate floral structures do not lend themselves to ‘resurrection’, sufficiently to en- sure accurate description. Again, figures made from such material leave much to be desired, more so if the artist lacks botanical know- ledge. Ruppia as often defined and figured in some works is a good example. Ruppia presents some ecological phases in the course of its development or growth in res- ponse to the habitat. In specimens under strong tidal influence (e.g. R. maritima), the extent of variation is often well defined ac- cording to the length of dessication due to ex- posure between tides, and the vegetation it is associated with (such as algae or some of the higher plants). Ruppia makes a poor herbar- ium specimen; its delicate membranes frac- ture too readily. One of the main difficul- ties with the genus appears, to me, to be the correct interpretation of the floral organs. This opinion I expressed in my previous paper (McCann 1945) on the Indian species. The floral organs are, at times, regarded as indi- vidual florets or, at times, as hermaphrodite flowers. This aspect will be discussed in fuller 18 Kiwi Street, Heretaunga, Upper Hutt, N. Z. detail below. In India, I had the opportunity of studying the Indian species (R. rostellata ) in the field, over several seasons: it was to be met with in most of the salt-works. The results of these observations were published, together with a plate in this Journal in 1945. However, in that paper I erroneously referred the Indian spec- ies to R. maritima Linn— it is R. rostellata Koch. In New Zealand, I spent some time observ- ing the species occurring in the lower part of the North Island. This plant differed in many respects from its Indian counterpart, marked- ly in the prolongation of the spiral twisting of the peduncle. This species I concluded was the R. maritima Linn, of the temperate regions. Ruppiaceae Linnaeus Ruppia is the only genus in the family and is included in the Order Potamogetonales, The family and generic type is R. maritima Linn. (1753). Distribution “Europae maritimis,” [Linn. 1753]. There is a difference of opinion among systematists as to whether there is a single cosmopolitan species or several geographial variations of a single species — or more than one species. My own observations satisfy me that there is definitely more than one species. This view is supported by the morphological and ecological differences between R. mariti- 600 FIELD STUDY OF THE GENUS RUPPIA ma Linn, and R. rostellata Koch, but it is doubtful if more than the two exist. Before proceeding, it is important to clari- fy some morphological points: a) whether the floral elements (anthers and pistils) are to be regarded as two clusters, re- presenting two flowers on the peduncle, or b) as individual, unisexual florets arranged in two clusters. After much observation of both species (R. maritima and R. rostellata) in the field, I have adopted the view that the whole is an inflorescence composed of two clusters of stamens and pistils alone arranged as indi- vidual florets on a common peduncle. This view appears to be supported by the differen- tial maturation of the individual elements in both clusters. In neither of the species discussed ( mariti- ma and rostellata) have I observed the deve- lopment of more than two clusters to each peduncle, one on the opposite face to the other. The next point of interest is the develop- ment of the peduncle. In R. rostellata, the peduncle is short, seldom exceeding more than 7-9 mm.; it never becomes spirally twisted. In R. maritima on the other hand, the peduncle ultimately attains a length of 100 mm becom- ing spirally twisted in the process of elonga- tion, functioning like a ‘spring’ to carry the floral elements up or down in response to the variation in the depth and movement of the water. This difference in contortion of the peduncle in the two species may be partly due to the nature of the habitat and partly ac- counted for by the mode of pollination and fertilization between the two. The points will be referred to below. Post (1883) stresses the difference in the length of the peduncle and its contortion between the two species ( maritima and rostel- lata, noting that in the former (R. spiralis of Post) the peduncle is spirally twisted but not in R. rostellata. Cooke (1908) on the other hand remarks that the peduncle may be “strait or coiled” in rostellata. This view is untenable. Peduncle : The formation of the spiral peduncle in Ruppia maritima is apparently similar, super- ficially, to that of the female flower of Vallis- neria, but in reality the spirality is achieved in very dissimilar ways. In R. maritima as the peduncle elongates beyond the leaf-sheaths, the position of the two floral clusters plays a very important role, for, the oppositely situat- ed clusters rotate on the peduncle thus bring- ing about the twist of the spiral. The behavi- our of the peduncle in this manner, not only brings about the formation of the spiral, but assists in the pollination of the florets at or near the surface of the water. This point will be referred to below. In Vallisneria each female flower is solitary on a spirally formed pedicle which forms into a spiral before the flower matures. It uncoils on maturation of the flower and raises it to the surface of the water for a brief period, but on pollination the pedicle re-coils, taking the ovary to the bottom to fructify. The male flowers are clustered on a short (non elongat- ing) peduncle and when mature, the sheaths open and the individual flowers rise to the surface as round ‘balls’. At the surface they open and drift raft-like till an anther is ‘trap- ped’ by one of the ‘Venuses-flytrap-like stig- matic divisions. Before proceeding, it is perhaps worth ex- amining some of the conflicting statements met with in some authoratative works: Post (1883): “Flowers 2, perfect, in a spike, at first enclosed in sheaths of floral leaves.” I R • maritima & rostellata]. 601 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Gray (1876) : “Flowers perfect, 2 or more approximated on a slender spadix, which is at first enclosed in the sheathing, spathe-like base of the leaf, entirely des- titute of floral envelops, consisting of 2 sessile sta- mens, each with 2 large and separate anther-cells and 4 small sessile ovaries with a single campylo- tropus suspended ovule : stigma sessile, depress- ed ***» [ft. maritima ]. Cooke (1908): “Flowers minute, hermaphrodite, 2-6 together within a leafsheath on an ultimately elongating strait or coiled peduncle. Perianth O. Stamens 2, anthers sessile, 2-celled. Carpals 4; ovules solitary in each carpal, pendulous; stigma peltate. Fruit of 4 stipitate ovoid obtuse or beaked achenes.***” [R. rostellata ]. Cheeseman (1925 — Oliver ed.) “Flowers 2-6 together, at first completely en- closed in the inflated leaf-sheath; but the spike gene- rally emerges and is borne up to the surface of the water by the usually conspicuously spirally coiled peduncle.” [R. maritima ] Black (Blake) [South Australian Flora] “Flowers bisexual, naked, 2 on opposite faces of the spike; anthers 2, sessile, 2 celled, pollen glo- bular; carpels at first sessile, but becoming pedi- cellate as the ripen and carried to the surface of the water on a long spirally coiled peduncle.” [ R . maritima ]. Johnson (1931) “The flowers are borne at the surface of the water, but after pollination they are drawn be- neath the surface by the curling of the stems.” \R. maritima]. The spirality of the peduncle is not wholly in accord with the definitions of some of the authors and needs some explanation. To com- mence with, the spiral is developed only in R. maritima. The twist may be dextrorse or sini- strorse or yet again both turns may be present in the same peduncle! Ruppia the spiralling of the peduncle functions: (a) as a protection for the inflorescence in the rapidly changing and boisterous habitat — tidal influence and wind. (b) as a means of rotating the two clusters on the opposite sides of the peduncle and exposing the stigma to a chance of pollination. I shall refer to pollination under a separate head. Reppia Linnaeus, Sp. Plant. (1753): 127-128. 1 ruppia Hort. cliff. 436. It. wgoth. 186. Guett. stamp. 2. p. 416. Buccaferrea maritima, foliis acutissimis. Mich. gen. 72, t. 35. Potamogeton maritimum, gramineis longioribus foliis, fructu fere umbcl- lato. Raj. angl. 3. p. 134. t. 6. f. 1. Fucus folliculaceus, foeniculi folio longiore. Banb. pin. 365. Habitat in Europae mariti- mis” Britton (1908) “Flowers on a capillary spadix-like ped- uncle, naked, consisting of 2 sessile anthers each with two large separate sacs attached by the beaks to the peduncle, having between them several pistilate flowers in 2 sets on opposite sides of the rachis, the whole cluster at first enclosed in the sheathing base of the leaf. Stig- mas sessile peltate. Fruit a small obliquely pointed drupe, several in each cluster and pedicelled.**** In the development of the plants, the staminate flowers drop off and the peduncle elongates, bearing the pistilate flow- ers in two clusters at the end, but after ferti- lization it coils up and the fruit is drawn be- low the surface of the water.” [Gen. heading]. [/?. maritima]. 602 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 McCann: Ruppia Plate I *** -mt? m A// . A'&rw. Reproduction of Reichenbach Plate CLXXIV (1824) 306 Ruppia rostellata Koch, 307 Ruppia maritima Linn. FIELD STUDY OF THE GENUS RUPPIA Key to the species R. maritima L. $ florets 2-8 Anthers 4, sausage shaped, encircling the peduncle. Peduncle spirally coiling to maturity; 90 to 100 mm. Stigma semihemispheric. Ruppia maritima Linn. (PL I. fig. 307; PI. Ill) The marked difference in the shape of the anthers between these two species was drawn attention to by Post (1883). “1. R. maritima (L. sp. 184). antheranum succulis oblongis. fructibus ovatis oblique erectus. In fossis et paludosis at maris littora, (am Adriat. mere d. Ost.-W. Nordsee, in Fiirstenth. Giittingen in Denkenhauser Sumpfe.) Aug. in autumn.” 1753. Ruppia maritima Linn. sp. Plant. 1824. Ruppia maritima Koch in Reichb. Icon. PI. Crit. 2:66; t. 174, fig. 306. 1827. Ruppia spiralis Dumortier [Florula Belgica: operis majoris prodromus. Tornaci Nervio- rum (Tournai, Belgium). J. Casterman, 1827, p. 164.] 1853. Ruppia Hooker, J. D., FI. N. Zelandiae I. 1862. Ruppia maritima Bentham, G. & Hooker, D. H., Gen. Plant., p. 1014. 1864. Ruppia Grisenbach, A.H.R. FI. Br. W. Ind. Isl. p. 89. 1875. Ruppia Eichlep, A. W. Bluthendiagramme. 1876. Ruppia maritima Gray, Man. Bot. : Bot N. U.S. (Amer.) 5th ed. 8th issue, p. 484. 1878. Ruppia maritima Bentham, G., FI. Australen- sis, VII: 174. 1883. Ruppia spiralis Post, G. E., Fla. Syria, Pale- stine and Sinai, p. 824. 1904. Ruppia maritima Rendle, Classif. Fig. Plants, Pt. 1:204. 1905. Ruppia maritima Britton, N. L., Man. FI. N. States & Canada, p. 49. 1908. Ruppia maritima Fitch & Smith, 111. Brit. FI. p. 231; ill. 957. 1925. Ruppia maritima Cheeseman, Man. N. Zeal. Flora 2nd ed., Oliver, p. 129. R. rostellata Koch. $ florets normally 4 only. Anthers 4, subglobose, not encircling the peduncle. Peduncle short, straight, not elongating nor spiral- ly coiling, 7 to 9 mm. Stigma peltate. [C. McCann ]. 1931. Ruppia Johnson, A. M., Tax. Fig. Plants, p. 617, Veg. N. Zeal. p. 61, 2nd. ed. 1928. Ruppia maritima Cockayne, Die Vegetation der Erde xiv. 1942. Ruppia maritima Oliver, W. R. B., Rec. Dom. (Nat.) Mus. 1:10. 1950. Ruppia spiralis Mason, R. Post-prim. Schl. Bull. 4(12); 240, pi. 8. 1967. Ruppia poly car pa Mason, R., N. Zeal. Journ. Bot. 524: fig. 1, A. and fig. 2. 1967. Ruppia mcgacarpa Mason, R., N. Zeal. Journ. Bot., 525: fig. 1 B, and fig. 3. 1970. Ruppia poly car pa Moore, L., and Edgar, E., N. Zeal. Fla. ii: 14. figs. 1970. Ruppia megacar pa Moore, L. B. and Edgar, E., N. Zeal. Fla. ii: 15, figs. 1971. Ruppia spiralis Adams, J. S., Wildlife — a review, 3:23-25. Description from a fresh specimen: A flexuose aquatic plant forming tangled masses beneath the surface of the water, the extremities floating at the surface: stem slen- der, filiform, 60 to 90 cm, leafy, except for the lowest portions, much branched; inter- modes 80 to 90 mm, shorter below; each of the lowest nodes producing paired filiform, root hairs well developed. Leaves opposite or subopposite sheathing in the lower portion with an involute lamina, ligulate, reaching 30 cm long, sheathing base 3.5 to 4.5 mm. In floresence 5 to 7 by 2.5 mm excluding pedun- cle); peduncle 9-10 cm when mature; florets arranged in two clusters on opposite sides of the peduncle near its extremity: each cluster 603 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. J5 composed of 4 male florets and 8 (9) female florets reduced to large sessile or subsessile, sausage-shaped 2-celled anthers embracing the peduncle; pollen lunate, with large granular contents, buoyant. Female florets reduces to naked pistils, on very short pedicles (stipe) elongating after fertilization, stipes reaching 12 to 20 mm; ovary somewhat urceolate, sur- mounted by a dense globular stigmatic can- opy; canopy furrowed and depressed towards the centre, margined by a thick lip. Achene 2.5 by 1.5 mm, obliquely ovate, beaked, mounted on the elongate stipe, black when mature. [C. McC.] Note: This description is based on plants col- lected at Waikanae, New Zealand, 6.12.1947 and fresher material at the same locality and at Lake Ferry, N. Zeal., 1974-1975. Ruppia rostellata Koch. (PI. II). 1824. Ruppia rostellata Koch, ex Riechenb. Icon. Plant. Crit. 2 (1824): 66; t. 174, fig. 306. 1851. Ruppia Griffiths, Notulae Plan- tes Asiaticas PL iii: 196-203. 1851. Ruppia Griffiths, Icon. Plant. Asiaticas, Pt. Ill, pis. CCLVII-CCLIX. 1883. Ruppia rostellata Post, G. E. Fla. Syria, Palestine and Sinai : 824. 1893. Ruppia rostellata Hooker, J. D., Fla. Brit. Ind. VI: 568. 1908. Ruppia rostellata Cooke, Fla. Bom. Pres. 2:839. 1939. Ruppia McCann, C., The Flamingo: Journ. Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc., 41:12-38. 1945. Ruppia maritima McCann (per errorum) C., Notes on the Genus Ruppia (Ruppia- ceae), 45 (3): 396-402. “2. R. rostellata (Koch in Reichenb. Ic. 2, p. 66, fig. 306) antheranum sacculis subglobosis, fructus semi- lunari-ovatis e base obtusa ad scendentibus. In fossis litora maris et ad salinas, (an d. Ostsee in bei Arten in magdab.) Aug.-Autum. R. maritima DD. FI. p. 861. Robliqua G. F. Meyer, MSpt. R. rostel- lata chlor. hanor. p. 527.” Description from fresh specimen : A submerged aquatic herb growing in brac- kish water, forming dense masses of filiform, leafy stems and branches, 15 to 75 cm. long. Roots 20 to 70 mm arising in opposite pairs at the nodes of the stolons and lower branches. Stem a stoloniferous rhizome, dichotomously branched; internoded 45 to 50 mm; nodes slightly dilated. Leaves 70 to 90 mm, filiform with hyaline sheathing bases, ligule present, lamina involute. Flowers, minute, arranged in two clusters, one on either side of the ped- uncle, each cluster composed to 2 male and 4 female florets, reduced to anthers and pistils; peduncle 4 to 5 mm, elongating 7 to 9 mm in fruit. Male floret represented by 2 one- celled anthers on a very short filament, an- thers suborbicular dehiscing through the mid- dle; pollen long-reniform, buoyant, pale yel- low, exhibiting large granules within. Female florets 4 in each cluster, reduced to pistils, stipitate, stipe elongating to 25 to 30 mm when mature, obovate-oblong, truncate, sur- mounted by a dense discoid, peltate stigmatic canopy; stigma mammilate, to one side, ting- ed with light pink; ovule solitary. Fruit ovoid, obliquely-ovoid or subreniform achene com- pressed, beaked; pericarp subcartilaginous, green, endocarp hard, black, bearing barbs and excrescences. Seed solitary testa membrane- ous. [C. McC.] Note : This description is based on plants col- lected at Mira Road, Salsette Island, Bombay. COMMENTS Stem : There is no remarkable difference in the character of the stem between the two species (R. maritima and R. rostellata) that I can dis- cern. The stem is stoloniferous; in dense sandy 604 FIELD STUDY OF THE GENUS RUPPIA loam the internodes are frequently short but in more open sandy conditions the internodes reach approximately 25 mm. Older stolons become quite wiry ( maritima ). Two roots appear at each node; one only frequently sur- viving. Root hairs are well-developed. Leaves : A pair of subopposite leaves is developed at each node; each leaf is composed of a hya- linely margined sheath separated from the in- voluted lamina by a hyaline, truncate ligule Fig. M. Rhizome and branch (note ligule); Fig. N. Leaf sheaths forming “capsule”. (figure M). The “two parallel tubes” of Cooke (1908). The paired sheath at each node overlap to form a “capsule” within which the early stages of the inflorescence is under- gone and sheltered (figure N). Gases given off by transpiration (?) and growth ap- pear to escape between the opposing “funnel- forming” ligules. These “capsules” appear to remain viable, long after the breaking off of the fragments from the parent plant; in this way they not only appear to protect the young floral elements, but are also capable of esta- blishing themselves in fresh habitats, by the production of new roots at the nodes thus as- sisting, by drift, in the wider distribution of the species. In this “capsular” form the plants are often capable of withstanding the inclemen- cies of the weather, and rigours of winter, if not too severe and re-establish themselves afresh in spring, by propagation by adventi- tious shoots seeds and embedded stolons, (obs. R. maritima). A narrow hyaline or sheath bract subtends the peduncle. Flowers : In this paper I regard the anthers and pistils as individual, unisexual florets arranged in two groups on a short ( rostellata ) or long ( mari- tima) peduncle according to the species. In both species there are four anthers in each cluster, but they are differently arranged. In R. maritima each anther almost completely en- circles the axis of the peduncle, like a tier of flat cakes (fig. N.) whereas in R. rostellata each anther is supported on the shoulder of a short ligulate filament in pairs, above and be- low the cluster of female florets (fig. D, PL III). In R. maritima the female florets appear as small, long pearshaped bodies (ovaries) vary- ing in number from 2 to 8(9) in different stages of development between the anthers — JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 the central anthers are adjacent. (Fig. N). Pistil: The pistil is long pyriform varying somewhat in shape in response to the compres- sion surrounding it. It also varies in age from its neighbours thereby accounting for the ap- parent differential growth between the pistils in each cluster. The stigmatic area is some- what bun-like in R. maritima and canopy-like in R. rostellata. keep rotating at the surface of the water by the movement of the wind and wave action. Unlike maritima , in rostellata the pollen con- tacts the stigmas under water for the greater time but surface fertilization may also take place. Soon after fertilization the stipes begin to elongate, they may be equal or unequal in length depending on the degree of maturation, however, they finally become subequal in R. maritima Linn. Cross section (diagramatic) through peduncle showing groups of stipes and mode of rotation to form spiral. Anthers : In R. maritima the anthers are solitary and sessile arranged in a tier along the peduncle whereas in R. rostellata the an- thers are arranged in pairs on a short filament above and below the female clusters (PI. II, 5). The anthers dehisce under water freeing the sausage- shaped pollen. The pollen contacts the stigmas on its way up to the surface and also at the surface in R . maritima as the clus- ters of florets on either side of the peduncle length. Pollination : The pollination of the florets of the two species of Ruppia presents some interesting details. In the Indian species ( rostellata ) the anthers release their pollen under water and as it rises towards the surface of the water the reniform granules are arrested by the stigma- tic canopy and remain adherent to it, moving 606 j. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 McCann : Ruppia Plate II Ruppia rostellata Koch Fig. 1. Portion of plant; Figs. 2 & 3. Peduncle and florets; Fig. 4. Pistil; Fig. 5. Stamen; Fig. 6. Dehesed achene (shell); Fig. 7. Node with roots; Fig. 8. Rhizome with shell of achene attached; Fig. 9. Achene after decomposition of pericarp; Fig. 10. Pollen grain; Fig. 11. Embryo; Fig. 12. Disposition of male and female florets. [Del McCann (1945) ] Plate III J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 McCann : Ruppia Fig. A. A portion of stem (winter); Fig. B. Inflorescence (winter); Fig. C. Develop- ing peduncle and inflorescence (summer); Fig. D. Female florets minus males; Figs E. F. & G. Aspects of stigma; Fig. H. Pistil; Fig. I. Anther; Fig. J. Pollen grain; Fig. K. Fruit; Fig. L. Disposition of male and female florets. [Del McCann] FIELD STUDY OF THE GENUS RUPPIA round to the stigma with the occillation of the water. In the New Zealand species ( maritima ) the mode of pollination is somewhat different. The pollen is dispersed before the maturation of the stigmas and rises to the surface of the water, there to float about at the whim of the wind and the currents like a sea of pollen dust. The elongating peduncles carry the two clus- ters of female florets to the surface. As the peduncles elongate the clusters keep on rotat- ing forming the spiral and keep the stigmas in both clusters changing their position giving all the stigmas a chance of pollination. The coiling of the peduncle not only serves to adjust the florets to the varying depth of water with the rise and fall of the tides, but its action assists in the rotation of the oppos- ed female clusters to ensure complete polli- nation of the florets. The difference in the mode of pollination between maritima and rosteilata is very signi- ficant. A point worthy of note is that, in maritima the peduncle does not re-coil after pollination as do the pedicels of Vallisneria, but with the Stages in the development of the fruit R. maritima. 4 aging of the tissue the spiral tends to close in Ruppia. Fruit : After pollination the stipes begin to lengthen either uniformly or unevenly according to the interval of pollination between one floret and the other, but eventually all stipes attain ap- proximately the same length. During the pro- cess of development the two clusters keep on rotating increasing the coils in the spiral ( R . maritima ). In R. rosteilata the stipes just elon- gate till the fruit are ready to fall. At first the fallen fruits float for a short while before sinking into the ooze or being caught up in other vegetation, particularly, drifting algae. The shape of the achene varies slightly from ovoid, obliquely-ovoid to subreniform, some- what compressed. The seed is protected by a submembraneous testa. On dessication the stipe coils slightly in various ways and thus forms a short prehensile tail to the achene for a time, suitable to attach in the down of water fowl. Habitat : Ruppia is essentially an aquatic plant ad- apted to live in brackish or saline water, salt marshes, lakes and lagoons, but it cannot with- stand too rapid currents nor too high a degree of salinity. Although brine soon destroys the vegetative tissue, the seeds are capable of sur- viving it. Vegetative growth commences with the in- flux of freshwater, winter rains in the case of R. maritima or the monsoon rains in the case of R. rosteilata, which inundate the habitat. The induction of the freshwater encourages growth, and eventual flowering and fruiting until the increased salinity above the tolerance level or a drop in temperature brings about the cessation of vegetative growth till the next season. 607 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 The Indian species, R. rostellata, common- est in tidal marshes around salt works com- mences life with the break of the monsoon rains when the habitat is diluted with fresh- water (approx, middle June annually). The residue of salt left in the soil of the works from the previous salt-working season provid- ed the necessary amount of salinity for favour- able growth. The plants flourish throughout the monsoon producing a prodigious amount of vegetative growth followed by masses of flower and seed. During this period the salt- works are subjected to the rise and fall of the tides, by way of the channels, and inundate the area. It is with the advent of the mon- soon that numbers of fish, particularly mullet, locally known as bole, enter the area to breed and feed on Ruppia and its seed. By the end of the monsoon (September-October) the migrant birds are on their way and the waders and anserines find these Ruppia beds a haven. It is about this time that the Benas River floods the great Rann of Cutch and the hordes of Flamingos find a suitable breeding ground, (McCann 1935). During the early development of Ruppia vegetable feeders, accompanied by the chain of predator come inshore to feed or breed or both: among the hordes are crustaceans, fish, sea-snakes, and some of the migrant birds of prey which reap a harvest. As the year advances and the salinity in- creases by evaporation the plants die off leav- ing much seed embedded in the mud. This is but a very brief reference to the transition that takes place during the life cycle of Rup- pia rostellata. In the New Zealand species R. maritima a very similar pattern to that of R. rostellata emerges, but with a change of the season and the temperature. With the approach of the winter and winter rains, R. maritima begins to die off, leaving old stolons and seeds to fill the gap in the spring. In the close mats of vegetation growing in the loam bordering the rise and fall of the tides in shallow water, R. maritima mingles with species of small cyper- aceous plants, Scirpus,? Selliera radicans Cuv- (Goodeniaceae) ; Crantzia lineata Nutt. (Um- belliferae) and a few other small salt tolerent plants. In such situations the stolons of Rup- pia become tightly matted in competition with the roots and stolons of its associates. Under such circumstances the plants themselves are short, with short tightly coiled spiral pedun- cles with or without florets or achenes. Much green algae is also found tangled in the sward. In the tidal lagoons small and large float- ing ‘carpets’ of green algae often harbour much Ruppia beneath them. In the summer these carpets of algae may be found stranded with the Ruppia under them. The fall in the level of the water leaves the anchored Rup- pia and its ‘umbrella’ of algae high and dry, completely dessicated. During the winter much of the algae (now brown and decom- posing) tangled with Ruppia, may be found drifting and stranded ashore after stormy weather. With the advent of spring migratory birds commence arriving in New Zealand and those which are resident in the country, change their residence according to the climatic changes to more favourable feeding and breeding grounds. Seed dispersal : There is little doubt that aquatic birds are largely responsible for the dispersal of Rup- pia throughout the world. The carriage of the seeds or viable fragments of the plants may be external, by attachment to the plumage by the ‘hooked’ stipes or in clots of mud attach- ed to other parts of the body: or, internally, in the alimentary canal, by way of the food 608 FIELD STUDY OF THE GENUS RIJPPIA (without the stipes) some of which may es- cape the gastric juices and are voided a long way from the original places of collection. Sick birds dying by the way and those falling victims to birds of prey which invariably scatter the contents of the crop, stomach or gut of the victims. The chain is almost end- less. Thus the birds of prey, which are often on the routes of migration followed by the aquatic birds may also perform the role of dispersal agents. Distribution : Ruppia is widely distributed throughout the world, in salt or brackish water, in maritime coastal regions. It is also able to survive in freshwater (non saline) for a time. The ex- tent of saline tolerance undoubtedly varies with the species, and according to the time of the year. Ridley (1930) on seed dispersal writes: “ Ruppia maritima is another world- wide aquatic found on the coasts of Europe, Asia (India, China, Formosa), Malay Peninsula, Philippines, south Africa, Socotra, Canaries, Madeira, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zea- land, all America and West Indies, including Bermudas, probably mainly dispersed by ducks.” (p. 694). Ridley refers to a single species, R. mari- tima, but the extent of the distribution refer- red to by him covers both the species mari- tima and rostellata. The present status of the various species believed to exist (beyond the two mentioned above) is open to question and needs careful scrutiny. So far I have been unable to discern more than the two species mentioned above from a comparison of the numerous descriptions examined. In some in- stances, I do believe, that the fine-foliaged species of Potamogeton have been confused with species of Ruppia and vis-a-vis, for the species of both genera ( Potamogeton and Ruppia) frequently co-exist in the same habi- tat together! Perhaps, Ruppia fili folia (Phillippi) of the Andies, S. America is an example. This Rup- pia was originally referred to as Potamogeton filifolia by Prof. Phillippi but was not actual- ly described by him; however, Skottsberg (1916) transferred Phillippi’s P. filifolia to the genus Ruppia as a new combination. My interest in R. filifolia arose from a reference to it in the Chester Zoo News (September, 1974:7 to 9) in connection with the aquisition of rare Andean Giant Coots. In this reference Mr. A. W. Johnson of Santiago, Chile, who obtained the birds for the zoo on a small lake at 14,000 feet above sea level and subsequent- ly, with the aid of an Indian guide, at Lake Cotacotani, a snow fed lake very much higher. According to Mr. Johnson, the birds bred in these areas making large floating nests or nest rafts “built from the fibers of the same aqua- tic plant Ruppia filifolia, which also forms part of the coots’ diet and each platform was anchored beneath the surface.” (p. 12) Giant Coot — Fulica gigantea. Of the two species discussed here R. mari- tima is the more widely distributed than R. rostellata; the former appears to be the tough- er of the two occurring in the more maritime and colder conditions than the latter. In New Zealand the all pervading maritime species, Ruppia maritima is associated with Potamogeton pectinatus, a very similar look- ing plant, in some respects, and plays an im- portant role in the farming of game birds, such as ducks and geese as well as the major feed for migrant waders whether from over- seas or birds subject to ‘local’ migration in response to the climate conditions. The move- ments of the Godwits ( Limosa lapponica ) are a good example of the exotic migrants and JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 the Oystercatchers ( Haematopus spp.) and the Wrybill ( Anarhynchus frontalis) are suit- able examples of internal migrants. To carry these observations further, Ruppia probably contributes to the coastal fisheries — the chain is almost infinite. Ruppia is closely associated with the mol- lusc, Melanops trifaciate Gray which feeds and breeds in large numbers in the tangled masses of the plants. Likewise many small and minute Crustacea (copepods) find a haven in the shelter of Ruppia. A small coleopter (or dip- terous) larva lives in the achenes possibly feed- ing on the contents, while the fruit is still on the plant; this may account for the hole so frequently seen in the dried seeds and in illus- trations. There is much to be gleaned from a closer study of the microcosm. In India, Ruppia rostellata frequents the tidal marshes and the adjacent salt-pans. These pans and marshes are the annual re- sort of numerous species of migrant waders and anserines as feeding grounds. The Great Rann of Cutch is perhaps the best example where thousands of Flamingos ( Phoenicopterus ruber) go during suitable years to breed in the marshes formed by the blind Benas River diluting the salt of the Rann. The Rann is for a brief period cover- ed with Ruppia rostellata. During the early part of the monsoon, the saltworks are inundated and the coastal water becomes diluted and suitable for the growth of Ruppia. During this period vast hordes of Mullet ( Mugil sp.), the wellknown kboie’ of the local fishermen around Bombay, enter the channels around the works with each tide to breed and feed on the escape of debris and Ruppia in the area. Along with the mullet come numerous other fishes, crustaceans, cep- halopods (cuttle-fish) and sea-snakes. This chain of natural resources is forged annually and will continue if not interfered with by ‘modern’ fishing devices and the animal life given a short respite to breed and not sub- jected to capture and pollution throughout the year. By the end of the monsoon the avian migrants are on their way to renew the cycle. Ack nowledgements My thanks are due to: Prof. P. V. Bole of the Blatter Herbarium, Bombay, India, for copies of Griffith’s Plates cclvii-cclix; Dr. J. C. Yaldwyn, Assistant Director, and Mr. B. Hamlin, Botanist of the National Museum, Wellington, New Zealand, for copies of lite- rature relating to the New Zealand flora; Dr. Roland Moberg, Uppsala University Institute for Systematic Botany, Sweden, for a copy of Carl Skottsberg’s description of Ruppia fUU folia ; the Director, Indian Botanical Gardens, Howrah, India; and Miss K. Rattue, Assistant Librarian, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Eng- land for references to literature. I am also in- debted to Dr. F. M. Climo, Concologist, National Museum, Wellington, New Zealand, for the determination of the molluscs. 610 Transverse view of a chambered Nautilus ( Nautilis sp.) showing the various chambers and the margin of the shell that forms a beautiful logarithmic spiral. (Photo : Author) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Grossman : Nautilus Plate THE SHAPE OF THE SHELL OF THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS Nathaniel Grossman1 {With a plate) Of all the natural beauties, one of the most acclaimed is the shell of the chambered nau- tilus {Nautili s spp.). Painted, drawn, and photographed innumerable times, saluted in poetry, its graceful shape appeals to all view- ers, even the artistically ungifted. Scientists too have fallen under its spell and have speculated at length on reasons why the animal builds its shell in one particular shape, a shape that is found also in shells of other molluscs, living and extinct, in ram’s horns, in saber teeth, and in other animal structures, as well as in various botanical settings. After discussing differences in the develop- ment of animals and plants displaying a spiral structure, D’Arcy Thompson asserts: “It fol- lows from all this that there cannot be a phy- sical or dynamical, though there may well be a mathematical law of growth, which is com- mon to, and which defines, the spiral form in Nautilus, in Globigerina, in the ram’s horn, and in the inflorescence of the sunflower” (1971). From all the properties of the loga- rithmic spiral, he selects as the key one its continued similarity with itself as it grows. This is assuredly a beautiful and unique property of the logarithmic spiral, but it asks a lot of the animal that builds the shell. The creature must constantly be surveying the whole of its past shell-work to keep its current addition in line with the global requirement of self-similarity. We prefer to give a local 1 Department of Mathematics, University of Cali- fornia, Los Angeles, California 90024. explanation for the shape and we offer one that is biologically simple and plausible and, moreover, does not require the animal to know any mathematics. The basic hypothesis cer- tainly can be experimentally tested in a num- ber of different situations. Our explanation is biologically dynamic and not merely descrip- tive and numerological, as phyllotaxis is. We suppose that, as the shell is enlarged, the shape of the rim (or tube cross-section) remains similar to itself. We suppose that the animal deposits new shell material at the rim at a rate proportional to the circumference of the rim. (There is, furthermore, some mechan- ism to keep the shell attached to itself as it coils.) Finally there is a condition, to be ex- plained later, for which we can think of no name better than “embryological predisposi- tion”. Using polar coordinates, express the equa- tion of the shell coils as r = f (0) Because of the similarity of cross-sections, the circumfer- ence of the rim is proportional to a characte- ristic length, say the “height” of the tube: _ f(0 - 2^). Since the rate of deposit of shell material is then proportional to that height, there is a constant k so that f'(O)-f'(0-27U= -kffi0)-f(0-27u)]. It is easy to verify that f(0)=f(o) exp 10 is a solution of this differential-difference equation. It is crucial to note that, under a suitable condition, the solution just found is unique. To see this, suppose f to be a specified dif- ferentiable function when -2tt < 0 < o. Then the equation can be thrown into the form 611 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 This can be treated as a linear differential equation with known forcing function on the interval o< 0 < 2^ and the solution, which is unique, can be written out explicitly if de- sired. The process can be repeated on the next interval 2vr < 0«< 4 and so on. Hence, it is enough to specify f for -2tt< 0 < o and this the animal does in some still unknown way. This is what we referred to as the “cm- R E FE ] D’Arcy Thompson, (1971): On Growth and Form (Abridged Edition, J. T. Bonner, ed.), Cam- bridge University Press, pp. 173-174. This edition bryological predisposition”. (It is, of course, a mystery of science but, we think, a genuine and biologically relevant mystery in contrast to numerological ones such as phyllotaxis.) The foregoing applies as well to other gas- tropods. Furthermore, it covers the ammo- nites, an extinct genus of cephalopods, which do not spiral inward toward a point but in- stead toward a limit circle. EN CES has references to recent work on phyllotaxis. For a survey of older work on phyllotaxis, see the earlier editions of Thompson’s book. 612 EMOTIVE KINSHIPS IN THE STUDY OF MAMMALS M. Krishnan1 The pursuit of knowledge begins with names. Shakespeare himself, and thousands after him, seem to have missed the true significance o\ his much-quoted line, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” — its point, of course, is that it must have some other name if we do not call it a rose, to be recognized at all, that the human mind needs tags and labels to apprehend and remember things. Naturally, the study of animals was much con- cerned, in its early stages, with distinguishing them apart from one another, sorting them out, and giving them generic and specific names, with anatomy, morphology and taxo- nomy. That is still going on. Among some animals (insects, for instance) diversity is so profuse that lists are still being extended and revised. Further, deeper studies in palaeontology, more precise morphological descriptions, and simi- lar enhancements of knowledge have led to revisions and realignments of taxonomy. How- ever, it is true that concurrently with the cog- nizance of different animals, there were also assessments of their habits and “character”, usually at entirely anthropomorphic levels — something inevitable when we consider that the utility of animals as providers of food, pelts and assistance to humanity (anthropo- logists have said that without the domestica- tion of the dog and cattle, human civilization could never have progressed beyond a more or less feral stage) was something constantly investigated even prior to the systematic study of other animals by men. While the overwhel- 12/ 14 Edward Elliot Road, Madras-600 004. ming majority of such early studies was cer- tainly unscientific by modern standards, it is necessary to note that bits and pieces of quite accurate and reliable observation were not lacking in this vast, conglomerate mass of highly anthropomorphic and imaginative natural history and legendary lore. Three ex- amples may be cited to make this point. Fear and avoidance of men, an almost universal reaction of wild mammals, was strangely lacking among dolphins and replaced by an almost friendly tolerance, as noticed very early by the Greeks. The oldest extant Tamil poetry (which bears ample evidence of an earlier body of literature now irretrievably lost to us) is about 18 centuries old. In it are two poems which refer to bird migration as something well known. One of these describes the White Stork unmistakably and vividly, and its turning home northwards after its winter sojourn in the south: the other poem refers similarly to the flamingo flying northward after sojourning in the lagoons near Kanya Kumari, and mentions in a terse but quite specific line its habit of feeding on micro- organisms in the silt of the shallows — how many centuries later did Western science comprehend the marvel of bird migration, and realise that the flamingo’s beak is specially adapted for feeding on minute prey! Such rare, fragmentary nuggets of truth in early natural history should not blind us to its overwhelmingly romantic and imaginative (and at the same time quite callously utilita- rian!) bias. There were good animals and bad animals, the noble lion and the shifty and cunning jackal, in that lore, and the ferocity 613 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. of most wild animals was much exaggerated. Only in the early decades of this century (and somewhat earlier) did natural history develop more factually informed, investigative and ob- jective trends, but these were rapidly develop- ed and along many lines of inquiry. Meanwhile, right from the middle of the 19th century to almost the middle of the 20th, human interest in wildlife was dominated by the desire to encompass its end. Shikaris of various descriptions were the main sources of information about wild animals, and while some of them were knowledgeable naturalists and keen observers, the fact remains that when their chief interest in their quarry lay in bagging it, they learnt only enough about it to do so expeditiously and effectively. In the preface to his wild animals in central India, a book that achieved renown as much as a natural history as a text on shikar, Dun- bar Brander himself says this. The great renaissance in natural history was in the first half of this century, when much carefully verified knowledge on diverse ani- mals and their lives was gained and integrat- ed: though these various investigations were often channelled along particular lines, since all of them were scientific studies of animals they complement and supplement one another to form a whole, and are not merely isolated and disconnected fragments. During the present century, taxonomical and habitat evaluations have been carefully revis- ed; instinctive urges and inhibitions, respon- ses and reflexes, have been recognized as of vital importance in animal life, and closely studied; spectacular advances have been made in the field of animal senses and sensibilities by means of meticulously planned investiga- tions, and their vast variations from our own sense-perceptions and from those of one ano- ther have been appreciated; the study of ani- mal behaviour has been extended to free-liv- ing subjects in a wholly natural environment, with the realisation that captive specimens may not provide reliable material except in limited ways, and that their behaviour might even be misleading; the complex and vital re- lationship between wildlife and environment and the importance of revising our ecological knowledge have been better appreciated; with advancement in other fields of scientific know- ledge and technological improvements, biolo- gical studies have also gained precision and reliability by utilising these advances. This is no summary of how and in what fields natu- ral history has gained considerably during the past 50 years or so, but only a list of illus- trative examples. More theoretical researches, not always marked by consensus of opinion, have also been undertaken or achieved in this period, as in the fields of genetics and evolu- tion. On the whole the trend has been towards the employment of scientifically planned in- quiry that will, to the extent possible, mini- mise human errors in assessments, and the use of mechanical instruments of record, and statistics of all kinds. Undoubtedly such means are of considerable value and validity, but since the exploiters of all such means are human and therefore fallible, perhaps less has been achieved than is generally conceded. The quality of the in-put, and the dependability of skill in utilising instruments of record, will naturally materially affect the conclusions reached by mathematical and mechanical means, but we need not go into this question here. All that I wish to point out here is that this increasing reliance on mechanical means, sta- tistics, and modern ‘methodologies’ (i.e., methods!) seems to reflect a revolt from the anthropomorphic and romantic natural history 614 EMOTIVE KINSHIPS IN THE STUDY OF MAMMALS of the past. By no means does modern science reject or deny means of information or comprehension that are not purely intellec- tual, and the work of great naturalists of our own times, like Tinbergen and Lorenz, proves again and again that to treat live, sentient subjects as a mass of conditioned reflexes and instinctive responses is utterly futile, and that we cannot really understand animals by me- chanical means and statistical columns. Anyone who has known a dog well (and not merely owned it) will know that although its colour blind world of smells is something we cannot even begin to understand except on an arid, intellectual plane, we can certainly be sure that it shares many emotions with us. A dog may be frightened, angry or happy (in high spirits), in emotional states distinct from purely physical or physiological states also known to us personally, such as being fatigu- ed, sleepy or hungry. Those who have had closer associations with animals will also have sensed the need for reassurance (as by means of physical contact or proximity even) that develops at times in such relationships, even on occasion the provision of such reassurance or support by the animal to the man. Our sense-perceptions are very different from those of most animals, both in range and reach — some animals even go by perceptions quite unknown to us. When this is so, it may seem difficult, and impossible at times, for us to apprehend their expressions of moods and emotive urges, especially as it is reasonable to assume that their intraspecific communi- cations would be along the senses best deve- loped in them. No doubt this impediment to our comprehension of animal communica- tions is there, and is less easily got over than the majority of naturalists seem to realise, but it is a real handicap only in human under- standing of social and personal animal com- munications, when these are interpreted in terms of our own perceptive capacities. An example will clarify this difficult sentence: it is well known that animals of the dog tribe can hear sounds pitched high above our audi- tory reach : the evening chorus of jackals (little heard these days with the decline of the animal in most places), often described in detail in highly humanised terms, possibly features overtones we are unable to hear but which may hold specific meaning to other jackals which can sense subtle variations in the call, but so long as we do not make the mistake of presuming that jackals hear the call of their kind precisely as we do, we are on sound ground in assuming the purpose of the chorus is mainly a social location an- nouncement, and at times perhaps an assem- bly summons. It is specially with regard to olfactory per- ceptions that we are handicapped, because on this frontier our own sensibilities are singu- larly blunted, while in most animals they are exquisitely perceptive and also capable of selective apprehension. However, smells and scenting abilities are of importance to animals mainly in locating others of their kind, in hunting, as territorial markings, and in per- sonal relationships (as in seeking and find- ing mates or in the mother-young association), and are seldom featured in emotive expres- sions. As the manifestations of emotional states are mainly visual, tactile or audible, it is possible for us to have a fairly reliable un- derstanding of such tokens, provided our ob- servation is adequately informed by experi- ence. Attitudes, bodily movements and gestures, and visually manifest excitement or lethargy are highly expressive of an animal’s mood. Dogs wag their tails in friendly overtures and tuck their tails between their hind legs when 615 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 frightened, cats arch their backs, raise their tails vertically and bristle their hair in coun- ter-threat, and cattle and horses indulge in nuzzling and nudgings in expression of confid- ing affection — licking, which is mainly a tac- tile expression of reassurance, is also freely indulged in by many animals and is something that can be seen. These are emotive expres- sions well known to us because we have known domestic animals long and intimately, but similar postures, movements and activities by wild animals, typical of emotional states or moods, are no less symptomatic. Wild elephants, for example, are contented and in an equable frame of mind when flap- ping their ears casually, flicking their tails, and moving around or feeding in a leisurely manner; when the ear movements are accele- rated, the tail curled tight over the rump, and they pace about more actively, they are in a boisterous mood, in high spirits; when stand- ing immobile without any swaying movements of the body, with the ears held flat against the sides of the neck they are in a rage, and it is time to take oneself far away swiftly and unostentatiously! A peculiar token of elephan- tine uncertainty or puzzlement, distinct from fear or anger, is that when aware (mainly by sight) of the proximity of something distrust- ed, as a man in the offing, the trunk is looped over the tusks (in bulls) or its tip taken to the lips or ears, often in a scraping or scrat- ching movement, — they may also indulge in the movements of feeding then, without actually feeding — this indulgence in familiar actions in a purely formal manner is a form of displacement activity characteristic of most mammals when uncertain or uneasy but not yet frightened or provoked, and serves to re- assure them. A mistake the observer is prone to when insufficiently experienced is to take these manifestations of mental states or moods as unvaried and invariable expressions — that is very far from being so. For instance, as a man who has been chased and charged by wild elephants and who has provoked a charge to demonstrate it to others, I may say that the preliminary pawing of the earth with the fore- legs and the orientation of the body to face the cause of provocation, often characteristic of a charging elephant, may not be indulged in at all — the charge may be launched with no preliminary indications (especially when an elephant has sensed human presence by smell) and may not be in a straight line but in an in-curved arc — it may be made in silence (as it is usually) or may be accompanied by bloodcurdling screams — the tight curling up of the trunk prior to charging, so often des- cribed as typical of elephants, may not be in- dulged in at all and the trunk may hang loose and sway with the impetus of the charge. A more significant point is this. It has long been known that elephants (both cows and bulls) often put on a threat display or demonstration to scare away human intruders. At times (pro- bably because of the response of the intruder to the demonstration) this mock charge, in- stead of being averted at the last minute, may be pressed fully home and result in a killing — it is hardly possible to determine what sparks off an aggressive display motivated by fear or uncertainty to a : panic reaction of hostility. Such visually perceptible indications of moods and emotive states are, obviously, in- voluntary and not intraspecific only in their communication but also inter- or extra-speci- fic. Vocalisations or other audible sounds in- dicative of an animal’s feelings are mainly of the nature of intraspecific communications, but may also be involuntary and extraspecifi- cally comprehended — for example, snarling 616 EMOTIVE KINSHIPS IN THE STUDY OF MAMMALS and roaring by some animals and the -alarm calls of others. Few aspects of animal life are more fasci- nating to study or more rewarding than this attempt to understand their emotive expres- sions, but at all times the human observer must not fail to keep two things in mind: first, even visually communicated tokens may be differently apprehended by the animals than by us and, second, these expressions, being conditioned by many variables, are not to be interpreted too narrowly or definitely. 617 MOTH MIGRATION IN MOMBASA— 1955/1977 D. G. Sevastopulo1 The use of Mercury Vapour light in East Africa has, as elsewhere, increased our know- ledge of the Heterocera considerably; num- bers of new species have been discovered, spe- cies previously considered to have been extre- mely rare have proved to be common (the strange Syntomid Paramelisa lophura Auriv. in Kampala, for example), and, furthermore, it has shown that the migration of moths is probably more frequent, and covers even more species, than the more spectacular and more widely publicised migration of butterflies. I have only once witnessed an actual migration of moths, a flight of the noctuid Achaea cato- caloides Guen. in Kampala in March 1954, which was crossing the lawn in my garden in countless numbers at dawn, during the day the moths rested on and in a well-clipped Macrocarpus hedge, giving it the appearance of an English Beech hedge in winter. It is often possible to make an intelligent guess about a migration by noting a sudden increase in the numbers of day and dusk feed- ing Sphingids visiting flowers, or by the in- creased numbers of certain species being dis- turbed from grass or rough herbage, but mig- rations by many species cannot be detected in this way and can only be revealed by the re- gular use of a mercury vapour lamp. I consider that a migration can be assumed as having taken place when a species, pre- viously absent or present in very small num- bers, suddenly appears in large numbers at m.v. light and then, equally suddenly, disap- pears. The assumption is strengthened when 1 P. O. Box 95026, Mombasa, Kenya. captive females, with known larval food-plants (our knowledge of the food-plants of East African Heterocera, except those recorded as attacking agricultural or horticultural crops, is still woefully meagre) refuse to lay, and which are subsequently found by dissection to have the ovaries undeveloped and the abdomen full of fat. I can, in fact, only recall four oc- casions when I have found larvae of known migrant species in numbers large enough to pre-suppose them to be the progeny of mig- rants— larvae of Spodoptera exempt a Wlk., the notorious Army Worm of East Africa, on Mombasa Island in December 1955 /January 1956, larvae of Plecoptera hypoxantha Hamps. and Achaea lienardi Bsd. in a coastal forest south of Mombasa in April 1971, and of Cambogia grataria Wlk. in the Shimba Hills in July 1973. I can think of only two references to moth migration in Africa, the very specialised work of the late Eric Brown and his team on fore- casting outbreaks of Army Worm ( Spodop- tera exempta Wlk.) in East Africa and a paper by D. F. Owen (1969, Species diversity and seasonal abundance in tropical Sphin- gidae, Proc. R . ent. Soc. Load. (A) 44:162- 8). Most migrations on the Kenya coast take place during the rainy season, the ‘long rains’ normally from late March to late May or early June, and the ‘short rains’ in October /Novem- ber. The prevailing winds during the long rains are from the south east and from the north east during the short. Of recent years, how- ever, the long rains have tended to start late 618 MOTH MIGRATION IN MOMBASA or finish early, and the short rains to fail more or less completely. During the last ten or twelve years migra- tions appear to have become more frequent, or what is more likely to be the case, have become more obvious. There has been a con- siderable decline in the numbers of resident moths, both species and individuals, during this period, probably due partly to the reduc- tion of uncultivated bush through building, and partly to the dry cycle through which the coast has been passing. Whatever the cause, species that used to come regularly month-in, month-out, to my m.v. lamp now appear in- frequently or not at all, so that small migrant influxes, which previously merged more or less unnoticed in the resident population, now stand out conspicuously. A study of the details below will show that, in many species, migration is not a once and- for-all affair each season but occurs in a series of waves, which may overlap or be separated from each other by intervals of a few days. Furthermore there is very strong evidence from the variation in the proportion of the various forms in di- and polymorphic species that these waves originate from different areas. From 1956 to late 1959 the lamp was situ- ated on Mombasa Island itself but, to avoid annoying neighbours, was usually switched off at about 10 p.m. From April 1960 onwards the lamp has been situated in Nyali, a resi- dential area on the mainland, immediately north of Mombasa Island, and has been left on from dusk to dawn, except for brief periods of furlough or illness, these, except for a period from 5.v. to 25.V.71, have been during periods of minimal migratory activity. I propose dealing with the question, family by family, in the order adopted by Seitz in the MACROLEPIDOPTERA OF THE WORLD. CASTNIIDAE, ZYGAENIDAE, HETEROGYNIDAE and syntomidae — I have no evidence of mig- ration by any Zygaenid or Syntomid, the only families of these four that occur at the Coast. arctiidae — The only two species that ap- pear to be regular migrants are the Hypsids Digama aganais Feld, and D. africana Swinh., both species usually taking part in the same migration. Migrations have been recorded in:- 11/1 3.xii.58 (many aganais, few africana). 21/29.xii.62 (both species in equal number). 2/4. i. 65 ( africana only). I. iii.68 (two africana only). 21/22.iii.72 (both species). 24/27.xi.72 (both species). II. xii.73 (three aganais only). l.iv.74 (both species, few only). 8/10.iv.75 (both species, few only). 21.111.77 (one africana only). 27.111.77 (two aganais only). Two species pose a bit of a problem, a female Godasa sidae F., orientis Brtl. appear- ed at the light on 4.viii.76 and another on 20.iv.77, and a female Caryatis hersilia Druce on 6.vi.75, these are the only records for these two species over the whole period under re- view. Presumably they should be classed as occasional vagrants. pterothysanidae — Does not occur at the Coast. lymantriidae — Only two species have shown any signs of migration. On the morn- ing 23.viii.68 vast numbers of Cropera testa - cea Wlk. were seen settled on the walls and ceiling of the airport lounge at Port Reitz, the Mombasa Airport. On my return from Nairobi that same evening, even greater numbers were flying round the airport lights. This grass- feeding species is decidedly scarce on Mom- basa Island and does not occur at all in Nyali. The second species, Sapelia tavetensis Hoik, appears every now and then in fair numbers for a few days, and then disappears. Dates of such occurrences are as below: — 619 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 18.vii.66 18/20.X.72 10/1 l.vi.7 3 The great majority of visitors are males. I have only once found larvae of this species, in April 1975 a small number were found on an unidentified tree belonging to the Bomba- caceae, almost certainly non-indigenous. lasiocampidae — Lasiocampids, with their inability to feed and the unwieldy, egg-filled bodies of the females, appear unlikely mig- rants. One species, Trichopisthia monteiroi Druce, has on several occasions in recent years appeared suddenly in considerable numbers and then equally suddenly, disappeared. The females lay without hesitation, and it appears to be far more likely that these mass appear- ances are the result of simultaneous emergen- ces, the larvae feeding gregariously on Sclero- carya caffra Sond. ( Anacardiaceae) . For the record, mass appearances have occurred on the following dates: — 30.iv/2.v.73 15/ 16.iv.74 16/ 17.iv.75 bombycidae and drepanidae — No evid- ence of any migration in these two families. eupterotidae — The general remarks made under Lasiocampidae apply to this family also. There has been no evidence of any migration, but there is one mysterious singleton appear- ance. A male Sabalia picarina Wlk. appeared at m.v. light in October 1972, presumably a rare vagrant. saturniidae — No evidence of migration, but on 22.iv.75 and 25.iv.76 single male, and on 4.V.77 a single female Usta angulata Roths, appeared at my m.v. light. Also on 12.iv.77, a single male Epiphora mythimnia Westw. ap- peared. All, presumably, to be classed as oc- casional vagrants from upcountry. brahmaeidae — Does not occur at the Coast. sphingidae — This family includes a large number of the migratory species. Although food-plants of all the species listed below grow either in my garden or in the adjacent bush larvae, except for an occasional singleton, are rarely found, nor have I ever observed any signs of extensive damage from larval feeding. There is, however, one exception — larvae of Daphnis nerii L. occur not infrequently in late May and early June, presumably the progeny of the first immigrants, pupae do not diapause and imagines emerge in July, but there is no subsequent generation of larvae. Agrius convolvuli L. — 29.xi/8.xii.65 : 21.1.66: 9/20.X.66 : 9.xii.66 : 17/19.iv.67 : 25.X.67 : 1 1 / 24.xi.67. There was no noteworthy migration in 1968, a particularly wet year. 13.iv/6.v.69 : 8 / lO.x.69 : 17 / 26.iii.70 : 23/24.i.71 : 23/24.iii.71 : 31 .iii / 3.iv.71 : 6/9.iv.71 : 28.iv/4.v.71 : 14/ 19.iv. 72 : 8/16.V.72 : 24/25.xi.72 : 3/4.iv.73 : 14/18. iv.73 : 24/29.iv.73 : 11/14.V.73 : 4/7.xi.73: 4/7.xii.73 : 6/17.iv.74 : 20/26.iv.74 : 29.iv/ 3.V.74 : 17/20.V.74 : 29/31.V.74 : 10/17.xi.74 : 6/18.iv.75 : 25/28.iv.75 : 1/22.V.75 : 3/14.vi.75: 29. x/24.xi.75 : 6/9.xii.75 : 15/17.xii.75 : 23.iii.76: 26 / 28.iii.76 : 31.iii.76 : 3.iv.76 : 9.iv.76 : 12/ 16.iv.76 : 18/31.iv.76 : 3.V.76 : 8.V.76 : 14.V.76: 30. v/17.vi.76 : 19.vi.76 : 30.vi/3.vii.76 : 21/ 22.vii.76 : 30.x/29.xi.76 : 23/25.iii.77 : 27.iii.77: 29.iii/6.iv.77 : 8/ll.iv.77 : 14/18.iv.77 : 21.iv.77: 23/25.iv.77 : 27/29.iv.77 : 5.V.77 : 12/13.V.77: 17/18.V.77 : 21.V.77 : l.vi.77 : 6/8.vi.77. Local- ly bred specimens occur occasionally all through the year, and can be distinguished by being smal- ler and with the dark and pale markings on the forewing of the male being considerably less con- trasty. Callosphingia circe Fawc. — 25.iii.68 : 4.iv.68: 2.iv.74. All singletons. My friend, Dr. R. H. Car- casson, classes them as ‘vagrants’ and states that there are no previous records from the Kenya coast. Poliana witgensi Strd. — 23/26.iv.73 : 29.iv.73: 17.iv.75 : 19.iv.75 : 30.iv.75 : 2.V.75 : 22.V.75: 29.v/8.vi.75 : ll.vi.75 : 22/27.iv.76 : 30.iv.76: l.v.76 : 4.V.76 : l.vi.76 : 30.vi.76 : 2/4.vii.7 6: 16/23. iv.77 : 26.iv.77 : 29.iv.77 : l.v.77 :4.vi.77 : 620 MOTH MIGRATION IN MOMBASA 10.vi.77 : 13.vi.77. No migrations were noted prior to 1973, but they may have gone unnotic- ed amongst, the then, not uncommon resident population. Pemba favillacea Wlk — 29.v/3.vi.75 : 8.vi.75: 1 1 / 12.vi.75 : 8.xi.75 : 22/24.iv.76 : 30.vi.76: 31.vii.76. Migrants were first noted in 1975, prior to which there had been a small resident popu- lation. Nadiasa contraria Wlk. — 10/ll.viii.66. Not nor- mally a migrant, but appeared in large numbers on these two nights. Likoma crenata R. & J. — 20/21.V.75 : 25.V.75: 30.V.75. The only year in which this species has occurred. Lophostethus demolini Angas — 15.iv.70. A sing- leton, another vagrant. Cephonodes hylas L. — 5.iv.67 : 3.iii.68 :5.iv.75 : 25.111.76 : 15/ 16.iv.76 : 23/24.ii.77. Frequently accompanied by Leucostrophus hirundo Gerst. Daphnis nerii L. — 25/28. iii.69 : 8/15.iv.69 : 18/22.iv.69 : 24/29.iv.69 : 29.iv/4.v.70 : 29.v| 14.vi.70 : 29.iv/4.v.71 : 21.iii.72 : 24/26.iii.72: 2.iv.72 : 18/19.iv.72 : 6/9.vii.72:4.iv.73 :28.iv.73 : 13.V.73 : 24/30.V.73 : 24.vi.73 : 14.xi.73 : 8/ 15.iv.74 : 22.iv.74 : 2.V.74 : 6.iv.75 : 28.iv/ 26.V.75 : 30.v/16.vi.75 : 3.xi.75 : 28.xi.75 : 6.xii.75 : ll.xii.75 : 24.iii.76 : 5.iv.76 : ll.iv.76: 17 / 30.iv.76 : 7.V.76 : ll.v.76 : 17/18.V.76 :22.v/ 8.vi.76 : 13/17.vi.76 : 21.vi.76 : 25.vi.76 : 30.vi.76: 6/ 8.vii.76 : 16.vii.76 : 21/22.vii.76 : 7.X.76 : 19/ 23.111.77 : 25.iii.77 : 27.iii.77 : 7.iv.77 : 9.iv.77: 13/16.iv.77 : 19/27.iv.77 : 4/7.V.77 : lO.v.77 : 13.V.77 : 13.V.77 : 16/18.V.77 : 23/30.V.77 : 5/ 8.vi.77 : 13.vi.77 : 19.vi.77. The June/ July moths are almost certainly the progeny of the earlier migrants, but they do not produce a further generation. Nephele argentifera Wlk. — 24.xii.66 : 3.iv.67: 25.X.67 : l.iii.68 : 27.iv.68 : 10.iii.69 : 8/30.iv.69: 3/6.V.69 : l/18.i.70 : 5/7.iii.70 : 15.iii.70 : 17/ 19.iii.70 : 21.iii/8.iv.70 : 29.iv/7.v.70 : 29.V.70: 2/6.vi.70 : 23/25.i.71 : 22/24.iii.71 :27.iii|2.iv.71 : 6/9.iv.71 : 28.iv/4.v.71 : 21.iii.72 : 24/26.iii.72: 3/8.iv.72 : 14/20.iv.72 : 8/16.V.72 : 25.iii|4.iv.73 : 6.iv.73 : 16/18.iv.73 : 24/29.iv.73 : l.v.73 : 24/ 25.vi.73 : 22.iii/17.iv.74 : 30/31.iii.75 :2| 15.iv.75 : 17/24.iv.75 : 28/29.iv.75 : 2/3.V.75 : 6.V.75 : 8/10.V.75 : 12/21.V.75 : 23/24.V.75 : 29|30.v.75: I / 10.vi.75 : 13/18.vi.75 : 29/30.X.75 : l|4.xi.75: 11. xi.75 : 12.xii.76 : 22/25.iii.76 : 28.iii.76 : 2.iv.76 : 4/5.iv.76 : 7.iv.76 : 10.iv.76 : 19/ 28.iv.76 : 30.iv/8.v.76 : 15/16.V.76 : 18/21.V.76: 25. v/5.vi.76 : 8/ll.vi.76 : 13/14.vi.76 : 16| 20.vi.76 : 22.vi.76 : 24.vi.76 : 26/27.vi.76 : 29/ 30.vi.76 : 3.vii.76 : 6.vii.76 : 13.vii.76 : 15/ 16.vii.76 : 19720.vii.76 : 22.vii.76 : 21.viii.76 : 7.X.76 : 19'/29.iii.77 : 4/26.iv.77 : 29.iv.77 : 7/8.V.77 : 11/23.V.77 : 25/26.V.77 : 28.V.77 : 2/4.vi.77 : 8.vi.77 : 13.vi.77. Migrations of A. argentifera are usually accompanied by small numbers of A. funebris F. and A. bipartita Btlr., a few A. comma Hpffr. and an occasional single- ton A. aequivalens Wlk. Atemnora westermanni Bsd. — 15.vi.59 : 24/ 26. V.60 : 4.viii.65 : 12.V.66 : 17.iv.67 : 28.ii.68: I I / 22.iii.68 : 25/29.iii.68 : 5/ll.iv.68 : 13.iv.68: 16/24.xi.69 : 18/20. v.70 : 13.V.73 : 31.iv.74 : 31.iii.75 : 14/19.iv.75 : 22.iv.75 : 29.V.75 : 6/ 9.vi.75 : 30.X.75 : 31.xi.75 : 12.iv.76 : 16.iv.76: 6.V.76 : 12.V.76 : 18.V.76 : 7/8.vi.76 : 10.vi.76: 12/15.vi.76 : ll.vii.76 : 3.xi.76: 18.xi.76 :29.iii.77 : 21.iv.77 : 30.iv.77 : 21.V.77 : 23.V.77 : 25.V.77. Leucostrophus hirundo Gerst. — 5.iv.67 : 3.iii.68 : 4/8.xi.73 : 4.xii.73 : 23 / 24.ii.77. Migrations of this species often accompany those of Cephono- des hylas L. Hyles lineata L., livornica Esp. — lO.v.61 :21.iv.69 : 8.iv.75 : 15.iv.75 : 4.V.75 : 15/16.v.75:31.v.75: 9.xii.75 : 24.iv.77. This well known migrant is only an occasional visitor to the Kenya coast and usually occurs as singletons. Hippotion celerio L. — 7.iv.63 : 21.i.66 : 27.iv.68: 11/ 24.X.69 : 29/31.iii.69 : 8.iv/3.v.69 : 5/7.iii.70: 29.iv/7.v.70 : 29.v./6.vi.70: 16.xi.70 : 23/24.iii.71 : 31.iii/3.iv.71 : 6/9.iv.71 : 28.iv/4.v.71 : 21.iii.72: 24/27.iii.72:18/20.iv.72 : 8/11.V.72 : 13/16.V.72: 4.iv.73 : 24/29.iv.73 : 1 l.v.73 : 14.V.73 : 24/ 26.vi.73 : 14.xi.73 : l.iv.74 : 5.iv/31.v.74 : 10/ 15. xi.74 : 5/15.iv.75 : 17/22.iv.75 : 28.iv.75 : 3/26.V.75 : ll.iv.76 : 16.iv.76 : 18.iv.76:20.iv/ 2.V.76 : ll.v.76 : 16/22.V.7 6 : 24.V.76 : 26/ 28.V.76 : 30.V.76 : l.vi.76 : 3/9.vi.76 : 14.vi.76: 16/28.vi.76 : 30.vi/l.vii.76 : 6/7.vii.76:9/10.vii.76: 16. vii.76 : 19/22.vii.76 : 27/28.vii.76 : 3.viii.76: 12. viii.76 : 16.viii.76 : 21/22.viii.76:24/25.viii.76: 28.viii.76 : 21.iii.77 : 26.iii.77 : 29/30.iii.77 : 621 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 l.iv.77 : 6.iv.77 : 9/ll.iv.77 : 14/15.iv.77 : 17/ 21.iv.77 : 23.iv/l.v.77 : 6.V.77 ' : 11/13.V.77: 16.V.77 : 18/25.V.77. Migrants can be distin- guished from locally bred specimens by being rather larger. Migrations of /f. celerio are usu- ally accompanied by fair numbers of 77. eson Cr. and occasional H. osiris Dalm. Centroctenema imitans Btlr. — Singletons occur rarely throughout the year, but on 7/8.xi.64 and 14/15.xi.66 comparatively large numbers visited the lamp. uraniidae and THAU metopoeidae — Nei- ther of these two families has shown any sign of migratory activity. notodontidae — No member of this family has given any indication of being a migrant with the following exception. In October 1972, a few larvae of Simesea orestes Kiriakoff were found feeding on Terminalia catappa (Combretaceae) in my garden, and a few im- agines visited the lamp the following month. This is the only occasion when the species has appeared. megallopygidae — I have not found any member of this family on the Kenya coast. LIMACODIDAE, CIIRYSOPOLOMIDAE, PSYCHIDAE, THYRIDIDAE, ME TARBELIDAE, AEGERIIDAE and cossidae — No member of any of these fami- lies has shown any sign of migratory activity. agaristidae — Members of this family are not usually migrants, the normal pattern is for occasional singletons to visit the lamp, but in 1975 there was distinct evidence of mig- ration. On 10.iv.75 considerable numbers of Aegocera trimeni Feld., including a few speci- mens of the white hind-winged form, not seen previously, visited the lamp and continued in some numbers until 19.iv.75. On 17.iv.75 a single specimen of Schausia daria Druce, a species not seen before or since, appeared, and on 5.V.75 large numbers of Schausia coryndoni Roths., normally a rare species, came to the lamp and continued, sometimes in uncount- able numbers, until 23.V.75. During this period, the species swarmed at Lantana flowers in the Shimba Hills. noctuidae — A number of species, be- longing to different sub-families, have been recorded as migrating. Cirphis loreyi Dup. — Normally an occasional visitor to the lamp, but occurred in considerable numbers on 23/28.V.62. Recorded as a migrant in Europe. Spodoptera exempta Wlk. — 13/15.iii.61 : 2.xii.63 : 17.vii.65 : 13/ 15.xii.65 : 15/20.xi.66: 29.xi/4.xii.66 : 3/5.V.70 : 17/30.xi.70 : 24/ 27.xi.72 : 23.iii.74 : 20.iv.74 : 31.iii.75 : 20.iv.75 : 23/24. ii. 77 : 16/18.iv.77 : 20.iv.77 : 26.iv.77. Apparently not a resident species. Euterpioides spec, nov., nr. pienaari Dist — Has occurred on three occasions, viz. 9 / 10.xii.64 : 9/10.iv.65 and 31.iii.75, on all occasions in some numbers. Ilattia octo Guen. — The local population is periodically re-inforced by migration. 2/4.i.65: 6/7.iv.67 : 28.ii.68 : 16/18.xi.70 : 17 / 18.ii.73. Amyna punctum F. — A major migrant, the varying proportions of the nomino-typical form and f. spoliata Wlk. indicating different origins for the flights: 13/ 17.iv.59 : 20/24.xii.62 : 27.xii.62 : 29.xii.62 : 10.i.63 : 2/4.i.65 : 21/ 23.iii.65 : 3/4.iv.65 : 17.iii.66 : 6/8.i v.66 : 17/ 20.V.66 : 21.X.67 : 24/25.X.67 : 28.ii.68 : l.iii.68 : 20.111.68 : 23/26.iii.68 : 29.iii.68 : 18.V.68 : 14/ 18.111.69 : 24/31.iii.69 : 9/29.iv.69 : 2/5.V.69 : 12 / 1 3.ii.70 : 15 / 19.iii.70 : 21/28.iii.70 : 30.iii / l.iv.70 : 3.iv.70 : 5/6.iv.70 : 8/9.iv.70 : 21/ 22.iv.70 : 29.iv/5.v.70 : 23/27.iii.71 : 30.iii/ 4.iv.71 : 7/9.iv.71 : 17/24.iv.71 : 20/21 iii.72 : 24.iii.72 : 7/8.iv.72 : 14/20.iv.72 : 8/15.V.72 : 24/27.xi.72 : 17/18.ii.73 : 25.iii.73 : 3/4.iv.73: 18/20.iv.73 : 27/29.iv.73 : 24/26.vi.73 : 11/ 12.xii.73 : 22/26. iii. 74 : 31 .iii /2.iv.74 : 9 / 16.iv.74 : 20.iv.74 : 24/30.iv.74 : 2.V.74 : 10/13.V.74: 19/ 20.V.74 : 31. iii/ 18.iv.75 : 21/24.iv.75 : 30.iv/ 24.V.75 : 24/25.iii.76 : 6.iv.76 : 9.iv/l.v.76 : 7/8.V.76 : 11/12.V.76 : 19.V.76 : 8/9.vi.76 : 14.vi.76 : 16/17.vi.76 : 23/24.ii.77 : 17/ 1 8.iii.77 : 21.iii.77 : 23/27.iii.77 : 29.iii.77 : 9/1 l.iv.77 : 622 MOTH MIGRATION IN MOMBASA 14.iv.77 : 16.iv.77 : 18/27.iv.77 : 29.iv.77 : 6/ 8.V.77 : 21/23.V.77. Blenina quadripuncta Hamps. — A fairly regular migrant. 21 /24.xii.62 : 27.xii.62 : 29.xii.72 : 2/ 4.i.65 : 3/4.iv.65 : 17/18.iv.65 : 3/5.xii.65 : 17.iii.66 : 21.X.67 : 24/25.X.67 : 16.iii.68 : 14/ 18.iii.69 : 29/30.iii.69 : 9/ll.iv.69 : 13/15.iv.69: 18/22.iv.69 : 26/29.iv.69 : 2/5.V.69 : 29.xi/ 8.xii.69 : 10/24.xii.69 : 16/17.iii.70 : 27.iii/ 3.iv.70 : 5/8.iv.70 : 24.iii/3.iv.71 : 7/9.iv.71 : 20/21. iii.72 : 24.iii.72 : 7/8.iv.72 : 18/20.iv.72: 24/27.xi.72 : 25.iii.73 : 3/4.iv.73 : 7/9.xii.73 : l/2.iv.74 : 2.V.74 : 25.V.74 : 30.iii/18.iv.75 : 21/24.iv.75 : 2/24.V.75 : 23/25.iii.76 : 9.iv.76: 12.iv.76 : 17/18.V.76 : 20/25.V.76 : 4/5.vii.76 : 25.iii.77 : 27.iii.77 : 29.iii.77 : 8/ll.iv.77:14.iv.77: 25.iv.77 : 27.iv.77 : 6/8.V.77 : 22.V.77. Chlorozada metaleuca Hamps. — An occasional migrant. 22.iii.68 : 24 / 25.iii.68 : 27/28.iii.70. Maurilia arcuata Wlk. — Very occasional mig- rations augment the local population. 5.vi.71 : 31.v/5.vi.76 : 7/8.vi.76. Attatha ethiopica. Hamps. — Singletons have ap- peared on four separate occasions, viz. — 19.V.75: l.v.76 : l.v.ll : 24.V.77. Cyligramma latona Cr. — A fairly regular mig- rant. ll.iv.63 : 21/23.iii.65 : 3.iv.65 : 29.xii.65: 6/8.iv.66 : 3/7.iv.67 : 17/18.iv.67 : 17.iii.68: 20.111.68 : 29.iii.68 : 5/ll.iv.68 : 10.iii.69 : 23/ 27.111.69 : 29/30.iii.69 : 13/14.iv.69 : 19.iv.69: 8.iii.70 : 28.iii.70 : 30.iii/3.iv.70 : 6.iv.70 : 23/ 28.iii.71 : 30.iii/5.iv.71 : 14.iv.72 : 18/20.iv.72: 25.iii.73 : 27/29.iii.73 : 1 1 / 12.xii.73 : 22/26.iii.74 : 31.iii/2.iv.74 : 10/14.iv.74 : 24/26.iv.74 : 30.iii/ l.iv.75 : 6/18.iv.75 : 2.V.75 : 4.V.75 : 17.V.75 : 24 / 26.iii.76 : 6.iv.76 : 15/22.iv.76 : 17/19.iii.77: 21 / 27.iii.77 : 5/6.iv.77 : 13/15.iv.77 : 21/ 26.iv.77 : 4.V.77. Cyligramma fluctuosa Drury — A very occa- sional migrant, ll.v.63 : 21 /22.V.75. Achaea lienardi Bsd. — A very regular migrant appearing in vast swarms. 14.iii.63 : 23.iii.65 : 17.iii.66 : 6.iv.66 : 20.X.67 : 24/25.x.67:28.ii.68: l.iii.68 : 20.iii.68 : 22.iii.68 : 30.iii.68: 5/ 11. iv.68: 15/16.iii.70 : 26/28.iii.70 : 30.iii/3.iv.70:29.iv.70: 23.iii/2.iv.71 : 20/21.iii.72 : 24/25.iii.72: 3.iv.72: 6 / 10.iv.72 : 3/4.iv.73 : 23.iii.74 : l.iv.75 : 7/ 14.iv.75 : 12.V.75 : 23/26.iii.76 : 16/18.iv.76 : 22.iv.76 : 24/28.iv.76 : 28.x/4.xi.76 : 17/18.iii.77: 21.111.77 : 25.iii.77 : 27.iii.77 : 5/6.iv.77 : 10/ ll.iv.77 : 14.iv.77 : 21.iv.77. Achaea praestans Guen. — Migrations of the previous species almost invariably include a very few specimens of praestans. The following are occasions when it has been on its own, 22.iv.74 : 29.iii.77. Grammodes stolida F. — Occurs rarely all through the year, only twice has it appeared in numbers indicative of a migration. 28.xii.76/ 1.1.77 : 23/24.ii.77. Phytometra acuta Wlk. — Always present at the Coast, but sometimes migrates in considerable numbers. 21/24.xii.62 : 27.xii.62 : 29.xii.62: 29.xi/6.xii.65 : 17.iii.66 : 19.iv.69 : 21.iv.69 : 24/29.xi.70 : 27.iii.70 : 30.iii/4.iv.71 : 15/ 16.iv.72 : 18/20.iv.72 : 3/4.iv.73 : 17/18.xi.73: 20/26.iv.74 : 6/18.iv.75 : 21/25.iv.75 : 2/24.V.75: l.iv.76 : 10/15. iv.76 : 18/20.iv.76 : 22/24.iv.76: 26 / 30.iv.76 : 4.V.76 : 7/8.V.76 : 10/15.V.76: 19/ 23.V.76 : 23/24.ii.77 : 29.iii.77 : 1 l.iv.77 :24.iv.77. Phytometra limbirena Guen. — A singleton on 15.xi.66. Presumably a vagrant from upcountry. Sphingomorpha chlorea Cr. — Occurs occasion- ally all through the year, rarely appearing in numbers indicative of a migration. 6.iv.63 : 31 .iii.7 1 : 2.iv.71. Calesia zambesita Wlk. — A fairly regular mig- rant from upcountry. 27 / 29. iv. 70 : 2/3.V.70: 28/29.xi.70 : 23/27.iii.71 : 10.V.72 : 24/27.xi.72: 9/12.iv.75 : 15/18.iv.75 : 6/8.V.75 : 25.iii.76: 7.V.76 : 1 l.iv.77 : 20.iv.77 : 24/25.iv.77. Anomis sabulifera Guen. — Present all through the year, sometimes appearing in larger numbers, presumably the result of migration. 20/24.xii.62: 27.xii.62 : 29.xii.62 : 29.xi./6.xii.65 : 28.xi/ l.xii.66 : 10.iii.67 : 5/7.iv.67 : 12/13.iii.70 : 16/19.xi.70 : 27/29.xi.70 : 24/27.xi.72 : 4/ 6.xii.73. Plecoptera hypoxantha Hamps. — Present all through the year, but has recently given indi- cations of migratory activity. 17/23. iv.71 : 20/ 22.iii.72 : 22/30.iv.74 : 24/27.vi.74 : 26/27.iv.75: 30.iv/3.v.75 : 7/24.V.75 : 12/14.iv.76 : 16/ 17.iv.76 : 19/22.iv.76 : 7/8.V.76 : 41/12.V.76: 18/19.V.76 : 2/4.xii.76. 623 5 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Bomolocha jussalis Wlk. — An occasional mig- rant. 6/7.iv.67 : 16/18.xi.70. Bomolocha obsitalis Wik. — A more frequent migrant than the previous species. 21 /24.xii.62: 27.xii.62 : 29.xii.62 : 16/18.xi.70 : 27/28.X1.70: 24/27.iii.71 : 7/8.iv.72 : 18/19.iv.73 : 23.xi.73: 20.xi.74 : 15/18.iv.75. Hyblaea euryzona Prout — A fairly regular mig- rant. ll.iv.62 : 18/22.iv.62 : 21 /23.iii.65 : 3/ 4.iv.65 : 17/18.iv.65 : 20.iv.65 : 3/6.iv.66 : 15/ 17.iv.67 : 22.iv.67 : 20.iii.68 : 12.iv.68 : 20/ 22.iv.70 : 31.iii/l.iv.71 : 7/9.iv.71 : 27.iv.72: l.iv.74 : 9.iv.74 : 30.iii.75 : 12.iv.76. Hyblaea flavipicta Hamps. — Often associated with the previous species, ll.iv.62 : 18/22.iv.62: 12/ 14.iv.63 : 2/4.i.65 : 21/23.iii.65 : 3.iv. 65: 17/ 18.iv.65 : 20.iv.65 : 3/6.iv.66 : 15/17.iv.67: 22.iv.67 : 12.iv.68 : l.iv.70 : 9.iv.74 : 2.V.74 : 8 / 18.iv.75 : 21/28.iv.75 : 8/10.V.75 : ll/13.iv.76: 15 / 16.iv.76 : 21.iv/2.v.76 : 11/13.V.76 : 20/ 21.iv.77 : 23.iv.77 : 25.iv.77. geometridae — There is no evidence of any sort of mass migration in this family. Two species have produced singletons at widely separated intervals, namely — Euexia percnopus Prout on 8.iv.56, 25.iv.57, 6.xii.57, and 24.iii.68 and Neopitthea prin- glei Care, on 14.i.66 and 22.xi.69. pyralidae — Four species of this family have been found to migrate. Macalla sp. — l.iii.68 : 16.iii.68. The British Museum (Natural History) consider it to be an underscribed species. Hymenia recurvalis F. — 20/24.xii.62 : 27.xii.62 : 29.xii.62 : 2/4.1.65 : 29.xi./2.xii.66 : 6/7.iv.67 : 29 / 30.iii.69 : 30.iv/l.v.69 : 14/17.xi.70 : 17/ 18.ii.73 : 18/19.iv.76. Marasmia trapezalis Guen. — 13/ 14.iv.59 : 17.iii.66 : 25 / 27.iii.69. Margaronia unionalis Hbn. — 20/24.xii.62 : 27.xii.62 : 29.xii.62 : 2/4.i.65 : 17/18.vii.65 : l.iii.68 : ll.iv.69 : 13/15.iv.69 : 19.iv.69 : 21.iv.69 : 28.iii.70 : 23/27.iii.71 : 30.iii/l.iv.71 : 12/13.V.73 : 10/13.V.74 : 19/20.V.74 : l.iv.75 : 6 / 18.iv.75 : 21/26.iv.75 : 8/24.V.75 : 9.iv.76 : 1 1 / 12.iv.76 : 14.iv.76 : 30.iv.76 : 4/8.V.76 : 1 1 / 15.V.76 : 18/24.V.76 : 9/ 1 l.iv.77 : 24/25.iv.77. P.S.: Since completing this paper, the Mombasa district has experienced a spell of unprecedented wet weather. Between the 16th September and 18th October 1977, normally a fairly dry period, rainfall of only a fraction short of 10" has been recorded. This has re- sulted in exceptional migratory flights. The two Arctiids, Digama aganais Feld, and D. africana Swinh., appeared in small num- bers between 18/20.ix.77, neither species has previously been recorded in September. Most of the regular Sphingid migrants — A grins convolvuli L., Pemba favillacea Wlk., Poliana witgensi Strd., Daphnis nerii L., Nephele arg- entifera Wlk., Atemnora westermanni Bsd. and Hippotion celerio L., appeared spasmodically over the whole period, usually in ones and twos, but unaccompanied by their usual mig- ratory companions Nephele junebris F., N. comma Hpffr., N. bipartita Btlr. and Hippo- tion eson Cr. Amongst the Noctuids, A myna punctum F. and Blenina quadri punctata Hamps. occurred in fair numbers between 18/20.ix.77, whilst Achaea lienardi Bsd. appeared in vast swarms between 16/23.ix.77, accompanied, as usual, by occasional A. praestans Mab. During this period, the usual resident spe- cies occurred in their usual numbers, both when compared with previous years and with the immediate preceding period. 624 MICROARTHROPODS AND SOIL ECOSYSTEMS T. N. Ananthakrishnan1 The decisive influence of soil microarthro- pods, not to mention of other invertebrates in the establishment of diverse patterns in the de- composition of organic matter and the succes- sion of fauna therein involved cannot be un- derestimated. Results achieved in this direc- tion in many countries sufficiently indicate the need for active cooperation between soil bio- logical and peaological research in determin- ing the fertility of the soils. It is being increas- ingly realised that many soil microarthropods play a useful role as indicator organisms in relation to soil fertility. The contributions made in edaphic studies through the publica- tions of monographs and books by Kubiena (1955), Haarlov (1960), Nielsen (1955), Kuh- nelt (1961), Gisin (1952), Doeksen and Van der Drift (1963) in Europe, Murphy (1955), Kevan (1955), Macfadyen (1962), Edwards (1962), Burgess and Raw (1967), Wallwork (1970, 1976) in England and Morikawa (1957) and Yosii (1955) in Japan are among the most outstanding and a beginning has been made over the last decade in this direc- tion in India as well. With its variety of soil and climate excellent opportunities exist for extensive soil faunal studies particularly with reference to their population dynamics, verti- cal migrations and a possible correlation of abundance of certain indicator species with soil fertility. The soil is a complex of physico-chemical and biotic factors and the great diversity of 1 Zoological Survey of India, 34 Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta-700 012. organisms found therein, combined with the physical difficulties of studying them, not to mention the patient, laborious and time con- suming task of isolation and identification of the multitude of forms are no doubt factors responsible for the slow progress of this science in this country. All the same one can- not ignore the importance of ecological pro- blems pertaining to the soil, an investigation into which may demand a preliminary explo- ratory work involving qualitative studies or an inquiry concerning the relative abundance of a wide range of species over a wide range of habitats or the determination of the absolute abundance of some species in a single habi- tat. Investigations on the edaphic community may lead to the discovery of “life-forms” or “lebens-formen”, so characteristic of the soil dwelling Collembola wherein we come across similar modifications even within diverse forms according to the depth or layers of edaphon they inhabit. Thus for example, Tullbergia, Isotomodes, Folsomides, etc. are euedaphic living in the depth of soil. All of them are Characterised by their elongate body facies small size (at most 1 mm long), similar segmentation, musculature and easily flexible non-pigmented or feebly pigmented bodies, reduction or the total absence of ocelli and with short and simple hairs and smaller ap- pendages. Brachystomella, Hypogastrura, Friesea, etc. are hemiedaphic, including forms living on water surface (neustonic), moss, bark or lichens (xeromorphic) characterised by moderately long antennae, well developed 625 I JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 pigment and ocelli. Epigeic forms (living on vegetation or upper surface of litter, combin- ing both hyperedaphic and epiedaphic forms) are characterised generally by eight ocelli, well developed pigmentation, long antennae and furcula, e.g., Orchesella, Bourletiella, Callynt- rura, etc. In addition are the Troglomorphs (e.g., Cyphyoderopsis, Trogolaphysa, etc.), characterised by the absence of ocelli and pig- ment, long antennae and modified unguis and Synecomorphs living in the nests of ants and termites, characterised by the absence of ocel- li and pigment (cf. Troglomorphs), modified mouth parts, well developed furcula and legs and the development of unusual scales and setae (e.g. Delamarerus, Pseudocyphoderus, Calobatinus, etc.). Even among cryptostig- matid mites life forms exist, the hemiedaphic forms often showing further modifications in relation to their subdivision into hygrophilous, mesophilous, xerophilous conditions and in- cidental correlation of the form of the pseu- dostiginatic organ with the moisture gradient of the environment. Marked specialisation for inhabiting particular depths and associated morphological adaptations are shown by the geophilids, symphylids, pauropods and other microarthropods and such microhabitats with- in a major community have also been termed ‘synusia’. Preliminary qualitative studies on the com- position of the microarthropods inhabiting the surface litter (L layer), decaying organic matter (F layer), pasture soil and manured soil are essential aspects of soil microarthro- pod investigations. Murphy’s classification of the fauna into the microfauna (.001-1 mm), meiofauna (0.1 -1.6 mrn) and the macrofauna (1.6 to several mm) appears a useful measure, the majority of the meiofauna lying at the 3-4 cm level, of which a good number occur in the F layer, 1-2 cm below the surface. In pasture soil, F layer is absent due to the fact that the rate of the decomposition at the sur- face is sufficiently high to prevent its forma- tion and this kind of soil is usually with a low humus content; during the rainy season, soluble bases are leached out; during the dry season iron and aluminium compounds are oxidised giving the soil a characteristic red or yellow colour. These soils are more correctly called “Latosols” or “Feralitic soils”. The dominant microarthropods are the Collem- bola, mites, symphylids and to some extent the pauropods thrive well in the upper layers. Below this in the mineral soil, the microca- verns or pore spaces are not suitable for the existence of all microarthropods in addition to the absence of sufficient organic matter. Therefore there is a preponderence of these dominant microarthropods in the upper layer of soil and particularly during the hotter months when there is a danger of exposure of the litter to strong sunlight, the fauna mig- rate to the lower layers. As such the princi- pal factors inducing the vertical migration are the nature of the microcaverns, food, tempera- ture, humidity and predation at the surface. Many symphylids like Scutigerella sp., Sym- phylella sp., Symphylellopsis sp. show seasonal vertical migrations in soil in response to soil temperature and moisture. Such vertical mig- rations are also known to occur in response to feeding, moulting and reproductive cycles (Ovipositional). This is also the case with mites and collembola and even the possibility of a diurnal rhythm in vertical movements has been suggested. Data regarding the vertical migration of microarthropods in Indian soils are very me- agre. However Choudhuri & Roy (1971), in their studies on the vertical distribution of some species of Collembola in the gangetic alluvium, observed that Sphaeridia, Proisoto- 626 MICROARTHROPODS AND SOIL ECOSYSTEMS ma, Alloscopus, Isotomurus and Sminthurinus were all more concentrated in the middle layer (5-10 cm), while the maximum number of individuals of Seira occurred in the lower layer (10-15 cm). Symphylids and pauropods are noticeably absent from the L layer (though mites are more abundant), while their number is very meagre in the F layer below it. They are in sufficiently large numbers in the pasture soil and manured soil as has been observed in banana plantation soils. The Collembola of the ‘L’ layer such as Callyntrura, Lepidocyr- tus, Entomobrya, lsotoma, Salina and Dlcra- nocentrides are large sized, pigmented, with well developed eyes and spring and extremely active and can often be seen to penetrate the soil to a limited extent, while those in the F layer are totally different, being small, slen- der, unpigmented with reduced eyes and spring as in Tullbergia, Onychiurus, Xenylla, Isoto- modes, Folsomina, Folsomides and Folsomia which move along the walls of the soil micro- caverns. The most important single factor governing the distribution of Collembola is moisture and the possibility of the Collem- bola acting as indicators of soil water condi- tion has been suggested. In other words the water content of the soil could reflect the species composition of the population. For instance, the mesophil fauna such species of Collembola as Folsomia brevicauda, Friesea mirabilis, lsotoma sensibilis occur, as against the only Xerophil species Tetracanthella wahl - greni (Flale 1963). The mite fauna are present both in the L and F layers in considerable numbers, the Oreibatid mites being more abundant in the L layer than the F layer. The Tyroglyphid and Tetranychid mites however are generally recorded only in meagre num- bers. Some of the dominant species of soil mites, collembola etc. characteristic of grass- land, forest and cultivated soils from India are represented in Table I. Considerable specificity of microarthropods, particularly amongs the collembola exists in accordance with the different ecotopes. Mitra, et al. (1977) observed the specificity of Col- lembolan species in accordance with six eco- topes (including five vegetational sites) at the Eden gardens, Calcutta. The existence of both qualitative and quantitative population diffe- rences in three sites, viz., forest, new clearing and tea fields and the total absence of the litterine genera of Collembola like Lobelia , Lepidocyrtus , Dicranocentrus, Callyntrura, Salina , Dicyrtoma, etc. at the newly cleared sites, were indicated by Prabhoo (1976) who also observed a similarity of fauna in the forest and tea field soils. The species composition of the litter may be said to indicate the soil edaphon of the future, because on the litter fauna depends the widely varying degree of decomposition neces- sary for the enrichment of the soil. It pro- vides a typical instance of what can be called a metabiotic process wherein one series of organisms provide favourable conditions for the next. The role of Collembola in the ini- tial break down of litter followed by the mil- lipedes and the earthworms is well known. They are known to actively remove material, ingesting them into the gut and produce fae- cal pellets which are added to the soil, thereby providing readily available material to the de- composers. The mechanical effect of the breakdown of litter by the millipedes is enor- mous and as a result of frequent migrations up and down the soil profile, they are said to effect a mixing up of the mineral and organic portions of the soil. Under neutral and slight- ly alkaline conditions, the millipedes, isopods and annelids establish themselves and play an important role in modifying and mixing the 627 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 surface litter with the lower horizons of the soil. Under acid conditions such species are inhibited and mites, dipteran larvae and Col- lembola typify the fauna which do not signi- ficantly change the character of the horizon. It was on the basis of the millipede, isopod and insect larval activity in the soil that Kubi- ena (3955) introduced the ‘moder’ and ‘mull- like moder’ concepts of the humus forms ac- cording to which forms inhabiting sandy, base deficient soils constitute the moder species (mites, collembolans and insect larvae), while the base rich clayey soils form the ‘mull-like moder’ species of which the millipedes form the largest proportion followed by enriched earthworm and isopod population. However the actual number, the biomass and relative efficiency of each group is dependant more upon the basic features of the soil as mention- ed above, as well as of the diverse factors which tend to modify the soil environment. It is because of such variable interactions that reliable estimates pinpointing the effective role of each group of soil animals have not been possible, though in general it has been esti- mated that animals consume 10-20% of the total organic matter supplied to the soil. A moderate temperature and moisture, with the availability of decaying organic matter on the soil surface constitute the optimal conditions for the growth and multiplication of such microarthropods as symphylids. To cite an example, at a temperature of 36°C and 65% RH the average population of SymphyteUa sp. for 110 c. of soil was 420, while at tem- peratures of 29-32°C and 86-90% R.H. the average population was found to be 2935 and in between these ranges of temperature and humidity the population range was 1194-2080 individuals. (Ananthasubramanian & Anan- thakrishnan 1962). The study of the abund- ance of the microarthropods in a variety of soils is considered significant because it is seen that fertilising the soil with organic manure increases the edaphic composition tremend- ously, in particular the collembolans and the symphylids. The Collembola are very abun- dant in the surface manure and helps in its decomposition after which, the manure fauna changes into a true soil fauna through the compost fauna. It has been estimated that the collembolan fauna of compost is 1,30,000 per metre2 surface upto a depth of 10 cm. The forest floor in Tropical forests pro- vides a good example of surface litter zones Ananthakrishnan (1973) has sufficiently em- phasised this aspect in relation to mycopha- gous thrips. In litter, thrips are usually con- fined to the uppermost layer on entire leaves, and in the lower layers are mites, collembola, beetles etc. and only a few thrips. Leaf litter provides a more or less uniform semiperma- nent habitat and thrips are never common in wet litter and are abundant in litter resulting from diverse tree and shrub flora which are very characteristic of the Western Ghats. The movement of microarthropods between the different horizons of the mineral soil and litter is influenced by the graded series of relative humidities. Species of Cryptostigmatid mites of the fauna Steganacarus, Oppia, Platyno- thrus, Adoristes etc., mesostigmatid species of Trachytes, the predatory Pergamasus, Macro- cheles sp. are more common in surface litter. Assessment of the relative efficiency of each group of organisms in term of litter decom- position is a difficult problem since animal activities may alter litter in such a way as to effect the species composition. The major contributors to the litter in such forest areas as of the Western ghats involve species of Mesua (Guttiferae), Ternstroemia (Ternstroemiaceae), Dipterocarpus (Diptero- carpaceae), Pterospermum (Sterculiaceae), 628 Table 1 Some dominant microarthropods in grassland, forest and cultivated soils in India MICRO ARTHROPODS AND SOIL ECOSYSTEMS a a 00 g <3 P § g >< i d d s a >2 d ft a a • o K ft ^ M W.8.:§ CO (0 S :s ^ "g ft 5, d ^ d to k d O d d CO 2 .So B d ft V3 CO to ft a ~a v S | S .5 *5 5 d c2 ft a ■§§ to Q It a ft a C a a 2 2? t: I | ft "T~ J^S-S 3? -a a d d ft d d ,» ». ft t ^ -a d o 5 a £ d S 2 "a r- ft ^ d .a ^3 C tu a -a d co d J2 C/3 52 2 c a -a ^ 11 5 5 co d 23 a a 05 I 5 I S’ S ~a d d •2 .52 to 12 a a ft *a *S 00 <3 S 2 -ft a a d •S ^ a a to d -2 a •52 C to ft §1 £ = w ft . Co -ft d ^ # a ft *-> -ft M a o d ft a ft d £ 2 § d -a a a £ O d O ^ .52 a drS .a g; ft .§> d to a CO Co to d ft a a a §1 ft ft -a i ft § a 2 to Co a a !-. ft d 2 • ft a .£•5 ft U £5 d CO a a ft ft co co -g s .52 d -a g> * § I slf d da •r* ft Is a g fe d bo -a a ?s a d d d a to 32 II d d a -2 -a d a §■^5. a. ft) a 3 Oo Pterocarpus (Leguminosae), Terminalia (Combretaceae), Syzigium (Myrtaceae) Bar - ringtonia sp. (Lecythidaceae), Tectona (Ver- benaceae), Dalbergia (Leguminosae), Mallo- tus (Euphorbiaceae), Lager stroemia (Lau- raceae), Kigelia etc. (Bignoniaceae). Many Tubuliferan thrips species inhabit this fungus infested litter and these mycophagous species are important members of this specialised niche. The dominant species inhabiting the litter are Gastrothrips karnyi, Nesidothrips alius, Kleothrips gigans, Elaphrothrips pro- ductus, Hoplandrothrips flavipes , Hoplothrips fungosus, Diceratothrips usitatus, Nanothrips parviceps, Azaleothrips amabilis and Stigmo- thrips limpidius. Ananthakrishnan (1973) provides a detailed account of the various species inhabiting the saprophytic fungal- zone. The conspicuous polymorphism in leaf pro- duction and the constant non-synchronus leaf fall make available abundant litter which pro- vides an ideal microenvironment constituting a saprophytic fungal zone. The destruction of forests naturally limits litter production and interferes with the process of litter decom- position through the agency of micro-orthro- pods. Therefore, regular examination of the litter and F layers in a variety of habitats should reveal an ever increasing and abundant popu- lation of diverse microarthropods which should be correlated with the nature of the litter and in view of the largely saprophagous and fungal feeding habits there is ample scope for research into the role of these fauna in the sequential breakdown of organic mattter as well the changes in the fauna such as the Col- lembola and mites associated with plant suc- cession. Further the catalytic action of the animals on soil metabolism appears to be a new line of investigation, the dead bodies. 630 MICROARTHROPODS AND SOIL ECOSYSTEMS exuviae and most important of all the faecal for other organisms in the process of develop- matter of soil animals providing enriched sites ment of mature soils. References Ananthasubramanian, K. S. and Ananti-ia- krishnan, T. N. (1962) : Microarthropods of the pasture soil. Bull. Ent. 3: 18-21. Ananthakrishnan, T. N. (1973): Mycophagous Tubulifera of India (Thysanoptera : Insecta) Occ. Publ. No. 2 Ent. Res. Unit. Loyal. Coll. Madras, pp. 144. Burgess, A. and Raw, F. (1967): Soil Biology. Academic Press. London and New York. Choudhuri, D. K. and Roy, S. (1971) : Seasonal fluctuation and vertical distribution of the genus Lepidocyrtus (Collembola: Insecta) in some uncul- tivated fields of gangetic West Bengal. Rev. Ecol. Biol. Sol. 8(2) : 253-259. Doeksen, I. and Van der Drift, J. eds. (1963): Soil organisms, North Holland, Amsterdam. Edwards, C. A. (1962) : Springtail damage to bean seedlings. Plant Pathol. 77:67-68. Gisin, G. (1952): Oekologische studien uber die collembolen des Blattkomposts. Rev. Suisse Zool., 59:543-78. Hale, W. G. (1963) : The Collembola of eroding blanket bog-soil organisms (ed. J. Doeksen & J. Van der Drift): 406-413. Haarlov, N. (1960) : Microarthropods from Danish soils, ecology and phenology. Oikos, suppl., 5:1-165. Kevan, D. K. McE. (1955) : Soil Zoology. (But- terworths, London). Kubiena, W. L. (1955): Animal activity in soils as a decisive factor in establishment of humus forms. Soil Zoology, 73-82. (Butterworths, London). Kuhnelt, W. (1961): Soil Biology. 1-395 (Fa- ber & Faber, London, 1961). Murphy, P. (1955): Ecology of the fauna of forest soils. Soil Zoology, 99-124. (Butterworths, London) . Macfadyen, A. (1962): Extraction techniques for soil arthropods. Advan. Ecol. Res., 7:1-34. Morikawa, K. (1957): Terrestrial fauna of Ka- shima Islets in the Bay of Tanbe, Wakayama Pen- fecture. Publ. Seto mar. biol. Lab. 6:233-234. Mitra, S. K., Hazra, A. K. and Sanyal, A. K. (1977) : Ecology of Collembola at the Eden gar- dens, Calcutta. Ecol. Bull. ( Stockholm ) 25: 539-544. Nielsen, C. D. (1955) : Survey of a year’s re- sults obtained by a recent method for the extraction of soil-inhabiting enchytrarid worms. Soil Zoology: 202-214. Butterworths, London. Prabhoo, N. R. (1976): Soil micro-arthropods of a virgin forest and adjoining tea fields in the Western ghats in Kerala — A brief ecological study. Ori. ent. Ins., 76(3) :435-442. Wali work, J. A. (1970) : Ecology of soil ani- mals. McGraw-Hill, pp. 283. London and New York. (1976) : Distribution and diver- sity of soil fauna. Academic Press. London and New York, pp. 355. Yosii, R. (1955): Meerinsekten der Tokara in- seln VI. Collembolen. Publ. seto marine Biol. Lab., 2-3, 379-401. 631 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR K. S. Dharmakumarsinhji1 {With four plates) In this Jubilee Journal I intend to review some of the changes I have seen in wildlife of Ka- thiawar since my early days and give import- ance to some of my reminiscences and inte- resting happenings I have noted in the past almost fifty years. Kathiawar in Western India was unique in having most of the peninsula under the rule of Princes of which the three largest states were, Junagadh, Nawanagar and Bhavnagar having territories of over 2800 sq. miles. The Baroda State had enclaves in Am- reli and Okhamandal and many states had isolated villages scattered throughout Kathia- war. British India lands were also woven into this fabric of Princely states with the British Agent placed at Rajkot. Some of the states had their Military and separate Judi- ciary. I shall not go into details of adminis- tration but all Princes had the prerogative rights of hunting in their own states. These rulers maintained a Shikar department or staff, thus shikar (all type of hunting) was a part and parcel of the Princely Order in which the State Administrators (Dewans) normally did not interfere. Although most princes en- joyed shikar not all indulged in it. Neverthe- less, wildlife, specially game species were jea- lously guarded, not always under legislation but under rules of game management. The un- written code was that no animal life should be killed without permission of the ruler and that the game habitat should be totally pro- tected even against cutting of roadside trees. The shikar-cum-forest departments existed in 1 Dil Bahar, Bhavnagar- 364 002. the larger states and since the Junagadh state had the largest forest in the Gir and Girnar, it commenced to employ a qualified retired Forest Officer and roads were made to ex- ploit teak and miscellaneous dry deciduous and bamboo forests. But the main importance of the Gir was for the protection of the vani- shing Asiatic lion, its prey and its habitat. From 1928 to 1938 the position of wildlife in Kathiawar was of tremendous interest. In 1928 I had returned from England after schooling, in which country I knew more about British birds than those of India. The impact on me of seeing an immense number of birds and game animals in Kathiawar was tremendous and I started game shooting in earnest. Bird life in Kathiawar was abundant and more trusting than what I had seen in England and I was interested in identification. My early recollection of seeing the now ex- tinct Grey Hornbill in Gir forest revealed to me the new type of bird life of India. My earliest sighting of the great Indian bustard was when a 4 Vaghari ’, one of my late father’s trappers, brought a bird during the monsoon for the Palace table. Even before my father’s time this bird was considered a delicacy by many princes in India. I had enquired about the trapped bird and was told that it could not survive in captivity, but I think no attempt was made, and the bird found its way to the kitchen. Later when my brother became the ruler, he put a stop to the practice and no more bustards were snared thereafter. To me as a young boy large birds stood out conspicuously, and among these the Sarus Crane and the Bustard impressed 632 Plate I J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Dharmakumarsinhji : Wildlife of Kathiawar Above : Girnar (north aspect). Below : Asiatic Lion — Gir Forest. (Photos : Author) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Dharmakumarsinhji : Wildlife of Kathiawar Plate II Above : Thom Forest, Sihor Hills (almost pure Acacia Senegal ). Below : A stream in Gir Forest. (Photos : Author ) THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR me most. The then Dhrangadhra Ruler had the largest and best preserve of the ‘Ghorad’ (great Indian bustard) and he had made rules to inflict heavy penalties on those who killed this bird. Many states had grasslands where this grand bird was found, infact it was found all over Kathiawar, except the Gir, Girnar, Barda and smaller hill forests. Large tracts of grasslands, some of it ideal savanna were seen in Okhamandal, Junagadh, Nawanagar, Bhavnagar, Jasdan, Wadhwan, Rajkot, Vir- pur, Bagasra, Bhadwas Wankaner, Morvi and smaller owners of “Vidis” (grasslands), also contained bustards at various times of the year. In many of these areas during the mon- soon season the lesser florican ( Khad-Mor ) was seen frequently but was unfortunately shot indiscriminately during the breeding season. The conspicuous pied males were the most shot. The Princes of Kathiawar were a hospitable lot, and many were most generous and by and large, big and small rulers offered shikar when- ever we visited them. At home, I had the sin- gular advantage of learning more about game birds from the Fauna volumes by E. C. Stuart-Baker, and from listening to old shi- karies including some of my father’s contem- poraries and from an Englishman who had been Vice-President of the Bhavnagar State Minority Administration Council, Mr. A. H. E. Mosse, who was a Sportsman who had not only shot big game in Somaliland, Africa, but also had considerable experience in India and was a noted Lepidopterist. When I iden- tified the first Marbled Teal, a rather rare species of duck in Kathiawar in a Duck Bag, Mosse was surprised, and congratulated me and gave me encouragement. Since then I had always made it a point to examine all ducks shot. In those days, 1928 to 1938, there were not many large tanks in Kathiawar and I recollect that the winters were colder and the hot weather more severe. The cold winters attracted huge masses of waterfowl and these were unmolested in the small village tanks until a few weeks in winter when duck shoot- ing was in vogue, but most tanks were left untouched. In the well-known duck tanks, the ducks were abundant and Shoveller, Pintail, Pochard and Teal were conspicuous. Coots were almost in equal numbers, if not more, in the larger tanks. Most princes encouraged by Englishmen, indulged in organizing ‘Duck Shoots’. The best shoots I have seen were those organized by Maharaja Raj Saheb Shri Ghanshyamsinhji of Dhrangadhra, who could tell every species on the wing and who was a jovial hospitable host. Maharaja Maharana Raj Saheb of Wankaner, Shri Amarsinhji, who had some of the best ‘Jheels’ for ducks ar- ranged duck shoots on a grand scale. Both the States were in Jhalawar prant in N. E. Kathiawar. A famous ‘Jheel’ nearer than Lakhtar for duck was Chandrelia where the real big shoots were organized. In earlier times Maharaja Ranjitsinhji, the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar the famous Indian Cricketer-Administrator orga- nised duck-shoots in which early records of the Common Sheldrake, Greylag Geese and other birds were shot near Balambha on the northern Kathiawar border. I was a young boy of 12 when I shot my first duck, a shovel- ler drake in the duck shoots of January 31, 1929 at Wankaner, on the occasion of the marriage of the present Raj Saheb Shri Pra- tapsinhji of Wankaner. This day was the cold- est day I have ever felt in Kathiawar. There was a layer of frost on the pool of the Palace when we went out for the duck shoot wrap- ped in woollens and overcoats. On the way to the duck jheels I saw a pair of great Indian 633 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 bustards. At this early age I clearly remember noting some of the duck in the duck bags. Most of these contained Common Teal, Gar- ganey. Shoveller, Common, Tufted and White- Eyed Pochards, Gadwall, Wigeon, and Pin- tail. I also noticed a few pairs of Mallard, Comb duck and Redcrested Pochard, and realized later how rare the Comb duck was then. Although I did not notice then but Les- ser Whistling Teal must have been shot too. Teal and Shoveller were doubtless the most common duck shot followed by Common Pochard. As small game was so abundant in those days shooting days were many. Most of the shooting was done by organizing beats in which Partridges (Painted & Common Grey), and Hare were the main species shot with a sprinkling of Quails. Sandgrouse was not shot at the waterside but by walking up. No small game was shot from a car. In fact, migratory crane which were seen on the roadside while driving were left untouched as the guns were still in their cases. Walking up cranes is not easy and flight shooting of cranes had not begun, until the fifties, so the cranes had an easy time. Occasionally an Englishman shot the Thick-knee or the Goggle-Eyed Plover for the table. Green Pigeon in South and East Kathiawar where the birds were found, were occasionally shot for the table. In the early thirties I once remember seeing Greylag Geese at Bhavnagar, but these birds could not have been so rare as they are mentioned in the old Kathiawar Gazetteer as being found in the Gheds, a type of lagoons in S.W. coastal area: on the Little Rann of Kutch geese have been shot. Snipe shooting was common in some states specially to please the English sports- men and even birds such as the Painted Snipe (which is really a rail) and the diminutive Jack Snipe were also shot. Large bags of snipe were never made and ten or twenty couple was considered a good bag, with two or three guns. As there was so much scrub and brush cover for small game in fallow land, the need to shoot in ‘Wadis’ (irrigated farms) was not necessary. Therefore, the countryside was full of small game. Most of the beaters were trained to pick up fallen and wounded game and gun dogs were seldom used. Col. D. S. Bedi, who was District Magistrate at Rajkot always used dogs and was a keen fal- coner. Later my brother always used gun-dogs. Generally all small game shoots commenced at dawn and ended before breakfast and some- times before lunch. Whereas, duck shoots started just before or after breakfast. Some of these grand shoots went on the whole day and for days, with breakfast, lunch and tea being served in the butts or at a ‘rendezvous’ site. When tanks were placed far from each other, ducks returned to them regularly during the shoot. As there were so many ducks in the larger tanks, they got used to gunfire and were reluctant to rise. The cease fire bugle was sounded when most ducks had departed or were flying too high and blown again when the shooting was allowed after most ducks had realighted. When I look back at these duck shoots I feel that they were really a great slaughter in which the birds had no chance of escape except by keeping out of shot range high in the air. When birds did not take wing in the middle of a tank, boats were sent out to flush them. Notwithstanding these, I would not have recognised so easily the ducks in the hand or in flight, but for the duck shoots. Field Guides to Birdwatch- ing had not been invented. In fact most of the so-called birdwatching was in quest of game shooting, in which the shikaries were experts. I learnt to see the squatting hare or Partridge in cover with the help of shikaries and vagha- 634 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR ries. Later this ability was useful to us when coursing hare with Australian and English greyhounds. From the 1930s onwards I wit- nessed the best shikar period in Kathiawar and game species seemed abundant and inexhaust- ible. It was an age of sport in which. Cheetah hunting. Caracal hunting. Falconry, Fox hunt- ing with hounds plus long dogs. Pig-sticking, and game shooting was indulged in. There was never a case of not bagging what one wanted. Blackbuck, Chinkara, Nilgai and Wild Boar were abundantly scattered all over the penin- sula and the ubiquitous Opuntia and Eup- horbia (Cacti) afforded ideal cover to small game and even to the wild boar, panther and lion. Pig-sticking was indulged in by Princes and cavalry officers in which I have seen the best of sport. Capt. Ravubha B. Gohel, win- ner of the Salmon Cup from the Bhavnagar Lancers was as good as any. My brother, (Krishnakumarsinhji) used the spear with great courage and accuracy and he had mas- tered killing the boar with one spear in the heart, a technique which required great skill. He organized a Zulu Spear Hunt by getting the lancers to surround a sounder of wild pigs and spearing them on foot in which he himself participated. On another occasion when a large 35" high boar was unyielding to beaters in a sugar cane brake, he dismount- ed and speared him on foot inside the brake and luckily escaped being gored. The boar was flushed and speared soon after. The Nawanagar and Jasdan Princes also did pig- sticking. Kumar Shri Jiva Khacher of Jasdan being known for his elan in this sport. Amongst the larger states, Junagadh, per- haps, had the largest number of wild boar in the Gir hills, and boar were abundant on the outskirts of the Gir and Girnar hills. At Ma- huva, (Bhavnagar State) I remember seeing sounders of over 500, the master boars gnash- ing their tusks with foaming mouths and red- shot eyes, raising their crest and displaying side whiskers aggressively when approached. There were at least 2000 to 4000 wild boar in the Coconut-cum-Mango plantation at Ranbag (Mahuva). These animals were a serious cause of grievance to farmers whose crops they ra- vaged. The Dewan had to intervene and re- quest the ruler to mitigate this evil by reduc- ing their numbers. At one or more occasions, the Military were called to slaughter them, but later owing to the inadequacy of the men and type of arms used, the control measures were taken over by members of our family and friends. I joined these summer parties in which beats were arranged during which ani- mals were shot and speared. Gunning the pigs when resting during day time was also done as was the practice in the Victoria Park, Bhavnagar when pigs were overabundant. Most of the wild boar took refuge in Babul thickets and Opuntia hedges. At Dholera, pigs in flat country were found in marshy seacoast as well as in the Opuntia clumps whereas in the scrub hills the Euphorbia cacti and ravines harboured the most. In Junagadh State, and parts of Barda Hills, the muslim forest guards did not eat pig flesh and so the wild boar in- creased in huge numbers. In the Hindu States, the Nilgai, was a great nuisance to farmers, as the people considered it a cattle-species and hence it was seldom killed. Nilgai was over- abundant in many states and it afforded sport when shooting in the hills or scrubs. In both these species control measures were wholly in- adequate to suit farmers. I often shot wild boar from horseback and from motor car, less often nilgai which I liked to stalk. It was not a difficult animal to bag if you knew where to place the first shot, the neck or shoulder but gave considerable trouble once wounded. A buffy-white Nilgai bull was shot by the Tha- 635 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ltore saheb of Palitana. Of Blackbuck, Bhavnagar and Nawanagar had the largest herds. Junagadh had large herds near Veraval. In fact, this antelope was found in most States. During the rule of Jam Ran jit - sinhji, Blackbuck and Chinkara were abun- dant. In the Nawanagar, Baradi sector, and in the Baroda Okhamandal, large concentrations of Blackbuck were seen. Small enclaves such as Atkot near Jasdan, one saw small herds of antelope because of Ranji’s strict game pre- servation. The Bhal area, part of it Bhavnagar state, had huge herds of blackbuck and one could see them in thousands. This part had the richest grassland in kathiawar where great Indian bustards and florican bred regularly. There were many such but smaller areas in kathiawar. The largest blackbuck head of 29" length was shot in Morvi, whereas, quite a number of 27 and 28 inchers have been mea- sured from Bhavnagar and Datha areas. These horn lengths are good as any in India. When we were guests of the Nawab Moha- batkh-anji of Junagadh, the Dewan took us by special train to Veraval. During the journey the instructions to the Guard was to stop the train when herds of blackbuck were seen close to the line so that my brother could fire from the Royal saloGn. This shows how undisturbed the antelope were. I saw much of antelope and gazelle in the states of Junagadh, Nawa- nagar, Bhavnagar, Virpur, Jasdan, DhroL Lakhtar, Limbdi, Wankaner, Morvi and even in Mangrol. Very few were seen in Gondal state whose wise ruler (Maharaja Bhagwat- sinhji) did not tolerate any damage to crops by game animals and owing to the state’s rich cotton soil the farmers prospered, and were not hampered by damage of crops by game species. British territory contained game but in less quantity as roving officers shot game regularly and had no shikar staff. Mangrol-on- the Sea had a fine coastal forest of Euphorbia in which small game and panther were found and in the forties even lions strayed into it. So large were the Euphorbia clumps that ‘ma- chans’ could be built in the centre, from which I have watched panthers at the kill. This jungle was known as the ‘Qada’, some of it, extended into the golf links in which Chinkara bedded, and spoilt some of the 'Browns . The Sheikh of Mangrol, Abdul Khaliq, was a keen wild life preserver, and he even introduced the Red Spur Fowl in the ‘Qada’. The birds did quite well there. He was also a keen falconer and I often took our team of hawks to com- pete with his: The climate on the Bhader river is peculiar in having morning mists on warm winter days, but soon after, the weather becomes quite cool and we found our hawks in better fettle during these days. In the thirties. Marsh Crocodiles Crocodylus palustris were to be seen in most tanks and rivers of kathiawar in which they regularly bred. All tanks contained many kinds of fish and species such as Mahseer, Murrel, Mullet and carps were also seen in rivers and streams and afforded good fishing. In the estuaries the Sea Perch ( Lates calcarifer) and Rawas or In- dian Salmon gave anglers good sport. At Jas- dan, I first came across the Glass Fish (Ambas- sis) which the Durbarsaheb Ala khacher had kept in his aquarium for me. On the seacoast, marine Turtles, mostly Ridleys were a com- mon sight, although some eggs were taken by fisher folk and many often dug up and devour- ed by jackals. Watching Turtles come out from the sea to lay eggs was great fun on moonlit nights at high tide. The months of May to July were the best. On the kathiawar seaboard, many beaches were protected as temple areas and no fishing or exploiting of marine resources was allowed. These were the sanc- tuaries where I saw most marine animal life 636 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR and sea birds. On certain coasts. Hyaenas liv- ed in caves which were full of bats. I have seen myriads of bats emerging from caves and holes on the south-east coast of Kathiawar. Hyaenas also lived in stone quarries in com- pany of porcupines and it was amusing to watch these animals in full moonlight. The entire belt of the Little Rann of Kutch from Kharaghoda on the east to Morvi-Maliya on the west had thousands of Indian Wild Asses. These hardy animals could stand drought living in the hottest and driest parts of Kathiawar. They were safe from predators although occasionally a stray leopard or some wolves v/ould take a few solitary animals. None shot them as big game, although the flesh is known to be excellent. Chasing of these ani- mals from cars was a common practice and became a regular practice later for those tak- ing photographs. On the rann border and in the Cappuris studded grasslands in Dhranga- dhra, as well as in cotton fields, the great In- dian bustard could be easily seen and near Halvad, the Brahmins afforded much protec- tion to Blackbuck, Chinkara and Nilgai. Simi- larly, typical Antelope habitats contained bustards in Okhamandal, the Panchal in the central Kathiawar plateau where the last of the Indian Cheetahs were killed, and in practi- cally all low grassland hills. The game posi- tion was so bountiful that one could come across any of the big game anywhere in Ka- thiawar except the Asiatic Lion, and Deer. While out small game shooting with R. K. Chandrabhanusinhji in the grass hills of Wan- kaner we suddenly came upon a panther, a lucky one that escaped as we had no rifle at the time. The Wankaner hills were noted for their grasslands where lesser florican, part- ridges, peafowl, and rain quails were seen in abundance not to mention chinkara, nilgai, and panther. The similar Rajkot terrain was also good but game was much persecuted there. I have seen great Indian bustard from the train near Wadhwan, and on the way to Jasdan and Dwarka. I found that the noise of the train did not disturb the birds if they were 100 yards or more from the railway line. In fact the bustard was found in small numbers every- where except in the steep hill forest ranges. Trapping and snaring of small game was under control except for the ubiquitous Hare which still is persecuted by one and all meat-eating people of Kathiawar. Princes were not really interested in shooting the great Indian bustard but did so sometimes. Although muzzle-loaders were quite common amongst rural people, most of these arms were used to scare animals and birds off crop fields but poachers did misuse them occasionally. A landlord would also shoot Antelope, Gazelle and small game on his land, more for the taste of it than for sport. The farming during the monsoon consisted chiefly of cereals, such as Millet and Milo often mixed with leguminous plants, and lin- seed, chilli, onions, lucerne, sugar cane and cotton. Ground nut farming was increasing rapidly. During the forties, the Bhavnagar ruler who had an establishment for hunting with hawks and falcons and African Cheetahs as a hereditary sport found the feeding of hawks a problem, and therefore got Punjab experts to catch and train Common grey Quails as ‘callers’ so as to attract the migra- tory birds to alight on certain fields where they were netted. These quails were captured to feed the hawks. Later, as the quails were so good eating, they were captured in greater quantity and fattened during the season. In the trapping operations. Harriers were a great nuisance as these hawks followed the quail migration and were caught in the nets often breaking them. They also disturbed the quails before netting, but since much of the netting 637 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 took place before dawn, the harriers did not always intervene. During this period October to early December, I came across Hen Har- riers which are seldom seen now. In the net- ting, partridges and florican also got caught but were released. Netting of house crows and house pigeons was done to supply meat to the Falconry Units. This was a period when Rap- tors were seen in abundance, and one would often see waves of Harriers, Kestrels, Eagles, Laggar falcons and quite a number of Pere- grine falcons on the seacoast from October to December. Sakers were also regularly seen in the more arid areas. The White-Eyed Buzzard was the most abundant bird of prey seen sitting on telegraph poles and one could count it by the dozen in any train or motor journey in Kathiawar. The Redheaded Merlin though uncommon was seen in every country- side. Kestrels arrived by the hundred but the Black-winged Kite was not seen so frequently as the other raptors nor the Shahin Falcons. The Tawny and Bonelli’s Eagles bred often close to towns, the latter even on old Palaces, but it preferred the more hilly areas, where game was more plentiful. At Rozy near Jamnagar Port, the Maharaja Ranjitsinhji had created a small game preserve in which large number of grey and painted partridges had been introduced for organized Game Shoots. Later chital were introduced and are protected till this day by the present Jam Saheb. As artificial breeding of game birds was not done in India, huge number of netted birds were released in this small pre- serve with hares. In the early thirties, I remem- ber attending the grand Rozy shoot when crates of game birds had been emptied pre- vious to the coming Silver Jubilee of the Ma- haraja Jam Saheb on 2nd April 1932. The chances of running out of cartridges was the risk one took, as it was the case in some of the big duck shoots although many princes supplied cartridges to guests who often fired away at birds out of range or peppered the beaters with lead to the embarassment of the host. At the grand Rozy shoot the great Ranji happened to be walking without his gun next to me, and applauding a good shot to encour- age me as I was the youngest sportsmen in the party. What amazed me was that, in this seaside preserve, the bag consisted of Chukor and Black Partridges which are not found in Kathiawar. Ranji used to have a lorry full of grain which went round the roads for feeding the game and I witnessed a sight which I had never seen before, for when this truck went round it honked and partridges and hares would run to the road to be fed as a spray of grains fell on the road like drops of water from a road watering truck. He also had men with guns shooting vermin day and night. The abundance of blackbuck and chinkara and small game in Nawanagar State was incredible. In any direction from Jamnagar except towards the sea, one could see any number of these Antilopinae. Those were the days when one got trigger-happy shooting small and big game alike. I shot my first Leopard at Kileshwar in the Jamnagar Barda Hills sitting next to Ranji and his nephews. A trained dog seemed to be following the panther closely almost at its heels which seemed extraordinarily unusual. This dog was an expert in flushing the panther from his lair and was the key agent in most of these shikar hunts. (It reminded me of the pied pariah dog of Ranbag (Mahuva) which chased and halted wild boar by fixing its teeth on the scrotum after they had been missed by shooters from Machans so that they could be despatched by the axe later.) No sooner had I shot the panther, the dog retreated and a beater ran in with an axe to give the spotted 638 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR cat its final blow. It was an amazingly well organized show and Ranji himself a very keen Panther hunter knew much about the habits of the species and how to beat it. The pan- ther, was found in most of the forest and scrub areas of kathiawar although it had been over shot during the early century but was now rapidly coming back. The Panther was a game which was seldom shot except by Princes and their guests. The Gir forest had some very large specimens reaching eight feet, (between pegs). The panther population in the Gir was evidently larger than that of the lion. And many panthers were shot during the late thirt- ies in all parts of Kathiawar. Some were even killed in desert and fields by villagers, as the species had multiplied in its habitat beyond carrying capacity. In the Gir forest, lions were judiciously pro- tected by the Nawab of Junagadh with the result that the population soon began to in- crease when British Dewans, Sir Patrick Cadell and G. E. Monteath were administrators. The Nawab never was keen on lion shoots but there was a constant demand from Princes and guests to shoot lions. Most of these requests were turned down. In 1929 special permission was granted to Mr. Arthur Vernay, a vice-pat- ron of the BNHS, to collect a pair for the American Museum of Natural History, New York. As the population of lions was increas- ing rapidly. Princes and Viceroys of India were invited for shoots. And the walls of the Hunt- ing Lodge or Camp at Sasangir were fully studded with photographs of VIPs standing over dead lions with a retinue of aides, and shikaries. My brother was invited to shoot a lion but when the photographer was called to take a photograph of the lion and the group, he ordered that all rifles should be taken away for the photograph as the lion shot from the machan was not an act of bravery and an easy animal to bag but he appreciated the invita- tion of the Nawab Saheb to shoot a lion. This was partly in token of a loyal officer of the Bhavnagar State Lancers Colonel Sardarsingh who had been loaned to the Nawab and had rendered faithful service to the Nawab and to whom was conferred the title of Tazmi-Sardar. During those years, the Nawab’s hospitality was lavish and he considered our family as brothers allowing us to meet the Begum and Rani sahebs who were under strict purdah. When the Junagadh Gir lions had increased beyond their carrying capacity and wandered into neighbouring states, the adjoining states took advantage and shot lions almost indiscri- minately. This was most humiliating to the Junagadh ruler but nothing could be done as the ‘nomad’ lions killed cattle outside his ter- ritory and the Nawab Saheb was not ready to pay compensation owing to state rights and lack of proper evidence. Many of the states in Kathiawar were paying tribute to the Nawab in cash, as a settlement of olden times, through British guarantee. A very interesting event hap- pened when I was in Junagadh Gir. Two well- known Princes were invited in the early forties to shoot a lion each at the same time. After the senior ruler had shot his lion, he insisted on watching the lion shoot of his brother prince from another machan. When he saw that the lion beaten out was larger than what he had shot, he promptly intervened by firing at him, killing him dead, before he reached the ma- chan of his younger friend. This created dis- satisfaction, to say the least and the younger prince then asked the Nawab to allow him to shoot two lions which permission was given after the elder prince had left. The game position in the gir was excellent. Wild Boar specially, were seen in huge sound- ers and were swarming in the forest but chital were mostly found in fair numbers in the Jam- 639 6 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 wala forest division of the gir. The Sambar and Nilgai being common. I have seen Four- horned antelopes in groups of 4 and 5. And as cars were seldom allowed on forest roads all game animals allowed close approach, standing motionless or crossing the roadside to see what a car looked like. The wild boar developed huge tusks living alongside with lions and panthers and showed defiance when approached on foot. Nilgai were found in all thorn forests of Kathiawar and were the least molested creating havoc to crops as did the wild boar. A defiant Blue Bull was killed by a Railway engine near port Albert Victor (B.S.). In the thirties, I know of no game species which may have been considered as endanger- ed. The lion was the only rare species threat- ened with extinction in Asia, or rather India but this carnivore was increasing rapidly. A lion reserve at Mytiala (Bhavnagar State) had been created to extend the range of the lion and in which later discreet shooting of lions was done. The great Indian bustard which doubtless was restricted to certain habitats and localities was not persecuted, and could be considered uncommon and yet where it occur- red it could always be seen easily even at close quarters. Since the species does not breed ra- pidly laying one egg and maturity taking some years, the increase is very slow. The Grey Hornbill of the gir forest was killed surrepti- tiously for its medicinal value and there is no doubt that it was rare in the gir forest at the time. The population of sambar and wild boar was nearing saturation point in the Girnar hills and increasing rapidly in gir hills and since serious working of forest had not begun, the vegetation in both areas was dense and conducive to the safety of game species : A sort of wilderness area full of malaria and small pox. In all areas of Kathiawar religious sites. be they Hindu or Moslem, afforded special protection to wildlife including marine life, and freshwater animals. Such areas were conspi- cuous for holding game species and respected as sanctuaries by the princes and people alike. The Gir forest, a sanctum sanctorum, yet had more game close to the temples of Kunkesh- wari, Banej, Kamleshwar, and Tulsishyam. Hundreds of temple sites strewn all over the province preserved wildlife, including croco- diles. Thus these religious enclaves served as wildlife sanctuaries and were a great asset. At Sandhida Mahadeo near Sanosra, some 34 miles from Bhavnagar, blackbuck were tame enough to drink from the temple ‘ kund ’ (water- hole) and the bucks were seen to sleep on their sides and turn over on their back in front of the temple. Dr. S. Dillon Ripley II, the famous American Ornithologist, was amazed to see such a sight when he was my guest in the forties. At this time a project to ring Les- ser Florican in Bhavnagar State was launched to study migration. Near Mithi Vidi, a fresh- water pool on the seashore off Trapaj contain- ed a huge Marsh crocodile which was worship- ped by the local villagers as a Goddess, (Mata- jee) and people bathed in the pool unmolested, a sight I can never forget. The Vala Rajputs near Mahuva, considered blackbuck sacred on their lands, and the antelope enjoyed complete safety until one police officer abrogated it for supplying meat to sailors. Similarly the Muli Prince did not kill the grey partridge in his state since one of his ancestors had given re- fuge to a wounded bird in his battle tent. The Peafowl was always venerated by the Hindus and enjoyed full protection by the people as did the immense population of the blue rock pigeon. Both these species therefore became overabundant causing considerable nuisance to farmers. House pigeons were frequently prey- ed upon by house cats and by practically all 1 640 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR birds of prey. Yet the numbers never seemed to have diminished. Shooting of pigeons was not permitted and people did not shoot doves as a sport. Both species were very common, and still are. The panther took advantage of the abundance of peafowl in forest areas and also the jungle cats. The Langur Monkey found in the Gir and Girnar forests was fully controlled by panthers and was uncommon. Soon after World War II broke out, the position of wildlife did not take such a drastic change as in some other parts of India where Military were given ‘carte blanche’ to shoot wild game, since most of the Kathiawar pen- insula was under Princely rule. During the war period, wildlife in general was still increasing and as there was strict rationing of petrol, people had less time to drive about after game. Princely shoots nevertheless continued and much entertainment to the services personnel was extended. Most of the big game shooting was directed on antelope and gazelle and wild boar, and the big cats. The grow-more- food campaign, restricted the widespread grow- ing of ground nut as a cash crop, millets were encouraged and thus during the autumn, large number of Eastern Common Crane were seen on the coastal areas, whereas Demoiselle crane which feeds largely on left over ground nut and grass seeds was seen in central Kathiawar in good numbers. The former crane arrived earlier in east Kathiawar but the latter were the first to arrive in the Bhal sometimes as early as August. During the war period, lions and panthers had increased with an abundance of natural prey. Near the cultivated tracts, the panther fed much upon domestic animals but as peafowl, hare, chinkara and wild boar were common, this feline did prey on them: The village pariah dog was always a choice food for the panther though it usually preferred goat meat. Wolves were not really rare but seldom encountered. What was interesting to note during the thirties and forties was that farming had not reached high intensity and chasing of wounded antelope and chasing wild boar in the open fields was possible with motor cars. At Mahuva, for instance we captured a white Indian antelope, a mutant which breeds true, by tiring the animal down in stages by chas- ing over rough flat country, an impossibility now under present farming and soil conserva- tion methods. A small herd of white blackbuck had already been formed in captivity and was doing very well at Bhavnagar. In Victoria Park, Bhavnagar, chital were reintroduced and now had large herds, and a variety of game species, such as wild boar, chinkara, blackbuck, nilgai, and the introduced. Hog Deer and red spur- fowl which were seen breeding. Small game was plentiful. At Jamnagar, Rozy Preserve, Chital were doing very well and the African Guinea fowl also in the Nawanagar Barda hills. The entire Barda hills, contained some Sam- bar, Chital, Wildboar, Nilgai, and Leopard which had shown increase. I have seen half dozen panthers in one evening drive there. Crocodiles were found in the tanks and in Okhamandal also. Drought was always a pro- blem in Kathiawar, and therefore, irrigation tanks and wells were being made in increasing numbers. By the end of the forties, innumer- able tanks with irrigation canals were seen with the result that there was a greater distri- bution of water and consequently an increase in waterfowl throughout the peninsula. A drastic change in wildlife conditions was seen at the dawn of Independence when severe famine threatened the people and gave way for indiscriminate killing of wildlife, mostly the abundant game species. Any holder of 641 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 arms could kill game and the shikar admini- stration of the Princes came to a sudden halt although certain exclusive rights of shooting were given to the Princes. The Bhavnagar ruler in particular did not much care for these rights as the rights of protecting wildlife and its habitat had been taken over by the Sau- rashtra State forest department. With the end of Princely rule one saw the tragic commence- ment of the destruction of big and small game species. Moreover, the establishment of the Military station at Dhrangadhra was a great blow to wildlife, as army personnel hunted game freely and the great Indian bustard was much endangered. In Saurashtra, the Chief Minister ordered game animals to be shot at sight in fields. Res- trictions on arms was relaxed and the so-called criminal nomadic tribes killed game indiscri- minately. Some of these tribes were rehabilitat- ed in central Kathiawar plateau where game had been strictly preserved with the result that it was soon depleted. Notwithstanding, it was after Independence that important dams on the rivers, Shetrunji, Bhader, Machoo, Sasoi and some smaller rivers were constructed and this enabled a more perennial source of water for industrial towns, and irrigated a consider- able command area of agricultural land through canals. Cement and tar roads for bus services were made and villages were well con- nected by this service. Saurashtra as the State Union was known became a land of lakes and roads. It already had a network of Railways. This improvement in wet land, en- abled a large number of water birds to breed and the fish supply attracted an enormous number of fish-eating birds, from pelicans to the smallest terns and kingfishers. Marsh areas increased and water fowl of many species bred. The Spotbill duck and Comb ducks were in- creasingly seen and frequent sightings of Cot- ton Teal were recorded. In contrast denudation of forest had begun under scientific working plans specially in the Gir and Girnar forests whereas the Barda and Shetrunjaya hill ranges were being cut heavily with the result that for- est cover and its wildlife was being reduced rapidly. Babul and Bamboo and clear felling of teak and mixed deciduous trees caused for- ests to be opened out on a large scale. Thus the 1950-60 period was the most critical for forest and wildlife. And yet until 1955 the lion population had been increasing. In 1950, the first lion census was conducted under the guid- ance of Mr. Wynter Blyth a very competent naturalist. The trend of lion increase was not- ed until the second census in 1955, at which time lion poisoning had just commenced. When the Lion Show, for tourists commenced during Bilingual Bombay state, lion poisoning by Gir maldharies increased and the lion population was on the decrease. The lion census of 1963 was suspect for the lion population had by then somewhat crashed. Earlier widespread poaching in the Gir forest was seen and da- coits had made their home in the forests with the result that Police were swarming over the forests, often poaching game. This decade (1950-60) was perhaps the worst for wildlife of Kathiawar. Between the two lions censuses in the fifties, the game position in the Gir forest had slowly deteriorated and the Grey Hornbill seemed to have become extinct. The redeem- ing factor was creation of the new wildlife ' legislation based on the Bombay Wild Ani- i mals & Birds Protection Act, 1951 under which a State Wildlife Advisory Board was formed. The Gir forest was not declared a sanctuary but for a small scrub forest known as the Deo- lia Sanctuary. Lions were shot by special in- vitees of the Rajpramukh of Saurashtra with a quota of two per year. Some very fine maned lions were bagged each year. On one occasion 642 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR the increased annual quota of four lions was exceeded and six lions, all good males were shot by various Princes. The shooting of a few lions had no significance to the growing lion population although the best breeding speci- mens were those that were killed. From 1959 onwards no permission was given to shoot lions and this continued when the Gujarat state was formed. Everywhere wild boar and ungulates were slowly being reduced by poach- ers including some ex-princes and landlords and also government officers. Any one who possessed a licensed arm and ate meat shot game and clandestine game markets were open- ed in some small towns. Despite this sad si- tuation, there still existed big game, small herds of blackbuck, chinkara, nilgai scattered all over Saurashtra but the wild boar was much reduced. And the widespread Opuntia Cacti which gave it protection had been wiped out almost completely in Kathiawar. Thus a sizable cover for wild boar and small game was lost. Leopards, however, were fairly fre- quent in the hill ranges. During these years, intensive farming had begun. Ground nut was being planted on a larger scale and many vege- tables such as onions and chillies were grown extensively everywhere, with the result that milo and millets were grown in smaller quan- tity. Rice was grown during good monsoons and sugar cane was spreading with the irrigat- ed Tank and Well systems. In the sixties, a drastic change in Kathiawar wildlife was to be seen. All big game species were reduced, specially wild boar, nilgai, black- buck. and chinkara and even panther popula- tions outside Gir forest. The Barda and Shet- runjaya hills were much denuded and game ungulates and their predators practically wip- ed out. Habitat destruction in fallow and mar- ginal land had grown: The low thorn bush was being removed everywhere for making hedges for protecting irrigated farms with the result that partridge, hare and bush-quail which nested in such cover were seeking re- fuge in farms and had little chance to breed in their restricted natural habitats. Sandgrouse particularly were menaced by nomadic tribes who killed incubating game birds. The ‘Daf- fers’ who possessed illegal guns swept over the peninsula killing game and selling meat. No action was taken against this community and it still continues its nefarious poaching. The Green Pigeon in Eastern Kathiawar so common in Mango and Fici groves was poached and with the denudation of the Sihor hills Forest, which apart from the miscella- neous trees had a pure forest of Acacia Senegal which produces gum of medicinal value and the finest white honey in Kathiawar, (A simi- lar forest existed in Wankaner state) the birds were easily shot. The Green Pigeons of the Gir were being poached for the same medicinal purpose as the grey hornbill but since the “Ha- rial’’ pigeon population was so large it had little effect. More serious was the cutting down of trees which opened the forest considerably. Undergrowth in which small and big game took refuge was removed by forest contractors and poaching of game was rampant. The Gir- nar was overcut as were the outer hills with the result that Sambar were easily poached. Large scale illicit cutting of forest in Gir com- pelled the Forest department to mobilise a spe- cial squad to deal with this menace. During drought years, large number of domestic ani- mals from other parts of Gujarat entered the Gir forest causing serious disturbance to its ecosystem. The Maldharies also were moved to lop and cut trees to feed their animals. By the end of the sixties the wildlife position in Kathiawar was grave. Crocodiles had been re- duced drastically and endangered. With inten- sive farming came the widespread use of pes- 643 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ticides and insecticides and birds of prey com- menced to be affected seriously. Although lion poisoning had been controlled, animal life which ingested poisoned or partly poisoned food was eventually being reduced. Migratory birds of prey. Harriers, kestrels, and eagles and falcons were not seen in the same number during migration. Resident raptors doubtless were much diminished and I saw some being electrocuted by alighting on high voltage pylons. Ground nesting birds were menaced either by roaming cattle or by pilferers of eggs. Predators were able to find nests much more easily owing to lack of natural nesting cover. Civet cats succumbed to poisoned food as did many raptors such as the common White-Eyed Buzzard, Tawny Eagle, and Laggar falcons. Denudation of typical grassland-scrub in hill areas also affected the Short-toed and Bonelli’s Eagles. The situation in the seventies for wild life seemed dismal with the paucity of birds of prey, and birds in general were not seen in the hordes as in the past. The Monitor lizard and snakes so commonly seen everywhere now were less seen except in the semi desert and arid areas. There was, no doubt, a growing change in the increase of waterfowl, for, dur- ing good rainfall, most wet lands had enough water and cover for birds to breed. The in- crease in sighting of Cotton Teal and Ducks such as Spotbills and Nuktas was a sign of progress. Spoonbills, and a variety of herons bred in urban areas and the little brown crake had much extended its range in the widespread marsh habitat. The Sasan- Gir Forest Ecological Study team consisting of young foreign biologists studied . conservation and grazing problems of the Gir forest in in- terest of serving the Asiatic Lion. A Gir Sanc- tuary Project had been started and measures to demarcate the lion habitat and give fuller protection to it was launched. A rubble wall with live hedges was constructed on the vital periphery of the forest at a high cost so as to prevent indiscriminate grazing in the Gir Lion Sanctuary; later a National Park area was established where no cutting or grazing of cat- tle was permitted and a scheme to rehabilitate the innumerable ‘Maldhari’ hamlets outside the main Gir forest was underway. Unfortunately, drought years intervened, and the rehabilitation program had to go slow. Wildlife Department in the form of a Wildlife Wing within the Forest Department was created and this set- up. helped the forest ungulates to recoup in the Gir forest. So satisfying was the progress that in 1974-75, the Gir National Park-cum- Sanctuary was awarded the Trophy for the best managed wildlife reserve in India. The Lion Censuses of 1968 had shown a decrease in the lion population but in 1974 it had reach- ed to 180 lions. Owing to Revenue forest on the Gir periphery having been thinned or plow- ed for agriculture the lion habitat had further shrunk. And yet Chital population had shown an increase and the wild boar population which had crashed was soon coming back. Blackbuck had been seriously depleted through- out Kathiawar and yet, in the Velavadar Sanc- tuary for Blackbuck, the herds had grown until in 1975 a cyclone destroyed nearly a thou- sand. A Census taken in 1976 gave a total of 1676 animals. A National Park for the Indian Antelope was established and a Lodge for vi- sitors is being built. The adjoining Mithapur grassland is now under the plow and has re- duced Blackbuck habitat. Moreover, the inva- sion of Prosopis juliflora endangers the grass- land so vital to the blackbuck. Prosopis juli- flora in Kathiawar is now conspicuous every- where. With it, the stone curlew and small game is seen in fair number. The population of chinkara was so depleted that it has be- 644 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR come a rare animal and this also applies to wild boar and even nilgai. The Nal Sarowar, the largest ‘Jheel’ in Ka- thiawar near Limbdi turns saline towards the dry season and often goes bone dry in the hot weather. This open shallow sheet of water is a sanctuary in which water fowl are constantly disturbed by poachers who live in villages on its periphery. These people are professional netters and snarers and are difficult to control as their livelihood depends upon poaching. The dual administration between the Forest and Tourist departments is wholly inadequate and the Watch Tower for birdwatchers is designed against all principles of watching birds at the waterside despite the advice from experts. And yet, the Nal Sarowar an ideal waterfowl re- fuge is a popular holiday resort for the Ahme- dabad city folk. The best time to see Nal sar- owar is in March when water recedes and water birds of many kinds are in full plumage for their return migration. But one hardly gets a close view of the birds owing to constant human disturbance. On the Kathiawar Seaboard, innumerable salt works now line the shore and these semi saline compartments have attracted countless waders and we now see Common Shelducks formerly so rare. Flamingos of both species, large and small, forage in the compartments with many waders, gulls and terns and one often sees Pelicans. These graceful flyers usual- ly visit many of the larger drying tanks in early summer. In rivers and tanks, fish have been much depleted. Most tanks have small fish with the result that, the Large Cormorant, Fishing Eagles, River and BJackbellied Terns are infrequent whereas little Terns so seldom seen in the past are seen throughout Kathia- war, breeding in salt works and tanks. Croco- diles have disappeared except at Kamleshwar tank in the Gir and in a few remote water courses. Near Sasangir, a Crocodile Breeding Project has been commenced. There are a few temple areas where blackbuck and nilgai are preserved owing to religious sentiments. Small game close to towns has been much reduced by poaching and the Military Stations at Jamna- gar and Dhrangadhra have caused most game to disappear in the nearby areas. The total ban on hunting has not been a solution to the widespread poaching by nomads and hunters who are bent on killing game. Although, there is now more understanding amongst citizens that wildlife preservation and photography holds more importance than kill- ing wildlife, the people who kill game for meat are still at large and the Forest-cum- Wildlife Department is unable to control this menace. There is no dedicated wildlife ser- vice in the state department specially with the transference of officers whose main duties are in forestry. An additional Chief Conser- vator of Forests for Wildlife (G.S.) is now appointed and matters stand at that. Neverthe- less, more sanctuaries are being planned. The so called Sanctuary for the Indian Wild Ass in the Little Rann of Kutch is so large and its components so diverse and scattered that it is like a jig-saw-puzzle and, the boundaries are so interspersed with crop land and salt works that it makes enforcement of regulations a difficult problem. The last Wild Ass Census 1976 showed a population of about 720 ani- mals in comparison with the thousands I have seen in the thirties and forties. No one seems to really know how the animals vanished so rapidly unless perhaps by epidemic disease. An aerial census in 1969 merely conveyed a num- ber less than 400 animals although a small herd had migrated to the Nal Sarowar and stray animals are sometimes seen there. When I surveyed typical habitats of the great Indian bustard in 1970-71 for the World 645 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Wildlife Fund, I was struck by the paucity of antelope and gazelle in those ideal biotopes and as for the bustard it had become very rare. The last stronghold of this species in Kathiawar appears to be in the Jamnagar Dis- trict close to Okhamandal, where the staunch Iyer community allows no trespassing on their lands and the birds seem to realise this pro- tection where they are undisturbed. There is also some waste land where birds breed. Scat- tered birds may be seen in the Panchal plateau and on the Rann border where formerly they were not uncommon. The bird is certainly en- dangered in Kathiawar where nomadic com- munities poaching wildlife are at large. With the establishment of a Wildlife Con- servation Society at Bhavnagar, and World Wildlife Fund Nature Clubs for Young Folks, at Rajkot and other places, a new outlook on education and conservation of nature has been started. Nature camps at Hingolgadh near Jasdan have been a great success and it ap- pears that the area will get recognition and protection by government. Much of this credit goes to Sarvashri Shivarajkumar Khacher and Lavkumar Khacher of Jasdan. But these bo- dies have no right to enforce the Jaws for the protection of wildlife. The Wildlife (Protec- tion) Act, 1972, is exercised by the Forest De- partment mostly through its CCF Wildlife and Wing. Nature Clubs of the World Wildlife Fund has central office at Rajkot and this augurs well for the preservation of wildlife. Owing to denudation of most thorn forests and poaching of rare or uncommon animals such as the Pangolin and Ratel these species Lave become much rarer. These two species were found in many hill areas of Kathiawar; now it appears that their main stronghold is in the Gir and Girnar forests and perhaps Barda hills. Ratel pugmarks are quite commonly ob- served on dusty roads of the Gir forest. The Wolf, is now uncommon and even common canidae such as the Indian Fox is much less common. It is much persecuted by tribal hunt- ers. The species endangered consist mostly of Antelope and Gazelle, and the panther is rare except in the Gir forest. Similar is the case of the wild boar. The Blackbuck is doubtless endangered and the great Indian bustard is threatened with extinction. The common Paint- ed Sandgrouse so common in the low grass stony hills, is seen in less number except in Gir forest. Local populations of birds such as the Green Fruit Pigeon of eastern Kathiawar is much threatened and any species can now become endangered in areas where its biotope is removed or upset. Even the common Sand- grouse is not found as abundantly in the coun- tryside owing to intensive farming and spoil- ing of its low stony and marginal breeding habitats and also to direct killing by nomads. The conspicuous change in the countryside is the intensive farming and with it the large number of tanks and irrigated farms. The spread of Prosopis juliflora is something to be wondered at, for large belts of this plant has created impenetrable thickets and is pro- lific on roadsides. This has solved a problem for supplying fuel and other purpose wood to rural people everywhere. On the coastal belt, it has been planted to stop the spread of desert and sand dunes and acts as a buffer to high winds. It seems to spread rapidly with the movement of domestic livestock. With water conditions being doubtless better than in the past, water birds and birds visiting farm- lands are now fairly commonly seen and even nest. Roadside plantations are slowly coming up but the proper drought resisting species or those affording the best shade are not always planted. In the seventies, the position of wild- life is seen in a transitional stage. It is difficult to say which species of wildlife will be seriously 646 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Dharmakumarsinhji : Wildlife of Kathiawar Plate III Above : Blackbuck in Velavadar Sanctuary (now National Park). Below : Rosy Pelicans at Rajawadla Tank (near Jasdan). (Photos : Author) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Dharmakumarsinhji : Wildlife of Kathiawar Plate IV Biil» Above : Crab Plovers at Ghogha spithead (Gulf of Cambay). Below : Greenshank feeding. (Photos : Author ) THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR affected owing to widespread spraying of in- secticides and pesticides, repercussions of which, have already reduced birds-of-prey, but birds like the Blackwinged Kite which tend to prey upon life which moves in a healthy man- ner are those which have not been seriously affected; the Blackwinged Kite for instance has increased specially with rodent increase, but on the whole raptors have shown decline and species such as the Short-toed, Bonelli’s and Tawny, Eagles have definitely diminished to low numbers also the White-Eyed Buzzard. General denudation of forests in the entire Kathiawar peninsula except for vegetation in farms and the juli flora has caused much of wildlife to be reduced. The large stands of Babul thorn and scrub forest have almost dis- appeared. The many babul trees which during the monsoon stood in ‘jheels’ affording nest- ing cover to waterbirds are now scarcely seen. There is a growing need to create habitats for tree nesting waterfowl. The most drastic im- pact on wildlife is from the conversion of grass- lands into agricultural land. But for certain grasslands covering hills, the plains grasslands have almost totally been destroyed. And now there is no room for the resuscitation of those rich grasslands in which bustards, francolins, quails, and larks bred and sought refuge. The only large sizeable wildlife ecosystems that have survived are those of the Gir and Girnar forests and to some extent the Barda hills. There is a move to save part of the Barda hills by creating a new centre for the Asiatic lion. Whereas, the much denuded Shetrunjaya Hill, near Palitana needs reafforestation as do many of the low thorn forest ranges such as Alecha, Khokhra, Salemar and Lonch hills. The population of goatherds and cattle own- ers have increased so much that it is a real threat to forest vegetation. Tourism in Gir forest to see lions has become popular and there is every possibility of creating more tourism by improved management. The Gir forest is now intersected by roads leading to temples and traffic has increased. Although this does disturb wildlife on the roadside, it is not harmful unless poaching is done from roadside, otherwise the roads afford excellent view of wild animals and forest. The growing population of the Langur monkey in Gir forest needs careful watching. With human increase and artificial feeding these monkeys can be a menace to forest and cropland. With proper fish introduction and turtle and crocodile breeding projects under scientific su- pervision the position of these threatened spe- cies could improve. Control over insecticides and pesticides using only those that are not harmful to wiidlife should save our wildlife from complete destruction. Then only will it be possible to avert the drastic decline in wild- life of Kathiawar but under present day con- ditions it seems difficult to meet the crisis, as many, if not most, food crops are dependent upon spraying of pest killers. The migration of cranes to their wintering grounds in kathia- war depends much upon the food availability during their stay. Ground nut provides the main source of food and most of it is dug out by the cranes specially those which have re- mained unpicked. These nuts are now being collected by poor people with the result that the cranes find their food wanting and find it difficult to sustain themselves. And yet large number of Demoiselle cranes arrive in autumn. They then do much trampling in cropland without obtaining their food. Where- as, the resident Sarus crane which feeds in water as well as on land and is protected by sentiment by the people is able to survive and increase. To summarise the changes I have seen in the last five decades is as follows: (1) Habitat 647 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 destruction of Acacia and grassland and fici trees and the removal of Zizyphus and under- growth for making hedges. (2) Drastic decline of big game species with fluctuation in lion population. The species most affected are; Blackbuck, Indian Wild Ass, Chinkara, Wild Boar, Sambar, Nilgai and Panther. In small game; Bustards, Quails, Fruit Pigeon and even Sandgrouse and Painted Partridge; Hare and all ground nesting grassland birds also. The reduction in number of most reptiles is con- spicuous. In small mammals; the Desert Cat, Fox, Pangolin and Ratel are threatened. The Wolf is holding its own in hills and marginal land but is much less seen being considered vermin by the shepherds and goatherds on whose livestock it mainly preys. Among birds, the Grey Hornbill appears to be extinct as a resident bird of the Gir but can be reintroduced. Birds of prey and most insectivorous birds are less seen. However, Cattle Egrets and the Herons and Storks seem to be less affected, the latter two kinds feed much upon unpolluted aquatic life, in the sea- coast and tanks and swamps. In insects, the Honey Bee is seen less. Plant life except juii- flora in marginal and forest areas has dimi- nished and it is difficult to say where and what species has suffered most. The Gir Orchid is threatened and many of the plant species of the Barda and Shetrunjaya hills are depleted. Most Eucalyptus plantations have failed. Al- though much afforestation work is carried out no substantial new forests have grown barring that of Prosopis juiiflora. This is mainly be- cause indigenous drought-resisting species are not planted, nevertheless, roadside trees have begun to grow. The increase in human popu- lation in rural areas with its concomitant in- tensified agriculture and domestic livestock has been an indirect threat to ground nesting birds. The animals often trample eggs or young and with the receding of water levels in tanks, the animals, etc. reach islets for grazing and des- troy eggs and young. The increase in Crow population also has had adverse effect on bird life. In Urban areas crows have increased and they enter forest or scrub areas and feed on eggs and young of most bird species specially during the breeding season. The progressive change in Kathiawar has been the increase in tanks, and irrigated farm- land. As marsh and water habitats have spread more water birds and waterfowl are seen breed- ing in good rainfall years. Monsoon nesting birds such as Weaver birds and ducks and water-hens, including moorhens, crakes and painted snipe are now more common. Farm- land attracts many birds specially cattle egrets lapwings and migratory birds and parrakeets have shown marked increase. The spread of Prosopis juiiflora throughout the peninsula is amazing and one may see green belts of this plant everywhere. Because of innumerable tanks we see more of Pelicans, Flamingos, Terns, Egrets, Ibises, Spoonbills, Darters, Lit- tle Cormorants, Herons and Storks but not so the Blacknecked Stork. In short more of water birds specially of the migratory kind are now seen plentifully on the shores of tanks and sea. The salt work compartments attract large number of birds such as Blacktailed God- wits, Sandpipers, Stints, Shanks, Ruff, Plo- vers, Gulls, Terns, Swallows, Avocets, Fla- mingoes, Herons, and Brahminy ducks. White Storks are regularly seen in marshy areas and Painted Storks and Spoonbills are common birds with various species of Ibises. On the Coast, Crab Plovers are now frequently seen. With the growing number of Birdwatchers, new records of birds are added to my book birds of saurashtra (1955). Birds such as the Ortolon Bunting, Blackcapped Kingfisher, Whiteheaded Thrush, House Martin, Black- 648 THE CHANGING WILDLIFE OF KATHIAWAR throated Weaver bird, and many others, have been added to the list of birds of Saurashtra. This growing interest in birding will bring to light, it is hoped, more new records ’and the saving of vanishing and threatened species. Bird Camps are being held in different parts of Kathiawar. The farmer is also becoming conscious to protect wildlife in his farm and is aware of those species damaging his crops. Although there is much persecution of the Honey Bee by poor communities, private gar- dens in urban areas have preserved beehives despite depredation of the Crested Honey Buz- zard whose population is not so seriously af- fected by insecticides. With the increase in House Crows, Koels are seen in greater num- bers but are inadequate to control the grow- ing crow population. Although there is a ge- neral reduction of insect species the menace of malaria is again raising its head. It is not possible to say which species of insect life has increased for the benefit of man. Insect life affecting crops has been somewhat controlled. Many students all over Kathiawar are now taking interest in natural history and research. The endangered Wild Life are of Grassland and Scrub Ecosystems, and Marginal lands, whereas, mixed dry deciduous forest in Gir is slowly recovering. All big game mammals, and predators such as the Desert Cat, Wolf, and Civet Cat need protection. The porcupine which was so abun- dant in the past is not tolerated now by far- mers and is much less but not yet seriously endangered. Most insectivorous and carnivorous bird spe- cies have been threatened, either by habitat reduction or insecticides and pesticides if not both. Much of the game species have been reduced by direct poaching, but small game continues to thrive in farmland. The Eastern Common Crane and migratory Quails are seen in less numbers and the Blacknecked Stork which fed on fish in shallow waters and rivers has found survival more difficult except on seacoast. Tall trees on which it nested are less. The position of the Lesser Whistling Duck is difficult to assess: Large congregations are now not seen but its water habitat has defi- nitely increased but nesting habitat appears to have lessened with the result that its breed- ing has been hampered and predators and poachers have more chance of robbing its eggs. Yet, as a whole, the population might have increased. The last stronghold of the forest wild life is the Gir, Girnar and Barda hills and these ecosystems need proper conser- vation for the perpetuation of the valuable wildlife of Kathiawar. Fortunately, the people of Kathiawar by nature are not destroyers of wildlife but with lack of proper enforcement of Wild Life Act and rules and general lack of appreciation for the value of wild life owing to ignorance, wildlife is bound to suffer. In conclusion I would like to say that since the Lion Shows began in 1959 the behaviour of lions have changed. Owing to the frequency of ‘baiting’, lions have become tame knowing very well that man provides easy food for them and young cubs when grown become so acquainted with the Shikaries and visitors that they permit very close approach on foot. To- day the Gir lion is in the tourist limelight. Moreover, thousands of people, young and old have a chance to watch and photograph the rare asiatic lion. Formerly before independ- ence lions were shy and would not come to the baited “kill” if they knew they were being watched. I have often seen lions from Machan and if by chance they discovered me they kept away. Seldom did a lion attack livestock in day time and the Maldhari could drive away a lion from his kill easily. Tourism has also brought people to see the Indian Wild Ass 649 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 from all over the world but with lesser enthu- siasm. When salt works entered the Little Rann, donkeys were brought in for work, resulting in Wild Ass-Donkey hybrids. With the increase of habitation, village domestic cats in arid areas interbreed with Desert Cats and one often saw a spotted hybrid which seemed to supplant the wild species. These are then the changes I have seen during the years and I notice that the type of crops grown, the rainfall and drought and pol- lution not to mention party politics and popu- lation growth play an important role in the increase and decrease of wildlife populations of Kathiawar. 650 THE PRESENT STATUS OF MAHSEER (FISH) AND ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF TOR KHUDREE (SYKES) C. V. Kulkarni1 and S. N. Ogale2 (With two plates and two text-figures ) Mahseer has long been a great favourite of the anglers and also constitute an import- ant fishery in north India. Six different species of Mahseer occur in India. However, the fishery has suffered a serious decline due to indiscriminate fishing of brood fish and juveniles by unjustifiable methods. Some of the handicaps in their natural multi- plication are the long hatching period of 80 hours and a still longer duration of six days covering the semi-quiescent stage when the hatchlings remain clustered in corners and crevices and away from light. Heavy mortality takes place during this critical period. Hence, one of the methods to rehabilitate this group of fishes is to breed them artificially and distribute the fingerlings into natural waters. For this purpose, a system of catching the ripe brood fish from the spawning grounds, stripping them and ferti- lising the eggs was followed in the case of Tor khudree (Sykes) at Lonavla, Dist. Pune in Maharashtra. Large number of eggs were thus collected during breeding seasons (July-August) and hatched in running water. After the hatchlings pass through the quiescent stage, the fry are fed on zooplankton and then on artificial feed. They take about eight months to reach fingerling stage, suitable for stocking. A new method of transport of these eggs in moist cotton wool was tried and found successful. Introduction Mahseer, the noblest sport fish of India which had been a great favourite of most of the anglers, Indian as well as those hailing from distant countries the world over, is now feared to be in danger of extinction in some parts of the country. One ardent angler (M. L. Mehta) gave a vivid pen picture in the Times of India — (6-6-1976) of the wanton destruc- tion of Mahseer in the rivers near Dehra Dun (U.P.) and appealed for a ‘Save Mahseer’ campaign. The National Commission on Agriculture (1976), in its report on “Fisheries” stated “It has been reported that there has been a ge- 1 Present address : B/4, Shardashram, B. Shan- kar Road, Bombay 400 028. 2 Tata’s Electricity Office, Lonavla, Dist. Poona. neral decline in the mahseer fishery due to indiscriminate fishing of brood fish and juve- niles and the adverse effects of river valley projects” and recommended “extensive survey and detailed ecological and biological investi- gations.” These statements are signifi- cant, and necessitate remedial operations for conservation of this group of fishes which was at one time referred to as one species, the mahseer ( Barbus tor). In the case of species from an aquatic environment, waiting for convincing proof of depletion may be danger- ous as it may then be too late to retrieve. Me- thods of rehabilitation and conservation have therefore to be thought out in time and the same are attempted in the present article. Although references will be made to diffe- rent species of mahseer and their fishery status, the notes will deal largely with methods of artificial propagation of Tor khudree (Sykes) 651 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 and transportation of its eggs packed in moist cotton. Several species of the Mahseer exist, the principal ones being (1) Tor putitora (Ham.), (2) Tor tor (Ham.), (3) Tor mosal (Ham.), (4) Tor khudree (Sykes), (5) 7\ mussullah (Sykes). They have their own areas of na- tural distribution, ranging from the Lesser Hi- malayan region (Kashmir) to Darjeeling hills in the east, for the first species; the sub-Hi- malayan range, Ganga and Narmada river sys- tems for the second; the Mahanadi basin (and also Burmese waters) for the third; the entire Peninsular India south of river Tapi for the fourth and the Peninsular rivers including Krishna and Godavari for the fifth. T. khud- ree has been reported from some parts of Nar- bada, North Gujarat, U.P. and Orissa also. Moreover, another large-scaled fish of Nepal and the eastern Himalayan range, the Katli or Bokar of Assam ( Acrossocheilus hexagono- lepis McClld.) is also included by anglers in this group and is designated as chocolate or red mahseer. T. progeneius (McClld.) of Assam and two sub-species, T. mosal maha- nadicus (David) and T. khudree malabaricus (Jerdon) have also been reported. Present status of the mahseer Mahseers are well known sport fishes of ri- vers and streams in India and though their capture on a commercial scale must have been in practice in the past, only the catches made by anglers as a result of sport fishing have been recorded by some of the angler-authors. Sport fishing has shrunk considerably in recent years resulting in lesser competition, yet the reports of anglers are disappointing both in numbers and size (personal communication). The commercial fishery of putitor mahseer in Jammu, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh consists largely of individuals either ascend- ing streams for breeding or the spent ones returning to perennial pools in the plains (Sehgal 1972). Though exact numerical state- ments are wanting for proper comparison, whatever figures and reports of anglers are available, indicate considerable decline in the fishery (Sehgal, loc. cit.), especially of large ones. In Madhya Pradesh, particularly in the Narmada river near Hoshangabad and in Tapi near Barhanpur (Karamchandani et al. 1967) tor mahseer figured prominently in the com- mercial catches about 12 years ago but the landings are reported to have dwindled re- markably in recent years. In the lakes in Ra- jasthan as well as in the Chambal river bet- ween the Gandhi-Sagar and Rana Pratap Sa- gar reservoirs, the tor mahseer does occur in good numbers but their fishery status cannot be determined in the absence of previous catch data. In Maharashtra also, the fish (T. khudree) has been practically a rarity in rivers Bhima, Krishna, Koyana, etc. except at a few temple sanctuaries at Dehu and Alandi on the Indray- ani river and in some reservoirs. In the south also, the situation is in no way any brighter as regards occurrence of mahseers (T. khud- ree and T. mussullah). Kaveri (Cauvery) river which was at one time a home of large mah- seers has been reported to be practically de- nuded of this anglers’ delight and had to be stocked with fingerlings of the Deccan Mahseer Tor khudree (Sykes) from Lonavla (Maha- rashtra). A recent report appearing in the Dec- can Herald (4-4-78), however, records a catch of 12 mahseers including a 92 pounder (42 kg) from Kaveri river, 100 km from Banga- lore, by a British Trans-World Angling Team, but even this fish was caught only after an intensive effort for about 2\ months by three experts. 652 ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF TOR KHUDREE (SYKES) Studies on the biology and angling capabili- ties of these species commenced with Thomas (1897), Khan (1939), Hora (1943), McDo- nald (1948), Nazir Ahmed (1948) and David (1953); but more intensive work on different species started only recently with the investiga- tions conducted by Karamchandani et al. (1967), Kulkarni (1971), Desai (1972 and 1973), Tripathi (1978) and Das et al. (1978). Despite these studies, no steps for conserva- tion and rehabilitation of mahseer have been taken so far on a sizable scale except in the lakes of the Tata Electric Companies at Lona- vla (Maharashtra) and the efforts by the Wild Life Association of South India and the Kar- natak Fisheries Department in cooperation with the above company. One of the main reasons for the decline of Mahseer, is the thoughtless destruction of this fish by illegal means such as the use of explosive and killing of brood fish in the spawning season. Another serious handicap the fish suffers from, is the change in the eco- logical condition of our riverine systems where several new multipurpose dams are being erect- ed across numerous streams, large or small, all over the country. Such dams are no doubt, beneficial to the country in several ways; a number of large impoundments which would not have, otherwise, come into existence are created by these dams. This expansion of water bodies is advantageous to fish and fish- eries in general but migratory fishes like Mah- seer which used to visit clear water streams for breeding can no longer undertake those ascends unmolested, as human interference has penetrated into most of the previously seclud- ed streams. It must, nevertheless, be admitted that Mahseer has, at many places, adapted itself admirably to life in the lacustrine con- ditions and manages to breed though on a small scale. These adverse circumstances re- duce the chances of survival of Mahseer in large numbers in natural waters. Biological constrains in natural breeding The Mahseer requires specialised biologi- cal conditions for its breeding and juvenile development. These were not clearly known so far. Observations on the early development and growth of hatchlings of Tor khudree made during past few years at Lonavla in Maharash- tra (Kulkarni 1971) have focussed attention on the fact that this Mahseer (Photograph 1) suffers from several handicaps in its natural breeding. Firstly, its fecundity is comparative- ly low. Karamchandani et al. (1967) calculat- ed fecundity of 30,420 ova for Tor tor of 625 mm in total length and Desai (1973) record- ed 42,600 eggs for a 657 mm female of the same species; we have counted 20,000 ova from a 630 mm. T. khudree weighing 3.6 kg from one of the Lonavla Lakes. This is very low as compared to Catla (1,33,000 Av.) Rohu (2,61,000 Av.) per kg of body weight (Sukumaran 1969). Secondly, the hatching period is as long as 80 hours in water tempe- rature of 22 to 26°C (Kulkarni, loc. cit.). This period is likely to be longer in colder streams of sub-himalayan region which the other species of Mahseer namely the T. pud- tor a and the Katli Mahseer (AccrossocheUus hexagonolepis) inhabit. Further the semi- quiescent stage after hatching which is hardly 3 days in other carps is extended to as long as six days in T. khudree. During this period the hatchlings do not swim freely but remain at the bottom mostly huddled up in large num- bers in corners and crevices with their heads tucked away from light, as if they are nega- tively phototropic, with their tails vibrating and jutting out (Fig. 2b). In this condition they are subject to depredation in large num- bers by predatory animals. Thus this semi quiescent stage is the most critical stage of 653 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL KIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 their life and since it is prolonged, their mor- tality is also heavy. In all probability T. puti- tora and T. tor will have similar semi quies- cent stage in their early life history, making them equally vulnerable to infantile mortali- ty. In the past, the number of streams unfre- quented by men was large and a greater num- ber of mature mahseers had the opportunity to spawn unmolested and hence the critical quiescent stage in their life history did not matter very much. But with the increasing number of streams being used for reservoirs for multi-purpose development schemes, the traditional breeding grounds of the mahseers are lost to them. On top of this adverse situa- tion, many of the streams which are excluded from the developmental activities, are affected by harmful industrial effluents which kill the fish fauna, and especially the tiny fry or the hatchlings in enormous numbers. All these handicaps combined together are working ad- versely on the fish fauna in general and on Mahseer in particular, because no effort has so far been directed towards rehabilitation or salvaging this group of fish, their specialised features in breeding and early development working against them. Hence, the only remedy to save them from this grave situation is to assist the fish in their critical stages by closely studying their breeding habits and by resort- ing to artificial method of propagation as is done in the case of the famous Salmon fishery in parts of north America and Europe where millions of fingerlings are raised by artificial methods and then released into natural waters. It is for this reason that methods of artificial propagation of this noble fish of India were studied and the details are given here under. Breeding Habits : Different breeding seasons of different species of mahseers and in diffe- rent climatic conditions described by several authors have been enumerated by the senior author (1971). Detailed biological study based on examination of a large number of specimens obtained from the commercial catches of mahseer from the Narbada river in Madhya Pradesh was undertaken by Karamchandani et al. (loc. cit.). The examination of ovarian eggs and their maximum sizes in different months enabled them to conclude that the breeding season of Tor tor commences in July or August and continues upto December, the peak season being from July to Septem- ber. Their observations tally, to some extent, with those made at Lonavla, except that the length of the spawning season is not as long as recorded by Karamchandani et al. (loc. cit.). Even the peak of the season is not long enough at Lonavla, being only mid- July to mid-August, where the spawning season was determined not on the basis of maximum dia- meter of ova found in the specimens examined, as was done by Karamchandani et al., but on actual collection of brood fish in real ripe con- dition, stripping of eggs and their fertilisation. In this respect, Codrinton’s (1946) statement that ‘major spawning period of Mahseer is in August largely agrees with the observations made at Lonavla. Record of eggs collected and fertilised at Lonavla during past eight years is as under: — I 654 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Kulkarni & Ogale: Mahseer Plate I Hatchery Tank with water being sprayed on the hatching trays. ( Photos : Author) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Kulkarni and Ogale : Mahseer Plate II Above : Eggs of Mahseer. Below. Eggs of Mahseer in water. (Photos: A. V. Shukla ) ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF TOR KHUDREE (SYKES) Time 1971 1972 July 1st Week July 2nd Week July 3rd Week 14,000 21,500 July 4th Week 3,000 200 Aug. 1st Week Aug. 2nd Week Aug. 3rd Week 13,000 24,500 87,400 Aug. 4th Week Sept. 1st Week Sept. 2nd Week Sept. 3rd Week 22,000 24,000 1973 1974 1975 5,700 36,000 19,800 30,900 14,600 23,400 25,600 24,300 14,200 28,200 1,13,400 24,200 1,64,600 50,000 90,800 6,000 16,200 6,600 32,800 1976 1977 1978 63,000 1,12,800 92,400 1,00,200 1,08,800 22,000 1,25,800 71,700 1,44,000 98,100 1,79,900 91,900 — 17,000 — 75,800 14,000 This record will indicate that peak period of breeding when the largest number of eggs was consistently available was in August ex- cept in 1977 and 1978 when there was heavy rain in late July. Incidentally, the above re- cords corroborates a similar forecast made earlier by the senior author (1971). It was seen that heavy collection of eggs usually coincided with heavy downpour of rain caus- ing the streams adjoinning the lakes to swell and debouch large quantities of fresh rain water into the lakes. A rtifcial propagation : As is common with most of the cultivable species of carps, breeding of Mahseer with pituitary hormones was attempted but with limited success. This does not preclude the use of this method for artificial propagation. In fact, where the natural spawning grounds are difficult to locate, this would be the only solution. But its success would depend on the ecological conditions of the stocking ponds, the available food and the availability of suf- ficient stock of healthy and ripe brood fish. In Nainital hills (U.P.) stripping of ripe T. putitora (H-am.) was attempted in 1976 and eggs fertilised but heavy mortality during development was reported (Tripathi, loc. cit). However, our experience since 1970 indicated that if fishery biologists can locate the prob- able spawning grounds of Mahseer and can determine the peak of the spawning period with certain amount of exactitude so as to col- lect the ripe brood fish the stripping and ferti- lising the eggs artificially was more depend- able. This latter procedure was followed in two lakes near Lonavla (Pune Dist.) namely Wal- whan and Shirawta (c. 18°.45' to 18°.40'N and 73°.25' to 73°.29'E). They are respec- tively about 6.14 and 13.10 sq. km in area and 20 to 30 m deep. They are surround- ed by hills all round and their source of sup- ply is the seasonal streams flowing through the adjoining hills. The hills being steep and small, the flow continued only when heavy showers prevailed. The brood fish were ob- served to congregate at a short distance near the inflow of these temporary streams into the lakes. It was also observed that ripe fish congregated more during early part of the night say between 7 and 10 p.m. and again from 4 to 6 a.m. Netting operations under- taken during intervening period were com- paratively less fruitful. Splashing of water or any nuptial play was rarely seen. In fact, actual natural egg laying (spawning) and ferti- lisation has not been seen except the reports of some observers, who describe the embra- 655 7 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 cing act being similar to that of Rohu but in clear water and below the surface. For the purpose of breeding operations, the spawning grounds are visited when it is rain- ing and the streams are running. Suitable gill nets usually of 15 cm extended mesh are laid at 6 p.m. and hauled at 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Ripe males and females, their ripeness judged by presence of milt in the male and soft bulged abdomen in the female are freed from the net by cutting some of the meshes. Other sex-determining characters are the pecu- liar obliquely protruding base of the anal fin of the female out of the curve of the ventral profile and the length of the pectoral fin in the male which have been detailed earlier (Kulkarni 1971). If the female is in the correct stage of ripeness, some eggs can also be seen extruding on slight pressure on the abdomen. Such ripe females are then stripped by the con- ventional method (dry process) in a suitable enamel tray and the eggs fertilised by the milt similarly obtained from the male. After two or three minutes, the excess milt is washed by adding and changing the water in the tray. The eggs have a tendency to stick to the sur- face of the tray but they can be carefully detached with the help of cotton wool and slight pressure. Water of the trays is then changed every half an hour and the eggs allow- ed to harden for next four hours. Thereafter they are placed in wooden trays, with plastic netting at the bottom and wooden sides (Fig. 2a). They are usually 55 x 35 x 12 cm high and are kept floating in a cement hatchery tank (photo 2) usually 2 x 1 x 1 m high (fig. 1). Each tray can accommodate about 30,000 eggs and being demersal they remain well arranged on the plastic netting about 4 cm below the surface of water. Clean tank water is continuously sprinkled over the eggs through perforated pipes running on the sides of the tank wall (fig. 1). Dead eggs, if any, are picked off with a pipette and the eggs kept clean. Excess water of the hatching tank overflows through a pipe having its open- ing (mouth) at the bottom by a siphon system, thus ensuring removal of less oxygenated bot- tom water. The eggs are thus bathed in well oxygenated water almost continuously al- though no harm is expected if the water is stopped intermittantly. As mentioned earlier, it takes about 80 hours for the eggs to hatch out in water of about 22° to 26°C. temperature, the hatchlings remain in semi-quiescent stage for almost six days. This critical stage has also been high- lighted earlier. The eggs which are bright le- mon yellow or orange in colouration and measure 2.8 to 3.00 mm in dia. have already been described by the senior author (1971) along with other larval and post-larval stages. On the seventh day the fry swim freely (Fig. 2c) and start feeding on minute zooplankters like Moina, Daphnia, etc. After a day or two they start taking powdered groundnut cake and rice polish in small quantities. They are then shifted to cement nursery tanks and fed on zoo plankton as well as the artificial feed (groundnut cake) soaked in water. After mak- ing them accustomed to artificial feeding for about three or four weeks they are released into earthen nursery tanks for further growth. At this stage, the fry are about 30-35 mm in length and are suitable for transport over long distances in plastic bags in water and oxygen. Such consignments sent from Bombay to Ban- galore showed no mortality. In about six to eight months the fry reach the stage of finger- lings and become suitable for stocking into perennial lakes or streams. Transport of eggs in moist cotton : As one of the measures to facilitate propa- gation of Mahseers into distant areas within 656 ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF TOR KHUDREE (SYKES) “ZD ... i i — i — r s- 1 4 ' — t : — l "i i i~ j \\ Fig. 1. Hatchery tank for Mahseer. 657 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 the country and abroad, an effort was made to pack fertilised eggs in moist cotton to as- certain whether they would remain viable, the idea underlying the experiment was to see whether they can be transported without water. Transport of “eyed ova” (fertilised eggs) of trout even across continents for their propa- gation in new environments is a well known practice and it is in this manner only that trout has been introduced in Kashmir, Nilgiris, Sri Lanka and many other countries. However, such effort has not been made so far with eggs of any of our other Indian fishes. This is pro- bably because the hatching period in most of cur common fishes is of short duration and the eggs are comparatively delicate. To achieve the aforesaid objective of keep- ing eggs out of water, in moist packing, a small tray was selected and its bottom covered with moist cotton wool. About 40 eggs ferti- lised by the usual stripping method and water hardened from 6 to 24 hours were placed on moist cotton wool and covered by a layer of similar type of cotton. The tray (Fig. 2d) was kept in a laboratory room (air temp. 22°C) and after 24 and 48 hours they were taken out, released into water and hatched normally. Results of these experiments conducted in August 1977 were as under: Batch No. Period of water hardening No. of eggs. Period in tray No. of hatchlings obtained. I 12 Hrs. ! 30 12 Hrs. 26 II 6 Hrs. : 40 24 Hrs. 36 III 6 Hrs. 40 48 Hrs. 37 IV 24 Hrs. ; 30 36 Hrs. 26 Observations in Batch II and ill above are fairly satisfactory. The small variation in the number of hatchlings obtained in these batches after 24 and 48 hours may be due to the con- dition of eggs at the time of fertilisation or other factors commonly prevalent during the process of hatching which is as long as 80 hours. It is, nevertheless, significant that in- crease of period from 24 to 48 hours had no adverse effect on the number of hatchlings obtained, and indicated that 48 hour period was equally safe. Moreover, six hours seems to be an ideal period for hardening of eggs, but the longer period of 12 and 24 hours gave an opportunity to weed out unfertilised or damaged eggs, if any. Leaving aside the small variation, the results prove that eggs are cap- able of being kept in moist cotton and remain viable for at least 48 hours. As a field trial, two consignments, each of 5000 eggs were taken to Bombay Air Port from Lonavla, a distance of 100 km and parcelled by Air Bus to Bangalore unattended, in August 1978. They were packed in two layers of moist cot- ton in plastic baskets with an outer container of tin. In the first consignment mortality of eggs reached 8% upto Bangalore air port, whereas in the second, the mortality came down to mere 1.5%. About 75% of these eggs hatched out successfully. This experi- j ment is the first of its kind in India and opens up new possibilities of transport of ferti- lised eggs, instead of fry, by air and then hatching them in the usual manner, thereby saving considerable expenses on transport in containers with water. Further, if this method of packing of eggs ; is possible in the case of Tor khudree, there: is no reason why it should not succeed in the case of T. tor, T. putitora, T. mosal and others. It is desirable that efforts should be made in their case also. If these experiments! succeed, possibilities of exporting mahseer eggs to foreign countries which need them for purpose of culturing them as sport fish, can ! be ascertained and our esteemed Mahseer can have new homes outside India. 658 ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF TOR KHUDREE (SYKES) 659 . a : eggs of Mahseer in a tray; b : hatchlings of Mahseer congregating in corners; c: free swimming fry; d: eggs of Mahseer in moist cotton. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Acknowledgements ) We acknowledge our earnest indebtedness to the Tata Electric Companies for undertak- ing Mahseer breeding, conservation and re- habilitation activities for the first time in India and for affording all the necessary facilities Refei Ahmed, Nazir (1948) : On the spawning habits and early development of the copper Mahseer, Barbus ( Lissocheilus ) hexagonolepis, McClld. Proc. Nat. Inst. Sci. India, 74:21-28. David, A. (1953): Notes on the bionomics and some early stages of the Mahanadi Mahseer. J. Asia. Soc. Calcutta 79:197-209. Cordington, K. de B. (1939) : Notes on the Indian Mahseer. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 46: 336- 344. Das, S. M. and Pathani, S. S. (1978): Studies on the biology of the Kumaon Mahseer ( Tor puti- tora) Adaptation of the Alimentary tract to feeding habits and body weight. Indian J. Anim. Sci. 48 (6) : 461-465. Desai, V. R. (1970): Studies on fishery and bio- logy of Tor tor (Ham.) from river Narmada I. Food and feeding habits. J. Ind. Fish. Soc. India, 2: 101-102. (1973): Studies on fishery and bio- logy of Tor tor (Ham.), Maturity, Fecundity and Larval development. Proc. Ind. Nat. Sci. Acad. 39: 228-248. (1972) : Notes on the early larval stages of Tor putitora (Ham.). J. Zool. Soc. India 24(1) : 47-5 1 . Hora, S. L. (1943): The game fishes of India. XVI further observations on Mahseer of the De- for conducting the studies described in this paper, at Walwhan and Shirawta lakes near Lonavla. Co-operation of Shri M. Jayaraj, Director of Fisheries, Karnataka is also ap- preciated for kindly arranging, receiving and hatching of the eggs in Karnataka. EN CES ccan. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 44: 1-8. Karamchandani, S. J. and Pisolkar, M. D. (1967): Survey of fish and fisheries of the Tapti river. Bull. Cent. Indl. Fish. Res. Instt. Barrack- pore 4:1-29. Karamchandani, S. J. Desai, V. R. and Pisol- kar, M. D. (1967) : Biological investigations on the fish and fisheries of Narbada river. Bull. Cent. Indl. Fish. Res. Instt. 79:1-39. Khan, H. (1939) : Study of the sex organs of Mahseer ( Barbus tor). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 40: 653-656. Kulkarni, C. V. (1971): Spawning habits, eggs and early development of Deccan Mahseer, Tor khudree (Sykes), ibid. 67:510-521. MacDonald, A. St. J. (1948): Circumventing the Mahseer and other sporting fish in India and Burma. Bombay Natural History Society. Sehgal, K. L. (1972): Cold water fisheries de- velopment in India for sport profit. Silver Jubilee Vol. Cent. Indl. Fish. Res. Instt.: 125-131. Sukumaran, K. K. (1969): Growth, maturation and fecundity of cultivated fishes. U.N.D.P. Regional Semi. Indu. breed, cult. fish. Calcutta. 5:53. Thomas, H. S. (1897): The Rod in India, Lon- don. Tripathi, Y. R. (1978): Artificial breeding of Tor putitora (Ham.). J. Indl. Fish. Soc. Ind. 9: 161. 660 OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN INDIA— PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE S. Z. Qasim1 ( With a plate and a text -figure) Several physical characteristics of the seas around India were known to our ancestors since ancient times. Although they did not have a proper understanding of the pheno- mena like currents, tides and winds, they utilized their emperical knowledge, based on experience and visual observations, for practi- cal purposes. For instance, the biannual re- versal of the direction of winds has been known to Indians and the Arabs for centuries. This knowledge they cleverly used for crossing the Arabian Sea for trade purposes. Similarly, as early as the Indus Valley Civilization period, our ancestors were fully aware of the pheno- mena of ebb and flood tides. This is evidenced by the remains of an excellent dockyard at Lothal which the Harappans constructed to receive ships at high tides. Studies carried out on this dockyard suggest that the Harappan Engineers possessed sufficient knowledge of the tidal range, periodicity and the effects of tides. The Indians also had some knowledge about the animal life in the sea. This is clear- ly reflected from the Ain-e-Akbari and the Memoirs of several kings of the medieval period which give information on the fish and fisheries of Hindostan. The origin of oceanography in India can be traced as far back as 1871 when an officer of the Indian Museum, Dr. J. Wood-Mason, was sent to Andamans to explore the fauna 1 National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa 403 004, India. and flora of this region. He was perhaps the first person to carry out biological work in deeper waters off Andamans on board S.S. Undaunted. Immediately afterwards the Ma- rine Survey of India was inaugurated in 1872. This was about the same time as H.M.S. Chal- lenger sailed on her famous round-the-world cruises. Stimulated by the great success achiev- ed by the Challenger, the Royal Asiatic So- ciety of Bengal persuaded the Government of India to create a post of Surgeon-Naturalist to carry out work in Indian waters similar to that carried out by the Challenger. Thus in 1875, Dr. J. Armstrong was appointed as the first Surgeon-Naturalist. In 1881, a 580 ton survey vessel R.l.M.S. Investigator I was com- missioned by the Marine Survey of India. On the request of the Government of India, the Admiralty agreed to give some of the equip- ment used on board Challenger for its use on Investigator I and thus the “oceanographic studies” in India began. These largely includ- ed biological collections, although occasional- ly observations on sea water temperature and bottom deposits were also made. Investigator I was scrapped in 1908 and replaced by Investigator II — a 1078 ton vessel, which was capable of cruising at faster speeds. However, it was not until 1910, when Col. R.B.S. Sewell took over as the Surgeon-Naturalist, that some observations on oceanography, other than biological studies, were started. These included the measurements of salinity and temperature of sea water, and some meteorological para- meters like barometric pressure, air tempera- 661 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ture using wet and dry-bulb thermometers and velocity -and direction of the winds. Due to the First World War, the work was tempora- rily suspended from 1914 to 1921, before it finally came to a standstill in 1926. However, the surveys carried out in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Andamans and Laccadive Sea, revealed a wealth of knowledge of the marine animal and plant life in waters of the Indian coast. These are described in excellent publi- cations brought out by the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. Useful oceanographic data continued to be collected by research vessels which crossed the Indian Ocean during the course of their global expeditions. These included the Dana Expedition (1928-30), the John Murray Ex- pedition (1933) and the Galathea Expedition (1950-52). As a result of these expeditions many interesting features of the Indian Ocean became known. After independence in 1947, the need for maximum utilization of the resources of the seas around India began to be realized. The early efforts were evidently directed towards “food from the sea”. Thus, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute was esta- blished in 1947 to carry out researches related to fish and fisheries. In the following years analysis of sea water samples collected by the various Naval and Merchant ships was also included in the research programmes. The Indian Navy established a Naval Oceanogra- phic Laboratory at Cochin for researches on defence-oriented problems. At the same time, oceanography and marine biology started to be taught in some universities at the post- graduate level. Commendable work on physi- cal oceanography and meteorology was car- ried out at the Andhra University during the period 1952-1958 and researches on some more disciplines of oceanography such as geology and geophysics began to be under- taken for the first time in Indian waters. A Physical Oceanographic Wing was formed by the Central Board of Geophysics to carry out work on the physical aspects of oceanography. However, thus far, a systematic approach to co-ordinate and expand the oceanographic work in India, according to country’s needs, was lacking. Therefore, in 1960, the Govern- ment of India constituted the Indian National Committee on Ocean Research (INCOR) to meet some of the planning and coordination needs. The International Indian Ocean Expedition : Of all the world oceans, the Indian Ocean, even today, is the least studied. Most of the countries bordering the Indian Ocean are the most populous and at the lowest stage of eco- nomic development. It was, therefore, con- sidered important to start this expedition so that new food and mineral resources could be explored for the benefit of these countries. Besides, the Indian Ocean poses several pro- blems which are totally different from those of the other oceans. The land-locked nature of the Indian Ocean on its northern boundary and the bi-annual reversal of the direction of the winds known as the “monsoons” are the unique characteristics of this ocean. These considerations led to the development of a multi-national project, “The International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE)” co-sponsor- ed by the UNESCO and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). This ex- pedition, in which 40 ships from 20 countries took part, started in 1962 and came to an end in 1965. A large amount of oceanographic data was collected from different parts of the Indian Ocean which helped in filling up the gaps in our knowledge of the seas around India. Because of the geographical position of our country and the scientific man-power it 662 OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN INDIA possessed, India became one of the active par- ticipants in the IIOE and played host to re- search vessels and scientists from different countries. Four ships from India took part in the Indian programme of IIOE. These were I.N.S. Ki stria, R.V. Varuna, R.V. Conch and M.F.V. Bangada . However, the bulk of the data from the Indian ships came from I.N.S. Kistna, a 90 metre frigate of the Indian Navy which was specially refitted for oceanographic work. Scientists from different disciplines went regularly on board Kistna. As a result of this 30 o 2CH ICH 80 90 Dehro Dun Delhi A BAY OF BENGAL Fishery Science and Fishery Management. Fisheries Education Fisheries Technology Marine Biology Marine Chemicals etc. Oceanography ( Marine Science ) Flydrography Marine Geology and Geophysics Coastal/ Harbour Development and Ocean Engineering Naval Science and Technology Meteorology Miscellaneous 30 o 10 70 80° 90 Location of institutions / organizations in India engaged in different activities related marine science and technology. 663 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vo /. 75 expedition, the country became aware of oceanography and developed a team of trained young scientists by the time the expedition came to an end. The expedition gave a firm base for the future oceanographic work in the country. With the support of UNESCO and IOC, the Indian Ocean Biological Centre (XOBC) was established in 1962 at Cochin, for the study of zooplankton collected during the IIOE. The primary task of the IOBC was sorting of about 2,000 zooplankton samples, collected from the Indian Ocean, into various taxonomic components to be studied by spe- cialists all over the world and also to store and maintain the archives of the samples. These tasks were successfully completed and the station data and displacement volumes of zooplankton samples were published in the form of several handbooks which also includ- ed the associated environmental data and re- search papers. The 10 atlases published by the IOBC summarise the distribution of the different planktonic groups in the Indian Ocean. These have been in demand throughout the world. The credit of most of the work done during the IIOE largely goes to the late Dr. N. K. Panikkar, who can be called the founder of modern oceanography in India. Present The National Institute of Oceanography : The scope of the Indian National Commit- tee on Oceanographic Research, which was initially set up by the Government of India for planning and coordination of the Indian programme of IIOE, was subsequently enlarg- ed to cover all types of oceanographic activi- ties in the country. This Committee strongly recommended that it would be in the national interest to consolidate the valuable experience gained from our participation in the IIOE and that an institute having the status of a national laboratory be established in the country. The Government agreed to this proposal and thus the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) came into existence on 1st January, 1966 as one of the national laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). With its temporary headquarters in New Delhi, the NIO took over all the activi- ties which were earlier functioning under the Directorate of Indian Ocean Expedition. Over the years, the NIO has grown into a very size- able organization. It has its Headquarters in Goa and three regional centres at Bombay, Cochin and Waltair. Today NIO has seven divisions which cover Physical Oceanography, Chemical Oceanography, Biological Oceano- graphy, Geological and Geophysical Oceano- graphy, Marine Instrumentation, Ocean Engi- neering and Planning and Data processing. It has a staff strength of about 425. The greatest impact on Indian Oceanogra- phy came with the commissioning of the first oceanographic research vessel of NIO R.V. Gaveshani on 31st December, 1975. This ship, has a displacement of 1900 tonnes and is equipped with some of the most modern oceanographic instruments. These include salinometers, current meters, CTD systems, proton magnetometer, sound velocity meter, side scan sonar, survey sonar, submarine pho- tometers, bathythermographs, continuous tem- perature and salinity recorder and continuous wave recorder, in addition to various types of gears for the collection of water and sea bed samples upto 6 km depth. Gaveshani is also provided with most modern navigational and communication systems including the Satellite Navigational System (SATNAV) for accurate position fixing. The ship has four well-equip- ped laboratories on board. Gaveshani provides 664 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Qasim: Oceanographic Research Plate CLAY BEDROCK Vertical profile of the sea bed showing the main features obtained by a seismic equip- ment installed in R. V. Gaveshani. Picture of the sea bed taken by R. V. Gaveshani using a side scan sonar. Sediment cover (sand and clay) is recorded in light-tone and rock outcrops in dark-tone. OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN INDIA air-conditioned accommodation for 19 scient- ists and 45 officers and crew and has an en- durance of about 25 days. To date, Gaveshani has completed 48 crui- ses in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal re- sulting in the collection of a large volume of data and information on the seas around India which have contributed a great deal to our knowledge about the Indian Ocean. Uptill June 1978, Gaveshani has surveyed more than 50,000 line kilometres in the sea and has worked at 920 stations. These cruises have re- sulted in the location of several potentially rich fishing grounds in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal in addition to mapping of the sea bed for mineral resources. Using this ship, NIO has done a substantial amount of work for the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) connected with the exploitation of offshore petroleum. During the last few years NIO has fully utilized the expertise and indigenous techno- logy available and has provided service and support to a number of industries and public sector undertakings in as many as 50 spon- sored projects on such areas as resources sur- vey, harbour development, submarine pipeline surveys, pollution control and protection of coast from erosion. These sponsored projects are of direct interest to the user community. Under the project “food from the sea”, NIO has located several rich fishing grounds, has mapped seaweed resources and has developed sea farming technology. Under the project “coastal development”, one of the most im- portant contributions of NIO has been the survey of 160 kilometre submarine oil pipe- line route from Bombay High to Bombay for the ONGC. This pipeline has already been laid along the route given by NIO and the crude from Bombay High has begun to flow. Two other surveys for the submarine oil pipe- line routes are underway. These are from Bassein oilfields to Hajira (200 km) and from Bassein to Tarapur (120 km). These surveys are the first of their kind done by an Indian agency and are entirely based on indigenous technology. They have not only saved valuable foreign exchange but have given confidence and self reliance to the country. Along the coastline, various activities such as harbours, power plants, oil terminals, hotels, tourist resorts and industries are fast develop- ing. About 36 projects have been completed by NIO for the coastal development program- me including a number of projects for the control of pollution in the sea. These have been sponsored by private industries and pub- lic sector undertakings. The work has been extended to coastal areas of Gujarat, Bom- bay, Goa, Karwar, Mangalore, Trivandrum, Madras and Visakhapatnam. Recently NIO has completed a large project on the disposal of sewage in Bombay waters for the Bombay Municipal Corporation. The problem of oil pollution along the coastline of India has also become alarming in recent years. Large quantities of crude oil are transported from the Middle East to the Far East and other places across the Arabian Sea. A part of this oil gets into the sea due to accidental oil spills or due to the un- lawful dumping of the residual oil or bilge from the oil tankers into the sea. When the volatile fractions of the crude oil evaporate, the residue acquires a form of tar-like lumps or balls. These tar-balls find their way to the coast and adversely affect the recreational value of our beaches. Since oil pollution is a world-wide problem, it is essential for the in- ternational agencies to develop proper con- ventions so that suitable measures are taken to curb this problem. The international projects in which NIO is 665 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY, Vol. 75 involved are: (i) Marine Pollution (Petro- leum) Monitoring Pilot Project (MAPMOPP) under the framework of Integrated Global Ocean Station System (IGOSS) of IOC and (ii) Marine Environmental Monitoring and Marine Living Resources Assessment for the Indian Ocean Region under United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). At present most of the instruments used for oceanographic research are being imported. Efforts are under way to develop some of the oceanographic instruments in the Institute to attain self-sufficiency in this field as far as possible. NIO has already developed instru- ments like current meters, salinometer, electro- nic sedimentation balance, bathythermographs and tide and wave recorder. Several other in- struments like salinity-temperature and depth (STD) system are in advanced stages of de- velopment. Besides NIO, several other organizations are also engaged in specific areas of research on oceanography, meteorology, marine biology and fisheries. Teaching -and training are being done in the universities of Andhra, Annamalai, Cochin and Kerala. Sea fisheries research is being undertaken by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin. In recent years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has undertaken a series of observations in collaboration with USSR on the monsoon phenomenon. Preliminary studies conducted in 1973, known as the Indo-Soviet Monsoon Experiments (ISMEX), gave very interesting results. These are now being fol- lowed up by studies on a much larger scale. This project, called as Monsoon Experiments (MONEX), will help in understanding the phenomenon of monsoon whose appearance and disappearance have so far remained a riddle to meteorologists. In 1977, India carried out the Monsoon Experiment jointly with U.S.S.R., but in the forthcoming MONEX- 1979, several countries are participating and about 10 ships including Gaveshani will be fully involved in the programme. The Future Oceanography, the collective entity of all sciences, is relatively a young science for India. Considerable work has been done within a short period of about 12 years, during which time most of the infrastructure and man- power requirements have been built up. How- ever, whatever has been done is a small frac- tion of what remains to be achieved. With the recent declaration of 200 nautical miles of Economic Zone, we have added a very large area, about 1/3 of the total land area of India, to our economic limits in the sea. This area needs to be intensively explored for the living and non-living resources. India’s future ocea- nographic programmes are being planned to suit many urgent needs. With the discovery of oil off Bombay, a new era of oceanogra- phic exploration has started. The vast conti- nental shelf off the Indian coast must be ex- tensively explored to locate similar structures. Search for offshore oil is likely to be intensifi- ed in the near future. NIO, being fully con- scious of its responsibilities, is going to be actively involved in such studies. Major deve- lopments in the offshore oil exploitation are expected to be in the field of ocean engineer- ing and technology. Offshore drilling platforms and sophisticated buoy telemetering systems for continuous data acquisition would have to be developed indigenously for successful ex- ploitation of offshore oil. Similarly, a consi- derable amount of work will be carried out on the design of foundations of the structures to be built at sea. Another field of potential importance is the optimum utilization of marine mineral re- sources. For this purpose, NIO is working in 666 OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN INDIA collaboration with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and the survey of almost the en- tire western continental shelf has been com- pleted. More intensive studies are planned in the Bay of Bengal and in selected areas of the Arabian Sea. Deeper regions of the Indian Ocean are very rich in manganese nodules. It is hoped that very soon the country will be able to build up the necessary competence for the exploration and exploitation of manganese nodule. The utilization of marine living resources is another area in which considerable effort will be put in, and for this, aquaculture or sea farming technology is going to create the greatest impact. Besides food, animals and plants of the sea are going to be used for many other purposes. Several important chemicals are likely to be obtained from seaweeds and marine animals such as corals, sponges, etc. These organisms are known to possess very interesting biologically active compounds which are different from those obtained from the land plants and animals so far. These che- micals have a rich potential for being deve- loped into important drugs and pharmaceu- ticals. Realizing the importance of such stu- dies, NIO has taken up a project on “drugs from the sea” in collaboration with the Cent- ral Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Luck- now. It is known that most of the conventional sources of energy (fossil fuel) are exhaust- able and hence many countries of the world are now seeking alternate sources of energy which will be unconventional and inexhaust- able. Significant progress has been made in several countries including India for the uti- lization of energy stored in tides, waves, cur- rents and temperature difference of water column in the sea. Preliminary studies carried out indicate that some areas of our country are very promising for harnessing tidal energy. Researches on this important aspect is likely to draw more and more attention during the forthcoming years. The most significant contribution India will make during the next decade or so would be in becoming self reliant in undertaking the different challenging tasks of exploiting the sea and its resources for the benefit of its people. India will also provide support and expertise to many developing countries of the world in the field of ocean science and tech- nology. The oceans will thus continue to hold the promise of meeting man’s evergrowing needs for food, minerals, energy, chemicals, water, living space and climate. The new age into which we are moving in is not only the age of atoms, the electron and space, it is also the new age of the sea. 667 THE STATUS OF THE GHARIAL (GAVIALIS GANGET1CUS) IN U.P. AND ITS REHABILITATION V. B. Singh1 {With a plate and two maps) Introduction Not very long ago, several rivers in U.P. had a good number of gharials. In the course of short period of about fifteen to twenty years, there has been drastic depletion in their popu- lation so much so that some of the rivers, have been completely denuded. The situation has become alarming and the gharial is almost on the verge of extinction in this State. A variety of causes contributed to the large scale destruction of gharials. Some of these are (i) Lack of enforcement organisation, (ii) In- discriminate shooting and netting, (iii) Use of nylon gill nets for fishing, (iv) Construction of reservoirs and barrages and (v) Removal of eggs by tribals and local people for use as food. A study of gharial population in Uttar Pra- desh was initiated from Jan. 1975 onwards and three main rivers namely Ganga, Sarda and Ghaghra were surveyed. It was also de- cided to construct hatchling ponds so that eggs collected from nature could be hatched and reared at the rehabilitation centre. The intensive survey yielded solid re- sults in the form of a clutch of 38 gharial eggs which were collected in April 1975 from the west bank of the river Girwa near Katernia- ghat in Bahraich District. These eggs were transported to Lucknow for artificial incuba- 1 Chief Wildlife Warden, U.P. tion, hatching and rearing of the young. Twenty one of the eggs hatched and these were kept in two ponds constructed according to our own design and plan. The centre was visited by the FAO expert and we discussed in detail the entire problem of gharial reha- bilitation in U.P. and worked out a scheme, incorporating the following main features: (i) Detailed survey of the existing croco- dilian population in the State. (ii) Based on the information collected through survey, to translocate isolated populations; to protect the viable populations and to locate nesting sites. (iii) Establishment of breeding Centres. (iv) Essential research on the ecology of crocodilians which will provide basic data about their breeding growth, food habits, population etc. With financial aid from the Central Gov- ernment for the execution of the scheme, not- able progress was made towards achieving the four objectives. We have surveyed our rivers, located breeding populations and nesting sites; collected eggs, hatched them and reared the juveniles at our rehabilitation Centres. We have at present (August 77) the largest gha- rial population anywhere in the World. In this paper, however, the results of the survey to determine the status of gharial and the efforts made to rehabilitate this species in nature by rearing them at the Centres is reported. 668 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Singh : Gharial in U.P. Plate Above : Gharial breeding centre at Kukrail. Below : Gharials in Kukrail breeding centre. STATUS OF GHARIAL IN U.P. II. Status Survey of the Gharial in the Rivers of Uttar Pradesh Methods The survey team consisted of a surveyor, two assistant Surveyors and 3 boatmen. Other than the surveyor, the rest of the staff are members of Mallah community, who are very familiar with the habits and natural history of river animals. The two Assistant Surveyors have been employed under this scheme as re- gular Government employees and the rest worked on daily wages basis. Two boats were constructed, one for the river Chambal and the other to be used in Girwa river. Survey of other rivers was done with the help of boats taken on hire. Valuable information about the location of gharials was obtained from local fishermen through our staff. Two 7 x 50 binoculars were used and census figures are based mostly on day counts of ani- mals seen. Day census is often as effective as night census though hatchlings and juveniles showed up mainly during night counts using three-cell torches when they were feeding near the shore, adults were never spotted during the night. Survey Reports'. Narayani or Gaiadak river The Gandak river (Narayani) after leaving Nepal flows through the Doma forests of Nich- laul Range in Gorakhpur district along the U.P.-Bihar border. A large population of Gharial used to be found here. Thomas W. Webber in his book the forests of upper India (1902) mentions seeing groups of 20 or more basking in the mid-river sandbars. In addition he also mentions that mugger used to abound in jheels and tanks around Gorakh- pur itself. Two to three animals were reported seen in 1975 near the Tailfall gate on the main Gandak West Canal. Two gharials both with- out nose humps about 2.5 to 3 metres in length were seen in the canal itself but during a period of high water, when the gate was open, one had moved away. The Irrigation department official who re- sides near the gate sighted this remaining gha- rial basking on the sand bank of the canal be- tween 1100 and 1600 hours. During the lean period of the river before the monsoon begins in late May, Gharials are seen in the Gandak river which then flows through a narrow chan- nel on the Bihar side of the border. During this period they are sighted in small numbers (less than 5) at the Gahanu and Bhainsaha ghats. There was one reliable report that the area was visited by a gharial with a nose hump during the first floods in June/ July but it has not been seen recently. Gharials in this area have become rare be- cause of altered habitat conditions arising from diversion of Narayani water in the East and West Gandak canals. As a result of this, the Gandak had become a spent force resulting in the ‘Kunds’2 in the river gradually getting silted up, thus greatly reducing the habitat where most riverlife resides in summer. It is worthwhile noting that the presence of gharial in the canal represents normal high water behaviour of gharial when they leave the swollen main river and seek refuge in a tributary in this case a canal connected to the Narayani. GfoagSira river — Enquiries from fishermen at Ghaghraghat and Dohrighat revealed that gharial which were formerly abundant have now been depleted to the point of extinction in the lower Ghaghra and no adult animals have been seen here for more than a decade. 2 Deep pools in the river bed. 669 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Fishermen at Dohrighat claimed that migrants are seen immediately after the high water season though the frequency of such sightings have also gone down sharply in recent years. That the Gharial is not yet completely extinct is shown by the fact that the survey party was able to acquire a 1.3 metre long juvenile from a fisherman in October 1975. This animal died after about 3 months in captivity being un- able to adjust to captive conditions. Small numbers of gharial used to be exhibited at Dohrighat during the Kartik festival held there each year. A superstition based ritual used to be performed on these animals which were later released in the Ghaghra. In 1975 it was seen that turtles had replaced gharial as the object of ritual due to the current rarity of gha rials. It is estimated that over the entire length of Ghaghra there are possibly five isolated gharials. Girwa river — Girwa river which is known as Karnali in Nepal before it enters the Indian territory lies in Katerniaghat wildlife sanctu- ary. From the point of its confluence with Koriala downstream it is known as Ghaghra, about which details have been given in the para above. The stretch of 18 km of Girwa river is at present the best gharial habitat in the State as 5 km stretch of this river has the largest population of gharial in the country. The population of Girwa was surveyed be- tween March and May 1975 when 14 gharials including one hump nosed male were counted. During surveys in 1976, 25 gharials including 3 hump nosed males and 7 adult females were seen. The sudden increase in the population observed since the receding of the river after the monsoon season of 1975 is attributed to migrants who have moved into the area from the Karnali gorge, Cheesa Pani in Nepal due to increasing disturbance there arising from surveys for the Karnali Dam Project. Another important reason could be less disturbed bask- ing areas available in this part of the river due to reduced human disturbance, as this year there was no working for timber in the sur- rounding forests and boats carrying driftwood were absent. Formerly the gharial was more widely dis- tributed along the entire length of the Girwa downstream of the Nepal border at Katarnia- ghat. Gharial also occurred at the confluence of the Kauriala and Mohan river and in the j Mohan river itself. But at present they are ! mostly restricted to a 3-5 km stretch of the Girwa adjoining compartment 2 from about one kilometre above the temporary bridge at Katerniaghat. Gharials occasionally show up to the confluence of Girwa and Kauriala and the Kauriala and Mohan rivers after the mon- soons but there is a tendency to abandon these areas during the subsequent months. The details of the gharial population in the Girwa is therefore as follows: (i) Male 2 17 feet and 20'-21' long (ii) Female 7 Adult 10'- 15' long 2 adult reaching breeding size (iii) Sub-adults 4 6' to 10' long (iv) Juveniles 11 5' to 7' long (v) Young ones (two years) 2 3' to 5' long Total : 28 670 STATUS OF GHARIAL IN U.P. mp OP ? KATERNIAGHAT SANCTUARY 671 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL LUST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Chambal river — The river Chambal forms the border between U.P. and Madhya Pradesh for over a length of nearly 250 kilometres. During the period December 75 to January 76, nearly 200 kilometres of Chambal in Uttar Pradesh was surveyed. The survey started by boat from Samruna ghat just above the U.P. Rajasthan border downstream to the pontoon bridge at Sahson Ghat. The Chambal is generally a deep river flowing between high banks. There are numer- ous bends where the river is over hundred feet deep. The extensive river habitat of the Cham- bal supported a large population of gharial and other river life in the past. Indiscriminate hunting and netting has brought the popula- tion down to a stage where its survival has been threatened. A flayed body of an adult male was seen on the banks of a Kund close to Ridauli vil- lage on the right bank of the river which lies in M.P. The carcass which had not yet begun to decompose belonged to a 17 feet humped gharial which had been stripped of its skinned hump on the nose. Local people reported that it was shot after 5th December by the Chawki- d-ar of Ridauli village in M.P. Tracks of gharial which had come out to bask belonged to more than one gharial. Near Basauni village in U.P. two small springs which originate in small ponds flow into the river. Here gharials below three metres in length were reported to be trapped since the water receded from the ravines after the monsoon flood. One of these was killed with sticks when a farmer was sur- prised by the animal as he was washing his hands in the pond. Several tracks of adults were seen on the submerged portion of a mud bank above Aterghat. Three (3) fresh tracks of juveniles or sub-adults were seen on a mud-bank close to Mau village in M.P. on the right bank. One juvenile below 1.5 metres in length was seen near Kasaua village on the right bank in M.P. In the stretch of the river surveyed the num- ber of adult gharials will not exceed 10. In addition sub-adults and juveniles occur in fair number. This is stated on the basis of infor- mation collected from villagers working close to the banks of the Chambal. However, the gharials could not be sighted for the following reasons: (i) Gharials in Chambal come out of water less frequently during December and January and are seen more often before November and after mid February to May. (ii) Very intensive commercial fishing is done in this river and as many as 25 boats were found operating in the stretch of the river surveyed. Gharials do not come out because of this activity. (iii) Old adults are very shy and do not completely leave the water but bask by resting their snouts only on land. (iv) In many places mid river rocks are used for basking and no tracks are left on these. The river still provides good habitat for gharial, they have disappeared mainly due to hunting. Numerous methods of hunting have been adopted. The important ones are: a) Shooting, b) netting, c) by hooks planted in the sand, d) noosing of juveniles, e) spearing by torch light. They are also caught accidentally in fishing nets and turtle hooks. A secondary reason may be increasing human activity near the river as indicated by the existence of greater number of ferries on the Chambal than shown in the earlier editions of survey of India maps. The portion of the Chambal river upstream of U.P. border between Rajasthan and M.P. still contain breeding populations of gharial. Our survey work continued in this part of the 672 STATUS OF GHARIAL IN U.P. river as well but its details will form part of another note. It is however considered necessary to give the abstract of results so that the actual status of the gharial in the country may be assessed. The following are the details of the population observed in this portion. Male — Adults — 6 Female — Adults — 12 Sub-adult — 15 Juveniles — 16 up to two years — 34 Total 83 The breeding population of gharial in this part of the Chambal gave us during the 1977 egg laying season as many as 12 clutches of 497 eggs. It is therefore justifiably believed that gharial will naturally increase in the U.P.- M.P. portion if their hunting and extermina- tion are completely eliminated. Ramganga river — Ramganga river flows through the Corbett Park. This river debouch- ed into the plains at Kalagarh where a dam has been constructed. It has created a reser- voir of nearly 80 square kilometres, submerg- ing the best gharial pools which existed in the river in a stretch of 8 kilometres upstream of Kalagarh. Till 1960, this river had a very large gharial population which could be seen basking on islands and sand bars. The census carried out in 1965 indicated the presence of atleast 15 adult gharials. The construction of the dam, which involved heavy dynamiting of the hills and river banks was responsible for the destruction of the gharials. Now the total population consists of 5 adults, of which two are males and three females. All the gharials live in the pools lying in the stretch between Dhikala and Gairal, a length of nearly 25 kilometres. They share pools with muggers which are more common in the river now. Ramganga below Kalagarh is almost a dry river on account of the Kalagarh reservoir. Only a few isolated gharials have been report- ed in Bedaun and Shahjehanpur districts. Ganges river — The portion of the river above Garh Mukteswar is not habitable for gharial due to lack of deep pools and paucity of water. (i) Between Garh Mukteshwar and Kanpur no gharials were observed but reports about the occurrence of several isolated adults have been received. (ii) Between Kanpur and Allahabad — in this portion gharial has been completely extermi- nated and no reports about their existence anywhere were received. (iii) Between Allahabad and Mirzapur — occasional reports of isolated adults have been received till recently. Jamuna river — Below its confluence with Chambal river, some juveniles have been seen occasionally. Sometimes migrants from Cham- bal stray into Jamuna and isolated adults have been seen in certain areas. Betwa river — Gharial habitat has been badly disturbed in this river due to the construction of various hydel and irrigation projects. The population is accordingly either extinct or near extinction. Ken river — Gharial is extinct in the portion of the river in U.P. A few are reported to sur- vive in the higher reaches in M.P. but they are cut off from U.P. by an irrigation barrage. Son and Tons rivers — Gharial is reported to survive in the river gorges in M.P., but they are almost exterminated in U.P. These rivers used to have a good number of gharials some years back. Only occasional migrants may stray into the U.P. portion of this rivers. Rapt! river — No resident population sur- vives in the U.P. portion of the river. In the 673 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 portion in Nepal, there are several breeding adults. Occasional migrants may stray into U.P. The following is the abstract of gharial, populations in the rivers of U.P. Gharial Rehabilitation Project Less than 1% of all gharials hatched in nature reach a length of two metres after which they generally become immune to pre- 2 Sub-adults 5 adults (isolated) 2+9 adults 17 sub -ad ults & young ones (i) Narayani (ii) Ghaghra (iii) Girwa (iv) Chambal (a) U.P. (b) M.P./ Rajasthan (v) Ramganga (a) Corbett Park (b) In the plains (vi) Ganges Conclusion — The results of the survey as given earlier bear testimony to the fact that gharial is uniformly rare to the point of being extinct in most of the rivers in U.P. which not very long ago supported a sizable population. The only breeding population in the entire State exists in the Girwa river of Bahraich Forest Division. The resident population here consists of nearly 30 individuals including 9 adult females and two (2) adult males, the remaining being sub-adults or juveniles. So far only a maximum of four females have par- ticipated in nesting. In all other rivers, only isolated individuals may continue to survive, but these are not believed to be of breeding status. Also in case where the upper reaches of rivers lie outside the State boundaries and in which gharial continues to survive, flux of migrating individuals specially juveniles may sometimes be observed after monsoon floods. Reports of such remnant population continue to be received from the river Ghaghra, Ganga between Garh Mukteshwar and Kanpur, the Ramganga, Chambal, and Jamuna rivers. 10 adults (isolated) 6+12 adults 65 sub-adults & young ones 5 adults (isolated) 4 adults (isolated) 4 adults dation. One breeding female may lay eggs from 20 to 100 in a clutch, which is a suffici- ently large number to maintain a population if a fair proportion out of them could survive to reach the breeding age. But the eggs and hatchlings fall victim not only to predators like fish, jackals, monitor lizards, birds of prey or even big gharials but also to egg eating tribal communities. All odds were against the reha- bilitation of gharials in nature with its rapidly shrinking habitat, the fast flowing and deep pooled rivers being favourite sites for dams, barrages and reservoirs, and the ever present threat of hunting by hooks, rifles, dynamite or nets for their valuable hide. Also young and old alike were being accidentally enmeshed in huge nylon fishing nets and either drowned or were clubbed to death to save the valuable net. There was little hope of rehabilitating the gharial without a crash programme to over- come these difficulties and adverse factors. A project which could take care of protection and which could produce sufficient number of gharial babies to repopulate the rivers was the 674 T t « > IK13«l v00> nVH STATUS OF GHARIAL IN U.P. 675 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 need. These objectives could be achieved by: (i) Careful collection of eggs from the wild, their artificial hatching combined with captive rearing of the young till they attained a length of nearly 2 metres when they were strong enough to fend for themselves and survive in nature against most of the predators. (ii) Creation of sanctuaries to protect the existing breeding population. Pilot Project: The Wildlife Preservation Or- ganisation of Uttar Pradesh decided to start a pilot project to construct breeding ponds and to collect eggs, hatch them and rear the young ones. It was decided to survey rivers to locate breeding populations so that during the egg- laying season likely nesting sites could be wat- ched and eggs collected for our rehabilitation centre. While the preliminary survey was be- ing conducted from December 1974 to Janu- ary 1975, information was collected about the design and specifications of ponds. Kukrail reserved forest, which covers an area of nearly 2000 hectares and is located 12 km away from the State Capital Lucknow was selected as the site for the location of the rehabilitation centre. The river Kukrail is per- ennial and can provide sufficient fish of all sizes for most part of the year and was the main attraction in addition to the closeness of the place to Lucknow which made intensive and frequent inspection of the centre possible. In an enclosure of 12 x 6 metres which was enmeshed on all the four sides and on the roof, two ponds each of 2.25 x 1.90 x 0.4 metre size were constructed with inlets for running water from a tubewell and drain pipes to clean the ponds. Systematic surveys carried out in February 1975 proved successful and atleast 14 animals were enumerated in the Girwa river near Ka- terniaghat in Bahraich district. Our staff managed to locate a single nest of gharial which yielded 38 eggs which were transported in May 1975 to Kukrail for artificial hatching. Twenty one (21) hatchlings emerged in the first week of July out of which one died im- mediately and the rest were released into the newly built ponds. The centre was visited by the crocodile expert of the FAO/UNDP on the 5th August 1975 and at his suggestion 10 of the hatchlings were sent to the Orissa Rehabi- litation for rearing under his supervision. The remaining 11 were kept at Kukrail. Proper arrangements had to be made to protect the hatchlings against winter. The entire enclosure was covered by polythene sheets and jute mats to ward off cold winds and to arrest sun’s heat. Electric room heaters were provided for keep- in the water in the ponds above 18°C below which hatchlings in captivity tend to become lethargic and susceptible to diseases. Our experiment in artificial rearing proved successful and at the end of the year 12 hat- chlings had survived 8 in U.P. and 4 in Orissa. Encouraged by this success we presented a full fledged scheme to the State Govt, under which the Central Government was requested to meet the capital expenditure and the State Govt, to pay the recurring expenses. This scheme was sanctioned in October 1975 and a planned total expenditure of Rs. 3.77 lakhs spread over 2 years was allotted by the Central Govt. Technical assistance is also being pro- vided by the UNDP expert posted in the coun- try. We decided to have one more rehabilita- tion centre which was located at Katerniaghat near the river Girwa. By June 1976, the con- struction of 30 hatchling ponds with a capa- city for 450 hatchlings and 4 yearling ponds with a capacity for 80 yearlings was completed. Ten of the hatchling ponds were located at Katerniaghat centre. Meanwhile survey efforts were stepped up and between December 75 676 STATUS OF GHAR1AL IN U.P. and May 76, our survey team constantly sur- veyed the Narayani, Son, Ghaghra, Ramganga and chiefly the river Chambal and Girwa to locate more breeding populations and nesting sites of gharial. The efforts were well reward- ed and we were able to locate 9 nests out of which 3 were found on the Girwa and the other 6 on the Chambal. These nests yielded us 342 eggs (215 Girwa and 127 Chambal). The Chambal eggs gave us nearly 95% hatch- ing success while it was 71% in the case of Girwa ones. The number of yearlings surviving now (Aug, 77) out of these are 235, Girwa eggs yielded weak hatchlings which suffered from physical defects and their mortality was high during the course of 12 months. Chambal hatchlings, on the other hand were healthier and sturdy. It became necessary to increase the number of yearling ponds to accommodate the 235 yearlings against our existing capacity for 80 yearlings only. Accordingly 4 yearling ponds were added to the Kukrail complex and ano- ther 4 ponds to the Katerniaghat. This raised the total number of yearling ponds to 8 at Kukrail and 4 at Katerniaghat which among them could provide for at least 240 to 250 yearlings. No hatchling ponds were added as we did not expect to collect more than 400 to 450 eggs during the 1977 summer nesting season. Efforts were intensified to locate maximum number of eggs both along Chambal and Girwa during the 1977 nesting season. Sepa- rate survey parties were deputed to these two rivers with adequate number of boats, trans- port and men both local and our own staff. They stayed in the area from February on- wards till they located all the possible nests. As many as 12 gharial nests were located on the Chambal which yielded 497 eggs. These eggs were brought to Kukrail centre in the last week of May 77. On the Girwa 4 nests were located with 166 eggs. While the eggs from 3 nests were brought to Katerniaghat centre one nest with 30 eggs was left at the site to observe the hatching percentage in nature. The hatching success came to 90 to 94% which yielded 599 hatchlings. The nest which was kept undisturbed on the site at Girwa yielded 30 hatchlings, but 7 died immediately. The twenty three hatchlings were collected and brought to Katerniaghat centre for rearing. We had thus 553 hatchlings from the 1977 eggs. Our existing hatchling ponds, as indicated earlier, have capacity for only 450 hatchlings. We had therefore to resort to relative crowding and had to send 100 Chambal hatchlings from Kukrail to Katernia- ghat as a measure of proper distribution of space and work load. The following table gives the existing stock position of gharial hatchlings and yearlings at our two centres. It also gives consolidated in- formation about the number of nests, and eggs collected during the last three years as also their hatching percentages etc. (see p. 678). Though this paper deals only with the work done by us about gharial rehabilitation, we also collected mugger ( Crocodylus patustris ) eggs which were found along the Chambal river banks during the course of our survey. We have the following number of muggar hatchlings and yearlings also at our Kukrail centre : The above figures show that we have in stock 247 gharials which will be big enough to be released in the wild by the end of Fab- ruary 1978. Sanctuaries — As mentioned earlier, Girwa river in Bahraich Forest Division has the larg- est gharial population in the State. A five 677 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Year egg source No. of nests No. of eggs created No. hatched %of hatching No. of surviving of one year age ! No. of surviving at 2 years age No- % No. % STATUS OF GHARIAL IN U.P. kilometre stretch of this river has the highest density of gharfals in the country. Along with the artificial rearing of gharials and their release in nature, their rehabilitation de- pends on the protection afforded to the exist- ing population as also to the artificially bred young after their release. It was considered necessary to give higher legal status to the entire eco-system which held the largest sur- viving population of gharials in the State. The Girwa river and the forest around this river were the obvious choice and an area covering 400 square kilometres was constitut- ed into a wildlife sanctuary in the year 1976. In addition to the breeding population of gha- rial this sanctuary contains rich wildlife includ- ing Mugger, tiger, panther, swamp deer, black- buck, chital, hogdeer, blue bull, pigs and variety of birds including red jungle fowl, par- tridges etc. The first five species listed above are protected animals included under sche- dule I of the wildlife Protection Act 1972. In addition to the normal territorial and wildlife staff posted in the area one Assistant Wild Life Warden has been posted for the protection of gharials. A scientific management plan is being drawn for this sanctuary which will consider- ably improve the habitat and environmental conditions in the area after its enforcement. There is a proposal to create another sanc- tuary to cover the length of the river Chambal which has a breeding population of gharials or which has suitable habitat where gharials can live and breed. This sanctuary will be spread over the three states of U.P., M.P. and Rajasthan. Government of India has accepted our proposal in this connection and have ini- tiated action for the early creation of this sanc- tuary. Corbett National Park is another protected area in the State which has ideal habitat for gharials in the form of river Ramganga. Though this river has at present only 5 gha- rial adults, it can provide a home for more gharials. The above three rivers have been selected for the release of gharial young reared at our two centres. The first lot of juveniles will be released in February 1978. They will be in- tensively protected and looked after. In due course other areas which have suitable stretches of gharial habitat, will be given the status of sanctuaries for the release of captive bred gharials. This paper will not be complete without details of techniques adopted in each operation involved in the rearing of gharial. The different operations are (i) location of nests (ii) Incu- bation of eggs (iii) Transfer of eggs to cen- tres (iv) Hatching (v) Rearing enclosures (vi) Feeding and (vii) Protection against win- ter and diseases etc. Location of nests : Gharials have been found to be regular nesters and the nesting season does not vary by more than 10 days in any year. Determination of the nesting season in a particular region is vital for nest location. It was interesting to note the nesting by all the 12 females spread over a stretch of nearly 200 kilometres of Chambal which occurred within a period of 7 days. Pre-nesting behavi- ous consists of excavation of trial nests by the females which they start about a month before the actual nesting. The excavation of these trial nests gives vital clues to the location of actual nests. Each female gharial may excavate about a dozen trial nests before laying her eggs in one of these. The location of each trial nest is marked by fixing a peg about 3 metres away from the trial nest in parpendicular direction from the waters edge. This ensures the location of all possible nests. After all nesting activity ceases each trial nest is excavated carefully to check the presence of eggs. If the nest is still 679 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY, Vol 75 not located, the entire nesting area is systema- tically probed with a 4 mm thick steel road to a depth of about 45 cm. This usually results in the puncturing of a few eggs with the location of every nest but an experienced prober can bring the incidence down to a minimum. Incubation : Ghari-als exhibit wonderful nest- ing habits. Nesting sites are normally so chosen as to give very high incubation success. The incubation medium has the dual quality of allowing good permeability of air as well as proper humidity to meet the moisture require- ments of the developing embryos. This is achieved as a result of balance be- tween the grain size of the sand and its mois- ture content which varies between 4% to 7% by weight. Furthermore, the eggs are laid at a depth where steady conditions are maintain- ed for the developing embryos. The tempera- ture does not vary much throughout the day neither does the humidity change with the occurrence of rainfall during the incubation months. The range of incubation temperature varies between 25 degrees C (minimum) and 37 degree (maximum) but the range of opti- mum incubation temperature is considered to lie between 32 degree and 34 degree, which reduces the incubation time and gives better hatching success. In order to reduce the pos- sibilities of mal-effects on embryos from hu- man interference it is most advisable to allow the eggs to remain in the nest for at least 40 days so that partial incubation is achieved and the embryos are not damaged during transport or movement. In no case should the eggs be interfered with within 15 days of their being laid. Some times on account of various reasons females lay eggs in conspicuously bad nesting medium. Such mediums are (i) over moist sand in places susceptible to inundation by the river water (ii) too dry sand (iii) sand grains of too large a size and (iv) sand with high humus content. In such conditions, eggs should be transferred to better locations close by so that the clutch may be saved from de- composition. A thumb rule for the testing of proper humi- dity and permeability of the incubation me- dium is to compress the sand in the hand. The sand should be cohesive enough to form a ball which when pressed lightly with a finger should crumble again. Transfer of eggs : As indicated in the pre- vious para, the eggs are transferred after in- cubation has been completed partially. The transfer to the incubation and rearing centres is done in boxes made of wooden planks (about 40 days after they are laid). The boxes are filled with sand from the nesting area as they provide an ideal medium not only for transport but also for incubation. The boxes should be sturdy and there should be fine slits or holes to allow for the passage of air into the transportation boxes. Several layers of eggs may be transported in one box which should not exceed the size 60 x 45 x 45 cm. Even smaller boxes are preferable. When the nest is opened for the transfer of eggs, each egg is marked at its highest portion with indelible ink. During removal of the eggs care is taken to retain the original orientation of the eggs as found in the nest. An egg found in horizontal position is removed in the same position and is kept in the box also in the same position. Similarly an upright egg is kept upright without rotation on its axis. The aggs are transferred to the transportation box and kept so that the lowest layer of eggs is sepa- rated from the bottom as well as from all the sides of the box by a layer of sand 4 to 6 cm thick. The eggs should be separated from each other also by at least 1.5 cm. The eggs are then transferred as quickly as possible to the incu- bation centre by the fastest transport available. 680 STATUS OF GHARIAL IN U.P. The importance of avoiding bumps and jerks cannot be over emphasized. Care should also be taken to eliminate chances of the egg boxes overheating. At the centre the eggs are transferred into incubation cells built of half bricks such that there are sufficient gaps between the bricks to allow free passage of air. The recommended dimensions of the brick cell are 70 cm cube. The eggs are removed from the boxes and kept in these cells with same precaution as were observed in their transfer from the nest to the box, in single layers after artificial in- cubating medium has been prepared by mixing together sand with the requisite amount of water. Humidity is controlled until hatching by keeping the bricks wet and by spraying water with an atomizer on the top of the incubation medium. Hatching : The completion of the incuba- tion is heralded by the croaking of the em- bryos, signalling their readiness to hatch. After initial croaking is noticed, a time period of 24 to 36 hours should be allowed to lapse before sand is removed from the incubation cells. By this time almost the entire clutch would have started croaking. The hatchlings emerge al- most immediately on dehumification and sever their umbilical cord which attaches the egg shell to them, a shortwhile after. When this occurs the egg shell should be removed from the incubation box for purposes of sanitation and hygiene. After a period of about 48 hours the hatchlings are ready for release into the rearing pools. Rearing enclosures : These are constructed in sets of 10 hatchling ponds, five on either side a central passage. The enclosure contain- ing these ponds has a wall 1 foot high on all four sides and is completely covered by chi- cken meshwire of \ inch mesh size. Internal dimension of each pond is 2 metres square. Half of the area has a depth of 45 cm while the other half slopes to zero. Each pond has a 25 cm wide apron on all sides. A space of 80 cm is provided all around the pond in each pond enclosure for the hatchlings to move about and for planting palms, which provide adequate shelter and hiding places for the young. Yearling ponds are built in sets of 4 ponds, two on either side of a central passage. The enclosure is covered with mesh wire as in the case of hatchling pond enclosures. The size of each pond is 4 metre square and depth one metre, which can ideally accommodate 25 yearlings. The ponds are separated from each other with insect proof mesh supported by sawn timber scantlings and railings. A space of 2 metres is provided between the pond and the partition on all sides. During the construction of the ponds, ar- rangements are made by laying under ground pipes with control manholes, both to fill water to the ponds and also to drain them out. Ade- quate number of palms, Salix spp and other suitable shade plants are put in around each pond to provide shade, shelter and hiding space, climbers like Antigonum sp. are plant- ed around the enclosures which spread out on all the four sides and also on the mesh wire roof and provide a mosaic of shade and sunlight. This is necessary to keep the water in the ponds cool and temperatures below 30 degree C. This climber should be either a spe- cies that sheds its leaves during the winter or should be cut back during the winter to allow the maximum amount of sunlight. Feeding : Considerable yolk matter is rapid- ly absorbed through the umbilical cord of the hatchling into its stomach just before hatch- ing. The yolk further maintains the hatchling for a period after its birth. Gradually nutri- tion from the yolk matter is supplemented 681 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 with that obtained from feeding. Proper feed- ing begins after a period of 15-20 days. Hat- chlings register a gain in weight after this period but they begin to grow in length noticeably even before. For feeding hatchling ponds should be ide- ally stocked with live fingerlings and small fishes between 2.5 mm to 5 mm in length. Each pond which ideally contains 10 hatchl- ings, should be stocked with atleast 400-500 such fishes to facilitate easy capture of prey by the hatchlings. Rate of feeding increases with the growth of the hatchlings but intially five fishes per hatchling have to be added daily to the ponds to replace those consumed. As it may not be possible to meet the increasing requirements of the live fish, after a critical 2 months post hatching period during which they are delicate in health, feeding should be gradually changed over to dead fish. Dead fishes may be accepted by the hatchlings right from the start but the growth is never as good as when fed on live fish. Decomposing remains of dead fishes also lead to undesirable hygenic conditions. Non-spiny fishes like Chela and Puntius are most favoured by the hatchlings. The preferred fishes are: — (i) Puntius ticto (Putia), (ii) Chanda ranga (Chanda), (iii) Rasohora daniconius, (iv) Colisa fasciata, (v) C henna punctatus (Girai), (vi) Chenna stria- tus (Saur), (vii) Laheo bata (Bata). Other fishes which were locally available in Kukrail river and were given to the hatchlings are: (i) My st us my st us (Tengra) (ii) Labeo rohita (Rohu) (iii) Labeo calbasu (Kalabose) (iv) Heteropneustes fossilis (Singhi) (v) Clarias batrachus (Mangur) (vi) Amphipnous cuchia (Bam) Hygiene : As gharial hatchlings defecate in the water the ponds soon become dirty and have to be scrubbed out every third day to maintain good hygiene in the enclosures. The land sur- rouding the ponds and the passage ways arc also swept out daily. As an efficient and ade- quate supply of running water is necessary, both the centres have their own arrangements with tube well and pumping sets. Terrapins ( Kaehuga tectum) are also kept and main- tained in the ponds as they are useful scavan- gers. Winter Protection : In North India winter temperatures fall as low as 4°C. In the restrict- ed environment of the rearing ponds tempe- ratures fall sharply during the night. Extreme cold not only arrests feeding and growth but may also lead to disease and mortalities. Fre- quent change of water in the ponds with warm tube well water (temp. 20°C) and covering the enclosures have been found effective in maintaining the pond temperature within a tolerable range of 15°C to 20°C. As maxi- mum amount of sunlight is required for bask- ing during the day, thick transparent polythene is fitted on wooden frames to cover the roof permanently during the period mid-November to mid-February. Heavy overlapping tarpaulin curtains hung on the sides which are rolled up during the day protect the enclosures from cold winds during the night. Electric room heaters hung about 75 cm above the ponds provide supplementary heat- ing. At least one heater (1000 Watts) per pond is required before these are effective in a large enclosure. Care is however taken to prevent possible overheating and temperature is not allowed to go above 20°C. Diseases, their prevention and cure : Most common and dangerous is the mouth 682 STATUS OF GHARIAL IN UP. chancre which has been found to be extremely infectious within a particular strain. The sym- ptoms are rotting of the gums and falling of teeth. Patches on the snout become discoloured brown and the animals slowly grow weak due to their inability to feed properly. Diseased animals should be isolated. All articles leaving or entering the pond as well as hands and feet of all concerned staff are disinfected by dipping in 10% solution of potassium per- manganate. The importance of strict isolation of diseased animals cannot be over emphasiz- ed. The treatment of this disease consists of scraping away the diseased parts with a steri- lised knife or scalpel and then swabbring over with 5% solution of Acroflavin. This is done daily until the symptoms disappear. Another ailment is the protrusion of the cloaca which leads to possible difficulty in defecation. Causes or the treatment of this malady is not known but the protrusion may be swabbed over by Acroflavin solution in order to pre- vent infection of the exposed internal organ. In a few cases intestinal cysts have also result- ed in mortality. Not much information is available about other diseases and their treatment. Intensive study is required in this direction. ACK N OWLEDGE M E N TS I am most grateful of Sri D. Basu, Surveyor and the staff of the Crocodile Rehabilitation Project (U.P.) who carried out the status sur- vey, who located breeding populations, collected eggs and brought them to the Centres. But for their hard work and devotion to the suc- cess of the Project, we could not have made any progress in the implementation of this Project. I am particularly thankful to Basu for assisting and providing field data for this paper. 683 RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA A. N. Henry, K. Vivekananthan and N. C. Nair1 A catalogue of 224 species of flowering plants presumably in danger of extinction in South India is given, based on the information from the distribution of species avail- able in MH and relevant literature. It is hoped that the list, which provides the essential preliminary to any Nature Conservation programme in South India, will be used by the Conservationists to select suitable biotic communities for the preservation of flora and fauna. The establishment of various international bo- dies, like International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, have initiat- ed programmes for rational and prudent ap- proach to the exploitation of natural resources and conservation of biotic communities by considering the status of rare and threatened species of plants and animals and their habi- tats. Tinker (1971) reports that “twenty thou- sand plant species — in danger of extinction. The essential preliminary to any conservation programme is a precise catalogue of what these species are, but so far only 68 are listed in IUCN’s Red Data Book.” About 14,000 species of wild flowering plants have been reported in India, and the great mountain chains of Himalayas, Western Ghats, Vindhya and Satpura ranges. East- ern Ghats, Khasi and Mizo Hills harbour about 90% of them. Due to indiscriminate en- croachment of forest areas for agriculture, plantation crops and hydro-electric projects, the “refugia” for the wild species have been disturbed, and these no doubt pose a threat to the very existence of the comparatively 1 Botanical Survey of India, Southern Circle, Coimbatore-641 002. rare/endemic local plants which illustrate de- finite evolutionary processes and potentialities. As correctly pointed out by Subramanyam & Nayar (1971) “there is no alternative to na- tural habitats in the propagation of rare plants, though botanic gardens and seed banks are the only temporary answers to the solu- tion of Conservation”. In the Enumeration, 224 wild species of flowering plants presumably in danger of ex- tinction in South India are listed, based on the information for the distribution of species available in MH and relevant literature. For each species the type locality including the maximum known range of distribution and habitats (if available) is given, followed by remarks, if any, on its probable present status. For easy reference, the species are grouped under their respective families following the classification of Bentham and Hooker, with present day delimitation of certain families. The list is by no means complete, and further additions will be published in subsequent series. It is our sincere hope that the list, which provides the essential preliminary to any Nature Conservation programme in South India, will be used by the Conservationists to select suitable biotic communities for the pre- servation of flora and fauna. 684 RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA ENUMERATION Annonaceae Desmos viridiflorus (Bedd.) Safford Unona viridiflora Bedd. Banks of Sholayar river, Anamalais, Coim- batore Dt., Tamil Nadu; Udumanparai, Anamalais. Scarce. Polyaltfoia rufescens Hook. f. & Thoms. Cochin in Ernakulam Dt., Kerala; Travan- core; Tirunelveli hills, Tamil Nadu. Scarce. Popowia foeddoineana Hook. f. & Thoms. Southern Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu and Southern Travancore, in evergreen forests; Attraymallay in Trivandrum Dt., Kerala. Scarce. Located in the evergreen forests of Agastya- malai in Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu in 1963. VlOLACEAE Hybanthus travancorices (Bedd.) Melch. lonidium travancoricum Bedd. Hills of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu and Tra- vancore. Located along streams in Agastyamalai in Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu in 1963. Hypericaceae Hypericum japonicum Thunb. var. major Fyson Nilgiris on western downs, Tamil Nadu. Rare. No specimens in MH. Guttiferae Garcinia imberti Bourd. Southern Travancore — in evergreen forests. No specimens in MH. Dipterocarpaceae Valeria macrocarpa B. L. Gupta Muthukulam, Bolampatty range, Coimba- tore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Malvaceae Decaschistia rufa Craib Tiruvallur and Kambakkam hills in Ching- leput Dt., Tamil Nadu and from the ‘Penin- sula’ (without precise locality). No specimens in MH. Elaeocarpaceae Elaeocarpus venustus Bedd. Muthukuzhivayal, Kanyakumari Dt., Tamil Nadu; Chimunji, S. Travancore. Scarce and little known. Located in the type locality in evergreen forests in 1976-1977. Balsam in aceae Impatiens aliciae C. E. C. Fischer Travancore; Munnar — Neriamangalam ghat road, Idikki Dt., Kerala — along streams. No specimens in MH. I. anaimudica C. E. C. Fischer Anaimudi, Idikki Dt., Kerala — in dense un- dergrowth in sholas. No specimens in MH. L cocliinica Hook. f. Kavalay, Cochin, Ernakulam Dt., Kerala — near streams. No specimens in MH. I. coelotropis C. E. C. Fischer Naimakad gap & Anaimudi slopes. High range, Idikki Dt., Kerala — in sholas and evergreen forests. Located in the type locality during 1965. 685 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 I. concinna Hook. f. W. Ghats in Malabar, Kerala (precise loca- lity not known). No specimens in MH. I. dcndricola C. E. C. Fischer Thandiadamolu, Coorg, Karnataka. No specimens in MH. I. johnii Barnes Kalaar Valley, High Range, Idikki Dt., Kerala— in dense evergreen forest. No specimens in MH. I. laticornis C. E. C. Fischer Kundahs, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — on wet rocks in deep shade. Not located since the type collection. I. macrocarpa Hook. f. Devicolam in Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. I. niunnarensis Barnes Near Munnar, High Range, Idikki Dt., Kerala — in streams and marshy places. No specimens in MH. I. nataliae Hook. f. Kumsi in Shimoga in N.W. Mysore, Kar- nataka. No specimens in MH. I. neo-barnesii C. E. C. Fischer Kundahs, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — on trunks & branches of trees exposed to much rain and mist from Malabar. Located in Nilgiri Peak R.F., Kundahs, during 1970. I. nilgirica C. E. C. Fischer Kundahs, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — among grass and on rocks. Not located since the type collection. I. pallidiflora Hook. f. Devicolam in Idikki Dt., Kerala — among grass on hill tops. Located from Periakanal and Santanpara areas in Devicolam, Idikki Dt., Kerala by E. Barnes during 1931-37. No specimens in MH. I. pandata Barnes ‘ Anaimudi slopes, Idikki Dt., Kerala — on wet rocks in tufts of moss and on cliffs at high elevation; Karankulam, Idikki Dt., Kerala. Located in the type locality during 1967. I. platyadena C. E. C. Fischer Anaimudi, Idikki Dt., Kerala; Naimakad gap & Kadaiaar, High Range, Idikki Dt, Kerala — in evergreen forest and wet sholas. No specimens in MH. I. rivulicola Hook. f. Puriar Valley, Travancore — along the bor- ders of streams. Located in and near Munnar, Lockhart gap, Periakanal in Idikki Dt., Kerala along streams and rocky slopes by E. Barnes dur- ing 1931-37. No specimens in MH. I. stocksii Hook. f. Thandiandamolu, Coorg, Karnataka. No specimens in MH. I. verecunda Hook. f. Periakanal and Devicolam, Idikki Dt., Kerala — on steep mossy embankments under trees. No specimens in MH. Burseraceae Boswellia ovalifoliolata Balak. & Henry Tirupathi Hills, Chittor Dt., & Nallamalai, Kurnool Dt., Andhra Pradesh. Meliaceae Aglaia canarensis Gamble W. Ghats of S. Kanara, Karnataka. Not located since the type collection. A. maiae Bourd. Ariyaukam and Colatoorpolay in Travan- core,— in evergreen forests. No specimens in MH. 686 RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA Aquifoliaceae Ilex gardeerlaiia Wt. Sispara Ghat in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Scarce. No specimens in MH. Celastraceae Microtropis densiflora Wt. Below Sispara at Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — in dense jungles. Scarce. Located in Pykara, Nilgiris during 1971. Hippocrateaceae Loeseeeriella bourdillonfi (Gamble) Raju Hippocratea hourdiUonii Gamble Colatoorpolay, Travancore — in evergreen forests. No specimens in MH. Salacia becMomei Gamble Anamalai hills of Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu; Wynaad. Not located since the type collection. S. malabarica Gamble S. Kanara, Karnataka and Travancore — in plains and in moist forests. Not located since the type collection. Khamnaceae Ventilago goughii Gamble Coorg, and Coonoor ghat, Nilgiri Dt., Tamil Nadu; Segur ghat, Nilgiris. Located in Kunjapanai, Nilgiris and Thiru- karungudi in Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu during 1972. Anacardiaceae Buchanania barbed Gamble Nadarai in Travancore. Not located since the type collection. ill Notiiopegia aureo-foSva Bedd. ex Hook. f. Hills above Courtallam, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. CONNARACEAE Ellipantiius neglectus Gamble Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu and Colatoorpo- lay, Travancore — in evergreen forests. Not located since the type collection. Papilionaceae Indigofera constricta (Thw.) Trimen Ceylon; Kavalay, Cochin, Ernakulam Dt., Kerala, Nikund ghat, N. Kanara, Karnataka. Rare. Located in Ranni R. F., Quilon Dt., Kerala during 1976. Rhynchosia jacobil Chandr. & Shctty Thulukkanparai — eastern slope of Mahendra- giri hills, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Smltlila veiikobarowli Gamble Peermade, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. Caesalpiniaceae Cynometra mlmosoides Wall. W. Ghats in S. Travancore; Cannanore. Apparently very scarce. Hranboldtla laorifolia Vahl Ceylon & W. Ghats in Malabar. Apparently very scarce. One collection (without locality) available in MH collected during 1873. Mimosaceae Acacia hoSiesiackeri Craib Kundah range, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Located in Bimka Shola, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu in 1970. 687 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 A. wightii Baker Travancore, and Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu — on the sea coast. No specimens in MH. Myrtaceae Eugenia discifera Gamble Near Chimunji, Travancore — in evergreen forests. No specimens in MH. Jambosa beddoniei (Duthie) Gamble Trichnangudi, Tirunelveli hills, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. J. hourdillonii Gamble Merchiston, Ponmudi hill, Trivandrum Dt. — in evergreen forests. Not located since the type collection. J. courtallensis Gamble Courtallum, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu & Ceylon. No specimens in MH. Meteoromyrtus wynaadensis (Bedd.) Gamble Devala (Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu) South East Wynaad. No specimens in MH. Syzygium benihamianum (Wt. ex Duthie) Gamble Sispara in Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. S. paighatense Gamble Palghat hills, Kerala. No specimens in MH. S. travancoricum Gamble Low Country of Travancore — in swampy places. Not located since type collection. Melastomataceae Kendrickia waSkeri Hook. f. Anamalai hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. Ceylon. Reported from Peninsular India based on a single collection from Anamalai. 688 No specimens (from South India) in MH. Meniecylon flavescens Gamble Avalanche and Sispara, Kundahs, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — in evergreen shola forests. Located in shola forests in the type locality in 1972. M. lawsoni Gamble South East Wynaad; Devala, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Collections from the type locality, available in MH. M. madgolense Gamble Madgol hills of Visakhapatnam Dt., Andhra Pradesh. No specimens in MH. M. sisparense Gamble Sispara ghat, Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu. Collection from the type locality available in MH. Sonerila barnesii C. E. C. Fischer Nadugani, Tirunelveli hills, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. S. nemakadensis C. E. C. Fischer Naimakad gap. High range, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. S. pulneyensis Gamble Pambar ravine, Pulney hills, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. Subsequent collection from the type locality made during 1901 available in MH. S. wynaadensis Nayar Wynaad, Kerala. Not located since the type collection. Lythraceae Lagerstroemia rottleri Clarke Deccan (exact locality not known). Little known tree. No specimens in MH. L. thomsonii Koehne Mysore and Carnatic; probably W. Ghats. Apparently very rare. No specimens in MH. RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA CUCURBITACEAE Luff a umbellata (Klein) Roem. Travancore, Kerala; Coromandel — (precise locality not known). Scarce. A single collection without precise locality is available in MH. Umbelliferae Peucedanum anamallayense Clarke Anamalai hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Pimpinellla pulneyensis Gamble Near shola, Kodaikanal, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu — in damp and cool places near sholas. Not located since the type collections. P. tirupatiensis Balak. & Subr. Japalathirtha, Tirupati hills, Chittoor Dt., Andhra Pradesh. Subsequently collected from the type loca- lity during 1974. Arauaceae Schefflera bourdillonii Gamble Near Chimunji, Travancore, Kerala — in evergreen forests. No specimens in MH. Rubiaceae Coffea crassifolia Gamble Ayerpadi, Anamalais, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu & Peermade, Idikki Dt., Kerala. Not located since the type collection. Hedyotis anamalayana (Gamble) Rolla Rao & Hemadri Oldenlandia anamalayana Gamble Anamalai hills in high ranges, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. H. barberi (Gamble) Henry & Subr. Oldenlandia barberi Gamble Agastyamalai peak, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu — in rocky places. Located in the type locality in 1964. H. beddomei Hook. f. Oldenlandia beddomei (Hook, f.) O. Ktze. Palghat hills, Kerala — in open grassy places. Collection from the type locality available in MH. H. bourdillonii (Gamble) Rolla Rao & Hem- adri Oldenlandia bourdillonii Gamble Travancore — in scrub forests. No specimens in MH. H. gamblei Henry & Subr. Manjanamparai, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. H. ramarowii (Gamble) Rolla Rao & Hem- adri Oldenlandia ramarowii Gamble Ponmudi, Trivandrum Dt., Kerala; Chi- munji, Travancore; Kalakad, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. H. santapaui Shetty & Vivek. Umaiyamalai, Anaimudi slopes, Devicolam, Idikki Dt., Kerala and Anamalais, Coimba- tore Dt., Tamil Nadu; subsequently collect- ed from the type locality. H. shuteri (Hook, f.) Rolla Rao & Hemadri Oldenlandia shuteri Hook. f. Near Madras — east coast, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. H. stocksii (Hook. f. & Thoms.) Rolla Rao & Hemadri Oldenlandia stocksii Hook. f. & Thoms. Bababudan hills of Mysore (Malabar), Kar- nataka— Growing among grass. Not located since the type collection. H. travancorica Bedd. Oldenlandia travancorica (Bedd.) O. Ktze. Hills of Travancore, and Tirunelveli, Tamil 689 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Nadu — in humus soil; Trivandrum, Kerala. Located in Agastyamalai, Tirunelveli Dt, Tamil Nadu during 1963 & 1964. H. villostipulata (Gamble) Rolla Rao & Hem- ad ri Oldenlandia villostipulata Gamble Muthukuzhivayal, Ranyakumari Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collections. H. wynaadeissis (Gamble) Rolla Rao & Hem- adri Oldenlandia wynaadensis Gamble Chambra peak forests, Wynaad, Kerala. Not located since the type collections. Ixora jolmsonl Hook. f. Near Wenna Mala in Cochin. Ernakulam Dt., Kerala; Travancore, Kerala. Apparently scarce. No specimens in MH. I. lawsoni Gamble Mananthody, Cannanore Dt., Kerala & Coorg, Karnataka. Not located since the type collection. I. mondcola Gamble High Wavy mountain near Cumbum, Madu- rai Dt., Tamil Nadu — in clayey soil. Located from Sultan’s Battery, Calicut Dt. and Karapara river side in Palghat Dt., Ke- rala during 1969 & 1975 respectively. I. saulierei Gamble Pulney hills, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. Keoxia linearis Gamble Mahendragiri hills, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. Morinda reticulata Gamble Murchison and Kulathurpolay, Travancore, Kerala — in evergreen forest. Not located since the type collection. Opliiorrhiza barnesii C.E.C. Fischer Kalaar Valley, High Range, Idikki Dt., Ke- rala. No specimens in MH. O. caudata C.E.C. Fischer Kalaar, High Range, Idikki Dt., Kerala — in evergreen forests. No specimens in MH. O. isicarnata C.E.C. Fischer Near Nadgani, Nilgiri Dt., Tamil Nadu (Wy- naad)— in Pandanus swamp. No specimens in MH. O. munnareiisis C.E.C. Fischer Munnar ghat road. High Range, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. O. pykarensis Gamble Pykara falls, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. Plectronia pergraciSis (Bourd.) Gamble Colatoorpolay, Travancore, — in evergreen forests. Not located since the type collection. Psydiotria barberi Gamble Udubanparai, Anamalai Hills, Coimbatore Dt, Tamil Nadu & Pisga Camp, near Mun- nar, Idikki Dt., Kerala. Not located since the type collection. P» globkephala Gamble Courtallam, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. Compositae Auaphalis barnesii C.E.C. Fischer High Ranges, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. Centraiitherum mayurii C.E.C. Fischer Kemmangundi hills, Mysore, Karnataka. No specimens in MH. Melichrysum perlasilgerum Gamble Anamalai hills, at higher elevations, Coimba- tore Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collections. Vernonia analmeetiea Shetty & Vivek. Rajamallay, — Anaimudi slopes, Devicolam, RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA Idikki Dt., Kerala. V. anamallica Bedd. ex Gamble Anamalai higher ranges, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. Located from Pettimudi, Devicolam, Idikki Dt., Kerala during 1965 & 1970. Y. gossypiiaa Gamble Between Naterik'al and Sengaltheri, Tirunel- veli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Located from Singampatti, Tirunelveli Dt,, in 1958. V, heynil Bedd. ex Gamble Travancore hills in Kerala. Located from Mahendragiri hills, Kanya- kumari Dt., Tamil Nadu in 1969. Y« snembraraacea Bedd. ex S. Moore Sispara, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu & Attraima- lais, Trivandrum Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. V. multibracteata Gamble Peermade, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. Yc pelneyeusis Gamble Banks of Pambar river at Kodaikanal, Ma- durai Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. V. recorva Bedd. ex S. Moore Anamalais, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. V. shevaroyesisis Gamble Shevaroy hills, Salem Dt., Tamil Nadu. Located in the type locality in 1966. Seneclo kundaicus C.E.C. Fischer Kundahs, Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. S. mayaril C.E.C. Fischer Kemmangandi hills, Mysore, Karnataka. No specimens in MH. Yoesigia nilgiriensls Babcock Sispara, Nilgiri Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Symplocaceae Syeiplocos casidolleana Brand Anamalais, Coimbatore Dt, Tamil Nadu; Coorg, Karnataka. Very little known. No specimens in MH. Oleaceae lasmisioEii wightii Clarke Boluvampatty, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Asclepiadaceae Brachystelma boerneae Gamble Pulney hills, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu — at low levels in eastern slopes. No specimens in MH. Re brevitufoislatum (Bedd.) Gamble Vellore, North Arcot Dt., Tamil Nadu — dry rocky hills. No specimens in MH. B, glabram Hook. f. Hills of Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh. No specimens in MH. rangacharii Gamble Hassanur, Mysore, Karnataka. Not located since the type collection. B. voSobile Hook. f. Cuddapah hills, Andhra Pradesh. No specimens in MH. Caffalliiina diffusa (Wt.) N.E. Br. Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu — arid rocky hills. No specimens in MH. C. mlagiriana Kumari & Subba Rao Anaikatty to Ebanad, Nilgiri Dt., Tamil Nadu. Ceropegia beddomei Hook. f. Peermade, Idikki Dt., Cochin, Ernakulam Dt., Kerala. Located from Pachakkanam in Idikki Dt., during 1975. 691 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 C. brevicollis Hook. f. Anamalai hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Marsdenia tirunelvelica Henry & Subr. Agastyamalai hills, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Oianthus beddomei Hook. f. Beigoor forests, Mysore, Karnataka & (Wynaad). No specimens in MH. Streptocaulon kleinii Wt. & Arn. Deccan Peninsula (exact locality not known). No specimens in MH. Toxocarpus beddomei Gamble Attraimalai hills, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collections. Tylophora zeylanica Decne. Ceylon; Travancore. No specimens in MH. Boraginaceae Cordia diffusa Jacob Nanjundapuram, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu; in and around Coimbatore town. Tournefortia wightii Clarke Deccan Peninsula (exact locality not known), probably Anamalai hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. CONVOLVULACEAE Argyreia arakuensis Balak. Araku Valley, Visakhapatnam Dt., Andhra Pradesh — near a stream. Gesneriaceae Didymocarpus lyrata Wt. Courtallam, Tirunelveli Hills, Tamil Nadu, — in moist shady places. No specimens in MH. D. macrostachya Barnes Ottaparai Ridge, High Range, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. D. wightii Gamble Sivagiri Hills in Tirunelveli Dt.; Anamalai Hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. Apparently very rare. No specimens in MH. Orobanchaceae Christisonia saulierei Dunn Kodaikanal, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. SCROP H U LARI ACE AE Adenosma malabaricum Hook. f. Malabar, Kerala. No specimens in MH. Acanthaceae Adhatoda beddomei Clarke S. Travancore. Located from Sengumal Estate (Near Pana- gudi), Kanyakumari Dt., Tamil Nadu in 1972. Andrographis beddomei Clarke Nallamalais, Kurnool District; Lankamalai hills, Cuddapah Dt., Andhra Pradesh. No specimens in MH. A. nallamalayana Ellis Ahobilam, Nallamalais, Kurnool Dt., An- dhra Pradesh. Subsequently collected in and around the type locality. Dicliptera beddomei Clarke Nallamalais, Kurnool Dt., Andhra Pradesh. No specimens in MH. Nilgirianthus circarensis (Gamble) Brem. Strobilanthes circarensis Gamble RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA Hills of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. No specimens in MH. RostelSuSaria simplex Wt. Justicia notha Clarke “Station not known”; subsequently collect- ed along exposed dry grassy slopes, Kuthi- raivetti, Singampatti, R.F., Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu in 1963. Santapaua madurensis Balak. & Subr. Nallakulam, Alagar hills, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. Stenosiphomum diandrum Wt. Courtallam in Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. S. setosum T. And. Mysore or Carnatic. No specimens in MH. Strobilanthes dupeni Bedd. ex Clarke Top of Nelliampathy Ghat, Palghat Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. Verbenaceae Premna glaberrima Wt. Courtallam, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu; Coorg, Karnataka. Located in Mukkali Forest (Red gravelly soil) in Palghat Dt., Kerala in 1966. P. paucinervis (Clarke) Gamble Anamalais, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. A very little known species. No specimens in MH. P. procumbens Moon Ceylon, Mundanthorai in Papanasam R. F. of Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Labiatae Acrocephalus palniensis Muker. Upper Pulneys, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Dysophylla rugosa Hook. f. Tirunelveli Hills, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Leucas mukerjiana Subba Rao & Kumari Cherukonda, Visakhapatnam Dt., Andhra Pradesh; subsequently collected from the type locality and Galikonda (Araku Valley side) in Visakhapatnam Dt. Plectranthus bourneae Gamble Pulney Hills (near Kodaikanal), Madurai Dt. and near Coonoor, Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu — along streams especially in rocky places. No specimens in MH. P. fruticosus Hook. f. Pulney hills, Madurai Dt., Nilgiris, and Ana- malais, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu — along banks of lakes and streams. No collections in MH. P. lushopianus Gamble Pulney hills at Kodaikanal, Mudurai Dt., Tamil Nadu — in shola forests. No specimens in MH. P. rivularis Wt. ex Hook. f. Sispara in Nilgiris, and Anamalai Hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu — in wet places; Atraimalai Hills, Kerala. No specimens in MH. P. suhincisus Benth. Courtallam, Tirunelveli Dt., Dindigul, Madurai Dt., and Ceylon. Scarce. No specimens in MH. Pogostemon nilagiricus Gamble Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — outskirts of woods and in neglected broken ground. No specimens in MH. P. rofundatus Benth. Deccan Peninsula (exact locality not known); Anamalais in Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. 693 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 PODOSTEMACEAE Hydrobryuni johnsonii (Wt.) Willis Malabar — in mountain streams. No specimens in MH. Aristolochiaceae Apama barbed Gamble Kannikatti, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Located in evergreen forests of Agastya- malai, Tirunelveli Dt., during 1963. PlPERACEAE Piper barbed Gamble Kannikatti, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. A little known species. Located in the ever- green forests of Agastyamalai in Tirunel- veli Dt., and Kilaviarumalai, Balamore in Kanyakumari Dt., Tamil Nadu during 1963 & 1976. Lauraceae Cinnamomum gracile Hook. f. Tirunelveli Hills and Anamalai hills, Coim- batore Dt., Tamil Nadu; Travancore. Located in Agastyamalai, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu in 1963. C. ripadum Gamble Banks of Periyar river near Malayattur, Ernakulam Dt., foot of Coorg ghats, Karna- taka, and Udubanparai, Anamalai in Coim- batore Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collections. C. travancoricom Gamble Chimunji, Travancore (Kerala) in evergreen forests. Not located since the type collection. Litsea mysorensis Gamble Bisli ghat and Aglatti, Karnataka; Wynaad in Kerala. No specimens in MH. Euphorbiaceae Aporusa fesiformis Thw. Ceylon; Travancore hills. Rather less so in Madras. Recently collected from Anaimudi, Idikki Dt., Kerala in 1966. Euphorbia santapaui Henry Agastyamalai hills, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Macaranga Hexeosa Wt. Courtallam, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Phyllanthus narayanaswami Gamble Rampa Hills, Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. Located in Cherukonda, Visakhapatnam Dt., Andhra Pradesh in 1966. Reidia beddomel Gamble Chokampatti hills, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu, and hills of Travancore. No specimens in MH. R. gageaua Gamble South Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, and Cola- toorpolay, Kerala. No specimens in MH. R. megacarpa Gamble Devala, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. R. singampattlana Seb. & Henry Kakachi, Singampatti R.F., Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. R. stipulacea Gamble Anamalai, Coimbatore Dt., along edge of Pambar stream in thick undergrowth, Pul- ney hills, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. Not located since the type collection. Urticaceae Debregeasia ceylasiiea Hook. f. Ceylon; Anamalai Hills of Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu; Hills of Travancore, Kerala. Little known in South India. Located in Pambanar, Velara-Near Neriya- mangalam, Idikki Dt., Kerala in 1965. 694 RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA Burmanniaceae Haplothismia exaoeulata Airy Shaw Parambikulam, Trichur Dt, Kerala (Tra- vancore — Cochin State). No specimens in MH. Orchidaceae Acampe congesta Lindl. Malabar, Kerala; Ceylon. No specimens in MH. Anoectodillus rotondifolius (Blatter) Balak. Odontochilus rotundifolius Blatter High wavy Mountains, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu — in evergreen forests. No specimens in MH. Bulfoophyllum mysoresise J. J. Smith Hills of Mysore, Karnataka. Apparently scarce. No specimens in MH. Chilochista pusilla (Willd.) Schlecht. Cochin, Ernakulam Dt., Kerala. Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu; Ceylon. Located recently in Ponmudi, Trivandrum Dt., and Peermade in Idikki Dt., Kerala. Chrysoglossum halfeergii Blatter High Wavy Mountains, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Cirrliopetalum aeetifloriim Hook. f. Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Apparently scarce. No specimens in MH. C. aureum Hook. f. Wynaad, Kerala. No specimens in MH. C. elegantuliim (Rolfe.) J. J. Smith Coorg, Karnataka. Located in Kudini, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu during 1972. Coelogyne mossiae Rolfe Nilgiri hills; Pulney hills, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu — epiphyte or lithophyte. Located in Rajamalay, Idikki Dt., Kerala in 1970. Bendroblam haemoglossum Thw. Ceylon; Wynaad. Rare. Located in Sultan’s Battery, Calicut Dt., and Thekkady, Idikki Dt, Kerala during 1964 & 1972 respectively. Eria pseudodavicaulis Blatter High Wavy Mountains, Madurai Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Etilophia macrostachya Lindl. Courtallam, Tirunelveli Dt., and Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu; Ceylon. Habesiaria dcnficulata Reichb. f. Tamil Nadu in 1974. ffabenaria denticulata Reichb. f. Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu. Very rare. No specimens in MH. H. flabellifomiis Summerh. Anaimudi slopes, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. H. polyodon Hook. f. H. fimbriata Wt. Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Liparls biloba Wt. Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu. Located in Kollimund, Kundah range, Nil- giris during 1972. Paphiopedilum dniryl (Bedd.) Pfitz. Kalakad Hills and Agastyamalai in Tiru- nelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Recently reported to be collected from Agastyamalai hills. No specimens in MH. Peristylus brachyphylhis A. Rich. Bababudan Hills in Karnataka and Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu. Located in grassland from Lakkadi — Kun- 695 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 dahs, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu during 1972. Proteroceras holttumii Joseph & Vajravelu Eastern slope of Vellingiri hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu — epiphyte on moss clad branchlets of trees of the evergreen shola forests. Taeniophyllum scaberulum Hook. f. Kottayam, Kerala. Very rare. No specimens in MH. Vanda wightii Reichb. f. Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu. Very rare. No specimens in MH. Vanilla wightiana Lindl. “Deccan Peninsula” — Travancore, Kerala. No specimens in MH. Zingiber aceae Amoimim hypoleucum Thw. Ceylon; Anamalai hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Dioscoreaceae Dioscorea wightii Hook. f. Courtallam; hills in Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. Located in the evergreen forests of Agast- yamalai hills in Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu, during 1963. Pandanaceae Pandanus canaranus Warb. Near Mangalore, Karnataka. Little is known of this plant. No collections in MH. Araceae Arisaema attenuatum Barnes & C.E.C. Fischer High ranges near Munnar, Idikki Dt., Kerala — in evergreen forests and shady grassy places. No specimens in MH. A. auriculaia Barnes Nilambur ghat, Malappuram Dt., Wynaad, Kerala. No specimens in MH. A. pel tat um C. E. C. Fischer Near Munnar, Naimakad, Pallivasal, High Ranges, Idikki Dt., Kerala. No specimens in MH. A. psittiacus Barnes Chunduvurrai and Mannavan Shola, High Ranges, Idikki Dt., Kerala. Specimens from type locality available in MH. Theriophonum sivaganganum (Ramam. & Seb.) Bogner Esani forest, Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu. Cyperaceae Ascopholis gamble! C.E.C. Fischer Ooty, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Fsmbristylis aggregata C.E.C. Fischer Anamalai Hills, Coimbatore Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Gramineae Agrostis schmidii (Hook, f.) Bor Calamagrostis schmidii Hook. f. Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Chrysopogon velutinus (Hook, f.) Bor Andropogon velutinus Hook. f. Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh. No specimens in MH. Cymbopogon travancoriensis Bor Courtallam, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. 696 RARE AND THREATENED FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH INDIA Dichanthium pallidum (Hook, f.) Stapf ex C. E. C. Fischer Fisch. Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu. No specimens in MH. Dimeria bialata C.E.C. Fischer Siradi, S. Kanara Dt., Karnataka. No specimens in MH. Eragrostis rottleri Stapf Tranquebar, Tanjore Dt., Tamil Nadu. Little is known of this grass which has not been collected for well over 100 years (Bor). No specimens in MH. Heteropogon polystachyos (Roxb.) Schult. Andropogon polystachyos Roxb. Deccan (precise locality not known). A very obscure species. No specimens in MH. Isachne decanensis Bor Ootacamund, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — in downs. No specimens in MH. I. fischeri Bor Anaimudi, Idikki Dt., Kerala — along grassy slopes. Recently located in the type locality in 1965. I. meeboldii C.E.C. Fischer Mysore, Karnataka — apparently grows in rice fields as a weed. No specimens in MH. I. setosa C.E.C. Fischer Cochin, Ernakulam Dt, Kerala and Tra- vancore. Recently located in Lockhert gap, Devico- lam, Idikki Dt., Kerala during 1963. Linmopoa meeboldii (C.E.C. Fischer) C. E. Hubbard Coelachne meeboldii C.E.C. Fischer Chalakudi, Trichur Dt., Kerala — in tanks. No specimens in MH. Ochlandra beddomei Gamble Wynaad, Kerala. No specimens in MH. Zenkeria sebastinei Henry & Chandr. Agastyamalai, Tirunelveli Dt., Tamil Nadu. References Subramanyam, K. & Nayar, M. P. (1971): Plant Taxonomy — its past role and future lines of action in India. Bull. hot. Surv. India 13 (1 & 2) : 147- 151. Tinker, J. (1971): New Scientist 50: 408. 697 BILATERAL SYMMETRY IN THE REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS T. Antony Davis1 and C. Bhattacharya2 (With twelve figures) Introduction The alternate spiral phyllotaxis in palms re- sults in the emergence of left- and right-hand- ed crowns (Davis 1971). On account of their spiral arrangement in the crown, the leaves have turned asymmetrical bilaterally, the number of leaflets on one half remaining greater than that on the other half in most species (Davis et al. 1971). As clearly demon- strated by the giant inflorescence of Corypha umbraculifera, the spadix has to be regarded as a modified vegetative shoot. Therefore, the spathes and bracts only represent leaves, and they are distributed spirally on the peduncle. As the spikes develop from the axils of spa- thes/bracts, they also show spiral arrange- ment. Secondary branches of spikes, where present, invariably are placed spirally. Flower- clusters, especially the triads, are distributed spirally on the spikes, and so, a spike may be regarded as left-handed or right-handed ac- cording how the clusters are positioned. The perianth of both male and female flowers show bilateral symmetry in their aestivation. Some of the associations mentioned above were ex- amined and quantitative data recorded on the following species: Areca catechu, 1 Coconut Agronomist, LPTI, P.O. Box 4, Jin. Siswa Barat 4, Manado, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia. 2 Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta-700 035. Arenga pinnata, Calyptrocalyx spicatus, Caryota mitis, Caryota urens, Chrysalidocarpus lutescens, Cocos nucifera, Ptychosperma elegans, and Ptychosperma macarthurii. The comprehensive problem of levo- and dextro-rotatory phenomena occurring in na- ture, especially those manifested by plants and animals is being investigated at the Indian Statistical Institute, and the observations re- corded in this paper form part of the pro- gramme. Presentation of data 1 . Ptychosperma macarthurii This is an elegant clustering palm, general- ly propagated by seed although multiplication through suckers is no less frequent. The seed- ling starts producing suckers only after about a year, by which time, the main shoot stands distinctly bigger than the suckers. Even in fairly older clumps, this growth difference be- tween the main stem and suckers is more or less maintained for a couple of years. The spirality of the main shoot and that of the suckers were recorded in 13 clumps at the Indian Statistical Institute and the Indian Botanic Garden, Calcutta. The data are pre- sented in Table 1. 698 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS Table 1 Ptychosperma macarthurii : spirality of main SHOOT and suckers Spirality of No. of clumps Spirality of suckers main shoot examined Left Right Total Left 9 20 22 42 Right 4 9 12 21 Total 13 29 34 63 From data given in Table 1, it is obvious that there is no significant association between the spirality of the main stem and that of off- shoots. Association between stem and spadices From the positions of individual spikes de- veloping on the peduncle, it is not difficult to recognise right- and left-handed spadi- ces. The distribution of the two kinds of spa- dices on the same stem is not random, but a the association is significant statistically. The chi square values to test the deviation from equality are 3.86 and 13.89 respectively. Handedness of spadix and spikes The flower clusters (triads) are spirally arranged on the spikes (Fig. 1), and left- and right-handed spikes are distinguishable. Here again, a positive association exists between the spirality of the spadix and that of its spikes. Table 2 Ptychosperma macartfiurii : spirality of stem and that of spadices and spikes Number of Spadices Spikes palms spirality number spirality number percentage Left 16 Left 51 Left 729 67.80 Right 345 Right 33 Left 329 64.50 Right 417 Right 9 Left 10 Left 142 63.10 Right 83 Right 35 Left 225 63.80 Right 398 Total 25 L + R L + R 2,668 positive association has been found to exist Aestivation of palm flowers between the spirality of the palm and that of In palms, generally three distinct kinds of its spadices as evident from < data given in aestivation are met with which ; are depicted in Table 2. Out of 84 spadices examined from Fig. 2. The simplest is the valvate type where 16 left-spiralled palms, 60.70 per cent of the the margins of perianth segments just meet. spadices happened to be left-spiralled. Simi- This type is commonly met with in the corolla larly, in the right-spiralled palms, 77.70 per of staminate and hermaphrodite flowers. The cent of the spadices were right-spiralled, and partial drawings of two male 1 flowers A and 699 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 PTYCHOSPERMA ARENGA RIGHT LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT Fig. 1. Portions of flowering spikes of Ptychosperma macarthurii. A — flower clusters (triads) arranged clockwise; B — with bloomed male flowers. Fig. 3. Aestivation of perianth of male and female flowers of Ptychosperma and Arenga triads. 700 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS B ill Fig. 2 have valvate petals. In such flow- ers, the petals do not overlap even in bud. The sepals in A and B as well as the petals in C and D show imbricate aestivation (over- lapping of perianth not in a regular order) which is the most frequent type met with in palms. The calyx in both male and female flowers of most species of palms is imbricate. Also the corolla in female flowers of many species is imbricate. In this type of aestiva- tion, of the three sepals /petals, one member (outermost) is fully exposed, and the inner- most one is overlapped on either side by the other two perianth segments. Thus, one end D Fig. 2. Partial floral diagrams showing different kinds of aestivation of perianth segments in palms. of the third (middle) sepal /petal is overlap- ped by the outermost segment, while its other end overlaps the innermost member partially. Two kinds of imbrications can be made out from the manner how the middle segment is placed. If the right end of this segment is free, the aestivation is right-imbrication (A & C), and if the left end is free, it is left-imbrication (B & D). The third kind of aestivation is con- tortion which is also spoken of as regularly twisting (or merely twisting). Here all the members of a whorl overlap in a uniform manner. Only exceptional flowers of palms have contorting calyx. A flower of Areca cate- chu in Table 20 has contorting calyx. In many species, the corolla of some flowers contort while that of others imbricate. We have not come across any species where all the female flowers have only contorting corolla. Even in flowers having contorting corolla, in one, all the petals may rotate to the right (E) and in another to the left (F). Thus, there are four patterns of petal aestivation displayed by many species. But some species like Ptychos- perma macarthurii have only two types. Aestivation of perianth of male and female flowers The flowers are arranged in clusters of three of which the middle one is female and the lateral two are males. When the spike is held vertically with the distal end up, the three flowers in each cluster will lie almost horizon- tally. The male towards the left-hand side of the observer is regarded (for the sake of des- cription) as left male and that towards the right-hand side as right male. It is most strik- ing that the aestivation of sepals of one male is a mirror-image of the other male. The petals are valvate. The left male in P. macar- thurii has invariably right-handed imbrication and the right male, left-handed imbrication (Fig. 3, see page 700). Only small exceptions 701 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 to this rule were noticed given in Table 3. It may be emphasized either the spikes or the fluence on the kind of in male flowers. But the a different picture. The female flowers of always imbricate sepals as evident from data that the spirality of spadix has any in- imbrication of calyx female flowers show P. macarthurii have and imbricate petals (Fig. 4). An interesting association was dis- covered between the spirality of the spike and the kind of aestivation of the female flowers. That is, in a left-handed spike, a greater num- ber of female flowers show left-handed im- brication of sepals, and vice versa, in a right- handed spike. Thus, the aestivation of calyx is associated with the spirality of the spike, (vide data in Table 4). Table 3 Ptychosperma macarthurii : aestivation of male flowers in triads Tree Spadix Spikes male-flower combination RL LL RR Total Left Right Left 21 Left 2 Right 6 Left 6 1468 2 2 Right 2 Right 15 968 1 — Left 1 Left 18 Right 4 1428 1 Right 1 Left 5 Right 11 707 — 2 Table 4 P. macarthurii : aestivation of female flowers 1472 969 1429 709 Tree Spadix Spikes Female flowers sepals petals Left Right Left Right Left 5 85 35 34 86 Left Right 6 51 116 115 52 Left Left 6 79 69 69 79 Right Right 6 60 64 63 61 Left 16 201 159 166 194 Left Right 15 161 194 191 162 Left 3 38 20 23 35 Right Right Right 6 29 82 78 33 Left 30 403 283 292 394 L + R Right 33 301 456 447 308 702 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS A mirror-image situation was met with bet- ween the aestivation of sepals and that of petals in the same flower. In a left-spiralling spike, a greater number of flowers have their sepals imbricated left-handed. But the petals, on the other hand, show just the reverse pat- tern. Therefore, the sepals are almost exactly opposite to the petals for their imbrication/ contortion (Davis. 1974). Fig. 4. Fruit of P. macarthurii and drawings of imbricating calyx and corolla. 2. Ptycfaospemia elegans This species, native to Queensland (Austra- lia) is generally single-stemmed and possesses a stem stouter than that of P. macarthurii. The crown is also larger, and so, the leaves and spadices are larger than those of P. ma- carthurii. Two spadices from a left-handed palm and nine spadices from a right-handed palm were studied. A small degree of positive association between the spiralities of spadix and spikes was observed as per data given in Table 5. Table 5 Ptychosperma elegans : spadix and spikes Tree Spadix No. L. spikes No. R. spikes Total Left 1 38 27 65 Left Right 1 65 57 122 Left 4 287 290 577 Right Right 5 293 400 693 Total 11 683 774 1457 The flowers are arranged typically in triads. A small sample of flower-clusters from a left- handed and a right-handed spikes was exa- mined for the aestivation of sepals. As in P. macarthurii, the male on the left side has counter-clockwise imbrication of sepals and the right male has clockwise imbrication. In Table 6 Ptychosperma elegans : aestivation of female flowers (calyx) Tree Spadix Spikes Flowers Left-handed Right-handed Total Left Left 8 80 61 141 Left Right 2 37 45 82 Left 2 411 347 758 Right Right 1 166 161 327 Left 3 91 68 159 Left Right 3 66 123 189 Right Left 3 100 78 178 Right Right 3 82 99 181 Left 16 682 554 1236 Right 9 351 428 779 703 10 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 704 Fig. 5. Spadix of Caryota mitis with bloomed male flowers. Fig. 6. Spadix of Chrysalidocarpus lutescens with young flowers, REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS six per cent of the clusters examined, the males showed LL, RR and LR combinations in their imbrications. The female flowers from 16 left- and 9 right-handed spikes were examined for the aestivation of calyx, and the data are present- ed in Table 6. There is a small degree of positive associa- tion between the spirality of the spike and im- brication (of calyx) in female flowers. The petals invariably imbricate opposite to that of the sepals. But the association is not as power- ful as in P. macarthurii. 3. Caryota mitis Two species of Caryota were examined for the bilateral symmetry in their structures. While one of them, Caryota mitis , is clustering, the other (C. urens) is single-stemmed. C. mitis is a profusely suckering, small-stemmed palm commonly used as a tub-plant. But C. urens is a large palm bearing massive spadices which when young are tapped for a sweet sap. Since both the species are monocarpic, with the emergence of the first spadix which is ter- minal, the palm continues to emit flower bun- ches from leaf axils in basipetal succession during the next 2-3 years. Spadix of C. mitis (Fig. 5) is more compact and shorter than that of C. urens. From 3 left- handed and 5 right-handed shoots of Caryota mitis, 1,887 spikes were examined for the as- ymmetry. The samples revealed the existence of a small degree of positive association be- tween the spiralities of spadix and spikes. But, there is a greater degree of negative asso- ciation between the spiralities of the crown and spadix. However, the data given in Table 7 are very limited to attach much significance to the association. The flower clusters of C. mitis as of Pty- chosperma macarthurii show the striking phe- nomenon that the left male has right-imbricat- ing sepals while the right male always shows left-imbrication. This situation does not de- pend on the condition of the spike as per data given in Table 8. The petals are valvate. The female flowers of C. mitis also bear valvate petals like the male flowers, but the aestivation of the calyx (which is imbricate) shows a higher degree of negative association with the spirality of the spike, which pheno- menon is just the reverse of the situation noticed in P. macarthurii. The data are pre- sented in Table 9. Table 7 Caryota mitis : association between crown, spadix and spikes Spadix Spikes Tree Spiral No. Lefts Rights Total Left 4 141 119 260 Left 3 Right 10 253 264 517 Left 11 465 369 834 Right 5 Right 4 107 169 276 Total Lefts 15 606 488 1094 Rights 14 360 433 793 705 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 8 Caryota mitis : AESTIVATION OF MALE FLOWERS i Tree Spadix Spike RL Flower-clusters LL RR Total Left 2 38 — — 38 L Right 2 40 — — 40 Left Left 1 39 2 — 41 R Right 1 33 — — 33 Left 2 73 — — 73 L ! Right Right 2 80 — — 80 Left 3 190 1 — 191 R j Right 5 251 2 7 260 Left 8 340 3 0 343 Total ' 1 Right 10 404 2 7 413 Table 9 Cary ota mitis : aestivation of female flowers Tree Spadix Spike Left Flowers Right Total Left Left 3 18 43 61 Left Right 3 42 21 63 Right Left 10 100 165 265 Right 5 113 60 173 Left Left 4 59 83 142 Right Right 3 81 36 117 Right Left 7 107 224 331 Right 8 299 174 473 Left 24 284 515 799 Total Right 19 535 291 826 4. Caryota urens A total of 15 spadices from three left-hand- ed and three right-handed C. urens palms were examined. As per data given in Table 10, out of 933 spikes from 8 spadices of the left handed palms, 503 were left-spiralled, which is roughly in a one: one ratio. However, when the left-spiralled spadices alone are consider ed, there is an excess of left-spiralled spikes. 706 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS Table 10 Caryota urens : association BETWEEN SPADIX AND SPIKES Tree Spadix No. of L. spikes No. of R. spikes Total Left 3 Left 4 224 192 416 Right 3 89 105 194 Right 3 Left 4 279 238 517 Right 4 159 192 351 Left 8 503 430 933 Total Right 7 248 297 545 The positions of male and female flowers on the spikes are similar to those of Caryota mitis or Ptychosperma macarthurii. It is also striking that the calyx of the left male flower imbricates always right-handed irrespective of the spirality of the spike of its origin. Simi- larly, the right male flower has left-handed imbrication. The data are shown in Table 11. Data on the nature of each female flower for the aestivation of calyx were recorded in the order of the distribution of the flowers on the spikes (from base upwards). A critical examination of the data suggested that a ma- jority of flowers having the calyx imbricating opposite to the spiral of the spikes appeared to cluster more within the lower one-third dis- Table 11 Caryota urcns : aestivation of male flowers Tree Spadix Spikes Flowers RLL RRL RRR RL Total Left Right L 47 106 2 — 155 R 126 51 — 2 179 Total 173 157 2 2 334 In female flowers, the calyx imbricates and the corolla is always valvate. Right- and left- spiralled spadices from right- and left-handed C. urens palms were collected. Three left- spi- ralled and three right-spiralled spikes from each spadix were examined for the aestivation of sepals of female flowers. In all spikes the imbrication of the majority of female flowers was found negatively associating with the spir- ality of the spike. This situation in this species is much more pronounced than in C. mitis as per data presented in Table 12. tance of the spike. Towards the tip, the flowers invariably bore calyx whose direction of im- brication matched with the twist of the spike. 5. Arenga pinnata The spadix of Arenga pinnata more or less resembles that of Caryota and Ptychosperma by having the male and female flowers ar- ranged in clusters of three throughout the length of the spikes. But the following unique features were noticed in this species. The first spadix which is invariably the terminal one. 707 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 12 Cary ota urens : aestivation of calyx in female flowers Female flowers (aestivation) Tree Spadix Spike Left-handed Right-handed Total Left Right Left 17 126 143 Left 27 168 195 Left 39 170 209 Sub-total 83 464 547 Right 182 28 210 Right 135 42 177 Right 151 29 180 Sub-total 468 99 567 | Right Left Left 60 138 198 Left 48 180 228 Left 50 107 .57 Sub-total 158 425 583 Right 183 53 236 Right 155 31 186 Right 130 57 187 Sub-total 468 141 609 as well as a couple of spadices formed im- wards the end of the flowering phase of the mediately after, bear only female flowers. palm, each cluster produces only a pair of These flowers appear solitary and are arranged male flowers. the females getting suppressed. spirally on the spike instead of being in In extreme cases, a cluster, especially at the triads. In the subsequently formed spadices. tip of spikes. is represented by a single male the male flowers start appearing gradually, and flower. Y each cluster shows the usual two males and a From three right-handed palms, 13 spadices female pattern. In spadices formed to- and from a left-handed palm two spadices Table 13 Arenga pinnata: spirality of spadix and spikes Tree Spadix Left-handed spike Right-handed spike Total Left-handed Left 1 17 20 37 Right 1 22 17 29 Right-handed Left 3 33 67 100 Right 10 197 198 395 Left 4 50 87 137 Right 11 219 215 434 708 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS Table 14 Arenga pinnata : aestivation of male flowers Tree spadix Flowers Total spike LR LL RR RL Left-handed Left-handed Left-handed 41 18 6 1 66 Right-handed 46 5 14 1 66 Right-handed Right-handed Left-handed 91 1 2 0 94 Right-handed 179 5 2 0 186 Note : The deviations proportionately are higher than those in Caryota sp. Table 15 Arenga pinnata : aestivation of female flowers Tree Spadix Spike Flowers Total Left Right X Left-handed Data not available Right-handed Left-handed Lefts 3 59 226 12 297 Rights 3 284 64 34 382 Left-handed Lefts 3 87 190 14 291 Rights 3 149 68 17 234 X — where spirality could not be determined. were collected and the spirality of the spadi- ces and spikes examined. A negative associa- tion was found to exist. That is, left-spiralled spadices produced more of right-spiralled spikes, and right-spiralled spadices, a slight excess of left-spiralled spikes (Table 13). However, this is a clear departure from the situation noticed in Caryota and Ptychos- perma. The calyx of both the male and female flowers of Arenga pinnata imbricates while the petals in both the flowers are valvate. The left male in each cluster shows left-handed imbri- cation and the right male, right-handed imbri- cation. This arrangement is not influenced by the spirality of the spikes. So it is spectacular that the kinds of imbrication in the male flowers of Arenga are exactly the reverse of those of males in Caryota and Ptychosperma. That is, a left male flower in Arenga is left- handed, whereas the same in Caryota or Ptychosperma is right-handed. Similarly, the right male in Arenga is right-handed, but left- handed in Caryota or Ptychosperma. The cause for such a double enantiomorphism in the aestivation of the calyx of male flowers is yet to be known. Table 14 presents data on the aestivation of male flowers of Arenga pinnata. The aestivation of the female flowers, how- ever, associates negatively with the spirality of the spikes. In a left spike, a great majority of the females have right-imbricating calyx, and vice versa in a right spike. Data obtained from only one tree are presented in Table 15. Thus, A. pinnata in this respect is opposed to Ptychosperma species. 709 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol 75 Fig. 7. C. lutescens : Right- and left-spiralled spikes bearing young fruits. Fig. 8. Portion of coconut spike bearing 3 female flowers having imbricate perianths. REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS Table 16 Chrysalidocarpus lutescens : association of characters Shoot Spirality No. Spadix Spirality No. Spikes Lefts Rights Total Left 9 Left 6 201 225 426 Right 18 433 455 888 Right 8 Left 10 410 363 773 Right 3 119 113 232 Total 17 L + R 37 1163 1156 2319 6. Chrysalidocarpus lutescens Chrysalidocarpus lutescens, another elegant clustering ornamental palm with arching leaves and yellowish-green stem, shows a negative association between the spirality of crown and that of the spadix (Fig. 6). But between the spadix and spikes, no significant association was found among the specimens sampled from 17 shoots. The data are given in Table 16. The flowers of C. lutescens are so small that sorting out the flowers according to the type of aestivation was very difficult. More- over, the triads are not formed in regular order, but are very much crowded. Hence data on flower-clusters as well as flowers could not be collected. But the young fruits reveal an interesting asymmetry. In Fig. 7 are seen por- tions of left-spiralled (L) and right-spiralled (R) spikes from a spadix of C. lutescens. The young fruits assume a peculiar shape. Out of the three carpels (ovaries) in a fruit, general- ly only one develops. In a right-spiralled spike, the left-most carpel in each fruit deve- lops. Due to this unilateral development, the two abortive carpels and the common stig- matic-end are pushed to the right side. Such a picture is shown by all the young fruits on the right-spiralled spike. A mirror-image form is noticed on the left-spiralled spike since the developed carpel in each fruit is on the right. and the stigmatic-end is pushed to the left. Such a pattern of development of the ovary is not so far noticed in any other species. But some species of Phoenix and Cocos nucifera are likely to manifest a comparable picture. 7. Cocos nucifera The coconut palm also displays some mir- ror-image patterns between asymmetrical structures in its reproductive organs. 108 spadices from 16 palms were examined for the kind of handedness in spikes and spa- dices. A small degree of positive affinity be- tween a right-handed palm and a right-spiral- led spadix, as well as between a right-handed spadix and a right-spiralled spike. Data ob- tained earlier by Ghosh (1978) on 9 trees, also from Calcutta, gave almost similar results with some affinity among right trees, right spadix and right spikes. The combined data are pre- sented in Table 17. The male flowers of Cocos nucifera have imbricate sepals and valvate petals. But in about 50 per cent of them, the sepals remain partially valvate and partially imbricate. In the female flowers (Fig. 8), the sepals are clearly imbricate, and the petals either imbri- cate or twist regularly (contort) (Davis and Basu, 1971). All available types of aestivation of calyx and corolla in Cocos nucifera fruits are shown in Fig. 9. 711 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 17 Cocos nucifera : asymmetry in the spadix Tree Spadix Spikes Spiral No. Spiral No. Lefts Rights Total Left-handed 10 Left-handed 36 604 592 1196 Right-handed 37 566 656 1222 Right-handed 15 Left-handed 44 760 722 1482 Right-handed 61 984 1140 2124 Total 25 L + R 178 2914 3110 6024 Fig. 9. Perianth types in coconut fruits. There is a tendency for the calyx to asso- ciate negatively with the spirality of the spike on which they develop as per figures given below: Left-spiralled spikes (16 nos.) : Left-twisting flowers . . 72, Right-twisting flowers . . 106, Right-spiralled spikes (16 nos.) : Left-twisting flowers . . 61, Right-twisting flowers . . 60. Similarly, there is no strong association be- tween the aestivation of sepals and that of petals as per data summarised in Table 18. In an abnormally large spadix of coconut reported by Ghosh (1978), each spike bore 3-19 female flowers instead of the usual single, flower. The terminal of the peduncle also bore 26 female flowers. Moreover, at the lower- most position in 16 of these spikes, there were twin female flowers (Fig. 10). Table 18 Cocos nucifera : calyx-corolla association Imbrication + Contortion of petals Sepals Left Right Total Imbricate left 231 334 565 Imbricate right 243 251 494 Total 474 585 1059 i The aestivation of calyx in the twin female flowers is interesting as these flowers imitate the situation prevalent in the male flowers of Caryota or Ptychosperma. All the females on the left side, irrespective of the spirality of their spikes imbricate to the right, and all the females on the right have left-handed sepal imbrication. The petals, however, did not show any distinct pattern. Most of the male flowers in Cocos nucifera appear in pairs throughout the spike above the limit of female flower(s). Each female flower is bordered by two males. Wherever the calyx of both the flowers in a pair was regularly imbricating their spirality was re- corded. The data obtained from 223 twin males unmistakably show that in coconut, the 712 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS Fig. 10. Spikes of a large coconut spadix, each bearing many female flowers. Each spike bears a twin female flower at base. Fig. 11. Two spadices of Calyptrocalyx spicatus. Fig. 12. Portion of Areca catechu spadix. Male flowers arranged in two rows. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 male twins deviate from the unique associa- spike have left-handed imbrication. The tion displayed by Caryota or Arenga as the small degree of deviation is noticed only to- data in Table 20 reveal. wards the base of the spike as was observed Table 19 Cocos nucifera : aestivation of twin male flowers Tree Spadix C i \r r% Flowers oplKC RR RL LL LR Total Left-handed Left-handed Left-twisting 28 21 20 1 70 Right-twisting 20 22 6 6 54 Right-handed Left-handed Left-twisting 7 18 23 2 50 Right-twisting 20 23 3 3 49 Total 75 84 52 12 223 8. CalyptrocaSyx spicatus Calyptrocalyx spicatus is characterised by having a long, cylindrical and unbranched spadix (Fig, 11) where the flowers, arranged in clusters, are partially covered by semi-cir- cular bracts. By following the arrangement of the bracts, right- and left-spiralled spadices can be made out. Unlike the Caryotoid/ Ptychospermate palms, a flower cluster in Calyptrocalyx spicatus consists only of one male flower and a female flower. An impres- sive symmetry has been observed from the positioning of the male flower in each cluster. In a left- spiral led spadix, the male flower (in each cluster) appears on the left side of the female when viewed by holding the spike ver- tically, and in a right-spiralled spike, the male is on the right of the female. The sepals of the male flowers of Calyptro- calyx are imbricating but the petals are val- vate. From the aestivation of calyx, two kinds of male flowers can be distinguished, left- handeds and right-handeds. A great majority of male flowers of the left-spiralled spikes have right-handed imbrication. Similarly, a great majority of males on right-spiralled in Caryota urens. Since the female flowers in the spikes at the time of observation were too immature to observe their perianth, data for the aestivation of the female flowers are not available. 9. Areca catechu Of the species of palms included for the present investigation, Areca catechu is the least pronounced with regard to asymmetry in the spadix. The peduncle of the spadix is considerably flattened and compressed and the main branches of spadix appear as though , the flattened stalk has been split vertically. Hence the spirality of the spadix cannot be made out accurately. Again, the male flowers are ar- ranged in two parallel rows throughout the upper two-thirds the length of the ultimate spikes (Fig. 12). Therefore the spikes also do not display any spirality. Although the aestivation of calyx of male flowers is difficult to observe, careful obser- vations have shown that all the flowers on one row show the same kind of aestivation which is opposite to that of flowers on the other row. The condition of males in small portions of two spikes is shown in Table 20. 714 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS Table 20 Aestivation of Arcca catechu male flowers Spike 1 Spike 2 Fir. on Fir. on Fir. on Fir. on left right left right IR IL IR CR IR IL IR IL IR IL IR IL IR IL IR IL IR IL IR IL IR — Imbricating to the Right; IL — Imbricating to the Left; CR — Contorting to the Right. Table 21 Arcca catechu : calyx-corolla association Sepals Petals Total Left Right Left Right imbricate imbricate contort contort L imbricate 460 468 124 124 1,176 R imbricate 458 425 116 101 1,100 Total 918 893 240 225 2,276 imbricate and which side the left imbricate flowers is difficult to decide. The perianth of female flowers shows clear asymmetry in their aestivation. Sepals are always imbricate, but the petals in some flowers imbricate while in others contort, a situation similar to that re- corded for Cocos nucifera. Data obtained ear- lier by Davis and Kundu (1967) on the calyx- corolla relationship are presented in Table 21. A perusal of the data in Table 21 suggests that there is no association between the aesti- vation of calyx and corolla. In this respect Areca catechu resembles Cocos nucifera closely. Number of spikes per spadix Among the 9 species of palms investigated* Calyptrocalyx spicatus has an unbranched, simple spicate type spadix. But Areca catechu has the largest spadix each bearing over seven hundred and fifty spikes. The figures relating to the 9 species are given in Table 22. In four of the above species, the average number of spikes per spadix is more for the 22 Table Data on spadices of 9 species of palms Species Trees Spadices Mean spikes per spadix Left Right Left Right Left Right Areca catechu 1 1 — — 775.3 759.0 Arenga pinnata 0 1 3 3 32.3 39.0 Calyptrocalyx spicatus 1 0 1 1 1.0 1.0 Caryota mitis 1 3 8 6 73.4 98.5 Caryota urens 2 2 8 7 94.4 103.8 Chrysalidocarpus lutescens 9 8 16 21 66.4 55.0 Cocos nucifera 7 9 49 59 35.4 31.6 Ptychosperma elegans 1 1 5 6 68.3 77.4 Ptychosperma macarthurii 16 9 61 68 21.7 18.2 Since the spike is flat and the rows of male flowers occupy the margins of spikes, the spike gives practically the same view from both the surfaces. Therefore, which side bears the right right-spiralled spadix, in four others, the left- spiralled spikes have an excess of spikes and one shows equality. Presumably, the spadices examined from Arenga pinnata were very 715 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 much reduced in size as indicated by the small number of spikes per spadix. Summary Biometrical studies made on the handed- ness of reproductive structures of nine species of palms revealed the prevalence of some very important association between various organs. The most striking phenomenon is that which is perceivable in the aestivation of calyx be- tween the two male flowers of each triad in Ptychosperma sp., Caryota sp., and Arenga pinnata. In each cluster of Ptychosperma or Caryota, the left male flower has right-handed imbrication, and the right male always shows left-handed imbrication. Inexplicably, in Aren- ga pinnata, on the other hand, the left male in each cluster shows left-handed imbrication, and the right male is always right-handed for the aestivation of calyx. Thus, the asymmetry of male flowers in each triad in Arenga is mirror image to that in Ptychosperma I Car- yota. Such a situation may be regarded as double enantiomorphism. In Calyptrocalyx spicatus, the only male in each cluster occu- pies the left of female in a right-spiralled spike, and on the right of female in a left- spiralled spike. The aestivation of the male here has more resemblance to that of Arenga pinnata. The calyx and corolla in each female flower /fruit of Ptychosperma macarthurii, always show opposite kinds of imbrications. However, in other species, this peculiarity is either less prominent or it does not occur. In Arenga pinnata, majority of the female flowers borne on left-spiralled spikes have right- imbricating calyx, and the majority on right- spiralled spikes have left-imbricating calyx. But the situation is reversed in Ptychosperma macarthurii. P. elegans also maintains such an arrangement. But most unexpectedly, both Caryota mitis and C. urens imitate Arenga pinnata in this regard by displaying positive association between the spirality of spike and the aestivation of calyx in a majority of female flowers. It may be noted that Arenga and Caryota behave differently with regard to the aestivation of male flowers. In the matter of handedness of spikes and spadices also, striking association was noticed in some species. P. macarthurii is the only species so far investigated which shows a posi- tive association between the handedness of a crown and that of its spadices. Moreover, this species also shows a positive association be- tween the spiralities of spadix and its spikes. P. elegans did not show any such association. Both Caryota mitis and C. urens manifest a degree of positive association between the spiralities of spadices and spikes. Another minor but curious association noticed was with the development of carpel in Chrysalidocarpus lutescens. The developing ovary in a fruit always enlarges along the side opposite the spirality of the spike pushing the undeveloped ovaries and the common stigma- tic-end towards the opposite side. Acknowledgement We thank Mr. S. K. De for making the drawings. 716 REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF SOME PALMS References Davis, T. A. (1971) : Right-handed, left-handed and neutral palms. Principcs, J. Palm Soc., 15 : 63-68. (1974): Enantiomorphic structures in the ornamental palm, Ptychosperma macarthurii (H. Wendland). Nicholson (Arecaceae). /. Planta- tion Crops, 2 : 9-14. and Basu, S. K. (1971); Aestivation of perianth of palm fruits. Phytomorphologym, 21: 219-235. Giiosh, S. S. and Mitra, A. (1971): Asymmetry in palm leaves. /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 68 : 204-231. and Kundu, A. (1967): Aestivation of perianth of Areca catechu Linn, fruits. J. Bom- bay nat. Hist. Soc., 63: 270-282. Ghosh, S. S. (1978) : Biometry of a giant coco- nut spadix. Indian Coc. J. (in press ) . 717 ON FACTORS GOVERNING THE DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA S. Narendra Prasad, P. VlJAYAKUMARAN NAIR, H. C. Sharatchandra and Madhav Gadgil1 {With five plates and seven text-figures) The forests of Karnataka are largely restricted to hill regions, and depending on the precipitation the forest types range from the evergreen to scrub vegetation. An analysis of food resources available in the various vegetation types shows that the evergreen forests are particularly suited to frugivorous arboreal primates and squirrels, while the deciduous forests offer the best habitat for larger grazing herbivores like the gaur and the deer. Drought resistant ungulates, particularly antelopes are specially adapted to the open dry scrub. The wild life bearing forests areas of Karnataka are divided into six regions, namely North Kanara, Crestline, Malnad, Mysore Plateau, Kollegal Hills and Maidan. Occurrence ratings for the major wild mammals over 86 forest ranges of these six regions have been determined on the basis of field studies. An analysis of this data shows that wild life can be considered abundant only on the Mysore Plateau with Malnad, Kollegal Hills, North Kanara, Crestline and Maidan showing a pro- gressive decline in that order. This decline seems highly correlated with the fragment- ation of the habitat; hence it is critical to maintain the integrity of the remaining wild life habitats. Intoduction With its great diversity of ecological condi- tions, and its unique position at the confluence of three biogeographical realms, the Indian subcontinent can boast of a diversity of wild life unequalled by any land mass of compar- able size in the world. Tragically, the recent decades, particularly since the beginning of the British rule, have witnessed a rapid deci- mation of our wild life heritage to the point that a large number of species are now on the verge of extinction. The situation obvious- ly calls for serious efforts at conservation, and these have in fact been launched, particularly over the last few years. Very little careful do- cumentation of the status of our wild life, and the problems confronting us in our efforts at its conservation is however available. There are a few general accounts, the most import- ant being those of Prater (1971), Gee (1969) and Krishnan (1975), and a few detailed ac- counts of specific areas such as those of Sch- aller (1967) for Kanha, Berwick (1976) for Gir and Nair et al. (1977) for the Bandipur- Mudumalai-Nagarhole-Wynaad complex. We also have accounts of a few endangered spe- cies such as Daniel and Grubh’s (1966) sur- vey of wild buffalo, Davidar’s (1978) survey of Nilgiri tahr, Nair and Gadgil’s (1978) sur- vey of elephants of Karnataka, and Kurup’s (1977) survey of the lion-tailed macaque and Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012. 718 DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA Nilgiri langur. We however still lack careful documentation of the status of wild life over more extensive areas of the country. The pre- sent paper is an attempt to furnish such an account for the state of Karnataka. It is based on field studies extending over a period of four years in various parts of the state. It documents the status of major wild life spe- cies in a number of representative forest ran- ges where wild life still persists. In addition it makes an attempt to bring out the factors governing this distribution. The rainfall pat- tern over the state, determined by the topo- graphy, governs the distribution of natural vegetation. This vegetation has been consi- derably modified by human interference. The resulting vegetation types differ in the degree of availability of different food resources on which depend the populations of wild mam- mals. This availability of food resources gov- erns the natural distribution of wild mamma- lian species, depending on the extent to which the ecological requirements of each species are met by a given vegetation type. This is the distribution of wild mammals that prevailed historically before its decimation in recent times. To understand the present distribution, we must additionally take account of man’s deleterious impact in different regions and on different species. This paper is an attempt to present such an account. It is hoped that it will provide a basis of information useful for the future attempts at conservation of wild life in Karnataka. Materials and methods This report is based on studies carried out in Karnataka over a period of four years from May 1974 — June 1978. We have maintained continuous observations at Bandipur national park over the four years, and fairly extensive observations in North Kanara areas from March 1976 onwards. This has been supple- mented by an intensive survey of the Mysore plateau from July to October 1975, a survey of North Kanara areas from August 1976 to January 1977, a survey of the rest of Western Ghats and Malnad areas, and of Kollegal hills from May to July 1977 and a survey of the Ranebennur forest in May 1978. The methods employed in these surveys have been described in detail in our earlier publications, and need not be repeated here (Nair et al. 1977, Nair and Gadgil, in press). These surveys have enabled us to arrive at estimations of the occurrence of major wild mammals in 86 of the forest ranges of Kar- nataka— which covers substantially all of the forest ranges with significant populations of wild animals. The estimates were based on actual sightings, evidence of droppings, signs of feeding and other spoor and reports from tribals and local field staff. In many places the reports were cross-checked with actual field data and were found to be reasonably accurate. An attempt to arrive at estimates of numbers was made only in the case of ele- phant populations (Nair & Gadgil, in press). In case of all other mammals the population status was ranked on a five point scale: absent — 0, rare — 1, present — 2, frequent — 3, and very common — 4. This is admittedly subjec- tive and is essentially a comparative statement, comparing the different ranges for a given species. The population of sambar to be rank- ed very common will obviously have to be much greater than the population of tiger to be ranked very common! Such qualitative ranking is nevertheless of value in giving a clearer picture of the differences in occurrence in various parts of the state and is adopted here in that spirit. While computing occurr- ence, we automatically note the presence or 719 11 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 absence. From this we shall derive the mea- sure of frequency which is defined as the per- centage of total forest ranges within a given region in which a particular species is present. Thus any region under consideration may be characterized by the occurrence value averaged over the constituent forest ranges and a fre- quency of incidence value with respect to any particular species. The habitat of that region was further characterized by the prevalent vegetation type, extent of its degradation particularly in terms of the canopy cover and the major plant asso- ciations. In addition, the habitat was charac- terized with respect to its extent of fragmen- tation. This index was calculated by taking an average of the following ratio for a number of constituent ranges. Df — Dn Df where Df = distance between the two farthest villages or cultivation or mining in the range. Dn = distance between the two nearest villages or cultivation or mining in the range. The ratio ranges from 0 to 1, increasing with the extent of fragmentation of the forest. Admittedly, this too is a crude measure, but serves to indicate well different levels of frag- mentation of the forest in different parts of the state. Topography The state of Karnataka lies between latitudes 11°35' to 18°25'N and longitudes 73°40' and 78° 40'E with the states of Maharashtra to the north, Andhra Pradesh to the east, Tamilnadu and Kerala to the south and with the Arabian Sea to its west (Figure 1). Geographically it is made up of three distinct regions; karavali or a coastal strip on the west, malnad or the hill region in the middle and maidan or the plains of the Deccan plateau to the east. The coastal strip varies in width from just a few kilometres near Karwar in North Kanara to 50-75 kilometres in parts of South Kanara. This coastal strip is flanked to its east by the hill chain of Western Ghats which runs in a north-south disposition parallel to the west coast. In North Kanara the hills are broken and low with an elevation around 1000 m. South of Bhatkal, however the ghats are con- tinuous and rise to an altitude of 1892 metres in Kudremukh. The ghats rise precipitously to their heights with steep slopes abruptly ris- ing out of the coastal plain. To the east they merge gradually with the Deccan plateau, with a series of hills such as Bababudangiri and Mahadeveshwara Malai rising to considerable heights out of the plateau (Figure 2). The Deccan Plateau is itself an undulating plain at an elevation ranging from 500 to 1000 metres. Precipitation This lay of the land governs the pattern of precipitation over the state of Karnataka. The state receives almost all of its rainfall from the southwest monsoon between the months of June and September. This monsoon depends on the moisture laden winds that come from the Arabian Sea. The coastal strip receives annual rains of 3000-4000 mm as these winds come over land. The highest pre- cipitation, however, occurs over the ghats be- cause of the ascent of the air forced by the orography. To the north, where the ghats are low, the precipitation is around 4000-5000 mm, but reaches its maximum of around 8000 mm a year in the Agumbe — Kudremukh region. The rainfall in this region is almost 720 DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA 18' 751 MAP SHOWING THE WILDLIFE HABITATS IN THE STATE 76 A, 17' M AH ARASHT) VVi 16* 15® f • BELGAUM /% > s L l Y cl. j 77 14‘ 1 3‘ RANE BENNUR^ v^> N ■ I X V) LJ o < ft a. < qc ^CA. BANGALORE MANGALORE VJ* •S^ ) STATE BOUNDARY 1 NORTH KANARA 2 CREST LINE OF WESTERN GHATS 3 MALNAD 4 MYSORE PLATEAU 5 KOLLEGAL HILLS 6 MAIDAN 7 5*1 76 77 18‘ 72 k m 144 17‘ 16® 15° 14° 13 Fig. 1. A map of Karnataka State showing the six forest regions. 721 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 restricted to the four months from June-Sep- tember. Further south in the Coorg region, however, the fairly heavy rainfall of 5000-6000 mm is distributed over a longer period of 7-8 months from April-November. The rainfall decreases sharply to the lee of the ghats on the Deccan plateau. It ranges between 600- 1000 mm over most of the Deccan plateau, except in the semi-arid belt stretching over the Gulbarga-Bijapur-Raichur-Bellary region where the rainfall is uniformly below 600 mm a year. Vegetation The pattern of natural vegetation over the state of Karnataka is governed essentially by the amount of precipitation, the temperatures reaching a limiting influence only at the higher elevations of the Western Ghats. The coastal plains must in the past have been covered by the mangrove forest near the coast and ever- green forest in the interior plains where rain- fall uniformly exceeds 3000 mm. The foot hills of the ghats must also have been covered by evergreen forest in earlier times. The cur- rent occurrence of semi-evergreen forest in this high rainfall zone (>3000 mm) seems to be a result of human intervention; the degrada- tion of the evergreen forest has permitted penetration of deciduous tree species in it, im- parting semi-evergreen character to the vege- tation. The upper slopes and Crestline of the ghats receiving precipitation of over 5000 mm a year would have been covered everywhere by evergreen forests. At higher elevations in the ghats the evergreen forest is restricted to hollows as evergreen sholas, with grassy downs covering the exposed slopes. To the east of the Crestline the rainfall decreases again, and would support a belt of semievergreen forest in the zone of 2500-3000 mm. The forest would assume a deciduous character further east where the rainfall falls below 2500 mm. The forest would be of the moist deciduous type over a broad belt where the rainfall ranges from 2500-1500 mm a year. Much of the Deccan plateau would under the natural state be covered by a dry deciduous forest, except for the semi-arid tracts with rainfall below 600 mm. These tracts would be cover- ed by a scrub forest (figure 2) (Champion & Seth 1968, Legris 1963, Meher-Homji per- sonal communication). This pattern of vegetation has been drasti- cally changed by human activity over most of the state of Karnataka. The mangrove forest has entirely disappeared from the coast, and so has the evergreen forest of the coastal plains, to be replaced by paddy and coconut cultiva- tion. The dry deciduous and scrub forests of the maidan area have also disappeared almost entirely, to be replaced largely by cereal crops. The Western Ghats and the adjoining hill tracts, however, still retain some of their forest cover, wherever it has not yet been replaced by plantation crops or other cultivation. This has been heavily exploited by man, generally resulting in the disappearance of evergreen elements from many forests which would ori- ginally have been dominated by them. The canopy has been opened everywhere, allow- ing the forest floor to be invaded by exotic weed species. Wherever rainfall exceeds 1500 mm, the opening of the canopy leads to an invasion by Eupatorium; in the dry deciduous forests, the weed species to dominate the vege- tation belong to genus Lantana. In the drier tracts, exploitation of deciduous forest has often reduced it to the status of a scrub, if not to secondary grassland. In the semi-arid re- gions the scrub has all but disappeared giving way to a very poor secondary grassland. 722 DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA 2 m oc 0 X IA 1 < III 2 o or Ul Hi o z < I- — o c4 th E A schematic cross-section of the Karnataka region indicating the topography, precipitation and climax and present day forest vegetation. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Food resources and distribution of MAMMALS The natural distribution of mammals is ul- timately governed by the natural distribution of the vegetation. As heterotrophs, the mam- mals are dependent on the primary produc- tion of the organic matter by the plants. The productivity of the mammalian fauna of any habitat would therefore be related to the pro- ductivity of the vegetation. In addition, the composition of the mammalian fauna would depend critically on the specific form in which the plant production is channelised. Thus graz- ing herbivores would not be able to sustain themselves in an evergreen forest with almost no growth of grass on the forest floor. Frugi- vores dependent on fleshy fruits would, on the other hand, find abundant food in an ever- green forest. It is therefore most instructive to compare the three major natural vegetation types of Karnataka with respect to the diffe- rent components of plant production, as well as the production of insects, frogs and lizards. Evergreen Forest Table 1 contrasts the distribution of food resources in the pure evergreen, the evergreen shola-grassy downs, deciduous and scrub vege- tation in its original climax condition as well as in the degraded form of evergreen, deci- duous and scrub vegetation. The degradation is assumed to be to the level at which the ca- nopy is considerably opened but without loss of the basic nature of the forest. The climax evergreen forest has a complete canopy and a fully shaded forest floor covered with leaf litter with no grass and very little other herb growth (See plate 1). Its canopy is at a con- siderable height from the ground. In conse- quence there is very little grazing or browsing for ungulates or elephants in such a forest. 724 Bamboos, a favourite food of these animals is also nearly absent from the evergreen forests. The few herbs on the floor belonging to families like Zingiberaceae all tend to have underground storage organs like corms or tub- ers which are therefore available to the dig- gers like pigs though the leaves of these herbs are by and large unpalatable. The plant pro- duction available to the herbivores in such forests is therefore the tree foliage at the high canopy level and fleshy fruits such as jack- fruit, mango and jamun which are so char- acteristic of evergreen vegetation. Dry fruit and seed are also relatively uncommon. The rich leaf litter on the ground which supports a high level of arthropod fauna, and the pre- valent high humidity however supports a very rich amphibian and reptilian fauna in the cli- max evergreen forests. An idea of the herbivore and omnivore fauna that such a climax evergreen forest can support can be had from Tables 2 and 3. Table 2 lists the major components of food of the herbivorous and omnivorous mammals of pen- insular India. A comparison with the avail- ability of these components in Table 1 allows us to deduce the capacity of the different vege- tation types to support these mammals. (Green & Minkowski 1977, Krishnan 1975, Prater 1971, Schaller 1967). It is evident that ever- green forests are particularly rich in the food for arboreal monkeys and squirrels which can feed on fruit and leaves and insects and small vertebrates high up in the canopy. The ever- green forests may also support wild pigs and sloth bear which are omnivores capable of dig- ging up underground corms and tubers. The climax evergreen forests are however a poor habitat for larger herbivores which find little to feed on the floor. When, however, such forest is somewhat degraded and openings are created in the ca- J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Prasad et al. : Mammals in Karnataka Plate I Above : A view of the evergreen forest from the Crestline region. (Photo: H. C. Sharatchandra) . Below : A view of the evergreen sholas and grassy downs of Kudremukh from the Crestline region. (Photo: S. N. Prasad ). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Prasad et al. : Mammals in Karnataka Plate II Above : A view of the dry deciduous forest in Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Mysore Plateau. (Photo: S. N. Prasad ). Below. The composite weed Eupatorium which has invaded the moister forested regions, Mysore Plateau. (Photo: H. C. Shar at chandra) . DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA nopy, palatable herbage can grow on the floor | of the forest. The much larger younger crop of saplings produced would also provide brow- [ sing. Such degraded forest does therefore be- come a better habitat for larger mammalian I herbivores. ! Sholas and Downs ■ The higher reaches of the Western Ghats are characterized by a juxtaposition of ever- ; green sholas lying in the hollows and grassy downs on the more exposed slopes. These grassy downs offer rich grazing grounds for the larger mammals, while the evergreen sholas provide them good shelter. The combination therefore affords an ideal habitat for a rich variety of mammalian species (See Plate 1). Deciduous Forests The deciduous forests offer a much more balanced picture of the availability of food re- sources for the mammalian species. In such vegetation, the total amount of tree foliage and fleshy fruits will be less than in the evergreen forests, rendering it a somewhat less suitable habitat for frugivorous monkeys and squirrels. At the same time, the more open canopy will allow growth of grass and other palatable her- bage and shrubbery on the forest floor, as well as a rich growth of bamboos rendering it a much more suitable habitat for the larger her- bivores such as deer, gaur and elephant (See Plate 2). Moderate degradation of such forest further encourages the growth of grass and bamboo, improving it as a habitat for larger mammals. As will be noted from Tables 1, 2 and 3, the deciduous forests are an excellent habitat for a wide spectrum of mammals. This is not to imply that indefinite degrada- tion of deciduous forests will progressively im- prove them as wild life habitats. Such forests a.'e quickly invaded by Lantana and Eupato- rium, the former favouring dry deciduous and the latter moist deciduous habitats. Lantana though largely unpalatable to wild mammals, does provide fresh leaves, flowers and berries which are consumed. The berries are a fav- ourite food of birds as well. Eupatorium, on the other hand, has no redeeming features. It carpets vast stretches of forest floor, smother- ing out all regeneration, posing a fire hazard, and is absolutely unpalatable to wild animals who never touch it (See Plate 2). Scrub Forests The scrub forest in its climax condition is overall a less productive habitat than the de- graded deciduous forest. The Acacias which dominate it are nevertheless a good source of palatable leaves and pods for many browsing herbivores, particularly elephants. Under its na- tural condition, the scrub forest can therefore support a rich mammalian fauna as indicated in Tables 1, 2 and 3. An important limiting factor in these forests is water. Since antelopes such as blackbuck and nilgai are much more tolerant of drought than deer and gaur they tend to dominate the community of grazing herbivores in such habitats. A degraded scrub is reduced to a secondary grassland of very poor productivity (See Plate 3). Such habitat can essentially support only blackbuck and chinkara and smaller mam- mals such as hares. Carnivores Table 4 summarizes the expected pattern of natural abundance of carnivores in different vegetation types. Stalking predators such as tiger and panther require a good population of larger mammals plus good cover. They are therefore at their best in deciduous forests. Cheetah which depends on speed for pursuit re- quires more open country and was once corn- 725 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , Vol. 75 mon in scrub forests of India but is now ex- tinct. The wild dogs and wolves depend on their stamina, teamwork and speed to run down their quarry. The former seems more adapted to forest habitat and the latter to open scrub. Tables 3 and 4 thus summarize the pattern of distribution of wild mammals that should prevail in peninsular India in the absence of a serious persecution of these animals at the hand of man. Some species, such as elephant and wild pig would be rather widely distribut- ed, while others such as lion-tailed macaque would be much more restricted in their distri- bution. Nevertheless there would be an overall high abundance of wild mammals throughout the variety of wild habitats. This supposition is supported by the available historical evi- dence, particularly recorded in the early gazet- teers. (Nicholson 1887, Stuart 1895, Francis 1904, Anonymous 1908). No more than a cen- tury ago, a variety of wild mammals occurred commonly throughout much of the state of Karnataka largely conforming to the pattern indicated in Tables 3 and 4. There were of course tracts which had been under intensive cultivation for a long time, and from which wild mammals were largely ex- cluded. Such, for example must have been the case with paddy lands in the coastal plains of South Kanara. There were however still vast tracts of lands under natural vegetation, and with large mammalian populations till a century ago, their abundance essentially gov- erned by the availability of resources required by each of the various species in different types of natural vegetation. The last century in par- ticular has seen rapid changes and overall dras- tic decline in the populations of wild mammals of Karnataka due to mounting pressures of persecution by man. Human persecution The degree to which the persecution by man has affected the mammalian fauna has varied considerably in different habitats and for diffe- rent species depending on a variety of factors. These factors include (1) accessibility of wild life habitats to man (2) ease of hunting a spe- cies (3) reproductive resiliency of the species (4) religious protection enjoyed by a species (5) commercial demand for trophy, presumed medicinal value etc. (6) conflicts with human interests because of crop raiding, killing of livestock etc. (7) extent of demand for the habitat of wild animals such as for mining. It may be worthwhile reviewing the effect of human persecution on the twenty two major wild mammals of Karnataka listed in Tables 3 and 4. The lion-tailed macaque has always been restricted to a few pockets of evergreen vegetation. Its habitat is rapidly diminishing and degrading, and this rare, essentially frugi- vorous, primate is an endangered species. The bonnet macaque enjoys wide religious protec- tion and still lives in large populations through- out the state in forests, scrub as well as in cul- tivated tracts. The hanuman langur is a more specialized leaf eating monkey, and has a more restricted distribution than the omnivorous bonnet macaque. It also enjoys religious pro- tection and lives in good numbers in deciduous forest tracts. The giant squirrel is essentially restricted to evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests where it occurs in good numbers. The elephant populations have suffered dras- tically through loss and fragmentation of habi- tat, persecution for ivory and killing for crop protection. A good population nevertheless ex- ists in the Bandipur-Nagarhole complex (Nair and Gadgil, in press). Gaur are still widely dis- tributed, particularly in deciduous forests. 726 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Prasad et al. : Mammals in Karnataka Plate III Above : A view of the scrub forest in the Kollegal Hills Region. Below : Cultivation in the midst of forest, Haliyal Division in North Kanara region. (Photos: P. V. K. Nair ). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Prasad et al. : Mammals in Karnataka Plate IV Above: An elephant herd in Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Below: A tiger in Bandipur Tiger Reserve. (Photos: A. J. T. Johnsingh ). DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA though much reduced in numbers due to poaching for meat and hide, Sambar very much follow the pattern of gaur. Chital are restricted to more open degraded deciduous forests, where they survive in good numbers where protected. Barking deer, a solitary spe- cies with wide habitat tolerance is much hunt- ed for meat and survives in thin populations. Blackbuck, chinkara, nilgai, wolves and cheetah once inhabited the open scrub forests in large numbers. Living in accessible plains, easily hunted in their open habitat, they have been the main victims of persecution at the hand of man. Cheetah has become totally extinct and the others have nearly disappear- ed too, surviving only in small pockets where they are given special protection. Blacknaped hare, wild pig and jackal are the only three species still surviving in good numbers. This is due to their ability to take advantage of man-made habitats and cultiva- tion, and their great reproductive resilience. All three breed in sheltered places and pro- duce moderate to large litters. This has enabl- ed them to minimise persecution, and to rapid- ly build up their populations in face of perse- cution. Porcupine, a solitary nocturnal animal is hunted for meat with the help of dogs who locate their burrows. It nevertheless survives in scattered populations. The omnivorous sloth bear, a denizen of evergreen — deciduous forests, is not particularly persecuted, and prob- ably survives in scattered populations. Of the carnivores, tiger, panther and wild dog are all much persecuted, the first two for their valuable pelt and to avenge cattle kills, and the third rather wantonly, even by the offi- cial foresters as a competitor for herbivores with man. The first two have declined drasti- cally, while the wild dog seems to be holding its own much better. Present status The, area under forest in Karnataka today amounts to 28846 sq. kms, a mere 15.04% of the total land area of the state. With the not- able exception of the bonnet macaque, which under the widespread religious protection ran- ges throughout the state, the larger wild mam- mals are entirely confined to the forest areas. These forest areas, may, for our purpose be divided into six different regions, each of which is largely contiguous and has distinctive ecological features. For convenience, we have named these six wildlife regions: North Ka- nara, Crestline, Malnad, Mysore Plateau, Kol- legal Hills and Maidan (Fig. 1) (Nair & Gad- gil, in press). North Kanara The district of North Kanara and parts of Belgaum constitute the northernmost sector of hill tracts of Karnataka (lati- tude 13°45'N to 15°45'N, longitude 75°0' E to 75° 15' E). The hills are low, but form a rather wide belt. The precipita- tion varies from 6500 mm at the crest to about 1000 mm on the plateau, and the vegetation consequently ranges from evergreen, semi-ever- green, moist deciduous to dry deciduous types. The proportion of deciduous forest computed as the proportion of forest ranges predomi- nantly deciduous in nature, is 0.52. At one time, over 80% of this region was under for- est cover. It has been, however, considerably disturbed in recent years with rapidly multi- plying human settlements, heavy exploitation of forest for timber and softwoods and bam- boo, manganese and iron mining, and above- all the giant Kalinadi hydel project. Conse- quently, the habitat is now very much frag- mented, with the index of habitat fragmenta- tion at a high value of 0.92 (See Plate 3). 727 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 74*| 15' \i\r^0ND/( -© ° 10 20 30 “ L> * 74° 1 30' 74“ 1 45' 75°| O' WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION IN KARNATAKA ABUNDANCE VALUES OF HERBIVORES / NORTH KANARA NAGARGALI 15*30' 15* 0' 14*45' I ll ;!'•••* /BHAGAVATHY '■yrvr « '.yr'i ° - - - - • J*»*®/\* — — — • y ■ v.. ■-? S • • • — -J^r- — • ■ ' Vf •*/• • ”/ • • V"’ * " /••“I* /• • • u. 15°15' YELLAPUR 60 V* • • • o - „ rTv/ •« ••• Ki 1 1 II! .* RAMANGUU^*V ” V> • ANKOLA / o4 • • • • • • / o £S« 120§ \ ^HIREGUTTI MUNDGOD ->U i » o ' S -SIRSI - 80S «■ t. 14*30' JAN JUN DEC HONNAVAR I 1 0-4- 10 — I5':::: i-o-i-s III 1* 5-2 0 2 0-2-5 $&X 25- 30 DISTRICT BOUNDARY ROAD * — -< RIVER ■■1 RESERVOIR rrsr-y CULTIVATION 14*15' SHARAVATHY RESERVOIR 14* O* 1 \ . ■ I15' 74* | 30' 74*| 45' 75*|0' Fig. 3. A map of North Kanara region indicating the occurrence rating of larger mammalian herbivores. 728 DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA Table 7 lists the occurrence rating for 8 of the major wild mammals of this region over 26 ranges. The data are further summarised in tables 5 and 6 and figure 3. There are today only five small herds of elephants over this vast forested region, scattered in the semi-ever- green and moist deciduous tracts. They cover two-thirds of the ranges of the region. The frequency of incidence of gaur is similar, and it also occurs in small scattered herds with larger herds surviving only in parts of Haliyal division. Sambar is much more widely distri- buted, occurring in 85% of the ranges, barring the heavier rainfall areas. It also receives a little better occurrence ranking. The spotted deer occurs in little over half the ranges and is in low abundance. This thick, moist forest is obviously a poor habitat for it. The wild pig occurs over almost all ranges and is the most abundant of wild mammals. Its tolerance of a wide range of vegetation types, its pen- chant for crop raiding, and its high repro- ductive rate are the reasons for its greater suc- cess. Evergreen forests of North Kanara har- bour some populations of lion-tailed macaque in the Siddapur Range. The hanuman langur is commonly found particularly in the semi- evergreen and moist deciduous tracts. The car- nivores, tiger, panther and wild dog all occur in rather low populations but are distributed over many of the ranges. They are commoner in the dry deciduous ranges of Katur, Mund- god and Kirwatti, and quite uncommon in the evergreen forest. The great forests of North Kanara are a little too dominated by evergreen and semi- evergreen types to be an optimal habitat for larger wild mammals. However, its deciduous forests too are very extensive and rich in bam- boo— a prime fodder for large herbivores. The very high frequencies of incidence coupled with the low abundances suggest that the wild mammal populations have been decimated everywhere through human persecution. The high value of habitat fragmentation bears out this supposition of rather extensive human in- fluence on the wild life. Crestline To the south of North Kanara, the Western Ghats rise much higher, and narrower. The rainfall in this region is very heavy reaching 6000 - 7000 mm. There is a rather narrow belt of forests following this Crestline of the ghats (latitude 11°30' N to 14°0' N, longitude 74° 15' E to 76°30' E). The vegetation is ever- green on the steep slopes west of the Crest- line. There is a belt of semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests at the foothills on the west, as well as on the eastern slopes. The proportion of deciduous forests is 0.27, and the fragmentation index is 0.57. Table 7 lists the occurrence rating for wild animals in 21 of the forest ranges of this re- gion, while tables 5 and 6 and figure 4 sum- marise the data. As may be seen from these, the wild mammal populations are on the whole very poor, although most of the major species do occur in this region. Only a few isolated herds of elephants are found in these evergreen forests, and even these have per- haps been forced out by the deforestation of the deciduous tracts to the east of the Crest- line. The gaur and sambar have high frequen- cies of incidence (85% each), but occur com- monly only on the foot hills of Coondapur. The spotted deer occurs only very sporadical- ly and in low numbers. The wild pig, how- ever, is present in all ranges, and is often quite common. Again its adaptibility to evergreen forests, to crop raiding, and its high repro- ductive rate render it the most successful of larger wild mammals. The lion-tailed maca- que occurs in the evergreen forests of Sagar. 729 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 mammalian herbivores. 730 DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA The hanuman langur is present as well. The carnivores, tiger, panther and wild dog are all present, but their occurrence rating is low in conformity with the low occurrence rating of their prey. Only a small proportion, 0.27, of the sur- viving forests in the region of the Crestline are deciduous. As discussed above, this im- plies a poor habitat for most large herbivores, and consequently for carnivores. This is prob- ably an important factor in the very low occur- rence ratings of all the major mammals ex- cept the wild pig. At the same time, the ever- green forests provide the habitat for a most interesting primate — the lion-tailed macaque. There are in this region some tracts of inter- spersion of evergreen sholas and grassy downs which provide excellent habitats for many mammals such as gaur and sambar. The low abundances must then also relate to consi- derable human persecution. This is the case, even though the fragmentation index is re- latively low, because the forests occur in a rather narrow linear strip. Malnad This region lies to the east of the Crestline, seperated by a wide belt of coffee and culti- vation (13° 0' N to 14° 15' N lat. and 75° 0' E to 76° 0' E long.). The area, albeit rather plain, owes its forest cover to several large hills like the Shankar hills and the Bababudangiris rising out of the plains. The rainfall is around 1000 mm, and there are ex- tensive tracts of dry and moist deciduous forest. The proportion of deciduous forests is 0.64, and the fragmentation of the habitat is on the low side, the index taking a value of 0.64. We have estimates of occurrence ratings of major mammalian species in 14 of the forest ranges of Malnad region; and it is evident that this region boasts of wild life populations only second to Mysore plateau (Tables 5,6 and fig. 5). Almost all of the ranges support elephant populations with a rather large herd of 30-40 living by the Bhadra reservoir. The gaur also occur extensively, being present over 76% of the ranges. The sambar is pre- sent in almost all the ranges, as is spotted deer which finds its optimum habitat in the rather degraded deciduous forests of this re- gion. Wild pig, as in other regions is ubiqui- tous. There are no lion-tailed macaques in the absence of habitable evergreen tracts which are all taken up by coffee plantations, but the hanuman langur is common through- out. The wild dog, panther and tiger are pre- sent over most of the region, and their over- all occurrence is also high in concert with the higher populations of herbivores. Overall, the Malnad region, with its open- ed up deciduous forests is potentially an out- standing wild life habitat. The tracts of forest in this region are extensive with relatively little human interference in the deeper forests. The extensive coffee plantations, heavy ex- ploitation of the forest by forest-based indus- tries, particularly the paper mills, and the disturbance caused by the construction of Tunga and Bhadra reservoirs have however largely decimated the wild life populations which today are a pale shadow of their for- mer self. Mysore Plateau The western edge of the Mysore Plateau, flanked on three sides by the southernmost ranges of Sahyadris proper, Nilgiris and the eastern spur of hills towards Biligirirangans is an undulating plain with a rainfall between 600 to 1000 mm a year (lat. 11°35'N and 12° 45'N and long. 75° 54' E and 77° O' E). The plateau is covered by moist and dry deciduous 731 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Fig. 5. A map of the Malnad region indicating the occurrence rating of larger mammalian herbivores. 732 DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA forests, the proportion of the deciduous forests being 1. The forest still maintains much of its integrity though now split into two by the Kabini reservoir, and the fragmentations in- dex of 0.70 is relatively low. This is undoubtedly the richest wild life re- gion in the state and has been the subject of an earlier detailed report by us (Nair et al. 1977). Table 7 lists the occurrence rating for mammals for 13 forest ranges falling with- in this region, and Tables 5 and 6 and Fig. 6 summarize the data. It is the only region where certain wild mammals can still be con- sidered to be abundant, albeit locally. It has an elephant population of about 1300 ani- mals, a gaur population which was very high till a rinderpest outbreak in 1968, a sambar and a chital population very good in pockets, a good wild pig population, and a good popu- lation of hanuman langur. The carnivores too are reasonably common, particularly wild dogs. Panthers and tigers also survive in rea- sonable numbers (See Plates 4 and 5). The richness of this wild mammal fauna depends on the eminent suitability of the habitat, which is entirely somewhat degraded deciduous forest, and the protection from per- secution over much of the region first as a hunting preserve of Mysore maharaja and then as wild life sanctuaries. Kollegal Hills This hilly area, lying between 11° 30' and 13° 0'N latitude and 77° 15' and 77° 45' E longitude is an eastern spur of the ghats. The rainfall is low, around 500 mm except on the Biligirirangan hills where it exceeds 1000 mm. Apart from the moist deciduous, or semi-ever- green forest on these hills, the rest of the re- gion is covered by dry deciduous forest, most- ly degraded into scrub. The proximity of the urban centre of Bangalore has been a major factor in hastening the pace of degradation of these forests. Because of this degradation, the proportion of deciduous forests is low — only 0.4, and the forests are highly fragmented, with a fragmentation index of 0.71. Table 7 presents larger wild mammal oc- currence ratings for 10 ranges of this region (See figure 7). Elephants occur over most of this region, and this highly adaptable species still maintains a good population in this and the adjacent Satyamangalam forests. The gaur is restricted to areas where the forest remains at the dry deciduous stage. Spotted deer, sam- bar and wild pig occur throughout all the ranges. The opened deciduous forest is of course a good habitat for the deer, but the persistence o fthe pig from evergreen to scrub speaks for its versatility. The wild dogs have a fairly extensive distribution, though pan- ther and tiger are much more restricted. Earlier accounts indicate that this was once a quite rich wild life area in spite of the dry- ness of the climatic regime. The current rather low occurrence ratings are due to further de- gradation of the vegetation, and persecution by man in this highly fragmented habitat. Maidan Most of the forests of Karnataka, as men- tioned earlier, clothe the hills of the Western Ghats, or the adjoining hills in Chickmagalur — Shimoga and Kollegal regions. There is very little forest on the remaining maidan areas on the Deccan Plateau, and what there is of such forest is highly degraded, fragment- ed and practically devoid of any wild mam- mals. The proportion of deciduous forest in this region is 0 while the fragmentation index takes the value of 1. One single range in this region, that of Ranebennur is however notable for the oc- currence of good herds of blackbuck, and re- 733 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 g a 8 o <4-1 o a a 6 < 'S E 734 mammalian herbivores. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Prasad et al. : Mammals in Karnataka Plate V ilililiiiis tej 1111 m ' ' ' ■;1 V'..':l ' ->:1 .;>:: ■ ’:p-s- rf’’ rnmmmMmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm WasiSs; fwim V :|; , ¥/ IpiJi ||H Wifi ■ :' ■ j !|S#1P?:;;1|- ll;*;:' ; flv ' ••'••• ■'- ". • .. \1%1 ■dkhii HM l^l!l|liilliiWlliiilli^iM®li^te|"'|iJteiili^^ :il Jggw^ lllll m / j /;>/' '-' v • ..4v;tK ; :' IVll— '' " ~ ' r ... . WW^WM^ : :-•■ y 1 I f v4; ... s *, - * ^ ' • ' ,'P ■ J'/: .' v... - " .' Above: Sambar in Bandipur Tiger Reserve. (Photo: A, J. T. Johnsingh ). Below: A view of the Ranebennur plains with Eucalyptus plantations in the background. (Photo: S. N. Prasad ). DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA portedly a few wolves in the Ranebennur sanctuary. This herd apparently built up from a few blackbuck which received protection when a Eucalyptus plantation was started in the degraded forest of this range (Neginhal, in press) (See plate 5). Such scattered remnants of blackbuck also apparently occur in other areas such as Raichur. Much of this dry and open country once supported good populations of antelopes — blackbuck, chinkara and nilgai which have vanished because of the ease of hunting in the habitats of these animals. As stressed earlier, this fauna of open scrubby plains has suffered the worst at the hand of man, with cheetah extinct, and wolf and blackbuck threatened with extinction. Conclusion It is perhaps worth commenting on a few of the significant points which emerge out of this analysis. The maintenance of the integri- ty of the habitat is critical to all our attempts at nature conservation. The great decimation of wild life in North Kanara in particular is largely due to the extreme fragmentation of this great forest, and a similar phenomenon repeats itself in other regions of the state. Apart from this immediately evident effect, much evidence is now accumulating from a number of ecological studies to show that small, fragmented habitats cannot in the long run sustain their original biological diversity, though they may continue to do so in the short run. It is therefore being stressed that maintenance of large contiguous areas should be a very important aim of all efforts at de- signing nature reserves (Diamond 1975). We must therefore strive to avoid any further fragmentation of the wild life habitats, parti- cularly in the few viable areas such as the Bandipur — Nagarhole complex which still re- main with us. The second point that emerges is that the situation is far worse in respect of the con- servation of the fauna of the evergreen forests and scrub when compared with that of the fauna of the deciduous forest. As investiga- tions of Dr. Pascal and his colleagues from the French Institute have shown, very little now remains of the once extensive evergreen forests on the Western Ghats of Karnataka. The one larger mammal — the lion-tailed ma- caque— characteristic of the evergreen forests of South India is thereby threatened with ex- tinction. Much more importantly, a large num- ber of amphibians and reptiles which are also unique to this ecosystem are no doubt like- wise disappearing, although this is hardly realised because of our near-total ignorance of this fauna. As emphasized above, the fauna of the open scrub has been decimated to a much greater degree than that of the thicker forests, and there is an urgency to step up efforts to con- serve and replenish it. There are no sanctua- ries representing this type of ecosystem in Karnataka, except for Ranebennur. Rane- bennur is however a Eucalyptus plantation and as Neginhal (in press) has shown, is fast losing its ability to sustain the blackbuck popu- lation. It is imperative that a genuine scrub vegetation be built up, its typical wild life restocked and the ecosystem restored in some reasonably large wild life sanctuary in the semi-arid belt of the Deccan plateau. 735 12 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Fig. 7. A map of the Kollegal Hills indicating the occurrence rating of larger mammalian herbivores 736 DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA Table 1 On the distribution of food resources of mammalian populations in different types of VEGETATION Grass Herbs Shrubs Bamboo Tree leaves Woody matter Fleshy fruits Seeds Tubers Insects Frogs & lizards Evergreen Climax O R R O A A A R R A A Degraded C C C C A A A C C A A Shola and grassy downs A R R o A A A A R A A Deciduous Climax R C C c A A A A C A A Degraded A A A A A A A A C A C Scrub Climax C C A o C C C C R C C Degraded C C C o R R R C R C c O = absent, R = Rare, C = Common, A = Abundant. Table 2 On the dependence of herbivorous or omnivorous mammals on different food resources Grass Herbs Shrubs Bamboo Tree leaves Woody matter Fleshy fruits Seeds Tubers Insects Frogs & lizards Liontailed Macaque R O O O R O A R O C O Bonnet Macaque O R R C O R C C O C R Hanuman Langur O C A A A O A C o o O Giant Squirrel O O O O R C A A o c O Elephant A C R A C C C R o o O Gaur A R C C R O C O o o O Sambar A R A C R O c O o o O Chital A R C c R O c O o o O Barking Deer A R R c R o c O o o O Nilgai A R C c R o o O o o O Blackbuck A R C o O o c R o o O Chinkara A R C o O o c O o o O Nilgiri Tahr A R O o O o o O o o o Wild Pig R R R c O o c C A c c Blacknaped Hare A C R R O o o O o o o Porcupine O O C C O c A C A R o Other Rodents R R R C R c C A A A o Sloth Bear O O O o O o A R A A R O = absent, R = Rare, C = Common, A = Abundant. 737 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 3 Distribution of herbivorous or omnivorous mammals in different vegetation types when UNDISTURBED. Evergreen Climax Degraded Shola and grassy downs Deciduous Climax Degraded Climax Scrub Degraded Lion-tailed Macaque A C A* O O O O Bonnet Macaque O R O C C c C Hanuman Langur R R R A A c R Giant Squirrel A A A A C o O Elephant R C C A A c R Gaur R C A A A R O Sambar R c A A A C R Nilgai O o O C C A R Chital O o O C A C R Barking Deer O R R C C C C Blackbuck O O O O O A C Chinkara O O O O O A C Nilgiri Tahr O O A O O O O Wild Pig R C C A A R R Blacknaped Hare O O C C A A A Porcupine R c c A A C O Rodents C c c C A A A Sloth Bear R c c A C R R ♦Shola only. O = Absent, R = Rare, C = Common, and A = Abundant Table 4 Distribution of carnivorous mammals in different vegetation types, given that there is no HUNTING PRESSURE, AND HERBIVORES ARE PRESENT IN KINDS OF ABUNDANCES INDICATED IN TABLE 3. Evergreen Shola & Deciduous Scrub Climax Degraded downs Climax Degraded Climax Degraded Jackal O O C R A A A Wolf O O o O C A A Cheetah* o o o O R A A Wild Dog o c A A A A O Panther R c A A A C O Tiger R c A A C O O O = Absent, R = Rare, C == Common, A = Abundant. * Now extinct in India. DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA Table 5 The proportion of forest ranges containing deciduous forest, the index of habitat fragment- ation, AND AVERAGE OCCURRENCE RATING FOR HERBIVORES AND CARNIVORES FOR THE SIX DIFFERENT WILD LIFE BEARING REGIONS OF THE STATE. Region Proportion Fragmentation Herbivore Carnivore Deciduous Index occurrence occurrence North Kanara 0.52 0.92 1.38 0.81 Crestline 0.27 0.57 1.09 0.66 Malnad 0.64 0.64 1.91 0.80 Mysore Plateau 1.00 0.7 2.61 2.00 Kollegal Hills 0.4 0.71 1.72 0.76 Maidan 0 1.0 0.32 0.04 Table 6 Average occurrence RATING AND FREQUENCY OF INCIDENCE FOR THE MAJOR MAMMALIAN SPECIES IN THE SIX REGIONS of Karnataka. Name of Ele- Gaur Sambar Spotted Wild Wild Panther Tiger Black ths area phant Deer Pig Dog buck 1 . North Kanara Frequency Occurrence 65 70 85 58 100 35 65 65 — rating 1.23 1.0 1.38 0.86 1.80 0.50 0.50 0.50 — 2. Crestline Frequency Occurrence 57 85 85 20 100 35 45 45 — rating 1.00 0.90 0.90 0.26 1.55 0.42 0.47 0.47 3. Malnad Frequency Occurrence 92 76 100 92 100 64 50 76 — rating 1.78 1.64 2.14 1.65 2.14 0.92 0.64 0.92 — 4. Mysore Plateau Frequency Occurrence 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 — rating 3.23 2.07 2.53 2.61 2.61 2.58 2.07 1.00 5. Kollegal Hills Frequency Occurrence 100 50 100 100 90 70 40 50 — rating 2.1 1.00 1.9 1.8 1.3 1.2 0.40 0.60 — 6. Maidan Frequency Occurrence — — — — — — 4 rating — — — ~ 739 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 7 Distribution of LARGER MAMMALS IN THE FOREST RANGES OF Karnataka SI. Name of Ele- Gaur Spotted Sambar Wild Wild No. range phant deer pig dog Area No. 1 — North Kanara 1 Londa 3 - - 2 2 0 2 Khanapur 2 - 2 2 2 0 3 Nagargali 2 - 2 2 2 0 4 Dandeli 2 2 2 2 2 2 5 Kulgi 1 2 2 2 2 2 6 Virnoli 2 2 2 2 2 2 7 Gund 1 2 0 2 2 2 8 Jagalbet 2 2 2 2 3 2 9 Sambrani 0 0 2 2 2 2 10 Supa 2 0 2 2 2 2 1 1 Kadra 1 2 0 2 2 0 12 Ankola 0 1 0 1 2 1 13 Karwar 1 0 0 2 2 0 14 Sirsi 0 0 0 0 2 0 15 Siddapur 2 0 0 0 2 0 16 Janmane 0 2 0 2 2 0 17 Hulekal 3 2 0 2 2 0 18 Yellapur 1 2 0 2 2 2 19 Manchikere 0 2 2 0 0 0 20 Mundgod 0 0 2 1 2 0 21 Kirwatti 0 - - - - - 22 Honnavar 2 - - 2 2 - 23 Gerusoppa 3 2 1 2 2 - 24 Kumta 2 - - - 2 - 25 Bhatkal 0 2 - - 2 0 26 Katur 0 1 2 2 2 0 Area No. 2 — Crestline 1 Byndoor 2 - - - 2 - 2 Sagar 1 2 2 2 2 0 3 Coondapur 1 1 0 1 2 1 4 Sankarana- rayana 0 1 0 0 2 0 5 Hebri 0 1 0 0 1 1 6 Moodabidri 0 1 0 1 2 0 7 Karkala 0 1 0 1 2 0 8 Venur 0 1 0 1 2 0 9 Sringeri 0 2 0 1 2 0 10 Agumbe 0 1 0 1 2 1 1 1 Belthangadi 0 1 1 1 2 0 12 Mudigere 1 1 2 1 2 0 1 3 Manjarabad 2 1 0 1 2 1 14 Uppinangadi 2 1 0 1 2 — Lanther Tiger 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 “ DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA SI. Name of Ele- Gaur Spotted No. range phant deer 15 Puttur 0 0 16 Panja 1 0 17 Subramanya 2 1 18 Sulya 2 1 19 Sampaje 2 1 20 Bhaga- mandala 2 1 21 Makut 3 1 Area No. 3 — Malnad 1 Hosanagar 0 2 Kalasa 2 3 Balehonnur 3 4 Muthodi 3 5 Hebbe 3 6 Lakkavalli 2 7 Umblebyle 2 8 N.R. Pura 1 9 Chickagrahara 1 10 Anandapuram 1 1 1 Shankar 1 12 Sacrebyle 2 13 Ayanur 2 14 Rippenpet 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 0 2 2 0 0 2 1 2 Area No. 4 — Mysore Plateau 1 Bandipur 4 2 2 A.M. Gudi 4 2 3 H.D. Kote 3 2 4 Kakankote 4 2 5 Begur 4 2 6 Hediyal 3 2 7 Nagarhole 3 3 8 Titimati 3 2 9 Kalhalla 3 2 10 Sunkadakatte 3 2 1 1 Anthrasanthe 2 2 12 Gundlupet 3 2 13 Murkal 3 2 Area No. 5 — Kollegal hills 1 Anekal 1 0 2 Sathnur 2 0 3 Mahadeswara- malai 3 2 4 Ramapuram 2 0 5 Hanur 2 0 6 Kollegal 3 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 3 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 4 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 Sambar 0 1 1 1 2 Wild Pig 2 2 2 2 2 Wild Panther Tiger, dog 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 12--- 12 111 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 0 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 3 0 2 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 1 741 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 SI. Name of Elep- No. range hant Gaur Spotted deer Sambar Wild Pig Wild Dog Panther Tiger 7 Kanakapura 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 8 Chamarajnagar 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 9 B.R. Hills 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 10 Punjur 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 Area No. 6 — Maidan 1 Ranebennur 0 0 0 0 Blackbuck - 3 0 0 0 0 2 Raichur 0 In addition 23 other 0 ranges were 0 screened. 0 Blackbuck — 1 0 0 0 0 4 = very common, 3 = frequent, 2 = present, 1 = rare, 0 = absent, - = no information Acknowledgements We are grateful to the authorities of Kar- nataka State Forest Department for their ge- nerous co-operation in our surveys. We are also thankful to the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources for their sup- port. We have benefited greatly from help in the field and from many useful discussions with A. J. T. Johnsingh and Rauf Ali. J. C. Daniel, E. R. C. Davidar, Robert Grubh, V. M. Meher-Homji, N. L. N. S. Prasad and Indra Kumar Sharma made a number of help- ful comments on the manuscript. References Anonymous (1908): Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XI. Oxford. Berwick, S. (1976): The Gir Forest: An En- dangered Ecosystem. Am. Scientist 64: 28-40. Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. H. (1978) : A Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India. Delhi. Daniel, J. C. and Grubh, R. B. (1966): The Indian Wild Buffalo Bubalus bubalis in Peninsular India: A preliminary Survey. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 63(1): 32-5 3. Davidar, E. R. C. (1978): Report on the Status of Nilgiri Tahr. Coonoor. Diamond, J. M. (1975): The Island Dilemma: Lessons of Modern Biogeographic Studies for the Design of Natural Reserves. Biological Conservation 7: 129. Francis, W. (1904): Madras District Gazetteers: Bellary. Madras. Gee, E. P. (1969): The Wild Life of India. London. Green, S. and Minkowski, K. (1977) : The Lion-tailed Monkey and its South Indian Rain Forest Habitat, in Primate Conservation. New York: 289-337. Krishnan, M. (1975): India’s Wildlife in 1959- 70. Bombay. Kurup, G. U. (1977) : Distribution, Habitat and Conservation of the Rain Forest Primates in the Western Ghats, in M. R. N. Prasad and T. C. Anand Kumar (ed.) Use of Non-human Primates in Biomedical Research. New Delhi: 62-73. Legris, P. (1963): La Vegetation de l’lnde: Eco- logy et Flore. Pondicherry. 742 ■■ ■ DISTRIBUTION OF WILD MAMMALS IN KARNATAKA Nair, P. V. K. AND Gadgil, Madhav (1978): The Status and Distribution of Elephant Popula- tions of Karnataka. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. (In press). Nair, S. S., Nair, P. V. K., Sharatchandra, H. C. and Gadgil, Madhav (1977) : An Ecological Re- connaissance of the Proposed Jawahar National Park. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 74(3) : 401-435. Neginhal, S. G. (1978): Ecological Impact of Afforestation at the Ranebennur Blackbuck Sanc- tuary. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. (in press). Nicholson, F. A. (1887) : Manual of Coimba- tore District in the Presidency of Madras. Madras. Prater, S. H. (1971): The Book of Indian Ani- mals. Bombay. Schaller, G. B. (1967): The Deer and the Tiger. Chicago. Southwick, C. M., Beg, M. A. and Siddiqui, M. R. (1962) : A Population Survey of Rhesus Monkeys in Villages, Towns and Temples of Nor- thern India. Ecology 42: 528-547. Stuart, H. A. (1895) : Madras District Manuals: Manual of South Kanara District, Vol. II. Madras. 743 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR NICOBARS WITH SOME NOTES ON WILDLIFE CONSERVATION IN THE ISLANDS Humayun Abdulali ( With jour plates ) This is a report, mainly ornithological, of the writer’s seventh and eighth trips to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Collections were made on Car and Great Nicobar and the specimens obtained permitted the addition of a new species of owl, Otus magicusl to the list of Indian birds, the description of new races of Amaurornis phoenicurus from Central Nicobars, and of Macropygia rufpennis and Ninox affinis from Great Nicobar. Attention has been drawn to the possibility of separating additional indi- genous races of Spilornis cheela, another Amaurornis phoenicurus and Zosterops palpe- brosa from Great Nicobar. The Blacktailed Godwit ( Limosa lapponica) and the Sanderling ( Calidris albus ) obtained at Car Nicobar are additions to the list of birds recorded from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 9 suedes are added to the list from Car Nicobar and 19 to Great Nicobar. Field and other notes are included. Every trip to the Andamans and Nicobars produces material which adds something to our knowledge of the birds and beasts of the area. Taxonomically, particularly regarding birds, the main reason is the fact that the first collections were made in the last century be- fore the recognition of subspecies, and the type localities were just listed “Andamans” or “Nicobars”, sometimes even “Andamans and Nicobars”, ignoring the possibility of dif- ferent forms having evolved in the 225 odd islands far from the mainland, and strung out over almost 500 miles. These islands form at least five separate archipelagos or biogeogra- phical units. Due to greater attention given to collecting rather than to observation, little or nothing has been recorded regarding the field habits of the birds, and it will be quite some time before we have information equivalent to that pertaining to Indian species, which in itself is far behind that available for other parts of the world. For these reasons I have been anxious to make representative collections in the different areas. Transport between the islands is diffi- cult and irregular and trips aimed at one group have on more than one occasion found me in another. In 1966 I left with the hope of covering most of the Nicobars, but as men- tioned in my earlier report (1967) I lost 10 days on a small clearing on the shore of Great Nicobar near Campbell Bay with the sea on one side and the impenetrable forest on the other. Movement was restricted to the beach when the tides permitted, and a few hundred yards inland. I then obtained an owlet which I listed as Otus scops nicobaricus (Hume). This was re- ferred to in a foot-note in Indian handbook (3 p. 265) and Dr. J. Marshall (Auk, January 1972) when reviewing the book drew atten- tion to the wing being too large for any scops owl. Further correspondence with him resulted in his visiting Bombay to examine the speci- men, but he was unable to identify it. His inability to obtain permission to visit Great 744 Platf I J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Abdulali : Great and Car Nicobars The Andaman Pig and the Water Lizard (V. salvator) both in Schedule A of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 are trapped in North Andaman and in the absence of refri- geration taken alive to Port Blair, often with broken limbs and other injuries. (Photo : Romulus Whitaker ) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Abdulali : Great and Car Nicobars Plate II . . . And so to market. (Photos: Romulus Whitaker ) THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N ICO BARS Nicobar led to his suggesting that I apply to the Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund ad- ministered by American Museum of Natural History, who readily helped. In 1975 I corresponded with the Chief Com- missioner and upon his assurance that all pos- sible assistance would be available, arranged for Rex Pimento, Field Assistant, B.N.H.S. and Cyrus Toorkey, a Bombay undergraduate and a promising bird man to get to Port Blair by sea from Madras, where I was to fly in via Calcutta and Rangoon. The sailings between the islands were roughly fortnightly and when I got to Port Blair on 18th March 1976, I dis- covered that it would be possible for me to get to Car Nicobar by a light-house ship which was leaving on the 20th and touching several out-of-the-way islands en route. T therefore cabled the Deputy Commissioner to off-load Rex and Cyrus at Car Nicobar and let me meet them there on the 23rd. I was aware that a formal permit to collect birds would be necessary and saw the local Divi- sional Forest Officer who was also act- ing as Chief Wildlife Warden for the whole State. He asked for a list of the birds which I wished to collect and upon my attempting to explain that it was hardly possible to pre- pare such a list, for we hoped to find some which had never been obtained before, he drew attention to Section 12 of the Wild Animals (Protection) Act 1972 which says (a) that the licence requires the previous permission of the State Government, and (b) that it should also be restricted to hunting the animals specified therein. The Chief Commissioner was away in India, but the Chief Secretary appeared to agree that a licence as asked for by me could be issued, and I left my application assuming that the formalities would now be completed, and sailed by the light-ship Sagardeep. The first stop was off Neil and Sir Hugh Rose Is., the latter bearing an automatic light-house. I landed with the party entrusted with carrying the gas cylinders to the top. The tide was in and movement was restricted to half a mile of sandy beach on the western shore. Common Sandpiper and Lesser Sand Plo- ver rested in the shrubbery near the beach. I disturbed a pair of Great Stone Plover out of the same cover and as they trotted out, I sat on the sand to watch them. They moved about and squatted occasionally, but were all the time very curious to know what I was. The slightly smaller female (?) trotted up to within 15 yards, giving another example of the lack of fear in places where man does not exist, and how this has accelerated the des- truction of many species, immediately upon his appearance. After lunch we rowed round the island and saw a few Blacknaped Terns on a rocky pin- nacle in the sea, a couple of dark Reef Egrets and a pair of Whitebellied Sea Eagles on a tree. The ship’s butler said that these birds were tamed and kept as free-flying pets around his home town, Goa. A party of dolphin sport- ed some 50 yards from shore, turning over and jumping clear out of the water, offering some excellent shots for the camera. On the 21st we arrived at North Cinque Island, having earlier seen a Tropic Bird ( Phaethon sp.) in the distance. A pair of Great Stone Plover, frequented the beach, and a few more birds were seen, including several Jun- gle Crows (one carrying a white pigeon (?) egg), a Brown Flycatcher ( Muscicapa latiros- tris ), and Bronze- winged Doves which appear- ed darker than around Bombay. On the ground under the trees I picked up a 3 -foot snake which showed the most startling array of greens and blues which I had ever seen, and which I felt sure was something new 745 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 and yet unknown.* It lived with me till the end of the trip but I did not have the courage to try and bring it in by plane, and it was un- fortunately lost in the alternative arrangements made. We reached Little Andaman just after sun- set and at least two species of bats were hawk- ing round the lamp-post near the pier. The Forest Officer took me for a drive and we saw a grey civet cat/linsang with dark spots and a pale monocolorous cat, high on its legs. Both animals need identification. Fireflies in a conifer made it look like a huge X’mas tree. The following morning I walked along the road which did not exist when I had stopped for a short time in February 1966. I saw some 25 different birds. This 400 square mile island, has not yet been touched by any naturalist and will certainly produce surprises. The Sagardeep got to Car Nicobar late at night on the 22nd and I was up at daylight (5 a.m.) to get ashore but could not make a land- ing until almost 11. Once ashore however, matters moved more quickly, a jeep having been sent by the Dy. Commissioner, Mr. Sanat Kaul, i.a.s., I drove to the Rest House at the southern end of the island and then went to see Mr. Kaul who was looking at some work along the shore. While speaking to him, I noticed a large wader in the mud and glasses showed it to be a Blacktailed Godwit ( Limosa lapponica). Nearby were a few Sandplovers and Sanderlings. The Godwit and Sanderling, specimens of both which were obtained, are additions to the avifauna of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands! The sailing for Great Nicobar was not due * A colour photograph of Ahaetulla cyanochloris Wall exhibited by R. Whitaker in the course of a talk on Andaman Reptiles was almost certainly the same. till the end of the month and with the jeep at our disposal, we scoured fairly thoroughly the whole island which is relatively flat and open country. House Sparrows ( Passer domesticus), no doubt introduced, had built a large globular nest in a tree, quite unlike what one usually sees, but which has been noted, in India. Our attention was drawn to a small under- ground cave with two entrances at opposite sides, flush with the ground. Entry was made in a crouching position into pitch darkness, perhaps 30 feet underground. Stalactites drip- ped from the roof and the first attempt to- wards the slimy bottom resulted in a slithering crash. The roof of the cave was about 20 feet high and torchlight revealed white nests of the Greyrumped Swiftlets ( CoUocaUa juciphaga) stuck in the small vertical crevices right from the top to as low as 8 feet from the bottom. Most of them contained eggs and fledglings. While groping in the darkness we met a pit viper ( Trimeresurus albolabris Gray)! On the 26th, we drove along the circular road right round the island. Several White- breasted Waterhens were seen on this and other trips, and the pure white heads, on the basis of which I have described leucocephalus, were prominent. The absence of the white head in one no doubt indicated a juvenile plumage. On one occasion, a gunshot started these birds calling. At high tide, 14 whimbrel were seen per- ched on a tree about 100 yards from the shore, and other water-birds, e.g. the Golden Plover, were collected on the aerodrome. Five watercocks were also put up from the grass along the edges of the run- way, “beating” with the jeep. A dark middle-sized rail was put up in the same area but we failed to secure it and it remains unknown. Some of the coconut palms in plantations THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N1COBARS held football-like protuberances 15 to 20 feet from the ground which appeared to be made by termites but some black ants collected in one nest containing eggs have been identified as Dolichoderus bitub erculatus Mayr. In one place, the nests bore holes in the centre which, together with the proximity of the White- collared Kingfisher, suggested that they were being used as nests by these birds. The domestic pig was very abundant and seen in villages, on the shore, and in the for- ests. They were medium-sized animals, black, brown and pied, the young also being of mix- ed colour with none striped. No wild pig is known on this island. We were told of a large tract of grassland near Kakana Village which I thought might possibly hold quail. Our guide however persisted that such a bird did not exist and the half-hearted beat after a long trudge failed to produce anything. On the 29th, we again got the opportunity of stealing a two- day march on the ferry boat and took off for Nancowry by the Safeena belonging to the Nancowry Trading Co. We were again among old friends, includ- ing members of the above-mentioned organi- zation, Benjamin, who had helped me during the 1966 trip and Surgeon-Lieut. Maitra, a member of the Society, who had corresponded with me earlier and sent to Bombay a speci- men of the Hawk Owl ( Ninox ). With their assistance, we arranged for a trip to Trinkut Island to look for the Bluebreasted Quail, of which no specimen existed in Indian collec- tions and the only record was of the type ob- tained by Abbott & Kloss at the turn of the century. The habitat which I had worked be- fore was a large area under ‘elephant grass’ [ lmperata(l ) sp.] which is used for thatching the domed huts in the Nicobars. The first bird put up was a watercock but with an organized effort it was not difficult to obtain 4 quail which were put up as single birds, pairs and one party of 5 or 6. They rise with a very slight whirr and are really much too small to afford any sport. Upon our return to Nan- cowry, we received a message from Shri Kaul relaying one from the Chief Conservator of Forests at Port Blair in which it was said that “no bird-shooting was allowed without per- mission.” Mr. Kaul who had been acquainted with the earlier negotiations, added that he had cabled to the Chief Secretary and was awaiting a reply. Hoping that the Chief Com- missioner was now back in Port Blair, I sent off a long wire to him but our work was at a standstill. Having already been away from my busi- ness for over a fortnight, I decided to leave the boys at Campbell Bay for the ferry-boat’s next trip and to get back to Port Blair to see what could be done. I was therefore at Camp- bell Bay only on the 2nd April getting there by the ferry Yarewa, and returning the same night. Short walks along the new North-South and East-West Roads revealed over 20 kinds of birds (we found 4 nests of the Racket- tailed Drongo) and stressed the necessity of working the area under the changed and changing conditions. On the way back we landed at Katchal where 10,000 acres of forest had been cleared and planted with rubber which was now 8 years old and ready for tapping. Another area had been cleared and put under the Nigerian Red Oil Palm which was also bearing fruit, but in both instances, the absence of labour and other supplementary arrangements pre- vented the tapping of rubber and the col- lection of the nuts for oil. This is another ex- ample of the unfortunate manner in which natural resources are being literally murdered 747 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ; by schemes and programmes prepared by people who have no indication of how they are to be completed and/or finalized. Immediately upon arrival at Port Blair on 5 April I saw the Chief Commissioner S. M. Krishnatry with whom I had corresponded earlier and understood that he knew nothing about my trip until he received my telegram from Nancowry, which he had passed on to the Chief Wildlife Warden who again repeated that the formalities had to be com- pleted and finally accepted an application for 100 specimens, consisting of not more than 5 specimens of any one species of bird or mam- mal, only 2 megapodes and no sea-eagles. This was still subject to the Chief Commissioner’s endorsement but he agreed to my advising the party at Campbell Bay to proceed with the collecting. While waiting for my plane to Calcutta, I looked in at the Port Blair Zoo and saw ex- amples of 2 species of Serpent Eagles ( Spilor - nis cheela davisoni and S. elgini ) whose iden- tity has been disputed. There was no doubt re- garding their separateness and I will refer to this in some detail later. The Zoo also con- tained a few megapodes which had been cap- tured on Megapode Island off Great Nicobar. From the Rest House, I saw a snipe drop into the grass on one side of the road. As I watched, the bird scuttled across the road into the grass on the other side — I must confess that I had never before seen a snipe (except perhaps a dead one!) on a macadamized road! At Calcutta, I looked in at the Zoological Survey and explained to Dr. K. K. Tiwari, Joint Director, the difficulties regarding col- lecting permits. Dr. Tiwari agreed to make another trip with me the following year and after much negotiation, we arrived together at Port Blair on 17 March 1977, accompanied by two assistants of the Survey, Messrs S. S. Saha and B. Roy. The Chief Commissioner was again away from town but an application for a collecting permit was left with the Chief Wildlife Warden. The journey to Campbell Bay was relatively uneventful. Not being in charge, 1 could now afford to sit and watch. At Little Andaman, the Divisional Forest Officer met us on the boat and drove us about a mile down the road, saying that he had instructions from Port Blair to meet the party of the Zoological Sur- vey, but made it quite clear that he would not permit us to collect any birds. Four live Hill Mynas (Gracula religiosa) were brought on board in a cage and we saw scarlet minivets building a nest. During our short stops at Kat- chal and Camorta, a number of frogs, toads, lizards and snakes were obtained. While wait- ing for flying foxes ( Pteropus sp.) on the edge of heavy forest at Camorta, I saw two young men walk past with a 22° rifle. They said they were looking for pigeons but had got nothing. A gun in the same place would have got half- a-dozen of the larger pigeons as they flew over in the evening, sometimes 3 or 4 to- gether. We finally got to Campbell Bay on the 25th and the party was divided into two, one at the Rest House and the other in the village further down. We stayed here till 11th April and during this time made trips along the North-South and East-West roads. The former ended at the Galatea River and the latter at Copenheit on the west coast. On one trip southwards, we found the road almost blocked by the top half of a fig-covered tree, which had caught fire, presumably by lightning, and fallen across. It was being removed by blasting! On another we got to the river to find a small boat with one oar. The tide was coming in and it was quite impossible to move the boat 748 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N ICO BARS in any desired direction. We shouted for the aboriginal Shompens who live on the other side, but there was no response. Two trips were made to the west coast by road, and de- tails of one to “Hawabil” ( Collocalia Swifts) Cave are given under the species. Chenappa Bay and Laxman Beach were within easy walking distance. A small island, about 200 yards off-shore in the Bay was reached through waist-deep water at low tide. Pied Pigeons were said to roost here in numbers, but we only saw a few during the daytime. This paper is mainly concerned with birds and in addition to those obtained on the last two trips I have, for the sake of completeness, included such earlier records from Great and Car Nicobars as I have been able to find. When reporting on the birds of Narcondam Island, I had referred to my party collecting some birds in the Andamans which had not yet been examined. The taxonomic and other field notes are therefore split into three parts, the first two dealing with the birds of Great and Car Nicobar and the third being a miscel- lany of notes from the Andamans which will be published later. On the first trip a dugong skull was obtain- ed on Great Nicobar; this presumably extends the recorded range of this animal. Crab-eating macaques ( Macaca irus) were occasionally seen, some with \ and | grown young. The females showed a distinct toque on the fore- head. I shot a few bats which along with a fair number of frogs, toads, lizards and snakes are being reported upon by members of the Zoological Survey. I have referred to difficulties created regard- ing permission to collect specimens for scienti- fic purposes and feel that some associated re- marks are necessary. A note in this respect is appended at the end of this paper. Acknowledgements Before I proceed with the list, I have to place on record my indebtedness to the American Museum of Natural History, who contributed from the Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund and to the Bombay Natural History Society for having made a grant from the Charles McCann Field Work Fund, to the cost of the first trip, the Zoological Survey of India and Dr. K. K. Tiwari in particular, for the collaboration which prompted the second effort, and to Mr. Sana! Kaul i.a.s., Deputy Commissioner at Car Nicobar whose sympa- thetic co-operation prevented the first trip from being a complete flop. As in my earlier papers, the first number refers to that in Ripley’s a synopsis of the BIRDS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN (1961) and the 10 volumes of the handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. The measurements, unless otherwise specified, are in millimetres, the wing being measured flat and the bill from the feathers of the forehead. PART 1 GREAT NICOBAR The area covered includes Little Nicobar and the several small islands in between and adjacent to them. 37* Ardea purpurea manilensis Meyen (Philippines) Purple Heron. 1 $ Great Nicobar 29 March 1977. One was shot off a partly submerged log in a tidal stream along the North-South Road. In my earlier note [JBNHS 64(2) p. 150] I had referred to a female obtained at Trinkut, Central Nicobars, with little rufous or black * Birds not previously recorded from Great Nico- bar are so marked. 749 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 i on the underbelly and with slightly more ruf- ous margins to the feathers of the upperparts. This is in similar plumage. Neither appears to be juvenile. Mid toe & Wing Bill Tarsus claw Tail Great Nicobar $ 340* 121 110 125 104 Trinkut $ 363 125 126 129 111 ( ) Ardea sumafrana sumatrana Raffles (Sumatra) Dusky Grey Heron. Abbott and Kloss (who also noted the Pur- ple Heron) claimed to have seen them at Trin- kut, Katchal and Great Nicobar. The species is omitted in Indian handbook. 39 Butorides striatus subsp. Little Green Bittern. 2 : 1 $ 1 $ Car Nicobar. The additional specimens confirm the in- crease in size from the Andamans southwards through Car, Central and Great Nicobar ( JBNHS 64 p. 151). Sharpe’s spodiogaster which was said to have the underparts “darker sooty-slate colour, with a tinge of rusty on the abdomen, and with the ear-coverts of the same colour” appears to be found only in the Anda- man Islands. They have very little white on the chin and throat and measure: wing 161, 164, 167; bill from feathers 55.5-57.7. Those from Car Nicobar (4) are slightly larger (wing 170-176; bill 58.7-64.5), have grey underparts, the ear-coverts whitish, and the chin and throat largely white. In Central Nicobars, the size is barely larger (wing 167- 179; bill 57.7-64.5) but the grey of the under- parts and the throat is slightly darker, with the ear-coverts of the same colour. There is also a black streak down the throat. Though several were seen in Great Nicobar, and noted as larger than those seen further north, none were collected, and the only measurements available are the earlier ones from Little Nico- bar ($ wing 184) and Great Nicobar (tf wing 185). The former was presumably the specimen referred to by Ripley (1944, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. p. 319) when he said that it agreed well with those from West Sumatran Islands and identified it as actophilus Ober- holser, which Peters (1931, 1:104) had syno- nymised with amurensis Schrenck. When listing the birds in the Bombay col- lection (1968, JBNHS 65; 192/3) I followed Ripley’s synopsis and accepted Indian birds as javanicus, drawing attention to variations in colour and size. In the Indian handbook they are now said to be chloriceps (Bonaparte) (Type locality: Hitauri, Chisapani Garhi dis., Nepal), but four adults (1 3 $ $) from Bombay and Ratnagiri on the western coast (wings 165-168) and a male from Ambala, Punjab (wing 173) have dark underparts (very different from the grey of chloriceps) and can only be separated from spodiogaster from the Andamans by their heavier bills. For the moment, I can do no more than restrict the type locality of spodiogaster to the Anda- man Islands. In 1976 I noted one on Car Nicobar with symmetrical white patches on both wings and another with white tips to both wings at Ca- morta. BNHS cf 22266 collected at Camorta on 25 March 1966 has the two outermost pri- maries on both sides pure white. 42* Ardeola grayii (Sykes) (Dukhun) Pond Heron or Paddy bird. 1 $ Great Nicobar — March 1977. Wing 198; bill 61; tarsus 56; tail 62 This was one of four seen flighting in the same direction over the East-West Road within 10 minutes about sunset. The species has not been recorded in Great Nicobar before. 750 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Abdulali : Great and Car Nicobars The forests form close impenetrable stands which have to be cleared completely, for single trees can no more stand alone than can a single stem of grass. (Photo: S. 5. Saha) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Abdulali : Great and Car Nicobars Plate IV Mechanical means of destruction have to be employed and much of the timber is removed by burning. (Photo : S. S. Saha ) THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N1COBARS 51 Egretta sacra (Gmelin) (Tahiti) Reef Heron. 1 $ (grey) Great Nicobar 29.3.76; 2 $ $ (1 white, 1 grey) Car Nicobar 21.3.76 Wing Bill Weight $ 273 84 — 9 $ 288,276 81,81 395,400 gm In the course of several trips to these islands, many dimorphic individuals of this species were seen, but there was nothing to suggest that the white and the dark forms hunt under different conditions — see Ibis (1971) 113: 97- 99; (1972) 114: 552-555; (1973) 115: 419- 420. The dark grey bill and bright yellow soles to greenish yellow legs and feet increase in flight the resemblance of the white form to Egretta garzetta. 54 Gorsacttios melanolophus minor Ha- chisuka (Katchal I., Central Nicobars) Malay or Tiger Bittern. I have some remarks on a single specimen obtained on Great Nicobar earlier by the Zoological Survey ( JBNHS 64 p. 153). 57 Ixobrychus sinensis (Gmelin) (China) Yellow Bittern. A cf and $ were collected on Great Nico- bar (JBNHS 64: 143). C. W. Benson, 1970, Bull . B.O.C. pp. 170- 171 refers to material from the Andamans and Nicobars in London being relatively short- winged. Of the four now available in Bombay, BNHS No. 22326 $ Bambooflats, Andaman has it 125 mm. while the three others are <$ Andaman 134, 2 $ 9 Central Nicobars 120, 129 (Ind. Hand. 1:87 ejc Baker 129-136, one 143). 142* Accipiter foadius obsolete (Rich- mond) (Katchal Island, Central Nicobars) Nicobar Shikra. In 1966, I had sent a specimen obtained at Camorta, Central Nicobars, to Dr. B. Bis- was, who was in London, with a request that he try and determine its subspecific identity. In his reply he referred to a 9 obtained by B. B. Osmaston on Great Nicobar on 21 April 1905, with which my specimen agreed and suggested that I should record it as A.b. obsoletus with reservation, as was done. The B.M. specimen was marked butleri, presumably by Osmaston, who may not have had access to Richmond’s description publish- ed in America only three years earlier, but the occurrence of the species in Great Nicobar has been so far overlooked. The subspecific identity requires further examination. 143 Accipiter soloensis (Horsfield) (Java) Horsfield’s Goshawk. Abbott and Kloss obtained 12 specimens on Central, Little and Great Nicobar and noted it as not uncommon, though a forest species and wary. There are no recent records. 173 Haliaeetus leucogaster (Gmelin) (Prin- ce’s I., Indonesia) Whitebellied Sea Eagle. Occasionally seen along sea-shore. One adult with two young out of nest was seen at Laxman Beach. Two large stick nests in large trees within a couple of hundred yards of each other -at Johnson’s Bay could only have been of this species. 196a* Spilomis cheela subsp.? Serpent Eagle. 3: 1 $ (juv. largely white) 31 March 1977. 2 9 9 1 (ZSI 33649 collected by P. K. Das) 22 April 1975, one, 2 April 1977. Hume (1874, Stray Feathers 2:84) reported seeing a “Harrier Eagle undoubtedly davisoni ” on Kondal Island between Little and Great Nicobar and Wimberley obtained a specimen there on 10 July 1876, which is now at the British Museum. Mr. Derek Goodwin while 751 13 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 examining this (BM 1885.8.19.1605) for me discovered another 1885.8.19.1606 obtained by Davison on Montschal Island, just off Little Nicobar. Together with the specimen listed above, the 4 adults have wings 347-356 mm., which is smaller than davisoni and too large for minimus. In addition, all here are much paler than any of the others, particularly on the underparts, while Mr. Goodwin comparing those at the British Museum with 9 minimus available to him, says the same. The two females mentioned above, both in heavily worn plumage, show traces of ocelli and barring on the breast and belly but the total effect is much paler than in other sub- species with marked breasts, e.g. melanotus and davisoni and, except for the smaller size, resembling some of the specimens of nominate cheela from Northern India. Two specimens each of S. c. bassus * (J. R. Forster, Sumatra) and S. c. bido (Horsfield, Java) (all with unmarked upper breasts) bor- rowed from Leiden, permit the following com- parative measurements : Wing Bill Tarsus Tail Mid toe + Mid claw Hind claw Great Nicobar $ (juv.) 340 41 85 225 45 + 24 27.1 99 99 $ 360 40 82 226 45 + 24 27.7 99 99 $ 347 40 85 225 47 + 25 27.6 Kondal I. ? 353 — — — — — — Montschal I. ? 356 — — — — — — bassus Leiden No. 6 $ 360 37.5 89 225 46 + 22.3 24.4 bassus Leiden No. 16 $ 353 38 75 230 38 + 20 25.2 bido Leiden No. 26 $ 388 38 87.5 240 40 + 21.6 25.5 bido Leiden No. 17 $ 383 37.5 85 235 46 + 22.6 24.6 davisoni $ 21900 393 42.5 87 250 48 + 22.5 26 $ 21899 395 43 82 235 46 + 22 27.5 $ 23106 391 41 89 243 52 + 21.2 27 In addition to the wing measurements, the Great Nicobar birds have the claws on the middle and hind toes larger than in the others. They also differ in having the thigh coverts finely barred, contra spotted in bassus, bido and davisoni. Incidentally, contrary to the notes in Swann’s Monograph (1945) the two specimens of bido have no white spots on their wing-coverts, where they are quite numerous in both bassus ( malayensis ) . My field notes from near Campbell Bay on 8 April, 1977, include the following: — “Pale Spilornis with strongly barred tail”. “Pair of largish Spilornis, circling together on edge of, and over forest. Pale underparts completely spotted. A local farmer described an eagle which circled, whistled and took his chickens”. * Stresemann (1959) has dealt with this name and recommended the dropping of bassus and replace- ment by malayensis Swann for Malayan and Sumat- ran birds. 752 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR NICOBARS The juvenile was shot seated in a tree with the crest puffed out and presenting a most remarkable appearance. 202 Spilornis minimus klossi Richmond (Pulo Kunyi, Great Nicobar I.). Small Ser- pent Eagle. 1 $ Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar. Wing 262, bill 32.7, tarsus 60, tail 175. Peter’s Checklist accepts klossi as a sub- species of minimus. We have no specimens of nominate minimus for comparison, but this arrangement, as in the case of elgini, simplifies the acceptance of this form from Great Nico- bar alongside the larger form of S. cheela which has only recently been definitely record- ed here. ( ) Function haliaetus subsp. Osprey I saw one at Campbell Bay during my first visit in 1969. ( ) Circus sp.? I got a glimpse of a slim-winged bird of prey over open fields which may have been some kind of harrier. Circus pygarus, Monta- gue’s Harrier has been recorded from the Andamans. 226 Megapodius freycinet abbotti Ober- holser (Little Nicobar Island) Megapode. H. P. Singh, the Range Forest Officer took us to see a megapode nest, some miles from camp. It was some 30 yards from the shore, about 5 ft high, roughly 44 paces in circumfer- ence and 14 paces over the top. It was com- posed entirely of sand with thin roots running through and indicating some permanence. Though two holes had been dug near the top, there was no trace of dead leaves or eggs or anything else to suggest a nest. Another nest c. 24 km down the North- South Road was visited on 8th April. This was only 5 yards from the shore and generally similar to that described above. We were told that several hens had combined to build the nest whence 20/25 eggs had been taken last year, as also several birds. On the way back to the road we glimpsed a reddish chicken- like bird streaking through the undergrowth. The R.F.O. had also visited Megapode I. to capture birds for the Port Blair Zoo. Six birds (2 $ $ and 4 $ 9) were trapped on one of two nest mounds about 200 yards apart. One female attacked the d1 which could be distinguished by an orange patch near the face. Both males died, and one snared female was devoured by a monitor lizard. The sur- vivors were fed on boiled rice and crabs. In captivity, they drank fresh water though none was known to exist on Megapode I. ( ) Amaurornis phoenicurus subsp. Sharpe (1894) described insularis from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands referring to 13 specimens, 9 from South Andaman and 4 from Camorta, Nancowry and Katchal in the Central Nicobars. No material from Car Nico- bar (now separated as leucocephalus) was available to him, and when reporting on my first collection from the Nicobars ( JBNHS 64: 159) I drew attention to birds from Cen- tral Nicobars again differing from those from Car Nicobar. It is necessary to restrict the type locality of insularis to the South Andamans. A re-examination reveals that the birds along that line of islands can be divided into four groups: 345 andamans: insularis Sharpe (South Andamans) . Adults darker than Indian birds, with the white in front being restricted to a narrow stripe down the centre and bordered by black. The white on the forehead, 9-13 mm, is also more than in Indian birds, but less than in the next two forms southwards. The young bird 753 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 has less white on the forehead and the dark underparts are grey rather than black. 345a car nicobar: leucocephaius Abdulali. In addition to the all-white head, often in- cluding the nape, and the wider white stripe down the front, all five available have a vary- ing extent of rufous on the edges of the rec- trices, a character absent in others both from the Andamans and further south. In dry spe- cimens the bill, legs and feet are bright yellow with the bill red at base. A single bird with a non- white head was seen on 26th March 1976 and the type specimen (BNHS 21547) which has a little black on the nape and whose under- parts are greyer than in the others represent phases through which they presumably pass to adult plumage. Ripley in rails of the world (1977) has synonymised this with insularis, but I am not aware of his having had access to any speci- mens from Car Nicobar. 345b central nicobar: 2 $ S 2 9 2 As indicated before ( loc . cit.) these birds differ from leucocephaius in the white of the head extending only halfway over the top of the head (about 15 mm), the more olive up- per parts, their larger and heavier bills (from feathers $ $ 43-45 contra 42.5-43 in insularis ; $ $ 36.5-39.5 contra 36-37.5), and the lack of rufous on the edges of the tail feathers. The measurements of the legs, feet and bill are similar to leucocephaius but the bills are heavier and bulkier than indicated by the length. They are quite different from those from Great Nicobar (infra). On these differences, I name them: Amanrorms phoenicunas midnicofoaricus Holotype : $ collected by Robert Grubh and P. B. Shekar at Nancowry, Central Nico- bars, on 23 March 1966 and bearing BNHS Register No. 22444. Paratypes: 1 $ 1 $ Nos. 22572, 22445 ex Camorta and 1 $ 22571 Nancowry, Central Nicobars, all in March 1966. More material from U.S. National Mu- seum was examined earlier. 345? great nicobar: 3: 1 c? 2 $ $ The three new specimens are, according to the notes available, similar to the two from this area referred to earlier (loc. cit.) having smaller, greenish and less yellow bills, the white on the forehead only 8-12 mm. and olive- green legs and feet. Mr. Bond of U.S. National Museum tells me that the three specimens from Great Nicobar available to him have dark bills and narrow white frontal bands, being in these respects inseparable from their single speci- men of insularis from the Andamans. The rufous on the underparts is also darker than in midnicobaricus. They are much larger than javanicus (wing <$ $ 157-171 contra 148, 145) of which two specimens from E. Borneo and Lanuza, Surigao del Sur, in the Philippines were borrowed from the American Museum of Natural History. Except that their upper- parts are greyer and do not have an olive tinge, the Great Nicobar birds are not sepa- rable from nominate phoenicurus and chinen- sis found in India, and may well be the same. Adult skins kept for some time acquire the olive tinge on the upperparts resembling that in juveniles. These descriptions are generally confirmed by the several single birds and pairs seen during the trip. While the four subspecies occurring in the Andamans and Nicobars appear to be very distinct, single specimens from Narcondam Island (No, 23386 $ 30 April 1970), South Andaman (23387 $ 28 April 1970) and Nan- cowry (22571 $ 24 March 1966) with no rufous on the underbelly, very little white on the forehead, smaller bills and less brightly coloured legs and feet are probably first year or subadults of their respective resident races. 754 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N ICO BARS A pair was noted feeding in a dry nullah at dusk. One pecked on the ground, while the other picked seeds off standing grass. When alarmed they first opened and shut their wings and then ran. 371* Plovialis sqeafarola (Linnaeus) (Sweden) Grey Plover. Noted at Copenheit on west coast with other waders on 3 April 1977. I have also seen this bird at Car Nicobar and at Trinkut, Central Nicobars. 373 Fluvialis donilisica fsiSva (Gmelin) (Tahiti) Golden Plover. A single bird was noted on Great Nicobar on 1st April 1977. Flocks of 30/40 were seen on Car Nicobar on 23 March 1976 but in- cluded none in breeding plumage. 374* Charadrios lescheoanltii leschenaultii Lesson (Pondicherry) Large Sand Plover. Seen at Copenheit, Great Nicobar on 3 April 1977. A specimen obtained on Car Nicobar had a 148 mm. wing. 384 Charadrius niosigolas atrifrons Wagler (Bengal) Lesser Sand Plover. 2 $ $ Car Nicobar 23 March 1976; 1 $ Great Nicobar 5 April ’77. Wing 126-134; bill 18.5-20; tail 44, 50, 51; tarsus 30-31. Birds seen in the Andamans and on Car Nicobar in March 1976 formed very compact flocks. Some had chestnut heads and one (1st April) a rufous patch on the breast. 385 Nomenies phaeopas phaeopes (Lin- naeus) (Sweden) Whimbrel. 386 Namenios pliaeopas variegates (Sco- poli) (Luzon) Eastern Whimbrel. Specimens were obtained on earlier visits. As discussed in the Narcondam paper (1974 JBNHS 71 p. 497-8) the birds from this area appear closer to the eastern than the nominate form — or both races occur. Whimbrel were seen at Copenheit, Great Nicobar, on 3rd April 1977 and at Lax man Beach on 13 April. The bird was seen to plunge its bill into the sand right up to its forehead, but nothing was actually seen being pulled out. This spe- cies was often seen close to the Common Sandpiper. 394* Tonga tetanus subsp. Redshank. Seen at Copenheit, Great Nicobar 3 April 1977. A cf obtained on Car Nicobar on 23 March 1976 has the wing 168 mm. and bill 50 mm., both larger than any others here including earlier specimens from Andamans (2) and Car Nicobar (1). The present specimen also has the breast more strongly marked than in any other, and attention may again be drawn to specimens from the Andamans in the Bri- tish Museum, obtained in May, June, July and September. 396 Tonga nebnlaria (Gunnerus) (Nor- way) Greenshank. Hume (1874, p. 299) had referred to a single male obtained by Von Pelzeln on Great Nico- bar on 23 March. The bird is no doubt rare in this area, but there would appear to be no reason for my treating it as doubtful (1967, p. 161), having seen it myself on the Anda- mans and recently on Car Nicobar. 401 Tonga hypoleucos fiypoleucos Lin- naeus (Sweden) Common Sandpiper. Occasional on shore. Often associated with whimbrel. 402* Arenana interpret interpres (Lin- naeus) (Sweden) Turnstone. 755 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Noted at Copenheit on 3rd April, at Lax- man Beach on 11 April and at Comorta on 12 April 1977. 406* Capella stenura (Bonaparte) (Sunda Islands) Pintail Snipe. 2: 1 cf 1 $ . The fresh skins are appreci- ably darker on their upperparts than older ones which are rufous. Common in short green grass land, border- ed by Cy perns javanicus, once wet but now mostly dry; and within a few yards of dwellings and roads. A few were put up out of similar sedge under bananas, where domestic poultry were feeding. 434 Dromas ardeola Paykull (India) Crab Plover. Abbott noted them on Katchal and Great Nicobar and Butler saw a flock of 60/70 on Car Nicobar. None have been reported after- wards. 443* GlareoSa pratincola maldivarum J. R. Forster (open sea in the latitude of Mal- dive Islands) Collared Pratincole. A pair was seen on the beach at Galatea Bay, with sandplovers on 6th April 1977 and were markedly high on their legs. 468* Sterna sumatrana sumatrana Raffles (Sumatra) Blacknaped Tern. 6/8 on islet off Laxman Beach. On 30 March 1976 at Nancowri small par- ties were noted settled on bouys and rocks. They fish in loose flocks, and occasionally dive vertically with a splash, though usually picking up their food off the surface. 478 Sterna toergi subsp. Large Crested Tern. Seen at Palu Bhabi, Great Nicobar on 8 March 1966 (JBNHS 64 p. 163). i 500 Treron pompadora diloroptera Blyth (Nicobars) Pompadour or Greyfronted Green Pigeon. 3: 2 $ $ 1 $ Common in twos and threes. On both trips several males and females were seen carrying nesting material usually to a tangle of clim- bers or into tufts of leaves, often a hundred feet or higher. I got the impression that the single wing bar ( contra two in andamanica) is very clear- ly visible in the live bird. The single female (28th March) marked breeding has a grey chin contra green in others from Central and Car Nicobar and the Andaman. 508 Ducula aenea nicobarica (Pelzeln) (Car Nicobar) Nicobar Green Imperial Pigeon. 1 $ 1 $ Campbell Bay. A cf obtained on 28 March 1977 had en- larged testes. Another was seen visiting a fair- ly exposed sketchy crow-like nest 100 ft. or more up. \ grown young out of nest and re- ceiving food from adult seen on the same day. At Car Nicobar (1976) where it occurred in fairly open country, several different calls were traced to this species. When calling ghoom the throat swelled out. Is this a male call? The more frequent kuk-kuk-coo was accompanied by a jerking of the tail and sometimes a baying action. The calling no doubt attracts others. One ghooming was joined by another smaller (cf?) bird which settled next to it and uttered the same kind of call. After some time the larger bird moved along the branch and shoved him off. Several got together on tall tree with bright red jamun-like fruit. Only the ripe red fruit was taken, and the birds had to walk along the branches and hop around to reach ripe fruit. A jump would sometimes take the bird further than needed. The longish beak was THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N ICO BARS useful for plucking the fruit, assisted by con- tortionist movement, as in parakeets. This species is believed to lay one egg, but a young bird was seen to be fed by another twice its size, and then hop on to a branch 5 ft. away, where it sat near another of its own size. No colour differences were visible between the adult and the young. The southern birds from Central and Great Nicobar are slightly larger than the topotypes from Car Nicobar and show a slight tinge of green on the upperparts contra almost nil in the latter. 509 Ducula bicolor (Scopoli) (New Gui- nea) Pied Imperial Pigeon. 2: 1 $ 1 $ (77/9, 77/27) Campbell Bay. None were seen on Car Nicobar but a caged bird was said to have been trapped a couple of months earlier. A male shot at Trinkut on 31 March 1976 had enlarged gonads, and a pair was seen on Camorta on 1 April 1976. On Great Nicobar they were occasionally seen, and also on a small island c. 150 yards off shore at Laxman Beach, where they were said to roost in numbers. A visit at dusk, how- ever, showed no birds or signs of nesting. On another small off-shore island a bird appeared to be sitting on a nest in a climber. The calls include a “whoo-oom”, slightly but distinctly longer than in aenea. The wings measured cf 240 and $ 233 mm. 525a Columfea palumhoides ssicobarlca Walden (Trinkut, Nicobars) Nicobar Wood Pigeon. I had obtained a specimen at Great Nicobar on my earlier trip. 527b Macropygia rufipennis Cuckoo-Dove In 1969 ( JBNHS 64: 167) I drew attention to differences between birds from Great and Central Nicobars and later (1971, loc. cit. 68: 144) restricted the type locality to Central Nicobars. This was really a clarification of the earlier references to ‘Southern’ Nicobar in which the term southern is relative to Car Ni- cobar, where the species has not been recorded. The additional material from Great Nicobar confirms that though there are no differences in size, the males differ from topotypical spe- cimens in being: 1) darker, more blackish on the upperparts, 2) similarly, less rufous on the head, 3) more closely barred below and with less rufous on the underparts and around the ‘face”, and 4) with the outer web of the first four pri- maries showing a darker rufous and forming a less distinct patch of rufous in the closed wing (not rufipennis). The single female appears more dusky and less rufous. On these differences I separate birds from Great Nicobar naming them after Dr. K. K. Tiwari, Joint Director, Zoological Survey of India, without whose assistance the last trip would not have been possible: Macropygia rofipennis tiwarii subsp. nov. Holotype : cf GNB 77/38 obtained at Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar on 8 April 1977. Paratypes: 4 $ $ BNHS Col. No. 24210 collected on 8th April 1976; Z.S.I. Col. Nos. 33113 dated 2 April 1977, GNB 77/47 dated 7 April 1977, 33020 dated 4 March 1966 and 1 $ 33021 dated 4 March 1966, all obtained around Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar. In both nominate rufpennis and tiwarii the bills are heavier and longer than in andama - nensis from the Andamans. Twelve specimens of the three subspecies have been examined and they include only two females. A loud interrogative who s-up who s-up, who-a-hoop, and kya-huwa, kya-huwa almost certainly emanated from this bird. Following 757 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 the first call, one was seen chasing another from branch to branch. 40 attempts were counted but no contact made. Twice when the cf (?) failed to follow up, the $ (?) returned to perch a few feet away and then sidled up towards to him, but flew away when approach- ed. The chased bird appeared duskier and smaller. Two of the males listed above had enlarged gonads. 544 Gialcophaps Mica maxima Harter t* (Golapabung, S. Andamans) Emerald Dove. In the field, both in the Andamans and the Nicobars, the birds were noted as darker and with a shorter tail than in those from India, (at least near Bombay), but these differences are not confirmed by the skins available. The only consistent difference is that the grey bands on the lower back are usually fainter or mis- sing and this may account for the impressions mentioned above. 544a Calaenas nicobarica (Linnaeus) (Ni- cobars) Nicobar Pigeon. 1 8 Great Nicobar. The Zoological Survey have a skin from Great Nicobar, but it was not seen on either of the last two trips. It is well known to the local shikaris as the large pigeon with a white tail, which feeds on the ground. 553 Psittacula caniceps (Blyth) (Nicobars) Blyth’s Nicobar Parakeet. 1 8 77/19, 1 $ 77/12. Upper bill red in $ and black in $ . 8 with heavy moult in wing on 30 March 1977. ♦Mukherjee and Dasgupta of the Zoological Sur- vey of India ( Proc . Zool. Soc. Calcutta, 28: 133- 135, published 25 June 1978) have referred to sex- ual dimorphism and agewise differences in the spe- cies and then revived Bonaparte’s augusta (1850) from the Nicobars on the basis of 2 $ $ from Car Nicobar! Occasional. The loud kradn krctan, not un- like a crow’s was often heard but the bird not easily seen, possibly because it called when seated in leafy trees. On 2 April 1976 a cf with a red bill was bobbing his head up and down before another. A pair with black chins sat in a high tree biting off and dropping bits of green leaves. Though restricted to the Great and Little Nicobar Islands, the earlier specimens (doubt- less captive birds), were from Penang and Wellesley Province in the Malay Peninsula and from Car Nicobar (Blyth J.A.S.B. 1863 p. 5 and 1875 p. 54). It is certainly a very popular cage bird in the surrounding areas. 556 Psittacula lougicaeda nicobarica (Gould) (Nicobar Islands) Redcheeked Para- keet. 77/3 $ Campbell Bay 26 March 1977. Iris white, partly yellowish. Gonads enlarged. cf with red of cheeks flowing into that of bill, flew up to a female and kept bowing and twisting, apparently trying to regurgitate. He fed her 21 times before she flew to a hole in a tree 20 ft away, clung at entrance and then flew away. In the bowing movements, the head is also turned in a circle. Another was seen courting, moving his head down to his feet in a circular movement, going through a regurgitating (?) movement and then touching her bill. 580 Ciiculus saturates saturates Blyth (Nepal) Himalayan Cuckoo. 3:1# (wing 196) 2 $ $ (wing 179, 181) Camp- bell Bay. The base of the bill and the inside of the mouth of the d were orange-yellow. One 9 shows a lot of rufous all over. ( )* Snrniculus lugubris subsp. Drongo- Cuckoo. In my earlier reports I had discredited the 758 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N ICO BARS identity of a bird shot and lost by Kloss on Katchal Island. At Campbell Bay one was noted with some hesitation on 2 April 1976, but another undoubtedly identified on 7 April 1977. It was feeding on caterpillars off the branches of low open trees by roadside. The tail had a very short fork, the bill was long, thin and slightly decurved and there was a white streak on the back of its head. 592 Eudynamis scolopaeea dolosa Ripley (Barren L, Andamans) Koel. 1 $ 77/36. Wing 224; bill 34.2; tarsus 33; tail 223. Together with another male (wing 226, bill 34.4, tarsus 32, tail 216) obtained on an earlier trip (BNHS 22654) the wings and tails are appreciably longer than of the others from Narcondam, Andamans and Central Nicobars. Males were calling ku-ooo and koo-uk all day and night but the kik-kik-kik of the female was heard only once, and none seen on either trip. The testes of the male collected on 2 April 1977 were enlarged but there is no evidence to show what species is parasitised here. 618b* Otas magfeos (?) subsp. 1 $ 77/40. In the introduction to this paper, I have mentioned how the 162 mm. wing of an owlet obtained in 1966 led to a useful grant from the Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund for the first of these two trips. The present specimen has an even larger (170 mm.) wing and Dr. Joe Marshall who has been studying this in detail is sure that it is an undescribed form but cannot decide of what species. The stomach contained a mangled 4 inch gecko. Saha who collected the last specimen said the call was ‘ooo-m’. 645* Ninox scutulata obscura Hume (Ca- morta, Nicobars) Brown Hawk-Owl. The very distinct coo-ook coo-oak was heard near Campbell Bay at dusk on 4 April 1977. This species has not been recorded from Great Nicobar and the subspecies, at least, requires verification. Hume described obscura from a single bird obtained “near Camorta”, Central Nicobars, and I have already drawn attention [I BNHS 69(1): 116] to subsequent specimens collected only from the Andamans which though currently accepted as obscura, do not agree with the original description in having their lores, forehead and throat as dark as the rest of the plumage and not yellowish /yellow- ish white as described. 647a Niinox affinss subsp. Brown Hawk- Owl. 7: 4 $ $ 3 $ $ Great Nicobar. The 1976 trip obtained two specimens at Oar Nicobar the type locality of isolata which together with two borrowed from Z.S.I. can be immediately separated from nominate affinis (Andamans) by their larger wings ( 205, 210, 211, $ 207 contra 3 $ $ 172, 177, 177), less heavily marked and whiter under- parts. The series from Great Nicobar can be dis- tinguished from isolata by the characters given in table on p. 760. The single specimen ($ BNHS No. 24178 wing 208 mm) obtained by Dr. B. Maitra at Camorta on 16 October 1975 is not very well prepared and difficult to name. Stuart Baker when describing isolata, from Car Nicobar (1927, Bull. B.O.C. 47 p. 60) referred to eight specimens from “Nicobars, Trinkut, Camorta Island” and said that “though the (Central? Nicobar — H.A.) birds seem a little browner with less ashy tint on the head and back, the difference is slight and not of itself of subspecific value”. There is no 759 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 I Comparison between Brown Hawk-Owl from Great Nicobar and the race Isolata Great Nicobar isolata 1) Head dark and almost concolorous with back, which has no trace of rufous. 2) Very distinct dark barring on upper surface of both webs of all primaries (except first). 3) Inner secondaries prominently barred yellowish white on inner webs. 4) Smaller: Wing $ 194, 201, 202. $ 194, 197, 198. Tail $ 115, 116, 121, 124 $ 115, 116 (2). Grey on head forming distinct cap; back with rufous brown tinge. Barring indistinct and barely visible. Barring on only a few innermost feathers. - ! Larger : Wing $ 210, 211. 9 205, o? 210 S 124, 130 9 122, 132 5) Rufous wash over white of underparts More white visible 6) Though the feathers on the forehead of all the specimens are ruffled to some extent, those from Great Nicobar appear to show a larger patch of white on the forehead. 7) In series, the dark bars on the tail contrast more prominently against the rest of the background than in isolata. evidence that he had access to any from Great Nicobar. The differences noted above appear to be sufficient to separate those from Great Nicobar from isolata and I name them: Nieox afUnis rexpimenti subsp. nov. Type: Field No. GNB 77/452 $ collected by S. S. Saha at Magar Nulla, 8 km. from Campbell Bay, on East-West Road, on 5 April 1977. Testes enlarged. Holotypes. ZSI 1 5 No. 33162 dated 31 March 1977, 2 $ $ 33165 and 33167 dated 31 March and 4 April 1977. BNHS 2 d d Nos. 24220/1 dated 7 April and 1 9 24219 dated 6 April 1976. The bird is named after Rex Pimento, Field Assistant, at the Bombay Natural History Society, who has twice accompanied me to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and worked assiduously in the field. Two males obtained on 31 March and 4 April had their testes, 4.5 x 2.2 and 9x4 mm. At dusk (31st March) one flew out of forest on to the bare horizontal branch of a high dead tree and hawked 20-30 feet away. Ano- ther (3rd April) was shot off a tree hawking flying termites at dusk. This site was about a hundred yards away from the forest and the owl must have discovered it by seeing a Racket-tailed Drongo which was already ope- rating. The owl was soon followed by bats. As I have already indicated ( JBNHS 69 p. 117) I think it would be better to treat N. affinis (and its races) as subspecies of N. scutulata, and obscura as a separate species. 686* ColIocaSia fociphaga inexpectata Hume (Andaman Islands) Greyr umped Swift- let. 3: 1 $ 1 o? Great Nicobar; 1 9 Katchal. The pale rump was noted at Katchal but not visible among a hundred birds circling overhead in good daylight, at Campbell Bay. In the hand and upon comparison with the material available in Bombay, the underparts appear browner than grey, the pale rump less distinct and the over-all effect blacker than in Andaman birds. On 9 April we were taken in a catamaran rowed by three people to a “hawabil” (pre- sumably adaption of “ababil” — Arabic for swift) cave about 10 km. north of Laxman THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR N ICO BARS Beach and near Pigeon I. The trip took 3-J hours of hard rowing each way. The cave is at sea-level in the face of a sandstone cliff, with the entrance roughly tri- angular, 15 ft high and 12 ft broad. The tide flowed right in and the waves break- ing in through the entrance would not permit anybody to retain a footing. It was however viewed from a rock above high water- mark, almost on a level with the apex of the triangular entrance. Upon our approach, the first birds seen outside were a few White-bel- lied Swiftlets. A little later, greyrumped birds were also visible. One (wing 121 mm) was lying dead on the rocks outside, highly de- composed. From the rock outside one could see and photograph 6 nests of the latter, two with two eggs each and four with single eggs, on the wall at the entrance. These nests were largely white with the thicker basal portions reddish-orange. On the opposite wall were 2 complete nests (empty and old?) and another hanging in tatters which were reddish-orange all over and quite different from what I re- membered of earlier nests at Chirria Tapoo etc. One Khalasi, who had collected nests here before, entered the cave from above avoiding the tide at the entrance. The cave extended at least a hundred feet inwards and sideways on both sides, forming a huge cavern of an unknown height. The disturbed birds flew out in hundreds through the narrow entrance, but it was not possible to catch them with a wet butterfly net. The Khalasi brought some nests, highly coloured and with only a fine strip of white at the upper edge. The reddish colour on the nests appeared to be a stain acquired by seepage from the rock. The yellow nests on Katchal Island men- tioned by Hume may have been similarly coloured. Nests in the underground cave at Car Nico- bar referred to in the introduction were pure white and on 25 March 1976 contained either two eggs or fledglings. The edges of an empty nest, presumably freshly built, were soft and jelly-like. Two young in a nest brought to camp, defecated outside the nest, squirting an inch away. The floor of the cave was black with insect “packets” from the ends of which white grubs stuck out. Lord Medway, who has consider- able experience of the habitats of these swift- lets, writes “ . . . They were in all probability the larvae of case-making moths, genus Tinea, family Tineidae. The family includes the com- mon clothes moths, and all members specialise in eating animal products of some sort. The guano-dwelling examples are common in caves in south and southeast Asia (in my experi- ence). Their cases are made of fragments of insect exoskeleton, and they probably can breakdown chitin in their guts.” 687 CoMocalia escuienta affinis Beavan (Port Blair, South Andaman) White-bellied Swiftlet. 1 $ Occasionally seen. 723 AScedo atthis feengalensis Gmelin (Bengal) Common Kingfisher. Occasionally seen. Specimens obtained on earlier trips. 727* Ceyx erithacus erithacus (Linnaeus) (Benghala) Three-toed Kingfisher. 1 o? Campbell Bay, 27 February 1966. 728 Ceyx erithacus macrocaras Oberholser (Great Nicobar) Three-toed Kingfisher. 12 6 April 1977 Campbell Bay. The bird obtained in 1966 supra could not be distinguished from the nominate form. The present specimen which had enlarged ovaries and was probably breeding has a distinctly 761 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 longer 39 mm. (cf. 31-34) bill and though slightly damaged the black spot on the fore- head at the base of the bill is barely visible. The earlier bird does have a bill slightly he- avier than most others from India, but the small black spot can be matched in a few Indian skins. More material is necessary to determine if both represent variations in macrocarus or if nominate erithacus also visits the islands, as I had suggested. I would again draw attention to the fact that while the no- minate bird is accepted as a breeding migrant to the Andamans there are no records of the species from Car and Central Nicobars. 732 Felargopsis capeesis intermedia Hume (Galatea Bay, Great Nicobar) Storkbilled Kingfisher. 1 $ 1 April 1977 (77 / 29) with testes enlarged. Not infrequent but elusive. One in forest cackled like a woodpecker and appeared in- terested (?) in hollow trees. Specimen obtained on sea-shore. 739 Halcyon pileata (Boddaert) (China) Blackcapped Kingfisher. In open valley on East-West Road with tiny stream running through it. 743 Halcyon clitoris occipitalis (Blyth) (Nicobars) Whitecollared Kingfisher. Hume saw them occasionally in Galatea Bay (S.F. 2 p. 75) and we saw it too. 870 Pitta sordida abbotti Richmond (Great Nicobar) Hooded, or Greenbreasted Pitta. 2 $ $ 8 and 9 April 1977. Wing 107, 110. Compared to 3 (2 S <$ 1 $ ) obtained in early March 1966 the upperparts are dark, bordering on brown rather than green, as is also the case in earlier birds. None of them show the dark median line on the crown referred to in the original description. One of the males had enlarged testes. 949* Lanius cristatus cristatus Linnaeus (Benghala) Brown Shrike. There has been some difference of opinion regarding the occurrence of the nominate form in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but in the course of cataloguing the Bombay collec- tion I finally identified a specimen from the Andamans as of this race. On 10 April 1977, two shrikes were seen near Campbell Bay, not far apart and the brown head and upper- parts of one compared with the greyish white forehead in the other, prompts me to accept the first as of this race. 950* Lames cristatus lucionensis Linnaeus (Luzon) Philippine Shrike, Not common. Several birds glassed showed the greyish white forehead. 957 Orioles chinensis macrounis Blyth (Central Group, Nicobar Islands) Blacknaped Oriole. 1 $ Campbell Bay. Bill 35 mm. Common, Long-drawn pi-hoo early in the morning. Appears very large. Carrying food to nests oil 27 and 31 March. Another pair visiting nest high up and carrying away drop- pings (?) on 31 March. 981 DIcrerus paradiseus ulcobariensis (Baker) (Kondel, Nicobars) Great Racket-tail- ed Drongo. On 2 April 1976 the birds were commonly seen and four nests were found along the road in the course of a short walk and another pair seen chasing a serpent eagle. Several nests with young and eggs were seen again in 1977. One settled in a tree with a large green grass- hopper, pulled off the wings and feet and then flew to a nest to feed young still invisible under the rim. The webs on the tail of one were constricted in the centre, not yet being free from the sheaths. The bird was twice seen on telephone 762 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR NICOBARS wires in open country and also almost on the ground in grass-scrub land in the manner of the Common Drongo ( adsimilis ) in India. A party of 4 was hawking flying termites at dusk. The crest was quite distinct in all the birds glassed. One bird with crest and only one racket and some white on under tail-coverts, flew to bole of large tree, looked down care- fully, then entered the hole, splashed in the water collected there, and then flew away 20 yards to then shuffle and preen itself. Adult approached 2 young in nest with food thrice in 15 minutes (8.30 a.m.). Then the food was refused or not begged for, and the parent flew away and settled near another adult, which could be distinguished by its hav- ing only one racket in its tail, and who made no attempt to feed the young. The young at different times spread and flapped their wings. Another pair of adults sat a few inches from each other and both quivered their wings, then flew to another tree and repeated the perform- ance. This process was gone through thrice before they flew away in different directions. 986a ApSonis panayensis albiris Abdulali (Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar) White-eyed Glossy Stare. White-eyed birds at Camorta and Great Nicobar. However, at Camorta on 11 April 1977 I saw a white-eyed adult feeding 2 streak- ed young which had brown eyes. Stomachs of specimens collected held figs but the persist- ant manner in which they probed into the circlets formed by epiphytes particularly on dead trees, left little doubt that they were look- ing for some other food. Two females in immature plumage collect- ed on Great Nicobar on 2nd April are marked as having enlarged ovaries. At Car Nicobar (subsp. tytleri) some 200 birds were seen together on a large tree early on two successive mornings. 1018a Gracula leligiosa halibrecta (Ober- holser) (Little Nicobar) Hill Myna. 4: 2 $ $ 2 $ $ Quite frequently seen around Campbell Bay and pairs visiting holes in trees. A S obtained on 26 March 1977 had its testes 10 x 5 mm. Birds at Camorta appeared smaller than at Great Nicobar. 1142 Hypsipetes nicobariensis Moore (Ni- cobars) Nicobar Bulbul. In my earlier paper (JBNHS 64 p. 182) I had restricted this species to the Central Nico- bars, but it may be worth noting that Hume (S.F. 2, p. 223) refers to Davison having seen this at Pilu Milu, which is very close to Little Nicobar. These islands have not been worked again. 1402 Rhinomyias bmnneata nicobarica Richmond (Great Nicobar) Olive Flycatcher. This is restricted to Great Nicobar, but none were seen on the last two trips. 1464 Tersiphone paradisi nlcobarica Oates (Great Nicobar*) Paradise Flycatcher. None wer e obtained either on Car or Great Nicobar during our recent trips and there is nothing to add to my earlier notings (JBNHS 64 pp. 183/4). However, I omitted to record that both males collected at Trinkut and Camorta, in March 1966 were not only red, but also with enlarged testes. This supports the view that Oates’s description of nicobarica which in- cluded white birds must refer to those from Great Nicobar and the type locality is hereby restricted thereto.* If it is established that the Central Nicobar population (from which a white bird has not yet been recorded) needs separation it will require another name. 1469 Monarcha aznrea nicobarica (Bian- 763 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 chi) (Nancowry) Blacknaped Flycatcher. Campbell Bay 2 April 1976 9 chivvying a Racket-tailed Drongo. On 3 April 1977 a d and -a $ were seen attending to two young out of nest, but yet begging. 1500a Cisticola juncidis malaya Lynes (Klang, Selangor, Malay States) Fantail War- bler. Abbott and Kloss saw a Cisticola sp. at Great Nicobar and specimens obtained on Car and Central Nicobars were identified as of this race ( JBNHS 64: 185). On a subsequent trip to Car Nicobar I saw them feeding in sparse grass, and jumping for insects. We did not see it on Great Nicobar. 1554* Acrocephalus orientalis (Temminck & Schlegel) (Japan) Eastern Reed Warbler. 1 Campbell Bay 7 April 1977. Wing 82 mm., bill 17, tarsus 27, tail 68. The third and fourth primaries are almost equal and longer than the second; the notch on the inner web of the second is below the eighth primary. Several were seen in bushes in open grassland; the pale rump was promi- nent in flight and the pale eyebrow noticeable when glassed. Warbler sp. A largish warbler without eye-stripe and olive green upperparts was seen in grassland on 5 April. 1605a PhyMoscopus tenellipes (Swinhoe) (Amoy) Palelegged Leaf Warbler. The old record of one taken on a ship 10 m. east of Great Nicobar cannot be added to but several were obtained at Narcondam Island ( JBNHS 71 p. 502). 1884* MotacilSa caspica caspica (Gmelin) (Caspian Sea) Grey Wagtail. Seen on both trips. Also on Car Nicobar and Camorta. 1914 Nectarinia jugularis klossi (Rich- mond) (Great Nicobar) Yellowbreasted, or Olivebacked, Sunbird. 8: 4 $ $ 3 $ $ 1 o? These birds were quite common and two were obtained on both trips. The bills together with those of earlier specimen are larger than in Central Nicobar. dd (4) 20.5-21.9 contra (3) 18.4-19.6 9 9 (2) 20.6-21.5 contra (3) 16.7-17.7 in 2 In addition, the 3 Central Nicobar females are a much brighter yellow below, and it is i probable that a well-prepared series from both places would indicate separable populations. Stuart Baker’s blanfordi from Kondal be- tween Great and Little Nicobar is generally accepted as synonymous with klossi. No spe- cimens are available, but it is worth noting that Oberholser, when describing proselia from Car Nicobar first compared his type with klossi (which he said was from 4 ‘the other Nicobar Islands”) and then added: “It is, of course, readily distinguishable from Cinnyris ornata blanfordi (Baker) by its much smaller bill.” Kondal is just off the northern end of Great Nicobar. On the next page he admitted restriction of klossi to Great Nicobar and it would appear from this that he accepted both blanfordi and klossi. 1929 Aethopyga siparaja nicofoarica Hume (Kondal) Nicobar Yellowbacked Sunbird. \$ 1 o? East-West Road 77/7 and 77/8 on 27 March 1977. The unsexed bird has a trace of a dark stripe down the front, as in the off-plumage of male Nectarinia asiatica. One seen on 2 April ’76 with brown front and red throat. On 26 March 1977 a 9 was seen carrying building material to a Nectarinia- type of nest 10 ft up, suspended from a cane leaf overhang- 764 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR NICOBARS ing a dry nulla in heavy cover about 30 yards from road. A J1 was hanging around but not visiting the nest. Another $ building against a roadside cut- ting had the nest with a long ‘tail’, very simi- lar to the type seen near Bombay. A <$ was seen at red inflorescence at base of cane-like plant (without spikes). 1936* Zosterops paSpebrosa subsp. White- eye. 2: 1$ 1$ Laxman Beach, 26 March 1977. Robert Grubh, Asst. Curator, B.H.N.S., had reported seeing white-eyes at Campbell Bay on the 1966 trip, but this was not mentioned (1967) and these are the first specimens obtain- ed in the Great Nicobar group. The subspecies nicobarica was described from “Nicobar Islands” which with the repeat- ed statement that it did not occur on Great Nicobar, must refer to Car or Central Nicobar, and I am restricting the type locality to Nan- cowry in the latter. The present specimens are quite different from nicobarica. from the An- damans, and Central Nicobars — olive on the upperparts with no trace of a yellowish wash, and with no yellow on the forehead. The underparts are greyish with signs of yel- low in the middle, but the greenish-yellow (not yellow) patch on the chin is not connected therewith, being distinctly separated by a grey- ish breast. The tail feathers are almost black and lack the yellowish-green fringes visible in most. The general effect is that of Holdsworth’s Zosterops ceylonensis from the hills of Sri Lanka, though smaller. Tail/ Wing Bill Tail Wing Index Great Nicobar $ $ 51,50 11.2,11.5 33,32 64.3 ceylonensis 1$, lo? 58,57 12.3,13 36,39 65.2 The difference in the relative lengths of the 2nd (first developed) primary, one of the char- acters on which ceylonensis has been made a separate species, is not visible in any of the four specimens above. The birds from Great Nicobar appear to be quite distinct, but several of the differing char- acters listed above are those of the single speci- men on which Richmond named v entrails from Car Nicobar, where several nicobarica had also been obtained. This has been ignored by subsequent authors, and I can find no at tempt at explanation. More specimens from these islands and also of the surrounding races auriventris, buxtoni, williamsoni, etc. are need- ed to permit any decisions. PART 2 CAR NICOBAR 39(?) Butorides striatus subsp. Little Green Bittern. Common. Remarks under Great Nicobar. 44.* Biibulcus ibis coromandus (Boddaert) (Coromandel) Cattle Egret. A pair was noted on the Car Nicobar aero- drome. I was told that it attended pig instead of cattle. Though common in the Andamans and having been obtained at Tillangchong, Central Nicobars, this is a new record from Car Nicobar. 49. Egretta garzetta garzetta (Linnaeus) (Orienti = Northeast Italy) Little Egret. Noted. 51. Egretta sacra (Gmelin) (Tahiti) Reef Heron. Occasional — remarks under Great Nicobar. 141. Accipiter hadius butlers (Gurney) (Car Nicobar) Shikra. On 29 March 1976, I got a glimpse of a 765 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 shikra which looked about the size of a myna. There are no records of the bird in recent years. 143. Accipiter soloensls (Horsfield) (Java) Horsfield’s Goshawk. Except for a single bird in a coconut grove in Car Nicobar on 15 March 1966, we failed to see this species. 173. Haliaeetiis leucogaster (Gmelin) (Prince’s Is., Indonesia) Whitebellied Sea Eagle. Occasional. One seen carrying a garfish at Camorta. 254. Coturnix chinensis trinkutensis (Rich- mond) (Trinkut Is., Nicobar Group) Blue- breasted Quail. 4: 2 $ $ 2 9 $ Trinkut Is., 31 March 1976. I found this bird on both the short trips to Trinkut, and though looked for, did not see it in much longer stays on Car Nicobar and Camorta. This may possibly have been due to our inability to get suitable areas properly beaten, for at Car Nicobar the local inhabit- ants denied knowledge of its existence and it was impossible to get them to beat the cover for any sustained period. Butler ( JBNHS 12: 691) found it “Common on one or two small grassy plains on Car Nicobar” but stressed the fact that they were very hard to flush and he found the best way of shooting them was over a rope dragged by two boys. He also noted “Mul” as the local name for the bird. At Trinkut they were beaten out of an ex- tensive plain of ‘elephant grass’ [lmperata( ?) sp.] similar to that used for thatching the domed huts of the neighbouring islands. In the course of a morning we put up 2 pairs, 2 single birds and one party of 5/6 birds. The specimens obtained all had undeveloped gonads. They rose with a very slight whirr and are certainly too small to permit any sport with a gun. One crop was packed with tiny seeds, not of Imperata. On a sandy patch in sparse burnt and re-growing grass on the edge of standing grass, we picked up broken egg-shells, 25 mm x 19 mm, pale fawnish white with an olive wash and fine specklings. While they appeared to be rather large for this bird, the measurements are very close to the average for 100 eggs of the nominate form in Stuart Baker’s Fauna (24.5 x 19 mm). In the course of a routine examination of the species it is noticed that the single female from Supkhar, Balaghat, M.P., obtained 13 March 1959 (BNHS No. 20784) differs from 7 old skins from Assam and Burma, in having clearer colours above and below, with a broad yellowish brown stripe extending over the eyes on to the forehead not visible in the others and less marked on the underparts. No male from peninsular India is available, but a fresh well-prepared series from the two areas may confirm these differences. 330(?) Malles striatos subsp. Bluebreasted Banded Rail. Butler (l.c. p. 694) took a nest on Car Nicobar on 30 August. I got a glimpse of a dark rail which was probably this species. 345a. Amaoromis plioenictirus leticocep- halus Abdulali (Car Nicobar) Whiteheaded Waterhen. Notes in Great Nicobar section, supra. 346* Gallkrex cieerea cinerea (Gmelin) (China) Water Cock. 1 $ Car Nicobar. 5 more put up with a jeep driven through the grass on the sides of the runway at the Car Nicobar aerodrome. The single bird col- lected has a 201 mm. wing which is larger than accepted for females (172-184) and smal- 766 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR NICOBARS ler than for males (211-227). Compared to the material from India available in Bombay, the bill appears very short and thick. 371* Fluvialis squatarola (Linnaeus) (Swe- den) Grey Plover. Noted on Car Nicobar. 373. Pluvialis dominica fulva (Gmelin) (Tahiti) Golden Plover. Also noted on Great Nicobar, supra. 374. Charadrius leschenaulti leschenaulti Lesson (Pondicherry) Large Sand Plover. Occasional. 381. Charadrius alexandrines subsp. Ken- tish Plover. J. M. Dasgupta ( JBNHS 73 p. 222) record- ed a specimen obtained by Dr A. K. Mukher- jee at Malaka, Car Nicobar on 19 February 1972, where it was seen in small numbers to- gether with waders on the sea shore. The sub- species is not determined. 384. Charadrius mongolus atrifrons Wag- ler (Bengal) Lesser Sand Plover. Also noted in Great Nicobar, supra. 385/6. Numenius p. phaeopus/variegatus Whimbrel. As in Narcondam and other neighbouring islands, the birds occurring here are probably of both races, or an intermediate form. 388. Numenius arquata orientalis C. L. Brehm (East Indies) Eastern Curlew. I had overlooked Butler’s reference to a Car Nicobarese name “ Sakayok ” for this spe- cies and saw it myself on 24 March 1976. 391* Limosa lapponica lapponica (Linna- eus) (Lapland) Bartailed God wit. 1 $ Car Nicobar, 23 March 1976. Wing 200 (IH. 202-216) very fat. This species, not previously noticed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, was one of the first birds seen on this trip, in the mud on the sea-shore, together with Sanderlings (also previously unrecorded). The specimen was obtained from a party of three; several others, including one (?) in breeding plumage were seen. The distributional map in birds of the soviet union, 3:326 , shows the east coast of India within the range of L. 1. novaezelandae Gray (= baueri Naumann) in which the rump and uppertail coverts are heavily barred. Com- pared with a single specimen of baueri from Japan, the present specimen, as also the others from India in the BNHS collection, all appear to be of the nominate race. 394(?) Tringa totanus subsp. Redshank. 1 $ Car Nicobar, 23 March 1976. See notes under this species in Great Nico- bar list, supra. 396.* Tringa nebulana (Gunnerus) (Nor- way) Greenshank. Seen on Car Nicobar on 24 March 1976. 400. Tringa terek (Latham) Terek River (on Caspian Sea) Terek Sandpiper. 2 $ $ 1 $ , Car Nicobar, 23 (2) and 27 March. J. M. Dasgupta ( JBNHS 73, p. 222) noted some specimens obtained on Car Nicobar, wher e it would appear to be a regular visitor. It has been noted on Trinkut I., Central Nicobars. 401. Tringa hypoleucos hypoleucos Lin- naeus (Sweden) Common Sandpiper. Noted. 402. Arenaria interpres interpres (Linna- eus) (Sweden) Turnstone. Common on Car Nicobar, and also noted at Camorta (13 April) and on Great Nicobar. 767 14 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 406. Capella stenora (Bonaparte) (Sunda Islands) Pintail Snipe. Shot on Car Nicobar. 414.* Calkins albus (Pallas) (Coast of the North Sea) Sanderling. As indicated under 391, several were noted in tidal mud with Bartailed Godwits almost immediately upon our arrival on 23 March 1976. This is a new record for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, The two specimens ob- tained were badly damaged by a dog but the remnants are preserved. 422. Calidris testaceus (Pallas) (Holland) Curlew-Sandpiper. Butler shot a party of six at Car Nicobar in September. 434. Dromas ardeola Paykull (India) Crab Plover. Butler saw a flock of 60/70 on Car Nicobar, but there appear to be no recent records. 443. GSareola pratincola maldivarum J. R. Forster (Open sea in the latitude of Maidive Islands) Collared Pratincole. The de Roepstorffe collection at Copenha- gen contains a cf and a $ obtained at Cam- orta. Central Nicobars, on 25 December 1875. Both are in immature plumage with incom- plete collars and small bills which suggest their having been hatched not far away. I have already reported a single bird shot on the aerodrome at Car Nicobar, where on a later trip we saw at mid-day a pair soaring high in the air like birds of prey. [481. Anous stoiidus pileatus (Scopoli) (Philippines) Noddy Tern. In Ripley’s Synopsis (1961), this species was said to breed on small islets in the Nicobars, but this is now repeated with a query in Indian Handbook (3 p. 73) ]. 500. Treron pompadora chloroptera Blyth (Nicobars) Pompadour or Greyf routed Green Pigeon. 1 $ 1$, 28 March 1976. These were shot out of a party of 10-12 in one tree. Their bills were pale with a bluish tinge, darkish at base and white at tip. 508. Ducula aenea nicobarica (Pelzeln) (Car Nicobar) Nicobar Green Imperial Pigeon. Not uncommon. 509. Beaila bicolor (Scopoli) (New Gui- nea) Pied Imperial Pigeon. None were seen in the wild but a caged bird was said to have been captured about two months ago, indicating the possibility of sea- sonal movements between the islands. A few days later, we saw several at Camorta, Central Nicobars. 525a. Colnmba palumboides nicobariensis (Walden) (Nicobars) Wood Pigeon. 1 o? Car Nicobar, 25 April 1976. Wing 251; tail 144; bill 25. The five outermost primaries in one wing are in moult and about 150 mm. The other is fully grown and it is difficult to imagine its flying in this condition. The Car Nicobarese name means “water pigeon” for which I could not obtain an explanation. 544. Chalcophaps indica maxima Hartert (Golapabung, South Andamans) Emerald Dove. Commonly seen feeding on roadside like Streptopeiia sp. in India. See footnote to spe- cies on p. 758. 544a. Calaenas nicobarica (Linnaeus) (Nicobars) Nicobar Pigeon. We failed to see this bird on the last few trips and it is apparent that the shelling of Battye Malwe, 19 miles south of Car Nicobar, 768 THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR NICOBARS where it used to breed in thousands has told on its numbers. It is hoped that the island will be made a National Park -and an attempt made to study the ecology of these magnificent birds before it is too late. Butler (1899) records that on Car Nicobar in August there was a large proportion of very young birds, with the head still covered with tiny quills. 556. Psittacula longicauda nicobarica (Gould) (Nicobar Islands) Redcheeked Parakeet. Resident. 592. Eudynamys scolopacea dolosa Ripley (Barren L, Andamans) Koel. A <$ was seen on 28th March but none heard. 647. Ninox affinis isolata Baker (Car Ni- cobar) Nicobar Hawk-Owl. 3:2 $ 9 1 o? Notes in part 1, supra. 686. Collocalia ftuciphaga inexpectata (Hume) (Andaman Islands) Greyrumped Swiftlet. Resident. See notes included in Great Nico- bar, supra. 687. Collocalia esculenta affinis Beavan (Port Blair, South Andamans) Whitebellied Swiftlet. Car Nicobar! At Port Blair on 18 March 1976, we found four nests in an old Japanese gunpit with c/2, c/2, 2 hatchlings, and one young with a white belly. 723. Alcedo atthis bengalensis Gmelin (Bengal) Common Kingfisher. One seen on 26 March 1976. 739. Halcyon pileata (Boddaert) (China) Blackcapped Kingfisher. Car Nicobar in March 1976. 743a. Halcyon chloris subsp. Whitecollared Kingfisher. I have already (JBNHS 68:405) drawn at- tention to the birds of Car Nicobar being distinct from davisoni and occipitalis (Blyth) and restricted the latter to Camorta, Central Nicobars. It may be mentioned that the key to subspecies in Indian Handbook (4:95) can- not be used for birds from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where all females have white underparts. On Car Nicobar, several ant-nest* pro- tuberances 15/50 ft up in coconut-palm plan- tations had holes in the centre which, together with the proximity of this bird, suggested their being used as nests. Davison has recorded their nesting in ants’ nests in similar situation (quoted JBNHS 61: 544). 917. Hinindo rustica guff oralis Scopoli (Philippines) Swallow. Birds were seen on earlier trips and speci- mens obtained in the Andamans and in Cen- tral Nicobars were identified as of this race. 926.* Hirtindo daurica subsp. Striated or Redrumped Swallow. Single birds were twice seen on Car Nico- bar, but it is not possible to name the sub- species. It will be recalled that Vaurie (1959: 13) doubtfully named a specimen from Port Blair as japonica Temminck and Schlegel, but the species has not been recorded southwards. 950. Lanius cristatus lucionensis Linnaeus (Luzon) Philippine Brown Shrike. The only specimen from Car Nicobar has been identified as of this race, but as in Great Nicobar (q.v.), I noted (23 March 1976) birds with no grey or white on the forehead, which were possibly of the nominate form. * One examined contained black ants identified as Dolichoderus bituberculatus Mayr. 769 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 957. Oriolus chinensis macrourus Blyth (Nicobar Is., Central group). Common. On 23 March 1976 a bird was seen in a deep cup-shaped nest 15 ft. up. Oberholser’s eustictus from Car Nicobar does not appear separable. 981. Dicrurus paradiseus nicobariensis (Stuart Baker) (Kondal, Nicobars) Racket- tailed Drongo. Not common. 986. ApSonis panayensis tytleri (Hume) (Andamans) Glossy Tree Stare. 1 $ Some 200 birds were seen collected together on a large tree early on two successive morn- ings. 991. Sturnus erythropygius erythropygius (Blyth) (Car Nicobar) Whiteheaded Myna. Common. 1122. Pycnonotus jocosus whistleri Deig- nan (Cinque I., south of South Andamans) Redwhiskered Bulbul. Butler (1899) refers to Davison meeting it at Camorta and Car Nicobar where it had just been introduced, but said he had seen it in neither place. During my several visits it was quite common at Camorta and Trinkut, but not noticed at Car Nicobar. 1407. Muscicapa latirostris Raffles (Su- matra) Brown Flycatcher. Specimens were obtained on an earlier trip. 1464. Terpsiphone paradisi subsp. Paradise Flycatcher. I cannot trace any specific record of this species from Car Nicobar, and Butler’s state- ment (1899: 401) that though he did not see any white birds, young birds were numerous does not make it clear that he saw them both on Car and Central Nicobars. 1468. Monarcha aztirea idiochroa (Ober- holser) (Car Nicobar) Bl-acknaped Flycatcher. 29? (1964). 1500a. Cisticola juncidis malaya Lynes (Klang, Selangor, Malay State) Fantail War- bler. Specimens obtained on Car and Central Nicobars in 1964. 1592.* Phylloscopus inornatus inornatus (Blyth) (Darjeeling) Siberian Yellowbrowed Leaf Warbler. One was glassed among trees on the shore while on a launch off-shore. Specimens were obtained at Narcondam (JBNHS 71, p. 502) on 26 and 31 March 1972, but this is an ex- tension of its known distribution. 1726. MonticoSa solifada pandoo (Sykes) (Ghauts, Dukhun) Blue Rock Thrush. Von Pelzeln is reported to have obtained a young male at Car Nicobar on 24 February. There is no subsequent record. 1736. Zoothera citrina albogolaris (Blyth) (Nicobars) Nicobar Ground Thrush. A d\ by plumage, obtained on Car Nico- bar in 1966 does not quite agree with others from Central Nicobars. Additional specimens are needed to permit a decision. 1875. Motacilla flava thunbergi Billberg (Lapland) Greyheaded Yellow Wagtail. Butler recorded it as a regular winter visitor and I had obtained a specimen at Camorta, further south. 1876. MotaciSIa flava becma (Sykes) (Duk- hun) Blueheaded Yellow Wagtail. Butler noted M. flava as extremely plentiful from October to late May and I have identi- fied specimens from Camorta, as of this race (but see remarks JBNHS 64 pp. 186-187). THE BIRDS OF GREAT AND CAR NICOBARS 1 I 1884. Moiacilia caspica caspica (Gmelin) (Caspian Sea) Grey Wagtail. Its solitary habits do not make it conspicu- ous, but it has been noted by most observers and is no doubt a regular visitor. 1915. Nectarinia jugtilaris proselia (Ober- holser) (Car Nicobar) Yellowbreasted Sun- bird. Common on coconut flowers and also in low shrubbery and grass, together with Cisticola. Osmaston took c/3 at Car Nicobar on 24 March. We saw a nest being built in a Bom- bax on 27 March 1976. 1936. Zosterops palpebrosa nicobarica Blyth (Nancowry, Central Nicobars) White- eye. I have referred to Great Nicobar birds be- ing different, but the few from the Andamans, Car and Central Nicobars, appear identical, Osmaston took a nest with 2 eggs on Car Nico- bar on 18 March (Nid. 3, p. 193). See remarks under Great Nicobar. *Passer domesticus subsp. On Car Nicobar, while driving through a village, I noticed a large globular nest in a tree and noted “Sparrows in mass nest in tree”. Birds were undoubtedly seen but I did not re-examine it, and cannot recall the details of the evidence that prompted this note. 1970. Lonchura striata semistriata (Hume) (Nicobar Islands) Whitebacked Munia. A large flock near the Car Nicobar aero- drome was glassed for some time and appear- ed to include individuals with black heads. However, none of the 17 birds that fell to a single round of dust shot showed this charac- ter. They differ from Andaman birds ( fumi - gata Walden) in being slightly smaller, the bill is noticeably narrower, show pale edges to the dark feathers of the breast, and the pale centres of the feathers of the back show up as a fine streaking. In four earlier specimens from Camorta, Central Nicobars, the streaking on the upper- parts is perhaps slightly less prominent and which also indicate a slight diminution in size. Some general remarks on Conservation and the future of the Islands The Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 as in other parts of India is administered by the Forest Department. During a week in Great Nicobar (1976) my party actually witnessed the capture and/or killing of 2 crocodiles, one Malayan python and one dugong, all of which are on the list of animals completely protected under the Act. The Forest officials in the Nico- bars had no copy of the Act and they were quite ignorant of what was to be protected and what not. We understood that somebody had been held for collecting the edible nests of the swiftlets. A perusal of the Act reveals that this bird is not mentioned in any of the Sche- dules and neither the bird nor its nest can be protected under it. Having represented Bom- bay Natural History Society on the Indian Board for Wild Life for almost 20 years and being familiar with the working of this Board and also that of the Forest department, I am convinced that the only hope of saving wild- life in India is to take it out of the hands of the Forest Department and to hand it over to people who are genuinely interested in the subject and willing to devote their time, not only office hours, to this work. The Islands have remained unmolested for many hundreds of years and the natural en- vironment attained is highly specialised. In the forests, the trees grow to a height of 200 771 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 feet and more and the whole complex is so intricate that no single tree can, in all its magnitude, stand alone. As soon as any part of the forest is cut, the shoulder-to-shoulder support is lost and the individual tree liable to be blown down by the next gale. For this reason, areas which are cleared of forest have to be literally denuded, leaving completely bare areas for cultivation. The perfect crop has not yet been discovered and even though a family of refugees or retired servicemen may be able to farm a few acres, this will only be for a few years. At and near Port Blair, one can see the soil being washed into the sea and the denuded areas being turned into unpro- ductive and really barren land. Robert Johan- nes (Reader’s Digest, October 1978) has an interesting note on corals and their destruc- tion due to silt and other causes. He refers to a study in Brazil which showed that where- as a hectare of tropical rain forest normally lost a kilo of soil per year to erosion, 13 tons were lost annually after deforestation. Vari- ous attempts have been made at cultivating imported cash crops but the overall effort is haphazard and unpromising. I have already referred to the rubber and palm oil efforts on Katchal Island. On Camorta we saw hillsides which had been cleared of forest and were now under straggly growths of cashew nuts. This will require a considerable amount of labour and we do not know if it will be available. A report on Land Utilization and associat- ed problems in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, by D. N. McVean, IUCN Consultant has been published in June 1976 by Inter- national Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, with the assistance of the Government of India. It refers to the dam- age which has been done in South Andamans and other places, consisting of “wasted forest resources, soil loss and reduced availability of surface water.” It stresses the fact that the conversion of forest to plantations or crop or waste land leads to an immediate reduction in rain percolation, soon making the places un- inhabitable. They indicate that the yield is temporary and likely to die out in a few years making it necessary to encroach further upon the forest. The present allocations of land are on the basis of the average family, but what happens as it increases and there is a second generation? An earlier report (c. 1956) by D’Cruz & Lai of the Forest Department was more or less to the same effect. One wonders, how long such expert opinions will continue to be ignored. Identical conditions apply to wildlife. The passing of pious resolutions on particular days of the year is not going to preserve our fauna. There must be more relevant knowledge to guide our action, and no serious attempts are made to study. Very recently, I learnt that Barren, Narcondam, North Reef and South Sentinel Islands had been declared sanc- tuaries. While this was indeed a laudable move, prompted no doubt by the recent stu- dies of birds, crabs, snakes and other forms of natural history in the area, it was necessary that all the islands be separately examined by parties of experienced naturalists and ecolog- its. I wrote to the Chief Commissioner offer ing to get together a suitable team to under- take this work, but after several reminders received a letter from the Chief Conservator of Forests, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, to the effect that the Administration had no pro- gramme to carry out ecological studies of the Wildlife Sanctuaries of the territory at present. Without this knowledge, we do not know what we are attempting to preserve and will not know when it is gone. 772 ECOLOGY OF THE BL ACK- AND-OR AN GE FLYCATCHER MUSCICAPA N1GRORUFA (JERDON) IN SOUTHERN INDIA1 Mohammad Ali Reza Khan2 (With two plates and a text -figure) The paper deals with the distribution, status, habitat preference, food and feeding habits of the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa (Jerdon). The field work was con- ducted between September 1974 and September 1976 in the Western Ghats, specially in the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu), of southern India. The entire distributional pattern and status of the species were determined in the Nilgiris and in other hills of the Western Ghats, starting from the Biligirirangans in southern Karnataka down to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, in- cluding parts of Kerala falling within the Western Ghats. The species has been recorded for the first time from the Siruvani hills and the Nelliampathies of the Palghat district and Agastyarmalai of Kerala, and High Wavy Mountains of Tamil Nadu. The habitat require- ments, food and feeding habits were observed Introduction The Black-and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa is a monotypic species and is end- emic in the hills of the Western Ghats in southern India. Unlike other members of the genus Muscicapa (Muscicapinae: Muscicapi- dae, class Aves) it is little known and there exists very little information on its ecology. The literature on this flycatcher is meagre and deals with the taxonomy in great depth, and to some extent with its distribution, status and breeding (Jerdon 1862, Hume 1876, Bourdil- 1 Part of Ph.D. dissertation, Ecological Problems Relating to Birds: Ecology and Behaviour of the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa (Jerdon); 1977, accepted by the University of Bombay. 2 Dept, of Zoology, University of Dacca, Dacca-2, Bangladesh. and determined. Ion 1880, Davison 1883, Fairbank 1887, Fer- guson 1898, Dewar 1904, Ferguson and Bour- dillon 1904, Kinloch 1921, Baker 1924 and 1933, Baker and Inglis 1930, Whistler and Kinnear 1932, Ali 1935, 1942, 1949 and 1977, Nichols 1937, Primrose 1938, KoeJz 1947, Rip- ley 1961, and Ali & Ripley 1972). However, the distributional range and status of the spe- cies still remained enigmatic. There existed several unsolved questions and unfounded statements in regard to the status and distribu- tion of M. nigrorufa. Although some serious work has been done on the old world or mus- cicapine flycatchers (Muscicapidae) by Sum- mers-Smith (1952), Campbell (1954-’55, 1959), Haartman (1956, 1967), Meidell (1961), Lack (1966) and many others in different parts of Europe; no such study on the flycatchers has been undertaken so far in this sub-continent. Therefore I undertook extensive field work to 773 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 collect information on various aspects of the ecology and behaviour of the species. This paper deals with the ecological aspects includ- ing distribution and status of M. nigrorufa. Materials and Methods Out of 23 months (September 1974 through September 1976) spent in the field about 11 months were devoted for the present purpose. There were altogether 27 pairs and a lone marked male M. nigrorufa which were closely watched for the study of ecology during this period. A pair of Bausch & Lomb, 6 by 30, and another pair of Nautica 10 by 50, binoculars were used throughout the study. The following materials were used in the field: Altimeter, Rocar stop-watch graduated up to one fifth of a second, Pesola spring-balance graduated up to half a gram. Common precision balance. Steel measuring tape, fine-tipped divider, Fuji- ca 35 mm camera with a 50 mm and a 85- 205 mm zoom lenses and electronic flash; mist nets, numbered aluminium rings (size ‘Z’) of Bombay Natural History Society (here- after BNHS) and coloured plastic rings. I also used a hand-made insect net, a killing jar with ether for soft-bodied animals and another with chloroform for vertebrates, and a plant press. Soft animals were preserved in alcohol whereas vertebrates in ten per cent for- maline. Insects were sent to Tamil Nadu Agri- cultural University, Coimbatore; to B.N.H.S. and to Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta; and vertebrate specimens to B.N.H.S. for in- dentification. Most of the plant samples were identified in the field itself excepting a few which were sent to experts for identification. As separate methods were followed for the study of distribution, status etc., these will be mentioned at relevant places. Study Area The intensive field study was conducted in the Nilgiris of Tamil Nadu state, although a number of other hills lying between Mysore district of Karnataka state and Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu were also visited. The topography of the Nilgiris has been described in detail by Ranganathan (1938) and in the Working Plan of the Nilgiri Forest Division (1969). This district lies between 1 1 ° 15' to 11°45' N. and 76° 15' to 76°E. at the junction of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala where the Eastern Ghats meet the Western Ghats. It has an area of c. 2525 square kilometers and consists of a group of hills ranging in height between 900 and 2635 meters above mean sea level. The present study was under- taken mostly in the environs of three stations namely Coonoor (11 °21 ' N. 76°49'E) and Kotagiri (11°26'N. 76°53'E.) under Coonoor Taluk, and Ooty (11°24'N. 76°44'E.) under Ootacamund taluk of the Nilgiris. Coonoor is situated on the lower ridge of the main pla- teau of the Nilgiris, at an average altitude of c. 1800 (1100-2000) m, whereas Kotagiri lies between 1700 and 2000 m above msl; Ooty- the popular name of Ootacamund — the district head quarters lies at an average altitude of c. 2200 (2000-2500) m, at the foot of the high- est peak Dodabetta (2635 m) — the seecond highest peak south of the Himalayas. Climate'. The Nilgiris lie essentially in the tropical zone although they enjoy sub-tropical to temperate climate being conditioned by the mountain situation. The hills receive both the SW and NE monsoons, and the average an- nual rainfall for the district is 1226 mm, which usually does not go below 1000 mm in the interior of the plateau of above 4000 mm in the Upper Bhavani region (2200 m. msl). The average annual rainfall of Coonoor, Kotagiri 774 ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER and Ooty is 1500, 1600 and 1278 mm res- pectively. Although the annual rainfall is not very high, it is comparatively well distributed over the year. The mean annual humidity of Coonoor is 68.66 per cent at 0830 hrs, and 78.33% at 0830 hrs in Ooty. According to Puri (1960) there is no moisture deficiency in any season during the year in some high peaks of the Nilgiris. The mean annual temperature of Coonoor (1749 m) has been recorded as 17° centigrade and that of Ooty (2245 m) as 14.2°C by Champion and Seth (1968). The highest and lowest temperature records being 29.4°C and 2.2°C respectively for Coonoor, and 26.1°C and 1.7°C respectively, for Ooty. Vegetation : A detailed description of the vegetation of the Nilgiris and other hills of the Western Ghats, south of Mysore is neces- sary to understand the distributional pattern and other aspects of the ecology of nigrorufa. The natural vegetation of the Nilgiri Plateau consists of extensive grasslands covering rol- ling hills interspersed with numerous isolated compact, sharply defined small woodlands, termed ‘sholas’ meaning (Tamil) tropical rain forest (Plate I). Champion and Seth (1968) have classified these sholas as Southern Mon- tane Wet Temperate Forest. The sholas occur in different parts of the Western Ghats usually above 1500 m msl, e.g. the Biligirirangans, Karnataka; the Nilgiris, the Anaimalais, the Palnis, High Wavy Mountains and Ashambu hills in Tamil Nadu; Siruvani hills, the Nel- liampathies. High Range and the Agastyar- malai in Kerala. The composition of the sholas in different hill ranges may vary slight- •y- The major plants of a typical shola are as follows: species of Mickelia, Gordonia, Meli- osma, Elaeocarpus, Cinnamomum, Syzygium, Lit sea, Neolitsea, Evoclia, Ilex, Glochidion, Vaccinium, Ternstroemia etc., form the top storey. Second storey, wherever present, is usually comprised of Turpinia, Symplocos, Viburnum, Garcinia, Eurya, Vernonia, Euony- mus, Memecylon, Hydnocarpus, Rhododen- dron, Hynea etc. Shrubs include Maesa, Lasi- anthus, Psychotria, Sarcococca, Polygala, Strobilanthes, Bambusa and Alsophila. Lianas, scandent shrubs etc., include Toddalia asiati- ca, Rosa, Mahonia, Rubus, Berberis, Caesal- pinia, Smilax, Pentapanax, Jasminum, Elaeag- nus, Ipomoea, Passi flora, Polygonum, Argy- reia, Marsdenia, Piper and Gleichenia. The ground cover is formed by Oxalis, Erigeron, Hydrocot yle, Anotis, Laportea, Chlorophytum, Fragaria, Desmodium, Drosera, and Rannun- culus. The grasslands are mostly dominated by Anaphatis, Helechrysum, Senecio, Conyza, Rubus, Osbeckia, Dipsacus, Viola and Poa. Other plants around the sholas are Rhodo- myrtus, Dodonea, Hypericum, Lantana, Pilea, Eupatorium, Elatostemma, Girardinia, Ulex, Cytisus, Dentation etc. There is always an abundance of epiphytes like mossess, lichens, ferns and orchids. The forest of the Ashambu hills, the foot hills of Agastyarmalai and the Chemmuni- malai roughly fits to the Southern Hilltop Evergreen Forest type of Champion and Seth (1968) with Ho pea, Calophyllum, Dysoxy- lum, Artocarpus, Syzygium, CAnnamomum, Macaranga etc., and a dense undergrowth of shrubs, reeds,, cane and bamboo brakes. West Coast Evergreen Forest type includes the Brahamagiris, part of the Nilgiri-Wynaad, the Malabar-Wynaad, Top-Slip, Parambikulam in the Anaimalais where the dominant vege- tation is Hopea, Mesua, Vitex, Diospyros, Cyclostemon, Cullenia, Poeciloneuron and Syzygium, and an undergrowth of Ochlandra 775 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 and Calamus. The slopes of the Nilgiris and the Palnis are characterised by the Southern Subtropical Hill Forest consisting of Calophyl- lum, Syzygium, Turpinia , Litsea etc., and an undergrowth of Strobilanthes, Ochlaudra, Calamus and Acacia. Distribution and Status To determine the overall distributional pat- tern of M. nigrorufa in the Western Ghats, I visited, at least twice (once in the breeding and again in the non-breeding season), the Biligirirangans and the Brahmagiris in Karna- taka, the Nilgiris, Top-Slip (Anaimalais), Valparai (Grass Hills), the Palnis, High Wavy Mountains and Ashambu hills in Tamil Nadu. Parambikulam, Sholaiyar (Anaimalais), High Range, Cardamom hills, the Chemmunimalai, the Agastyarmalai and the Nelliampathy hills in Kerala. Additional information regarding Siruvani hills and High Range in Kerala were received from Mr. E. R. C. Davidar and Mr. R. Sugathan respectively. The Nilgiri-Wynaad and the High Wavy Mountains were re- visited in March and September to November 1977. In my survey trek I usually followed main roads, foot and bridle paths, all cutting across or skirting the sholas and other types of for- ests. Where there was no definite path I walk- ed through or along the edges of sholas and evergreen forests, and along the game trails. In a day’s walk I used to cover an average distance of c. 15 km. Considerable attention was paid to forest cover between 700 and 2500 meters above msl. The flycatcher’s pre- sence in a particular spot was usually detected from its characteristic call-notes ( chee-ri-rirr or chi-ree-rirr etc.) or a whistling song ( whee - chee-ree-rirr or chee-ri-rirr etc.). In the non- breeding season the presence of a pair was determined usually by the sightings of both the male and the female at close quarters. During the breeding season the presence of a pair was established either from the singing male and his accompanying mate or from an actual nest and its contents, or from parents who were found attending the fledglings. My experience shows that if a statement is made that the flycatcher is common in the Nilgiris it does not really mean in which particular vegetation or locality it is common. Therefore, I have specified the places and localities, or exact spots, in the different hills where the flycatcher was sighted. The distributional range and status of M. nigrorufa are shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1. I found this flycatcher in the Biligirirangans, the Nilgiris, the Nilgiri-Wynaad, (Siruvani hills), the Nelliampathies, the Anaimalais, High Range, the Palnis, High Wavy Mount- ains, the Chemmunimalai, the Agastyarmalai and Ashambu hills (locations in the table). The lowest elevation at which I saw this spe- cies is c. 900 m at Aduramalai Tea Estate (abandoned), at the foot of the Agastyarmalai in Kerala, my highest record being c. 2625 m on Dodabetta in the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu). I did not see the bird in the Brahmagiris, Kerala-Wynaad, Top-Slip, Parambikulam and Sholaiyar section of the Anaiamalis, Santhan- para, Peermade and Kumili in the Cardamom Hills. Neither did Dr. V. S. Vijayan see this bird in Top-Slip, Parambikuiam and Sholaiyar section of the Anaimalais during his survey of these hills in early 1976. My observations show that the Black-and- Orange Flycatcher has disappeared from places like Wynaad (cf. Davison 1883), Mun- nar township in the High Range (cf. Ali 1935 & Primrose J938), Peermade and Santhan- para (cf. Ali, loc. cit.). The probable cause of this absence may be that the vegetation of 776 ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER these localities has altered appreciably after those authors visited these areas. The under- growth of most sholas has been removed for raising Cardamom plantation. During my visits in January and June to those places I found that the banks of the streams flowing through them were virtually devoid of the one- 0 0 50 100 150 200 km time luxuriant undergrowth of Ochlandra, Calamus, Pandanus etc., which seem essential for the habitat of nigrorufa in these hills. There appears no previous record of the occurrence of nigrorufa on the Siruvani hills, the Nelliampathies, the Chemmunimalai and the Agastyarmalai of Kerala and the High 12 IB' 74 Mercara(Co\rg) prahmagiris Mannantody Mudumalai \ — Cudalur N ilambur Calicut Siruvani hills Palghat Nelliampathies Trichur Anairnudi Munnar Santhanpara - Cardamom hills Peermade Periyar Lake Panthalum hills Ponmudi Chemmunimalai Trivandrum Mysore Kollegal ■Qil igirirangans Kotagiri Ootacamund ( Ooty) Coonoor Met tupalayam Coimbatore Anaimalais — -Valparai. Palnis Kodaikanal High Wavy 1 Kumili +++ + *+ ±±..t..t+ + runelvelly A.lgast yarmudi Agastyarmalai * "Ashambu hills -srj^r*any akum a r i Cape I Areas of the Western Ghats covered by the survey Areas where M. nigrorufa were sighted during survey Fig. 1. Showing distribution of Muscicapa nigrofufa (Jerdon) in the Western Ghats, southern India. (Semi-diagrammatic) 777 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Wavy Mountains (Madura district in Tamil Nadu). No ornithologists seem to have visited these hills except the Nelliampathies, which were surveyed by Kinloch (1921-1923) and Ali (1935) but without success. My records from the Siruvani hills and the Nelliampa- thies seem to be significant since these two ranges are situated on the northern and south- ern edges of the Palghat Gap respectively. Neither the BNHS’s ornithological survey of the Eastern Ghats nor their bird banding camp came across nigrorufa in that area. Mit- ford’s report of the occurrence of the species in the highest mountains of Sri Lanka, first doubted by Oates (1890), was subsequently rejected by Baker (1924) and others as un- confirmed. McMaster (1871) thought he saw Ochromela ( Muscicapa ) nigrorufa “among cliffs a few miles off Chikalda”, in Maharash- tra, but his report has never been confirmed. There is another statement in the Maharash- tra Gazetteer (1968) presumably based on the above dubious record, that “In Melghat many more birds like the black-and-orange fly- catcher ( Ochromela nigrorufa), otherwise found in the Niigiris and Ceylon (!) are seen”. Neither Dr. Salim Ali nor others who have worked the Melghat area had ever came across the bird. The biotope here is altogether dif- ferent from the Niigiris; appropriate habitats are totally lacking, and this statement is pal- pably erroneous. The climate, vegetation and the topographi- cal features seemed to have affected the dis- tributional pattern of nigrorufa in the West- ern Ghats. Mani (1968) emphasized these factors as affecting the distribution of high altitude insects. At present the bird is wide- spread in areas of medium rainfall, that is, an average annual precipitation of 1500 mm, as in the Biligirirangans, the Niigiris, Siruvani hills, the Palnis, High Range and High Wavy Mountains. In these hills the temperature is considered to be optimum for montane vege- tation as emphasized by Champion and Seth (1968). The vegetation here is dominated by the Shola type with patches of evergreen scrubs and plentiful undergrowth providing a perfect biotope for the flycatcher. The country is hilly and the upper plateaux are always above 1500 m msl. The flycatcher is either absent, rare or not common in the heavy rain- fall zones where annual precipitation exceeds 2000 mm. Such areas include the Brahmagiris, the Nelliampathies, Top-Slip, Parambikulam and Sholaiyar of the Anaimalais, Santh-anpara, Peermade, Chemmunimalai and the major portion of the Ashambu hills. These are all slightly undulating hills of medium elevation, usually below 1500 m msl. and the terrain is less rugged than the others mentioned above. The forests in these low hills are of the ever- green type dominated by tall trees. I did not find nigrorufa in any part of the moist-deciduous forests like those in Masina- gudi and Mudumalai in the Niigiris, Bandipur in Karnataka, and Top-Slip in the Anaima- lais, nor has it ever been reported from such forest in the Eastern or Western ghats. Contrary to its description by earlier authors as ‘patchy’, I found the distribution of nigro- rufa to be rather uniform in the upper plate- aux of almost all hills situated between the southern part of Mysore in Karanataka and the northern portion of the Kanyakumari dis- trict of Tamil Nadu, usually above 1500 m msl. The range is restricted to areas lying be- tween the Biligirirangans in the north and the Ashambu hills in the south, that is between c. 8°40' to 12°N. and 76°60' to 77°80' E. The maximum width of the range does not ex- ceed 100 km while the length is limited to about 400 km. Thus the range of this species is the most restricted of all the muscicapine. 778 ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER culicicapine and rhipiduran flycatchers occur- ring in southern India. Status : The Black-and-Orange flycatcher is a com- mon bird in the hills of the southern Western Ghats lying between the Biligirirangans and the Ashambu hills, usually -above 1500 m msl. It is one of the commonest flycatchers of the genus Muscicapa in the upper plateaux of the Nilgiris, the Biligirirangans, Siruvani hills (E.R.C. Davidar Per. Comm.), High Range, the Painis and High Wavy Mountains and to some extent in the Agastyarmalai. It is rare in the Nelliampathies, around Valparai in the Anaimalais, and in the Chemmunimalai, and uncommon in the major portion of the Agas- tyarmalai and Ashambu hills. Wherever met this species was sympatric with Muscicapa tickelliae, M. albicaudata and sometimes with M. pallipes. Culicicapa ceylonensis was sym- patric with M. nigrorufa throughout the en- tire range of the latter. The result of intensive study of 27 pairs and ringing has established that, contrary to the opinion expressed by authors like Baker (1924), Whistler and Kinnear (1932), and Ali & Ripley (1972), nigrorufa is absolutely paro- chial in its habits and is not given to even any local movements. Recently Ali (1977) has accepted the parochiality of the species. Exceptions were observed only in the case of juveniles and unmated individuals; in the former as a dispersal movement, in the latter in search for mates. Normally nigrorufa lives in pairs and is hardly ever seen as a solitary bird. I always met both the members of a pair within 10 m or so of each other. Table 2 gives the populations of different flycatchers including nigrorufa, and two other species which shared its habitat and in many cases had overlapping requirements in the study plots. All these 18 pairs were closely studied for about two years and every pair bred either in the 1975 or 1976 breeding seasons. As I paid regular visits to all the localities the counts of the flycatchers and other birds are presumed to be accurate. Moreover, many of the pairs were recorded from their nests or contents of the nests which were attended by the parents. It is clear from the table that roughly 2.8 hectares supported a pair of M. nigrorufa whereas 4.4 h were needed to support a pair of M. tickelliae, 9 h for a pair of M. albicaudata, 5.3 h for a pair of Culicicapa ceylonensis, 6 h for Rhipidura albogularis and 10.6 h for Brachypteryx major. Erithacus brunneus, a winter migrant from the Himalayas, was never found in pairs. Curiously enough hardly a single female E. brunneus was seen in the winter months whereas males were very common (for detail see M.A.R. Khan in press). Habitat Preference The Black-and-Orange Flycatcher normally prefers sholas above 1500 m msl., few are found in evergreen forest and occasionally in Eucalyptus scrub. I rarely saw it in tea, coffee and Acacia plantations. All these vegetation types are considered as microhabitats of the species (Plate I), whereas the shola under- growth and its variations comprise the mic- rohabitats or immediate environment (Plate II). The microhabitat of nigrorufa was deter- mined on the basis of the bird’s preference for certain specific places in the sholas. Dur- ing each visit to a shola I scrutinized the spot where the birds were seen, the surrounding vegetation and the height at which the birds foraged. In the case of birds living in the sholas above 1500 m msl, mostly in the Nil- 779 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 giris, the microhabitat usually consists of (in the order of dominance) the following: Psv- chotria bisulcata, Lasianthus spp., Strobilan- thes spp., Chomelia asiatica, Pogostemon sp., Asystys sp.. Micro! ropis ovalijolia, Solarium auriculatum, S. robustum, Pilea trinervia, Pouzolzia trinervia, Alsophila latebrosa, Cala- mus, Bambusa; seedlings of Memecylon mala- baricum, Garcinia cambogia, Litsea wightii etc., all below two meters in height. The strag- glers included Toddalia asiatica, Smilax spp., Rosa leschenaultii , Rubus ellipticus, Rubus racemosus, Caesalpinia sepiaria etc., climbers like Ipomoea sp., Argyreia hirsuta, Piper spp., Elaeagnus spp., and Polygonum chinense. Oxalis spp., Hydrocotyle sp., and Car ex spp., were the dominant ground cover. The canopy was dominated by Syzygium spp., Michelia sp., lie x spp., Vaccinium spp., Gordonia ob- tusa, Ternstroemia gymnanthera, Turpinia cochinchinensis, Glochidion spp., Photinia spp., Scolopus sp., Vernonia mono sis, Elaeo- carpus spp., Ligustrum spp., Euonymus sp., Macaranga and Hydnocarpus alpina etc. Where the sholas were close to human habitations or plantations (e.g. sholas around Coonoor and Ooty townships) the canopy layer included a few exotics like Trema orien- talis, Eucalyptus spp.. Acacia spp., Pinus spp., Callitris sp., Cupressus spp., and Grevillia robusta whereas undergrowth in such areas usually had an abundance of Solanum spp., Cestrum aurantiacum, C. elegans, Tecomaria capensis, Lantana camara, Datura arborea etc. in addition to the natural shrubs (Plate II). The microhabitats above 2000 m included more of Sarcococca trinervia, all species of Rubus occurring in the upper plateau of the Nilgiris, Mahonia nepaulensis, Berberis tinc- toria, Toddalia asiatica, Ulex europaeus, Cyti - sus scoparious, Rumex, Elaeagnus, Eupato- rium glandulosum, Bambusa nana, and brac- kens. The canopy had Arbotus rollisonii, Cin- namomum, Eurya japonica, Rhododendron, j Vitex altisima and Vitex vitifolia in addition to the plants already mentioned. Here the canopy height never exceeded 5 meters. The and macro- micro- habitats of M. nigrorufa in the Biligirirangans, Upper Plateau of the Nilgiris, possibly Siruvani hills, Munnar (High Range), Kodaikanal (the Palnis), Venniar (High Wavy Mountains) and to some extent the Agastyarmalai were of these types. The microhabitats in the plantations in the lower plateau of the Nilgiris, the Nelliampa- thies. Cardamom hills, the Chemmunimalai, the Agastyarmalai and Ashambu hills are mostly dominated by a plentiful undergrowth of Ochlandra, Pandanus, Calamus and Strobi- lanthes under stands of Cullenia, Hopea, Me- sua, Cinnamomum, Litsea, Syzygium, Calo- phyllum and Elaeocarpus. The microhabitats of the pairs studied and other casually observed were all traversed by at least one perennial stream each, and the flycatcher usually lived within one and half metres of the ground surface, the latter al- ways covered with a thickish litter of leaves. Considering all the stations I have investi- gated in the Western Ghats it is apparent that the habitat requirements of the Black-and- Orange Flycatcher are primarily met by the luxuriant undergrowth or thickets of a typical shola; and secondarily by the different types of bushes and shrubbery in the tea-coffee, gum-wattle plantations or in ornamental gar- dens and private compounds provided these have (1) floor with litter layer of dead and decaying leaves and decomposed plant matter which harbours hordes of insects; streams, brooks or pools, clearings and paths to pro- vide drinking, bathing and feeding places for the flycatchers; (2) Shrubs, seedlings and 780 ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER herbs of suitable heights to provide the fly- catcher with shelter, perching and roosting places, and nest sites; (3) Sedge blades, {Car ex spp.) bamboo, cane and screw-pine leaves, pine needles, climbers and twiners to provide nest materials. Any habitat possessing the above features may be considered as suit- able for the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher. Most of the sholas around different places in the upper Nilgiri plateau, Honnametti, Atti- kan and Bellaji in the Biligirirangan hills; Munnar and Nymakad in the High Range; Bombay shola, Shembaganur, Tiger shola, Berijam and Gundur Valley of Kodaikanal in the Palnis and Venniar of High Wavy Moun- tains provide the requirements and hence sup- port denser populations of this species than the other areas in the Western Ghats. Food and Feeding habits To determine the food of this species em- phasis was given to field observation rather than stomach contents. A sample of five birds- one lone male (ringed with BNHS Z-7470) and two pairs (No. 6 & 13)* were selected for intensive field study. As the macrohabi- tats of these birds were thinned out remnants of erstwhile larger sholas the birds could be observed with less difficulty. Sometimes they could be watched even without the aid of binoculars. In the absence of stomach contents (except what were obtained from two dead specimens), efforts were concentrated on ran- dom collection of insects from the territory of Z-7470 by ‘sweeping’ different portions. A specially made insect net with a mouth of c 40 cm in diameter and of 80 cm length was used for this purpose. During November 1974, March and September 1975 the sweeping was done 80 times in each month. Each time the net was swept within 50 cm of the ground level and mostly touching the leaf litter, so as to collect most insects present just above the litter layer where the birds were mostly feeding. In addition to direct observation and sweep- ing a third successful though somewhat cruel method was adopted to force the adult birds to drop the food items they had picked up. When a flycatcher caught an insect or larva c. 10 mm in length close enough to me, I would scare the bird suddenly, so as to make it drop the food item in fright. In 20 such at- tempts on five birds half were successful and yielded useful results as will be shown below. Only two stomachs were actually analysed for their contents. Food : Apparently the food of M. nigrorufa con- sists mainly of insects belonging to the orders Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, and to a lesser extent of Hymenoptera and Neuroptera, including larvae and nymphs. The insects consumed, in order of prominence in the sample studied, were members of Sep- sid-ae, Chironomidae (midges, blood-worms and eye flies), Stratiomyidae, Tipulidae (77- pula, daddylong-leg flies), Noctuidae and Py- ralididae (moths), Danaidae and Hesperidae, Pieridae and Papilionidae (butterflies), Culici- dae, Ichneumonidae, Tachinidae (bristle flies), Acrididae (nymphs only), Chrysopidae (Chr- ysopa), Asilidae, Muscidae, Chrysomelidae etc. The stomach contents suggest the presence of sepsids, chironomids, stratiomyids, asilids, tipu- lids etc. The food insects observed directly conform, by and large, with the larger insects included in the above mentioned groups. It was rather difficult to be sure of the flies and other smaller items eaten. The data from the sweepings (Table 3) also support above find- * Each of the 27 intensively studied pairs was given a serial number, beginning with 1. 781 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ings. Moreover, the food items obtained by ‘pirating’ the adult birds show one caterpillar ( Papilio ), one butterfly (Nilgiri Tiger Danais nilgiriensis), two moths (Noctuidae), three daddylong-leg flies ( Tipula ), two grasshopper nymphs (Acrididae) and one earthworm ( Phe - retima). Occasionally they also took leaf- hoppers (Jassidae). Feeding habits : Five birds were intensively followed for 175 hrs, of which the birds remained out of sight for 24 hrs when they foraged in the thicker part of the vegetation. Besides watching these five specimens all the remaining pairs (25) were also monitored for appreciable periods for any variations in feeding habits from those observed more closely. This was mainly done during rounds of visits to their habitats. The flycatchers followed a number of feed- ing methods. Gaston (1974) and Croxall (1976) have described feeding methods of birds of the genus Phylloscopus and of mixed- species hunting parties (bird flocks) respec- tively. With certain modifications, I have adopted some of their terms in describing the various feeding methods of nigrorufa. They are as under: Sally: Catching insects from litter layer and within about 10 cm above the ground surface. At no time did the birds settle on the bare ground during a sally. Flycatching: Taking flying insects on the wing either from a perch or from the ground and always between 10 cm and one metre or so above the surface. This also included a few attempts made by the birds to catch butter- flies above one metre. Flitting : Searching for food amongst un- dergrowth using frequent brief flights. This method of feeding could not be followed easi- ly since for considerable periods the flycat- chers foraged inside the thicker part of the vegetation where visibility was greatly im- peded. Hopping : Collecting food from the litter layer by means of hopping. Unlike babblers, the Blue Chat, Rufousbellied Shortwing, and Blackbird this flycatcher did neither scratch amongst the leaf litter nor flick aside any leaves to obtain its food. Rather it just picked from the surface larvae of insects exposed through the activities of the other ground feeding birds. Hovering : Hovering for a very short period, a fraction of a second, to pick up insects or their larvae from the tip of a twig or leaf. Clinging : Clinging to bark of a tree for collecting insects settled there much in the fashion of a nuthatch. I assumed that in each feeding attempt a bird usually did catch an insect, it always seemed to have a definite target as Hartley (1964) observed in hawking flycatchers. Granting one insect per attempt, the result of close field study has been shown in Table 4. It can be said from the table that the flycat- cher ate mostly sepsids, chironomids and other dipterans and hymenopterans by means of sally; and muscids and lepidopterans by fly- catching. The flycatcher collected caterpillars, various types of insects and their larvae settl- ed on the foliage by flitting. Hopping helped it to capture midges and nymphs, flies and ants settled on the litter layer or on the ground cover. Hovering facilitated it to collect insect larvae etc., while clinging enabled it to catch jassids from the bark. The sally was the most common method of capture followed by flycatching. The former comprised 77.40 per cent of the total insect catch while the latter 13.45%. The feeding rate was 73 insects per hour on the average (Table 5). It was 69.5 for Z-7470; 75.4 for male of Pair 13; 69 for Male-6; 78 for Fe- 782 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Reza Khan: Mucicapa nigrorufa Plate 1 Above : The sholas around 2000 metres — perfect M. nigrorufa habitat. Below : A typical microhabitat of M. nigrorufa. (Photos : Author) Plate II J. Bombay nat. Hist. Sqc. 75 Reza Khan: Mucicapa nigrorufa i Above : The shola undergrowth a typical microhabitat of M. nigrorufa with a stream in the foreground. Below : Undergrowth of Eucalyptus plantation (Nilgiris) with an abundance of Rhodomyrctus tomentosa. (Photos : Author) ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER k male- 13 and 73 for Female-6. The feeding rate of the Tickell’s Blue (M. tickelliae) and Greyheaded ( Culicicapa ceylonensis) flycat- chers appeared to be 65 and 90 insects per hour (based on 180 minutes and 60 min. of observation) respectively. The lone male Z-7470 was followed for a whole day when it could be effectively observ- ed for 10 hrs and 30 min., between 0645 and 1815 hrs. During the remaining one hour the bird could not be watched as it foraged in the interior of the shrubbery. The rate of feeding per hour ranged from 49 to 103 insects. It was 49 between 1300 and 1400 hrs, 98 between 0700 and 0800 hrs, 100 between 1700 and 1800 hrs, and 103 between 1600 and 1700 hrs. Thus it had atleast two peak hours of feeding, one in the morning the other at the close of the day. The rate of feeding at this period averaged 100 insects and was double the rate at mid-day, which was 49. Since the microhabitat of the Black-and- Orange Flycatcher is regularly shared by seve- ral other species of flycatchers such as Tic- kell’s Blue and Greyheaded, and by other birds like the Blue Chat, Shortwing and bab- blers there always exists some interspecific competition for food between them. To show this the feeding habits of nigroruja and the four co-existing species have been summariz- ed in Table 6, which has been prepared large- ly on the model of Croxall (1976). The Blue Chat ( E . brunneus), Rufousbel- lied Shortwing ( B . major). Spotted Babbler (Pellorneum ruficeps) have more or less simi- lar feeding habits. They prefer collecting food, both insects and earthworms, from the leaf litter on the floor. As shown in the above table (6) and mentioned earlier under Feed- ing Methods, this flycatcher collects its food mostly on the wing either from the ground surface or in the air. While hopping on the ground it often encounters one of these three ground feeding species. The Blue Chat is a winter migrant and sojourns in the Nilgiris from October to March. It spends most of its time on the ground and at least a quarter of the day inside the shrubbery largely resting, preening and soliloquizing. It is parochial, and prefers the edges of the sholas. But be- cause of its altogether different feeding habits it evidently does not compete seriously for food with nigroruja. The Shortwing is a denizen of the darkest part of the shola or thickest part of the shrub- bery in gardens and compounds. It is resident in the Nilgiris. Like the Blue Chat it spends most of its time feeding on the ground, and resting, singing, soliloquizing and preening. The Black-and-Orange Flycatcher hardly has a chance to meet the shortwing since it does not normally visit the darkest parts of the shrubbery. Moreover, shortwings are not so parochial as nigroruja. They wander a great deal therefore, the competition for food be- tween the two is unlikely to be of a serious nature. The Spotted Babbler, like most others of its kind, seldom lives in the same spot of the shola or of the nigroruja microhabitat. As it does not stick to one spot and forages over a wider area the flycatcher can easily avoid competing with it for food. However, there is competition for food be- tween the Black-and-Orange and Tickell’s Blue flycatchers since many of their feeding habits are similar (Table 6), and in many places their habitats also overlap. But Tickell’s is a bird of comparatively open woodlands and not so parochial as the former, it lives over a much wider area than Black-and- Orange, covering a variety of habitats. Thus competition between them is evidently much reduced. ! JOURNMz BOMBAY ■-■NM'URAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vbl 75 Record of Occurrence/ Absence of M. nigrorufa in the Western Ghats Name of the hills prospected Time spent in hours seen/heardlrS Status and remarks Biligirirangans : Attikan, Bedugali, Bellaji and Honnametti. 900-1730 m. msl. 20i 17 (3) ii Common, sholas and edges of Coffee plan- tation, above 1300 m. Brahmagiris: Rama and Laxmana Tirtha. 700-1400 m. 15 None Mostly evergreen, very few sholas. Nilgiris: almost entire upper plateau. 1000-2635 m. 363 209 (8) Common, in sholas and in Eucalyptus & Tea plantation thickets, above 1500 m. Nilgiri-Wynaad : 700-1200 m. 9 days in March & 7 days in October, 1977 None Evergreen and moist deciduous forests. Kerala- Wynaad : 700-1000 m. 20 None Mostly evergreen forests. Siruvani hills: 1700 m. — — Common. Information by Mr. Davidar. Nelliampathies : Kaikatty, Padagiri & Periasolai, 500- 1 400 m. ; 25 2 Rare, between Hilltopmalai and Padagiri ■Peak, evergreen,;, forest, c. 1400 m. Anaimalais : Top-Slip environs, c. 800 m. 15 None Moist deciduous and evergreen forests. Pandavarai & other peaks. c. 1200 m. . , io None As in Top-Slip. Umaiamalai & fopt of Perungundur Peak. 1000-1200 m. ;>Q -J> TO O ; ■ 1° DiJ None As in Top-Slip. Parambikulam, Thelical, Vengolimudi & Tunacadavu. 500-1000 m. , , . ;il yi’‘~ !■ / tpN ■ ■; s v f I. 30 'O '• ... ; None . • : i ■ As in Top-Slip. Valparai (Grass Hill). 1000-1300 m. 20 2 r V. ■■ i "A Rare, sholas. 784 ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER Name of hills prospected ^n’liours"1 ^een°heard Status and remarks Sholaiyar. 700-1400 m. 5 None Evergreen forests, and sholas of Karuma- laigopuram. High Range: Nymakad Tea Estate, Munnar & Devikulam environs. 1000-1800 m. 30 22 (2) Common above 1300 m, none below this elevation, mostly in sholas & Tea Estates. One visit paid by Mr. Sugathan in June 1976. Cardamom hills: Santhanpara. 900-1120 m. 12 None Cardamom sholas. Peermade. 800-1000 m. 10 None Cardamom sholas, Tea & Coffee planta- tions. Kuihili vand Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. 800-900 m. 6 None Evergreen and moist deciduous forests. High Wavy Mountains : Venniar. 1500-1800 m. 10 10 (4) Common around typical sholas, few in the thickets of tea. Palnis: Kodaikanal town panchayat, Berijam, Gundur Valley, Old Coolie ghat road, Tiger sholai, Shemba- ganur and Perumalmalai. 1000-2200 m. . r 50 36 (4) Common, all above 1300 m in sholas, evergreen forests and also in private gard- ens and plantations. Chemmunimalai, Bonaccord Tea Estate environs. 900-1300 m. 8 2 Rare, along stream at 1250 m in evergreen forest, amongst Ochlandra brakes. Agastyarmalai: Aduramalai Tea Estate.- (abandoned) . 900- 1 200 m. 12 4 Rare, amongst Calamus, Ochlandra & Pandanus brakes of evergreen forests. Agastyarmudi. 1300-1800 m. 5 5 Not uncommon in the stunted sholas, like the Nilgiris. Ashambu hills; Kalakkadu, Virapuli in Kakkachi and Kodaiyar Dam area. 900-1200 m. 15 Not uncommon amongst Calamus, Och- landrq. & Pandanus, and other under- growths of evergreen forests. Area between Balamore and Muthukuzhi in Azhapandipuram Range. 700-1300 m. 7 ;.vT‘ Rare, at 1300 m in evergreen forest. i: Covered 1.5 km per hour of trekking. ii: Unsexed. Each bird may represent one pair. 785p JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 The Greyheaded Flycatcher (C. ceylonen- sis ) captures insect prey mostly by sallies, usually more than a metre off the ground sur- face, and it rarely descends to the floor. It is not a strictly parochial species either. It lives in a variety of habitats and may be met with also in private compounds. If it ever gets into the proximity of the Black-and-Orange Fly- catcher it is invariably chased off by the latter. The Nilgiri Verditer Flycatcher, though not uncommon, usually prefers the upper canopy where it not only eats insects but also fruits and berries of Vaccinium, Syzygium, Cestrum etc. M. nigorufa hardly ever visits the canopy, and I have no evidence that this spe- cies and the Nilgiri Verditer ever compete for food. Black-and-Orange Flycatchers usually live in pairs. A third individual was hardly ever seen in the territory of a pair except during the breeding season. Only Z-7470, a lone male, used to visit the territories of neighbouring Table 2 Comparison of Population Size of Muscicapa nigrorufa and other Associated Species in the Sample Study Plots in the Nilgiris. Study plots i ii iii (see below) iv V vi vii Botanical Garden (Ooty) c. 25 hectares. 5 pairs (Nos. 13, 13A, 13B, 14 & 14 A) 2 1 2 3 4 males 1 Sims’ Park (Coonoor) 15 h. 3 pairs (9, 10, 11 & lone male Z-7470) 4 2 3 2 5 males 1 female i Forest Lodge Shola (Coonoor), 7 pairs c. 10 h. (5, 6, 7, 8, 5A, 6A & 8A) 4 2 3 3 7 males 2 Hebron School Shola (Coonoor) c. 3 h. 3 pairs (1, 2 & 3) 2 1 2 1 3 males 1 i: Black-and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigro - ii: Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher M. tickelliae iii: Nilgiri Verditer Flycatcher M. albicaudata iv: Greyheaded Flycatcher Culicicapa ceylonensis v: Whitespotted Fantail Flycatcher Rhipidura al- bogularis vi: Indian Blue Chat Erithacus brunncus vii: Rufousbellied Shortwing Brachypteryx major Figures within the parentheses include the pair nos., those with alphabet letters were studied only in 1976 breeding season. 786 ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER pairs occasionally. Whenever spotted by a territory-owning male he was chased out im- mediately. Intraspecific competition for food seemed to be a casual affair and there was literally no intrapair competition either. Summary The year-long field study, conducted be- tween 1974 and 1976, has revealed that, the Table 3 Results of Sweepings for Insects in the Terri- tory of a Male Z-7470. Name of insect Number of insects group obtained in: May September (1975) November (1974) DIPTERA: Sepsidae 127 124 99 Chironomidae 30 12 16 Culicidae 8 10 9 Stratiomyidae 10 3 14 Tipulidae 8 5 3 Asilidae 4 1 2 Unidentified 60 55 49 ORTHOPTERA: Acrididae 41 15 32 LEIDOPTERA: Pyralididae 15 19 16 Noctuidae 13 3 12 HYMENOPTERA: Ichneumonidae 14 3 17 Unidentified 22 11 20 NEUROPTERA: Chrysopidae 10 7 — HEMIPTERA: Jassidae 3 4 2 Fulgoridae 1 — 1 COLEOPTERA: Chrysomelidae etc. 39 42 28 Total 405 314 320 Black-and-Orange Flycatcher is not a rare or uncommon bird as earlier regarded; it occurs in the hills lying between the Bili- girirangans (Mysore) and Ashambu hills (Kanyakumari) of the Western Ghats; from the northernmost to the southernmost limits it has continuous distribution and is present on either edges of the Palghat Gap; it is one of the commonest of the flycatchers, above 1500 m msl, anywhere in the sholas occurring in the Biligirirangans, the Nilgiris, High Range, the Palnis and the High Wavy Mountains; rather uncommon in the heavy rainfall zones with evergreen forests and totally wanting in the moist-and dry-deciduous forests of the Western Ghats. Its range is the most restrict- ed of all the associated flycatcher species; its microhabitat comprises solely of undergrowth, thickets, shrubbery and bushes of a natural vegetation (mostly the sholas), and to some extent of different plantations around 1500 m; It does not show any local movements and the species is a very parochial one. Its food consists mainly of dipteran, lepidopteran, coleopteran and orthopteran insects which are mostly caught on the wing either by ‘sally’ or by ‘flycatching,’ from the ground surface and within one metre of it; although it competes for food with a couple of associated species it has a particular way of avoiding severe competition and hence co-exits with them in the similar habitats. Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to Dr. Salim Ali, D.Sc., FNA, for his constant interest in my work and for providing me his valuable guid- ance. Thanks are due to the Trustees of the Salim Ali — Loke Wan Tho Ornithological Research Fund of Bombay Natural History Society for awarding me a fellowship, to Prof. 787 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 4 Different Feeding methods adopted by Muscicapa nigrorufa Type of feeding methods Z-7470 Nov. 1974 70 hrs. observation Feeding attempts : Number Per cent Pair 13 March 1975 46 hrs. Feeding attempts : Number Per cent. Male-Female Male-Female Pair 6 September 197.5 35 hrs. Feeding attempt i Number Per cent Male-Ternale Male-Female Sally 4068 83,32 1328-1176 67.75-75.34 1017-887 73.75-80.93 ’ ' • ... , - . ' (71.51) (77.34) mean Flycatching 570 11.68 396-283 20.20-18.12 198-73 14.36-6.66 •r ' (19.16) • (10.51) Flitting 121 2.48 84-55 4.30-3.51 79-57 5.72-5:20 1 ' (3.90) (5.46) Hopping 110 2.25 125-39 6.37-2.50 82-75 5.94-6.88 (4.43) (5.41) Hovering 9 0.19 19-6 0.97-0.39 0-2 0-0.18 Clinging 4 0.08 8-2 0.40-0.13 3-2 0.22-0.18 Total v- r : attempts : 4882 1960-1561 1379-1096 Average Sally Flycatching Flitting Hopping Hovering and Clinging per cent : 77.40 13.45 3.95 3.70 c. . 1.50 Rate Table 5 of Feeding of Muscicapa nigrorufa ... ........ Birds Observed No. of hours observed Male Female Rate of feeding/hour ' Male Female Average rate/hou Z-7470 70 — 69.5 — Pair 6 20 15 69.0 • 73.0 73.0 Pair 13 26 20 75.4 78.0 . Total 5 116 M 35 71.3 75.5 1m ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER Table 6 Summary of Feeding Habits of Muscicapa nigrorufa AND OTHERS Reeding methods Muscicapa Muscicapa Culicicapa Erithacus Brachypteryx nigrorufa tickelliae ceylonensis brunneus major Prey aerial : Bird aerial. Most Common . Most common ] — , — On simple flight from and back to perch i.e., sally and common t •u 'm :• -l.'iYv flycatching Uncommon Common Not uncommon — — Prey aerial : Bird not aerial. Snapping at passing prey from perch Rare Rare ? — — Prey stationary: Bird aerial. Hovering. Rare Rare ... Snatching prey from vegetation while passing — Rare — — . — Prey stationary: Bird not Hopping, Hopping, aerial. Foraging haphazardly Picking & Picking & in open vegetation. Hopping Rare ? Flicking. Flicking. Clinging Rare — E. brunneus and E. major forage systematically in open vegetation and in under- growth. Foraging in dense vegetation Rare Rare Uncommon Uncommon Most common i : C. ceylonensis collects insects usually one metre above the ground. Methods like sally, fly catching etc., have already been described. K. Z. Husain, Ex-Chairman, Dept, of Zoology, D.U., and the Authorities of the University ot Dacca for granting me study leave, to com- plete this study. I am extremely thankful to Mr. J. C. Daniel, Curator of BNHS; Dr. (Mrs.) Anwara Begum, Chairman, Dept, of Zoology, D.U., Dr. B. Biswas, Deputy Direc- tor, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta; Dr. R. M. Naik, M. S'. University, Baroda; and Dr. Robert B. Griibh, Asst. Curator of BNHS for their help and encouragement. The help and assistance rendered by Messers S. A. Hussain of BNHS, E. R. C. Davidam V. K. Ramakrishnan, R. Sugathan, P. Kantian, Cura- tor, Borivli National Park, Miss Priya Davidar and Mrs. Shailaja B. Grubh are thankfully acknowledged. Tamil Nadu Government es- pecially Forest Department deserve mention as they have provided me with necessary per- mission to conduct the field work in the Nil- giris, where the forest officials gave all local assistance. Forest Departments of Karnataka and Kerala states were also very co-operative. Dr. S. Jayaraj and Dr. Abdul Kareem of Agricultural University, Coimbatore; Prof. P. V. Bole, St. Xaviers College, Bombay; . Mr. Naresh Chaturvedi of BNHS; Miss Saramma Isaac of BNHS; Miss Renee Bourges, mem- JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ber; A. L. Hegde, Accountant; Mr. J. S. Ser- rao. Librarian, of BNHS; Curator of Botani- cal Garden, Ooty; Managers of Botanical Garden and Sims’ Park, Coonoor, and Govt. Meteorological Department, Madras, kindly identified insects and other animals and plants; provided necessary assistance, topo- graphical and meteorological data, permission to work in their relevant compounds, and various other help for which I thank them. My sincerest thanks are due to my friends Joseph, Alam, Jude and Peter, for the trouble they took to help me with reprints etc. and in the field work, to my wife Nazu for her de- termination to live a flycatcher-widow life during my absence from the country. References Ali, Salim. (1935): Ornithology of Travancore and Cochin (with notes by Hugh Whistler). Part 3. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 38: 282-320. . (1942): The birds of Mysore (with notes by Hugh Whistler). Part 2. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 43: 318-341. . (1949): Indian Hill Birds. Oxford Univ. Press, Bombay. . (1977): The Book of Indian Birds. 10th edn. Bombay Natural History Society. Ali, Salim and Ripley, S. D. (1972): Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Vol. 7. Oxford University Press, Bombay. Anonymous. (1968): Maharashtra State Gazet- teer, Amaravati District. Rev. ed. Directorate of Government Printing, Bombay. Baker, E. C. S. (1924): Fauna of British India. Birds. 2nd edn. Vol. 2. Taylor and Francis, London. (1933) : The Nidification of the Birds of the Indian Empire. Vol. 2. Taylor and Francis, London. Baker, H. R. and Inglis, C. M. (1930): The Birds of Southern India. Government Press, Madras. Bourdillon, T. F. (1880): Letters to the Editor. Stray Feathers 9: 299-300. Campbell, B. (1954-1955): The breeding distri- bution and habitat of the Pied Flycatcher ( Musci - capa hypoleuca ) in Britain. Bird Study 1: 81-101; 2: 24-32, 179-191. (1959) : Attachment of Pied Flycat- cher Muscicapa hypoleuca to nest sites. Ibis 101: 445-448. Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. K. (1968): A revised survey of the forest types of India. Govern- ment of India, Delhi. Croxall., J. P. (1976): The composition and behaviour of some mixed-species bird flocks in Sarawak. Ibis 118: 333-346. Davison, W. (1883) : Notes on some birds col- lected on the Nilgiris and parts of Wynaad and southern Mysore. Stray Feathers 10: 329-419. Fairbank, S. B. (1887): A list of birds collect- ed and observed on the Palni hills, Stray Feathers 5: 387-410. Ferguson, H. S. (1898): Birds not recorded in the Fauna of British India from Travancore. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 12: 202-203. Ferguson, H. S. and Bourdillon, T. F. (1904): The birds of Travancore with notes on their nidi- fication. Part 2. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 15 : 455-474. Gaston, A. J. (1974): Adaptation in the genus Phylloscopus, Ibis 116: 432-450. Haartman, L. V. (1956): Territory in the Pied Flycatcher Muscicapa hypoleuca. Ibis 98: 460-475. (1967): Clutch-size in the Pied Fly- catcher. Proc. Intr. orn. Congr. 14: 155-164. Hartley, P. H. T. (1964): Article ‘Feeding habits’ in Thomson. A. L. (ed.). New. Diet. Birds. Nelsen, London and New York. Hume, A. O. (1876): A first list of the birds of Travancore hills. Stray Feathers 4: 351-405. Jerdon, T. C. (1862): Birds of India. Vol. I. Published by the author, Calcutta. Kinloch, A. P. (1921): Rough notes on the avi- fauna of the Nelliampathy hills. J. Bombay nat . Hist. Soc. 27: 939-944. (1923): On the birds of the Nelliam- pathy hills. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 29: 564-565. 790 ECOLOGY OF BLACK & ORANGE FLYCATCHER Koelz, W. (1947): Notes on a collection of birds from Madras. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 47 : 128-142. Lack, David (1966) : Population studies in birds. Clarendon Press, Oxf. London. Mani, M. S. (1968): Ecology and biogeography of high altitude insects. Dr. W. Junk N. V. Publica- tion, The Hague. McMaster, A. C. (1871): Note on birds observ- ed in the neighbourhood of Nagpur and Kamptee (Central Province). Chikalda and Akola in Berar. /. Asiatic Soc. Bengal. Part 2. 205-215. Meidell, O. [Haartman, L. V.] (1961): Life his- tory of the Pied Flycatcher and the Redstart in a Norwegean Mountain area. Nytl. Mag. Zool. 10: 5-47. Nichols. E. G. (1937): The Kodaikanal birds and how to name them. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 39: 812-830. Oates, E. W. (1890): Fauna of British India in- cluding Ceylon and Burma. Birds. 1st edn. Vol. 2. Taylor and Francis, London. Primrose, J. B. (1938): Supplementary observa- tions on the Munnar section of the ornithological survey of Travancore and Cochin. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 40: 500-507. Puri, G. S. (1960): Indian Forest Ecology. 2 vols. Oxford Book & Stationary Co., New Delhi. Ranganathan, C. R. (1938) : Studies in the eco- logy of the shola grassland vegetation of the Nil- giri plateau. Indian Forester 54: 523-541. Ripley, S. D. (1961): A synopsis of the birds of India and Pakistan. Bombay Natural History Society. Summers-Smith, D. (1952) : Breeding biology Whistler, Hugh and Kinnear, N. B. (1932): The Vernay scientific survey of the Eastern Ghats. Ornithological Section. Part 3. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 36: 67-93. 791 RODENT RESEARCH IN INDIA IS H WAR PRAKASH1 I take justifiable pride in the fact that all through my teaching /research career spanning the last two decades it has almost been a habit with me to ensure that the organisation that I might be serving at any particular time must have all the available volumes of JBNHS in its library. While I cannot altogether disown selfish motives in being in close physical pro- ximity to the fascinating store of nature lore that the pages of JBNHS contain, I can at least claim to nurture, at the same time a sustained interest in the propagation of JBNHS for the values that it has upheld all these 75 years. Therefore, when I received an invitation from the Editor to contribute to the 75th Anniver- sary Volume, I took it as an opportunity to repay my debt to this great journal at least partially. I am presenting a brief account of rodent research that has been carried out in the country during the period since the 50th Volume of JBNHS was published. India’s golden period of mammal research was during the early part of this century when an immense volume of material poured out of the press, written by stalwarts of Indian mam- malogy. A lucid account of the history of In- dian mammalogy has been presented by Kin- near (1952) in the 50th Volume of the JBNHS. Pertaining to rodents, probably the most im- portant were the 55 reports of the BNHS Mammal Survey incorporating the Scientific Results and Summaries of the survey series, mostly done by Wroughton. After this period, a sort of dormancy prevailed in respect of re- search work on rodents as well as mammals in our country which was probably broken in 1953 by Professor Daya Krishna of the Jas- want College, Jodhpur, who was awarded a Research Project on Vertebrate Ecology of the Indian Desert by U.N.E.S.C.O. I had the pri- vilege of starting it as the mammalogist. It continued upto 1956. Individually Dr. M. L. Roonwal had already started his monographic work on the mammals of Manipur (1948, 1949, 1950). Later, Indian Council of Agri- cultural Research (ICAR) established, in 1959, a section on Animal Ecology in the Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, chief- ly to study the desert rodents and to find out ways and means to control them. The author has been working in this section since its incep- tion. Simultaneously, ICAR launched a Co- ordinated Scheme for research on the study of field rats. It lasted till 1969. The Johns Hop- kins University started a centre at Calcutta and rodent research was a part of its pro- gramme. In 1970 U.S.A.I.D. launched a field programme of rodent control in the Sidhpur taluka in Gujarat State and in 1972 the Ford Foundation funded Department of Vertebrate Biology in the University of Agricultural Scien- ces at Bangalore. Thereafter, ICAR again re- newed its interest in Rodent Research, initiating an All India Coordinated Programme on Rod- ent Research with four centres and by launch- 1 Coordinator and Principal Animal Ecologist, All India Coordinated Research Programme on Rodent Control, Central Arid Zone Research Insti- tute, Jodhpur. 792 RODENT RESEARCH IN INDIA ing a National Programme for Rodent Pest Management in 1975. I am endeavouring to present briefly the salient features of research conducted under the above mentioned projects and a few more centres. Central Arid zone Research Institute , Jodhpur Ecological Survey An ecological survey of rodent population in a vast region representing the desert biome was conducted and besides reporting 8 rodent species for the first time, district-wise density of rodents, relative abundance, species compo- sition in various habitats, and their inter-rela- tionship with vegetation types, agricultural crops and soil texture have been worked out (Prakash et al. 1971). Certain rodent pests show habitat specificity, such as: Gerhillus n. Indus occurs exclusively in the sandy habitat; Rattus c. cutchicus and Mus cervicolor phil - lip si in the rocky habitat; and R. meltada pal - lidior, Golunda ellioti, Nesokia indica, Mus booduga in the agricultural crops. Our collea- gue, Shri Rana has just collected Bandicota bengalensis and V and el curia o. spadicea from Bisalpur, from the foot of Aravallis in western Rajasthan. Food The rodents feed throughout the year upon vegetative parts of plants, supplemented by seeds (post-monsoon and winter) and insects (spring and summer for Tat era and summer for Meriones). The fluctuations in the occur- rence of various food items were more com- mon in the latter gerbil, which were in con- formity with the changing vegetational eco- system reflecting the availability of different food items. The food preferences of merion gerbil were studied in the field during mon- soon by comparing the frequency of occurrence of each plant species iu the biotope with that of the un-consumed plant species lying near burrow openings of the gerbils. It was reveal- ed that they show a definite preference for palatable grasses, the preference being in the following order: Cenchrus ciliaris, Aristida adscenionis, Eragrostis ciliaris, Digitaria ad- scendens, Brachiaris ramosa and Tragus bi- florus. In the desert tract where the study was conducted, the density of desert gerbils was esti- mated to be 477 per hectare. Considering that a gerbil consumes about 6 gm. feed a day, their annual requirement will be 1044 kg/hectare assuming that their number will be maintained at this level all the year round. The figure of the estimated forage production in this tract were 1410 per hectare. Comparing this figure it will appear that hardly any fodder will be left for livestock, particularly when the esti- mate of the gerbil depradation does not in- clude the destruction they do by cutting the grasses and by digging burrows in the root sys- tems of plants. The gerbils do serious damage to tree plantations by their debarking activity. Sometimes the debarking is done so deep that the system is completely cut causing the death of the tree. Worst affected by the debarking activity of gerbils are Prosopis spicigera, Albiz - zia lebbek and Acacia tortilis. They are extre- mely destructive to the afforestation saplings (Prakash 1975). The gerbils are also serious factors of de- sertification as they excavate the stabilised soil at a rate of 61,500 kg,/ day /km. 2 Breeding season Most of the rodents breed all the year round with peak littering activity in February, mon- soon season and November. Minimum breed- ing activity was, however, observed during April and May. These studies indicate that if rodent control is to be carried out through poison baits, the operations should be taken 793 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 up during the period of minimum breeding activity (April and May), whereas if gassing is to be followed, the period of maximum lit- tering (monsoon season) should be chosen. Population characteristics Detailed studies on population have been made only on M. hurrianae and F. pennanti. The average annual number of M. hurrianae varied from 31 to 456 per 95 x 95 m experi- mental plots in three bio-climatic zones of Ra- jasthan desert. The fluctuations in their num- ber also show an annual trend, numbers being lowest in summer and highest in winter and spring, the increase being attributed chiefly to the enhanced rate of reproduction after mon- soon as directly influenced by the availability of green food at this time. Number of desert gerbils have a direct relationship with soil char- acteristics, the population being thinner in clayey and compact soils. An inverse relation- ship was, however, found between grass cover and population density of desert gerbils (Pra- kash 1976). The lowest populations of palm squirrel were observed during winter, at which time they do not breed as well. This may be the correct season for their control. Home Ranges The average home range of male and female F. pennanti was found by minimum home range method to be 0.21 — 0.73 hectares and 0.15 — 0.034 hectares respectively. The ob- served range length of adult male palm squir- rel was 65.61 ± 4.80 m., for adult female 46.87 — 5.40 m., for sub-adult male 41.71 — 10.93 m, and for sub-adult female 43.95 ± 1.85 m. The observed range length of adult males is more than other groups probably because of higher competition among adult males for mate which are lesser in number than the for- mer. The observed range length of male and female desert gerbil was found to be 16.03 — 0.98 m and 18.46 ± 1.5 m. Work on T. indica is in progress. These studies have shown that the baiting stations for the control of F. pen- nanti and M. hurrianae should be established at an interval of 30 m and 10 m respectively. The behavioural patterns of various rodents, R. rattus, Gerbillus nanus and M. hurrianae have been extensively studied. This work has clearly indicated a development of a parallel evolution of behavioural adaptations to xeric environment irrespective of geographic discon- tinuity in the distribution of rodent species (Prakash 1975). The study of humoral aspects has also provided pertinent and useful infor- mation regarding the timing of poisoning, bait placement and planning of the operation. Two experiments are in progress since the begin- ning of the project on exploratory and neo- phobic behaviour of rodents. The experiments are being done inside the ‘plus’ maze. Stu- dies on physiological adaptations of the ro- dents for survival in the desert biome are in- corporated in Prakash and Ghosh (1975). Studies on the ventral marking gland are in progress. The most common use of the secre- tion of mid ventral gland is for marking around the entrance of burrows and for marking the trails that gerbils use to move about to many burrows. The marking frequency in adult males (median marking score: 8, range 0.27) were greater than adult female (median marking score: 0, range 0.27). Marking rate is greater in ‘dominant’ male gerbil than that of ‘sub- missive’ male gerbil. Efforts are being made to enhance the consumption of poison bait to increase the efficacy of control operation. In addition to this work, bait preference of 7 species of rodents, bait shyness and lethal dosages of rodenticides for almost all the de- sert rodents have been worked out (Fitzwater and Prakash 1978). In this review the work on rodent control aspects has been excluded. 794 RODENT RESEARCH IN INDIA CAZRI has been designated as the ICAR Cen- tre for Rodent Research and Training and is also functioning as the Coordinating Unit of the National Programme for Rodent Pest Ma- nagement since it was launched during 1975 (Prakash 1976). ICAR Coordinated Scheme on Field Rats The Coordinated Scheme on the study of field rats, financed by ICAR, ran for 11 years (1959-69) at five centres — Kanpur, Ludhiana, Bombay, Hyderabad and Aduthurai. The ma- jor findings have been adapted from Srivastava (1968, 1969). Species Composition Trapping results indicated that in Uttar Pra- desh, Punjab and near Madras Bandicota ben- galensis, Rat t us meltada pallidior. Tat era indi- ca and Nesokia indica are the predominant field rodent species. Rattus r. rufescens was also reported in the coconut crops in Marutera in Andhra Pradesh. In Maharashtra, B. benga- lensis, R. rattus, Mus cervicolor nagarum and Bandicota indica were found to be the major species. Probably in the absence of a set pat- tern of trapping it is not possible to work out the relative abundance of these species from the data. Srivastava (1968) estimated the field rat population of Uttar Pradesh fluctuating bet- ween 287 to 818 millions during various months of the year! At Rajendranagar, traps were set near coconut trees and the population of field rats varied from 3 to 8 per acre (= 7 to 19 /ha) from October 67 to June 1968. Damage assessment Probably the best work done under the sche- me was on this aspect and damages were asses- sed on statistically designed methods. The losses to various crops in the five regions of the scheme are averaged as under: Wheat 11.1 to 11.9 per cent. Barley 5.8 per cent, Jowar 5.8 to 6.3 per cent. Gram 0.9 per cent, Paddy 4.6 to 5.4 per cent. Groundnut 4.1 to 25.8 per cent. Coconut 5 per cent. Maize 14 per cent and sugarcane 2.2 per cent. Besides these ma- jor crops, damages to several other crops were also estimated in field particularly in south In- dia. Habits Fair attention was paid by the research workers in the scheme on burrow pattern, num- ber, size, shape and colour of faecal pellets. On the basis of patterns of 10 burrows of each species, Srivastava (1968) found that on an average there are 11.9, 7.2 and 4.2 openings in the burrows of B. bengalensis, T. indica and Mus b. booduga, and are 73.8, 100.5, 35.7 cms. deep respectively. Almost similar results were reported from various other centres. It would have been of interest if such a massive effort of digging about 10,000 burrows in various parts of the country had presented common burrow patterns of various species as has now been done by Barnett & Prakash (1975). Like- wise, the extensive work on faecal pellets, paw marks, swimming habits and movements car- ried out at all the centres could not be used for practical application and yielded conclu- sion like, “Field observations indicated that the rats migrated from one field to another”, or, “Mole rats when caged together started quar- relling with each other” and so on! Breeding Season Breeding data collected over 11 years and at 5 centres pointed out that most of the rodents breed all the year round and their litter size varies from 1 to 16, in B. bengalensis at Adu- thurai, and 3-9 of R. meltada. In Uttar Pradesh M. b. booduga was found to litter in the months of September, October, February and June and the litter size ranged from 6 to 13. During February to May and July to October each female of Rattus meltada produced 1 to 795 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 4 litters, each having 1 to 8 young (av. 3.4), (Srivastava 1968). This information appears to have been collected from random samples ex- cavated out of the burrow and probably a monthly catch on a regular pattern was not planned to yield concrete data on the repro- duction activity of rodents. Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana After the termination of the Scheme, the Punjab Agricultural University continued ro- dent research and a number of students have submitted their M.Sc. and Ph.D. dissertations on Punjab rodents. The major fields of their investigations have been the rodent-crop rela- tionship, their food, breeding habits, popula- tion fluctuations, behaviour of B. bengalensis, T. indica, R. meltada and Mus spp. Bindra & Sagar (1975) have summarised the result of their work carried out during 1964-1972. A useful compendium has been produced by Sood & Guraya (1976). The University continues to be a centre of an ICAR Coordinated Pro- ject, a rodent research initiated in 1977. Johns Hopkins University Medical Research & Training Centre, Calcutta One of the aspects of study at this Centre was rodents and extensive studies were done on B. bengalensis in godowns. Though this bandicoot is a field rodent but in the environs of Calcutta and Bombay, it has more or less taken the niche of Rattus rattus, and has re- placed it almost totally at the former place. Parrack (1966) and Spillett (1968) found that population of B. bengalensis in grain storage godowns over an 11 month period was on an average 0.78 per m2 of floor space. This ap- pears to be very high figure but Spillett men- tioned that these estimates were low. The high population is maintained partly due to their continuous reproductive activity. The preva- lence of pregnancy for sexually mature fema- les was the highest that has been recorded for a murid population. The mean number of cmb- [ ryos per pregnant female was 6.2. Spillett calculated the mean annual production of young per adult female as 70. The rate of food consumption by bandicoots led the author to calculate food losses due to rats in a typi- cal Calcutta godown to approximately 4,200 kg annually. The Centre was closed subsequent to these studies. Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore With a major objective to control the rodent pests, the Central Food Technological Research Institute has also carried out valuable work on rodents particularly in the large ratteries, a facility available till recently only to scien- tists at this Institute. Besides work on food pre- ferences, burrow patterns, behaviour of ro- dents, population studies, a number of ro- denticides have been screened and a few ro- dent control methodologies have been develop- ed by the scientists of the Institute, Indian Grain Storage Institute, Hapur Rodent work at the Grain Storage Research Institute has been carried out in rural environ- ment. Krishnamurthy et al. (1967) observed that the population of house rats in the villa- ges around Hapur was on an average 1,057 rats per village, 9.7 per house and 1.3 per per- son. In improved residential premises, the rat population was only 1.8 per house and 0.34 per person. Later on, however, Krishnamurthy et al. (1971) found the density of rats to be 8.5 to 18.5 per house. The authors observed that the average food intake of R. rattus varied with their body weight and ranged from 8.98 to 18.69 g wheat per day, Mus musculus con- sumed 2.56 g/ day and B. bengalensis 50-60 g. The losses of foodgrains in the village were esti- 796 RODENT RESEARCH IN INDIA mated to range from L36 to 3.59 tonnes, aver- age being 2.34 tonnes -annually. Another study (Girish et al. 1972) calculated that 1 to 3.75 per cent stored foodgrains are lost to rats in city godowns. Besides these studies, work is continuing in the Institute on the efficacy of rodenticides for rodent control. A good com- pendium has been produced by Pingale et ah (1967). Rodent Control Project, Sidhpur The work was initiated as an operational re* ji search project in the Sidhpur taluka of north- ern Gujarat (80 villages) and one or two vil- lages in every district of the State. Control ope- ration was taken up in residential premises on such a large and successful manner, that the classic work will remain as a demonstration for the entire country if not for the whole world. The villages were maintained at a very low level of rodent population for a long dura- tion (1971-77). Rodent Control Training to State/ district /village level workers was an- other major function of the project. Besides a number of research projects on their popu- lation in villages, bait preferences, efficacy of traps and rodenticides, the detailed results are embodied in Ahmedabad Symposium, ably ar- ranged by the project. Haffkine’s Institute, Bombay In addition to epidemeological studies on Bombay rodents, a great deal of research has been carried out on population change over of species and their control (Deoras 1966). University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore A department of Vertebrate Biology func- tioned at the University for five years and it is continued now as a Centre of Coordinated Research Programme on Rodent Control of the ICAR. The research work here continues on rodent species composition in fields, popu- lation dynamics, behaviour, bait preferences, evaluation of rodenticides and operational con- trol methods in field. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh Most of the research work is continuing on Raitus rattus on its food habits, bait preferen- ce and bait shyness. Delhi University, Delhi After completing work on the Indian gerbil and the squirrels at Bangalore, Dr. M. R. N. Prasad migrated to the Delhi University and along with his colleagues has done intensive work on F. pennanti and Nesokia indica. Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta The Zoological Survey of India can claim the credit for the publication of the Fauna of India series, particularly the two volumes on rodents (Ellerman 1961). Biswas & Tiwari (1966) compiled the latest information on the distribution of rodents in India and Agrawal (1962) published the results of his studies on the skulls of oriental rodents. At present, be- sides taxonomic work, ecological work on ro- dents is also continuing in ZSI. National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi To elucidate the factors responsible for the persistence of plague in the South India plague focus, the Institute has been conducting stu- dies since 1964 mainly to investigate on the wild rodent plague reservoirs. In addition to epidemiological and serological studies on field rodents, studies have yielded excellent data on the population and breeding biology of Rattus rattus, R. meltada, Mus platythrix and Tat era indica hardwickei (Chandrahas 1974). 797 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Sri Venkateswara University , Tirupati A survey of rodent infested areas revealed B. bengaiensis, R. rciitus, M. booduga, R. mel- iada and T. irtdica as predominant pest spe- cies around Tirupati. A detailed ecological work on M. booduga was undertaken (Rao 1977). The field mice are solitary burrowers occurring in both dry and wet crop habitats and maintaining a congenial microclimate in- side the burrows in all seasons. The preferred food of these mice is seeds of various grasses, roots and leaves of Graminae in summer. A seasonal trend of reproduction from August to February is noted. Behaviour of M. boo- duga and M. platythrix has been studied in detail. Symposia, Summer Institutes and Workshops At least three internationally attended sym- posia have taken place which were devoted only to rodents. First one at Calcutta in 1966, arranged by Dwain Parrack of the Johns Hop- kins University Centre, the second one at Kan- pur by Dr. A. S. Srivastava of the State De- partment of Entomology in 1968 and lastly at Ahmedabad in 1975, Sidhpur. Proceedings of all the three are still available, though that of the first is hard to get. ICAR has arranged two Summer Institutes one at UAS, Bangalore and the other at CAZR1, Jodhpur with the main objective of training University, Plant Protection Staff and other Officers for conducting Rodent Re- search. ICAR has planned to hold workshops regularly to evaluate, coordinate and monitor the rodent research in the country. Latest workshop was held at CAZRI in July, 1978. In spite of the fact that the history of rodent research in India is fairly old yet, as usual for any scientific field, many obvious questions remain to be answered. We have tried to cata- logue them in detail (Barnett & Prakash 1975 and Prakash & Ghosh 1975). There is an urgent need of conducting an ecological survey of field rodents in various habitats of the country. How astonishing is that we just do not know for definite which is the rodent species associated with bamboo flowering in Mizoram? What is the relative abundance of various species in Rayalaseema or Kashmir? What are their population and breeding cycles in various bio-climatic zones? and so on. If we accumulate this knowledge, 1 am sure we will be able to do a much superior job for the National Programme for Rodent Pest Manage- ment. References Agrawal, V. C. (1962) : Taxonomic study of skulls of oriental rodents in relation to ecology. Rec. lnd. Mus. 60 (3/4): 125-326. All India Rodent Seminar, 1975. Farmers Friends Association, Sidhpur, 1-376. Barnett, S. A. & Prakash, I. (1975) : Rodents of economic Importance in India. Arnold-Heine- mann, New Delhi & London, 1-175. Bindra, O. S. & Sagar, P. (1975): A review of studies on ecology, biology, damage and control of field rats and field mice in the Punjab. Proc. All India Rodent Seminar, Ahmedabad, 82-88. Biswas, B. & Tiwari, K. K. (1966): Taxonomy and distribution of common Indian rodents. Indian Rodent Symp., Calcutta, 9-45. Chandrahas, R. K. (1974): Ecology of the brown spiny mouse, Mus p. platythrix (Bennett) and the Indian field mouse, Mus b. booduga (Gray). Indian J. Med. Res., 62: 264-280. Deoras, P. J. (1966): The significance of prob- able change of rat population in Bombay. Indian Rodent Symp. Calcutta, 58-68. Deoras, P. J. (1964): Rats and their control. A review of an account of work done on rats in 798 RODENT RESEARCH IN INDIA India. Ind. J. Entomol., 26: 407-418. Ellerman, J. R. (1961) : The fauna of India, in- cluding Pakistan, Burma & Ceylon. Mammalia Vol. 3, Rodentia, 1-884. Fitzwater, & Prakash, I. (1978): Handbook of Vertebrate Pest Control (Rev. Ed.), ICAR, New Delhi. Girish, G. K., Singh, K., Srivastava, P. K. & Krishnamurthy, K. (1972): Studies on rodents and their control. Part III. Susceptibility of Rattus rattus to dilferent anticoagulants. Bull. Grain Technol. 10: 113-115. Indian Rodent Symposium. 1966. The Johns Hopkins Univ. Centre for Med. Res. & Training and USAID, Calcutta, 1-314. International Symposium on Bionomics and Con- trol of Rodents. 1968. Science & Technol. Soc., Kan- pur. 1-184. Kinnear, N. (1952) : The history of Indian mammalogy and ornithology. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 50: 767-778. Krishnamurthy, K., Uniyal, V., Singh, J. & Pingale, S. V. (1967): Studies on rodents and their control. Pt. I. Studies on rat population and losses of food grains. Bull. Grain Technol., 5: 147-153. Krishnamurthy, K., Ramasivan, T. & Uniyal, V. (1971) : Studies on rodents and their control. Part VI. Studies on fluctuations in population and breeding period of R. rattus in Hapur region, ibid. 9: 79-82. Parrack, D. W. (1966): Activity cycle of the lesser bandicoot rat, Bandicota bengalensis. Curr. Sci., 35: 544-545. Pingale, S. V., Krishnamurthy, K. & Rama- sivan, T. (1967) : Rats. Food Grain Technol. Res. Assn, of India, Hapur, 1-91. Prakash, 1. (1974): The ecology of vertebrates of the Indian desert. In : Ecology and Biogeography in India. Dr. W. Junk b.v. Publishers. The Hague, 369-420. (1975) : The ecology and zoogeo- graphy of mammals. In : Environmental Analysis of the Thar Desert. (Edited by R. K. Gupta & I. Prakash), English Book Depot, Dehradun, 446-467. (1976): Rodent Pest Management — Principles and Practices. Monograph No. 4, CAZRI, Jodhpur, 1-28. (1976) : Desert rodents and their management. Desertification and Its Control. ICAR., 263-268. & Ghosh, P. K. (Ed.). (1975): Rodents in Desert Environments. Dr. Junk Verlag, The Hague, 1-628. Gupta, R. K., Jain, A. P., Rana, B. D. & Dutta, B. K. (1971): Ecological evalua- tion of rodent populations in the desert biome of Rajasthan. Mammalia, 35 : 394-423. Rao, A. M. K. M. (1977) : Studies on some eco- logical aspects of the Indian field mouse, Mus booduga Gray. Ph.D. Thesis, S. V. University, Tiru- pati. Roonwal, M. L. (1948) : Three new Muridae (Mammalia: Rodentia) from Assam and the Ka- baw Valley, Upper Burma. Proc. Nat. Inst. Sci. India, 14: 385-387. (1949) : Systematics, ecology and bionomics of mammals studied in connection with Tsutsugamushi disease (Scrub typhus) in the As- sam-Burma war theatre during 1945. Trans. Nat. Inst. Sci. India, 3: 67-122. (1950): Contribution to the fauna of Manipur State, Assam. Pt. 3. Rec. Indian Mus., 47: 1-64. Sood, M. L. & Guraya, S. S. (1976) : Rats and their control. Punjab Agric. Univ., Ludhiana, 1-31. Spillett, J. J. (1968): The ecology of the lesser bandicoot rat in Calcutta. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. & Johns Hopkins Univ. Centre for Med. Res. & Training, Calcutta, 1-223. Srivastava, A. S. (1968) : Rodent control for increased food production. Rotary Club (West), Kanpur, 1-152. Srivastava, (1969) : Report on All India Co- ordinated Scheme for Research on the study of field rats, I.C.A.R., New Delhi, 1-36. 799 16 PROTO-FIDDLERS AND FIDDLERS : PATHWAYS TO WAVING IN INDIAN BRACHYURAN CRABS1 Rudolf Altevogt2 ( With four text- figures ) The visual signalling gestures of the brachyuran crabs Macrophthalmus tomentosus, Souleyet (Grapsidae), Dotilla blanfordi and D. myctiroides (Ocypodidae, Scopime- rinae) are described and analyzed by cinematography. In comparison with the waving of true fiddler crabs (genus Uca, Ocypodidae, Ocypodinae) one finds an ascending series of complexity in these communication signals so that the said crabs may serve as examples of evolutionary pathways to waving. Almost a century ago, Alcock (1892, 1902) gave the first account on Indian fiddler crabs which he had observed in the field on the banks of the Godavari and Kistna rivers. Al- most twentyfive years ago, I published “some studies on two species of Indian fiddler crabs, Uca marionis nitidus Dana and U. annulipes Latr.” (1955) in the very Journal which we are celebrating by the present diamond jubilee volume. Since then quite a bulk of information has been obtained on the systematics, behavi- oural ecology and physiology of these most highly evolved brachyuran Crustaceans (for literature upto 1974 see the veritable “bible” on fiddler crabs by Crane, 1975). From the findings of a hoard of enthusiastic Uca-stu- dents and scholars quoted in the monumental volume by Crane and other sources listed be- low, it can safely be concluded that 1) the name giving visual gesture (fiddling, beckoning, waving the great claw by the males) serves semantic purposes informing the con- specific rival to keep away and the potential 1 On the 70th anniversary of Prof. Harald Stump- ke, alias Gerolf Steiner in Mairuwilli, Black Forest. 2 Department of Physiology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Munster University, Federal Republic of Germany. sex partner to feel appeased and willing to mate, 2) there is a graded series of complexity in the type of waving in the ninety-odd species of true fiddlers of the genus Uca reaching from a primitive up-and-down movement of the claw (as in Uca batuenta from South Ame- rica, Altevogt and Altevogt, 1967a) to the ex- traordinary rotation waving (as in Uca insignis from the Eastern Pacific, Altevogt and Alte- vogt 1967b), 3) that corresponding homologous vibratory signals are produced by tapping claws or legs against the soil when underground in the crabs’ burrows at night or under dense vegetation obstructing visual signalling. While the intriguing wealth of various types and levels of waving in the true fiddlers has attracted numerous authors (including a good number of my students: Von Hagen 1962; Gunther 1963; Nosier 1963; Korte 1966; Feest 1969; Jansen 1970; Heinrich 1971), the evolutionary prestages of true wav- ing in the lower ranks of Crustacea have little been worked upon (though some hints to and considerations of this phenomenon can already be found in Altevogt, 1957a, b). Also Schone & Schone (1963) as well as Wright (1968) have PROTO-FIDDLERS AND FIDDLERS dwelt on this subject. It is for this reason that in the following pages some Indian proto- fiddlers shall be treated and compared to some true fiddlers of India. The relevant data were recorded on several trips to crab habitats along the Indian coasts from north of Bombay down to Cape Comorin and up to Diamond Har- bour/Calcutta during the years 1970-1976. Re- cording was done by cinematography (24-64 frames per second, Bolex H 16 reflex, 16 mm, Ektachxome), and still photography. Thanks are due to Professor Dr. H. O. von Hagen, Marburg, for determining the Macrophthal- mus species, and to Miss M. Hans for frame- to-frame analysis and drawing. From my selected list of proto- and true fiddlers, undoubtedly Macro ph ihalmus tomen- tosus (earlier known as Mareotis), Souleyet (Grapsidae), belongs to the most primitive fiddlers, followed in ascending order by the two Dotilla- species D. hlanfordi and D. myc- tiroides (Ocypodidae, Scopimerinae) and the true fiddlers of the Uca-t ype of which U. urvil- lei will be dealt with here. The latter was chosen because its waving type and display are among the simplest and they have so far not been treated in detail (A rough sketch of waving in Uca urvillei from Inhaca Island, Mozambique, was given by Mcnae and Kalk, 1958, and Crane, 1975, reports observations from Tanzania and data taken from films on two individuals during August). Waving in Macrophtfaalmus tomentosus This is a rather slow affair compared to the real thing in a true fiddler of a somewhat high evolutionary level as, for instance, Uca annulipes (see Altevogt 1955, 1957a, and film 1957). From my movie scenes taken in Feb- ruary/March 1976 near Adyar/ Madras we find that in Macrophthalmus tomentosus the average waving gesture lasts 2.4 seconds (n = 18). From the resting position of the two claws in front of the body and close to the ground, the signalling gesture starts by an asynchro- nous movement of one claw (see fig. 1, frame 12), thus giving way to an upward movement of the other one (frames 17 to 28). Meanwhile, also the other claw performs a lifting motion (frames 28 to 33). In reaching the apex, both claws catch up with each other so that in the highest position both claws are fully stretched out above the crab’s body (frame 39). Lower- ing the raised claws to the ground and bring- ing them back to the resting position in front of the mouthparts complete the waving gesture (frames 44-54). It is, then, primarily a verti- cal wave. We must note, however, that the temporal pattern of lifting and then lowering the chelae shows an important feature in the 3 to 5 jerks in the raising, while no such intermittent short stops are found in the downward movement. Hence, the conspicuous element in the whole gesture rests in the downward stroke (a find- ing similar to that in Dotilla blanfordi — see Altevogt, 1957b — and to Dotilla my ctir aides , see below, and to that in many Uca signal- lings). While on the average the jerking up- ward movement lasts 2 seconds, the down- ward emphasis takes only a flash of 0.4 seconds. We have not seen much alteration of this temporal pattern even when a female or male conspecific was close by. This fact may also be taken as a criterion of primitivity, as in true fiddlers the rate and type of waving become more rapid and complex if a pro- spective sex partner approaches (see Von Hagen, 1962, 1968, and the films by Altevogt and Von Hagen, listed in the appendix). More- over, in advanced stages of courtship (i.e., higher excitation levels) of most Uca-species, the ambulatories are lifted off the ground in a species-specific manner and take part in the 801 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 802 Fig. 1. Waving in Macro phthalmus tomentosus, dorsal view. Numbers and dots represent frame number of movie (24 frames per second). PROTO-FIDDLERS AND FIDDLERS signalling. No leg raising as in Uca annuli pes, insignis and others was seen in about 50 in- dividuals of Macrophthalmus observed in va- rious stages of excitement. These findings sug- gest that waving is derived from a locomotory movement because in Macrophthalmus, where nature has presented us with a prefabricated slow motion example, the movements of the claws are not at all synchronous at the start, but follow the ancestral style of activating the ambulatories (and the chelipeds as derived walking legs, too) in a crosswise manner. Hence, the waving gesture starts with one claw (see also Altevogt 1972, p. 459 ff.). Inci- dentally, Crane hypothesized that the vertical wave (as in Macrophthalmus) originated from a feeding movement (as in a mud sifting Uca- species) while the horizontal wave of several Uca- forms would have derived from a threat- ening gesture in which the claw as a fighting weapon would be shown (1975, p. 523/524 and fig. 87). Earlier, Hediger (1933) had ad- vanced similar ideas about the common root of threatening and waving. It should be noted here that in Macrophthalmus both claws are very much similar, if not equal in size. While in a non-waving Macrophthalmus the claws are drab earthen-coloured they tend to become whitish in a signalling animal. This also would be more compatible with a sex- attractant function than with a threatening gesture. In a Macrophthalmus- species from Port Swettenham (Malaysia), probably M. pacificus Dana, Tweedie (1954) reported bright blue claws and has seen them performing wav- ing movements with both chelae. We have not seen any copulations in Macrophthalmus so that the connection between waving and sexual success remains still to be shown (though it is strongly to be inferred from a bulk of find- ings in other Crustacea Brachyura). Waving in DotilSa myctiroides While the waving pattern of Dotilla blan- fordi had been analyzed by frame-to-frame- studies in 1955 (Altevogt 1957b), the typical gesture of D. myctiroides had not been covered. The present data were recorded near Panjim (Goa) and Adyar/Madras from Feb- ruary to April 1976. There are two types of claw movements in Dotilla which may easily be confounded by the inexperienced observer: a) the “dance of triumph” after a mock or real fight against an opponent (described in detail for D. blan- fordi in Altevogt, 1957 a and b) the courtship wave which is, among others, recog- nizable by the conspicuously bleached chelae. While these are dull brownish-grey in the non- sexual animal they become bluish-white in the sexually aroused male (photograph in Alte- vogt, 1957b, p. 386). Only the latter type will be dealt with here. Similarly to the waving in Macrophthal- mus described above, in Dotilla myctiroides the downward component is the most empha- sised element of the gesture lasting only 0.08 seconds, while the lifting movement takes 0.13 seconds (averaged from 22 waves in 20 speci- mens). As can be seen from figure 2 (lower graph), waving gestures follow one another at intervals of 0.17 seconds on the average with a shortest recorded interval of 0.13 seconds. This is slightly superior than the temporal pattern of the D. blanfordi- wave where the shortest interval is about the same, but lifting the claw lasts slightly longer (> 0.17 sec), which also applies to the lowering it in the downbeat (about 0.1 seconds). The spatial components of the myctiroides- wave resemble those of the blanfordi- gesture and may be seen in fig. 2, upper graph. It should be noted that in both species the claws’ 803 804 Waving in Dotilla myctiroides, frontal view. Time Scale: 1/24 second. PROTO-FIDDLERS AND FIDDLERS upward movement is accompanied by a body raising on tip-toes on stretching legs, thus rendering the signalling even more conspicu- ous. Our recordings at 64 frames per second do not reveal any asynchronous movements of one claw or the other: both claws seem to start synchronously. Possibly, an increased slow-motion technique might reveal an ances- tral alternating activation of one claw followed by that of the other one. In any case it be- comes clear from the above facts that Dotilla has ascended a higher evolutionary ladder than Macrophthalmus as far as waving is concerned. In this context it is interesting to quote from a letter by Tweedie (1957) regard- ing the alternating or simultaneous use of the chelae in D. myctiroides\ “I think I am right in my observation that D. m. uses its chelae both simultaneously and alternately”. The situation in the realm of Uca must be consi- dered separately, because the tendency of oc- cupying a habitat by more than one often closely related or similar species is so promi- nent among these true fiddlers that strong evolutionary pressures may be expected to act on the mechanisms of species recognition and individual acquaintance: we have come across mud banks in the gulf of Guayaquil (Ecua- dor) where a 10 x 10 m square is inhabited by no less than 18 species of Uca in which inter- specific recognition mechanisms are evident (Von Hagen 1968; Altevogt 1969, films 1967). Waving in Uca urvillei There is not much information in the lite- rature about the behavioural ecology of this large steel-blue species (carapace width upto 36 mm) the most extensive report being that by Crane (1975). Hence, the following notes may also be taken as an addition to Crane’s data (1975, pp. 58-61, table 19). Our findings are mainly based on fieldnotes and movies of 50 waves taken on the islands of Vypeen and Vallarpadam in the Bay of Cochin during March and in Goa (near Panaji) in April. Ovigerous females were numerous indicating that the mating season was in full swing. / Nevertheless, waving by the males remained a slow affair indeed, and I know of no other true fiddler of such pronounced lethargy. Thus, the statement by Crane (1975) will re- main valid: “Waving display among the sim- plest” (p. 59). As can be seen from fig. 3, the wave consists of a plain up-and-down of the claw in front of the body with a highest ele- vation just above the tip of the eyes. No body raise by leg stretching could be seen though in the frequent waving-cum-locomotion such a tip-toeing might seem to occur. That quite frequently waving is performed while middl- ing may be taken as an indication for the still close neurophysiological correlation of walk- ing legs and chelipeds (see Altevogt 1972) also suggesting that U. urvillei must be placed on a rather low phyletic scale. From fig. 3 the temporal components of the urvillei-wave at the highest arousal level can be seen lasting about 0.5 seconds in the upstroke and 0.17 seconds for the downstroke, making one com- plete wave last 0.67 seconds. This is slightly shorter than the 0.75 to 0.88 seconds mention- ed by Crane (l.c.) and is probably attributable to the fact that in Crane’s observations (in August /September) the peak of the mating season was not covered. As far as arousal stages are concerned (see Von Hagen, 1962), our courting males showed definite claw bleaching, with pollex and dactylus clear white and the manus sometimes included in this process. In most of the females also the two small claws became conspicuously white with advancing ebb tide. While Crane could not observe any copulations (apart from pseu- docooulatory coverings of females by males), 805 PROTO-FIDDLERS AND FIDDLERS during our study true copulations (above ground) were quite numerous lasting from 3 to 11 minutes. Some copulations were not pre- ceded by any waving or precopulatory beha- viour at all. Normally, though, about 7-11 waves in one series would be aimed at the receptive female, while in a non-courtship display such series consist only of 3 to 4 (as also mentioned by Crane). It seems worthwhile to briefly compare the waving pattern of U. urvillei to that of U. vccans (formerly known as £/. maricmis, Hol- thuis, 1959), as both species are of about the same size and in some places the two species are sympatric (as in Goa and the Cochin re- gion). As reported earlier (Altevogt, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959), the wave in U. vocans fol- lows the temporal and spatial patterns pre- sented in fig. 4. In both species the upstroke lasts longer than the downstroke, and it is the downstroke which carries the signal “potent male ready to copulate”. Now, this informative element would be similar if not identical in both these species if it were not preceded by a different outward flexion angle of the great claw: in urvillei the claw is never flexed outward-late- rally (see graphic presentation in fig. 3) while in vocans the claw’s tip is raised high above the eye by a lateral-outward flexion. More- over, in vocans the apex of a wave is empha- sised by a body raise on tiptoe, which in ur- villei was never seen. In urvillei, on the other hand, the apex, i.e., the highest position of the claw in the wave, seems to be more pro- nounced than in vocans which shows up in the graphic presentation of fig. 3 in that at this moment the claw is held for a short while (about 0.04 sec). Hence, in spite of all simi- larities in the timing of the two waves there are certain specific distinctions which un- doubtedly serve the conspecific recognition in sympatric encounters. This recognition of the conspecific sex part- ner is aided by the typical male waving dance around the female with the male’s bleached back facing her. Such a crescendo is absent in urvillei so that also from this point of view urvillei must be placed between the proto- fiddlers and Uca vocans and the more highly evolved true fiddlers. By the above remarks we hope to have re- lated some examples of proto-fiddlers and lower true fiddlers by which evolution might have ascended to that high level of diversity Fig. 4. Waving in Uca vocans, dorsal view. Time scale: 1/16 second (from Altevogt, 1955). 807 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 and complexity in the waving (and vibratory) signals which may be encountered in the field (For problems of “brachyurization” see also Stevcic 1971). A glimpse of this wealth may R E F E Alocock, A. (1892): On the habits of Gelasimus annulipes. Edw. Ann. Mag. nat. Mist. 6: 415-416. (1902) : A Naturalist in Indian Seas. London, 328 pp. Altevogt, R. (1955) : Some studies on two spe- cies of Indian fiddler crabs, Uca marionis Jtitidus (Dana) and U. annulipes (Latr.). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 52: 702-716. (1957a): Untersuchungen zur Bio- logie, Okologie und Physiologie indischer Winker- krabben. Z. Morph. Okol. Tiere 46: 1-110. (1957b): Beitrage zur Biologie und Ethologie von Dotilla blanfordi Alcock und Dotilla myctiroides (Milne-Edwards) (Crustacea Deca- poda). Z. Morph. Okol. Tiere 46: 369-388. (1959) : The love and life of fiddler crabs. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 56: 1-7. (1969): Ein sexualethologischer Isolationsmechanismus bei sympatrischen Uca- Arten (Ocypodidae) des Ostpazifik. forma et functio 1: 238-249. — (1972) : Physiological inter-rela- tions of display and locomotion in fiddler-crabs: An evolutionary aspect. J. mar. biol. Ass. India 14 : 456-467. Crane, J. (1975): Fiddler crabs of the world. Ocypodidae: Genus Uca. Princeton Univ. Press, 736 pp. Feest, J. (1969): Morphophysiological studies on the ontogeny and sexual biology of Uca annulipes and Uca triangularis as compared to Ilyoplax gan- getica. forma et functio 1: 159-225. Gunther, H. J. (1963): Untersuchungen zur Verbreitung und Okologie von Uca tangeri an der SW-iberischen Kuste. Z. Morph. Okol. Tiere 53: 242-310. Hagen, H. O. von (1962): Freilandstudien zur Sexual- und Fortpflanzungsokologie von Uca tan- geri in Andalusien. Z. Morph. Okol. Tiere 51: 611- 725. be gained from the films listed below which are on loan or for sale by the Institut fur den Wissenschaftlichen Film, Nonnenstieg 72, D- 3400 Gottingen, Federal Republic of Germany. E N CE (1968) : Studien an peruanischen Winkerkrabben (Uca). Zool. Jb. Syst. 95: 395-468. Hediger, H. (1933) : Notes sur la biologie d’un crabe de Fembouchure de l'Oued Bou Regreg, Uca tangeri (Eydoux). Bull. Soc. Sci. nat. Maroc 13: 254-259. Heinrich, B. (1971) : Die Wirkung psychotroper Substanzen auf das Verhalten von Uca tangeri. Zool. Beitr. ( N.F. ) 17: 33-82. Holthuis, L. B. (1959) : Notes on pre-Linnean carcinology (including the study of Xiphosura) of the Malay Archipelago. Chapter 5 in “Rumphius Memorial Volume”, 63-125. Jansen, P. (1970): Physiologisch-okologische Untersuchungen zum “Posen” von Uca tangeri. forma et functio 2: 58-100. Korte, R. (1966) : Untersuchungen zum Sehver- mogen einiger Dekapoden, insbesondere von Uca tangeri. Z. Morph. Okol. Tiere 58: 1-37. Mcnae, W., and M. Kalk (1958): A natural history of Inhaca Island, Mocambique, Johannes- burg. Nosler, H. G. (1963) : Ontogenese und Biologie von Uca tangeri (Eydoux). Thesis, Munster. Schone, H., and Schone, H. (1963): Balz und andere Verhaltensweisen der Mangrovekrabbe Go- niopsis cruentata Latr. und das Winkverhalten der litoralen Brachyuren, Z. Tierpsychol. 20: 641-656. Stevcic, Z. (1971) : The main features of brach- yuran evolution. Syst. Zool. 20: 331-340. Tweedie, M. W. F. (1954): Notes on grapsoid crabs from the Raffles Museum, Nos. 3, 4 and 5. Bull. Raffles Mus. 25: 118-127. Wright, H. O. (1968) : Visual displays in brach- yuran crabs: field and laboratory studies. Am. Zool. 8: 655-665. Selected list of films on the behaviour and eco- logy of Uca species published by the Institut fur den Wissenschaftlichen Film, Nonnenstieg 72, D- 3400 Gottingen, Federal Republic of Germany. 808 PROTO-FIDDLERS AND FIDDLERS Altevogt, R. (1957) : Zur Biologie indischer Winkerkrabben. Film D 756. Altevogt, R., and Altevogt, R. (1967a) : Uca batuenta (Ocypodidae). Balz. Film E 1292. (1967b): Uca insignis (Ocypodi- dae). Balz. Film E 1288. (1967c) : Uca stylifera (Ocypodi- dae). Balz. Film E 1268. Hagen, H. O. von (1971) : Uca maracoani (Ocy- podidae). Balz. Film E 1423. (1972) : Uca cumulanta (Ocypodi- dae). Balz. Film E 1420. 809 COMPETITION AND CO-EXISTENCE IN GRIFFON VULTURES: GYPS BENGA LENS1S, G. INDICES AND G. EULVUS IN GIR FOREST Robert B. Grubh1 Introduction If two (or more) different species populations require a common resource that is potentially limited and actually becomes so, they are said to be in competition for it (Gause 1934). When such a situation arises one of the spe- cies would eliminate all others directly or through competitive exclusion resulting in eco- logical isolation. Therefore congeneric species are known to be isolated from each other by range, habitat or feeding habits (Lack 1971). A world review of birds with reference to co- existence of congeneric species by Lack (1971) shows only one exception where two species ( Calidris melanotos & C. alpinus) with identical feeding habits share the same range and habitat for a short period, of 10 to 12 weeks, but that is attributed to temporary supply of superabundant food. Subsequent workers (Vijayan 1975 on 2 species of bul- buls— Pycnonotidae, and Houston 1975 on 6 species of East African vultures) too have ad- ded fresh data to strengthen the theory of eco- logical isolation originally put forward by Gause and further developed by others as shown above. However, while the theory by itself is logi- cal and on firm grounds, its definition needs 1 Assistant Curator, Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay-400 023. to be made more comprehensive in order to explain additional factors hitherto not consi- dered. For instance Kruuk (1967) who ob- served six species of vultures (Aegypiinae) feeding at carcasses in the Serengeti National Park found that although they all eat off the same carcass, they feed upon different items in the carcass and their feeding techniques also differ. Accordingly he separated the six spe- cies into 3 different categories of feeders, 2 species in each category. But he did not go further to explain how the two species in each category sorted themselves out. We get more information on these birds from Houston (1975) who treats individual species in each pair separately and demonstrates how these species have distinctly different feeding habits in spite of the superficial resemblance. How- ever, with the griffon vultures ( Gyps africa- nus and Gyps rupellii) he found them to have identical feeding habits wherever they occur- red together. He justifies their being found to- gether in the Serengeti by the fact that it is only an overlapping area of distribution. Otherwise the large body size of the rupelli confines its distribution to hilly terrain while the smaller africanus, not so dependent on gliding flight, can feed with equal ease in the plains. Yet this ‘overlapping’ area is big enough to hold a large and fairly stable popu- lation of feeding griffons comprising these two species. Considering the size of the area and 810 COMPETITION AND CO-EXISTENCE IN GRIFFON VULTURES the population of griffons involved it would be more reasonable to try and explain how these two species manage to co-exist in the Serengeti rather than put it away as an ‘overlapping’ area. The scope of this paper is to discuss the factors that evidently control a very similar situation in the Gir Forest (Western India) in which three species of griffons are involved: the Indian whitebacked Gyps bengalensis, the longbilled G. indicus, and the fulvous griffon G. fulvus. Observational methods The observations included a study of the status and distribution of vultures in the Gir, their population and the feeding habits. Obser- vational methods consisted mostly of obser- vation of the vultures in the wild with unaid- ed eyes or using field binoculars or a portable hide. Captive birds were observed to a limited extent. For details of the methods, see Grubh (1974). The entire study lasted for about 23 months, from September, 1970 to July, 1972. Study Area and Status of the Griffons The Gir Forest is a hilly terrain of c. 1265 km.2 area (in 1971-72) having mixed dry teak and savannah, deciduous forest. For more de- tails of the study area, see Grubh, 1978. The Gir accommodates approximately 440 griffon vultures ( Gyps spp.) at a time in the dry sea- son, from November to May, and 350 griffons from June to October in the wet season. The species composition of the whitebacked, long- billed and fulvous during the dry season is 85%, 8% & 7%, respectively. Indistinguish- able feeding habits and uniform distribution within the Gir enable these species to share the same habitats for feeding. The fulvous griffon being a migrant, stays in the Gir only for a little more than 6 months, and hence the wet season finds only the whitebacked and longbilled, their population at that time being about 90% and 10% respectively. (Grubh 1974). We will take that period, when all the 3 species of griffons occur together, for most of the discussion below. Results and Discussion The investigation was carried out with re- ference to A. the extent of competition among the species, B. interspecific dominance and C. the different factors that enable the species to live together. A. Extent of competition: Among the different areas of probable competition, the important ones here are food supply, nesting sites, and roosting sites. 1. Food supply : On an average only about 8.3 carcasses were available per day during the season and the quantity of meat avail- able from these carcasses, not many of which were intact, was probably just suffi- cient for the approximately 440 griffon vul- tures found here (Grubh 1974). With this limited food supply it is obvious that the vultures have to compete for food. 2. Nesting sites : None of the 3 griffons nest within the Gir. The fulvous is purely a migrant from outside the state of Gujarat. The longbilled and the whitebacked nest in the neighbourhood of the Gir more or less side by side, but with a difference: the whitebacked nest in trees and the long- billed on cliffs, and hence both are isolat- ed from any possible competition for nest- ing sites. 3. Roosts : Trees and cliffs were used for roosting. While all the three species of griffons roosted on trees, the longbilled and, to a greater extent, fulvous griffons also roosted on cliff faces. But there are only 811 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 two widely separated cliffs (Charakio and Nandivilla) within the Gir and these were occupied mostly by the fulvous griffons. Whereas the common roosting trees namely Sterculia urens, Boswellia serrata & Ficus spp. were in abundance and hence neces- sitated no competition, the roosting cliffs, being limited within the Gir, could be a factor causing a certain amount of com- petition among these two species. How- ever, the fact that there were very few longbills on these two cliffs, even when the fulvous griffons had migrated out, sug- gests that the fulvous and the longbilled did not actively compete for roosts within the Gir. B. Interspecific dominance: When assembled at carcasses, the griffons exhibited varying degrees of dominance according to their body size: the largest bird (fulvous) being the most dominant and the smallest (whitebacked) the least. Table 1 Interspecific dominance among griffons in the Gir (n. 74). Opponents Total Percentage of attempts won attempted (In most cases the winners assaults had also initiated the assault) F X L 15 F 67% L 33% F x W 7 F 86% W 14% L x W 52 L 62% W 36% F : Fulvous; L: Longbilled; W : Whitebacked C. Factors enabling coexistence: 1. Extraneous factors limiting the population of the larger species and effecting the pre- sent species composition : Since competition among species is evident only at feed it would be expected that the species composition should be directly pro- portionate to the level of dominance among the species at least until the most dominant species has successfully eliminat- ed the others from the area. Yet the white- backed form 85% of the griffon popula- tion, the longbilled 8% and the fulvous 7%. This situation needs to be explained. We will first take the case of the long- billed : The longbilled and the whitebacked, being resident species, breed in the outskirts of the Gir, but prefer different nesting ha- bitats. The whitebacked nests mostly in co- conut trees Cocos nucifera, Tamerind Ta- marind us indicus, and trees of the genus Ficus, in the plains, around the Gir. The longbilled on the other hand was noticed to be nesting only in the cliffs of the Girnar in the neighbourhood of the Gir. While nesting trees are -available in great abun- dance, nesting cliffs are limited. Although • it is not known why only some of these cliffs are used and whether the longbilled is exploiting the optimum number of po- tential nesting sites, the fact that these cliffs are so limited in the neighbourhood shows that the availability of nesting sites can be a limiting factor for this species. The population of the fulvous griffon, another cliff nester too may be controlled by this factor, but being a migrant from outside the state, whose status has not been fully understood yet, we cannot explain why they come to Gir in such small num- bers. That the scarcity of suitable nesting sites could affect the numerical abundance of a species is also shown by Kruuk (1967) for Ruppell’s griffon in the Serengeti. Thus, we find that the longbilled and the fulvous griffons have not increased in num- ber within the Gir in spite of their being COMPETITION AND CO-EXISTENCE IN GRIFFON VULTURES more dominant species. Consequently the whitebacked vulture forms the major bulk of the griffons here, and its number is evi- dently controlled only by food supply and interspecific competition. The food supply being limited, the number of whitebacked foraging within the Gir would be decided largely by the number of fulvous and long- billed griffons that occur inside the Gir at any one time. Since the proportion of meat consumed by individual fulvous, longbilled and whitebacked is approximate- ly of the ratio of 9:7:6 (based on cap- tive birds from the Gir) the actual number of whitebacked that might be displaced by the other two species can be determined by considering individuals of the different species with reference to their feeding ca- pacity. The longbilled and the fulvous perhaps do not influence each others number at the feeding grounds as their present numbers are much too small due to the extraneous factors mentioned earlier. 2 . Iniraspecific behavioural interaction at feed : Since the whitebacked is the least dominant species it would be of interest to know how the individuals obtain their food when they are at a carcass along with the other two species. When compared with the whitebacked, the fulvous 'and the longbilled griffons spend a considerable amount of time quarrelling with their own kind at feeding sites, over food. While interspecific fights (being between un- equal opponents) do not usually last for more than a second, fights between individuals of the some species often last for more than five seconds with a great deal of screeching and other agonistic displays. Each bout of such a fight temporarily debars the fighting birds from feeding. These moments are effectively exploited by the weaker species in obtaining food. Here we find intraspecific behavioural interaction to be a factor contributing towards the co-existence of these species. In addition to this, the weakest of the three — the whitebacked — has another advantage i.e. its numbers. Its very number and deter- mination to consume food do at times hold back the more dominant species which just stand around and watch them feeding, though not for long. Conclusion The above discussion indirectly points out that where there is competition for a com- mon resource, one of the competing species may eliminate all others directly or through competitive exclusion only when all the com- peting species have equal chance to obtain all the biological requirements although there may not be any interspecific competition for these items. Table 2 Frequency of fights within species Species Birds Total fights Obs. period Interval between (No.) (Minutes) fights per pair Whitebacked 314 61 32.6 84 minutes Longbilled 128 116 37.3 21 minutes Fulvous 12 6 47.0 47 minutes 813 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Also, it is found that the extent of advan- tage gained by a species by its dominance over others can be offset by its intraspecific behavi- our. To be short, coexistence among congene- ric species is possible even when the common resource is limited under certain situations. Ack no wledge m e n ts The study, which formed a part of my Ph.D. dissertation, was financed by the Bombay Na- tural History Society from Smithsonian Re- search Foundation Grant No. SFG-O-1894 Refer Gause, G. F. (1934): The struggle for Existence (Baltimore) (not consulted in original). Grubh, Robert B. (1974): The ecology and be- haviour of vultures in Gir Forest. Ph.D. thesis. University of Bombay. Houston, David C. (1975): Ecological isolation of African scavenging birds. Ardea 65:55-64. J under Gir Project through Yale University. Dr. Salim Ali guided my research during the en- tire period. The Gujarat Forest Department , provided necessary facilities in the field. Mr. J. C. Daniel (Curator, BNHS) and Mrs. Al- mitra Patel (Gir Project Officer) took care of my needs during the study including provid- ing practical advice. Messers P. Kannan (Cu- rator, Borivli National Park), Stephen Berwick (Asst. Professor, Yale University), Steven Green (Asst. Professor, Rockefeller Univer- sity), David Houston (University of Glasgow) and G. L. Storm (Pennsylvania) went through the manuscript and offered valuable comments. iNCES Kruuk, Hans (1967) : Competition for food bet- ween vultures in East Africa. Ardea 55:171-193. Lack, David (1971) : Ecological Isolation in Birds. Blackwell Scientific Publications. Oxford. Vijayan, V. S. (1975) : Ecology of Bulbuls. Ph.D. thesis, University of Bombay. 814 DISTRIBUTION AND STATUS OF THE NILG1RI TAHR ( HEMITRAGUS HYLOCR1US )- 1975-78 E. R. C. Davidar1 {With two plates) Introduction The preferred habitat of the tahr are rocky outcrops set amongst grass hills and cliffs bordering grasslands which are to be found along the crest of the southern half of the Western Ghats. The tahr is a gregarious animal associating in herds which, ordinarily, number between half a dozen and a dozen. Occasionally several herds join together to make large flocks of one hundred or more. The writer came across two such herds, one of 119 in Eravikulam in the High Range in Kerala and another of 101 on the Nilgiri plateau. In composition adult fe- males outnumber adult males in the ratio of roughly 2:1. Mature males — saddle backs as well as dark brown males (‘Brown bucks’) — do not remain with the herds always. They normally live on the periphery of herds, joining and leaving them at will. Mature males often join together to make ‘buck’ parties and there are also true solitaries. There is no well defined breeding season and young are dropped throughout the year. But there appears to be a peak birth season, which is the winter. One young at birth ap- pears to be the rule. The womb of an illi- citly slain female tahr contained two well de- 1 “Canowie”, Coonoor-643 101, S. India. veloped foetuses establishing beyond doubt that twin births occur. Occasionally, a mother with two young at heel have been observed. Tahr commence feeding at the break of day and feed until late in the evening. They feed and rest intermittently; the rest intervals be- coming longer as the day advances, until they become active again towards the evening. Nights are spent on the cliffs or as close to them as possible. In undisturbed areas, how- ever, they often bed down in the open away from the cliffs. Where possible, that is, where the country is extensive, the animals wander over a large area. However, due to the recent inroads made into tahr country, by way of hydro-electric projects, opening up of plantations etc., free movement is not possible over most of the tahr’s present range. From the manner in which they wander and the readiness with which herds disperse and reassemble it is evi- dent that herds or, for that matter, individual ‘bucks’, do not stake territorial rights over chosen territory. “Scrapes” or well worn patches of soil are found scattered about in tahr country. These do not appear to follow any pattern. Curiously in some densely popu- lated areas there are fewer scrapes than in some sparsely populated areas. Their signifi- cance and function are yet to be investigated. The food of the tahr consists chiefly of grasses. It is more a grazer than a browser. 815 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 except where they have adapted themselves to comparatively low elevation habitats where much of the food, of necessity, comes from browsing. In this respect the tahr resemble sheep more than goats. The tahr’s water re- quirements appear to be minimal. The tahr do not appear to keep regular drinking hours like other wild ungulates. It is rarely that one meets them near water. Aggressive behaviour consists of mild con- tacts, mostly between subadults and consist of light clashes of horns, side butts, shoulder pushes and so on. Such contacts are infrequent. It is rare to see a full blooded combat between two adult males. The sense of smell in tahr is highly deve- loped. Their sight is keen; better than in many herbivores. During a good part of the year tahr country is shrouded in a thick blanket of mist, when sight is not of much use. The animal must therefore have to rely on its sense of smell and direction to survive in such trea- cherous country. The alarm call of the tahr is a sneezy whistle. The animal also communicates in other ways, by foot stamping etc. On rare occasions it has been heard to bleat. Mortality : Diseases: It is rare to come across a sick tahr or the remains of one which had perish- ed due to natural causes. Yet the rate of mor- tality among this potentially fast breeding animal must be high as otherwise there would be much more tahr than there are at present, particularly in areas where the animal enjoys a certain amount of protection from preda- tion, human and otherwise. A saddle back which was shot dead had a growth on its liver. An adult female was observed to have a large growth on its rump. Some tahr in Rajamally were in poor condition. Otherwise nothing un- usual was noticed. Predation : Predation by animal predators is not a se- rious threat to the tahr. Leopards pose the most serious threat. In some areas, such as the Nilgiris, leopards have adapted them- selves to tahr country and have become ex- pert at tahr stalking and take a regular toll. Wild dogs and tiger manage to secure a kill occasionally. Poaching : The commonest method of poaching is by hunting them with the gun. Another method is to lay snares across well known tahr tracks, especially those passing through woods where snares could be properly anchored. Tahr are hunted with dogs in suitable country. Tribals who do not possess arms brought about their destruction by leaving oil stained plantain (ba- nana) leaves along tahr trails in precipitious country. Tahr meat is believed to possess medicinal properties for the reason that the animal is believed to eat what is known as ‘silajit’, a jelly like substance oozing out of rock cre- vices. Some ‘doctors’ practicing Indian medi- cine are reported to use tahr flesh in their preparations. On the credit side there are conditions that favour the animal. Weather is its principal ally. During the monsoons it is impossible to operate in tahr country. For several months in the year, tahr country is blanketed in mist — ground mist rising from below and low clouds from above. Winters are very cold at higher elevations. Thus the animals get res- pite from hunting for about half the year. Yet another circumstance in favour of the tahr is the weapons in use against it for poaching, which are muzzle loaders and an- cient shot guns, have limited range. Besides, 816 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILG1RI TAHR tahr hunting is not a game the jeep hunter, who is most destructive, can indulge in. Tahr is one of the hardiest animals in ex- istence. Extremes of climate obtain in their habitat. In the higher ranges of the Western Ghats, winter is very severe, the thermometer dropping to below 0°C. The summer sun in tahr country is piercing because of the thinner atmosphere obtaining in mountain country. The south-west monsoon accompanied by high winds lash the hills for two to three months followed by the north-east monsoon. Human beings have been known to succumb to exposure overnight during the rainy season. In summer horse flies breed in pestilance pro- portions in open grasslands and attack tahr and other creatures without mercy. In lower elevation habitats on the eastern slopes of the western ghats, the hills get burning hot in summer from direct heat from the sun and radiated heat from the rocks. It is there- fore surprising that this hardy animal which is able to survive all these hazards should find itself in the list of endangered species. It was with a view to ascertain the present status of the Nilgiri tahr that the survey was undertaken. Distribution : At one time the Nilgiri tahr is believed to have ranged over the greater part of the West- ern Ghats. As late as 1954 tahr were found in the Agumbe ghat — in Karnataka as con- firmed by Mr. G. J. Rajasingh, conservator of forests, Tamil Nadu, who saw a small herd there in the course of a boundary survey. Ex- tensive enquiries reveal that there are no tahr in the Karnataka State today. The tahr’s present range is restricted to the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Nilgiri hills is its present northern limit and Ashambu hills the southern limit — 11°30' N to 8°20' N. In between tahr are mainly found in a few isolated localities along the crest of the ranges forming the Western ghats at eleva- tions ranging between 1300 m to 2600 m. There are however, a few comparatively low hills where the animal is to be found. The tahr’s partiality to open terrain, the unrestricted view that can be had over long distances in tahr country at the right time of the year and the animals’ habit of looking for danger from below and seldom looking up combined to make a count and that too with a certain degree of accuracy, possible. The survey Methods : The sight count method was emp- loyed. Ten power binoculars and spotter scopes were used. Tahr habitats were divided into sections for the purpose of the survey and each section was covered systematically. The following classification was adopted— Saddle back (old males with saddle marks) — abbreviated — S . B . Brown back (dark brown male) — abbreviat- ed—B.B. Light brown male (adult males other than S.B. and B.B.)— L.B.M. Adult Females — A.F. Yearling (about 1 year to 2 years) Young (up to 12 months old) Classification of L.B.M. and A.F. separate-, ly was not attempted as the animals in this group are similar in appearance. Such classi- fication, although possible, would have slowed down the work considerably. Of course, some overlapping is not ruled out. Earlier surveys of the writer and others are included to make the report complete. Extensive enquiries preceded, and followed the survey to ensure that every single tahr ha- 817 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 bitat was covered. Many of the habitats were visited more than once and the survey is a continuing process. Tahr habitats and population estimates The Nilgiris The Nilgiris or Nilagiri Hills rise abruptly to a height of nearly 2000 meters where they level off into a large plateau about 30 Km. long and 40 Km. broad. The plateau is dotted with peaks and rocky outcrops especially along its rim. Before habitations, cultivation, plantations and man made forests gradually replaced them, the plateau was mostly grassland with evergreen woods, locally known as sholas clothing the valleys and less exposed sections of the slopes. Except where the passes lead into the hills the sides of the hills are fairly steep. This is more pronounced along the entire length of the western face which is an unbroken line of cliffs, in appearance, not unlike the walls of a fortress. The Nilgiri tahr, locally called the ‘Ibex’ by sports- men ranged over most of the plateau until the early part of last century when the Nilgiris began to be “colonized” by Europeans. Some small herds got isolated on some of the cliffs on the North, South and eastern sides of the plateau and lived a precarious existence there. One by one these populations have disappeared, some as recently as ten to fifteen years ago. The tahr have retreated to the west where they now inhabit a narrow strip of grassland bordering the cliffs about 40 Km. in length and 2 to 5 Km. broad on the average, except on the south-west corner of this country where it widens out — an area of 120 sq. Km. in extent or thereabouts. Census Section 1 — Mukerti Locality S.B. B.B. L.B.M. Yearling Young Total Nilgiri Peak/Terrace Nil Nil Mukerti Slopes 1 1 7 3 4 16 Chinna Mukerti — 1 5 3 1 10 Chinna Lower slopes Be Betta 1 1 8 3 4 16 1 — — 2 — — 2 2 3 22 9 9 45 (An all male group of 4 saddlebacks was seen a week after the count) . Section 2 — Western Catchment i Locality S.B. B.B. L.B.M. Yearling Young Total King Dhar 1 2 15 3 5 26 Between W.C. Dams 1 & 2 — 1 2 2 1 6 Igandi 1 1 7 1 — 10 2 4 24 6 6 42 818 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRl TAHR Section 3 — Nadgani Locality S.B. B.B. L.B.M. Yearling Young Total Nadgani 1 3 43 6 9 62 — 2 25 2 4 33 — 1 5 — — 6 When first seen the herd consisted of 101 animals, which later split and the composition kept changing. Varatuparai 1 3 — — — — 1 3 1 — 1 — — 2 — 2 14 5 7 28 — 2 11 4 3 20 — — 2 — 2 4 Ridge beyond Varatuparai 1 1 5 2 2 11 Sausage hill — — 1 1 — 2 Nadgani cliffs — 2 8 1 2 13 Simon hut 1 2 15 2 2 22 8 15 130 23 31 207 Section 4 — Bangitappal Locality S.B. B.B. L.B.M. Yearling Young Total Billithadahala waterfall 3 2 13 2 2 22 Cruz hill — — 4 — 2 6 Bangi ridge — — 4 — 2 6 Bangi slope — 1 5 — — 6 3 3 26 2 6 40 Grand Total 15 25 202 40 52 334 The total number seen was 334. To make doubly sure that there was no duplication, two small herds of 15 and 11 seen in the proximity of the large herd of 101 after its break up was not included in the count. In spite of favourable conditions, it is not improbable that a hundred or more tahr remained out of sight and unenumerated. The total population is estimated at around 450 — 1975. Silent Valley The Silent Valley (11°10'N and 76°25'E) borders the Nilgiris on the south-west. But it is approached via Coimbatore, Anaikatti, Agali and Mukkali or via Palghat, Mannarghat and Mukkali. The valley complex spreads over an area of 16,000 hectares and the valley proper, over 8000 hectares. Tropical wet evergreen forest (or rain forest) covers most of the valley. At the entrance to the valley from the Mukkali side, on either side of the road into the valley, there are some rocky ridges set among grasslands and again as the valley sweeps upwards towards the Nilgiris, the forests yield place to grass- lands and rocky escarpments. These hills on the fringes are typical Nilgiri tahr country. At the head of the valley stands Ankinda malai (2383 m above M.S.L.). This peak and the high hills on either side of it form the northern boundary of Silent Valley. This ‘ridge’ is mostly grassland and is a continuation of the tahr country in the Nilgiris. This part of the Silent Valley is best ap- proached from the Nilgiris side via Ooty, Avalanche, Upper Bhavani and Bangitappal. 819 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Population Estimate Tahr move freely between Ankinda malai ‘ridge’ and the grasslands on the Nilgiri Plateau and there- fore it is not possible to determine the resident population in the Ankinda malai area. For the purposes of this report the silent valley population may be estimated at around 30. Siruvani Hills The Muttukulam hills are better known as Siru- vani hills after the Siruvani river which springs from these hills and supplies drinking water to Coimbatore town which is 37 kms away from the foot of the hills. This range is immediately to the South of the Nilgiri hills and North of the Palghat gap (10°55' N and 76°45' E) and is one of the smallest hill ranges in the Western Ghats chain. A motorable road winds its way into the hills and at about 9 km from the bottom passes over a saddle (which divides the Tamil Nadu and Kerala States) and descends a short way into a small basin which is 900 m above MSL. The peaks — Vellingiri Malai, Kunjara Malai, Peria Kunjara Malai, Ayyappan Mudi and others rise sharply from the basin reaching heights between 1500 and 2000 m. Smaller grass covered hills are also found in this basin. On 22.4.76 twenty tahr were seen near the top of Kunjara Malai (1965 m.). They could not be classified because of poor light conditions. A nearer approach was also not possible as a cliff (which only tahr and Mudigar tribals manage to negotiate) stood in the way. Two days earlier Nanjan a Mudi- gar guide from Muttukulam, had seen the same herd in that area. The grasslands on the Kunjara Malai ridge are few and are placed between long stretches of shola forests and the most extensive among them is less than 1 sq. km. in extent. These grasslands are deep- ly eroded, and the signs indicate that this must be due to over grazing by tahr and sambar over the years. The grass is also coarse, patchy and unin- viting and in capable of supporting a large tahr population. On the other side of the ridge some 10 km away is Elival Malai. Although extensive sholas have to be negotiated it is believed that tahr migrate between the two hills occasionally. Chaotic conditions prevail in the basin at the moment. Men and machines by the hundred are engaged in building a large dam to replace the old one, under a Tamil Nadu-Kerala water sharing agree- ment. A road is being built to provide direct access to places in Kerala. It will be years before conditions return to normal, if ever. Estimated population: 20 — 1976. Elival Mala Elival mala (which means rat’s tail mountain), is in Kerala and lies to the North and West of the Palghat gap and South of Muttikulam (Siruvani) hills — (10°55' N and 76°35' E). Elival falls within the Chennat Nair Reserve of the Olavakkode Range of the Palghat forest division. Olavakkode is the Range and Divisional headquarters. The mountain range dominates the northern horizon of Palghat and Olavakkode towns. Elival is composed of about a dozen spurs and of these the two dominant, name- ly, Palamala (2080 m above MSL) and Karimala (2180 m above MSL) constitute the Nilgiri tahr habitat. The Palamala ridge is short compared to Karimala which is about 10 km long. Although the two ridges are connected at one point they are, as far as tahr are concerned, quite independent, as they are divid- ed by a deep thickly forested valley and the res- pective cliffs stand isolated in a sea of rain forest. There is no path to the Karimala cliffs from Pala- mala and the route to Karimala cliffs is from below. Much of the crest of Karimala is clothed in dense forest and at only two points, namely, the Karimala peak and Kondamala the grasslands are topped by cliffs. It is here that the tahr is usually found. The Palamala grass hill or grass ‘mottai’, as it is called, along with its side spurs is 3 to 4 km long. The cliffs are a further 3/4 hour stiff climb from the ‘forest bungalow flat’. The grazing grounds at Pala- mala are quite extensive and are intersected by cliffs. The grass is mostly of the Themeda triandra Forsk. variety and is coarse. On the evening of 15-1-77 three adult tahr were seen on the Palamala grass hill and a herd of over twenty on the Karimala cliff, across the valley. On 16-1-77 the Karimala ridge and slopes were searched with binoculars from a commanding posi- tion on the Palamala grass hill and two men comb- ed the Palamala cliffs and ridges for tahr. The same herd was located on the Karimala cliff the previous evening. There were more animals 820 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE N1LGIRI TAHR in ’the herd this time. There were twentyfive tahr on the slope facing Palamala and about five beyond the ridge, whose outlines could be made out on the skyline. There were over thirty tahr in this herd including three or four young ones. A more accu- rate estimate was not possible at that distance. Two herds of five and ten, including a fine ‘brown buck’ (dark brown male), well away from the three seen the previous evening were seen at Palamala. There were fresh tahr droppings all over Pala- mala. At the time of the visit the days were very bright and warm and the grass was coarse, dry and un- inviting. Had conditions been more favourable it might have been possible to see more tahr move- ment. The tahr country is extensive and is capable of holding and, possibly it does hold, more than the forty-eight that were counted. Estimated population : 60-1 — 1976. Nelliampathi Hills The Nelliampathi hills in Palghat district in Ke- rala are the starting point of the Western Ghats below the Palghat gap as the 40 Km wide breach in the Western Ghats mountain chain on either side of Palghat town is called. After rising to a height of about 700 m above M.S.L. the Nilliampathies level off into wide undulating valleys where coffee and cardamom plantations and tea at higher levels are situated. The slopes on the East are clothed in deciduous jungle, replaced by moist mixed deciduous jungle in the valleys. Towards the West the jungle is semi evergreen. Higher up there is a plateau the elevation of which is around 1250 m above M.S.L. , composed of grasslands interspersed with evergreen sholas. Sheer cliffs drop down from the plateau. This country (10° 30' N and 76°40' E) is the main tahr habitat on the Nelliampathies. The tahr country is reached by road from Palghat via Nemmara, Padagiri and finally the Manalaroo Tea Estate. From Hill top Bungalow, an abandoned estate manager’s bungalow, where the road termi- nates it is only a short stiff climb to the plateau, which is called the Hill top or Peria Aattu Malai (Big Goat Hill). On 5.iv.76 three tahr (1 brown buck, 1 adult female and 1 yearling) were seen on hill top. Again on 7.iv.76 a large single tahr (probably the same brown buck) was sighted there, silhouetted against the skyline. On 18.iv.76 a fine solitary saddle back was seen on the eastern edge of the plateau (from Chinna aattu malai, right across the valley). Beyond Peria aattu malai there is Kumul malai which is extremely difficult to approach from Hill top be- cause of an intervening chasm. Bokkan my shikari from Nilgiris along with a local guide went part of the way down the cliffs and there they saw eleven tahr including a young one. He was not able to classify the rest. On 6th and 8th April Cruz Malai and Chinna aattu malai (small goat’s hill), approached from the Manalaroo estate office, were visited. On the 6th four adult and a yearling tahr got disturbed and disappeared down the gully and across the valley. Three were seen on the Kumulmalai skyline, making a total of 8 of which one was young. A herd of 7, in all probability the same animals were seen on the Chinna aattu malai skyline from the estate lines on 3.iv.76 by my guide. On the 8th an adult female tahr and a yearling were seen on Chinna aattu malai. There is no doubt that they belonged to the same herd of 7. Altogether 23 tahr were seen (3, 1, 11, 8). It is unlikely that many more share this habitat. The tahr were wild and behaved as if they were regularly harassed. The reason for this behaviour was not far to seek. Two poaching parties were operating in the area during my visit. Estimated tahr population — 30 — 1976. Topslip and Parambikulam Topslip in Tamil Nadu and Parambikulam in Ke- rala (10° 25' to 30' N and 77° E) occupy the north- ern half of the Anamalai Hills. Being contiguous some of the tahr habitats in this sector fall partly in one state and partly in the other. Therefore Topslip and Parambikulam have been dealt with as one composite area for the purposes of this report. Topslip, (called after the point from which timber was rolled or slipped down the hill from the plateau to the plains, before proper roads were laid) is the focal point of the Anamalai Wildlife Sanctuary. Bandar avarai : Pandaravarai is a prominent ridge running North to South and could be seen from the Topslip forest rest houses across the maidan towards the North- 821 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 West. The ridge is in three sections, Pandaravarai in the middle which is the highest point (1300 m), Nanduvai (crab’s mouth) and Katardi (windblown) on either side. The inter-state boundary cuts through the centre of the peak, leaving only a third of the ridge in Tamil Nadu. The route to the top is through Karian shola a large unspoilt forest of semi ever- green and ever-green complexion. The shola swarms with leeches when wet. The grasslands and cliffs occupy an extent of 6 to 8 Sq. Km. The grass is mostly of the coarse variety interspersed with hill date palms ( Phoenix humilis ). The grazing grounds are cut up and are beginning to erode due to trampl- ing by tahr and gaur over the years. On 2.5.76 one adult and one yearling tahr were sighted on the sky line at Nanduvai. They were obviously part of a herd. Before a closer approach could be made night fell. On 3.5.76 eight tahr (1 young, 2 yearling and 5 adults) and one on Katardi skyline were observed. The herd seen on Nanduvai the previous evening could not be located as Katardi could not be reached from Pandaravarai because of intervening cliffs (which however, do not deter tahr from crossing over) it could not be visited. On 6.5.76 Ravi my young Kadan tribal guide spot- ted 13 tahr on Nanduvai (2 young, 3 yearling and 8 adults). Dr. V. S. Vijayan who was making a survey of wildlife of Parambikulam, visited Panda- ravarai some two weeks subsequently and reported having seen two herds of nine and six. Ravi re- ported the presence of a small herd at Katardi and having seen a large gathering of about 30 tahr earlier in the year. My total count was 22 (8+1+13). With the addition of the small herd on Katardi (of which I saw one and three on 1.10.76 on the sky- line enroute to Perunkundru) it is possible that there are around 30 tahr on Pandaravarai. Since the counts were conducted on different occasions duplication cannot be ruled out. Young and yearling accounted for over a third of the population sighted, which is a healthy sign. Considering the eroded con- dition of the grassland and the fact that it is shared with gaur, it is doubtful whether this habitat can support many more tahr. Kolumbu malai : Kolumbu malai 1065 m. above M.S.L. is to the East of the Topslip resthouses. It is the starting point of a long line of cliffs which extends all the way to the Aliyar dam to the South. There are no permanent resident tahr on Umayamalai. The cliffs immediately below also appeared bare. But tahr droppings on the hill indicate that a small herd visit the area off and on, probably when disturbed from elsewhere. Ravi my guide and the men who i were cultivating tapioca as an inter-crop among the young teak they had undertaken to plant and nurture for the forest department (under the kumari system of cultivation) at the foot of the hill had not seen any tahr on Kolumbu malai. Perunkundru : The tallest peak in the area is Perunkundru 1733 m. above M.S.L. in height and conical in shape. Varakaliar 24 Km. on the Topslip — Manamboli- Valparai forest road is the point nearest to the peak. On 2.10.76 I visited Perunkundru along with forest guard Manuel, a guide and my son Peter after spending the night at the seldom used Varakaliar forest rest house. One herd of 11 tahr (3 brown bucks, 6 adult females and light brown males and 2 yearling) was seen below the summit and another herd of 7 (1 saddle back, 1 brown buck, 3 adult female and 2 yearling) was seen on a lower slope — in all 18. A herd of 15 gaur was grazing on the summit. Dr. Krishnamoorthy the ‘elephant doctor’ reported having seen over 30 tahr on Perunkundru some 3 years earlier. This area is an ideal tahr habitat, extensive and having water sources and a rich supply of a variety of grasses. During the time of our visit a leopard had been operating there as its fresh pug marks showed. A leopard’s dropping which was perhaps 2 or 3 weeks old contained tahr fur. There were no signs of poaching. Horse flies were active at the time of our visit. It is possible that some of the tahr seen by Dr. Krishnamoorthy had been disturbed by the leopard. The other pos- sibility is that they were hiding away in sholas to escape from the torments of horse flies in the open grassland. In March 1977 Mr. G. J. Rajasingh, Conservator of Forests, accompanied by Dr. Krishnamoorthy and other officials climbed Perunkundru and sighted over 20 tahr. Mr. Muthumanickam a local sportsman who is opening up a coffee plantation in the Tho- lanar Valley reported having observed a large herd on the Southern face which according to him, took half an hour to cross a particular point. This was two years ago. The population of tahr on Perun- kundru and adjoining slopes (Pachai thanni malai) can be estimated at between 40 and 50; possibly more? 822 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRI TAHR Palagakundru ( 1172 m) : Mr. J. W. Sykes, Manager, Murugalli Estate re- ports — “Yesterday (30.4.78), after two abortive attempts in January, I finally managed to reach the peak, (which is immediately above Manamboli- Sholayar Power House I and the upper of the Pa- rambikulam Reservoir) with the aid of two Karders cutting the way for me. There have been vague reports of Nilgiri tahr on this small peak — which is surrounded by dense jungle — but none on any of the other neighbouring peaks. Sadly there were no tahr present but the Karders stated that they are still there. The bare rock peak had 25% coverage of shallow soil with grass — at this stage burnt off and only just beginning to show first signs of re- growth. In fact there were more tahr droppings than soil on the top, but old ones. I personally have no doubt that this is in fact, a small and probably totally isolated herd, probably otherwise not record- ed.” It is possible that the herd had moved inside the jungle as there was no grazing on the peak. There is a theory that tahr migrate over fairly long distances through jungle. This is yet to be con- firmed. This is an area where research might prove useful. “On 29-xii-1978 I ascended the peak and saw a herd of 6 — 1 brown buck, 4 adult females and 1 sub adult, which appeared to be a complete family group, but I cannot positively exclude the presence of other tahr.” Vengoli Malai : The Vengoli ridge starting at Vellimudi /Umaya- malai in Top Slip and passing through the middle of the two sanctuaries and terminating at Vengoli Mudi in Thunakadavu (which is 12 km. by road from Top Slip) form the backbone of the two sanctuaries. Vengoli Malai in Top Slip (1135 m) is a short stiff climb from Anaikundhi. A section of the cliffs could be seen from the forest road from Top Slip to Anaikundhi. But tahr have not been sighted there in recent times. From the quan- tity and the age of the different sets of droppings at the top it was possible to make out that a small number of tahr paid casual visits to this peak. On 4.5.76 a small herd of, may be, half a dozen ani- mals was sighted on a slope some distance away on the Kerala side. As they were resting in a close group in the shade a more accurate count was not possible. Vengolimudi which is also known as Chattiparai is in Thunakadavu. The cliffs face the forest settle- ment at Thunakadavu across the lake. On 5.5.76 a herd of 9 tahr (1 young 2 yearling and 6 adults were spotted from below; two more, (1 yearling and one adult female) were seen at the top; making a total of 11. The grazing at Vengoli malai as well as at Vengoli mudi is limited. But at Pambamalai an off shoot of the ridge the grasslands are more extensive. Dr. Vijayan reported having sighted 15 tahr in one group a fortnight previously. The total tahr population is estimated at between 20 and 25. The herd on Vengoli mudi because of its proxi- mity to the Thunakadavu settlement did not seem unduly disturbed and did not react to human pre- sence as these animals normally do, by instant flight. For year round observation and study of the tahr and that too without much exertion Vengoli mudi seems a good place. Karumalai Gopuram : The twin peaks of Karumalai Gopuram, so called because of their resemblance to black female breasts, tower over Parambikulam. From the earth dam of the Parambikulam reservoir the summit is a stiff 2f to 3 hour climb through a leach infested forest. Karumalai Gopuram is an ideal tahr habitat, sheer cliffs on one side and undulating grasslands rich in variety 3 to 4 sq. km. in extent on the other three. Water is available near the summit. On 6.5.76 I saw five tahr (1 saddle back, 1 brown buck, 2 adult females and one young). Their move- ment was confined to the South-West face of the hill, may be, because a solitary bull gaur, I ran into had taken up residence near the top. Swaminathan my Kadan tribal guide mentioned that the five we saw was the largest number he had seen there. Dr. Vijayan and Jayaraj, the wildlife guide of the forest department who had visited the area recently, the latter more than once, averred that they had not seen more than two tahr at a time. From the quantity of tahr droppings it is possible to estimate that there could not be more than seven or eight tahr at Karumalai gopuram. In the herd that was sighted as far as composition was concerned, the ratio between the sexes was disproportionate and for this reason the viability of the population at Karumalai gopuram is in doubt. The peaks stand isolated in a sea of forest and it would be interest- ing to see if tahr migrations occur between Karu- malai gopuram and the distant peaks through this 823 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 extensive forest. Estimated population : 120 — 1976-78. Eastern Slopes of the Anamalai Hills On the Eastern slopes of the Anamalai Hills are some rugged, rocky hills where Nilgiri tahr which became isolated on the opening up of the country in the interior have made their home. Their retreat is not a true tahr habitat and the climate, fauna and flora of these slopes are more lowland than montane in character. The fact that tahr has managed not only to survive but thrive there proves its hardiness and ability to adapt it- self to what could be considered an unfavourable environment. But it may be mentioned that if the tahr on these slopes made a serious attempt they can get to the high hills on the West through un- opened country on the south. But they have not chosen to do so. On either side of the road to Valparai (10°25' N and 77° E) there are five scattered tahr popula- tions. Some of these remain isolated by roads, dams and canals of the Parambikulam-Aliyar project, but between others communication is possible. This area falls within the Anamalai Wildlife sanctuary and is administered by the Wildlife Warden at Pollachi. Aliyar: The township of Aliyar at the base of the hills is 22 km from Pollachi and is situated below the Aliyar dam. The rocky hills west of, that is, to the right of the Valparai road as it climbs into the hills is the habitat of the Aliyar tahr. These hills form a ring around the valley drained by a little jungle stream known as the Chinnar, with Pachamalai at the apex, and the Chinnar gorge opening out into the road at the base. The area is known as Villoni and is in the Poonachi forest range. A brief visit was made on 26.ii.77 but no tahr was sighted. But a party of picknickers reported having seen a herd of about 20 tahr on a rock north of Chinnar the previous week. On 16.iii.77, Bokkan my shikari from the Nilgiris and I accompanied by Neelan and Gokulan, Malai malasar tribals living in the Aliyar tribal settlement climbed into the hills. 3 tahr (1 female and 2 sub- adults) which were resting in the shade on a slope of the northern ridge were disturbed at fairly close quarters. Two herds which were partially hidden beyond the opposite ridge’s skyline (Peria and Chin- nasalla Katti) were seen. On closer approach Bok- kan and the local guides counted 14 animals in two herds of 8 and 6 on the Southern ridge. At noon on 17.iii.77, a herd of 5 tahr was seen , on the upper end of the Northern ridge. On 19.iii.77, 13 tahr were seen on Pachamalai. Some of the tahr seen on the northern ridge where met with more than once during the count, and care was taken to see that there was no duplication. Altogether 35 tahr were seen. According to Neelan, who visits the Chinnar Valley frequently in search of edible tubers, there are two herds in the area, one on the road end and the other at the Pachamalai end with about 30 animals in each. Direct heat from the sun in March during the visit was bad enough but the radiated heat from the rocky hills was worse and consequently the animals seldom ventured abroad during the day. Because of this factor and the inter- spersed trees, viewing was difficult. Neelan’s estimate of 60 or so should be close to the mark. Very few young animals were seen. There were no signs of poaching or predation. An occasional leopard or a pack of wild dogs is said to operate in the area. Chetta Guttu — Ninth Hair Pin Bend Hill : The row of hills to the south-east and the Aliyar/ Attakatti hills “meet”, so to say, at the ninth hair pin bend on the Pollachi- Valparai road. According to Neelan this hill was a favoured haunt of tahr before men started quarrying stone on the top of the hill near Attakatti for the P. A. Project. The quarry has now been abandoned. A saddle back was reported to have taken up residence on the slope above the ninth hair pin bend about a year ago and was seen off and on by motor- ists passing along the road. On the evening of the 16th proceeding to Attakatti, I saw the saddle back, a very old animal standing on the hair pin bend’s parapet wall itself! It was accompanied by a younger saddle back. On 29.iii.77 a small herd of 5 tahr — the saddle backs not among them — was seen by some planters and Mr. B. Devarajulu the Game Warden. On 7.iv.77 seven tahr were seen in the same area by Mr. Kumaran, a planter. They could have come from either direction. This is a very busy place, vehicles passing up and down at short intervals right through the day and night. The tahr did not appear to be unduly disturbed by the traffic. It is hoped that they take up permanent residence there. 824 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRI TAHR Attakatti Cliffs : Attakatti is 35 Km from Pollachi on the road to Valparai and is 1000 metres in elevation. A kilo- meter or so behind the Attakatti township and to the right of the road as one travels up the ghat is the tahr habitat. It is a 3 to 4 Km stretch of cliffs and grass covered slopes. It overlooks Villoni and Aliyar. At the south western end is the Varaiattu Mottai peak which is about two hundred metres above the Attakatti plateau. This peak could be approached through the Waverly Estate also. A brief visit was made to the peak on 27.ii.77, but as tree felling was in progress in the valley below, no ani- mals were sighted due to disturbed conditions. On 17.iii.77 the cliffs were visited. One female tahr accompanied by a young one which was passing on into the sub-adult stage; a group of four com- posed of adult females and light brown males and a small herd of 6 (1 young, 1 sub adult and 4 LBM and AF). A large male, which could have been a part of a herd, was seen on the Varaiattu Motti skyline. In all 13 tahr were counted. It is reported that because of easy access the Attakatti tahr popu- lation was subjected to much harassment by “sports- men” residing in the towns in the plains below until stricter control was enforced since 1973, when the range was declared part of the Anamalai Wild Life Sanctuary. Between Chetta guttu and the Attakatti cliffs there is an estimated population of 20 to 25 tahr. Thadaganachi Malai : The Thadaganchi malai is an off shoot of the Anamalais and is situated west of the Aliyar dam. A dirt road leads to the foot of this range from the junction of the old Valparai road and the new road. The Thadaganachi peak (1693 metres above M.S.L.) is the highest peak in the area. The coun- try around the twin peaks in this range is an ideal tahr habitat. On 18.iii.77, while Bokkan and Neelan circled this range from the west and north, Gokulam and I approached it from the south. Bokkan and party saw one herd of sixteen which included a young and a dark brown male. We could catch a glimpse of only one tahr as it disappeared into a hill bamboo brake. Fresh droppings on the slope indicated the presence of a herd. This range is con- nected to the main range by a series of low hills. There is a lot of cattle grazing in the area. Poach- ing is reported. N avamalai : Navamalai means nine hills. There are nine hills placed around the top of Aliyar reservoirs on either side of the Navamalai power house. Puragundu (pi- geon rock), the hill on the north western end is the main tahr habitat. Butha gundu adjacent to it also holds tahr. Navamalai is 33 Km from Pollachi — 6 Km off the Pollachi — Valparai road. The road throughout is good. On 6.xii.77, altogether 23 tahr were seen on Pura- gundu and 4 on Buthagundu. On 7.xii.77 two groups of 6 and 17 were seen. On 18.xii.77 21 tahr were seen in one group on an open rock and classifica- tion was possible. 2 saddle backs, 1 dark brown male, 13 adult females and light brown males, 2 sub- adults and 3 young were in that composite herd. It is estimated that there are altogether 30 tahr at Navamalai. The proportion of young and sub-adults to adults is low. The animals appeared to be in good condition. Estimated population : 125 — 1977. Grass Hills in Anamalais The Grass Hills is a 65 sq. Km. plateau placed at an elevation of approximately 1800 m above mean sea level in the Anamallai Hills in the Coimbatore District in Tamil Nadu (10° 15' N and 77°5' E). The approach to Grass Hills is through the Peria Karamalai group of Estates off the Pollachi-Val- parai road. The last 10 Km. is a forest road which is invariably out of commission for cars during and after the rains. The Hills take their name from the undulating grass-topped hills reminiscent of the ‘Downs' on the Nilgiri plateau; the Grass Hills Downs, however, are not as extensive as the Nilgiri Downs as they are intersected by high ridges. The cliffs are also not sheer and invulnerable as in the Nilgiris. The grass on the grass hills is the coarse ( Agrostis schmidi) variety. Evergreen sholas clothe the folds and valleys. The plateau is bounded on the North and north- west by jungle and tea plantations and on the north- east, west and south-west by jungle and on the south and south-east by extensive grass hills of the Anaimudi Sanctuary. The survey was done over a period of seven days between 3.iv.l971 and 9.iv.l971 (inclusive). Weather conditions were ideal and visibility was excellent. Grass had burnt extensively and fresh young grass was growing in patches and the tahr 825 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 tended to congregate in such places. Altogether five herds were seen in the following areas : 1. Kallar Malai — First sighted on 4.iv.l971 on the S.E. slopes — moved on to the northern slopes on 5.iv. 197 1 . Remained there breaking up and re- grouping until 9.iv.l971. Saddle back ... ... 0 Brown buck ... ... 2 Light brown male & adult female ... 38 Yearling ... ... 0 Young ... ... 14 54 2. Chadayandi Malai — First sighted on 4.iv.l971 on this hill. From 5.iv.l971 until 9.iv. 1 97 1 this herd was seen on the Kaludai Katti Malai where it had moved. Saddle back ... ... 0 Brown buck ... ... 1 Light brown male & adult female ... 11 Yearling ... ... 0 Young ... ... 4 16 3. Tanaka Malai — First sighted on 5.iv. 197 1 on S.E. slopes — later the herd had moved higher up and towards the west. Saddle back ... ... 0 Brown buck ... ... 0 Light brown male & Adult female ... 13 Yearling ... ... 7 Young ... ... 7 27 4. Tanaka Malai — Western slope towards Ko- ram Parai. Saddle back ... ... 1 Brown buck ... ... 0 Light brown male & Adult female ... 4 Yearling ... ... 1 Young ... ... 0 6 Apparently these two heards had come together and on 8.iv. 197 1 — altogether 35 animals were seen against the skyline late in the evening. The two new entrants could not be classified. 5. Usi Malai. Saddle back Brown buck Light brown male & Adult female Yearling Young 16 2 11 30 Not classified ... ... 3 Mr. G. J. Rajasingh, Conservator of Forests, Co- imbatore circle who visited the Grass Hills in 1976 reported having seen many herds of tahr one of 60-70, others of 25, 16, 12, 8, 4 and 3. Estimated population: 200 — 1971/1976. Amaravathi Slopes Due South of Udumalpet, which is between Polla- chi and Palani on the Coimbatore-Dindigal road, some spurs of the Western Ghats project into the plains. Not far further south this mountain chain makes further and more extensive inroads into the plains in the shape of the Palani Hills. Tucked away between these two projections is the Amra- vathi-Manjampatti Valley. The Amaravathi town- ship at the foot of the Amaravathi dam is of re- cent origin and is the focal point of this region. The township is 6 Km off the Udumalpet-Munnar road and is altogether 22 Km from Udumalpet. The country around Amaravathi (10° 15' N and 77° 15' E) is comparatively low and unpromising as a Nil- giri Tahr habitat and it is, therefore, not surprising that few know of the occurrence of tahr there. The reserved forests in this area fall within the Ana- malai Wild Life Sanctuary and are administered by the Wild Life Warden stationed at Pollachi. Jambukal : This isolated rocky mass, only 919 m in height at the highest point, which is fairly low for a tahr habitat, stands at the entrance to the Amaravathi township. Jambukal has the unique distinction of being the only tahr habitat falling outside a reserv- ed forest. Jambukal is a revenue forest and because of lack of protection every single tree on this hill 826 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE N1LGIRI TAHR has been hacked down. And every bit of land suitable for cultivation has been encroached upon and is being cultivated without regard to soil con- servation. Mr. Muthuswamy Nadar, an affluent agri- culturist and a knowledgeable shikari of Udumal- pet reports that 15 to 20 years ago Jambukal had a population of about 50 tahr and that poaching, which took place on an organised scale, and habitat disturbance have virtually wiped out the Jambukal tahr. Two residents of Ilayamuthur at the foot of the hill who acted as guides state that the few tahr that are left, which they estimate at less than half a dozen, are in hiding and are very difficult to come across. They also thought that tahr migrated to Jam- bukal from the Elumalaiyan Koil spur across the Munnar road and that these migrations have stopped with the coming of electricity and the setting up of well lit and fenced farms in between. Some of the more promising sections of Jambukal were kept under observation on 4.iv.77 and 6.iv.77, but no sightings were made. Erumai Malai ( Bison Hill ) : This hill stands at the head of the Amaravathi reservoir and could be approached either by walk- ing along the Eastern shore of the Amaravathi re- servoir and crossing the Pambar river above Duva- nam, the waterfall at the head of the dam or by motoring along the Munnar road up to Chinnar and walking or proceeding by jeep from there. A more unlikely tahr habitat cannot be imagined. The Manjampatti valley floor is about 300 metres above M S.L. and Erumai Malai cannot be more than a further 500 to 600 metres at the highest point, about 1000 metres altogether. The Eluma- laiyan Koil spur which is a more favourable tahr country is not far from Erumai Malai across the country and the tahr could shift there if they want- ed. In these circumstances why they continue to favour Erumai Malai is inexplicable. In summer Bison Hill could well be described as inhospitable and the heat is intense. Areawise also it is not a large hill, about 12 Sq. Km. in extent; the tahr habitat being a third of this. Mr. Muthu- swamy Nadrar who had hunted there before it was made a sanctuary in 1973 called it a “one man beat”. For most part it is surrounded by a belt of cliffs from half way up the hill to the top. The soil on the slopes, where it is not rocky, is loose and gravelly and provides poor foot hold. The com- position of the flora unlike that in regular tahr habitats could be best described as ‘savanna scrub’. However, there is a fair amount of grass of medium height on the two small plateaus on the top of the hill. Census was taken on 5.iv.77 with the assistance of Bokkan, from the Nilgiris and two local guides, the details of which are given below: — Saddle- Back male Dark Brown male Adults female & light brown male Sub Adult Young Total — i 4 2 2 8 1 1 i 2 1 ; 1 4 — 1 7 1 5 14 — — 3 1 1 5 — — 2 — 1 3 — — 5 2 3 10 1 2 23 7 12 45 Because of the smallness of the area it is possible that some animals were counted more than once. But the local guides were certain that the tahr on Erumai Malai number over one hundred! This seems an exaggeration. This hill is one of the few' tahr habitats where it is possible to take a fairly accurate count by organising a drive with a score of beaters. The count also showed that Bison hill is a regular tahr nursery. 25% of the population were young; the highest ratio of young to adult seen in any tahr population. No water sources were observed on the hill at the time of visit. The Pulayur tribals who live in a cave at the foot of the hill, but across the river had not seen tahr come down to the river to drink. How and from what source do the Bison hill tahr get their water requirements? The tahr is a hardy animal which does not have to drink as often as for inst- ance some deer. But how long can it survive with- out water? These and other related aspects are pro- posed to be studied in depth by the writer. Elumalaiyan Koil Hills : To the North of and almost paralled to the Udu- malpet-Munnar road where it enters the hills is a spur which joins the Anamalai hills on the North and High Range in Kerala, on the West. The upper crest of the spur and the adjoining ranges are ty- 827 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 pical tahr country. It is reported that the hills around Maraiyur have been cleaned out of tahr by the Muduvans, a hill tribe, some of them being ex- pert and enterprising poachers. This spur, as such, as far as it could be gathered, has no particular name. For easy identification it is called after the temple for the deity Elumalaiyan, which is located there. The temple is a good one and a half hour walk from the Munnar road and it is placed at the base of a long ridge ranging in elevation from 800 to 1200 metres above M.S.L. The north-eastern end of the ridge is known as Rasi Varai and the south- western end, at Veedankottai (Hunter’s fort) and the tahr appear to be partial to these sections of the ridge. On 6.iv.77 while Bokkan accompanied by the two local guides climbed Veedankottai, I climbed Rasi Varai. It was a stiff climb along overgrown game trails, mostly used by elephants and gaur, especially after the rains. The grasses on the top are the tall varieties more favoured by gaur than tahr. At the time of the visit Rasi Varai was covered with fresh young grass shoots after a fire. Signs of tahr was evident. Although piles of day old droppings and fresh tracks were everywhere on the summit only 5 tahr were sighted, (2 adult females; an adult female accompanied by a yearling and an abandoned, par- tially crippled young), (which in spite of the best efforts of my guide and myself could not be cap- tured). Even these few were wild and showed signs of having been disturbed recently. The reason for this was not far to seek. A party of four men whom we saw on the top when we were half way up the hill, who were prob- ably timber poachers, had camped on the summit the previous night. We also saw a party of two hunters, on a peak behind the ridge, and one of them had a gun. My guide stated that men from the villages below came up each summer, when the agricultural operations had ceased, to cut wood and poach. It was not difficult to make out from the varying size of the fecal pellets that there had been between 30 and 40 tahr on Rasi Varai the previous day. Bokkan had better luck on Vedan Kottai. He and Gopal, the young Pulayar guide, who lives in a tribal settlement near Elumalaiyan Koil saw 25 tahr in one herd. (2 dark brown males, 15 adult females and light brown males, 8 young and sub adults). According to Gopal there are two large herds ol over 30 animals at each end of the ridge at Rasi Varai and Vedan Kottai. Checking the sporadic poaching that takes place on the spur is a difficult task. Action has to be taken in the villages supplying the poachers. It should not be difficult to identify and keep a watch over them. There were not many signs of predation. Estimated population : 1 30 — 1977. Swam iam alai Karadu This Karadu or ridge, an off shoot of the Palani hills, is south of Amaravathi and lies in the Madurai district (1Q°2Q'N and 77°25'E). The route to Swamiamalai is via Papampatti or Andipatti West of Palani the famous temple town. It in- volves a trek of over 20 km. in the plains and a stiff climb of 7 km. H.H. the Raja of Pudukottai who had hunted in the area many years ago re- ported the presence of tahr on the Karadu. In Sep- tember 1976 he had Swamiamalai checked by send- ing two of his experienced shikaris there. They re- ported sighting 15 to 20 tahr. Some of the neigh- bouring escarpments look promising. Tahr are re- ported on Sandumalai. Estimated Population : 20 — 1976. Eravikulam and Rajamallay Nilgiri tahr habitats of Eravikulam and Raja- mallay are in the High Range in Kerala (10° 10' and 77°5'E). They can be reached by road from the Kerala side as well as from Udumalpet in Tamil Nadu. The last 12 Kms or so to Eravikulam has to be trekked over a bridle path which could also be ridden over on motor cycles in fair wea- ther. Rajamallay is just off the Udumalpet-Munnar road on the way to the Rajamallay tea estate. Dr. George Schaller censused the tahr in these two habitats in October 1969 and his report is extracted below. “ The High Range with its deeply dissected val- leys, massive peaks and towering crags is * sur- passingly grand, and incomparably beautiful’, in the words of Hamilton (1892), one of the first visitors to the area in 1854. Tea Plantations now cover the valleys, leaving indigenous forests only on the steep slopes, but the cliffs and grassy plate- aus above an altitude of 2000 m. still provide suit- able tahr habitat. The Eravikulam area, also known as Hamilton’s Plateau, a private shooting reserve 828 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE N1LG1R1 TAHR owned by the Kanan Devan Hills Produce Co., Ltd. ( Now Tata Finlay Ltd.) contains the largest tahr population in the High Range. Protected from poachers, pastoralists, and agriculturists since 1895 by the High Range Game Preservation Association as well as by the cliffs that border the 80 sq. km. plateau on 3 sides, the tahr there have remained relatively undisturbed in recent years. Fire and slash-and-burn cultivation by the Muduvars, who occupied the area sometime after the \4th century ( Thurston 1909) are probably responsible for the little forest that is left on the plateau. A total of 439 tahr were seen. In addition, fresh signs indicated the presence of another herd but 1 was unable to find it in the clouds that engulfed the hills at the time. The total number of tahr in the reserve was thus about 500”. In December 1973, that is, four years after Dr. Schaller conducted his survey, I spent a few days in Eravikulam and was able to see without much exertion more than 200 tahr, including a herd of 119. In March 1978 I spent a few days in Rajamallay and saw in all three herds of 20, 31 and 8 and two strays. The permanent population on the Raja- mallay cliffs is reported to be between 60 and 70. Some visiting herds are reported to come and go. Among the 61 seen there were 17 young, that is 28% of the population. Even if half the young survived they would have more than made up the loss due to old age, disease, predation and poach- ing. Assuming that there was only a marginal in- crease in population over the past 10 years, this would have brought the total population to 600 or more. Moreover, knowledgeable people feel that Dr. Schaffer’s estimate of 500 was a gross under- estimate. A conservative estimate of today’s tahr population in Eravikulam and Rajamallay would put it at around 650. Rajamallay has been a tahr sanctuary for long and well looked after by the company. Eravikulam has been a sanctuary for a few years. Recently both have been accorded the status of a National Park and named after the Anaimudi Peak, the highest peak in South India (2700 m) around which the park has been formed. A wildlife research unit is being set up at Rajamallay. A tahr with a collar round its neck is among the resident herds advertising the fact that snaring is practiced in that area. The snares ought to be searched out and destroyed. Estimated population: 700 — 1969-78. High Range— less known plateaus Besides Rajamallay and Eravikulam the main tahr habitats in the High Range in Kerala there are some less known areas separated from the main range by roads, jungle and tea plantations which are reputed to hold the tahr (10°5' to 10'N 77°5'E). Mr. Samar Singh the President of the High Range Game Preservation Association had these areas surveyed in June 1976 with the help of Muduvan game watchers of the Association and his report is given below. 1. Tertian’s plateau: “Lying above and in bet- ween Gundumallay and Chunduvarrai/Kun- daly Estates. 1 Saddle Back 1 Brown Buck 7 Adults 2 Young 11 (This total number of 11 has been more or less steady for the last few years.) 2. Karunkulam: Lying between and above Ari- vikad and Yellapatty Estates. 2 Saddle Backs 2 Brown Bucks 9 Adults (L.B.M. & A.F.) 4 Yearlings and young 17 (This total number would appear to have re- duced considerably from 60 to 80 some 10 to 15 years ago). 3. Periavurrai j Kannimally Ridge: 4 tahr sighted — probably all does. (This area has not been known to have tahr for quite some time now and I presume these four had moved over from Rajamallay area). There is no news of tahr sightings in any other area around here”. Estimated population: 30 H 1976. Palani Hills The Palani Hills, named after the famous 829 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Palaniandavar Hill temple at Palani perched atop on one of its foothills, juts out into the plains of Madurai district. They rise gradually to a 1800 metre high plateau, 450 Sq Km in extent, called the up- per Palanis, which terminates abruptly in sheer pre- cipices on the south and south-west sides. The well known South Indian hill resort of Kodaikanal or Kodai is on this plateau. The upper Palani plateau is extremely scenic. The southern face, from Kodai to Vandarav, a distance of 40 Km., is just one unbroken chain of precipices, like the ramparts of an immense fortress. Extensive grass-topped undulating hills, or downs, interspers- ed with evergreen sholas, roll back northwards from the cliffs edge. From Marian shola to Van- darav, these stretch right across the plateau cover- ing over 100 sq. Km., one of the finest downland expanses anywhere, despite the wattle plantations here and there. The Kodai-Munnar road runs pa- rallel to the cliff line, in some places within a few metres, and nowhere more than a couple of hours’ walk from it. Moreover, the entire plateau is dot- ted with cliffs, as in Adukkam, Perumal Malai, and Poomparai. It is an ideal habitat for the Nilgiri tahr. Prior to my survey in 1973, no serious attempt seems to have been made to ascertain the tahr’s status which would have facilitated a comparative study. However, I was fortunate in having been the guest of H.H. the Raja of Pudukottai who has spent every summer for the last 25 years of more in Kodai, knows every inch of the tahr country, and has shot many saddlebacks there. According to him 25 to 30 years ago there were well over 1000 tahr in the Palanis. He showed me a dozen cliffs within a radius of 20 km of Kodai which, 10 to 20 years ago, held thriving tahr populations, some as recently as five years ago. His men told me that tahr used to move in droves like domestic sheep and goats. My survey was conducted between April 12 and 20, 1973. Conditions were ideal, except for the usual ground mist which roll up from the plains and obscure the cliffs for a few hours every day. Grass had burned extensively and fresh young grass was sprouting in large patches, an open in- vitation for a tahr gathering. The burning also help- ed to set the tahr in bold relief against the moun- tain side which made spotting easier. The Raja arranged for two experienced shikaris to assist me, and he himself accompanied us on many of the trips. With a long range telescope and powerful binoculars we covered systematically, sec- tion by section, the entire southern cliff line from the Pali varai (cliff) below the golf links to Van- darav, double checking the more promising sec- tions. Our total was 23. Marian Shola varai 2 Adult females 2 Young 4 Karian varai 1 Light brown male 1 Adult female 1 Young 3 Koravan Thotti 1 Saddleback 1 Brown buck 7 Adult females and light brown males 4 Yearling 3 Young 16 Total : 23. We were unable to visit Kaluguthorai and Van- nathi odai cliffs, as the road had been dug up. But a herd of 12, including a saddleback, is reported there. On May 25, 1973, the Raja saw ten tahr in Sooriankanal in two herds (one saddleback, four adult females and two young — one brown-back and two adult females). This brings the total to 45. Even allowing a liberal 35 per cent error margin for animals that we might have missed in the count the total tahr population in upper Palanis is un- likely to exceed 60. A shocking case of wildlife de- cimation. Of the 23 animals, seen, six were young (eight out of 33) a healthy 25 per cent growth rate. Given adequate protection and a proper environment — which means restoring the original habitat along the cliff line by keeping it free of cattle and wattle there is no doubt that the Palani Hills tahr will rehabilitate itself. Estimated population : 60 — 1973/75. 830 Plate I J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Davidar: Nilgiri Tahr Portrait of an adult female Nilgiri Tahr. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate II Davidar: Nilgiri Tahr Subadult and adult females Nilgiri Tahr, DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRI TAHR Highwavy Mountains The Highwavy Mountains (Megamalai): — 9°42' N and 77°20' E — are in the Madurai District of Tamil Nadu. The range has no true plateau, the top be- ing cut into steep-sided valleys. The narrow strip of fairly level ground on which the road is laid, which for convenience can be called the “plateau”, averages 1600 metres but some of the summits reach over 1800 metres. Until 1931, when a tea company obtained a concession over the mountain from the Gandamanaikanur Zemindar they were covered with thick evergreen sholas. Some of these survive where they have not been replaced with tea. The tahr inhabit five grass-covered rocky out- crops projecting from the mountain range: Metla Malai, Kudamparai, Plot No. 28, Varayatu Mot- tai and Attu Mottai (Pathukudisal) . Except on Attu Mottai there are no steep precipices, as in the Nilgiris or the Palanis; the cliffs are no more than ■ a few hundred feet high, and are easily accessible i from both above and below, and none of the grass lands cover more than a few square kilometres. : Padicattu Metla — Southern slope First Herd Young 1 Adult female and \ ^ Light brown male j . Brown buck 1 6 Mudal Metla 1 Young 3 Adults 4 Varayatu Mottai (Venniar) 6.12.72 First Herd Young 2 Adult female 2 4 The approach from the plateau to all five tahr grounds is through the tea gardens. There is a motorable road to within 200 metres of Varayatu Mottai, but the others involve treks through the jungle, varying from half-an-hour to four hours for Kudamparai, the most distant. No earlier attempt seems to have been made to census the tahr population on the Highwavys or for that matter the other wildlife there. Even the re- port of the Bombay Natural History Society’s 1917 expedition to the hills, of which Prater was a mem- ber, makes no mention of the larger forms of wild- life found on the mountains (JBNHS, Vol. XXXI, p. 545). However, Mr. E. W. G. Hagger, a director of the plantation company who has been familiar with the area since 1955, writes about the tahr (which he calls “Ibex” after the local practice) : “In 1956 I saw herds of over 100 on the Metla and Varayatu Mottai. I would guess conservatively that altogether in the early fifties there would have been at least 500 ibex on these hills. The opening up of the Varushanad Valley and the road to Vel- lamalai had a profound effect on the ibex popula- tion”. My count yielded the following figures : Second Herd Young 1 Yearling 1 Adult female and 1 Light brown male | ^ 7 Second Herd Young 1 Yearling 3 Adult female and ! Light brown male j ^ Brown buck 1 12 831 18 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 Attu Mottai (pathukudisal) Yearling 2 Adult female 2 4 Kudamparai could not be visited, but Mr. Pala- niappan’s shikari reports having seen there five tahr there (two adult males, three adult females). A saddleback and four others were seen a week pre- viously at Plot No. 28. Mr. Palaniappan’s subse- quent counts and recounts yielded the following figures : Attu Mottai — 2 brown buck, 5 adult females and 2 young: Total — 9. Padicattu Metla — 2 brown buck, 7 adult fe- males, 5 young, not classified 6: Total — 20. Mudal Metla — 1 saddleback, 8 young, 18 not classified: Total — 27. Thus the total tahr population can be taken to be 20 + 27 + 9 + 14 + 16 + 5 = 91 or, say 100. The animals were healthy and did not seem unduly disturbed, the ratio of young reveals a healthy growth rate. The rechecks have revealed the remarkable fact that the Highwavys tahr have learned to adapt themselves to their environment by extending their limited preferred habitat of grassy hills among rocky terrain to include surrounding shola forests which tahr normally avoid. Estimated population: 100 — 1972. Srivilliputtur and Rajapalayam Hills The Western ghats rises like a rampart behind (west of) the towns of Srivilliputtur and Rajapa- layam which are in the Ramnad district in Tamil Nadu. The towns about 15 Km apart are important stops on the Madurai — Trivandrum railway line. The Count Saddle Brown Back Buck Ridges close to the Bungalow 1 4 Variaattupallam — 3 Sambaltheri 1 — Veilkathanmottai — 1 Plot No. 28. 7.12.73 Young 3 Yearling 2 Adult female and I ^ Light brown male j 9 They are on the Madurai — Tenkasi highway. Roads lead to the foot hills from the towns and from there bridle paths, which are quite steep in places, take off into the hills. a) Mudaliar Oothu (9°33' N and 77°35' E). Mudaliar Oothu is a perennial spring situated at an altitude of about 1500 metres above MSL in the Srivilliputhur forest Range. About a 100 metres North of the spring is a forest rest house — the Mu- daliar Oothu bungalow. Owing to neglect the bun- galow is in bad shape and will soon be in ruins. The Mudaliar Oothu is accessible from Pudupatti Village also. Running behind the bungalow, North to South, is a 9 km long ridge, starting from Kodakkalparai in the North and terminating at Peimalai Mottai, (1582 m above MSL) one of the tallest peaks in the area. The precipitous slopes on the eastern side of the ridge hold a fair population of tahr. South- west of the bungalow there are two hills — The Veilkathan mottai and Sambaltheri both of which also support tahr populations. The Kodakkalparai area is visited by the tahr mainly during the north- east monsoon, that is, October to December. At all other times the tahr keep to the other slopes men- tioned above. Because of severe persecution at the hands of poachers the tahr remain in the middle terraces, even on the eastern slopes and go further down for grazing. It was here that the tahr were seen. The tahr area is limited and was surveyed by Mr. A. J. T. John Singh between 15.V.76 and 17.V.76. LBM & Yearling Young Total AF 1 — — 6 21 — — 28 1 — — 2 9 — 5 15 51 832 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE N1LGIRI TAHR Duplication was unlikely because the animals seen were well away from one another and counting was done within a short span of time. The other possible tahr terrain is the southern slope of the ridge running from Peimalai Mottai to the West where Mr. John Singh’s guide Aagasam had seen tahr previously. The terrain of the eastern slope of the Mudaliar Oothu — Peimalai Mottai ridge is such that smaller inaccessible pockets are likley to be there supporting small populations of the tahr. Taking all this into consideration the tahr population at Mudaliar Oothu could be estimated at around 70. b) Funnel valley and Vellakkaltheri ( 9°25' N and 77° 28' E ). Mr. John Singh’s report. The Tunnel Valley’ and the Vellakkaltheri are in the hills West of Rajapalayam. The area was surveyed between 22.V.76 and 24.V.76 and only in Vellakkaltheri tahr were seen. Saddle Brown Adult M Yearling Young Total Back Buck Adult F — 4 7 3 1 15 Two mornings were spent in the Tunnel Valley’. No tahr were sighted. But during an earlier trip tahr were seen there. Estimated population: 90 — 1976. c) Puliangudi Hill (9° 10' N and 77° 15' E). Puliangudi is further south of Rajapalayam. The hills, which continue in an unbroken chain south of Srivilliputtur are to the west of the town, which is on the Madurai — Tenkasi road. The escarp- ments on these hills held tahr in fair numbers in the olden days. The District Forest Officer of Tirun- elveli Mr. Kadakshamani made extensive enquiries and came to the conclusion that they have been wiped out or had moved away. But Mr. J. J. Mangalraj, the Wildlife Warden of Mundanthorai sanctuary feels that some stragglers may be still left as a poacher was apprehended with a slain tahr in the area. Ashambu Hills At the southern extremity of the western ghats are the Ashambu hills spread over Tamil Nadu and Kerala States. On the Tamil Nadu side, the range is more or less equally divided between Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts. The Tirunelveli section is generally referred to as the Singampatti hills as it formed part of the former Singampatti Zamin- dari. A motor road cuts across a section of the hills from Kalladaikurichi in the plains in the east through Manimuttar and Manjolai estates of the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation in the hills and terminates abruptly at the valve house of Ko- dayar hydroelectric project where it meets the 4 stage winch from the Kodayar power house be- low, a total distance of 55 Km from Kalladaiku- richi. From about half way up the hills the road traverses sections of Kalakadu forest, a fine ex- ample of tropical wet evergreen forest. Kalakadu is reputed to hold one of the largest populations of lion tailed macaque. ( Macaca silenus) Map ref. 8° 30' to 8°35'N, 77°20' to 77°25'E. Panchamthangi Malai : At the entrance to the hills is Panchamthangi malai (also called the Muthalathi malai after the Muthalathi river rising in this region) an off shoot of the Ashambu hills. Panchamthangi malai is a pro- mising tahr habitat and is reported to have sup- ported a fair population of tahr. Minor forest pro- duce gatherers whom I met on my first trip in May 1976 reported having seen some tahr when they camped there a month previously. Vellimalai is adjacent to Panchamthangi. During my April 1977 trip my assistant Bokkan stayed behind to survey Panchamthangi. On 20th and 21st April, accom- panied by two local guides he camped on Pancham- thangi and covered that hill as also Vellimalai. They sighted 6 tahr. Bokkan thought he could have seen more had the grass been shorter. But the signs did not indicate a large population. His estimate for the area is 20. Varaiattu Mottai : The rocky slope to the right of the ghat road as one motors up into the hills and its crown are called the Varaiattu mottai, meaning tahr hill. My guide Poolappan, a supervisor in the employ of the Bom- bay Burmah Trading Corporation, who had been acting as a shikar guide in the area for over thirty years and others who are familiar with the area report that Varaiattu mottai was a favoured tahr haunt. Poolappan last saw (over ten years ago) three animals — the remnants of the tahr herds that once lived there. The knowledgeable people in the area attribute the disappearance of the tahr to poaching, the main culprits being members of some affluent families in the district. With control 833 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 over poaching after the formation of the Mundan- thorai sanctuary, tahr have a chance of coming back and re-establishing themselves. The entire area now falls within the Kalakadu sanctuary. Kuliratti Mottai : On the eastern face of the main range at an elevation of 1000 m is Sengaltheri where a forest rest house is situated. A bridle path leads to Sen- galtheri from the Kalladaikurichi — Kodayar road. Sengaltheri could also be approached directly from the plains below. Kuliratti Mottai (1300 m) is 2 Km south east of Sengaltheri. It was Mr. Rama- nathan the wild life warden of Kalakadu sanctuary who brought this tahr habitat to my notice. Unfor- tunately it was after my visits to Singampatti. His forest guards reported having seen half a dozen tahr at Kuliratti mottai. Mr. Ramanathan and Mr. Rauf Ali, a primatologist visited the ridge in 1977 at my request but could not make much progress along the ridge because of rank overgrowth. Pechiparai Cliffs: The name Pechiparai has come to refer to a much larger area on account of the large irrigation reser- voir bearing that name that has been formed at the foot of the hills. The road to the valve house ter- minates at the cliffs, cutting them in half, vertically. Tahr have not been seen above the road after its formation. The tahr habitat which is generally known as Varaiattu mottai is bounded by the road on the top, the trolley line to the Kodayar power house on the north, thick jungle on the south and the plains below and covers an area of about 8 sq. Kms. In spite of these restrictions the tahr have a fine country to roam. The grasslands are extensive enough to support a fair tahr population. The valve house is placed at an elevation of 1266 m. above M.S.L. and the tahr country ranges in elevation between 700 and 1200 m. On my first visit to the area in 1969 I saw six tahr, which were, probably, part of a herd. They appeared to be much harassed. A case of poaching by police guarding the Power House was brought to my notice. Mr. J. C. Daniel of the Bombay Na- tural History Society saw a herd of twelve in 1970. On 16.V.1976 Poolappan and I failed to see any tahr. But came across very fresh droppings. A fa- mily of workers walking all the way up from the Power House along the trolly line reported having seen some lower down. The following day a herd of 14 was sighted and I kept them under observa- tion from 8.30 a.m. until 1.30 p.m. The herd was composed of 2 young, 3 subadults and 9 adults. Be- sides this herd the track of a large tahr, possibly a brown buck /saddleback was seen. Men from a workers’ camp a Km away confirmed having come across this herd often. Rock blasting, loudspeaker noises, noisy music from the electricity board camp below were heard clearly on the tahr hill. There was activity both above and below and also on the trolly line. Despite this the tahr remained uncon- cerned. There were no reports of poaching this time. Kclamala : There is a fine range of hills overlooking the Ko- dayar power house. It is called by different names at different points — Varaiattu mudi, Paivarai. kat- tu, Aduppukal, Venkalamalai, Kalamala and Ma- hali. It could be approached either from Kodayar power house at the foot of the hills or the valve house above. The starting point is way down the hill at the point where the first stage of the winch terminates. This range falls partly in Kerala State and partly in Tamil Nadu. This tahr habitat was first brought to my attention by Mr. G. Mukundan of the India Forest Service, Kerala cadre. On 16/ 17.V.1976, on my visit to Varaiattu mottai I kept a good part of the range under observation for 3 to 4 hours each day. No movement of tahr was observed. On 17.V.76, Poolapan and a local labourer, who was familiar with the area, climbed varaiattu mudi (4679') the first highest point in the range and looked for tahr. They sighted only three but came across piles of droppings. It was arrang- ed for Polappan to camp there and take a better look, which he did in June 1976. He reported having come across 2 herds; 13 (8 adults and 4 young and yearling) and 9 (7 adults and 2 young), altogether 22. On 18 and 19.iv.77 I camped on Kalamala with Bokkan and two local guides and covered the en- tire range. On Varaiattu mudi we came across only two adult tahr. Fifteen were seen near Aduppukal 1900 m (6132'). On the 18th — 15 (2 dark brown males, 10 adult females and light brown males and subadults and 3 young) and on the 19th — 8 (6 adult females and light brown males and 2 young), in all twentyfive were observed. 834 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRI TAHR Seeing the piles of droppings on the top Mr. Mukundan thought that there should be over one hundred tahr there. There are also some tahr scra- pes — erosion patches caused by tahr, one of them is so prominent that, seen from the valve house, it looks like a road cutting. Two winch operators who had seen service there for many years had not seen tahr on the section of the ridge overlooking the power house except on two occasions. The tahr in the range appear to be concentrated along the ridge, as the grass lower down and on the adjacent slopes is tall and coarse. Droppings and signs of tahr activity over a small area gives one the im- pression of a large tahr population. One of the winch operators had seen small herds of tahr cross the trolley line on only two or three occasions from one side to the other, during the entire period of his 15 years’ service. Estimated population : 70 — 1977. Tiruvannamalai Peaks Motoring along the Tenkasi-Kanyakumari trunk road, while nearing the town of Panaigudi, two prominent rocky peaks come into view on the west. These are the Tiruvannamalai peaks (8°23'N and 77° 32' E). The peaks are in the Boothapandi forest range of Tirunelveli South forest Division. This is the southernmost habitat of the Nilgiri tahr. There are four tracks leading to the peaks; from Panaigudi, Roachmapuram and Thirukkurungudi. It is a 11 km. long trek including a final steep climb of 2 km. The fourth is a short cut from Raja- pudur, which is very steep. The Thulukkambarai river flows on the north western side of the northern peak. This is the usual campsite. On 8.V.76 at 18.45 hours from the camp itself one male tahr standing silhouetted against the sky on the northern slope of the northern peak (1596 m) was spotted. The base of the northern slope is steep and boulder strewn. The vegetation was chiefly com- posed of Phoenix sylvestris, Themeda cy maria. On 9.V.76 besides the adult buck seen the previous even- ing an adult female and a young tahr were also seen there. On the south peak (1587 m.) fresh young grass was sprouting after a recent fire and tracks and pellets of tahr were everywhere. A poaching party was skinning two tahr — a brown buck and an adult female on a slope! There were nine men including a Forester and two police men! It appeared that they had been camping there for three days and only that morning did they succeed in killing three out of a herd of 40 tahr, firing 10 shots. They were able to recover only two animals and the third had fallen into a deep gully which was inaccessible. As the poachers had disturbed the area it was not possible to see any tahr on the Southern slope. But from the abundance of pellets and tracks it is possible to estimate that there must be 40 to 50 tahr in the area. Mr. John Singh deserves praise for undertaking the survey of this tahr habitat. Estimated population : 40 + — 1976. Tahr populations — a summary Tahr habitat Estimated population 1 . The Nilgiris 450 2. Silent Valley 30 3. Siruvani Hills 20 4. Elival mala 20 5. Nelliampathi Hills 25 6. Topslip and Parambikulam 120 7. Eastern slopes of the Anamalais Hills 125 8. Grass Hills in Anamalais 200 9. Amaravathi slopes 130 10. Swamiamalai Karadu 20 11. Eravikulam and Rajamallay 700 12. Less known plateaus — High Range 30 13. Palani Hills 60 14. Highwavy Mountain 100 15. Srivilliputtur and Rajapalayam Hills 90 16. Ashambu Hills 70 17. Tiruvannamalai Peak 40 2230 Nilgiri tahr habitats — an APPRAISAL 1 . NiSgirSs: a) Western slope — Ideal Nilgiri tahr habitat and extensive grasslands. ] Further en- 835 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 croachment into tahr country by way of wattle and blue gum plantations and hy- dro-electric projects to be avoided. Large population but somewhat stagnant. Point to be watched against poaching — Nilgiri peak area beyond Terrace Estate; Western catchment dams 2 and 3 above Emerald Valley Estate; Kinkerai Hundi, from Ba- daga villages in the Kundah area and Nad- gani, from across the border through Sis- para pass and over the cliffs from below Nadgani. The last is the furthest and most seriously affected area. Predators — tigers, leopards and wild dogs are active. b) Northern slopes — Glenmorgan — Typical tahr habitat. Cattle grazing and other dis- turbances on the plateau. Slopes and cliffs less disturbed. The small herd here appears to have become extinct. Suitable area for re-introduction of tahr provided their pro- tection can be ensured. c) Southern slopes — Isolated locations. Res- tricted and much human activity has deve- loped around the base and sides. No tahr left. Unsuitable for reintroduction. 2. Silent Valley a) Hills at the entrance of the valley near Muk- kali — Only stragglers, if any, left. Human activity in this area is increasing day by day. If Silent Valley project is taken up there will be lot more disturbance. How- ever, after the project is completed some of these hills would make suitable sites for re-introduction of tahr if adequately pro- tected. b) Ankinda Mala and adjoining hills — Ideal habitat. Migrant population. No human dis- turbance except poaching. Poachers have access to the area through the Sispara Pass and over the cliffs below Nadgani. Co-or- dinated action from the Nilgiris plateau as well as from Kerala is necessary to check poaching. 3. Siravani liiSIs: a) Kunjera mala ridge — Small population. Endangered habitat due to erosion and rank growth. Disturbed conditions below due to dam work. Close watch necessary. b) Vellingiri malai — Good tahr country. But no tahr left. Suitable for re-introduction. 4. Elival mala: a) Palamala — Fair sized habitat. Small po- pulation recovering after heavy poaching. Close watch necessary to prevent recur- rence. Promotion of legitimate activity ad- vocated. b) Karimala — Limited habitat. Optimum po- pulation. Could eventually be encouraged, through proper protection measures to spill over into Kondamala, the extensive grass covered ridge and slopes to the South. 5. NelSiampathi hills: a) Hill top — Ideal tahr habitat and exten- sive grasslands. Heavily poached. Serious- ly endangered population. b) Cruz malai and Chinna aatu malai — Fair sized habitat cattle grazing and disturbance. Endangered population and endangered ha- bitat. The planting company there could be encouraged to co-operate and involve itself in conservation. c) Govinda malai — Stragglers, if any. En- dangered. 6. Topslip and Parambikulam: a) Pandaravarai — Adequate population for fair sized habitat, which is endangered through erosion and over grazing by gaur. b) Kolumbumalai — No resident tahr. En- dangered habitat — soil erosion through action of worms. c) Perunkundru — A very fine habitat; ex- 836 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRl TAHR tensive, good grazing and well protected. The long grass covered slope to the south also holds promise and can absorb the spill over. d) Palagakundru — Small isolated habitat — small population. e) Vengoli malai — Long narrow ridge. Suit- able for and holds a small population. In the middle of two sanctuaries and protect- ed. Subject to predation. f) Karumalai gopuram — Small but ideal ha- bitat. Small population but -area could hold more. Composition of the herd — male/ female ratio — disproportionate. Translo- cation could be attempted to correct in- balance. 7. Eastern slopes of the Anainalai hills: a) Aliyar — Low elevation habitat, fairly ex- tensive— appears unpromising, but is sup- porting fair population. b) Chetta Guttu — Ninth hairpin bend hill — No resident tahr. But of late a saddle back or two or a small herd of migrants from either direction seen frequently. Being close to highway require watching. c) Attakatti cliffs — Once subjected to heavy poaching. Recovering slowly. Habitat could support some more. d) Thadaganachi malai — Medium level habi- tat. Fairly extensive. Comparatively small population for the area. Danger from cat- tle grazing and disturbance. Danger from poaching-requires close watch. e) Navamalai — Low level habitat. Looks un- promising but supports a fair population. Extensive cattle grazing except on cliffs. 8. Grass Hills in Anamalais: Ideal habitat, extensive. Large population. Herds move all over the range and not res- tricted to specific areas. Advisable to keep the presence of the planters in the Grass hills through the Konalaar Fishing Association as a deterrent to poaching by estate labour and raids by Muduvans across ‘no man’s land.’ A dam across Konalaar is under survey. If this is taken up considerable damage will be caus- ed to the environment and tahr will be driven mto the “No man’s land” where they will be subject to poaching. 9. Amaravathi slopes: a) Jambukal — Endangered habitat and popu- lation. No hope. b) Erumai malai — Low level habitat. More a scrub country than a normal tahr habitat. Supports a fairly large population for an area of that extent. Preservation adequate. c) Elumalaiyan koil hill — Medium level habi- tat. Fair population, but subjected to poach- ing. Hills higher up. Promising country. But subjected to poaching. If controlled, suit- able for re-introduction. 10. Swamiamalai Karachi: Small population. Endangered. 1 1 . Eravikulam and RajamaSSay: Ideal habitat. Extensive and well preserv- ed except on the periphery. Heavily po- pulated. Periphery requires more atten- tion. The “No man’s land” between Grass hills in Anamalais and Eravikulam is an equ- ally good habitat and has great promise. Efforts to check poaching by introducing legitimate activity necessary. 12. High Range — Less known plateaus: Tertian’s plateau Karunkulam Periavurrai Typical tahr country. But limited area. Small populations. Endangered. Very lit- tle hope. 837 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, VoL 75 13. Palani Hills: Extensive and ideal tahr country on the Southern face of the Upper Palani pla- teau. Encroached upon by cattle and forest plantations from above and coffee and cardamom plantations from below. Classic case of endangering habitat lead- ing to decimation of wild life. Small scat- tered populations leading precarious ex- istence. Scattered restricted habitats also suffering from same fate. Massive con- servation effort required for rehabilita- tion. Little hope of such effort as things are. Adukkam range : Good country, but now lost for the tahr. 14. High wavy mountain: Mixed grassland /forest habitat. Widely scattered, supporting small herds. End- angered populations. a) Metla : Fair sized, subject to cattle graz- ing at lower levels. Also poached from below. b) Varayattu mottai : Limited habitat. Much disturbed due to hydro electric project work. Endangered habitat and popula- tion. c) Attu mottai : Cliffs afford some amount of protection. Poached. d) Plot No. 28: Fair extent of grass and rock country. Bottom end adjoining Raja- palayam hills. Subject to poaching. e) Kudamparai : Isolated. Present position not known. Due to scattered populations access to tahr country is a problem. Effective protection at the top at least is possible and must receive immediate at- tention. 15. Srivillipettur and RajapaSayam hills: a) Mudaliar Oothu — Extensive and ideal b) c) 16. a) b) c) d) e) 17. country. But due to habitat disturbance - tahr movement is restricted. Scattered lo- cations, could be connected once extensive !, cattle grazing and poaching are removed. Promotion of legitimate activity is advo- cated as supervision is otherwise difficult. Area holds much promise; if conserved, j Rajapalayam hills — Limited tahr coun- try. Gravely endangered. Very little hope. Puliangudi hills — It is feared that the scattered populations on these hills have been exterminated. Ashambu hills: Panchamthangi malai — Fairly extensive !i habitat, comparatively small population for the area. Fairly well preserved. Varaiattu mottai — No tahr left. Suitable for re-introduction. Kuliratti mottai — Note an ideal country. Small herd. Pechiparai cliffs — Limited habitat. Small but growing population. Well preserved. Kalamala — Extensive grasslands bound- ed by cliffs. Signs indicate a larger num- i ber than actually seen. Holds promise. J Tiruvannamalai peaks: Fairly extensive habitat. Ill preserved. Subject to poaching and cattle grazing. Pos- sible to eliminate both if determined efforts are made. Fair population. Holds promise. < Observations 1 . Is Nilgiri tahr an endangered species? The overall population of the Nilgiri tahr; | its hardiness and adaptability; flourishing tahr * populations in certain habitats in its range and the breeding potential of the species as ob- served and reported herein do not qualify the tahr to be included in the list of endangered 838 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRI TAHR species. However, there is no room for com- placency. Some of the scattered populations are, not only, endangered but gravely so and could be expected to disappear in the not too distant future. 2. Conservation : There are two recognised methods of preserving a wild animal — total protection and management. Which of these two methods is to be employed in the case of an animal like the tahr? A study of the reports on the seventeen groups of Nilgiri tahr habitats is revealing. Only two of the seventeen areas, namely Era- vikulam and Nilgiris have sizable populations. It is significant that both these areas were shooting preserves under the control and management of Game Associations until re- cently. The associations concerned believed in preserving game through management by re- gulating their pursuit. Grass hills in the Anamallais has the third largest population. Grass hills were also, in a sense, a game preserve of the Anamalai planters. Their fishing/hunting lodge is locat- ed in the heart of the tahr country and their presence was felt. Palani hills were the only exception. But the Game Association there ceased to exist, except in name, after the for- ties. Going back into the history of the principal tahr habitats one finds that the stock of game was low when the Game Associations took over. They had to start almost from scratch. But for the Eravikulam game preserve and the Rajamallay sanctuary of the High Range Game Preservation Association and the pre- sence of the Konalar Fishing Association in Grass Hills there is no doubt, that the “no man’s land” in between, which has very little game due to depredations of Muduvan poach- ers, would have extended on either side to cover the whole of Hamilton’s Plateau. As against the example of Nilgiris and Era- vikulam there are instances of fairly well stocked tahr habitats which, although officially closed to hunting, no longer have tahr, the herds having been eliminated by illicit hunt- ing and snaring. If it is possible to rehabilitate the tahr in thr Nilgiris from the verge of extinction (and pc ssibly the harassed herds on Hamilton’s plateau) it can be done throughout the tahr’s range. The rehabilitation, it must be remembered, was done mainly through regulating tahr hunt- ing. It is also well to remember that sporting standards in these two areas and in the Grass Hills were rather high. In Eravikulam between 1958 and 1969 an average of 1.9 saddle backs per annum were shot. In the Nilgiris between 1912 and 1939 an average of 4.6 saddle backs were killed. And between 1940 and 1976, 76 were bagged, an average of just over 2 per annum. There being no forestry operations in the tahr wilder- ness (with rare exceptions as in the case of some parts of Nilgiris and Grass Hills where some seasonal operations take place), no forest staff visit these places. This is where the role of the hunter assumes importance. A saddle back, which is permitted to be shot, is a difficult trophy to secure. Many trips are made into the tahr wildernesses to procure a single trophy. Then there are marking trips. This leads to regular patrolling of the area. To give an example, for six years the writer strenuously tried to secure a really worthy trophy before he gave up in favour of the camera. There is no doubt that the trophy hunter played a useful part in keeping poach- ing down in remote tahr country. As far as the saddle back is concerned, roughly half of them are true solitaries and do not take part in breeding. Every saddleback 839 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 legitimately shot, therefore, represents a sub- stantial number of breeding stock saved. In these circumstances the wisdom of trans- ferring the Nilgiri tahr from Schedule II (spe- cial big game which can be shot on licence) to Schedule I (absolutely protected) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (vide 5.10.1977 notification) is open to question. This is typi- cally a bureaucrat’s way out of a difficult situation by closing his eyes to realities. Particularly, in a place like the Nilgiris, the cropping of a few old saddlebacks is not like- ly to have any effect on the overall popula- tion. On the contrary it will be a good con- servation measure to have a few sportsmen visiting the tahr country on legitimate busi- ness. And supervision is simple. All one has to do is to check him out at the point of exit. Unlike the tiger, which wears valuable fur which has universal appeal the saddleback offers a trophy which has value only to the hunter. As for the poacher who is after its meat it does not make the slightest difference whether the tahr is in schedule I or in Sche- dule II to the Act, as long as he eludes cap- ture. Since he operates in remote and diffi- cult terrain offering long range views effecting his capture is more easily said than done. The best thing to do is to keep the poacher out with legitimate presence. Dr. George Schaffer recommends — “The animals survive in the Nilgiris and High Range only because the local wildlife Associations have protected them for years for sporting purpose. In areas where tahr have not had the benefit of private initiative, where they have had to rely solely on the protection afforded by the State Government, they have either been wiped out or reduced to a few scattered herds. The revoking of shooting rights would eliminate whatever interest the Wildlife Associations have in the animal and the resulting increase in poaching and habitat destruction might well tip the balance of the species from tenuous security to extinction”. [J.B.N.H.S. Vol. 67(3)]. In its own interest the Nilgiri tahr should be put back in Schedule II to the Act. Hunt- ing when restored must be done selectively in areas like the Nilgiris, and in the “no man’s land” on Hamilton’s plateau with the express object of affording protection to the rest of the tahr population there. The opening up of the area outside of the Eravikulam National Park to hunting will surely encourage the re- stocking of the area through spiff over of the excess stock in Eravikulam. As for smaller tahr habitats, which can be watched and guarded, they should remain closed and closely guarded. There, the removal of even an old saddle back might upset the balance. Thus both methods of conservation namely, total protection in smaller areas and sanctuaries and management by regulating hunting in larger areas are advocated. Administration’. Consequent on the enforce- ment of the wildlife (protection) Act 1972 forest departments in the states have been bifurcated into general and development wings under separate Chief Conservators of forests, wildlife being placed under the development wing. In practice this progressive measure is leading to compartmentalisation which is rather unfortunate. Wildlife wardens have been appointed and placed in direct control of sanctuaries. Al- though technically the administration of the Act outside sanctuaries is also the responsibi- lity of the wildlife department, with limita- tions of staff, wildlife wardens are not in a position to exercise effective control over areas outside sanctuaries. Further, as they have been vested with ‘territorial powers’ over 840 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILGIRI TAHR sanctuaries, which used to be exercised by the general administration, their energies tend to get dissipated in this direction. Wildlife which even otherwise had a low priority has been pushed further down in the list of priorities as far as the general administration is con- cerned. The cumulative effect of all these de- velopments is that wildlife in general and tahr habitats outside sanctuaries in particular get a poor deal. The tendency to treat the wildlife depart- ment as a poor relation of the general ad- ministration as it is a poor earner of revenue does have a demoralising effect on the men. This tendency must go. The wildlife staff must be made to feel important and wanted by giving them every encouragement possible. This was probably one of the reasons for handing over administrative control of sanc- tuaries to them. Needless to add that there is no reason why the wildlife men should feel neglected. As professionals doing a specialist job they have the opportunity to prove their worth. And pride in the profession, in itself is a reward. 4. Stagnating population : It has been observed that tahr populations, however well preserved, however vigorous and however high the birth rate start stagnating once certain levels are reached. Unfortunate- ly, there is only the Nilgiri records to base this assumption. Phythian- Adams (1929) thought that there were 400 tahr in 1927 and over 500 in 1930 (1939 report). Although these were ‘guesstimates’ based on insufficient data, in view of Phythian-Adam’s field experi- ence, they do give one a rough idea. The 1963 census of the writer yielded a figure of 400 (approx). Schaller who did a spot check of a third of the area in 1969 thought that the population had stagnated. The writer’s 1975 census yielded a figure of 450. These various estimates seem to indicate that the tahr popu- lation in the Nilgiris levelled off at a little over 400. From accounts of hunting expeditions of Pollock (1894) and Hornaday (1885) in and around Thunakadavoo (between Topslip and Parambikulam) some rough idea of the tahr population there is gained. Even in a well pre- served and ideal habitat like Perunkundru there has not been any spectacular increase in the past 70/80 years. Grass Hills, Topslip and Parambikulam, Eastern slopes of the Anamalai hills and Amaravathi slopes are situated within the Anamalai wildlife sanctuary which was form- ed in 1973. Some of these tahr habitats were closed to hunting since 1970 or so and have been fairly well preserved. In spite of this there has not been any significant increase in population. This matter of stagnating population, it would appear, is not an isolated instance but a general trend. In the case of the Nilgiris there is atleast a fair amount of predation. But in some of the other areas there is hardly any predator activity worth mentioning. There is, no doubt, some falling off of numbers be- tween the young and sub-adult stage and the sub-adult to adult stage. But it is not a steep fall. Therefore, in the natural sequence of events, the total population of Nilgiri tahr ought to have been much more, at least in undisturbed and well preserved areas, than what the status survey has disclosed. It would be worth in- vestigating and identifying these inhibiting factors. Reintroduction into former habitats could be considered provided their preserva- tion could be ensured. With modern capture guns that are in use translocation should not present a problem. 841 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 5) Captive breeding I ranching: An interesting finding in the “discovery” of flourishing tahr populations in “low country”. Going into old records it is seen that at one time tahr had flourished even in the plains. Jerdon (1874) in mammals of India came across a tame herd in a church compound in Cochin. Frederic Cotton (as referred to in ‘Notes on Jerdon’s Mammals of India by an Indian sportsman’) confirms this. The tahr in the Trivandrum zoo are doing well. The low country tahr would appear to be more browsers than grazers. In this context it may be mentioned that the writer has un- dertaken an ecological study of the low coun- try tahr, which it is hoped will throw some light on the ecology and behaviour of the low country tahr and Milgiri tahr generally. To rehabilitate the tahr it would not appear to be necessary to seek high altitude, tempe- rate locale with extensive grasslands bounded by cliffs, where supervision -and control are a problem because of remoteness. Any rocky hill with mixed browse and grazing would seem to do. In other words, any area which is capable of supporting domestic goats — which, incidentally, are efficient converters of browse into protein, a quality the tahr possi- bly shares with the goat — would be able to support tahr. This knowledge has thrown open exciting possibilities. Captive breeding is possible. Ranching also has scope. And this in country unsuitable for more demanding forms of wild or domestic ungulates. In choosing suitable areas, locations where preservation presents no problems can be chosen. Conclusion There is, no doubt, concern for the conser- vation of the Nilgiri tahr. But so for this con- cern has not gone beyond labelling it an end- angered species, upgrading it to schedule I to the Wildlife (Preservation) Act, declaring some of its habitats, sanctuaries and passing impressive administrative orders. It takes much more to preserve an animal like the tahr which inhabits remote mountain peaks be- yond the reach of the ordinary conservation machinery. Physical effort, a certain amount of dedication and a pragmatic conservation policy is what is required. In planning stra- tegy promotion of legitimate activity in tahr country to displace and discourage illegiti- mate activity must have priority. An Appeal As mentioned before, it is my hope to make the survey a continuing process and informa- tion which will update it periodically is wel- come. Any tahr habitat which does not find a place in this report may please be reported for investigation. ACK N OWLEDGE M E N TS I am indebted to Mr. T. Jeyadev, IFS, Chief Conservator of forests (Development), Tamil Nadu, and Mr. K. K. Nair, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests (Development), Kerala, for having bestowed on me the ‘freedom of the forest’ to roam tahr habitats within their respective jurisdiction, and for their support. I am confident that with the co-operation of the able Chief Wildlife Wardens of Tamil Nadu and Kerala the suggestions contained in this report will receive due consideration and find their way to the field without delay. I am obliged to Dr. George B. Schaffer for census methods which I have followed and also for his note on the Eravikulam popula- 842 DISTRIBUTION & STATUS OF THE NILG1RI TAHR tion which I have incorporated in this report. Mr. G. J. Rajasingh, IFS, Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu deserves praise for his enthusiasm and for the information supplied on the various tahr habitats in his circle, thus helping me to update my reports in respect of these habitats. I am especially grateful to H.H. Raja of Pudukottai, Mr. Samar Singh, Mr. A. J. T. John Singh, Mr. J. W. Sykes, Mr. B. Palaniap- pan, Mr. Ramanathan and Mr. Rauf Ali who took part in the survey independently, and to those who helped to fill the gaps, for their interest and effort. Wherever I went, whether it was in Tamil Nadu or in Kerala I was received with ut- most courtesy by the forest officers and staff concerned and to them I express my thanks. My professional connection with the plant- ing community stood me in good stead. But for their help and hospitality my task would have been so much more difficult. I owe them my gratitude. Bokkan, my shikari was invaluable. He was with me on most of my trips and shared all the risks and privations. When the mountain seemed formidable and the climb intermin- able he often set the pace thus encouraging me to take the next step and the next till the work was completed. Sometimes he worked on his own. I owe him a debt of gratitude. I am also indebted to my several local guides. My daughter Priya and sons Mark and Peter helped me in various ways. To Mr. H. C. Starr who did most of the typing with patience and forbearance and Mr. O. E. Starr who supervised the compilation of the report, and Mr. M. Mahalingam a special word of thanks. To the Fauna Preservation Society, London, which placed its confidence in me and pro- vided assistance which helped me to meet a fair proportion of the expense of the survey, I express my sincere thanks. References Anonymous: Annual reports of the Nilgiri Wild- life Association 1922-1976. ‘An Old Shikarri’, (1880) : Nilgiri Sporting re- miniscences. ‘Big Bore’ (1924) : Guide to shikar in the Nil- giris. Bombay Natural history society Journal — Bassett (1964): 61 (2): 431-432; L. Brown (1960): 57 (2): 403—408; A. Hutton (1947): 47 (2): 374—376; A. K inloch (1926): 31 (2): 520—521; T. J. Ro- berts (1967): 64 (2): 358—365 and (1967): 34 (4): 238—249; R. H. Waller (1972): 69 (3): 574 —590; J. Willet (1968): 65 (3): 769—771. Daniel, J. C. (1970) : The Nilgiri Tahr, Hemi- tragus hylocrius Ogilby, in the High Range, Kerala and the southern hills of the Western Ghats. /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 67 (3) : 535-542. Davidar, E. R. C. (1968): The Nilgiri Wildlife Association and status of wildlife in the Nilgiris. ibid. 65 (2): 431-443. (1971) : A note on the status of the Nilgiri tahr ( Hemitragus hylocrius ) on the Grass Hills in the Anamallais. ibid. 68 (2) : 347-354. (1975) : The Nilgiri Tahr. Oryx, 13 (2): 205-211. (1976) : Census of the Nilgiri tahr in the Nilgiris. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 73: 143- 148. Fletcher, F. W. F. (1911): Sport on the Nil- giris and in Wynaad. Hamilton, D. (1892) : Records of sport in Southern India. Hawkeye, (1881): Game. Hornaday, W. T. (1885): Two years in the jungle. Jerdon, T. C. (1874) : Mammals of India. 843 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Maydon, H. C. (1937): Big game of India. Phythian-Adams, E. G. (1939): The Nilgiri Game Association 1879-1939. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 41 (2): 384-386. (1950) : Jungle Memories, ibid. 49 (3): 418-426. Pollock, A. (1894) : Sporting days in Southern India. Prater, S. H. (1971): The Book of Indian Ani- mals. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay. Russel, C. E. M. (1900): Bullet and shot in Indian Forest plain and hill. Schaller, G. B. (1970) : Observations on Nil- giri tahr ( Hemitragus hylocrius Ogilby, 1838). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 67 (3) : 365-389. Stockley, C. H. (1928) : Big game shooting in the Indian Empire. Thyagarajan, N. (1958) : The vanishing Ibex. Indian Forester 84 (3) : 188-191. 844 PEREGRINE FALCON S. M. Osman1 {With a plate) Of all the true passage peregrines, one that travels the longest distance during the course of its yearly migration, is the Tundra falcon, Falco peregrinus calidus. It breeds well within the Arctic circle and flies down south to the Persian Gulf area and beyond right upto the southern gates of Arabia. In rare cases it may even cross the Red Sea to enter Africa but this is not firmly established yet. One has only to listen to the voice of Tay- mur Mirza, that legendary Persian falconer whose name is still a household word in the falconry circles of Iran, when he speaks in his famous treatise on falconry, to fully appreciate the qualities of this bird from a falconer’s standpoint. In his book, he describes it as the yellowish almond coloured variety of the ‘Behri’ or the peregrine falcon. Our famous chronicler unacquainted with our modern sci- entific terminology, simply calls this bird the ‘Rumali Shaheen , and continues, “I have trained these peregrines to gazelle.” Neverthe- less he laments, “they are however delicate birds, bold and daring; they dash themselves impetuously against the gazelle’s horns and thus frequently injure themselves fatally.” Having studied these falcons in captivity, and also having watched, over a considerable period of time, wild calidus falcons, I am ab- solutely convinced that accidents of the na- ture described by our worthy Taymur Mirza cannot alone be attributed, to their daring im- 1 ll-D/10, Circular Road, Dehra Dun, U.P. petuousity as he calls it, but mainly to the style and tactics adopted by these birds when hunting game. We had a large immature female calidus peregrine and out on the hunting field, time without number I have watched spellbound the vertical dives made by her when pursuing game. As soon as we had indication of small game (partridges) in the area we were quar- tering, the falcon would be unhooded and cast off the fist. She would immediately rise straight up to a height of three to four hun- dred feet and would maintain that ceiling not by glide soaring as is usually the practice with other peregrine’s, but by racing back and forth above our heads till we got to flush- ing the quarry out of cover. She would then be seen descending in an almost vertical power dive on to the illfated target. I never tired of watching this fantastic performance by her. There was hardly any question of pur- suing game for it always was a bolt from the blue leaving little if any chance at all for the hunted to escape. As you may have guessed, there did occur on several occasions some nasty accidents. I remember a time when a recalcitrant stone curlew refused to be flushed but would merely streak out on foot from the sanctuary of one lot of bushes to the next. Ultimately the peregrine tired of following its movements from up above and waiting for it to take wing, and so the next time the cur- lew raced from under one lot of brambles the falcon made a dive for it. When just about to be smitten by the peregrine, the curlew gin- 845 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 gerly side stepped and the falcon landed at full force on the dry sandy river bed. It was only then that the wily curlew to take wing, leaving behind a dazed and much shaken fal- con. The impact was so forceful that the fal- con after it had been collected from the ground just sat groggily on the fist for a long time. An adult female calidus falcon will normally run upto one pound and fifteen ounces in weight when directly taken from the trapper’s net. As a falconer my experience is that female Dirds fly best when they stand one pound twelve ounces in weight. Though heavy, they are always very keen, and will tackle almost any feathered game suitable for them. The prin- ciple to keep in mind about these falcons when attempting flights at game, is of course to have them flying not above four hundred feet, as otherwise they would be inclined to wander away farther afield. In any case, be- cause of their inherent tendency to executing power dives after whatever game they are be- ing flown at, chances of a surer kill would be all the more, if the flight ceiling for these fal- cons at such times is restricted to 250/300 feet only. Since these falcons are not very much dis- posed to soaring and ‘waiting on’, as the term goes, for any substantial length of time, one method to hold them in check, and from wandering and leaving the falconer, when they are flown or exercised, is to keep calling them constantly so that they keep lurking not far from the falconer, and also to intermit- tently swing the lure. If good sport is to be expected it will be imperative to have the fal- con up for no longer than a few minutes at a time only. In the meanwhile the falconer or his assistant should be able to flush game from cover. From all this it becomes clear as to why Taymur Mirza’s falcons generally got pinned on gazelles’ horns when out hunting this small antelope. Nevertheless wonderful and success- ful flights may still be had at owls, kites, plo- ver, partridges, cranes, magpies and some other birds as well. This falcon is a specialist of the first order and all that is required is the falconer’s cooperation. Foremost point of great significance in the matter of flights is to have the quarry, as far as possible, directly below the falcon, at the moment of it being flushed out of cover. Alternately flights may be obtained when the falcon is cast from the fist at game. In such flights both hunter and hunted mount the sky in a series of what to the observer appears to be never ending spi- rals, till the falcon manages to gain higher elevation, rising well above the quarry. From then on spectacular series of stoops, all in quick succession, mark the beginning of the end for the illfated prey. In these mid-air strikes is clearly seen the vertical nature of plunging dives which generally is absent in other types of peregrine attack strategy. For the benefit of the aspirant falconer, a description of the calidus peregrine in its juvenile state is attempted. In the adult or haggard phase there is little to distinguish this bird from its counterpart peregrinus pere - grinus, or peregrinus brevirostris falcons. After two or three moults, it becomes very difficult, even for the most experienced ob- server to be able to differentiate between it and the other passage peregrines of the same age group. Should at such times classification become necessary, careful examination of the falcon’s attack and specially stooping pattern, ought to be made. Thereby alone will be seen the only indication that could possibly iden- tify this falcon from the rest of the tribe. A juvenile calidus peregrine has ra frontal band of light yellow running across the fore- 846 PEREGRINE FALCON head that extends almost half way round its head. It has yellowish brown mustachial stripes, broadbased under the eyes and taper- ing down to a blunt end on either side of its neck. Crown of head and nape are light brown in colour with dark brown shaft streaks. Back feathers and wing-coverts are brown with flesh tinted spots and very pale edgings. Its rump and upper tail-coverts are pale brown, or cin- namon coloured, and obscurely banded. It has a greyish brown coloured tail with oblong cin- namon marks and a whitish pink tip. It also has dark bands running across it. In addition to this there is a prominent cinnamon spot under the chin and light brown streaks from below its chin to the area denoting its crop. All over the breast which is wheat coloured, are spread tear-drop shaped spots. Its feet and cere are grey yellow in colour but this, as any falconer will be able to tell you, is at very best a misleading factor, since colour of feet and cere will alter with the type of food a falcon has been feeding on. Usually food that is rich in vitamin B12, brings out a deep orange colour. On the sides and on the thighs are seen heart-shaped light brown spots. These diminish in size as they appear lower down on the falcons thigh extention. This falcon has, as in the case of most other falcons, very dark brown eyes. Its orbital lids are mostly light yellow in colour. A calidus tiercel generally weighs sixteen ounces. One such falcon had strayed into the Gangetic plain. He was in his juvenile plum- age, and was brought to me by a bird mer- chant who knew I was fond of hawks. Indeed he was a very pretty fellow and was the first tiercel of the kind I had so far come across. In the past I had seen and handled a number of peregrinus peregrinus tiercels but never be- fore a calidus tiercel had come my way. How- ever I was acquainted with female calidus fal- cons. I therefore very promptly bought the tiercel hoping to send it to an English friend in England. At the time of buying him I noticed one of its middle toes to be badly scarred with the hard scab still adhering to the wound which had luckily dried up by now. I assumed this mark to be due to the ravage of some of the bigger kind of parrots which are often preyed upon by falcons and are in addition plentifully available in this area. However many months later I was able to get to the bottom of the story. The hawk dealer pointed out that he had known the tiered for quite some time and had tried his utmost to lure him to his trap but to no avail for it would not oblige by flying down to his net no matter what bait he used. It was by sheer accident one day that the falcon dived out of the sky to grab a pigeon out of his neighbours pigeon loft. Perhaps the tiercel miscalculated its rate of descent, or maybe he was so engrossed in capturing a pigeon that he did not notice the corrugated iron protrusion of the roof by the side of the loft. This bit of tin sheeting hit the tiercel’s outstreched claw. The tiercel then, I was told slammed with a resounding smack, into the side wall of the building, and thus with all the wind knocked out of him he fell into the courtyard in a dazed condition. Snatching up a bedsheet that had been hung up in the yard to dry, the owner sprang with, as he later told me, much alacrity, and threw the sheet on it before the dizzy falcon could make good its escape. Later the falcon was brought and sold to me. And so the injury to its middle toe. On looking back I was able to reconstruct the entire episode. The falcon by virtue of its peculiar habit was not accustomed to flying low in a shallow dive at game or bait tied be- hind the trapper’s net. Capturing a calidus peregrine is more or less a matter of chance 847 19 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 than a deliberate lure and capture operation by any trapper. Though I have not tried it, I believe however that “Barak” method of cap- turing falcons would stand a reasonable chance of success in catching these falcons. No won- der Punjabi falconers dislike this peregrine, or the “yellow behri” as they are wont to call it. After having tried and attempted all the various stratagems and tricks known to these worthies, our Punjabi trappers get exasperat- ed, to the point of shouting abuse at the fal- con, for its lordly indifference to all the dif- ferent baits offered by the trapper in the vain hope of getting the peregrine in to his net. Having known something of his essential disposition in respect of vertical sky-diving at game, I was able to easily control the tiercel’s training programme, and so in a very short time had him flying to the lure without any hesitation. In the beginning I would usually, when the falcon was just about to strike the lure, pull it away from him. The tiercel would then fly straight on, steadily gaining height till he would rise to some two hundred feet. Once more I would swing the lure and shout for him to return. Pie would immediately swing round to come flying over my head maintain- ing his height in the air. I would then prompt- ly throw out the Jure and the tiercel would immediately make a vertical dive for it. Whereas in the calidus peregrines such verti- cal dives are indeed a regular feature and an integral part and parcel of their nature, some other falcons can also be trained to execute a similar feat once in a while. However it is not easy to teach them this trick and not every bird will take to it. I trained the tiercel and in a short time he was flying very well. One day while I had him out for exercise in the country, I saw, at the edge of the field I was walking through, a covey of grey partridges feeding. Immediately I unhooded the tiercel and cast him off my fist. Within no time he was up to his usual height of three hundred feet or so. In the r meanwhile I had drawn close to the spot where the covey had scurried into a hedge. By this time the falcon was racing up and down the hedgerow, maintaining his height in the air. Next time as he came directly over my head, I bombarded the bushes with clods of earth I had picked, and shouted at the top of my voice. Pelting the hedge had the desir- ed effect for all the partridges exploded out of the bush, and my hollering had alerted the tiercel, who stooped in a most spectacular manner. And before the covey had gained a few yards, the tiercel had hit one of the par- tridges which fell back into the hedge with a shrill cry of protest, and amongst a complete shower of its own feathers. While all this was happening the rest of the covey had got scattered to settle in near- by bramble bushes, and the falcon ofcourse had regained its usual commanding height of three hundred feet or so. Now he was conti- nuously flying back and forth over the spot where the partridge had landed in the hedge. Because the falcon was intended to go to a friend in England, though I had permission to train and hunt with it, I was reluctant to take any further chances with the partridges for it would have meant keeping the falcon up in the air till the partridges could again be flushed. I did not have a dog with me or a helper either, and I knew from experience that getting the birds to break cover now es- pecially after a close shave with the tiercel, would be no easy matter. Anyway I had to keep an eye on the tiercel all the time and this could not be managed simultaneously. Hence the tiercel was called back to the fist. With the falcon securely perched on my fist I attempted to unearth the injured partridge PEREGRINE FALCON which the tiercel had struck. This proved to be an impossible job, though there were fea- thers scattered all over the place where the partridge was last seen tumbling into the bush. Under such conditions a dog is very handy and if trained, will dig up the quarry that has gone to earth in ninety out of a hundred cases. Sometimes it may happen that a par- tridge in its blind fear to get away from the pursuing falcon will take refuge in some de- serted warren. Under the circumstances even a dog becomes useless, and the enterprising falconer will have to slip his hand into the burrow or hole and reckon with the risk of being bitten by a snake. The tiercel’s end was tragic, for it never got to my friend in England. It was in March 1973 when I daily expected news of arrange- ments by my friend for the falcon’s passage to England to come through that my mother met with an accident resulting in a fracture of the neck of a femur. As a result of this unfortunate incident all our attention was naturally devoted to her needs in the hospital, and I would come home only to feed the hawks (I had a goshawk, an eagle and, this tiercel as well). Within a week I noticed the tiercel going off his food, and it was only when I weighed him that I was shocked to find him much below average. Straight away 1 suspected worm infestation to be the cause for this loss of weight. When I examined the mutes my suspicion was confirmed, because there were tell-tale traces of blood in its drop- pings. With the help of our local vet, I dosed him for worms. This unfortunately had the oppo- site effect to what I expected. The case was apparently too far gone for any medicine to be effective or of any value. In another few days the falcon threw up a cropfull of food, and the blood in his mutes was now present in great profusion. It now became abundantly clear that this was the beginning of the end. The end came soon afterwards on the next day or was it the one after next. As usual I woke to the Muezzin’s call for prayer early and had just finished my ablutions when I heard the falcon’s bells jangling as he fell off his perch in the adjoining room where he had been kept under observation. Prayers un- said I hurried to his rescue but by the time I got to him he was already in his last throes. It was a great shock to lose him the way I did, and my friend in England must have felt it all the more, but he had unduly delayed its collection. I believe that with better means at his disposal for the detection of nematodes, he in England could have taken care and treated the tiercel right in the early stages when the disease was not at all evident to an observer without the aid of proper patho- logical assistance. I presented the dead tiercel to Doctor Asketh Singh of the Zoological Survey of India who has kindly had it mounted and kept for display in the survey’s museum hall. When the taxidermist opened up the falcon it was seen that the entire body cavity was teeming with helminths. Some had eaten their way into the air sack to appear in the lungs. A few were also present in the falcon’s crop. In 1943 my uncle obtained a female calidus falcon from the hawk market or what used to be the hawk market in those days at Am- ritsar, and which was run by Chowdry Mo- hamed Din Bazdar. This beautiful bird which was in her juvenile plumage, had the tip of her beak almost up to the portion of the barb missing. It had happened when an enraged trapper who had spent many hours in trying to lure the falcon to his net, had in the end in sheer desperation taken a pot shot with a catapult at her. This had smashed away her 849 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 beak tip. The blow proved to be forceful enough to stun the peregrine, and knock her to the ground. There she lay helplessly and long enough for the trapper to nab her. The imprudent bird catcher who did not know that these birds never came down to catch prey tied to the ground behind a net, had been lucky in not having killed the falcon outright. In a very short while its beak grew back to its normal length once again, and I am happy to say that she stayed with my uncle till she ultimately departed for the happy hunting grounds at the great old age of ten years. A falcon gets fully matured in almost two years. On the other hand it takes full twenty years or thereabout for a human being to attain all his faculties. This then multiplied by three will give the average human life span. Applying the same factor to that of a pere- grines life span, we arrive at the conclusion that the normal age of a peregrine falcon should within reasonable limits be around six years. So according to human standards, the peregrine had lived to almost twice its aver- age span of six years which again when trans- lated in terms of human longevity comes to over a hundred years. Not bad even by hu- man standards I should think. In 1955 when I was doing land reclamation work not far from Satyanarian temple, on the Haridwar-Rishikesh road, I watched for over three weeks at a stretch, and in detail, the activities of a female, immature calidus falcon. During that period I had with me a trained adult peregrinus peregrinus falcon. Very close to my place of work there existed open coun- try of a sort where hunting with a falcon was possible, I would be flying my peregrine at plover, partridges, stone curlew and at times just for the fun of it, at paddy birds, or the lesser kind of cranes, which generally go by the name of Herons. One day as my peregrine waited on high overhead, in anticipation of my flushing some game out of cover for her to dive and capture, there appeared out of the blue, this wild female calidus peregrine falcon. I was first made aware of the wild peregrine’s presence by her harsh grating screeches as she started an aerial battle with my trained falcon. Immediately I called back my peregrine which luckily disengaged from the action and stooped to the lure. Having secured my bird I looked up and watched with satisfaction the wild peregrine swing to perch on the dried limb of a giant tree standing on the bank of the Song River. The place where this happen- ed is just below the railway bridge over the Song river on the Riawalla-Rishikesh link line. It also happened to be just a convenient half mile from the spot where I was camped at the time. From that day onwards and for almost three weeks later, the dead tree and the falcon on the river Song, remained objects of careful observation for me. I was not at all very keen to catch this fal- con at the time for I had a good trained pere- grine to while away my spare hours, and yet the urge to capture this beautiful bird, and hold her in my hands even for a little while, for I definitely would not be able to hold her and train her as I had a lot of other work to do, besides keeping two falcons at the same time is no joke, tempted me to attempt its capture inspite of my better judgement. My untiring efforts as I had reckoned, were of no avail. The falcon stubbornly refused to come to the net which I first baited with a blue rock pigeon and later with a shrike I had got. I even tried with a tame partridge to entice her to fly down to the net, but nothing worked. I usually got to the perch site at the crack of dawn and as often as not would find the 850 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate Osman : Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus peregrinus (female), 2 years old. PEREGRINE FALCON peregrine busy on some kill or the other which she had brought to the perch prior to my appearance on the scene. Mostly it would be small water birds such as snipe, kingfishers etc. With the meal over it would naturally be meaningless to expect the falcon to show interest in whatever bait I was to put out for her behind my trap. On several occasions when the peregrine had not thrown up her cast till the time of my arrival on the site, I would patiently set up my net hoping she may fly to it once the cast had been thrown by her. Let me explain that a feather cast which is thrown out by all birds of prey is a ball of undigested feathers that the predator had swallowed in the course of its last meal. This pellet of fea- thers is disgorged by birds of prey just before sunrise every day. However if a kill has been made by a bird of prey late in the evening, and if the kill is some bird that is as big as say a pigeon, the predator will not then be able to digest the entire quantity eaten in the course of the following night. Till such a time as this is not accomplished, the cast will be re- tained. The cast remains in the falcon’s giz- zard along with bits of meat that the falcon or bird of prey took with its last meal. Here the digestive juices in the falcon’s system would be actively engaged in the assimilation of the food matter. If in such a state the cast of feathers is expelled, and since this has to come from the gizzard, with it will also be brought up pieces of undigested matter in a most offensive condition, sufficiently repellent to banish all thoughts of dinner from the pre- dator’s mind for a long time to come. As a matter of fact bits of meat adhering to any bird of prey’s morning cast is indeed a clear indication that all is not going well with it. However a cast thrown up in the normal course, is bound to restore appetite to any bird of prey, and is a signal that it will be up and on the hunt very soon afterwards. And on such rare occasions I would wait with hopeful expectation, praying and watch- ing, and feeling miserably cold inside for it would be just about sunrise on a cold winter’s morning. I would wait only to see the pere- grine fly off the perch after she had thrown her cast of feathers, and watch her go away into the distance rising higher and higher, con- tinuously gaining height. The falcon I noticed would always be flying away from the sun, that is towards the west. I think this was done intentionally, as at such times when the fal- con was seeking prey, had it been flying to the east, the sun directly in its eyes would have interfered with its spotting capability. Here the Song river flows in an east-west axis so the falcon would be coursing over the river bed all the time. Looking away from the sun gave me a better chance to follow her move- ments for a longer distance, but had she flown to the east squinting against the sun would have made it a blinding job to observe her progress. It was most interesting to watch her man- ner of working, for she acted quite unlike other peregrines. Once the falcon had attain- ed a certain height she would cease to climb any higher, but would simply continue to fly upriver for some distance by when the move- ment of some bird or the other directly below would attract her attention, invariably result- ing in an almost vertical dive that would end in a certain kill. Immediately the falcon would triumphantly fly back to its perch on the river bed with the prey securely held in her claws. On the return trip to the perch the peregrine would fly it back just a few meters above ground level to shoot up to the perch when she got almost directly below the tree. She would settle half way up on a thick limb. Once com- fortably perched she would start feathering the 851 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 dead bird she had brought, and would shortly start eating it. A few crows would hang around in the vicinity, though strangely enough I never saw an eagle disturb her. In an area thickly infested with hawk-eagles, this struck me as odd. Once the meal over she would start preen- ing her feathers. This would be the signal for me to leave for by now it would be almost eight in the morning, and time for my break- fast. Sundays were observed as rest days on the farm, unless there happened to be some speci- ally urgent work. On such days I would return to the peregrine’s outpost immediately after breakfast to find her very contentedly sitting in the same place and on the same limb where I had left her almost an hour ago. At ten thirty or so she would be noticed rousing her- self. After stretching her wings a couple of times and slicing a mute she would jump up to a higher branch, and from there to the top- most branch only to fly off downriver. Twice I followed the peregrine as she flew into the distance, and on both occasions I sur- prised her at her ablutions. She would alight at some spot almost midway between the perch location and the confluence of the Song river with the Ganga. At this spot waters of the Song river had spread out over an immense area almost half a mile wide. There was a network of distributaries with the waters running only a few inches deep in some of the channels. Here and there lay scattered all over huge trunks of drift wood. It was a picturesque spot. Thickly wooded hills of Lansdowne Division lay in the east just across the Ganga. A few miles away and to the north beyond Rishikesh, rose the mighty Himalayas. In the south a spur of the Siwaliks could be seen sloping down to Hardwar, the gateway to Heaven for indeed as the old persian poet once said, “if heaven be on earth then it is this, it is this.” At least that is how things stood some twenty years ago. It is changed now for the forests have been mostly cut in the immediate vicinity, there is very little wildlife left in the area, and even the hill tracts with their luxuriant growth of forests have begun to show bald spots in a lot of places. Here, and in such beautiful sur- roundings (beautiful in those days) the pere- grine would be seen taking a bath. Bath over she would gingerly skip out of the shallow pool of water to perch on to some driftwood limb as it lay half buried in the river sands. Firmly gripping the perch in her claws, she would vigorously begin to flap her wings sending a fine spray of water scattering all around. After a few moments of this exercise she would stop flapping her wings to shift up and down the limb of the tree, every now and again turn- ing and reversing her position as though she was about to select a spot to settle down for a photograph. With wings fanned out she would thus remain sitting for about twenty minutes when she would start preening her feathers. Through my binoculars I could easily see her feathers gradually drying in the sun. In a little while, a wet patch only would remain below her crop and she would at this stage fly off the driftwood perch. She never went to the dead tree by the railway bridge but would begin to soar till she became a mere speck floating against the velvet blue of the sky. A couple of times I caught her playfully making passes at kites but very soon, because of the colossal height she had gained she would dis- appear from my sight. Her activities from then on till about four thirty in the evening, remained obscure. What she did or where she went was never known to me; however I would catch her surreptious- ly returning to her morning perch, the dead tree on the Song river, round about 4.30 and there she would remain till a few minutes be- 852 PEREGRINE FALCON fore sunset. By that time a lot of bird traffic could be seen crossing the broad river bed. In this part the dry river bed stretched nearly a mile across. Flocks of parrakeets would be making for the sal forest on the other bank of the river. These would ofcourse be return- ing from the open cultivated patches where they had been feeding in the daytime. The falcon would by now be scouring over the open area above, and directly over the river bed at a point where the parakeets cros- sed to fly into the sal forest which stood on the right bank of the Song river. Ultimately she would find one flock just below her wing- ing its way to the roost. And then in that clas- sical vertical dive of her’s she would come down in the middle of the flock to grab a parrot and carry the protesting bird to her perch. Hold- ing the illfated victim’s neck in the barb of her beak, with one simple twist of her head the falcon would despatch its prey. This job is carried out by the entire falcon tribe very efficiently and in a most businesslike manner. No time was lost in feathering the dead bird, and immediately afterwards she would settle down to tearing and devouring bits of the prey. It would be almost dark by the time the falcon finished her meal, and flew to roost in the same sal forest where the parrakeets had preceded her. This then was the pattern that each day repeated itself in the peregrine’s activities from dawn to dusk. This peregrine on the river Song thus held me in thrall, like a talisman for nearly three weeks, till one fine morning she vanished from my life to fly to hunting grounds further south. 853 NOTES ON THE GREEN KEELBACK SNAKE (MACROPISTHODON PLUMBICOLOR) Thomas Gay1 Introduction These notes were compiled from the ob- servation of three different specimens, of which the first two came to me when young (8" to 10" in length and probably less than six months old). Snake A was taken on 28-9-69 and given away about one month later. Snake B was taken on 22-6-70; it escap- ed on 14-5-71 and was not recaptured. Snake C is still with me.2 Taken on 29-5-71, it was at first thought to be identical with Snake B; however, certain differences of behaviour, and what seemed to be a lesser degree of intellig- ence, soon led me to conclude that it was a different individual. Accommodation : While small, each snake was kept in a square glass jar 10" high with a base of 5J" by 5i". The floor was covered with newspaper, and extra pieces of paper were kept for the snake to hide beneath. All pieces were changed as soon as found soiled. A small bowl of water was added. Snakes B and C, after some growth were kept in an ob- servation cage 20" by 12" and 8J" high, hav- ing a front of glass and a roof of fine wire mesh. Sheets of paper covered the floor, with some extra pieces scattered about. In one corner stood a bowl of water; in another rest- ed an inverted piece of flower-pot, under which the snake slept or rested, tightly curled. The above “furniture” has been found entire- 1 “Dev Kunj”, Prabhat Road, Pune^411 004. 2 These notes were written in 1974. ly adequate for the comfort of this quiet and non-demanding reptile. Description : So far as could be checked, the description given by Dr. P. J. Deoras in his snakes of India (pp. 112-113) was confirm- ed subject to the following details: — (1) The thin lateral lines were whitish rather than yellow; with growth they disappear- ed. (2) While the snakes were small, the ventral surface, with the exception of the white chin and throat, was definitely smoky black in colour; the surface turned ivory white only after several months of growth. (3) The colour between the head chevron and nape chevron was lemon yellow, not orange. This colour fades with growth, and the chevrons become paler; at full growth the yellow has disappeared and scarcely a trace of the chevrons is left. (4) The “black short cross-stripes across the body” were not observed. (5) A few white spots (not mentioned by Deoras) are spaced at intervals along the back and flanks. These are ordinarily in- conspicuous, but show up very distinctly when the body is distended after a meal. With growth the spots become pale blue rather than white. (6) Snake C showed a small black spot on either side of the neck; the two did not lie exactly opposite to each other. The grass-green colour is bright and shin- ing (more in young than in old snakes) im- mediately after sloughing. The choice of 854 THE GREEN KEELBACK “plumbicolor” for the specific name is strange, being merited only for the last few days be- fore sloughing, when the skin looks dull and grey. Exact measurements were not easy to take, and were unfortunately neglected. Snake B was estimated by mid-December 1970 to have doubled its length of six months earlier; it had become markedly thicker and stronger during the six months of captivity. Its skins sloughed on 17-9-70, 6-10-70 and 29-10-70 were mea- sured at 13", 14" and 15" respectively. Such measurements no doubt have only a relative value, since a skin is liable to become stretch- ed in length. Snake C’s skin cast on 8-7-71 was measured at 22^" Full growth was pro- bably attained early in 1972, at an estimated age of two years. In September 1974 Snake C was measured at 24J", its most recently cast skin measuring 2 6\ inches. Snake B’s body, after a heavy meal following a 26 days’ fast (due to a temporary escape) was greatly distended; the green scales stood out like islands surrounded by blue-black, and the white spots were very prominent. For two days, sharp protuberances (presumably the frog’s bones) could be distinctly seen along its flank. The teeth consist of two short, sharp-point- ed, triangular teeth in the upper jaw, placed one on either side, and of many small rudim- entary teeth in the lower jaw. The latter serve only to grip the slippery prey; it is the two formidable upper-jaw teeth which inflict the wounds and draw the prey into the gullet. General behaviour: Snakes A and B, and Snake C subject to the exception of rare oc- casions, were utterly gentle at all times and could be freely handled. While being handled, and at most other times also, the snakes mov- ed sluggishly; only when hungry and in the immediate presence of prey did they execute swift and vigorous movements. After completing a meal, the snakes would move about restlessly for some time and then retire to a place of concealment; here they would lie dormant until the need to defecate, to slough, or to feed again made them restless. Snake C soon showed a tendency to an- chor itself strongly by the tail; later, it deve- loped the habit, when handled, of firmly grip- ping hand or finger with a half-coil. This snake showed much restlessness in August and Sep- tember 71, but became very lethargic in the following January, probably due to the cold. Snake B had shown similar periods of torpi- dity in December (70) and February (71). Snake C tended to become highly excited as soon as it was dropped into the feeding- jar, as though it knew that dinner was at hand. At such a time it would sometimes snap at a finger through the glass, open its mouth in a huge yawn of almost 180 degrees, and even try to bite the glass wall of the jar. This snake bit me on three occasions, and since such an experience has probably been shared by few people, it may be worth describing. On the first occasion, which was the third day since the snake had come to me, I had just before handled frogs, and the smell may have acted as a provocation (although my observa- tions tend to exclude the use of smell in de- tecting food). I began to pick the snake up in an altogether careless manner, and it im- mediately seized my right index finger and gripped with a power that surprised me. The two upper-jaw fangs pricked painfully and blood began to flow. The snake hung on like a bulldog, working his upper jaw on alternate sides (see the method described below). Quite apart from the pain, it was a strange sensation. I lifted the snake high in the air, but it hung on and continued to chew my finger. Then I had the idea of plunging both finger and 855 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 snake into a bucket of water. Even thus sub- merged, the snake hung on for nearly one minute before I felt its grip slackening and it reluctantly allowed me to draw my finger away from its fangs. Blood was flowing freely, and my finger was smeared with a sort of saliva. There were several wounds on the upper sur- face of my finger, but none on the lower sur- face, where I had merely felt the woundless grip of the lower-jaw teeth. I placed the snake inside the feeding-jar and gave it a frog, which it seized and swal- lowed at once. Despite having eaten four frogs in the preceding three days, it must have been still hungry. Next day, the snake allowed me to handle it without any hostile reaction, and it was many months before it bit me again. On the second and third occasions, the snake was certainly very hungry and should have been handled with a caution that I had lost from over-familiarity. I tried the bucket- of-water treatment on the second occasion, but it took even longer than the first time. On the third occasion, being unwilling to endure the painful pricking longer than necessary, I cut the matter short by forcing the reptile’s jaws apart by firm yet careful lateral pres- sure. Skin sloughing : This took place almost al- ways at night and therefore could not be ob- served. I did however see something of the process in the case of Snake A. On 15-10-69 it moved about restlessly all day, sometimes dipping into the water bowl. Peristaltic move- ments were observed, and after the skin had split at the head there were strong contrac- tions and expansions of the mid-body. The intervals at which Snake B sloughed ranged from 17 to 23 days during the mon- soon, with an average of 20 days. They ranged from 32 to perhaps 38 days (the snake was at liberty from 15-11-70 to 7-12-70, during which time it must have cast at least one skin, though probably only one) during the winter, j with an average of 37 days; and from 13 to 19 days ,with an average of 16 days, during the summer. Snake C, before full growth, sloughed at in- tervals ranging from 23 to 26 days (average, 25) during the monsoon; and from 37 to 42 days (average, 39J) during the winter until observations were temporarily suspended. When observations were resumed, by which time the snake was fully grown, the recorded intervals were 21 days in the monsoon, 30 days between monsoon and winter, 41 to 47 days (average, 44) during the winter, 33 days between winter and summer, and from 20 to 25 days (average, 22\) during the summer and ensuing monsoon. These figures take no account of a wholly abnormal interval of 37 days between 3-7-74 and 9-8-74, for which I can give no explanation except the wild guess that the snake might have eaten a skin before I found it. The intervals of sloughing plainly follow a fairly regular curve from season to season, reaching a peak in about January. In almost each case, the skin was whole and undamaged. I have been able to give many away to interested students and others. Food and feeding : According to my obser- vations the diet consists exclusively of live amphibians. No “small birds” (see Deoras) were offered, but worms and grubs were of- fered and refused even by a long-fasting snake. Dead frogs aroused no interest, and Snake B even abandoned a frog which it had itself killed by over-vigorous subduing. How- ever, frogs which “shammed” death (as frogs sometimes do when exhausted and finally un- successful in all efforts to escape) were care- fully examined and then seized. The prey was seized, by a swift dart, at any 856 THE GREEN KEELBACK available part of its body or limbs. When this happened to be the head, swallowing was easy and rapid, taking sometimes only a few seconds (6 seconds in the case of one small frog). If the first grip was on leg or waist, the snake would often, without allowing its victim to escape, gradually work round to the head. Sometimes a whole leg would be swal- lowed, followed by the trunk and the other limbs; sometimes a portion already swallowed would be disgorged in order to take a more convenient grip. An initially “awkward” grip, unless changed into a head grip, would entail a lengthy struggle to swallow lasting from 10 to 35 minutes. Where the frog was small re- latively to the growth achieved by the snake, it could be confidently swallowed from the rear, all four legs being bunched up and dis- appearing last of all. A particularly strong and active frog might have to be subdued by vigo- rous chewing, in the course of which blood - might flow and intestines leak forth. After being subdued, the frog would often be momentarily released and again seized by the head. On 4-12-73 at 1945 hrs. Snake C was given a really large frog, larger than any attempted so far, and remarkable for abnormally well- developed thighs. The snake was very hungry and attacked the frog savagely at once. Four times it seized the frog, by hind leg, front leg, or waist; four times the frog escaped through its strength and vigorous kicking. A waist grip punctured the frog’s body, allowing some blood and intestine to escape. Part of the snake’s body became smeared with blood, and at one moment it began to seize its own blood-covered back. Its excitement reached such a pitch that once, when the frog tore it- self free, the snake attacked the glass wall of the jar. Gradually the frog weakened, and the fifth grip, which was on the side of its head. seemed to suffocate it. When the fight had lasted some forty-five minutes, the frog, though still alive, appeared to give up. The snake now seized it deliberately by the head and began to swallow, which he found diffi- cult owing to the victim’s size, and his jaws were distended to an incredible extent. Forty-five minutes later, the frog had been swallowed as far as his fat thighs, which, sticking out at right angles to the trunk, pre- sented the snake with an insuperable diffi- culty. Twice the snake almost completely eject- ed the swallowed portion and tried afresh, but as I watched, I realised that it would never be able to complete the task unless one of the frog’s thighs were removed. While I was cut- ting off one thigh, the snake retained the frog’s head in its mouth, and when I had finished, it devoured the rest of the frog with little difficulty. The last toes disappeared at 2200 hours, just 2\ hours from the time when the frog had been introduced into the jar. The snake’s body was vastly swollen for most of its length, and twelve days elapsed before it was ready to feed again. The method of drawing prey into the gullet is as follows: — One half of the amazingly flexible upper jaw, together with its pointed tooth, is raised clear of the frog’s flesh, while the other half of the jaw keeps its tooth firmly embedded. The raised half is now advanced by a few millimetres and its tooth driven into the flesh. Now the hitherto “anchoring” half jaw is similarly raised, advanced, and driven into the frog slightly ahead of the tooth which is now “anchoring.” Thus, by advancing either side alternately, the victim is gradually drawn into the snake. The disappearance of the last limb is invari- ably followed by a prodigious yawn. The vic- tim’s body rapidly slips down the snake’s body till it reaches the stomach. On one single occa- 857 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 sion, a frog was ejected (by Snake B) in a semi-digested state on the day after it had been swallowed. Once hunger had been satisfied, the snakes would ignore any additional frogs offered. A full meal would be followed by a fast, the length of which depended upon the quantity of food consumed, as well as upon the prox- imity of sloughing. Usually the snakes lost all appetite for up to a week before sloughing, and during such an interval Snake A even lick- ed a frog’s back without attempting to seize it; there were however instances in which food was taken on the very day previous to slough- ing. Casting of a skin normally left the snake very hungry. Snake B once fasted for 25 days (11 before and 14 after a sloughing) even though food was offered; but this was a unique occurrence. In the absence of any device for weighing the frogs, quantities of food were difficult to estimate. The best I have been able to do is to make an arbitrary allowance of 1 point for a “small” frog, 1* for a “medium small”, 2 for a “medium”, 3 for a “medium large”, and 4 for a “large”. On this scale. Snake B con- sumed the following quantities of food in the shape of frogs: — July (70) 6 Aug. 5 Sept. 7 Oct. 9 Nov. 5 (at liberty from Dec. 14 15 Nov. to 7 Dec.) It must be conceded that the division by months is yet another arbitrary feature. On a similar reckoning. Snake C has con- sumed the following amounts for the periods during which observations have been record- ed:— Period A June (71) 19 Oct. 16* July 12 Nov. 7 Aug. 9i Dec. 11 Sept. 12 Period B (following a gap of 19 months) Aug. (73) 10 (for half the month) Mar. 13 Sept. 10 Apr. 12/ Oct. 10 May 16i Nov. 16 June ID Dec. 8i July 15* Jan. (74) 11 Feb. 7 Aug. 19 The average for both periods is the same: 12i The snakes — especially Snake C — could scarcely ever locate the frog in the feeding- jar until it jumped. In order that the method of capturing and swallowing might be observ- ed, the snakes were fed, up to May 1974, inside a large glass jar, usually at night-time. It took me longer than it should have done to realise that the snakes may well have been partially dazzled by the electric light. After I began to feed Snake C in his living-cage, in darkness or at most a dim light, this snake was able to locate its prey more easily and Jan. (71) 9 Feb. 4 Mar. 12 Apr. 5 (followed by a 25 days’ fast from 16 Apr.) quickly, and to perceive it at a distance of several inches. Scent appears to play no part in the locating; in the feeding- jar Snake C was often observed to “crouch”, with his head above and almost resting on the frog, help- lessly waiting for some movement to betray his prey’s whereabouts. THE GREEN KEELBACK Defecation was found to begin about 30 hours after the meal. The first defecation would be followed by one or two others extending up to the fourth or fifth day after eating. The faeces, consisting partly of a brittle white powder and partly of a viscous black paste, have a strong and objectionable odour. Conclusion : I would definitely recommend the keeping of this species of reptile to all zoologists and others who have the capacity to be interested in animal life. M. plumbicolor is non-poisonous, attractive, readily handled, gentle when young at all times, and gentle when older at all times except when roused by considerable hunger. If handling is viewed with misgiving, it may be omitted altogether. although such an omission will naturally de- tract from the value of the experience to be obtained. After being provided with the sim- ple accommodation and “furniture” described above, the snake requires no attention beyond the supply of live frogs from time to time, and the replacement of soiled paper. Apart from the interest and pleasure which the snakes have given to me personally, I have found them a most useful aid in trying to make my fellow citizens aware of the folly (even “crime” is perhaps not too strong) of wantonly slaughtering at sight all snakes wherever met, the many innocent, beautiful and beneficial no less than the few dangerous or deadly. 859 POPULATION CHANGE OF THE HANUMAN LANGUR (PRES BYT IS ENTELLUS) , 1961-1976, IN DHARWAR AREA, INDIA Yukimaru Sugiyama1 AND M. D. Parthasarathy2 (With a text -figure) The population density and the group composition of the Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus ) was studied at Dharwar, South India, in 1976. For the purpose of comparison with 1961 study of the same population, the present research was carried out in the same season using the same methods as used in 1961. The popula- tion decreased to 54.5% during these 15 years. The social characteristics of the species, however, did not change. Most of the bisexual troops have only 15-16 animals, in- cluding one adult male, each. Many males live out of the troops and gather to form all-male parties. These characteristics are revealed to be maintained not only by the high population density but also because they are the very basic characteristics of this species in this area. Introduction For thirty days between June 17 and Sep- tember 26, 1961, Sugiyama took a census of the Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus ) in Dharwar area of South India. The langurs ob- served had parts of their home ranges covering Dharwar-Haliyal road and its sides between the points 3 and 30.6 km from Dharwar. The census revealed the population density, group size and group composition of the langurs in this area, and was followed by sociological stu- dies, for nearly two years, of the same species (Sugiyama 1964). Parthasarathy participated, for several days, in this census, and for a year and a half for the later sociological studies. Most of the troops (bisexual troops), each of which consisted of about 15 animals, had only one full-grown adult male in addition to se- veral adult females and immatures, occasion- 1 Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan. 2 Zoology Department, Bangalore University, Bangalore, India. ally having a few young or subadult males. Other than such bisexual troops, there were parties (all-male parties) with a loose social organization. Troops had small moving ranges; average for a troop in the forest was 16.8 hec- tares. These ranges were maintained through- out the study period of two years through antagonistic relationships among adjacent troops. All-male parties, on the other hand, had larger moving ranges and were living main- ly in a comparatively poorer habitat with a few trees and a little food. They frequently split into several still smaller parties which re- joined to form all-male parties again. When- ever the members of an all-male party ap- proached a troop, the male of the troop be- came extremely aggressive toward them and chased them out of his troop’s range, showing much stronger aggressiveness toward them than toward adjacent troops (Sugiyama, Yosh- iba & Parthasarathy 1965). But, sometimes the party males counterattacked the troop male, ousted him from the troop, took control of the females, and succeeded in taking over the 860 POPULATION CHANGE OF THE HANUMAN LANGUR 861 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 moving range of the troop chasing out all the subadult and juvenile males and killing all the infants. Dispute followed even among party males and, as a result, only one male remain- ed in the troop which had been taken over. Thus, finally, the typical one-male troop orga- nization resulted. Troop males including sub- adults and the juveniles, who were ousted from the troop, might have joined a party or formed a party of themselves (Sugiyama 1965, 1966, 1976). Repeatedly undergoing this kind of so- cial change, the particular type of social orga- nization of the Hanuman langurs of Dharwar can be expected to be maintained for many years. Mohnot (1971), Parthasarathy & Rahman (1974), Hrdy (1974, 1977), Ripley (personal communication) and the others confirmed a similar process of social change in different populations of this species living in different habitats of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka (Ceylon). But there had been no evi- dence to confirm the fact that the maintaining mechanism of this particular type of one-male troop organization was not a temporary sur- vival strategy in an especially severe environ- ment and, thus, a confirmation of this hypo- thesis, by studying the same population of langurs some years after the first census was of utmost importance. To meet this objective, another census after a lapse of 15 years was taken. Study period and method The authors conducted the present census to estimate the population of the Hanuman langur in August 1976 using almost the same methods as used in 1961. They searched for langurs in areas extending upto 20 m on either side of Dharwar-Haliyal road between the points 3 and 29 km from Dharwar (Fig. 1). The data was collected by driving slowly repeatedly on the same section, in a three- wheel motor-cycle for 14 days from August 4 to 19. The census in 1961 had been taken between the points 3 and 30.6 km from Dhar- war. But since the forest beyond the point 29 km from Dharwar had been changed into cul- tivated fields after 1961, the present census had to be terminated there. For the purpose of comparison with 1976 census, only the data between the points 3 and 29 km, of 1961 census will be presented in this article. The total time of 30 days required for 1961 census was shortened to 14 days for the pre- sent study. One reason for doing so was that all the groups which had parts of their home ranges along the sides of the road could be confirmed much earlier in 1976 than in 1961, when all the groups were confirmed before the 20th day of observations. Secondly, the efficiency of searching for langurs was much greater in 1976 than in 1961. This is because in 1961 Sugiyama alone had to search for langurs, driving a jeep or a motorcycle by him- self, whereas in 1976 both the present authors as well as the driver of the three-wheeler searched for the langurs. Moreover, the au- thors were more familiar with the area and had more research experience in 1976. Conse- quently, they were convinced that almost all the groups of langurs which had their moving ranges in the area under study had been re- corded as precisely as in 1961 census (In 1961 and 1962 an intensive study in the sample area, following the census, revealed that 95% of the langurs who had their moving ranges on or along the road had been recorded during the census period). The identification of the groups was done by the group size, its age-sex composition, and by identifying some characteristics typical of certain individuals in the group. 862 Group Distribution of Hanuman Langurs at Dharwar POPULATION CHANGE OF THE HANUMAN LANGUR a> a) 53'fl O i ‘5 >i< O PU < 3 TJ i*, P-<< ° O CX ^ 03 c ■§o < < I O r V- J; o - 5-4 k. O ^ ^ O fc >h r»H C ctf H Ah 8-2 u ~ a) t-, O RJ g a £ -2 o j- Q Q w a cx d £A T3 .5 o d oj 2 3 S H £ T— I I (S| o * vh -d H fl >, ^ o £ O ^ £ o oo n vo On co -t \o h in C h rj-nm to io -*t rt rH H m i- I r- oo - »o n > fflork CU(lia*4 PfeC4|»fc4g$ «5Vj9€S Map 1. Nanda Devi Basin: Physical features. 869 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 The Inner “Sanctuary’ is composed of a glacier system divisible into the North In- ner “Sanctuary” and the South Inner “Sanctuary” by the Nanda Devi mountain. The northern system is by and large at a lower altitude with a bigger area. There are three large glaciers: the Nanda Devi North, the Rishi North and the Changabang gla- ciers. The southern system has the Nanda Devi South and the Rishi South glaciers. The southern glaciers are more active than their northern counterparts, though, like all Himalayan glaciers, they have been re- treating and their lower stretches are col- lapsed heaps of rubble and glacial debris with the laterial morains forming high, distinctive ridges above the subsiding glac- iers. Each system gives rise to ablation streams, the North Rishi and the South Rishi which flow along the precipitous cliffs of Nanda Devi. A short distance be- low their confluence, the Rishi flows into its stupendous upper gorge, cutting at right angles across the Devistan-Rishikot ridge. Clearing the upper gorge, the Rishi receives the tumultuous Ramani stream, racing down a precipitous gorge which drains the Ra- mani glacier basin on the north and a little further downstream, the Trisul torrent joins the Rishi from the south, draining the extensive basins of the Trisul and Bethar- toli glaciers. The Ramani and the Trisul glacier systems form important features of the Outer “Sanctuary”. The Rishi stream continues along its chasm receiving various torrents from both sides, some by narrow impassable gorges, others as graceful waterfalls, to finally enter the awesome lower gorge guarded by overhang- ing cliffs, and skirt the Lata peak to merge with the Dhauli Ganga near Reni Village. The Rishi Gorge cuts all the ridges at right angles, and is therefore difficult to nego- tiate. Except for this narrow, steep- sided gorge, the entire basin is well above 3500m. The Surrounding Valleys : The northern wall from Lata to Rishi Pahar is the divide between the Nanda Devi Basin and the Dhauli Ganga. Of the several ravines and glaciers scarring the northern face, the Bagani Glacier, drained by the lovely Dunagiri val- ley, is the most significant. The eastern wall from Rishi Pahar to the bifurcation of the Traill’s Pass ridge runs parallel to the great Milam glacier. Several side glaciers carry the snow and ice into the main Milam glacier. The southern ridge from the Traill’s Pass bi- furcation to Trisul II overlooks the warm foothills to the south and offers an unbroken barrier to the warm moist winds. The heavy precipitation on this face drains by several val- leys, the Sundardhunga Valley being the most significant, into the Pindar which is a major tributary of the Alakananda. The western rim, formed by Trisul and Bethartoli Himal, also receives heavy precipitation on its western face, and is drained by the Nandakini and Birahi Ganga Rivers into the Alakananda. The Rishi Ganga itself, through the Dhauli Ganga, with the major rivers like the Pin- dar, the Nandakini and the Birahi Ganga, forms an important part of the Alaka- nanda’s watershed. The Alakananda is the eastern twin of the Bhagirathi. The two join to form the Ganga, the waters of which govern the destinies of the millions inhabit- ing the Ganga plain. A high dam is project- ed on the Ganga, and one of the conside- rations foremost in context with this ambi- tious project will always concern the quan- tity of silt brought down by the turbulent rivers. The erosion of the Nanda Devi Basin 870 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Lavkumar : Nanda Devi Sanctuary Plate Above : A view of Nanda Devi. Below : Bharal in Nanda Devi basin. (Photos : Author ) , NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY will have to be taken into account. People of the area are fully aware of the disastr- ous floods caused by deforestation of the mountain slopes, having experienced such major disasters as the Ghona Tal flood in the last century and the Alakananda flash floods of 1970. Climate of the nanda devi “sanctuary” The Nanda Devi complex is situated at the turning point where the Himalayan chain changes its N.W. to S.E. trend to a west to east trend and the entire southern mountain- wall with its extensions to the west and east along the Trisul II Jatropani ridge and the Nandakot range beyond the Traill’s Pass res- pectively exposes a continuous southern as- pect to the lower foothills and the sun. These slopes, as also the western watershed ridge of Trisul and Berthartoli and its westward bi- furcation of Nanda Ghunti, cause consider- able updrafts of warm air throughout the year, resulting in high precipitation and heavy cloud cover. During the rainy season these ranges receive the full blast of the S.W. Mon- soon and rainfall is extremely heavy. The monsoon effect starts being felt in the third week of June and from within the “Sanctu- ary” we daily witnessed fantastically tumul- tuous cloud formations over the mountain walls on our south and west, with spectacular displays of lightning. We concluded that the Pindar, Nandakini and Birahi Ganga Rivers between them must contribute a very large proportion of the Alakananda waters. The eastern mountain divide had daily cloud build-ups, but these were far less spec- tacular than along the southern wall, a fact which is explained by the drier climate of the Milam area, lying as it does beyond the main Himalayan range. The same was true of the northern wall, though Dunagiri dominating the Dhauli gorge pulls up considerable warm air. Its influence creates the late afternoon cloud and mist on the Lata ridge and the Dharasi Col. The snow conditions, with thick snow cornices overhanging the southern ridge and the more active glaciers like the Nanda Devi South, the Rishi South and the Trisul Glaciers, suggest heavier snowfalls on the southern side. Our observations during the expedition and photographs of the outer side of the “Sanctuary” substantiate our conclusions. Among its other unique qualities the “Sanc- tuary”, by virtue of its configuration, enjoys a sub-climate of its own. There is obviously a mass of cold air on the basin which, as our preliminary and amateurish observations re- vealed, exerts a significantly powerful effect on the precipitation of the Almora and Cha- rnoli Districts. The cold air on the basin creates a dry cli- mate with low annual precipitation. Inside the “Sanctuary”, the snowline was well above 4500 m. as against the heavy winter snow on the Dharasi Col and the Malthuni ridge con- siderably below this altitude. Snow was thicker and generally at a lower altitude on the south- ern side of the “Sancutary” than the northern, which conforms to the general conditions on the south and north aspects of mountains in the northern hemisphere. The entire northern side of the “Sanctuary” receives more direct sun rays and is consequently warmer, with more rapid thawing of snow. While the glacial basins and upper slopes experience strong diurnal winds, the gorge itself, unlike other major Himalayan valleys, is very sheltered. This surprised us till we were able to watch the cloud movements from higher slopes and saw how flanking ridges diverted the air currents up their sides. The Malthuni and the Rishikot ridges drama- tically demonstrated their influence on the 871 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 warm air blowing into the gorge. While strong winds were a regular feature on the higher slopes from a couple of hours after sunset almost to sundown, the nights were invariably calm. The diurnal winds produced clouds in the afternoon and there was usually a light drizzle or sleet towards the evening. Twice in the last week of May we had light snow all over the “Sanctuary”, and there was wide- spread snowfall as late as on 1 7th June. The snow, however, rapidly melted. With the onset of the monsoon stream in the third week of June, there was considerable inflow of warm air up the gorge resulting in light mist over the high meadows and this warm air had a profound effect on the wintery conditions which lingered on late into summer. Under its influence, the winter snow rapidly melted. While considerably curtailing the hours of in- solation, the mists and low clouds in June kept the soil moist — a factor not found in the drier inner Himalayan valleys or on the Tibetan Plateau. Thus, the Nanda Devi “Sanc- tuary”, though receiving little precipitation, supports a lusher vegetation than other se- cluded valleys. A very distinctive feature of the weather around Nanda Devi is the fact that unlike other major Himalayan peaks, the great mountain has very little cloud formation on it in the afternoons. Even in June and July when the monsoon stream was well set in the area, and while expeditions had withdrawn from lower peaks like Trisul, it was possible to operate on Nanda Devi a full fortnight later. On most days, when clouds obscured all the other summits around, they formed only around the great peak’s base and on the very summit itself. This advantage of a longer ope- rative season on Nanda Devi offers signifi- cant advantages to be borne in mind if any control of expedition activity is planned. The fact that the day Tilman ascended the moun- tain in 1936, the Alniora area received excep- tionally heavy rainfall is worth recording here. The flora The vegetation of any region reflects the climate prevailing there and the distinctive climate enjoyed by the Nanda Devi complex has created a distinctive flora which, though it superficially brings to mind the other inner Himalayan valleys, suggests to a more careful observer considerable variations. A very tho- rough investigation would most certainly highlight the unique composition of the “Sanctuary’s” floral community. (See Map 2). Forest forms a very small percentage of the flora of the “Sanctuary” and is restricted to the Rishi gorge. The largest stands of coni- ferous forests grow in the Ronti valley (not within the limits of the study area) which is open to moisture-bearing winds from the lower Dhauli Gorge, the Dudh Ganga valley within the basin and the Dibrughatta glade. The dominant conifer is the Himalayan Fir Abies pindrow. Significantly, there were no Spruce Picea morinda anywhere along the trail. Though there is a fine stand of Deodars Cedrus deodara at Lata, this lovely tree was absent inside the “Sanctuary”. The conifers have an admixture of tree rhododendron Rhododendron arbor alum and both the pink and white varieties of wild rose Rosa sp. In May, the forests looked very dry, suggesting light winter snow and little or no spring showers. The soil was exceptionally light and powdery as a result. Above the conifers, and forming a broad belt between them and the high altitude mea- dows, were fine forests of Birch Betula utilis, largely leafless in May but under full foliage in late June. These forests are a characteristic aspect of the trail from Dibrughetta to Ramani. 872 NAN DA DEVI SANCTUARY HRnda dev/ BAs;* *0 y<7t€$ted ■ VE&tTMlOM dlSTNieuTivrv ^ B u**r ic^zaTs ' ajfwT^S $nol fc'l& jj<3e*s|&&*. X cf^n K f!v?k$ 1 ftr&ckg.r§f ftnfT pej& ML & ust-rfrciU ^ £*puLih'i*i*- — — — ^ Inrttfjjddr- Map 2. Nanda Devi Basin: Vegetation Distribution. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 The trees are large and such well-preserved old trees are not likely to be found elsewhere in the Western Himalayas. A very distinctive feature of this beautiful forest is the trailing lichen festooning the trees. The understorey of the forest is formed by the shrub rhododen- dron Rhododendron campanulatum, which produces profuse flowering in early May. Most of the flowers had withered by the time we entered. This earlier flowering of the rhodo- dendrons is an indicator to the light winter snow. The last of the birch trees petered out at the entrance to the Inner “Sanctuary”. Between the tree-line and the permanent snowline, at greater altitude in the “Sanctu- ary” than on its exposed outer walls, are ex- tensive meadows of Himalayan grasses and a rich variety of flowering herbs. The warmer southern aspect has extensive growth of Juni- per Juniperus sp. In the last week of March, the meadows were bleak and without any greenery apart from the evergreen juniper bushes; however, by the second week of June a distinct flush of green started showing and parts of the “Sanctuary” took on the gay ap- pearance of a rock garden. Flowers had begun to appear among screes well above 5000 m. On the way down the Rishi gorge the air was heavy with fragrance and vibrating to the hum of bumble bees and other insects. The flower meadows of the “Sanctuary” are today the last remnants of the extensive Hima- layan pastures before flocks of domestic ani- mals overgrazed them and the magnificent display has to be seen to be appreciated. Here we have still largely undisturbed plant com- munities which must have reached their cli- max during the last period of glaciation. The impression gained was that of a distinct flora to that of the rest of the Himalayan chain. The fauna If the flora of the Nanda Devi basin im- presses the visitor, the plentitude and confid- ing nature of the larger mountain ungulates amazes and charms him. Shipton, describing the Inner “Sanctuary” in his book ‘Nanda Devi’, mentions the peaceful herds of Bharal and Tahr several times. It is difficult to ima- gine outside Tibet, and perhaps not even there in recent years, wild ungulates so fearless of Man. I am yet to see a high Himalayan valley so well populated by wild animals. bharal Pseudois nayaur : The Himalayan Blue Sheep is the dominant and the most con- spicuous large mammal in the Inner “Sanc- tuary”. Herds were sighted on the steep pas- tures above the cliffs of the upper gorge and almost every pasture had a herd grazing on open grassy slopes within the Inner “Sanc- tuary”. The animals were all low down the slopes and appeared to be partial to the more gentle grassy meadows than the rocky cliffs, though a few animals were seen on a couple of occasions traversing the almost sheer rock cliffs which form the pedestal for Nanda Devi. Herds of half a dozen heads to those of more than thirty were seen. By and large, the larger herds preferred to remain down the slopes. The smaller herds inhabited the upper. Lone rams with the largest horns were seen close to the snow and their tracks were reported at 5300m. — well above the snowline. Observations made of a large herd of thirty- two animals near the “Sanctuary” Camp showed that these were ewes and young rams. All the ewes appeared to be very heavy and on the verge of dropping lambs. The first lamb seen was in the last week of 874 NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY June. June and July seem to be the period when the majority of young are born. The herd under observation grazed and rested intermittently throughout the day. The sheep did not seem to show discomfort at the strong diurnal winds, though they did re- veal a tendency to descend lower in mist and when it snowed. While resting, the younger animals seemed to be drawn to large boulders up which they scrambled and stood very much in the manner of goats. Among themselves, the young males spar- red a great deal, frequently butting the flank or the rear of a nearby companion. This would result in an immediate reta- liation in most cases, the two combatants rising on their hind-legs before bringing their horns together. On a couple of occa- sions the sheep were seen rubbing them- selves like goats ’against a rock. It was possible to approach them closer in an upright stance rather than in a crouched position. On several occasions, they curi- ously approached the observers hiding be- hind rocks or in depressions, no doubt to get a look at the intruders. When approach- ed directly, the herd would move slowly up the slope. If, however, the observer ap- proached from above, the entire herd would make a rapid move to get onto higher ground. In all instances, the younger ani- mals showed greater fear and the larger in- dividuals — rams and older ewes — would follow the herd, frequently stopping to look back. Bharal appear to subsist mainly on grass and tended to browse far less than goats. Judging from the scanty vegetation close to the snowline, it seems these fine sheep can survive on the sparsest of pastures. The presence of small herds and isolated adult rams high up the slopes among the bleakest and windiest screes and snowfields was in- deed astounding. A rough census was undertaken in the Inner “Sanctuary” where, at a conservative esti- mate, there is a population of 500 Bharal. Reports by local porters and foreign visitors place a further 150 heads in the Trisul Valley, while the Ramani basin and the Dunagiri slopes should have another 100 animals. Adding to these about 70 solitary rams at high altitudes, we can expect a po- pulation of 820 Bharal within the “Sanc- tuary”. Observing the facility with which they cross snowfields, leap across raging tor- rents and negotiate seemingly impassable rock traverses, the Bharal of the Nanda Devi basin must be less circumscribed than is believed and entire herds and individuals assuredly cross the mountain barriers to mingle with and, perhaps, augment herds still surviving outside the “Sanctuary” area. Himalayan tahr Hemitragus jemlahicus : Shipton mentions herds of Tahr grazing along- side the Bharal. Tahr are as large as the Bharal and have very distinctive horns and long hair. We saw none on the higher meadows. That Tahr exist in the Rishi gorge is quite apparent from the numerous goat-like droppings seen along the trail passing along what is ideal Tahr country. The herds of smaller ungulates which Shipton seems to have mistaken for Tahr are in fact Goral, which do inhabit high- er altitudes and are indeed considerably smal- ler than Bharal. goral Neumorhaedus goral: There were se- veral herds of this goat-antelope. The largest herd of 21 occupied meadows south of the “Sanctuary” Camp. Their smaller size and shorter and thinner horns immediately identi- fied them. Goral freely mixed with the larger sheep, though they tended to be more alert 875 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 and were quick to retreat. They, also, seemed to prefer steeper ground and browsed a good deal off the dwarf rhododendrons and furze clumps. musk deer Moschus moschijerus : From re- ports and frequent indications noted, the birch forests of the gorge seem to still hold a fairly large population of this much-persecuted deer. The musk deer habitat, however, is consider- ably restricted as a result of the precipitous nature of the Rishi gorge. snow leopard Panthera uncia : I found droppings of a large feline near the snout of the South Rishi Glacier. The turds contained Goral hair. Two Bharal kills were found and a Snow Leopard was reported on a Bharal kill by the St. Stephen’s College team near Changa- bang. The shepherds met on the way out in June, on the Mathuni Ridge, graphically des- cribed this leopard, which apparently came for stray sheep and, significantly, the authorities have issued gun licenses to a couple of shep- herds as protection against this predator. bears There were no indications of either the Black Bear Selanarctos t hi bet anus in the forests or the Brown Bear Ursus arctos above the treeline. Their absence was confirmed by the porters. Game Birds: Despite a careful watch, no Monals Lophophorus impejanus were sighted, though there is ample terrain suitable for their needs. It was a pleasant surprise, however, to hear several Koklas Pheasants Pucrasia macro- lopha crowing close to camp at dawn just above Lata village. Local peasants readily re- cognise both these pheasants from illustra- tions shown to them. They, however, do not recognise any of the Tragopans. That the Monal has declined in the last few years was confirmed by an aged villager from Lata who had considerable knowledge of the natural his- tory of his hills and who had, it seems, accom- panied several “Angrez” during his youth. Both the Himalayan Snowcock Tetrogallus himalay- ensis and the Snow Partridge Lerwa lerwa were plentiful and confiding on the slopes above the treeline. The latter occupied a slight- ly lower elevation to the former. The human intrusion It has been only within the last couple of decades that the Himalayan range has ex- perienced a rapid acceleration in exploitation by Man. Thanks to better medical facilities there has been a phenomenal rise in the hu- man population. Roads today penetrate all the major valleys and are being added to con- tinually. More and more people are consequent- ly visiting the Himalayas from the Indian plains and abroad. The Nanda Devi Basin has also started receiving a greater attention. Till 1934, and two decades after, only Dibrughetta and Dharasi were regularly visited for a short period in summer by a few shepherds from Lata. The rest of the area was as unexplored as other remoter areas in the Amazon Basin or the Antarctica. Shipton and Tilman pioneer- ed a way up the gorge to the foot of the moun- tain, to be the first to speak of the extensive pastures and herds of wild ungulates. Their accounts gave wide publicity to the mountain wilderness and surrounded the mountain with an aura only a few much higher peaks like Everest or Kanchenjunga enjoy. If geographi- cal configuration kept local villagers out, po- litical exigencies delayed exploration further. The Nanda Devi “Sanctuary” though enjoying no legal status as a sanctuary is, in fact, one of the world’s finest wilderness areas. Unfor- tunately, unwise exploitation has started and is likely to increase manifold in the years ahead. It is therefore worth evaluating the na- ture of this intrusion. 876 NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY Shepherds of Lata, Reni and a few other nearby villages in the Dhauli Gorge have been traditionally bringing their flocks across the 4250m. high Dharasi Col along a precarious defile. They cross over in the first week of June after the winter snow melts on the ridge, and graze the pastures of Dharasi, Maithuni Ridge and Dibrughetta. They prepare to vacate these high pastures in September. The area grazed is a fraction of the Nanda Devi Basin. While they have not extended their area of operation, I learnt that many more flocks have started using these pastures as a result of the closure of the more extensive Tibetan grazing lands following the Chinese take- over. The Forest Department charges a fee of Rs. 1/- per sheep and Rs. 2/- per goat. There appeared to be no check on whether more goats and sheep were in fact not be- ing grazed than were paid for. Information available states that flocks are coming from as far away as Malari in the upper Dhauli Ganga valley. The Maithuni grazing ground alone had four thousand animals! With the present pastures being overgraz- ed, it is but a matter of time before some enterprising shepherd leads his flock further up the Rishi gorge from Dibrughatta along the trail now visible thanks to the flocks of load carrying goats and sheep to Raman i and the Trisul valley. With expeditions re- lying more on sheep and goats to carry in supplies, the trail has become well demar- cated and a greater number of shepherds are becoming familiar with the gorge. It may be pointed out that there are no legal re- strictions on their grazing their flocks any- where within the area. With expeditions wanting access earlier to have more opera- tional time on the mountain before the on- set of the monsoon, the Dharasi trail is “forced5’ by a fortnight. Plant Gatherers’. Many high altitude plants have aromatic qualities and their underground parts have been valued for the preparation of incense, and Ayurvedic medicines. Quite a few are used as ingredients in allopathic prepara- tions. Shepherds always have collected such plants to earn a little extra. With a greater demand and higher prices being paid, more and more of the poorer landholders and land- less people are resorting to collecting such plants. While in themselves posing no threat to wildlife, they help pioneer difficult routes and the frequent encounters with wildlife makes them important guides and accompli- ces of the itinerate poacher. We met several plant gatherers who seemed to be familiar with the remotest tracks. Poachers : As more and more persons gain familiarity with the gorges, and more easily accessible areas get depleted of wildlife, the attention of the poacher turns to the last re- maining herds in such secluded areas. With the price of musk having reached an all-time high, a week or two of hard living is no de- terrent to the poacher. The shepherds, already holding firearm licences and spending a sum- mer within the area are assuredly tempted to poach. Ample indications of poacher activity was noted. An expedition member going out of the “Sanctuary” earlier than the rest was followed down the difficult upper gorge by two armed men (personal correspondence); the St. Stephen’s College party found remains of a Musk Deer and signs of a hastily abandoned camp between Ramani and Deodi; I came across half a dozen skulls of Bharal which had been severed from the body and left be- hind on the meadows above the “Sanctuary” Camp, where I also stumbled onto a rock shelter which had all the signs of recent use. Three carcasses, two of animals dying of na- tural causes and one a predator’s kill, were 877 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 found. They all had the skeleton and sections of the hide attached to the skulls. There exists a “shikaris” trail parallel to the regular shep- herd passage across the Dharasi Col. This trail is at a lower altitude and can be negotiated at all times of the year except in mid-winter. That poaching activity is of recent origin is apparent from the confiding nature of the Bharal and the frequent signs of Musk Deer. Mountaineering Expeditions and Tourist Parties : The Nanda Devi has always been a very desirable mountain thanks to its great beauty and the mystery surrounding it as a result of the natural barriers. When mountain- eering activity revived after the Second World War, the hitherto closed Nepal opened its borders and the attention of foreign mount- aineers was drawn to that largely unexplored stretch of mountains. Also, the Government of India excluded all foreign expeditions from the Gharwal Himalayas. However, in the ’60s In- dian mountaineering came of age and both civilian and military expeditions have been active all along the Indian Himalayas. The Nanda Devi area has received their full atten- tion as attested by a permanent wooden bridge built over the Rishi torrent at Deodi and the graffiti etched and scrawled on rocks and trees. Reports, confirmed by local men who portered for these expeditions, indicate that firearms were often carried in and Bharal meat was on the menu! With the declaring of the Nanda Devi Basin as a free area, a spate of foreign expeditions have been operating here. The mountain has to be “booked” several years in advance! Apart from Nanda Devi, there are several other attractive mountains within the basin. At least two of these foreign parties had a local “shikari” among their porters. They hire as many as 40 or more porters and se- veral hundred baggage goats. The impact of the operations by four expeditions in one season can well be imagined. This summer, besides the British expedition with its 30 odd porters and 300 baggage animals, there was a Japanese expedition on Trisul from the south, a German trekkers-cum-climbers party on the same mountain from the north, the St. Stephen’s College Devistan-Changa- bang expedition and a Mountain Travel’s party of American tourists to Nanda Devi. Both the German and a second Japanese party came up the Rishi Gorge which is be- ing progressively used as an alternative to the traditional high route. All these parties had more porters and baggage animals than our expedition! In addition, we met several trekkers with their porters; the Rishi Gorge had a continual passage of men. While for- eign expeditions are registered with the IMF (Indian Mountaineering Foundation), there are no checks whatsoever on trekking parties, individual trekkers and Indian expe- ditions. The traditional trail over Dharasi Col is, as mentioned earlier, forced by the middle of May. The route by the gorge is being more regularly used and the “shikaris” trail be- low the Dharasi traverse is regularly fre- quented. From Dibrughetta to Ramani a well-defined and an extraordinarily even- graded trail now exists. Even the Shipton- Tilman track up the upper gorge is better defined and can be traversed with care by single men and I crossed the formidable “slabs” unaided, wearing canvas boots! All in all, the natural defences of the “Sanc- tuary” have been effectively breached. Future Development Plans : With the greater number of expeditions to the area and foreign agencies promoting trekking parties to Nanda Devi, the high tourist potential of the “Sanc- tuary” has been realised by local operators 878 NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY and a convincing argument for the construc- tion of a bridle-path up the Rishi gorge up to Deodi has found favour with the authorities. A ground survey has been undertaken and the project has the backing of the Gbarwal Man- dal Vikas Nigam, a body set up by the U.P. State Government to advise opening up of Gharwal for tourism. With the construction of a bridle-path up the gorge, further development will assured- ly follow as for example, converting the bridle-path into a jeep track, construction of tourist huts and bungalows, etc. The Rishi Gorge, flowing at several hundred metres above the Dhauli Gorge is separated from it by the very narrow Lata Ridge and offers considerable possibilities for a hydro-electric project involving a short tunnel to divert the Rishi. Any development programme ini- tiated without due recognition of the uni- queness of the Manda Devi “Sanctuary” will result in the loss of a magnificent heritage. Conservation considerations The Fragile Ecosystem : Mountains are sub- jected to greater erosional activity, particularly so when they are seismically active young structures as the Himalayas are. The gravita- tional force is more potent on steep mountains and greatly intensifies the action of rivers, glaciers, snow avalanches, landslides triggered off by water seepage, and wind. The extremes of temperature at great altitudes shatters the rocks and further adds to the instability of mountain areas. Despite the combined on- slaught of elemental forces, vegetation tends to stabilise slopes and to cover exposed rock faces. There were far less unsightly scars with- in the “Sanctuary” than in inhabited, less rug- ged areas. The steepest sides were densely co- vered by plant growth, forests, shrubberies. herbs and grass, which even more effectively held the soil. It was only where torrents and snowslides came down that there were no plants. Wherever the screes had become slight- ly stable, plant life had started colonising them and hardy high-altitude plants grew in shelter- ed places well above the permanent snow fields. The vegetation cover of the Himalayan slopes is at the very best very fragile and develops a precarious balance which the least bit of change by natural or man-induced causes can upset. The balance may take years to be established again. The vulnerability in- creases with the steepness of the slopes and the altitude. The entire study area is expos- ed, therefore, to the maximum effect of ero- sional forces. An added factor is the general aridity of the soil, which is liable to be blown away by wind. The harsh and dry climatic conditions make regeneration by plants more difficult. In the upper gorge, the narrow trail was possibly the same pioneered by Tilman and Ship ton, its stability provided by springy turf and large clumps of grass. The almost continuous cover of juniper on southern aspects afforded protection to the loose soil above the treeline. Above the juniper level, clumps of Caragana (furze bush) played the same role. The tussocks of grass so characteristic of Himalayan high- altitude pastures, are to be seen at their best here and are an effective protection to the soil. That regeneration, however, takes greater time here than elsewhere is demons- trated by the well-demarcated trail along the upper gorge, which, in areas of rapid plant regeneration, would easily be oblite- rated in one season. Many of the trees, shrubs and herbs have aromatic oils and burn easily. The long grass is dry and inflammable in March and 879 21 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 : June. Fire, therefore, has to be considered a very major hazard to the ecosystem. Burnt "slopes: are effectively exposed to erosion forces and become extremely unstable as a result. The Vulnerable Fauna:lt is now a known fact that in harsh environments only a few forms of life survive by virtue of a high degree of adaptation, and these highly successful forms increase in numbers to fully utilise the habitat. High mountain habitats are congenial to life only for the summer months and the period is shortened with the altitude. Most of the birds and many of the flying insects move up only during the summer. Others suspend activities during the harsh months and hibernate; even mammals undergo varying periods of winter sleep. Within our area there are several ro- dents and a few skinks — reptiles, which so escape the harsh winters. However, resident birds like the Snowcocks and Snow Partridges, the ungulates like the Bharal and Goral and the Snow Leopard which preys on them are active in the worst weather. Under very se- vere conditions they may move to lower alti- tudes. Within the Nanda Devi Basin, this downward movement is restricted by the con- figuration of the enclosing ridges which press the herds towards the gorge. It is the fat accu- mulated during the summer grazing which per- mits them to survive the harsh winter. The least bit of disturbance can easily upset living conditions and place an entire species’ con- tinued survival in jeopardy. This factor needs to be emphasised if the need for control of human activity is to be convincingly advocat- ed. A brief discussion on the mere presence of human beings at “Sanctuary” Camp in May and June would suffice our purpose. The month of May, as we found, is still rather bleak and it is only in mid- June that fresh grass starts sprouting. The herds of Bharal — the ewes heavy with lamb and young males — are all confined to the lower pastures through which the path up to Nanda Devi base camp passes. As the green flush extends up the slopes, the animals fol- low up the slopes to reach the higher pastu- res by August and September, by which time the ewes are followed by their new- born iambs and the territories of the Master Rams are reached and rutting takes place. During the summer, plenty of body fat is accumulated. The continual movement of expeditions in the summer months can en- danger the species, since they are compelled to move off the best pastures at a time when forage is at its lowest. The pregnant ewes are placed under stress just when they should have the least disturbance. Though not substantiated by statistics, it is quite apparent that even if there is no killing by poachers there are chances of the wild sheep declining as a result of human activity on their summer pastures. What is true of the Bharal is true of the Goral, and any reduc- 1 tion in the numbers of the two ungulates would directly affect the Snow Leopards. The removal of juniper brush, apart from causing erosion, destroys the sheltered ha- bitat for insects and the small birds which find food and nesting sites there. Indirectly then, as a result of habitat degeneration, birdlife also is affected. Fires add to the hazards and since birds nesting at high alti- tudes have a short period for raising their young, any destruction of eggs and young would mean a total failure of nesting for that particular season. Impact of Human Action Grazing by Domestic Flocks : There is quite apparent degradation of the grazing grounds 880 NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY of Dharasi and Dibrughetta. The pressure on these traditional pastures has increased and is increasing. The number of heads brought in is already far too high, with more than 4000 (personal discussion with shepherds) heads of goats and sheep. In addition to the usual flocks, several hundred animals carrying expedition baggage pass through. Apart from depleting the forage, the passage of animals, often almost vertically down slopes, results in a series of very ugly landslides. A huge scar has formed on the eastern slope of the Mal- thuni Ridge which is in an active state of shift- ing. Vegetation has no chance of stabilising on it since flocks graze over the area and renew the disturbance each year. Similar landslides, resulting from passage by sheep and goats, has set in even in forest country. Deforestation : Each expedition hires large teams of porters. With an average of 50 porters per expedition and four such expe- ditions operating in one season, 200 men move up and down the gorge. These men, out of necessity, collect firewood for cook- ing and since they are all lightly clad and tents are not provided, have to seek warmth through the night from fires. The consump- tion of firewood each season can be appre- ciable. Above the timberline, juniper is the chief source of fuel and considerable sec- tions of juniper have been cleared. At all the regular campsites, dead wood has long ago been utilised and trees have to be felled. This is particularly pronounced at the Deodi and Ramani campsites. Fires : Many of the porters light fires at the base of trees; this sets the heartwood on fire and we noticed several smouldering trunks. Such practices obviously cause forest fires and all along the trail we noticed large sec- tions burnt. The greatest damage by fire was seen at Dibrughetta, where almost 25% of coniferous forest is burnt! The shepherds in charge of load-carrying flocks fire the long grass to permit their animals to get at green sprouting grass. These fires rapidly spread up the slopes and die out only at the upper limit or a cliff edge. Clumps of juniper burst into violent flame, adding to the upward spread of the flames. Since there are no forestry practices within the “Sanc- tuary”, these fires are uncontrolled; nor are the burnt sections replanted. Ugly scars of old and recent fires all along the trail were a marked and depressing contrast to the green stands of forest on the opposite side of the gorge. Poachers : Poaching within the basin is of fairly recent origin. However, conditions are now ideal for this evil to flourish. The sale of animal pelts has been a regular trade along the pilgrim route. With roads now permitting vehicular fraffic right up to Bad- rinath, the numbers of affluent and not very pious tourist pilgrims have increased. These are notorious curio-buyers and the sale of pelts is brisker than before. This ready out- let is augmented by the large military and paramilitary forces stationed throughout the year in the upper valleys. The sale of mut- ton is an additional inducement for poach- ing. Shepherds who formerly left carcasses of their flock dying of forage poisoning, now find it worth their while to carry the car- casses down to the road-head in the Dhauli gorge. With prices of Rs. 300/- per ani- mal being paid for a goat or a sheep, a dead Bharal offers high returns to a poacher. Musk Deer have always been severely per- secuted and a single animal shot can yield a fortune. The investigator was told by very reliable sources that a well-organised group operates at Dehra Dun, who handle the smuggling of raw musk pods collected in 881 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 the Gharwal Himalayas. If till recently, poachers were not active within the “Sanc- tuary”, it was because there were other more easily accessible targets, and the terrain was less frequented. Conditions have completely changed and the wildlife of the “Sanctuary” is exposed to the depredation of poachers. Litter : Though not of consequence to the welfare of wildlife, it is a depressing sight, worth mentioning here, that all the major camping sites have taken on the appearance of mini-urban refuse dumps. Even streams from where drinking water is drawn are not spared, and they were choked with plastic sheets, toilet paper, cartons, egg-shells, tins, etc. While expeditions do try to collect their refuse in one place, the commercially ope- rated trekking parties have no such com- punctions, since their interest in the place is short-lived. Campsites used by one such trekking party were left completely littered and unusable. It is quite apparent that even those who profess to love the mountains are not over-concerned about the impact of their passage on a trail. The Positive Human Factor : Perhaps the greatest error committed by exponents of conservation of wildlife in this country has been the almost complete lack of awareness or appreciation of local sentiments and the innate intelligence of the peasants to under- stand the value of conservation for their own survival. The Gharwali, like all hill- men, is a very pragmatic person. He is also very much alive to the wildlife around him being a shikari. He is a person, who, though cautious in accepting new ideas, can cer- tainly be expected to participate in any planning for the betterment of his own life. The social organisation of his village has been a close-knit one because of having to cope with a difficult terrain. The proof of this can be had from the “Chipko Move- ment”, which has no parallel anywhere else in the country. Significantly, the epicentre of this remarkable conservation oriented mass action is at Reni and Lata villages and in- volves the excellent forests in the Ronti Valley — physically a part of the Nanda Devi Basin. The movement was sparked off by a contract for clear-felling and the satya- graha was spearheaded by the housewives of the two villages. This unique action has made the villagers aware of their rights to their village territories. The heartening as- pect of the satyagraha was not based on economical needs but on the highest of con- servation principles — saving the forests to combat floods and landslides! Unlike the forest tribes of peninsular India, the Ghar- wali is a diligent farmer and carefully con- structs terraces to retain his valuable soil, is fully alive to the value of forest litter as manure and constructs extensive irrigation channels. Being devout Hindus, he con- siders the Bharal herds as property of God- dess Parvati, the consort of Lord Shiva and the Nanda Devi peak is held in veneration as the physical form of the Goddess. Signi- ficantly too, the villagers are very alive to the value of the “Sanctuary” as a tourist draw and there is considerable resentment over expeditions bringing in “Sirdars” and high altitude porters from elsewhere. Signi- ficantly, the promotion of tourism is handl- ed by the Gharwal Mandal Vikas Nigam, which is headed by a Gharwali who im- pressed the investigator by his interest in nature. Favourable Legal Status and other conside- rations: Unlike other Sanctuaries and Na- tional Parks in the country, the entire Nanda Devi “Sanctuary” is free of human settlement. Even grazing rights are very 882 NAN DA DEVI SANCTUARY 'tm . <* U%t • $ux%, & * «. bmq*^ TrCuifste $«A< $)*£«* 4» M&* ty*fr& ^4 ******* ^^8**|M* <*> #-*8ejr*«. Map 3. Boundaries of Proposed Nanda Devi National Park. 883 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 seasonal and affect a fraction of the area. Human exploitation has very recently start- ed and this, too, is of high tourist potential. The boundaries are clearly demarcated by effective natural barriers and are effective against trespass. Conservation planning for the area can result in considerable econo- mic gain to the villagers. Recommendations Immediate representation needs to be made to the State Government to suspend all deve- lopment projects involving the study area, im- pressing them of the scope for proper well- planned utilisation of the tourist value of the area and that considerable damage will be sustained by the magnificent habitat and its wildlife if persons with shortsighted interests are allowed to initiate exploitation. No deve- lopmental programmes are to be considered without taking into consideration the follow- ing. Legislation : The Uttar Pradesh Government be asked to declare the Nanda Devi Basin a Wildlife Sanctuary2 for high altitude flora and fauna, to protect India’s only wilderness area and its large herd of Himalayan Blue Sheep and viable populations of Musk Deer and Snow Leopards, both highly endangered spe- cies. Subsequent action by the State Govern- ment be requested to upgrade the new Sanc- tuary to the status of India’s first Himalayan National Park. The boundaries suggested are (See Map 3) : (i) The Northern Boundary or the Dhauli Watershed to run along the ridge from Lata Peak, the Dharasi Col, Dunagiri, Changabang, Kalanka to Rishi Pahar in the east. (ii) The Eastern Boundary or the Milam Watershed to coincide with the boun- 884 dary between Chamoli District and Pithoragarh District along the crest from Rishi Pahar to Nanda Devi East and onto the bifurcation where the Traill’s Pass Ridge separates. (iii) The Southern Boundary or the Pindar Watershed to coincide with the boundary between Chamoli District and Almora District along the divide from the bifurcation of the Traill’s Pass Ridge, over Nanda Khat and Mrigthuni and onto Trisul II. (iv) The Western Boundary to run along the main Trisul Bethertoli axis and on along the Ronti-Dudh Ganga water- shed down to the Rishi opposite Lata Peak. Entry Restrictions : The Nanda Devi “Sanc- tuary” once again be declared a restricted area and all visitors be required to register with the Police at Joshimath and entry permits be issued by the authorities. These permits should be liable to be checked at Lata Village or within the “Sanctuary” by Forest Guards. All entry must be restricted to the traditional route over the Dharasi Col and the route up the gorge be completely banned. Nor should visitors be permitted to enter by the “Shikaris” trail (see sketch Map 3). The “Sanctuary” should be open to visitors from 15th May to 30th September. All visitors must vacate the area latest by 1st October. Expeditions should only engage porters and load-carrying flocks must not be permitted across the Dharasi Col. Grazing permits should be issued for a fixed number of animals and the heads of sheep and goats physically counted at Lata Kha- rak before being allowed to proceed be- yond the Dharasi Col. Grazing permits must be issued only to flocks belonging to Lata, Reni and the nearby villages. NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY Total ban on Firearms'. All firearm licences ' to shepherds grazing flocks within the “Sanc- f tuary” must be withdrawn. Sheep dogs are I effective deterrents to Snow Leopards as ad- mitted by the shepherds questioned — all the dogs with the Malthuni herd did not have pro- [ tective collars. No expeditions or other per- sons should be permitted to carry in firearms. I Porters : All porters engaged by expedi- tions must be registered with the Lata Pan- chayat and hiring porters from other parts of the Himalayas must be discouraged. Should expeditions desire to bring in outside men, they should have to pay the same entry fee per porter as would be charged to Indian visitors. Entry Fee : All visitors to the “Sanctuary” other than local porters and permit-carrying shepherds must pay an entry fee. Indian visi- tors should pay Rs. 50/- per person; foreign tourists Rs. 250/- per individual. Peak Fee for Expeditions : Foreign expedi- tions to the “Sanctuary” should be required to pay peak fees of Rs, 5000/- for Nanda Devi and Rs. 2000/- for other peaks. Indian expeditions should pay a flat expedition entry rate of Rs. 1000/-. These fees should be charged in addition to the personal entry fee. Trekking parties sponsored by travel agents should pay a fee of Rs. 5000/- per party in addition to the personal entry fee. Liaison Officers : All foreign expeditions and trekking parties by travel agents must be assigned a liaison officer of standing, who is either deputed from the Services or a person recommended by such organisations as the Himalayan Club, World Wildlife Fund-India or the Bombay Natural History Society. Registering “ Sirdars ” and Porters : All ex- peditions and trekking parties, foreign or Indian, must engage registered “Sirdars” from the nearby villages. These “Sirdars” should be given intensive training at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttar Kashi. All porters from Reni and Lata should be registered and issued special identity cards from the NIM through the Magistrate at Joshimath. Porter rates, etc., should be fixed after discussions with the village Panchayats. Fuel: Expeditions must be required to carry in Kerosene for the team members and por- ters. Individual trekkers may, however, be permitted to use firewood. Only fallen dead- wood should be used for fuel. A special co- operative store should be opened at Lata from where expeditions may purchase provi- sions for the porters, kerosene, etc., at fixed Government rates. Tourist Accommodation : Clean, cheap ac- commodation should be developed at Reni and Lata. Villagers should be encouraged to provide accommodation and financial assist- ance be made available to them to expand their facilities. Provision should be made to provide camping equipment on hire at Reni. Warden and Guards: The Forest Depart- ment should appoint a Sanctuary Warden with his headquarters at Reni. He should be assisted by at least four guards. All five men must receive training at NIM. During the open season three guards should be stationed, one each at Dharasi Col, Malthuni Ridge and Patalkhal. The fourth guard should remain at Lata. Each guard should be assisted during the season by other guards deputed for anti- poaching training by the Forest Department and/or the Police. The military and parami- litary forces may be requested to depute jawans as well. The guards should be issued portable wire- less sets and light arms. They should each have a pair of Himalayan Mastiffs and be equipped with light mountain tents, sleep- ing bags, protective clothing and binocu- lars. 885 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Porters wanting to be registered as “Sir- dars” should be required to undergo a month of guard duty. College students may be encouraged to volunteer as assistant guards under the NSS scheme. Conservation Action : The Forest Depart- ment must immediately undertake to replant the burnt areas with appropriate trees and also consider establishing nurseries of junipers for transplanting on slopes denuded of natural growth as at “Sanctuary” Camp. The assist- ance of voluntary groups like the “Chipko” volunteers might be considered. The half burnt timber should be felled and the logs used to demarcate the sides of a carefully graded sheep trail wherever the descent is direct and steep initiating land- slides similar to that on the Malthuni Ridge. Special refuse disposal pits should be pre- pared at all important campsites and inflam- mable material periodically burnt and iron cans, etc. buried. A systematic study of the area should be initiated with a view to developing a sound management programme for the proposed National Park. Simple guide booklets be developed on the “Sanctuary” in Hindi, English, German and Japanese, which should be available at the co-operative store at Lata and the Sanctu- ary Warden’s office at Reni. This booklet should briefly describe the main flora and fauna likely to be seen along the trail and provide conservation guidelines for the visitor. Acknowledgements I am most grateful to the World Wildlife Fund — India for sponsoring and planning my visit to the Nanda Devi Basin and for grant- ing me long leave for the purpose. Mr. John Millar has to be thanked for hav- ing got me invited as a member of the 1977 British Nanda Devi Expedition. While all the expedition members were extremely kind and helpful at all times, I greatly value the close friendship which emerged between Len Smith, the Deputy Leader and Treasurer of the Ex- pedition, and myself. Special thanks are due to all the members of the British Army Team, which had accom- panied the Expedition. Significant contribu- tions to my enquiry were made by Rt. Hon. Captain Jonathan Forbes. Capt. Roderic Wyn- Pope and the other members were all extre- mely helpful and hospitable. Much though I would like to mention names of officers of the Army at Joshimath for their great kindness to me, security restric- tions prevent my doing so. Shri K. S. Fonia, General Manager, Gharwal Mandal Vikas Nigam, gave me considerable information re- garding development plans of the region; to him go my thanks. Shri Nalni Jayal, Joint Secretary in charge of wildlife and forests. Ministry of Agricul- ture, New Delhi, gave me considerable en- couragement while Shri Jagdish Nanavati, Hon. Secretary of the Himalayan Club provid- ed me with relevant information. He was most generous with his valuable time. I must express my appreciation for young Nanak Chand of Manali, who acted as my personal porter, cook and guide. Without him, I would not have been able to get the many good photographs of Bharal and flowers. 886 NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY THE ITINERARY Note : *Rainy Days * 15th May Assembly at Lata Road Head ac. 6,500' * 15th May Bhelta Forest Camp ac. 7,000' * 16th May Bhelta — a search for pheasants in forest. *17th May Lata Kharak ac. 12,000' *18th May Lata Kharak * 19th May Dharasi Col — held up by blizzard over 14,000' *20th May Dharasi Col — held up by blizzard *2 1st May Dharasi ac. 13,750' 22nd May Dibrughetta ac. 11,000' 23 rd May Deodi ac. 11,000' 24th May Ramani ac. 11,640' 25th May Patalkhal ac. 14,500' 26th May Sanctuary Camp ac. 14,600' 26th May) Survey of Inner “Sanctuary” — almost to ) daily afternoon cloud. Four days of 13th June) snowfall. Monsoon current set in by 6th June. * 14th June Patalkhal * 15th June Patalkhal — held up by snowfall. 16th June Ramani 17th June Deodi *18th June Dibrughatta * 19th June Malthuni Ridge ac. 14,000' 20th June Bhelta Forest *2 1st June Lata Roadhead rfi 887 PARAMB1KULAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY AND IIS ADJACENT AREAS V. S. VlJAYAN1 Introduction Location, Extent and Topography : The Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary came into existence in 1962, when a small area — Sungam range — was declared a sanctuary. In 1973, more areas were added to it and at pre- sent it covers an area of about 235 km2 (10°25' N, 76°43' E) in the Palghat District of Ke- rala at an elevation of 600 metres above sea level. On the east it is contiguous with the Anamalai Wildlife Sanctuary of Tamil Nadu; on the north-west it is bordered by the Nelliam- pathy reserves of Nemmara Division and on the south-west and south by the Vazhachal and Sholayar range respectively, of the Chalakudy Division. Sholayar is contiguous with Parambikulam on the south and is separated from Parambi- kulam by a lofty ridge; the highest peak, the Karimalagopuram, has an elevation of 1,440m. Sholayar range has an area of 15,513.60 hectares, of which 1,820.73 hectares have been leased out for Sholayar Dam and also for tea estates. The rest is reserved forest. The whole area is hilly in character with numerous roll- ing hills, peaks and cliffs. There are three dams inside the sanctuary area; Parambikulam, Thunakadavu and Periva- rapallam dams (Table 1). 1 Wildlife Biologist, Kerala Forest Research Insti- tute, Peechi, Trichur Dist., Kerala. Table 1 Details of tiie dams in Parambikulam Name of dam Waterspread Catchment area area Parambikulam dam 21.29 Sq. Km 230.51 Sq.Km Thunakadavu dam 4.34 Sq. Km 43.36 Sq.Km Perivarapallam dam 2.90 Sq. Km 15.80 Sq.Km The two major river valleys in the area are of the Parambikulam and Sholayar rivers which converge at Orukombankutty and flow into the main Chalakudy river. Parambikulam drains the southern portions of the Nelliam- pathy reserve while the Sholayar drains the further reaches of the Adirapalli reserve. The only approach to the sanctuary by road is from Pollachi, about 48 km from Thunak- adavu, the headquarters of the sanctuary. This road passes through the top slip area of the Anamalai Sanctuary. The proposed Chalaku- dy-Vazhachal-Parambikulam road would in- crease the accessibility from Kerala side. How- ever, this would also give more opportunity for poaching. A unique forest tramway was in existence here from 1907 solely meant for timber transport from Parambikulam to Chala- kudy. Later on it was found that the annual expenditure for maintaining the tramway was quite high and it was a problem to supply sufficient quantity of timber for transport by the tramway in order to enable it to be work- ed without loss. Extensive extraction of timber 888 PAR AM BIK ULAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY took place during this period and finally a stage j was reached when timber had to be extracted to maintain the Tramway! Finally, after seve- ral years, it was abandoned. However, the tracks, if properly maintained, would be a bles- sing to naturalists for watching birds and view- ing animals. Habitat and vegetation Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary has a wide variety of habitats, both natural and man-made. The former consists of evergreen and moist deciduous forests, grassy hills and swampy areas, locally known as Vayals which are very common. The Vayals are generally surrounded by hills and forests and as the drainage in this area is particularly poor, there is an accumu- lation of clayey loam resulting in a semi-mar- shy condition. Grass grows luxuriously in this area and elephants and gaur are greatly at- tracted to this habitat. Man-made habitats in this area are derived mainly from Teak plan- tation. Eucalyptus is also raised and Tapioca cultivated in newly felled areas. The vegetation of Parambikulam which has been studied by Sebastine and Ramamurthy (1966) is a combination of Malabar and Dec- can elements. Malabar elements occur in the evergreen patches mainly in the valleys and moist regions of the area. In Shofayar the vegetation is mainly evergreen. Deccan ele- ments are dominant in the moist deciduous forest. Cullenla exarillatci, Myristica jmgrans, Hydnocarpus wightiana, Dillenia sp., Aporosa lindleyana, Cinnamomum sp., Herpullia arbo- rea, Hydnocarpus lauri folia, Diospyros assi- milis, Diospyros malabaricum, Adinosa sp., Baccaurea courtallensis, Machilus macrantha. Vateria indica. Mesua jerrea are common in the evergreen forests while Adina cordifolia, Careya arborea, Grewia tiliaefolia, Pterocar- pus marsupium, Dalbergia latifolia, Melia sp. are common in moist deciduous forest. Clero- dendron infortunatum, Fluggea sp., Glycosmis pentaphylla, Hdicteres isora, Lantana camara and Randia dumetorum are common under- growth in moist deciduous forest. Lantana grows thickly in cleared areas and lush growth of Eupatorium was noted in Teak plantations, especially where the plantation has failed. Plantation : Parambikulam was one of the typical teak areas of the State and the best natural teak was found in this region. But the extensive extraction during the last several years has depleted this area of its once famous teak and rosewood. The first plantation in this area was raised about 1912. The majority of the planta- tions lie along the first section of the tram- way line where clearfelled areas had been re- generated artificially with teak. All the planta- tions after 1932 were raised under taungya system. Eucalyptus is also planted here on a small scale. At present, 100 Sq. Km of the sanctuary are under plantation. Wildlife Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and the Sholayar area have almost all the representa- tive Peninsular Indian animals, (Table 2). Pug marks of 6 tigers, 3 in Parambikulam sanc- tuary and 3 inside Sholayar range, were seen. Apart from tiger, the other endangered species seen here are Liontailed macaque and Nilgiri tahr, 76 of the former and 32 of the latter were recorded from the sanctuary area. 889 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 2 Animals recorded from Parambikulam /Sholayar area Species Seen Heard Spoor Remarks Presbytis johni (Nilgiri Langur) 238 5 — — Macaca silenus (Liontailed macaque) 76 1 — — Macaca radiata (Bonnet macaque) 29 — — — • Panther a tigris (Tiger) 6 3 at Parambikulam 3 at Sholayar. Panthera pardus (Panther) — — 2 Both at Parambikulam. Paradoxurus hermaphroditus (Toddy cat) — — 1 Sholayar. Herpestes edwardsi (Common Mongoose) 1 Moist deciduous forest, Parambikulam. Cuon alpinus (Wild dog) — — 2 Droppings at two places Evergreen forest. Melursus ursinus (Sloth Bear) 5 3 from teak plantation. 2 from open area only dropping. Lutra sp. (Otter) 2 — — — Martes gwatkinsi (Nilgiri marten) 2 — — Sholayar. Ratufa indica (Giant squirrel) 45 7 — Various habitats Parambikulam and Sholayar. Hystrix indica (Porcupine) — — 1 — Elephas maximus (Indian Elephant) 11 — — Dung and tracks were not counted. Bos gaurus (Indian gaur) 40 1 Hemitragus hylocrius (Nilgiri tahr) 32 — — Cervus unicolor (Sambar) 13 3 2 tracks in Sholayar. 2 killed by wild dog not added. Axis axis (Spotted deer) 8 2 fawn seen singly on different days. 6 Ad-M. deciduous forest. Muntiacus muntjac (Barking deer) 5 5 1 2 at Sholayar. Tragulus meminna (Mouse deer) — — 2 1 dropping 1 hoof mark. Sus scrofa (Wild Boar) 70 — — 3 sounders of 12, 40, 15, rest singly. 890 PARAMBIKULAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY Nilgiri Langur Presbytis johni 238 animals were seen in 30 troops, the largest troop had 11 individuals. 8 solitary in- dividuals were seen. On several occasions the number of individuals in a troop could not be counted accurately because of the inaccessible nature of the terrain. Troops were seen mainly in sholas and moist deciduous forests, occa- sionally in teak plantation, adjacent to natural forests. They frequent bamboo clumps too. Though there is no data to compare their po- pulation, it is felt that their population has de- creased considerably. The number of troops seen during my previous visit to this area in 1972 was apparently higher. Illegal poaching of this protected species from the remotest part of the sanctuary is still going on, as reported by local inhabitants. Habitat destruction is the other major cause affecting their population. largest 17. The former was in a small patch of evergreen forest on the western slope of Vengoli mudi near Thunakadavu reserve. This population appeared to be an isolated one since this patch of forest is surrounded by bamboo forest and I saw no indication that they move through bamboo. The call of Liontailed macaque was heard from Karimalagopuram, but the troop could not be traced. A troop was reported from this area by the Wildlife guides, a month after my observation. All the 7 troops were seen in evergreen forests. Cullenia exarillata was common in all these areas. In Sholayar the trees were in flower during the period of observation and the ani- mals ate the fruits and at times the flower. Steven Green in his survey of Liontailed macaque has not reported the occurrence of this species in Parambikulam / Sholayar area. Table 3 Distribution of Liontailed macaque in Param bikulam/ Sholayar area Location of Sightings No. of individuals No. of Troops Vengoli mudi shola Kuriyarkutty Orukombankutty Border of Vazhachal and Orukombankutty Sholayar range Total seen 8 1 17 1 13 1 10 1 28 3 (8+11+9) 76 Liontailed Macaque Macaca silenus 16 were seen in 7 troops; 4 troops in Pa- rambikulam area and 3 in Sholayar area (Ta- ble 3). The average troop size is 10.8. The smallest troop contained 8 individuals and the Nilgiri Tahr Hemitragus hylocrius Tahr was observed at three places. Vengoli peak, Karimalagopuram and Pandaravarama- lai. Pandaravaramalai is on the east of Param- bikulam and largely falls within the Anamalai Sanctuary. Altogether 32 Tahr were seen (Table 4). 891 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 4 Distribution of Nilgiri Tahr in Parambikulam are\ Vengoli peak Karimalagopuram Pandaravaramalai 18 One Saddleback 5 1 FY, 1 Saddleback, 1 Brown Buck 9 No Saddleback was noted. Gun shots were heard frequently from the foothills of Karimalagopuram, on the north- ern side, where Tapioca is cultivated intensive- ly. It is said to be to scare away the crop- raiding animals! Tiger Panthera tigris Pug marks of three tigers were seen inside Parambikulam Sanctuary area and three in Sholayar area. Of the three in Parambikulam, one was seen near a shola in Anapadi beat. Droppings were also seen here and contained Sambar hair. Two of the pug marks were seen in Thellickal beat, both on the road to Param- bikulam from Thellickal Rest House, between teak plantations. Of the three pug marks seen in Sholayar area, one was of a large animal. Elephant Elephas maximus Altogether 11 elephants were seen. Out of the 4 Tuskers noted, one was a single tusker and one other had its tail broken. One calf was also seen. Elephants seemed to prefer teak plantations to natural forests during the pe- riod of observation. Gaur Bos gaurus Of the 41 gaur seen, one herd of 12 and another of 15 were recorded at different pla- ces. Three gaur were seen once in a bamboo ings were not as contrasty as in the solitary bulls were recorded. In the herd of 12 indi- viduals, all were either cows or young bulls. Since the pelage was brown, the white stock- ings were not as contrasty as in the solitary bulls. In the herd of 15, 6 were calves, 2 were adult bulls and the rest females. Largest herd was seen in ‘Vayals5. (Table 5). Nilgiri Marten Maries gwatkinsi A pair of this Mustelid carnivore was seen in the Sholayar area, while the animals cross- ed a road about 10 ft. away from me. There is no recent record of this animal from Kerala. Avifauna The Parambikulam/ Sholayar area is very rich in bird life. 133 species were observed during the period of observation (See List Appendix I). Frogmouth ( Batrachostomus moniliger ) was not recorded earlier from this area. The last authentic record of this bird in Kerala (at Thattakad) was in 1937, by Dr. Salim Ali. The bird was seen on two consecutive days in a bamboo thicket and was observed very closely. A photograph could not be taken owing to poor light condition. Since the plumage of the bird was cryptic and merged with the surround- ings, the bird could not be made out till it moved. The breeding of Dollar bird ( Eury - stomus orientalis) was recorded at Kuriarkutty and also at Periya shola. Open areas with scat- tered trees and shrubs, near water holes, sur- rounded by forest is its typical habitat. Nests of Monarcha azurea, Dlcrmus aeneus, Dicru- rus hottentottus were also observed during the study. 892 P ARAM B1KU LAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY Table 5 Details of Gaur observed in the Sanctuary Place Total Herd seen Bull Cow Calf Habitat Vengoli mudi Peak 11 1 Moist deciduous forest. Bamboo abundant. Eastern Shola of 1 — 1 — — Bamboo. Vengoli Peak Thellickal 15 1 2 7 6 Vayal. Kacfiithodu 3* — — — — Scrub and Bamboo Vegetation. Thellickal 1 — 1 — 1 Near stream. Teak plantation. Karimalagopuram 2 — 2 — — Grassland near Solitary Shola. Left Side of 4** — — Grass & Bamboo — Eastern Dam Wet swampy area. Kuriyarkutty 1 — 1 — — Moist deciduous forest. Pandaravaramalai 2 — 2 — — Grassland. Solitary 41 2 9 18 7 * Could not recognise sex, as I got only a fleeting glimpse. * * Could not recognise the sex as they were seen at a long distance. Management There was no guard or watchman for the The administrative set up of the sanctuary is: DFO : Local Administrative Head One Assistant Wildlife Preservation Officer : Next to DFO 3 Foresters : One each for Thekkady, Thunakadavu and Parambi- kulam. 4 Guards : One each for Thunakadavu, Parambikulam, Kuriyarkut- ty, and Orukombankutty. 3 Watchmen: One each for Thunakadavu, Orukombankutty and Kuri- yarkutty. Thekkady area. The Watchman and Guard posted for Orukombankutty area were never to be seen there, as they did not stay there due to the absence of accommodation and other facilities. Considerable poaching of animals was reported from Thekkady and Orukom- bankutty area. There were also two Wildlife Guides sta- tioned at Thunakadavu during the study period. Wildlife management There is no management system as such. The vaccination of cattle against Rinderpest and the provision of 16 saltlicks — 10 during 1974-75 and the rest in 1976 are perhaps the only attempts at management. 893 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Existing threats to Wildlife in the area (1) The proposed Kuriyarkutty Project : The project envisages the construction of three dams; one in Karapara river, one in Pulickalar and a third one in Kuriyarkutty river. It is aimed at irrigating 43,000 acres of land in Chittoor area. The project when com- pleted will have three power house stations with an initial plant capacity of 82 MW. in total (Table 6). might have suffered very greatly during the construction of these dams, might be in the process of rebuilding. Therefore, a new strain on the ecology of the area will certainly be detrimental to the interest of the remaining wildlife. Even if the whole Kuriarkutty project con- sisting of three dams cannot be called off, it is suggested here that the whole project should be reviewed and the possibility of calling off Kuriyarkutty dam which will be inside the Table 6 Details of the Project Catchment area Water spread area full Reservoir level Full Reservoir level Type of dam Karapara 18.48 Sq. Ml. 8.75 acres +3087' Masonry gravity Pulickalar 6,24 Sq. Ml. 1200 acres +2425' Masonry gravity Kuriyarkutty 49.50 Sq. Ml 2950 acres +1791' Masonry earch Only Kuriyarkutty dam will come within the limits of the Sanctuary. Its waterspread area covers most of the forests in Thellickal/Kachithodu area. This area is very rich in Wildilife; pug marks of two tigers were seen here. Though the other two dams would be coming up only in Nel- liampathy areas, outside of sanctuary limit, the impact of them on the ecology of the area would be severe, since they are very close to the sanctuary. Parambikulam already has three dams. Pa- ra mb ikulam, Thunakadavu and Perivarapal- lam. Though no authentic data are available to show whether the wildlife has diminished after the construction of these three dams, enquiries with local people show that the wildlife population has gone down tremend- ously, especially the population of elephant and Gaur, owing to the construction of these dams. Theoretically, the population, which 894 sanctuary limits be considered. (2) Extraction of Bamboo : The common bamboo is Bambusa arundi- naceae which flowers gregariously at long in- tervals. Licence is issued for the extraction of bamboo; the general norms which are laid for the felling and removal of Bamboo are: 1 . “No clump shall be clearfelled except those that have flowered, in which case they shall be clearfelled only during the year following the flowering so that there may be enough time for seed fall and subse- quent germination”. 2. “The total number of culms removed from a single clump shall not exceed the number of immature shoots present”. 3. “The cutting shall be distributed as far as possible over the whole clump. 4. “Culms should be cut as low as possible, and the cut shall always be made above i P ARAM B1KU LAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY the node so as to prevent rainwater collect- ing in the stumps.” Apart from the fact that these norms are ignored, the magnitude of disturbance caused to the Wildlife is very severe. Movements of workers in the sanctum- sanctorum of the sanc- tuary and movements of trucks on and off, have detrimental effect on wildlife. Whether the workers poach is anybody’s guess. (3) Minor forest produce : Under this apparently deceptive heading falls cane, reeds, cardamom, honey and wax extraction. Cardamom is extracted mainly from the Sholayar area. The right of collection of the produce is sold in auction to private parties for a year or two. A number of people are employed for the collection, while the re- moval of reeds, canes, etc., speeds up the habitat shrinkage, the movement of people through the sanctuary scares away the wild animals. Normally the workers live in tem- porary sheds inside the forest for days to- gether. Their activities form a continuous dis- turbance to wildlife. (4) Taungya system : The taungya system was introduced to Kerala in 1922, about 60 years after its origin in Burma. In Parambikulam, all plantations after 1932 were raised under the taungya sys- tem. After clearfelling an area, it is planted with seedlings of desired plantation trees and is leased out for cultivation (here it is Tapio- ca). The apparent advantage of this cultiva- tion is that it prevents weed growth and also offers shade to the seedlings. The ecological disadvantages of this system are: 1. When an area is clearfelled and the logs transported, a major portion of what is due to the soil is lost, decomposition of the plant material not being facilitated. 2. The soil mounts, which are made for planting the tapioca, are the worst affect- ed by erosion during rain. 3. By tapioca cultivation, a major portion of the nutrient of the soil is lost in the form of tapioca tubers. 4. When the crop is harvested, the tubers are pulled out from the soil — the soil be- comes very loose and hence vulnerable to erosion by rain. 5. The resultant soil deprived of its vitality, could probably impair the growth of the seedlings. 6. The tapioca plant, which grows fast, often overshadows the seedlings and obstructs light. How far it affects the growth of the seedlings is not known. The probable effects of taungya on wildlife are: 1 . The increased human activities on the taungya land scare away the wild ani- mals. 2. On the protext of crop protection the taungyadars often keep guns which ulti- mately lead to ruthless poaching of ani- mals. 3. Tapioca tubers attract rodents in large numbers and provide additional food to them. This abundance of food might lead to their rapid multiplication. When the tapioca is harvested, and the additional food is no more available, these rodents might migrate to the neighbouring areas — probably to villages in search of food. In other words, the population which grew beyond the optimum level due to the ad- dition of food would be expelled as a re- sult of competition from the area when that additional food was no longer avail- able. This population probably migrated to the adjacent villages thereby causing damage to village crops. 895 22 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 4. Wild pigs are also attracted by the tubers of tapioca. The piglets which are bora while the tapioca is available, are trained to feed on these and are denied the op- portunity of being trained to feed on and search for natural food. This could probably make the piglets less competent to live in the natural condition later on. All these are probable impacts of the taungya system and have to be studied in detail. Notwithstanding its ecological impacts, the most severe and at the same time, the most obvious impact of taungya on wildlife is the indiscriminate poaching of wild animals by the taungyadars. Therefore, even if with all the potential ecological dangers it is decided to continue the taungya system, it is suggested here that in order to decrease the poaching activities the forest department should them- selves undertake the cultivation instead of leasing it out to private parties. However, stopping this system has a lot of social problems as tapioca is one of the major food items of the poor in Kerala. Therefore, a study on all aspects of this system has to be made. (5) Tribal settlement: There are four types of tribals in the Param- bikulam sanctuary area : Mudukas, Kadas, Mulssers and Mulmalssers. They occupy dif- ferent areas inside the sanctuary. Mulssers and Mulmalssers are at Katchithodu and Sungam; Kadas at Kuriyarkutty-Parambikulam area and Mudukas opposite to Parambikulam lake; altogether there are about 300 families. Dur- ing the time of observation, the tribals at Kat- chithodu were seen collecting bamboo rice. Ground under the bamboo clump was cleared and the rice that fell was collected. Tribals are given land for cultivation at Katchi- thodu area. This practice has a built-in danger to wildlife. The area is surrounded bv forest where wildilfe is abundant. Animals often cross the field to the forest on the other side. Therefore, the tribals have to scare away the animals from their crop. Trapping of smaller game like junglefowl is common among these people. It was told that 200 acres of land have been allocated for the tribals for settle- ment and cultivation. The land selected for this is at Sungam, where wild animals are often seen and this is a severe threat to the wildlife of the area. (6) Cattle grazing : Cattle are not abundant at Sungam range, but in Parambikulam area they are. Reduc- tion of their number at Parambikulam is ne- cessary. (7) Felling : Both clearfelling and selection felling were not observed in Parambikulam area during the period of study. But in Sholayar, areas were being marked for selection felling. It is suggested here that no forestry operation should be undertaken in areas lying close to Orukombankutty and Karimalagopuram area of Parambikulam where Liontailed Macaques are common. (8) Elephant capture : Elephant capture has been going on for years in this area, but has been stopped since 1975. The pits prepared during the operation have been left unfilled and cause accidents to wild animals occasionally. It was reported once a gaur calf fell into one of the pits, and another time an adult bull. It is suggested that pit capture of elephants should not be restarted and that the pits left by the former operations should be filled. 896 PARAMB1KULAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY (9) Fire : Evidences of fire were seen at many places, including areas very close to evergreen forests — areas adjacent to the small patch of ever- green forest on the side of Vengoli peak. Several places on the way to Karimalagopu- ram, many places at Anapadi were found burnt. Fire inside the teak plantations was also rampant. None was natural, but man-made. Man-made fire, unless under control, is very destructive to wildilfe and to the general eco- logy of the area. (10) Stray dogs : At Thunakadavu, Parambikulam, Kuriyar- kutty and Sungam areas stray dogs are abund- ant. At Thunakadavu, a dog was seen chas- ing a spotted deer. There is also the danger of transmitting rabies to wild animals. (11) Man and Wild Dog kills : When a sambar is killed by the wild dogs, the dogs are often chased away and the prey is collected by the local people. On 23rd April, 1976, at Thellickal, very close to the labourers’ quarters of the Electricity Board, one Sambar was found killed by wild dogs. It had three small injuries. One on the neck, one below the left eye and another one on the chest. The animal was killed near the Thelli- ckal river and pulled towards the river bed, but the wild dogs were chased away and the kill was collected by the people. I understood that this is the regular practice here. This means the dogs will make an additional kill and in the long run, this type of poaching by man of the wild dogs kills is bound to affect the balance between the wild dog and its prey. (12) Poaching : No poaching was seen during the period of observation, but gun shots were heard many times from the Tapioca plantation area. It was learned from reliable people that the tapioca contractors indulge in poaching quite often. T ourism The presence of representative peninsular Indian species and the possibility of viewing some of them easily should attract tourists. Endangered species like Nilgiri Tahr 'and Lion- tailed macaque could be seen within an hour’s walk from the main road at Vengoli peak. The giant teak known as Kannymarathekku (50+ metres high and 6 metres girth) which is at least 300 years old, and the Woods Grave — the grave of Mr. Hugh Woods, who was a working plan officer in the 1900’s — add to the tourist attraction. Boating facilities though not availiable at present, could be an additional attraction to tourists. Accommodation The only accommodation available inside the sanctuary is at Parambikulam where the P.W.D. of Tamil Nadu has a Rest House with five suites. At present a small bungalow with two suites has come up at Thunakadavu. Tourists could also stay at Topslip area, half an hour drive from Thunakkadavu. Conveyance There are no transport facilities in this area. A jeep has been allocated for tourists but would never become available. Recommendations 1. A thorough analysis of the Kuriyarkutty project by a combined team of Wildlife Biologists and the concerned engineers, is necessary to consider reducing the sub- mergible areas at least inside the sanc- tuary limits. 897 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 2. Stop extraction of bamboos from the sanctuary area. 3. Discourage collection of minor forest pro- ducts from the sanctuary limits. 4. If taungya system cannot be stopped, it should be undertaken by the forest de- partment to reduce poaching. 5. Discourage the tribals from settling in- side the sanctuary area; if this is not pos- sible, remove and rehabilitate them out- side the sanctuary. 6. Discourage the granting of land to the tribals for cultivation in the interior of the forest. 7. Reduce the cattle population in Faram- bikulam while maintaining the present population of cattle in the Sungam area. 8 . Discourage selection felling in Sholayar area. 9. Elephant-capture pits should be covered to avoid accidents to other wildlife. 10. Fire lines of standard size should be put and more watchmen should be employed for fire-watching. 11. Stray dogs should be removed from the sanctuary. 12. Stringent measures should be taken against stealing of wild dog kills. 13. Thuthanpara and Karapara beats on the west and the forests lying east of Chala- kudy river and north of Vazhachal-Val- para road which include part of the Vaz- hachal range and part of Anakkayam beat, Sholayar beat and Chandanathodu beat of the Sholayar range on the south should be included in the sanctuary area. Forestry operations or any other disturb- ance to the habitat in the Thuthanpara and Karapara beat might destroy the population of Fiontailed Macaque in the Orukombankutty area. Pressure to the habitat and population of this macaque from various estates in this area is con- siderable. Thuthanpara and Karapara beats, if preserved, would act as a buffer zone to the habitat of Macaques in the Orukombankutty area. Fiontailed macaques were observed at Sholayar and Chandanathodu beats of the Sholayar range and also at Kuriyarkutty area of Parambikulam Sanctuary. The forests of Kuriyarkutty and Orukomban- kutty are separated by Teak plantations. The only possible connection is through the Karapara river valley (I observed one troop here). The other possible connec- tion is perhaps through the narrow isth- mus-like projection through teak planta- tions of Orukombankutty forests where the Parambikulam river and Sholayar river meet. Through this forest connec- tion, the macaques could move to the Sholayar area. Troops in the Kuriyarkutty area will be isolated if forests in the Sho- layer-Chandanathodu beats are destroyed. Therefore, Sholayar and Chandana- thodu beats and the forests west of it up to Chalakudy river, if included in the Sanctuary and protection offered, the troops of these areas and the troops of Kuriyarkutty and Orukombankutty could mix, interbreed and form a healthy population. I feel that this sanctuary should not be opened for tourism, but should be preserved for research, and hence no suggestions are made here for the improvement of tourist faci- lities. 898 PARAMBIKULAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY Appendix I A SYSTEMATIC LIST OF THE BIRDS SEEN /HEARD IN PARAMBIKULAM /SHOLAYAR AREA 1 . Little Cormorant, Phalacrocorax niger. 2. Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis. 3. Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax. 4. Blackwinged Kite, Elanus caeruleus. 5. Common Pariah Kite, Milvus migrans. 6. Brahminy Kite, Haliastur indus. 7. Shikra, Accipiter badius. 8. Indian Crested Hawk-Eagle, Spizaetus cirrha- tus. 9. Black Eagle, Ictinaetus malayensis. 10. Greyheaded Fishing Eagle, Icthyophaga ich- thyaetus. 1 1 . Crested Serpent Eagle, S pilornis cheela. 12. Indian Kestrel, Falco tinnunculus. 13. Bush Quail, Perdicula sp. ? 14. Grey Junglefowl, Gallus sonneratii. 15. Whitebreasted Waterhen, Amaurornis phoeni- curus. 16. Redwattled Lapwing, Vanellus indicus. 17. Fantail Snipe, Capella gallinago. 18. Common Green Pigeon, Treron phoenicop- tera. 19. Grayfronted Green Pigeon, Treron pompa- dora. 20. Jerdon’s Imperial Pigeon, Ducula badia. 21. Nilgiri Wood Pigeon, Columba elphinstonii. 22. Indian Spotted Dove, Streptopelia chinensis. 23. Indian Emerald Dove, Chalcophaps indica 24. Blossomheaded Parakeet, Psittacula cyanoce- phala. 25. Bluewinged Parakeet, Psittacula columboides. 26. Malabar Lorikeet, Loriculus vernalis. 27. Common Hawk-Cuckoo, Cuculus varius. 28. Small Greenbilled Malkoha, Rhopodytes viri- dirostris. 29. Crow-Pheasant, Centropus sinensis. 30. Collared Scops Owl, Otus bakkamoena. 31. Brown Fish Owl, Bubo zeylonensis. 32. Brown Wood Owl, Strix leptogrammica. 33. Malabar Jungle Owlet, Glaucidium radiatum. 34. Hawk-Owl, Ninox scutulata. 35. Spotted Owlet, Athene brama. 36. Ceylon Frogmouth, Batrachostomus moniliger. 37. Indian Jungle Nightjar, Caprimulgus indicus. 38. Common Indian Nightjar, Caprimulgus asia- ticus. 39. Large Brownthroated Spinetail Swift, Chaetura gigantea. 40. Malabar Trogon, Harpactes fasciatus. 41 . Common Kingfisher, Alcedo athis. 42. Brownheaded Storkbilled Kingfisher, Pelargop- sis cape ns is. 43. Whitebreasted Kingfisher, Halcyon smyrnensis. 44. Chestnutheaded Bee-eater, Merops leschen- aulti. 45. Bluebearded Bee-eater, Nyctyornis athertoni. 46. Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis. 47. Broadbilled Roller, Eurystomus orientalis. 48. Hoopoe, Upupa epops. 49. Great Indian Hornbill, Buceros bicornis. 50. Small Green Barbet, Megalaima viridis. 51. Coppersmith, Megalaima haemacephala. 52. Speckled Piculet, Picumnus innominatus. 53. Rufous Woodpecker, Micropternus brachyurus. 54. Small Yellownaped Woodpecker, Picus chloro- lophus. 55. Goldenbacked woodpecker, Dinopium ben- ghalense. 56. Great Black Woodpecker, Dryocopus javensis. 57. Yellowfronted Pied Woodpecker, Dendrocopos mahrattensis. 58. Pigmy Woodpecker, Dendrocopos nanus. 59. Heartspotted Woodpecker, Hemicircus canente. 60. Indian Pitta, Pitta brachyura. 61. Dusky Crag Martin, Hirundo concolor. 62. Eastern Swallow, Hirundo rustica. 63. Redrumped Swallow, Hirundo daurica. 64. Brown Shrike, Lanius cristatus. 65. Blackheaded Oriole, Oriolus xanthornus. 66. Black Drongo, Dicrurus adsimilis. 67. Whitebellied Drongo, Dicrurus caerulescens. 68. Bronzed Drongo, Dicrurus aeneus. 69. Haircrested Drongo, Dicrurus hottentottus. 70. Large Racket-tailed Drongo, Dicrurus para - diseus. 71. Greyheaded Myna, Sturnus malabaricus. 72. Common Myna, Acridotheres tristis. 73. Grackle, Gracula religiosa. 74. Tree Pie, Dendrocitta vagabunda. 75. Southern Tree Pie, Dendrocitta leucogastra. 76. House Crow, Corvus splcndens. 77. Indian Jungle Crow, Corvus macrorhynchos. 78. Pied Flycatcher-Shrike, Hemipus picatus. 899 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 79. Common Wood Shrike, Tephrodornis pondi- cerianus. 80. Blackheaded Cuckoo-Shrike, Coracina melano- ptera. 81 . Orange Minivct, Pericrocotus flammeus. 82. Small Minivet, Pericrocotus cinnamomeus. 83. lora, Aegithina tiphia. 84. Goldenfronted Chloropsis, Chloropsis auri- frons. 85. Fairy Bluebird, Irena puella. 86. Rubythroated Bulbul, Pycnonotus melanicterus gularis. 87. Redwhiskered Bulbul, Pycnonotus jocosus. 88. Redvented Bulbul, Pycnonotus cafer. 89. Yellowbrowed Bulbul, Hypsipetes indicus. 90. Black Bulbul, Hypsipetes madagascariensis. 91. Spotted Babbler Pellorneum rufceps. 92. Scimitar Babbler, Pomatorhinus schisticeps. 93. Blackheaded Babbler, Rhopocichla atriceps. 94. Rufous Babbler, Turdoides subrufus. 95. Jungle Babbler, Turdoides striatus. 96. Wynaad Laughing Thrush, Garrulax delesserti. 97. Quaker Babbler, Alcippe poioicephala. 98. Brown Flycatcher, Muscicapa latirostris. 99. Rufous Flycatcher Muscicapa ruficauda. 100. Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Muscicapa tickelliae. 101. Greyheaded Flycatcher, Culicicapa ceylonensis. 102. Paradise Flycatcher, Terpsi phone paradisi. 103. Blacknaped Blue Flycatcher, Monarcha azu- rea. 104. Longtail Warbler, Prinia hodgsonii. 105. Plain Longtail Warbler, Prinia subflava. 106. Tailor Bird, Orthotomus sutorius. 107. Thickbilled Warbler, Phragmaticola aedon. 108. Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus dume- torum. 109. Dull Green Leaf Warbler, Phylloscopus tro- chiloides. 110. Leaf Warbler, Phylloscopus sp.? 111. Magpie Robin, Copsychus saularis. 112. Malabar Whistling Thrush, Myiophoneus hors- fieldii. 113. Whitethroated Ground Thrush, Zoothera cit- rina cyanotus. Refe Ali, Salim (1969) : Birds of Kerala. Oxford Uni- versity Press, Madras. Sebastine, K. M. and Ramamurthy, K. (1966) : 114. Indian Grey Tit. Parus major. 115. Yellowcheeked Tit, Parus xanthogenys. 116. Velvetfronted Nuthatch, Sit la frontalis. 117. Paddyfield Pipit, Anthus novaeseelandiae. 118. Forest Wagtail, Motacilla indica 119. Grey Wagtail, Motacilla caspica. 120. White Wagtail, Motacilla alba. 121. Large Pied Wagtail, Motacilla maderaspatensis. 122. Thickbilled Flowerpecker, Dicaeum agile. 123. Tickell’s Flowerpecker, Dicaeum erythrorhyn- chos. 124. Indian Purplerumped Sunbird, Nectarinia zey- lonica. 125. Small Sunbird, Nectarinia minima. 126. Purple Sunbird, Nectarinia asiatica. 127. Little Spiderhunter, Arachnothera longirostris. 128. White-eye, Zoster ops palpebrosa. 129. House Sparrow, Passer domesticus. 130. Whitethroated Munia, Lonchura malabarica. 131. Rufousbellied Munia, Lonchura kelaarti. 132. Spotted Munia, Lonchura punctulata. 133. Blackheaded Munia, Lonchura malacca. Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Bombay Natural His- tory Society for sponsoring the project and to its Curator, Mr. J. C. Daniel, for his guidance and encouragement. I am grateful to the World Wildlife Fund-India for financing the study, and to Mrs. D. S. Varfava, Administra- tor, World Wildlife Fund-India, for taking a keen interest in the successful completion of the project. I record my sincere thanks to Mr. K. K. Nair, Chief Conservator of Forests (Develop- ment), Kerala, for permitting me to work in- side the forests. The co-operation of the field staff of the Forest Department in Parambi- kulam and Sholayar is gratefully acknow- ledged. ENCES Studies on the flora of Parambikulam and Aliyar submergible areas. Bull. Bat. Surv. India, 8:169- 182. 900 NEW DESCRIPTIONS A NEW SPECIES OF IMP ALIENS LINN. ( B ALS AMIN ACE AE) FROM SOUTH INDIA1 M. Chandrabose2 (With nine text-figures) Impatiens chandrasekharanli sp. nov. Impatiens modesta Wt. affinis tamen differens foliis palmatim prof unde lobatis, lobis denuo in lobulis lobatis, palmatim 3-5 — nervatis; cal- care labii cylindrico leviter incurvato; vexillo suborbiculari, latiori quam longo, apice inden- tato, lobo membranaceo ad centrum porcato. Herba scapigera; caudex 1 — L8 x 0.5 — 0.8 cm, roseus, elliptico-oblongus, tuberosus, laevis, fibrillosus. Folia radicalia; lamina 2 — 8.5 cm diam., sub-orbicularis, palmatim 3-9-lobata; lobi 1.5 — 5x0.3 — 1.5 cm, oblongo — obovati vel ovati, membranacei, glabri (praeter pilos pau- cos super nervos supra), lobulis divisi; lobuli emarginati, apice breviter mucronati, basi at- tenuate palmatim 3 — 5-nervati, nervis roseis; petioli 1 — 6 cm longi, striis pallido-viridis, gra- ciles, glabri. Flores 0.8 — 1.2 cm diam., albi, roseosuffusi, pauci, racemosi; scapus 3 — 20 cm longus, gracilis, erectus, glaber; pedicelli 0.7 — 2 cm longi, graciles, glabri; bracteae 2 — 2.5 x 1.2 mm, virides, ovato-oblongi, subobtusi, glabri. Sepala 3; lateralia 2, utrumque ± 2 x 1.2 mm, pallido-viride, punctis roseuis, ovato-oblongum, subacutum, glaber; posterior vero — 3 mm longum, album, late ovatum, concavum, apice subacutum, ad basim calcaratum; calcar ± 3 mm longum, album, cylindricum, leviter incur- 1 Accepted October 1978. 2 Botanical Survey of India, Coimbatore-641 002. vatum. Petala 3, alba, roseo-suffusa, vexillum 2 — 3 x 4 — 5 mm, latior quam longum, subor- biculare, membranaceum, lobo membranaceo ad centrum porcatum, Igaber, apice indenta- tum; alae 2, utrumque ± 1 cm longa, glabra (praeter pilos paucos papillatos intra ad basin), 3- lobata; lobi ±4x2 mm, subaequales, ob- longo-obovati, obtusi. Stamina ± 2 mm longa, 5; filamenta brevia; antherae coherentes. Ova- rium — 1.5 x 1 mm, ovato-ellipticum, glaber; stigma sessile, 5-dentatum, Capsula (immatura) ± 2 x 0.5 mm, ellipsoidea, glabra. (Figs. 1-9). Holotypus Chandrabose 57269 A et isotypi Chandrabose 57269 B-N lecti ad Akkamalai, Anamalai, Dist. Coimbatore in statu Tamil Nadu (Madras) lie 23-7-1978; holotypus posi- tus in CAL, isotypi in MH. Impatiens chandrasekharanii sp. nov. Allied to Impatiens modesta Wt., but differs in having leaves palmately, deeply lobed, lobes again divided into lobules, palmately 3-5 nerv- ed; spur of lip cylindric, slightly incurved; and standard petal suborbicular, broader than long, indented at apex, ridged with a membranous flap at the centre. Scapigerous herbs; rootstock 1-1.8 x 0. 5-0.8 cm, pink, elliptic-oblong, tuberous, smooth, with fibrous roots. Leaves radical; lamina 2-8.5 cm across, suborbicular in outline, palmately 3-9 lobed; lobes 1.5-5 x 0.3- 1.5 cm, oblong-obo- vate or obovate, membranous, glabrous (except- 901 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ing a few hairs on the nerves above), divided into lobules; lobules emarginate, with a short mucro at apex, attenuated at base, palmately 3-5 nerved, nerves pink; petioles 1-6 cm long, pale green with pink striations, slender, gla- brous. Flowers 0.8 — 1.2 cm across, white with pink tinge, few, in racemes; scape 3-20 cm long, slander, erect, glabrous; pedicels 0.7-2 cm long, slender, glabrous; bracts 2-2.5 x 1.2 mm, green, ovate-oblong, subobtuse, glabrous. Sepals 3; laterals 2, each — 2 x 1.2 mm, pale green with pink dots, ovate-oblong, subacute, glabrous; posterior sepal ± 3 mm long, white. Figs. 1-9. Impatiens chandrasekharanii sp. nov. 1. Habit; 2. Flower; 3. Posterior sepal; 4. Lateral sepals; 5. Bract; 6. Standard petal; 7. Wing petals; 8. Androecium; 9. Gynoecium. broadly ovate, concave, subacute at apex, spur- red at base; spur ± 3 mm long, white, cylin- dric, slightly incurved. Petals 3, white with pink tinge; standard petal 2-3 x 4-5 mm, broad- er than long, suborbicular, membranous, ridg- ed with a membranous flap at the centre, gla- brous, indented at apex; wing petals two, each ± 1 cm long, glabrous excepting a few papil- late hairs at the base within, 3-lobed; lobes — 4x2 mm, subequal, oblong-obovate, obtuse. Stamens 151 2 mm long, 5; filaments short; anthers cohering. Ovary ± 1.5 x 1 mm, ovate- elliptic, glabrous; stigma sessile, 5-toothed. Immature capsules ± 2 x 0,5 mm, ellipsoid, glabrous. (Figs. 1-9). The holotype Chandrabose 57269 A (CAL) and isotypes Chandrabose 57269 B-N (MH) were collected in Akkamalai, Anamalai in Co- imbatore District, Tamil Nadu (Madras State) on 23.7.1978. This curious delicate species grows usually on wet tree trunks and occasionally on wet rocks in tuft of moss in the evergreen forests at an altitude of 1,700 m. This species is nam- ed in honour of Dr. N. Chandrasekharan Nair, Deputy Director, Botanical Survey of India, Coimbatore for his contribution to the taxo- nomy of Indian plants. Ack nowledge m e n ts Grateful thanks are due to Dr. C. Grey- Wilson, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey, England working at present on the section scaposae of Impatiens Linn, for his valuable opinion on the specimen; Rev. Fr. Dr. K. M. Matthew, S.J., Rapinat Herbarium, Tiruchira- palli for rendering Latin translation; and Dr. A. N. Henry, Systematic Botanist, Botanical Survey of India, Coimbatore for help. 902 NEW DESCRIPTIONS TWO NEW SPECIES OF SPIDER OF THE GENUS THARPYNA KOCH FROM INDIA (FAMILY : THOMISIDAE)1 B. K. Tikader2 and Bijan Biswas (With six text-figures) Introduction The spiders of the family Thomisidae are moderately known from Indian fauna. Stoliczka (1969), Simon (1892), Dyal (1935) describ- ed some species of Thomisidae from India, however the classical work of Pocock (1900) on Indian spiders contains no reference to this family. Recently Tikader (1960, 1971) and Tikader & Biswas (1974) recorded many known and new species of the various genera of the family. While examining the spider collection receiv- ed from West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh, we came across two new species of spiders of the genus Tharpyna Koch of the family Tho- misidae, which are being described in this paper. The illustrations used in this paper are prepared by Shri P. W. Garde, Artist of this station. All type specimens will in due course be de- posited in the National Collection of Zoologi- cal Survey of India, Calcutta. Genus Tharpyna Koch Tharpyna Koch, 1874. Ar. Austr., : 548. Tharpyna : Simon, 1892. Hist. Nat. Araign., 1 : 1015. Tharpyna : Workman, 1896. Malaysian spider, 1 : 4. 1 Accepted May 1978. ' 2 Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Station, Poona-411 005. Characters’. Cephalothorax moderately high, convex, slightly wider in front, side nearly parallel. Eyes in two rows, both are recurved, median eyes nearer to each other than to ad- jacent laterals. Ocular quad longer than wide and wider behind. Crab-like appearance. Abdo- men decorated and clothed with hairs. Type-species: Tharpyna diademata Koch. Distribution: Java; N. Hollandia, New Zea- land, Burma, Sumatra and India. Tharpyna Iisdka sp. nov. (Figs. 1-3) General: Cephalothorax reddish brown, abdomen black with white patches. Total length 4.50 mm. Carapace 1.75 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide; abdomen 2.30 mm. long, 2.70 mm. wide. Cephalothorax: Nearly as long as wide, mo- derately high and convex, smooth and shiny, deep brown, slightly narrowing posteriorly, clothed with a few stout hairs; thoracic region slightly elevated. Eyes in two rows, both re- curved. Anterior laterals larger and posterior medians smallest. Both medians nearer to each other than from the adjacent laterals. Ocular quad slightly longer than wide and wider be- hind. Sternum heart-shaped, pointed posterior- ly, brown, clothed with fine hairs. Labium brown, longer than wide, distal end of maxillae pale and wide. Chelicerae weak reddish brown, clothed with hairs. Legs short and stout, red- dish brown, coxae and the proximal end of the femora II, III & IV with pale colour. Abdomen: Almost round slightly narrowing 903 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 posteriorly, jet black, covered with pubescence. Dorsally near the edge provided with conspi- cuous irregular shaped chalk white patches as in text-fig. 1. Anterior median provided with a large sigilla followed posteriorly by two pairs of sigilla. Posterior extremity also provided with small white patches and spots. Ventral side black. Two pale round spots present just posterior to the epigyne. Epigyne as in text- fig. 2. Internal genitalia as in text-fig, 3. Male unknown. Tharpyna indica sp. nov. 1. Dorsal view of female, legs omitted; 2. Epigyne; 3. Internal genitalia. Holotype female, paratype one female in spi- rit. Type-locality : Choona Vhati near Sibpur Botanical Garden, Dist. Howrah, West Bengal, India. Coll. Bijan Biswas, 25.8.1977. This species resemble T. diademata Koch but can be separated on the basis of: (i) diffe- rence in abdominal colour pattern and (ii) structural difference in Epigyne and Internal genitalia. Tharpyna himachalensis sp. nov. (Figs. 4 6) General : Cephalothorax, legs reddish brown, abdomen deep-brown. Total length 5.75 mm. Carapace 2.25 mm long, 1.70 mm wide; abdo- men 3.40 mm long, 2.90 mm v/ide. Cephalothorax : Longer than wide, wider in front, moderately high and convex, smoothly shiny and deep reddish brown; slightly narrow- ing posteriorly, clothed with a few short hairs, thoracic region slightly elevated. Eyes in two rows, both recurved but posterior row more recurved than anterior row. Anterior and pos- terior laterals large and nearly same size, pos- terior medians smallest. Both medians nearer to each other than from adjacent laterals. Ocu- T harpy na himachalensis sp. nov. 4. Dorsal view of female, legs omitted; 5. Epigyne; 6. Internal genitalia. 904 NEW DESCRIPTIONS lar quad slightly longer than wide and wider behind. Sternum nearly oval, slightly pointed posteriorly, brown, clothed with fine hairs. La- bium and maxillae brown, longer than wide, distal end of maxillae pale and wide. Chelicerae weak, reddish-brown, clothed with hairs. Legs short and stout, reddish brown clothed with hairs and spine-like hairs. Abdomen : Nearly elliptical, longer than wide, clothed with fine hairs and some spine- like hairs. Dorsal side decorated with pattern of dots as in text-fig. 4. Anterior median pro- vided with a small sigilla, followed posteriorly by two pairs of sigilla, posterior pair larger than the other and all sigilla provided with deep red colour. Ventral side pale in colour. Refei Dyal, S. (1935) : Spiders of Lahore, Bull. Zool. Punjab Univ., 1; 119. Pocock, R. I. (1900) : Fauna of Brit. India, Arachnida. Simon, E. (1892): Hist. Nat. Araign., 1, 1015. Stoliczka, F. (1869) : Contribution towards the knowledge of Indian Arachnidae. J. Asia. Soc. Bengal, 38, 201. Tikader, B. K. (1960) : On some new species of Epigyne as in text-fig. 5. Internal genitalia as in text-fig. 6. Male unknown. Holotype female in spirit. Type-locality : Chogaon (Tapri) Disk, Kin- nour, Himachal Pradesh, India. Coll. Dr. Arun Kumar , 21.6.1975. This species resembles Tharpyna indica but can be separated as follows: (i) Abdomen brown with pale dots all over the dorsum but in T. indica abdomen jet black and provided near the edges with conspicuous irregular shaped chalk-white patches, (ii) Lateral eyes large and equal but in T. indica anterior late- ral eyes larger than the others, (iii) Epigyne and Internal genitalia structurally different. e n c e s spiders (Arachnida) of the family Thomisidae from India. 3. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 57(1) : 173. (1971): Revision of Indian Crab- spiders (Araneae: Thomisidae). Mem. Zool. Surv. India, Calcutta, 15 (3) : 1-90. - & Biswas, Bijan (1974): Some spiders of the genus Xysticus (Family: Thomisidae) from Darjeeling, India. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 80 (6): 262-266. A NEW SPECIES OF PELIOCOCCUS BORCHSENIUS FROM INDIA (HOMOPTERA : PSEUDOCOCCIDAE) 1 Rajendra Kumar Avasthi2 AND Shaikh Adam Shafee ( With fifteen Genus Peliococcus Borchsenius The genus Peliococcus was proposed by Borchsenius in 1948 with Phenacoccus chersonensis Kiritshenko as type species. The 1 Accepted August 1978. 2 Section of Entomology, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. text -figures ) genus is reported for the first time from India. Peliococcus indices sp. nov. (figs. 1-15) Femah (fig. 1): Mounted material broadly oval in outline, slightly more than one and a half times longer than wide (3.32 : 1.93 mm). Dorsal surface membranous with minute setae (fig. 13) and 905 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Figs. 1-15. Peliococcus indicus sp. nov., $ : (1) body, dorsal and ventral view; (2) antenna; (3-5) part of fore, mid and hind legs; (6) claw of hind leg; (7) anterior spiracle; (8) trilocular pore, (ventral); (9) quinquelocular pore; (10) multilo- cular pore; (11) tubular duct; (12) marginal cerarrii; (13) dorsal setae; (14) trilocular pore, (dorsal); (15) anal opening. 906 O 25mm NEW DESCRIPTIONS trilocular pores (fig. 14); margin of the body with a series of 18 pairs of cerarii, each with a pair of conical spines and a group of 7-10 trilocular pores (fig. 12); anal lobe cerarii formed with two conical spines surrounded by one or two minute setae and a group of trilo- cular pores; dorsal cephalic and abdominal the margin of the body having a series of 18 pairs of cerarii, each cerarii with two conical spines and a group of trilocular pores, 9-seg- mented antennae, presence of cephalic and abdominal ostioles, and dentate claw. But the two species distinctly differ in the following important characters: Peliococcus indicus sp. nov. Peliococcus plurimus De Lotto 1 . Claw digitule dilated at apex. 2 . Circulus absent. 3. Multilocular pores confined to posterior part of abdomen on ventral surface. 4. Compact clusters of numerous multilocular pores present. ostioles well developed with inner membran- ous lips; anal ring cellular with six long setae (fig. 15). Ventral surface membranous with sparsely distributed multilocular pores (fig. 10), small and large setae; trilocular pores arranged along the marginal and sub marginal areas of the body (fig. 8); quinquelocular pores on the mid region of the body (fig. 9); tubular ducts sparsely distributed on marginal and on pos- terior abdominal segments (fig. 11); poste- rior margin with three pairs of long setae; cir- culus well developed, oval in shape, between 4th & 5th abdominal segments. Labium dime- rous; anterior and posterior spiracles well de- veloped (fig. 7). Antennae 9-segmented, 0.53 mm long, inserted near the anterior margin of the cephalic region; 1st segment wider than long, segments 2-9 longer than wide (fig. 2). Legs normal; femur and tibia of fore, mid and hind legs are 0.21:0.21 mm, 0.22:0.25 mm and 0.25:0.29 mm in length respectively; claw simple with a denticle placed rather api- cally; claw digitules long and narrow (fig. 6). Peliococcus indicus is more closely re- lated to Peliococcus plurimus De Lotto in Claw digitule pointed at apex. Circulus present Multilocular pores distributed throughout the body on ventral surface. Compact clusters of multilocular pores absent. Holotype $, India: Mysore, Bangalore, Hebbal, on Prosopis spicigera L., 29.vi.1968, Coll. S. Adam Shafee. Paratypes 4 $ (same data as for holotype). Holotype and Paratypes in Zoological Mu- seum, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. Hayat et al. (1972), Shafee (1972) and Shafee et al. (1973) reported some species of encyrtids as parasites of Peliococcus sp. Host material of these parasites deposited in the Zoological Museum, Aligarh Muslim Univer- sity, Aligarh has been studied and described here as a new species. The parasites reported by earlier workers are Anagyrus nigricorpus Shafee et al., Cheiloneurus latijrons Hayat et al., Mashhoodia flava Shafee, M. indica Sha- fee, and Plagiomerus bangalorensis Shafee et al. Ack no wledge m e n ts We are greatly indebted to Prof. S. Mash- hood Alam, Head, Department of Zoology, for providing research facilities. We are also thankful to Prof. Nawab H. Khan for en- couragement. 907 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 References Borchsenius, N. S. (1948): Contribution to the revision of the genus Phenacoccus Ckll. (Insecta, Homoptera, Coccoidea) (In Russian). C. R. Acad. Sci. USSR, Moscow ( N.S. ). 61: 953-956. De Lotto, G. (1969) : The Mealy bugs of South Africa (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) . II, Entomo- logy Mem. Dep. Agric. Serv. Repub. S. Africa No. 20: 1-30. Hayat, M., Alam, S. M. & Agarwal, M. M. (1975): Taxonomic survey of Encyrtid Para- sites (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) in India. Alig. Musi. Univ. Publ. ( Zool . Ser .) Ind. Ins. Typ. 9: 1-112. Shafee, S. A. (1972) : Species of the genera Tachardiaephagus Ashmead, 1904 and Mashhoodia Shafee, 1972 (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) from India. Indian J. Ent. 34: 325-329. Alam, S. M. and Agarwal, M. M. (1975): Taxonomic survey of Encyrtid Para- sites (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) in India. Alig. Musi. Univ. Publ. {Zool. Ser.) Ind. Ins. Typ. 10: 1-125. A NEW SPECIES AND A NEW RECORD OF THE INTERESTING GENUS SMICROMORPHA GIRAULT (HYMENOPTERA : CHALCIDIDAE) FROM ORIENTAL REGION1 T. C. Narendran2 ( With six text -figures) The genus Smicromorpha was erected by Girault (1913) who included it under a new tribe Smicromorphini of the family Chalcidi- dae. Girault described this genus based on the type Smicromorpha doddi Gir- ault from Australia. He described two more species, S. cadaverosa (1914) and S. minera (1926) from Australia. According to Dr. Bou- cek S. minera is a misspelling for S. minerva (Personal communication). Since then there was no report on this genus from any part of the world. The present paper records this genus from India for the first time. Smicromorpfia keraleiisSs sp. nov. (Figs. 1-6) Male: Length 4.5 mm. Head golden yellow with the eyes and ocelli black. Thorax golden 1 Accepted November 1978. 2 Department of Zoology, University of Calicut, Kerala, India. yellow with pale brown patches as in Figure 4. Wings hyaline. Fore- and mid-legs golden yellow with the pretarsus pale brown. Hind coxa brownish-black; hind femur dull golden yellow with black coloration on the proximal and dorsal margin as in figure 6. Hind tarsi golden yellow with the pretarsus brown. Ab- domen blackish-brown. Pubescence golden yellow. Head (Fig. 1) a little wider than the maxi- mum width of thorax, sparsely and shallowly punctate; interspaces between the punctures rugulose. Scrobe deep with transverse stria- tions; apex of scrobe far away from the front ocellus, area below scrobe coarse with trans- verse striations. Pre-and post-orbital carinae absent (Figs. 1 & 2). Eyes large and devoid of cilia. Inter-antennal projection very small and hardly visible. The maximum diameter of median ocellus equal to that of lateral; the distance between median and lateral ocelli one- third the interocellar distance; interocular 908 NEW DESCRIPTIONS Figs. 1-6. Smicromorpha keralensis sp. nov. 1. Head in front view; 2. head in profile; 3. antenna; 4. thorax in dorsal view (less propodeum); 5. hind leg and abdomen in lateral view (with part of propodeum) ; 6. fore wing. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 space three and one-third times interocellar distance; width of ocellar area three-fourths interocular space; interocellar distance a little over the maximum diameter of lateral ocel- lus. Right mandible sickle shaped; left one short and acute. Antenna (Fig. 3) nine joint- ed without a ring segment, inserted a trifle over the level of lower margin of eyes; scape never reaches the front ocellus and never ex- ceeds the upper rim of scrobe; size and shape of antennal segments as in figure 3. Thorax (Fig. 4) moderately convex with small, shallow, reticulate and close punctures on notum; natualices complete; scutellum with- out a shallow median groove; met’anotum with weak longitudinal costae; propodeum some- what strongly declined posteriorly, with a shallow median groove which widens at its distal end; punctures on the propodeum sim- ple, shallow and close, without forming defi- nite carinae; sides of propodeum with a spi- racle on each side but without teeth. Fore wing (Fig. 6) a little over two and a half times as long as wide; marginal vein a little less than four times the submarginal; stigmal shorter than the marginal; postmarginal absent. Fore and mid tibia with a single spur each. Hind coxa (Fig. 5) with reticulate shallow punctures on all sides, so rather mat; no tooth or protuberance on hind coxa. Outer side of hind femur rugose with very minute punctures; densely pubescent, outer ventral margin with a series of minute comblike teeth projecting on outer side of hind tibiae when the tibia is bent; inner basal tooth absent. Gaster (Fig. 5) inserted far up on the pro- podeum just below the apex of scutellum; petiole a little shorter than the hind coxa. Seg- ments of abdomen as in Figure 5. Segments two to five with small punctures and pube- scence. Female unknown. Biology : Dr. Boucek informs that “the spe- cies of this group apparently are nocturnal and from the information available seem to be parasitic in the nests of ants Oecophylla,\ The specimen of S. keralensis was collected by me while it was flying around the nest of Oecophylla smaragdina Fabr. Material. Holotype <$ (Coll. No. C.U. 4110) on pin, India: Kerala: Malappuram district, Thenhippalam 1977 (T. C. Naren- dran). Type retained for the time being in the Department of Zoology, University of Calicut but will eventually be deposited in a National Institution. Comments. This is the Western-most re- presentative of the group Smicromorphinae. It differs from all the three species reported from Australia by Girault (loc. cit.) mainly in the absence of median groove on the scutellum, in the difference of proportions of size be- tween the segments of antenna, in the diffe- rence of proportion of fore wing veins, in the difference of coloration, and in many other features. Ack nowledge m e n ts Thanks are due: to Dr. Z. Boucek of the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, Lon- don, for help in the identification of this spe- cies and for various other information on the genus Smicromorpha.i to the Head of the Department of Zoology, University of Calicut, for facilities. 910 NEW DESCRIPTIONS References Girault, A. A, (1913): Some Chalcidoid Hy- menoptera from North Queensland. — Arch. Naturg. 79 (A), H.6 : 70-90. (1914) : A new Chalcidid genus and species of Hymenoptera from Australia. — Ent. News 25: 461. (1926) : Notes and descriptions of Australian Chalcid flies-V. — Insecutor lnscit. menst. 41: 70. * (1930) : New Pests from Australia, VIII. 5 pp. Private publication. Brisbane. STUDIES ON THE SCARAB BEETLES (COLEOPTERA : SCARABAEIDAE) OF NORTH EASTERN INDIA : A NEW SPECIES AND NOTES ON OTHER INDIAN SPECIES OF SUBGENUS STRAND1US , GENUS ONTHOPHAGUS S. Biswas1 2 (With three text -figures) The genus Onthophagus Latreille, 1802 is one of the largest genera in the animal king- dom and contains about 1620 described spe- cies (Balthasar 1963). Division of this multi- tudinous species into subgenera was of prac- tical necessity but earlier efforts to subdivide these large number of species into subgenera did not meet with much success mainly be- cause no one person has been able to consider Onthophagus on a world wide basis. However, while working on Palaearctic and Oriental species, Balthasar divided the genus into a number of subgenera, and during the present study of Scarab beetles of northeastern India it has been observed that inspite of Balthasar’s emphasis on extremely variable sexual charac- ters, many of the species may easily be assign- ed to different subgenera. Subgenus Strandius Balthasar. Strandius Balthasar, 1935: 307. Type. On- thophagus (Strandius) lenzi Harold, 1874. Medium to large species, uniformly black 1 Accepted August 1978. 2 Eastern Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Shillong-793 003. Present address: Coleoptera Section, Z.S.I., 34, Chittaranjan Avenue, Cal- cutta-700 012. or elytra black with red spots or yellow with black bands; upper surface usually shining, bare or covered with minute hairs, head and pronotum with little metallic tinge. Pronotum with a strongly raised irregularly polygonal basal disc, upper surface never granular; front angles sharp, strongly produc- ed. Front tibiae of male rather elongated, dis- tinctly bent, strongly broad and flat towards apex, penultimate external tooth large, placed rather at right angle, last tooth small and often directed forward. The chief characteris- tic of the subgenus lies in the shape of the pronotum and in the front tibiae of the male, however, in case of small male and female pronotum is rather simple. Habits and habitats : As far as Indian spe- cies are concerned, members of this subgenus form a biologically well defined natural group. All the members are found in hills above 1000 m altitude and frequent, so far as is known, dung of herbivorous animals only. Geographical distribution : The subgenus is known from China, Japan, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, India and part of Africa. In India there are three species namely O. (Strandius) gagates Hope, O. (Strandius) hingstoni Arrow and O. (Strandius) subansi riensis sp. nov. 911 23 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Key to the Indian species of the subgenus Strandius Balthasar 1 . Upper surface not entirely black; parts of pro- notum and elytra pale I. O. ( Strand - ins ) subansiriensis sp. nov. — Upper surface entirely black 2. 2. Elytra shining; front angles of pronotum not hooked 2. O. ( Strandius ) ga gates Hope. — Elytra opaque, front angles of pronotum, hook- ed 3. O. ( Strandius ) hingstoni Arrow. 1. Ontliopliagus (Strandius) subansiriensis sp. nov. (Figs. 1-3). Male major : (Flolotype) length 11 mm; breadth 6 mm; head, pronotal disc and major parts of elytra black. Mouth organs, antennae except club, tarsi and a large patch beneath fore femora reddish. Clypeus acuminate, strongly reflexed in the middle in front; disc strongly punctured, rather rugosely at sides; clypeofrontal carina weak, posterior carina obsolate, forehead strongly punctated, a little rugosely at sides, ocular lobe separated by an indistinct suture, closely pun- ctated. Pronotum with an irregular basal disc having a strong process on each side, front and lateral margin of a disc gradually sloping, closely but unevenly punctated, punctures on disc stronger, cavity below lateral process smooth and shining; front angles acute, hind angle obsolate, base a little produced in the middle, margined; lateral margins almost straight in front, sinuate behind. Elytra moderately strongly striate, striae sparsely covered with feeble punctuations, in- tervals rather closely covered with setigerous punctuations. Metasternal shield very feebly punctated in the middle, rather feebly at sides; sides of metasternum closely punctated anter- iorly and covered with long hairs. Front tibiae broad at apex, provided with four external teeth, penultimate tooth largest, last one directed forward, a little obliquely placed. Female : (Allotype) length 10.5 mm; breadth 7.0 mm; broadly oval, moderately convex. Head rounded, clypeal margin feebly reflexed in the middle in front, clypeal disc strongly and rugosely punctured, clypeofron- tal carina strong, curved, posterior carina strong, straight, forehead closely and strongly but not rugosely punctured, vertex feebly pun- ctured. Pronotum completely margined, front angle sharp, hind angle obsolate, base gently rounded, a little produced in the middle; pro- notal disc less strongly defined and lateral process represented by a tubercle. Fore tibiae short, external teeth sub-equal and placed at equal distance from each other. Pygidium moderately strongly punctured. Figs. 1-3. Onthophagus ( Strandius ) subansiriensis sp. nov. 1. Male major; 2. Female; 3. Male minor. Male minor : (Paratype) length 9.5 mm; breadth 5.5 mm. Male minor resembling female excepting cephalic carinae, external teeth on front tibiae and 6th ventral sternite which are as in male major. Type : Holotype cf major; India: Aruna- chal Pradesh: Nacho. collected from cattle- dung. 28.xi.1974. J. M. Julka, Regd. No. Al/ 4391. Paratypes 1 9 . 1 S (including allo- type), data same as for holotype. Deposited at present in the collection of Eastern Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Shillong. 912 NEW DESCRIPTIONS Remarks : The species may easily be sepa- rated from other related species by (i) pale markings on pronotum and elytra, (ii) strong punctures on pronotum and characteristic pro- not-al process, and (iii) elytra covered with minute pale setae. 2. Onthophagus (Strandius) gagates Hope Onthophagus gagates Hope, 1831, Gray’s Zool. Misc. 22. Onthophagus gagates : Arrow, 1931. Fauna Brit. India, Lamell., 3:378. Onthophagus ( Strandius ) gagates : Balthasar, 1963. Monogr. Scarab. Aphod. palaearkt. orient., 2: 381. Material examined: India: Meghalaya: Khasi hills, 5 &$, 4 $2, 30.V.1972, 1 2, 18.vi.1965, 1 2, 9.V.1965. 1 $, 30.vi.1970. 1 $, 13.ix.1971, 1 2, 28.iv.1971. 2 $$, 1 2, 26.iv.1972, 1 $, 24.X.1967. coll. S. Biswas. Arunachal Pradesh: Subansiri: 1 $, 1 2, 28,xi.l974. coll. J. M. Julka. Habits : This is a hill dwelling species, found only in the dung of herbivorous animal. Pri- marily a forest dweller but sometimes occurs in cleared areas near forests. It has not been collected below 1000 m altitude from Megha- laya. Distribution : The species has been record- ed in India from Himachal Pradesh (Simla Hills c 2500 m), Uttar Pradesh (Ranikhet, Muktesar, Chakrata, Mussoorie), Assam (Haf- Refe Arrow, G. J. (1931): The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Coleoptera Lamelli- cornia, Part III (Coprinae). 428 pp. London. Balthasar, V. (1935) : Onthophagus- Arten Chi- nas, Japans und der angrenzenden Lander. Fol. Zool Hydrob., 8: 303-353. long), Manipur, Meghalaya (Umtyngar, Mawphlong, Shillong, Mawsynram, Dempep), Arunachal Pradesh (Subansiri dist.) and from Nepal. 3. Onthophagus (Strandius) hingsfoni Arrow, 1931. Onthophagus hingstoni Arrow, 1931. Fauna Brit. India, Lamell., 3: 378. Onthophagus strandius hingstoni : Balthasar, 1963. Mon. der Scarab, und. Aphod. der palaearkt. und. orient. 2: 381. The species has only been recorded from Sikkim at about 2000-3000 m altitude. So far it has not been collected from any other states of N. E. India. Acknowledgements I am thankful to the Director, Zoological Survey of India for allowing me to work out the Scarab beetles collected during the Sub- ansiri expedition of 1974. My thanks are also due to Dr. A. K. Ghosh, Eastern Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India for en- couragement, Dr. H. Khajuria for facilities and Dr. R. Paulian, Rector, Academy de Borde- aux, Bordeaux, France for kindly confirming the identification of the new species. ENCES (1963): Monographic der Scara- baeidae and Aphodiidae der palaearktischen and orientalischen Region (Coleoptera: Lamellicornia) . Band 2. Coprinae (Onitini, Oniticellini, onthopha- gini) Tschechoslowakischen. Akademic der Wissens chaften, Praha, 627 pp. 913 REVIEWS 1. THE TIGER : The Story of the Indian Tiger. By Kailash Sankhala. pp. 220 (23.5 x 16 cm) with 22 colour and 8 monochrome plates and numerous sketches. London, 1978. Collins. Price Rs. 60.00 Biographies leave one with a slight sense of embarrassment at the subtle or blatantly catalogued virtues. This book is a biography of the tiger, and of course in a sense, of the author too. The tiger has had many biogra- phers, such has been its fascination. Some have looked at it over the sights of a rifle, some have looked at it through the lens of a camera, and a few with the dispassionate eye of a scientist. Those who see it through the sights of a gun often see a thing of evil, those who see it through the lens of a camera see a thing of beauty and the scientist sees a magnificent animal in tune with its environ- ment. Mr. Sankhala has had a multiple view and unfortunately, often takes an abrasive look at those who had viewed the tiger before him. The book is in two sections, the first six chapters describe the tiger and its environ- ment, animate and inanimate. The seven chap- ters in the second section describe the tiger in relation to man. The chapters in the first section are an over- all review of the ecology of the tiger. Repeti- tion of known facts is unavoidable in such an approach particularly when the animal con- sidered is the tiger whose natural history has been the subject of attention for over a Cen- tury. It is to Mr. Sankhala’s credit that he is, inspite of this handicap, able to present some excellent natural history notes. Some of the remarks on other inhabitants of tigerland are however questionable. For in- stance statements such as langur babies are looked after by all the adults of a troop or that elephants cannot negotiate steep slopes or that the Egyptian or Scavenger Vulture, which is a habitual feeder on human excreta, is cleaner than other vultures and does not de- serve the name Scavenger. These are but minor blemishes in a well written book. The second section describes the inter-rela- tionship of the tiger and man through the ages and the author makes no bones about where his sympathies lie. In the ardour of his empathy for the tiger, Mr. Sankhala is more than a little unfair to Jim Corbett, whose name has been, and continues to be, linked with the tiger in India. Corbett made it ex- plicit in his books that what he described were abnormal tigers and his sympathy for the ani- mal is evident in his writings. Reading Corbett’s limpid prose, the feeling one receives is of the deep love he had for the country and its people. He is remembered more for this love than for anything else. The book ends with a description of the Conservation movement which saved the tiger, a movement to which many people, and many organisations, both local and inter- national, contributed. A very readable book inspite of its dogma- tic approach. The plates are excellent. The pen and ink sketches are uniformally good and the chart with the sketches of animals of tigerland even has a touch of ‘Paul BarrueF in its composition. J. C. Daniel 914 REVIEWS 2. FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF THE EASTERN HIMALAYAS. By Salim Ali. pp. xvi + 263 (11.8x 18 cm). With 37 coloured plates. Delhi, 1977. Oxford University Press. Price Rs. 80.00. Dr. Salim Ali’s latest book is most welcome as an addition to the field guides to birds. It relates to an area of immense ornithological interest, covering eastern Nepal, Darjeeling district of West Bengal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. Except for the western part, the birds of the area are imperfectly known, and that too only through stray reports. A concise introduction gives a brief general account of the physiography and ecology of the area, followed by short descriptions of 536 birds and 37 plates depicting 366 birds in colour. Each bird has been introduced with its common English name, zoological name, and an approximate idea of its size, followed by short accounts of its field characters, status, habitats, etc. in about 15-20 lines of text. As in all books by Dr. Salim Ali, the text is superbly written and will surely prove to be immensely helpful to the users of this guide. However, I would like to take this opportu- nity to provide some additional information here. The Bearded Vulture (p. 10, no. 24) occurs up to at least 4700 m. The Spotted winged Stare (p. 104, no. 192) is frequently found in winter at as low as c 120 m. The Himalayan Tree Pie (p. 109, no. 205) occa- sionally goes up to c 3200 m, even in winter. The zoological name of the Blacknaped Fly- catcher (p. 171, no. 346) should be Hypothy- mis azurea (Boddaert), and that of the Black Tit (p. 219, no. 460) Paras rufonuchalis Blyth, the common English name for P. rabi- dly entris Blyth being the Rufousbellied Tit. The chief weakness of this very useful field guide lies in the colour reproduction of the plates (I say ‘reproduction’ because I have had occasion to see some of the original paint- ings which were skilfully done). The faulty colour renderings may be grouped as follows: 1. Crimson and scarlet printed as chestnut, chestnut-brown, brownish red, pinkish or some other reddish colour: A very large number of figures, e.g., those of woodpeckers [pis. 9, 10, 18 (fig. 9), 35 (fig. 6)]. 2. Claret-maroon printed as dark brown (pi 6, fig. 7), and rufous also as dark brown (pi. 6, fig. 10) so that barrings on the tail have become inconspicuous. 3. Greyish brown printed as bluish grey (p. 32, fig. 7). 4. Metallic purple printed as cobalt blue (pi. 11, fig. 2); glossy jet black, slate-black, and metallic bronze-green and blue as deep blue (pi. 13). 5. Slate-grey or ashy printed as bluish grey [pis. 12, 30 (fig. 1)]. 6. Ashy grey printed as purplish grey (pi. 26, fig. 12). 7. Blue-black printed with unnecessary greenish patches (pi. 26, fig. 2). 8. Black with unnecessary brownish patches [pis. 18, 36 (figs. 1, 2)]. 9. Black printed as dark brown (pi. 2, figs. 6, 7). 10. Shade of green used is too dark (pi. 28). The following three are the worst ones: 1 . No trace of buff-yellow has been depict- ed on the chin, throat and foreneck of the Great Slaty Woodpecker (pi. 10, fig. 5). 2. The Blackrumped Magpie (pi. 18, fig. 3) shows brownish patches on the sides of the head and upper back, and a lot of green on the tail. 3. The Streaked Laughing Thrush (pi. 22, 915 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 fig. 2) shows grey instead of olive brown on the rump and upper tail coverts. Moreover, the bird should have been placed on the ground for it is highly terrestrial. The following errors in drawing have also been noticed: 1. The chestnut patch on the breast of the Redbreasted Hill Partridge (pi. 5, fig. 4) never has as clear-cut an outline as depicted. 2. The bill of the Ashy Swallow-Shrike (pi. 12, fig. 3) should be finch-like. 3. The tail of the Yellowbilled Blue Mag- pie (pi. 14, fig. 3) is disproportionately short. 4. There should be no white patch on the throat of the Orangeheaded Ground Thrush (pi. 31, fig. 8). Furthermore, there are no scales on plates 14, 19, 21, 34 and 37. In contrast to the printing of the plates, the printing of the text matter is excellent and the binding neat. In the next edition, some important pub- lications on birds of the area (e.g. Sikkim Himalaya by Stevens, Sikkim by Salim Ali, Darjeeling and its neighbourhood by Mathews and Edwards, etc.) could perhaps be suggested by the author for further reading by any one interested. This will surely greatly enhance the utility of this field guide. Nevertheless, it is a very important addi- tion to Indian ornithology, and will prove very useful and helpful to naturalists, bird- watchers and others interested in birds of the eastern Himalayas. Biswamoy Biswas MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 1. OCCURRENCE AND OBSERVATIONS ON TAD ARID A AEGYPTIACA (E. GEOFFROY, 1818) (MOLOSSIDAE : CHIROPTERA) ; THE WRINKLE-LIPPED BAT IN EAST-NIMAR DISTRICT, MADHYA PRADESH (INDIA) During a recent survey of bats of East- Nimar the presence of Tadarida aegyptiaca ( Geoff roy, 1818) belonging to the family Molossidae of bats was recorded in three dif- ferent localities. Certain observations on this species are recorded. Between December 1975 and April 1977, 142 specimens were collected. Specimens were collected with the help of mist-net or shot at frequent intervals. Brosset (1962) in his study on bats of Central and Western India recorded some of the species of family Molossidae from six localities. This species Tadarida aegyptiaca of genus Tadarida (Molossidae: Chiroptera) has not so far been recorded from East Nimar (Khandwa, Burhanpur, Asirgarh) of Madhya Pradesh (Blanford 1891), Ellerman, J. R. and Morrison-Scott (1951). This region has very low rainfall and it remains arid throughout the year. In this survey of bats of East-Nimar three colonies of Tadarida aegyptiaca were located in different locations. Collection Localities'. A brief description of the collection localities is as given below. 1. In the old building of S. N. Govt. College, Khandwa. 2. In the old fort at Burhanpur. 3. In the old fort at Asirgarh. The three colonies were found in buildings. In each colony the number of in- dividuals was between fifty to hundred. All colonies of Tadarida aegyptiaca have similar type of roosting sites. They are in the narrow and deep crevices in the stones of the large old forts and buildings. At Khandwa, colonies were located within ten yards of each other in deep crevices of 8 feet vertical elongation. Note may be taken here that these crevices are 15 to 25 feet above the ground but at Burhanpur and Asirgarh it is over 50 feet from the ground level. The wrinkle-lipped bats are easily detected. They conceal themselves very well, but are found on account of their extremely noisy behaviour during the day. The smell of their guano and its shape make it possible to iden- tify them in narrow crevices. Tadarida aegyptiaca has broad, rounded, thick ears and they are joined on the front of muzzle, and about half a portion of its tail is covered by femoral membrane. The shape of its wings is narrow and it has a greater length in its horizontal plane. The feet have a row of stiff hairs. These all are a diagnostic fea- ture of family molossidae. There is a marked variation in the colour of its fur. This has been noticed in two indi- viduals of same colony. Three principal types given below are main- ly observed. (i) Light brown above and grey below. (ii) Warm brown above and brown grey below. (iii) Blackish grey above and grey below. 917 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 According to my observation of these colo- nies of Tadarida aegyptiaca, this bat does not fly very early at sun-set, but it depends upon the seasons. Usually they fly half an hour after sun-set. All of them emerge only from a few specific crevices of their habitat while coming out they produce a special type of sound. The observation of Brosset (1962) that after ten minutes of departure crevices were complete- ly empty may be correct. However, I observed that during a year the colonies are comple- tely empty only on 4 or 5 days. Generally four or five bats keep on moving inside their roosting crevices. Quoting the statement of Verschuren, Bros- set (1962) says that they do not come back to their diurnal roost for at least two hours after they had left it. It may be men- tioned in this regard that some of them re- turned just after ten minutes of their depar- ture in my presence and I could successfully trap a few specimens while they were trying to enter their habitat at a distance of ten feet from their colonies. Tadarida aegyptiaca hunts far away from the roosting sites, but after ten minutes of hunting they start returning to their roosting sites. This bat usually hunts at a Teacher Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Saugar, Sagar 470 003 (M.P.), October 10, 1977. Refei Blanford, W. T. (1891) : The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia Vol. 2. Taylor & Francis, London. Brosset, A. (1962): The Bats of Central and Western India. Part III. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 59 (3): 707-746. (1963) : The Bats of Central and height of 100 to 250 feet from the ground. They can be identified from their peculiar sharp calls at the feeding ground. It was observed in the colonies of East- Nimar that Tadarida aegyptiaca migrate in the month of April. They return usually in groups again in the month of June. The area to which they migrate is yet to be traced. Banded bats have not been recovered from other colony sites. It may be possible that their migratory sites are far from their original roosting colonies. It seems that this displace- ment or movement of Tadarida aegyptiaca are connected with high temperature which in East Nimar crosses 35 °C in the month of May. This migratory behaviour of Tadarida aegyptiaca appears to be similar to that of Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana (Saussre) of Arizona (Cockrum 1967). Acknowledgement I am grateful to Professor R. S. Saini for his keen interest throughout the progress of this work; to Dr. D. R. Sharma for his guid- ance while preparing this paper; Dr. H. Kha- juria for critically reading this manuscript and Mr. J. K. Joshi for his kind help in collection work. S. K. KASHYAP EN CES Western India. Part IV. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 60 (2): 337-355. Cockrum, E. L. (1967): Migration in the guiano bat, Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana. Misl. Publ., Univ. of Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. 51: 303-336. Ellerman, J. & Morrison-Scott, T. (1951): Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals, 1758 to 1964. British Museum, London. 918 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 2. OBSERVATIONS ON ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE RHESUS MONKEY MAC AC A MU L ATT A, IN ASARORI Introduction The present account gives the more im- portant results of a nine-month field study on the ecology and behaviour of rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatto,) in the Asarori Forest, near Dehra Dun (Uttar Pradesh, Northern India), carried out during January to October 1976. The forest is of moist deciduous type, and consists mainly of large sal trees ( Shorea ro- busta). Here a fairly good population of the rhesus as well as the Hanuman langur {Pres- bytis entellus Dufresne) coexist. Observations 1. Group size and composition : Some 14 groups of rhesus monkeys were present com- prising a total of about 500 individuals; four solitary males were also observed. Detailed studies were made on six groups, whose size varied from 5-c. 90 (mean 32.8) individuals. All groups, except one, were of the bisexual multimale type. The exception was an all- juvenile group of 5 individuals. The number of adult males in a group varied from 2-7 and of adult females from 4-27. The adult sex ratio was male 1: female 2. 2-3. 7. The mean ratio for adult female to young infants for four groups was 1:0.7; this shows high reproduc- tivity (70%). 2. Home range : The home range area varied from 1.3-13.4 km2 and was correlated with group size (correlation coefficient r=0.937, significant at P = 0.01). The home ranges of neighbouring groups overlap considerably (23.5 — 100%, mean 61.1% of their area). 3. Food and feeding : The rhesus is largely vegetarian, eating various components of some 85 different plants. But some animal food is also eaten regularly, this consists mainly of insects of all kinds such as beetles (including water beetles) and their grubs, moths, butter- flies and their pupae, grasshoppers, termites, cocoons of hymenoptera and spiders and their webs. Insects are caught with a quick move- ment and the uneatable appendages are re- moved with the hand before eating. During the monsoon months two species of fungi are eaten in abundance. Occasionally they eat earth from termite mounds and lick the lime washed walls of forest quarters. Strange food, such as carrots, Indian chapaties, when offered is rejected after inspection and testing it by a little chewing. During summer the animals drank daily or on alternate days, and in winter about once a week. Casual intake of water in winter occurred regularly by licking dew from leaves. 4. Foraging routes : A group was followed from dawn to dusk for 15 consecutive days to determine the actual distances travelled for foraging. The length travelled ranged from 1050-3500 m (mean 1803.3 ± 160.2) and this determines the distance between the two con- secutive roosting sites. The two are closely re- lated (correlation coefficient r-0.63, signifi- cant at P = 0.01). 5. Roosting : Groups of tall trees serve as the night roosting sites, which are changed every night, as was noted in detail in two groups for a period of one month each. Cer- tain areas of home range are used frequently for roosting and may be called “roosting sites.” In both groups ’the area of ‘roosting sites forms about 47% of the total area of the home range, irrespective of the size of the latter. The mean distance between 919 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 the two roosting sites (for two succes- sive nights) was 431 ± 56 m in the Harbhaj- wala group -and 1247.5 ± 110 m for the Bada group. This feature is directly related to group size (31 and c. 90 respectively). 6. Dominance : The dominant male or leader of a group can be easily identified b> his robust body and certain characteristics. His tail is carried high up with a tight end loop, especially when in encounters other ani- mals and also in inter and intra group encoun- ters. He usually leads a group, gives threats to intruders and gives dominance displays by shaking tree branches. Almost all females and young seek his support in case of danger. He frequently dashes to site of intra group squab- bles and his presence has an immediate calm- ing effect. His aggressive activities are more frequent than those of other males of the group, and he enjoys priorities in all activites. Curiously, he also shows some paternal be- haviour whose intensity varies with the indi- vidual. One leader was observed carrying, pro- tecting, grooming and roosting with an 8- month old infant. 7. Intergroup relations : Groups are into- lerant of the proximity of other groups and intergroup spacing or avoidance is noticeable. Although the home ranges of neighbouring groups overlap considerably, intergroup inter- actions are infrequent. Only 19 interactions were noted during a period of nine months. In encounters, a dominance display is com- mon rather than fighting. The period of in- teractions varied from 2 to as long as 60 minutes. Usually subordinate males lead in chase during a fight. Intergroup dominance is positively correlat- ed (89.5% of the cases) with group size. Sometimes the dominant male of a group mounts adult female of his own group during encounters. Four types of encounters were noticed: overtly aggressive (5.3%), aggressive (36.8%), aggressive-tolerant (10.5%) and approach-withdrawal (47.4% ) . 8. Interspecies dominance : Occasionally, rhesus and langur groups interact with one another, and the latter always displays sub- ordination by avoiding the former. Although the langurs are larger and heavier, they with- draw and are threatened and chased by the rhesus. This agrees with Roonwal’s (1976) view that some other factors other than body weight and size determine interspecies domi- nance. Discussion Group size and composition, as studied by various workers in different habitats show variation, but groups are mostly bisexual and multimale. Rarely, groups without adult males are also found (Neville 1968a; Makwana, in press). Southwick et al. (1965) give the aver- age size of groups as 50 (for 5 forest groups). Jay and Lindburg (1965) 32 (for 14 groups), Lindburg (1971) 23 (for 5 groups near Dehra Dun), Neville (1968b), 41 (for 5 Forest groups near Haldwani), Mandal (1964) a range of 5-35 (for 29 groups in the Sunder- bans), and Puget (1971) an unusual size range of 90-180 in northeastern Afganistan. Solitary males are also occasionally found. The extent of home ranges also varies great- ly. In Uttar Pradesh, Neville (1968b) record- ed 1-3 km2 in forest near Haldwani, and 0.05 km2 in Haldwani town. Lindburg (1971), 16 km2 near Dehra Dun and the present range is 1.3-13.4 km2 in Asarori. The roosting sites of urban groups are fixed and groups roost there every day (Southwick et al. 1965; Singh 1969). But in forest habi- tat roosting sites are changed daily (Lindburg 1971 and present study). Foraging routes are apparently determined 920 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES arbitrarily and their length may vary from c. 200-3500 m; Lindburg 1971, 350-2820 m; Neville 1968b; 200-400 m; the present study 1050-3500 m). A group always travels a longer distance than the actual straightline dis- tance between two consecutive roosting sites. Factors which may determine the length of foraging routes are the availability of food and water, the season, the position of neighbouring groups, the group size, etc. Inspite of much overlap in the home range Dept, of Zoology, University of Jodhpur, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, December 2, 1977. Refer Jay, P. C. and Lindburg, D. G. (1965) : (Quot- ed from Lindburg, 1971). Lindburg, D. G. (1971) : The rhesus monkey in North India: An ecological and behavioural study. In Primate Behaviour : Development in Field and Laboratory Research, vol. 2 (ed. L. A. Rosen- blum), pp. 1-106, New York (Academic Press). Mandal, A. K. (1964) : The behaviour of the rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatto Zimmermann) in the Sunderbans. /. Bengal nat. His. Soc., 33; 153- 163. Puget, A. (1971) : Observation sur le macaque rhesus, Macaca mulatta (Zimmermann 17801), en Afghanistan Mammalia, 55(2): 199-203. Neville, M. K. (1968a) : Ecology and activity of the Himalayan foot-hill rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatta). Ecology, 40: 110-123. area, intergroup encounters are infrequent and usually group avoidance is noticed rather than fight. This situation was also observed by Southwick et al. (1965) and Lindburg (1971). Ack nowledge ments I am indebted to Prof. M. L. Roonwal, Jodhpur, for his keen interest and encourage- ment, to Prof. S. D. Singh for working faci- lities; and to Dr. S. M. Mohnot for assistance with literature. S. C. MAKWANA E N CES (1968b) : A free-ranging rhesus mon- key troop lacking adult males. J. Mammal. 49: Hi- ll3. Roonwal, M. L. (1976): Dominance behaviour in South Asian Primates. J. Sci. industr. Res. 35 : 244-260. and Mohnot, S. M. (1977): Pri- mates of South Asia: Ecology, Sociobiology and Behaviour, Harvard University Press. Southwick, C., Beg, M. A. and Siddiqi, M. R. (1965) : Rhesus monkey in North India. In Pri- mate Behaviour: Field Studies of Monkeys and Apes (ed. I. DeVore). pp. 111-159, New York (Hott, Rinehart and Winston). Singh, S. D. (1969) : Urban monkeys. Scientific Amer., 221: 108-115. 3. A NOTE ON THE BREEDING AND LONGEVITY OF THE INDIAN PANGOLIN {MAN IS CRASSICAUDATA) IN CAPTIVITY A pair of adult Indian Pangolins ( Mauls crassicaudata) was acquired for the Nandan- kanan Biological Park, Orissa. The female arrived on 16th July 1973 and the male arriv- ed on 16th July 1976. They were housed in an enclosure measuring 2.5 x 1.5 x 2 m. high. Attached to the enclosure is a dark sleeping den measuring 0.85 x 0.5 >< 0.5 in high. They remain curled up throughout the day in the sleeping den and became active from late even- ing to early morning. They sometimes climb up a cement tree erected inside the enclosure. They are fed with red tree ants (adults, young and eggs) every evening at the rate of 600 921 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 gms per day per adult and occasionally some termites with combs. A male young was born to the female of this pair on 7-4-1977 early morning but the young was found dead on 8-4-1977. The young measured 33 cm tip to tip including 12 cm long tail and weighed 242 g. The eyes were open and the scales were soft at birth. The mother Pangolin weighed 7.920 Kg and the male weighed 9.250 Kg on 10-4-1977. The female Pangolin died on 1 December 1977 establishing a longevity of 4 years, 4 months and 16 days in captivity. The details of other five Indian Pangolins which have liv- ed for over 1 year in the Park on a diet of red tree ants and termites are as follows. tail and weighed 235 grams (Acharjyo and Misra, loc. cit.). A Pangolin lived in captivity for 2 years (Prater, loc. cit.). According to Yadav (1973) Jaipur Zoo has reared Pangolins for a period of over six months. Out of three Indian Pan- golins received at New York Zoological Park on 28 April 1961, one lived for 4 months, an- other for 7 months but the third one remain- ed in good condition till late 1963 (Cran- dall 1965). Narayanan (1977) reports that one Pangolin survived for a little more than 2 years in captivity at USPHS — JIPMER Leprosy Research Project, Jawaharlal Institute of Post- graduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry. SI. Date of Date of No. arrival in death in Period of survival in the Park the Park the Park 1 31-7-1972 3-12-1974 2 3-11-1973 19-5-1976 3 22-6-1976 26-12-1977 4 16-7-1976 Living on the day of this report 5 25-9-1976 Living on the day of this report There are records of birth of this species in India in July (Prater 1971) and November (Asdell 1964; Acharjyo and Misra 1972). The litter size is usually 1 and occasionally 2 (As- dell, loc. cit.). A new-born young measured 30 cm from tip to tip including 12.5 cm long Veterinary Assistant Surgeon, Nandankanan Biological Park, P. O. Barang-754 005, Dist. Cuttack, (Orissa). 2 years, 4 months and 4 days. 2 years, 6 months and 17 days. 1 year, 6 months and 5 days. Over 1 year and 8 months. Over 1 year and 6 months. ACK N OWLEDGE M E N TS We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Shri G. M. Dash, I.F.S., Chief Wild Life War- den, Orissa and to Shri S. Jee, I.F.S., Chief Conservator of Forests, Orissa for their help and encouragement. L. N. ACHARJYO 922 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Wild Life Conservation Officer, Orissa, 95-Saheednagar, Bfiubaneswar-751 007, April 28, 1978. Refer Acharjyo, L. N. and Misra, R. (1972) : Birth of an Indian Pangolin ( Manis crassicaudata ) in cap- tivity. J. Bombay nat . Hist. Soc. 69 (1) : 174-175. Asdell, S. A. (1964) : Patterns of Mammalian Re- production. Second Edition, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, pp. 182. Crandall, Lee, S. ( 1965) : The Management of S. MOHAFATRA iNCES Wild Manmals in Captivity. The University of Chi- cago Press, Chicago and London, pp. 195-199. Narayanan, E. (1977) : Pers. Comm. Prater, S. H. (1971) : The Book of Indian Ani- mals. Third (Revised) Edition, Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, pp. 301-303. Yadav, R. N. (1973) : Rearing of Indian Pangolin. Indian Zoo Bulletin, 1(1): pp. 16. 4. THE BRONZEWINGED JACANA METOPIDIUS INDICES (LATHAM) IN SAURASHTRA AT JAMNAGAR In a communication from Jamnagar, Sau-f rashtra, Shri Lalsinhbhai Raol writes to re- port the first ever record of a Bronzewinged Jacana in the Saurashtra peninsula. He writes: ‘There is a fairly big reservoir in Jamnagar City. Egrets, herons, storks, ibises, stilts, Red- wattled and Yellow- wattled Lapwings and wintering ducks and waders can be seen here. On 6th March 1977 I noticed an unusual bird on a small islet in the lake. Examining it through field glasses I was thrilled to find a bird familiar from looking at the illustration in my “Salim Ali”, but an addition to my life-list. If my memory of our notes compared does not fail me, this species is uncommon in main- land Gujarat, but has never been recorded from Saurashtra. Dharmakumarsinhji lists it in the supplement for Birds of Gujarat in his C/o. World Wildlife Fund-India, Shahid Bhagat Singfi Road, Bombay-400 023, August 25, 1977. book birds of saurashtra, and does not in- clude it in his Saurashtra bird descriptions.’ Salim Ali & S. Dillon Ripley in the hand- book OF THE BIRDS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN, Vol. 2, say that the species is absent from western Punjab and western Rajasthan. How- ever, there are records of this bird from Kutch (Humayun Abdulali, JBNHS 40: 122) seen at the Hemissar Tank in June 1937. Dr. Salim Ali in the birds of kutcfi (1945) describes its status in Kutch as “Resident (or local mig- rant?). Uncommon”, and in ‘The birds of Gujarat’ ( JBNHS 52: 413) states that though no specimens have been collected it has been noted at Bhuj (Kutch) also by Humayun Ab- dulali in June (ibid. 40: 122) and several places in Gujarat in vegetation-covered tanks and j heels, but that it is decidedly uncommon. LAVKUMAR KHACHER 923 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 5. ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE BLACK-NAPED GREEN WOODPECKER, PICUS CANUS HESSEI GYLDENSTOLPE (PICIFORMES : PICXDAE) IN ORISSA During the course of a faunistic survey in Orissa in 1976, I collected a female specimen of Picus canus hessei Gyldenstolpe on 12 March, from Dhuanali, Puri district. Its measurements (in mm.) are: Wing 148, bill from skull 36, tail 100, tarsus 12, and its weight is 137 g. The Assam population of the Blacknaped Green Woodpecker was separated from Picus canus hessei Gyldenstolpe, 1916, as Picus canus gyldenstolpei by Baker (1918) on the basis of slight differences in coloration and size. Vaurie (1959), however, treated gyldens- tolpei as a synonym of hessei , since there is very little difference warranting their separa- tion. Ali & Ripley (1970, p. 189, note) while admitting gyldenstolpei stated that hessei ‘is doubtfully separable from’ it. On a re-exami- nation of the material available in this depart- ment, however, I am inclined to agree with Vaurie (op. cit.) in not recognizing gyldens- tolpei as a distinct subspecies. According to Vaurie (1965) this subspecies occurs in Indochinese countries (with the ex- ception of northeastern Tonkin, northeastern Burma and peninsular Thailand), Assam south to the Lushai Hills (= Mizoram), and eastern Himalaya to Sikkim. As far as known from the extant literature on Indian avifauna e.g., Baker (1927), Ali & Ripley (1970), etc., this species has not so far been reported from Orissa. The present example reported for the first time from peninsular India extends its distri- bution as far south as Orissa. Zoological Survey of India, Indian Museum, Calcutta-700 016, June 24, 1977. N. MAJUMDAR References Ali, S. & Ripley, S. D. (1970): Handbook of Vaurie, C. (1959): Systematic notes on Palaearc- the birds of India and Pakistan, together with tic birds. No. 34. Picidae: The genera Picus and those of Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Ceylon. 4: 188. Dryocopus. Amer. Mus. Novit. No. (1945): T Oxford University Press, Bombay. (1965) : The birds of the Palaearctic Baker, E. C. S. (1927) : Fauna of British India, fauna, Non-Passeriformes, p. 695. Witherby, Lon- Birds. 4: 15. Taylor & Francis, London. don. 6. SIGHTING OF THE INDIAN PITTA (PITTA BRACHYURA) IN PAKISTAN The Indian Pitta spreads across the Hima- (Whistler handbook 1949), or Simla (Rip layan foothill zone during the monsoon season ley, S. D., synopsis 1961). There are no re- when it breeds but it does not appear to have cords of its occurrence in Pakistan territory been recorded further west than Dharamsala even in the Murree Hill region where several 924 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES species were recorded at the turn of the cen- tury which no longer appear to survive or visit this area at the present time. On June 17th 1978 I was visiting a jungle clad region at the foot of the Margalla Hills just west of Islamabad city when I heard a strange bird calling. Upon investigation this turned out to be the Indian Pitta. There was a pair frequenting the steep hillside above a stream and I had clear views of what was presumably the male singing from the top of a stunted wild fig tree. The location was at about 2,000 feet elevation and hardly more than three miles from the outskirts of Islama- bad (33°28'N, 73°03'E). The World Wild- life Fund Appeal had chosen this site for con- struction of a pre-release pen for the Cheer Pheasant ( Catreus wallichii) which has been C-24, K. D. A. Scheme No. 1, Drigh Road, Karachi, Pakistan, August 7, 1978. bred in captivity and is now believed to be extinct in the Margalla Hills. Dr. Sheldon Severinghaus was visiting Pakistan to assist with this project and I was able to bring him the next morning to observe these Pittas. He made recordings of the male which are now lodged in the Cornell University library of bird sounds. I was able to visit the area again on July 13th 1978 at which time one individual was still in the same vicinity and heard call- ing, however when I reported this find to a keen ornithologist friend, Mr. T. J. Roberts he failed to find any trace of these birds on July 28th. The Margalla Hills are covered with dry tropical deciduous type of scrub forest and would seem to provide ideal habitat for Pittas. KAMAL ISLAM 7. A NEW BIRD FOR NEPAL AND NOTES ON OTHER SCARCE SPECIES At 16.00 hours on 23rd February 1978 I was fortunate enough to be drifting down- stream along the main channel of the Nara- yani River just below its confluence with the River Rapti in the Nepalese terai when I spotted a swan some 200 yards ahead. My companions were principally amateur Euro- pean bird-watchers and naturalists, members of a special interest tour I was leading for Town and Gown Travel of Oxford, UK, as well as Khadak Kumar of Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge staff. As we drifted closer the pure white plumage, smallish size and yellow area at the base of the black bill became visible. I turned the boats and we approached within about 80 yards to obtain excellent views of the truncated (not pointed) yellow area at the base of the bill. At this point the bird patter- ed over the surface showing its black feet, and took to the air with neither wing sound nor call. In the air the comparatively rapid wing beats and general compactness reinforced my identification of this bird as a fully adult, wild Bewick’s Swan Cygnus columbianus. Salim Ali and S. Dillon Ripley’s handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan list five records for the sub-continent, none in Nepal. R. L. Fleming Sr., R. L. Fleming Jr., and L. S. 925 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Bangdel do not include the species in their birds of Nepal. By good fortune I was able to talk to R. L. Fleming Jr., within a couple of days and he confirmed that there were no pre- vious records for Nepal. It should be added that as a European resident I have observed thousands of these birds over the years and would not consider them difficult to identify. The weather at this time was quite severe in the hills and R. L. Fleming Jr., considered it an exceptionally hard winter. Certainly it had produced several records of unusual northern passerine species in and around the Kathmandu valley. On 26th February 1978 I was once again drifting downstream on the Narayani River, this time in company with Peter Jackson of the World Wildlife Fund, Morges; David Smith of the Smithsonian Tiger Ecology Pro- ject; Charles McDougal, Director of Wildlife at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge; and Michael Price of Survival Anglia. Our aim was to ex- plore the new western extension of Chitawan National Park. Within an hour of leaving the Narayani-Rapti confluence we encountered several large flocks of duck. Mostly these were Brahminy Duck Tadorna ferruginea, Teal Anas crecca, Wigeon A. penelope, Pintail A. acuta with some Goosander Mergus mergan- ser, Gad wall Anas strepera and Red-crested Pochard Netta rufina. Then I spotted a drake 35 Brodrick Road, Wandsworth Common, London, SW17, U.K., March 25, 1978. Goldeneye Bucephala clangula followed soon afterwards by a drake Falcated Teal Anas falcata. The Goldeneye is the third record for Nepal, the Falcated Teal the first record for Nepal away from the Kosi River. Both birds were also seen by Peter Jackson and Michael Price, two experienced observers. On 28th February 1978 the same party was finishing its trek beside the Narayani at Mo- han Khola about five miles downstream from the Narayani-Rapti confluence. A large raptor appeared and gave excellent views as it circled overhead. Its general coloration was dark brown with a faint light line along the edges of the under-wing coverts. The head was pro- minent and the wings long and broad and held well forward. Clearly an eagle, its identi- fication was ensured by the prominent and distinctly wedge-shaped tail. The bird was immature and lacked the white retrices of the adult White-tailed Sea Eagle Haliaeetus albi- cilia. However, by good fortune, I had seen a transparency of an individual in similar plumage only two weeks or so before. The tail feathers formed a distinctive wedge and against the light each retrice was edged all round with a darker colour giving the effect of a “leaded window” of the tail feathers and indicating a second or third year bird. This bird constitutes the second record for Nepal, the first being an adult at Pokhara in 1971. JOHN GOODERS 926 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 8. ON THE PHENOMENON OF NOCTURNAL FLIGHTS OF SOME RESIDENT BIRDS AT LUNGLEI, MIZORAM, N. E. INDIA During a faunistic survey of Mizoram in 1976, our attention was drawn to a report of frequent casualities of birds occurring annual- ly, by dashing to death against walls of a building at Lunglei, Lunglei district, Mizoram. We visited the building in November, 1976 with a view to study the phenomenon, but were told that the birds fly in only during the months of September and October. How- ever, the owner of the building. Dr. Doliana, a retired Civil Surgeon at his Aizwal residence furnished valuable information in addition to presenting some specimens of parts of birds which he had preserved out of those killed during the accidents. We also obtained some of the feathers of the dead birds for identifi- cation from the building where the feathers are kept as wall-decoration. The building stands at a height of 1210 m amidst rugged mountain ridges. It has three prominent electric lights fitted on the same plane in front of the building. As the bulbs are of high intensity, of more than 100 watt power, they are easily seen at night even from far off distances. The birds are attracted by the lights and dash themselves headlong against the roof and walls of the building and thus get killed. The following additional in- formation has been obtained from Dr. Doli- ana: 1. The birds have been observed to dash against the building in late September and I early October during which period the area receives late monsoon rains. 2. The phenomenon occurs when the sky re- mains over-cast with clouds, i.e. without moonlight and with fog and mist. A little drizzle appears favourable. 3. The birds usually fly from west to east during 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The above three points are extremely simi- lar to those reported by Salim Ali (1962) for Haflong except that at Haflong the birds came from the north. The number of birds which get killed annually reportedly vary from 300 to 500. Dr. Doliana has made record of such deaths since 1974, and the apparent num- ber of species vary from 6 to 8. The following identification is based on parts of specimens obtained from Dr. Doliana and from the building. 1. Indian Moorhen: Gallinula chloropus in- dica Blyth. 2. Greyfronted Green pigeon: Treron pom- pad ora. 3. Indian Emerald Dove: Chalcophaps ind- ica. Salim Ali (1962) mentions frequent casualties of this bird and the green pigeon in the coffee plantations of Mysore and Kerala. 4. Indian Threetoed Forest Kingfisher: Ceyx erithacus. 5. Indian Ruddy kingfisher: Halcyon coro- manda coromanda (Latham). There are several records of this species getting killed under similar circumstances in other places. Robinson & Chasen (1927) observ- ed nocturnal fall of this bird at light houses and light strips in the straits of Malacca in autumn. Salim Ali (1962) men- tions this species being regularly picked at lights on certain mountain ridges of Jatin- ga (Hafflong) in North Cachar Hills in Assam in dark monsoon nights. 6. Hooded Pitta: Pitta sordida cucullata Hartlaub. 7. Drongo Cuckoo: Surniculus lugubris 8. Cuckoo: Cuculus canorus 927 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 It is clear from the above list that all the birds killed are of resident species. Salim Ali (1962) and Gee (1964) have re- corded similar phenomenon in Jatinga near Haflong, where petromax lamps are used by the villagers to attract birds. In both the places two common observations are made: that (i) almost all the species are resident birds; and (ii) green pigeons ( T reron sp.) in consider- able numbers are reported to be attracted by light. Although some of these birds namely. Emerald Dove, Greyfronted Green pigeon. Three-toed Forest kingfisher and Indian Rud- dy kingfisher are known to dash against ob- Zoological Survey of India, Eastern Regional Station, Shillong-3, November 4, 1977. stacles and die, it is not still clearly under- stood why these ‘non migratory’ birds fly into the lights and that too in one particular time of the year and in a particular place or two alone. Acknowledgements We thank Dr. H. Khajuria, Deputy Direc- tor, E.R.S., Shillong for permitting the authors to undertake the survey and for going through the manuscript and Dr. A. K. Ghosh, Zoologist, for valuable suggestions offered. The Bombay Natural History Society kindly identified the bird parts. K. R. RAO R. ZORAMTHANGA References Ali, Salim (1962): The Bombay Natural His- tory Society, world health organisation bird migra- tion study /project. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 59 (1): 100-130. Ali, Salim & Ripley, S. D. (1969): Hand book of birds of India and Pakistan 3 : 1-325. Oxford University Press, Bombay. (1970) : Hand book of birds of India and Pakistan 4: 1-260. Oxford University Press, Bombay. Gee, E. P. (1964): The bird mystery of Hafl'- long. Wildlife of India, Collins, St. James place, London. *Robinson, H. C. & Chasen, F. N. (1927): The birds of Malay Peninsula 1 : 102. H.F. & C.G. Witherby, London. * Not seen by the authors. I 9. NOTES ON DISTRIBUTION, SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND GROWTH IN CAPTIVITY OF GEOCHELONE ELONGATA (BLYTH) {With a text -figure) Distribution : This species is so f’ar known to occur in India from Jalpaiguri district, E. Bengal and Singbhum district, Bihar (Chai- bassa and Chotanagpur) as recorded in the collection of Zoological Survey of India ex- cluding the female specimen from Orissa men- tioned below. Outside India the species occurs in Nepal, Bangladesh (Akyab and Chittagong Hill tracts), Burma, Thailand. According to Smith (1931)1 Nepal is the north eastern limit of the range of the species in the Indian 1 1 Smith, M. A. (1931): The Fauna of British India. Vol. I. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES subcontinent. This is an example of an Indo- chinese species in Peninsular India. This com- mon land tortoise of eastern India is becom- ing rare with the restriction of Sal forest. Habits and habitats’. Two specimens were collected from the forest floor of hill “Sal” forests while moving among the dry Sal leaves. Their preference for fallen flower petals with- in the enclosure suggests that they possibly feed on fallen Sal flowers in nature. Their dis- tribution also is closely associated with the Sal ( Shorea robusta ) and Teak ( Tectona gran - dis) forests of the Indian and Indochinese subregion. In winter they are less active than in the summer or rainy season. Sexual dimorphism : The distinguishing characters of this species are prominent. The Fig. 1. Geochelone elongata Blyth. Life size figure showing the anal bifurcation in male (M) and female (F). Sex $ Dt. of measurement 27-1-74 Length of carapace in mm. 220 Breadth of carapace 154 Length of Plastron 190 Weight in Kg. 1.675 Depth of body 103 body of the male is comparatively narrower and deeper than the females. The nuchal shield as well as the angle of bifurcation of anal shields (plastron) (Text-fig. 1) in male are much narrower and also the tail is longer and more curved than in the female. In rare cases the nuchal may be absent. Smith (loc. cit.) found the nuchal wanting in one out of 60 specimens and Anderson in 4 specimens. There is no colour difference. The shell is greenish- yellow or yellow and each shield has a irre- gular black blotch. In our specimen’s shell this blotch is wanting. Growth : Measurements and weight were taken of the male and female on 27-1-74 and after a gap of two years the male was measur- ed and weighed on 27-1-77 and 23-1-78. From the size and weight it is presumed that both were of the same age group but the male is slightly larger. The annual weight gain by the male was more in the 4th year (245 gm) than in its 2nd year (150 gm). The following measurements indicate that the growth of the species is very slow in captivity: Food : The two tortoises were fed everyday on cut pieces of Banana, “Sag” or vegetables, soaked Bengal gram, “Doob” grass ( Cynodon dactylon). They took all these food and also petals of flowers fallen inside the enclosure. Breeding season: The breeding season ap- pears to start in the month of July because the male was observed to try and mate twice on 7.7.77 and 9.7.77 with a female G. elegans. The female reported herein was collected $ S 27-1-74 25-1-75 23-1-76 23-1-78 238 — 242 244 148 — 166 168 192 — 195 197 1.770 112 1.920 2.105 2.350 929 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 on 27th April 1969 from a forest in Puri di- strict and the male on 22nd February 1971 from the forests of Simuli Pahar, Mayur- bhanj district by the D.F.O., Puri Division and A.C.F., National Park, Joshipur respecti- Zoological Survey of India, 34A & B, Sashibhusan De St., Calcutta- 12. Nandankanan Biological Park, Dist. Cuttack, Orissa. vely and were sent to the Nandankanan Bio- logical Park. Unfortunately the female died on 26.5.74. The male is now being kept with 4 specimens of star tortoise G. eiegans (Schoepff). S. BISWAS L. N. ACHARJYO Wildlife Conservation Officer, S. MOHAPATRA Bhubaneswar, Orissa-7, July 25, 1978. 10. HEARING ABILITY OF BROWNTREE SNAKE {DENDRELA PHIS TRISTIS) While studying the feeding behaviour of Bar- bets ( Megalaima ) on 2.xi.77 at Borivli Na- tional Park, I noticed an interesting phenome- non. I was sitting in my bush hide under a big Ficus mysorensis and observing Barbets feed- ing on Ficus receptacles. At 10.05 hrs. when I looked at the ground I saw a Browntree snake lying on an arched log at a distance of about 2\ m from me. The snake was about a metre in length and its anterior portion was erected up at an angle of 45°. In the meantime when we (the snake and I) were looking at each Research Scholar, Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, S. B. Singh Road, Bombay 400 023, June 13, 1978. other an aeroplane’s sound was heard. As soon as the sound was heard the snake lifted up its head, as if trying to see the source of the sound, making an angle of 90° and remained in this position till the sound faded; then it resumed its former position. We were both situated under the thick foliage of the Ficus tree and there was no question of sighting the plane or its shadow passing over our head. Nothing except the sound of the plane was the cause for the snake to change its position. I think it has good hearing capacity. SHAEQUE AHMAD YAHYA 930 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES [Dr. Carl Gans whose opinion was requested comments : Snakes can hear quite well to 1500 Hz, and the sound of the plane would have components in that range. Consequently, there is a possi- bility that the snake responded to the sound. It would be surprising if the snake did indeed present an obvious behavioural response. On the other hand, such one-time observations hardly constitute a very high level of proof, rather they are incidental observations that must be checked out by experiment. As it is, the snake might have responded to movements of the wind or to chemical cues, which the author could not have observed. — Eds.] 11. RECORD OF PTEROMALUS PUP ARUM LINN. ( PTEROM ALIDAE : HYMENOPTERA) FROM THE PUPA OF LEMON BUTTERFLY, PAPILIO DEMOLEUS LINN. AT LUDHIANA, PUNJAB (INDIA) During the last week of May 1976, a dry pupa of lemon butterfly was collected from a citrus tree and when opened, as many as 124 cream coloured pupae of the parasite were re- covered. The adults that emerged were iden- tified as Pteromalus puparum Linn. (Pteroma- lidae : Hymenoptera ) . The species is recorded as an important pupal parasite of Pieris brassicae Linn., Pieris rapae Linn, and Pieris deplidice Linn. (Du Porte 1914, Zacharov 1915, Zorin 1937). However, it has also been recorded on yellow- edge butterfly Euvanessa antiopa Linn. (Joh- annsen 1913), frit fly Oscinella frit Linn. (Col- lin 1918), Apanteles glomaraius Linn. (Gau- tier 1919), Aporia crataegi Linn. (Martelli 1931), Hemlock looper Ellopia fiseellaria Gn. Department of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, December 22, 1977. (Schedl 1931), Vanessa urticae Linn. (Zorin 1937), Sawfly Diprion pini Linn. (Often 1943), Melacosoma neustria Linn. (Romanova 1951) and Papilio demodocus Esp. (Abu Yaman 1973). This is apparently the first record of Pteromalus puparum Linn, parasitising pupa of Papilio demoleus Linn. Acknowledgements We are thankful to Dr. A. S. Sidhu, Pro- fessor and Head, Department of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana for providing the necessary facilities and to the Director, British Museum, Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, London for identifi- cation of the parasite. M. RAMZAN DARSHAN SINGH References Abu Yaman, I. K. (1973) : Biological studies on Collin, J. E. (1918) : A short summary of our the citrus leaf caterpillar, Papilio demodocus Esp. knowledge of frit fly. Ann. App. Biol. Cambridge, (Lepid., Papilonidae) in Saudi Arabia. Z. angnew. 5: 81-96. Ent. 72: 376-83. 931 .5 24 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Du Porte, E. M. (1914): Insect of 1913. 6th Ann. Rep. Quebeck. Soc. Prot. Plants, Insects and Fung. Dis., pp. 38-43. Gautier, Cl. (1919) : Recharches physiologiques et parasitologique sur les leaves de lepidopteres muisibles. C. R. Soc. Biol. Pahs 82: 720-21. Johannsen, O. A. (1913): Insect notes for 1912. Maine Agric. Expt. Station, Orono, 18 pp. Martelli, G. M., (1931) : Contribute alia cono- scenza dell’ Apcria crataegi L. e di alcuni Suio parassiti ed epiparassiti (A contribution to the knowledge of A. crataegi and some of its parasites and hyperparasites). Boll. Lab. Zool. Portici, 25: 171-241. Otten, E. (1943) : Chalcididen als Diprion — parasiten (Chalcidoids as parasites of Diprion). T.C., 108-26 (Abstr. in Z. pflKrankl). Romanova, Yu. S. (1951) : The biological con- trol of Malacosoma neustria (In Russian). Dokl. vsesoyuz. Akad. Sel. Khaz. Nauk Lenina 16: 30-34. Sacharov, N. (1915): Pests of mustard and methods of fighting them (preliminary observations). Report of Entomological station Abtrachan Society Fruit growing Market, Gardening and Agriculture, Abstrachan, 44 pp. Schedl, K. (1931) : Der Hemlock spanner, Ello- pia fiscellaria Hb und Seine naturlichen Feinde (The hemlock looper, E. fiscellaria Gn. and its natural enemies). Z. Angew. Ent. 18: 219-75. Zorin, P. V. (1937): A few data on the biology of Pteromalus puparum L. and its utilisation in the control of the cabbage and rape white butterfly (In Russian). Bull. Sta. reg. Prot. Plantes Leninger, 7: 13-17. 12. NEW RECORD OF D1MEROMICRUS VIBIDIA (WALKER) (HYMENOPTERA : TORYMIDAE), A PARASITE OF THE GALL FLY PROCECIDOCHA RES UT1L1S (STONE) (DIPTERA : TEPHRITIDAE) FROM NEPAL The gall fly Procecidochares utilis (Stone) is a serious pest of the crofton weed Eupato- rium adenophorum Sprengel and is employed for the control of this weed in many parts of the world. A hymenopterous parasite Dimeromicrus vibidia (Walker) (Torymidae) was reared from the larvae of this fruit fly in Kathmandu and this is the first record of the insect para- sitising P. utilis. The only other insect known to parasitise the insect in Hawaii is Opius tryoni (Cam.) (Dodd 1953). From 20 galls examined eight contained 16 larvae and 11 contained 21 pupae of the fruit fly, whereas six galls showed parasitisation by D. vibidia. Four larvae and seven pupae of the parasite were recovered. The parasitisation of the galls was noticed to be 30 per cent. Ack nowledge m e n ts We are grateful to Mr. D. R. Uprety, Dean, Institute of Science, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur for the facilities provided. We are also indebted to Dr. N. C. Pant, Director, Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, Lon- don for getting the parasite identified by Dr. Z. Boucek. V. C. KAPOOR Y. K. MALTA Zoology Instruction Committee, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal, September 8, 1978. Reference Dodd, A. P. (1953): Observation on the stem gall fly of pamakani Eupatorium glandulolosum. Proc. Hawaiian Ent. Soc. 15 : 41-44. 932 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 13. UROCTEA IN DlC A POCOCK (FAMILY : UROCTEIDAE) AS A NEW RECORD FROM RAJASTHAN, INDIA (With five text-figures) Fig. 1. Uroctea indica Pocock. Dorsal view of female, legs omitted. While studying a collection of spiders from Rajasthan, we came across two females of Uroctea indica which was described by Po- cock (1900)1 from Poona, Maharashtra. This is the only recorded species from India. The original description is very inadequate and without illustrations. In the present paper U . indica Pocock is redescribed and illustrated. Uroctea indica Pocock (Figs. 1-5) 1900. Uroctea indica Pocock, Fauna Brit. India, p. 243. Specimens exemined : 2 $ 9, India, Rajasthan, Indana, Dist. Nagaur, date, 4.ix.l960. Coll. B. Bis- was (Regd. No. 4317/18). General : Cephalothorax and legs reddish- brown, abdomen brownish-black. Total length 8.5 mm. Carapace 2.80 mm. long, 3.70 mm. wide; abdomen 6.30 mm. long, 4.30 mm. wide. Cephalothorax : Transversely reniform, strongly rebordered, clothed with hair. Radiat- ing black stripes diverge from foveal region to lateral sides of cephalothorax. Eyes compact, pearly white, arranged in two distinct rows. Anterior row of eyes slightly procurved (as seen from in front); medians larger than the laterals and closer to laterals than to each other. Posterior row of eyes slightly procurved, medians slightly smaller than the laterals, widely separated from each other, closer to the adjacent laterals. Median ocular quadrangle wider than long and wider behind than in front. Chelicerae weak, vertical, dorsally cloth- ed with hair, inner and outer margin without 1 Pocock, R. I. (1900): Fauna Brit. India, Arach- nida. p. 243. 933 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Figs. 2-5. Uroctea indica Pocock. 2. Labium and maxillae; 3. Spinnerets, ventral view; 4. Epigyne; 5. Internal genitalia. tooth. Labium wider than long, pentagonal in shape, maxillae convergent, clothed with hair and some spine like hair, shape as in fig. 2. Sternum heart-shaped, pointed behind, cloth- ed with long hair. Legs long, stout, clothed with hair and spines. Femur of all legs dorsal- ly provided with black and pale patches. Abdomen : Longer than wide, oval, clothed with spine like hair, dorsally provided with Zoological Survey of India, 14, Mad an Street, Calcutta- 13, April 25, 1978. 14. RECORDS OF PLANTS It will be interesting for students of botany to know the highest altitude in the world from where flowering plants have been collected. Sahni & Raizada (1955) during an expedi- tion to Pancha Chuli in 1951 collected Sedum three pairs of sigilla and some round white spots as in fig. 1. Ventral side slightly lighter than the dorsal, clothed with hair and provid- ed with four longitudinal white bands starting from epigastric furrow to the anal tubercle. Epigyne consisting of transversely elliptical plate and marked with nearly semicircular grooves in front as in fig. 4. Internal genitalia with oval spermathecae and three spermathe- cal ducts as in fig. 5. Spinnerets six, clothed with hair, posterior spinnerets longer than others, bisegmented, anterior spinnerets short, cylindrical as in fig. 3. The anal tubercle large, thick, bisegmented and clothed with long hair. The apical segment provided with a lateral fringe of long flexible hair. Distribution : India : Poona, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Indana, Dist. Nagaur. Ack nowledge m e n ts We are thankful to Dr. T. N. Anantha- krishnan. Director for providing necessary facilities and to Dr. S. K. Bhattacharya, Supe- rintending Zoologist, Arachnology Division, for going through the manuscript and offering valuable suggestions. Thanks are also due to Dr. B. K. Tikader, Deputy Director, Zoologi- cal Survey of India, Western Regional Station, Poona, for encouragement. U. A. GAJBE S. BHADRA AT HIGH ALTITUDES crenulatum Hk. f. & Th. from an altitude of 20,000 ft. Albert Zimmermann (1953), a botanist, who participated in the Everest Ex- pedition in 1952 had collected Arenaria, An- drosace (perhaps Androsace microphylla) and GROWING 934 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Sedum sp. from an altitude of 20,850 ft. In an earlier expedition to Kamat, F. Smythe found one plant at over 21000 ft. He threw it down to R. H. Holdsworth who was at the other end of his rope, but he failed to make the catch, and in the words of Holdsworth, “the adventurous crucifer, as its probably was, lost to science”. Later, Jayal (1956-57) in his 1955 Kamet Expedition reported two flowering plants col- lected by his party from an altitude of 21,000 ft. without giving their names. These plants are CCRIMH Unit, National Botanic Gardens, Lucknow, May 8, 1977. Ermania himalayensis (Camb.) O. E. Schultz ( Christolea himalayensis Camb.; Cheiranthus himalayensis Camb.) (Cruciferae) and Ranun- culus lobatus Jacq. ex Camb. (Ranunculaceae) now housed at the herbarium of the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun (Accession Nos. 118521 and 118522). A perusal of the available records shows these to be the highest growing flowering plants collected from the Himalayas so far. Since this information is not readily available, we are bringing it to the notice of the readers. N. C. SHAH D. P. BADOLA References Sahni, K. C. & Raizada, M. B. (1955): Obser- House, Museum Street, p. 135. vations on the vegation of Pancha Chuli. lnd. Jayal, N. D. (1955/57): The Mountain World Forester : 81: 300-317. (London, George Allen & Union Ltd., Ruskin Zimmerman, A. (1953): The Mountain World House, Museum Street), p. 145. (London, George Allen & Union Ltd., Ruskin 15. ADDITIONS TO POACEAE OF KARNATAKA STATE Except for Fischer’s account (1937) in the Flora of Presidency of Madras there is practi- cally no detailed enumeration on the Poaceae of Karnataka. Recently Razi (1973) has enu- merated 95 species from Bangalore district and Saldanha & Nicolson (1976) 135 species from Hassan district. Based on recent botanical ex- plorations of selected districts of Karnataka by the workers in Botanical Survey of India, a few interesting new records of grasses have been sent for publication. In the course of further studies, we have come across many species which are either new records or interesting from the distribu- tional point of view. A critical study of the herbarium specimens as well as a perusal of literature including the recently published floras reveals that the following species have not been recorded from Karnataka. Arundi- nella intricata has been recorded for the first time from Peninsular India. Species like Aris - tida stocksii, Arundinella spicata, Arthraxon purandharensis and Ischaemum tumidum which were regarded as restricted to Maha- rashtra State only, are now known to extend to Karnataka as well. Similarly Garnotia courtallensis earlier recorded from only Kerala and Tamil Nadu has been reported from Chikmagalur district (Karnataka). In the pre- sent paper aspects of distribution are discussed briefly. 935 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 All the specimens have been deposited in the regional herbarium of the Botanical Sur- vey of India (BSI). Agrostis pilosula Trin. Fischer reports it from Nilgiris and Pulney hills only and this has now been collected from Bababudan hills at a similar high altitude of 1200 m extending the area of distribution. Chikmagalur district : Bababudan, Ragha- van 132431. Aristida stoeksii (Hook, f.) Domin According to Bor (1960) the species is con- fined to the Concan and that “there is only a single gathering of the grass”. However, this species, though infrequent, has been subsequ- ently collected from Pune and Aurangabad districts of Maharashtra. There is a single mis- identified sheet from Belgaum collected by Woodrow, which on scrutiny is referable to this species and hence it is a new report for Karnataka. Belgaum district : Belgaum, Woodrow 816. Artliraxon purandharensis Bharucha The type locality is from Purandhar and though Jain (1972) states that it has not been collected since the original collection, this species is quite frequent at Khandala ghats (Maharashtra) and has been recorded from Mt. Abu (Rajasthan) as well. This distinct species is normally misidentified or confused with A. meeboldii Stapf which it very closely resembles, hence the rarity. This has now been recorded from Chikmagalur and Coorg districts of Karnataka State thereby extending its distribution further south along the West- ern ghats. Coorg district: Talacauvery, A. S. Rao 95138. Chikmagalur district : Kemmangundi, Rag- havan 132386, 132397, 132529; Abbe falls, Raghavan 132581, 132097; Balur, Raghavan 126132. Shimoga district : Jog falls, Raghavan 134482. Arundiuella intricate Hughes This species has been so far recorded only from eastern India. The present report from Chikmagalur district is thus a new record for peninsular India and reveals discontinuous distribution. Chikmagalur district : Abbe falls, Raghavan 134011. A. spicata Dalz. This pretty annual has so far been regarded as endemic to Maharashtra only, but the re- cent collections extend its distribution further south along the Western Ghats. Chikmagalur district : Balur, Raghavan 126111; Kemmangundi, Raghavan 125505; Kotegehar, Raghavan 1262 12A. Cymfoopogois polyneuros (Steud.) Stapf This grass is confined to the Nilgiris in peninsular India and has now been recorded from Chikmagalur district as well. Chikmagalur district : Balur reserve forest, Khisti 120686. Echinochloa pyramidalis (Lamk.) Hitchc. et Chase A native of tropical Africa, this has been recently introduced in India but without any precise locality. The present report from Coorg in the wild state is hence interesting. Coorg district: Kanbite water tank, Sunti- koppa, A. S. Rao 86695. Eulalia ftmbrlata (Hack.) O. Ktze. According to Bor (1960), the distribution extends to “South India” but there is no re- 936 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES cord of its collection either by Fischer or in any recently published flora. Cooke (1908) reports it for Maharashtra and the present col- lections thus extend it to Karnataka also. Chikmagalur district : Bharatibyle, Khisti 120850, Kudremukh, Raghavan 134289. Garnotia courtallensis (Arn. et Nees) Thw. It has been so far recorded from Kerala and Tamil Nadu at altitudes of 1800-2000 m and this has been collected from Bababudan ran- ges from similar elevations. Chikmagalur district : Bababudan, Ragha- van 125894; Dhupagagiri, Raghavan 125650; Bhagavati, Raghavan 126369. Isachne globosa (Thunb.) O. Ktze. var. effusa (Trin. ex Hook, f.) Senaratna. Singh & Deshpande (1973) had reported this variety from Goa as a new record for India. However, though infrequent, this species also occurs in Karnataka, extending its distri- bution along Western Ghats. North Kanara district : Belvatgi, Arora 43705. Coorg district : Kalhalla, Arora 42084. Ischaemom tumidum Stapf ex Bor As to the distribution of this remarkable Botanical Survey of India, Western Circle, 7 Koregaon Road, Poona 411001, June 18, 1977. R E F E ] Bor, N. L. (1951): Some New Indian grasses, Kew Bull. 445-453. (1960): The Grasses of Burma, Ceylon, India & Pakistan. Pergamon Press, U.K. Cooke, T. (1908): Flora of Bombay Presidency 2: 817-1083, England. Fischer, C. E. C. (1937): Flora of the Presid- ency of Madras, 10: 1689-1864. England. Jain, S. K. (1972): The genus Arthraxon P. Beauv (Poaceae) in India. /. Indian bot. Soc. 51 grass Bor (1951) mentions “Concan” (Mad- ras State) and Khandafa (Maharashtra). A critical study of the herbarium specimen re- cords that this species has so far been collect- ed only from Maharashtra. Fischer has also not included it for Madras Presidency, but the present collections indicate its occurrence in Karnataka as well. North Kanara district : Sirsi, Jain 29889. Shimoga district : Hosuru, Raghavan 68050. Coorg district : Makut, A. S. Rao 95319. Mkrostegiom cillatom (Trin.) A. Camus This species is quite common along the Nil- giris and Palni hills and the present collec- tion from Chikmagalur at an elevation of 1400 m confirms its occurrence on hill tops. Chickmagalur district : Mulainagiri, Ragha- van 134113. Acknowledgement We are thankful to the Director, Botanical Survey of India, Howrah for facilities offered in carrying out the above work. R. S. RAGHAVAN N. P. SINGH U. R. DESHPANDE B. G. KULKARNI ENCES (2): 165-177. Ramaswamy. S. V. & Razi, B. A. (1973): Flora of Bangalore district Prasaranga, University of Mysore. Mysore. Saldanha, C. J. & Nicolson, D. H. (1976): Flora of Hassan district, Karnataka. Amerind Publishing Co. (P) Ltd., New Delhi. Singh, N. P. & Deshpande, U. R. (1973): Re- port of an endemic Ceylonese grass from India. Ind. For. 99(11): 674-75. 937 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 16. THE GENUS OPHIOGLOSSUM IN RAJASTHAN Ophioglossum was last surveyed in Raja- sthan by Mital in 1968 when he recorded four species of the genus from Mt. Abu ( O . reticu- latum, O. gramineum, O. nudicaule and O. costatum) and one from Ajmer (O. petiola- turn). A recent survey indicates that the genus is widely distributed in Rajasthan. The speci- fic identification in this genus is based on stem character, shape of the leaf and aereoles in the leaf, we now record the following new locali- ties for this genus in this State. All these loca- lities are in the humid regions of the State and the genus is completely absent from the semi-arid zones. A brief description of all the localities where this genus has so far been found follows: mt. abu — is the richest locality for this genus since all the five species known from Rajasthan have now been recorded by us. Thus Toad rock area contains O. reticulatum and O. nudicaule. On way to Dilwara temple O. petiolatum and O. gramineum were record- ed. On Trevor Toll road bifurcation we found O. petiolatum and O. gramineum. M.I.G. area on way to Gomukh contains O. costatum (pure stands), O. petiolatum and O. grami- neum (mixed with grasses) and O. reticulatum (pure stand). Similarly O. petiolatum was re- corded near Kodra dam. This species was also collected from Adhar Devi and on way to sun-set point. According to Mital (1968) this species is not found at Mt. Abu. Instead he records O. reticulatum from Adhar Devi which we could not find. The wide distribution of the genus at Mt. Abu is interesting by way of dynamics of species differentiation, a fact not emphasized by any of the earlier workers. Thus while pure stands of all these species were observed, certain spots showed contiguity of more than one species and in certain cases two distinct species were found in close pro- ximity as recorded earlier by Balakrishnan et al. (1960) in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Thus on a sloppy grassland on way to Dil- wara temple and in M.I.G. area O. petiola- tum and O. gramineum were found intermingl- ed. A certain sequence could also be made out in our field observations regarding the occur- rence of these species. Thus O. petiolatum appears first around July and continues till November or even later. O. gramineum ap- pears much later (October) and is on the verge of disappearing by the end of Novem- ber. O. costatum seems to be most sensitive to moisture and dries up faster than the other species. kumbhalgarh hills — This locality which is an extension of Mt. Abu hills on the north eastern side contains only O. petiolatum which occurs with a low frequency. However, this locality is a new record for this genus. aimer — This locality contains only O. petio- latum distributed in Nag Pahar and Antade hillocks around Ajmer as mentioned by Mital (1968). We found that the number of leaves produced per season corresponds to the period of precipitation. In the year 1975 and 1976 when excessive rainfall was recorded at this locality plants with six leaves were frequently observed by us. mainal — situated about 60 km south west of Bundi, is again a new locality for this genus. Here again four species of the genus ( O . costatum, O. petiolatum, O. nudicaule and O . gramineum ) were recorded. It forms thus the second richest area for the genus. Again, like Mt. Abu, stands containing intermingled populations of O. costatum and O. gramineum were also observed. bundi — The genus has been recorded for 938 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES the first time from three spots around Bundi. At Bhimlat (about 10 km from Bundi) O. costatum and O. petiolatum were found. How- ever the two species were found growing in separate stands. A few plants of O. petiolatum were also seen at Gudha dam just near Bundi. Similarly dense patches of O. costatum were found growing at Ramjhar Mahadev near Bundi. kota— O. petiolatum has been recorded for the first time from Bhitaria Kund. O. costatum was also recorded from Kanyadeh, Sitabari forest about 120 km east of Kota. Dense pat- ches of O. costatum and a few plants of O. Dept, of Botany, Govt. College, Ajmer, June 13, 1977. gramineum were also found at Atru about 100 km. south east of Kota. This is the third locality where the two species grow together. Aspects of contiguity and intermingling of the different species are being investigated in details in this laboratory. Ack no wledge ment Thanks are due to Dr. B. V. Ratnam, Prin- cipal, Government College, Ajmer for facili- ties to carry out this survey. University Grants Commission provided financial assistance for this survey. O. P. SHARMA T. N. BHARDWAIA C. B. GENA References Balakrishanan, N. P., Thothathri, K. & Rajasthan III : Hitherto unrecorded spedes of Op- Henry, A. N. (1960): Some Indian Ophioglossums hioglossum from Rajasthan. Bull. Bot. Surv. India —Taxonomy and distribution. Bull. Bot. Surv. India. 10: 171-176. 2: 335-339. (1969): Ferns and Fern allies of Mital, P. L. (1968): Ferns and Fern allies of Rajasthan. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 66: 31-42. 17. TAXONOMICAL NOTES ON A FEW SPECIES OF AD1ANTUM Baker described Adiantum wattii Baker (in Jour. Linn. Soc. 18: 381, t. 14 f. A, 1881) based on Watt’s collections from Chamba, Pangi, in Western Himalayas and A. levingei Baker (in Ann. Bot. 5: 207, 1891) based on Levinge’s collection from Sikkim, Chingtang, in the Eastern Himalayas. Beddome in his sup- plement to the HANDBOOK TO THE FERNS OF BRITISH INDIA (p. 18), 1892, reduced A. wattii Baker to a variety of A. capillus-veneris Linn, and kept A. levingei Baker in synonymy. Hope (J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 13: 240, 1900) while retaining the specific rank of A. wattii Baker, also considered A. levingei Baker as conspecific and this view appears to have been accepted by all later workers on Indian ferns. On a comparative study of the materials of A. wattii Baker and A. levingei Baker (isotypes and other mate- rials) housed in the Central National Herbar- ium, Sibpur, Howrah (CAL), we have come to the conclusion that both are distinct species and can be identified by the following key: — 939 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Sorus oblong or elongate-oblong; pinnule slightly lobed; scale triangular, margin serrulate, base truncate; indusium yellowish when dry A. wattii Sorus obreniform; pinnule deeply lobed; scale lanceolate, entire, base rounded; indusium grey- ish when dry A. levingei Available evidence at hand indicates that A. wattii Baker is confined to Western Hima- layas and A. levingei Baker to Eastern Hima- layas. Although we have not seen any type mate- rial of A. refractum Christ (Bull. Ac. Geog. Bot. Mans. 202, 1902), a study of the descrip- tion as well as the figure of A refractum Christ given by Ching in leones Filicum Sinicarum (Fasc. 8 : t. 137, 1935) reveals that all the Sikkim materials of A. levingei Baker men- tioned below are referable to A. refractum Christ. Dr. S. C. Verma of the Panjab Uni- versity, Chandigarh, has also written on the Sikkim sheets previously identified as A. levin- gei Baker) collected by Levinge, present in CAL, as A. refractum Christ. If A. refractum Christ and A. levingei Baker are conspecific the latter name alone should be correct on the basis of priority. Materials examined: (All materials are from CAL unless otherwise in- dicated). A. wattii Baker; Cheri, Pangi, Chamba, alt. 7000', /. H. Lace 1876 (Acc. Nos. 41066, 41067), Sept. 1898; Pangi, /. C. Macdonell s.n. (Acc. No. 6043), Aug. 1882; Killar-Lahul Road, Chamba, Pangi, alt. 7500', James Mar- tin s.n. (Acc. No. 6042), Aug. 1899. A. levingei Baker; Chingtang, Sikkim, alt. 3000', H. C. Levinge s.n. (Acc. Nos. 6012, 6013, 6018, 6019, 6024, 6025, 6026, 6032, H.C. Levinge s.n. (Acc. Nos. 6014, 6016, 6028, 6033, 6039 Isotypes ), Nov. 1882; Sikkim, 6029, 6030, 6031), Oct. 1883; Anonymous s.n. (Acc. Nos. 6015, 6017, 6022, 6023, 6027, 6034, 6035, 6036, 6037, 6038); Shergaon to Gcgaon, Kameng F.D., NEFA, G. Panigrahi 15905 (Acc. No. 5462), May 20, 1958, Assam. A. emarginatum Bory was described in Will- denov’s Species Plantarum. (5 : 449, 1810). Hooker (Sp. Fil. 39, 1858) recognised the spe- cies. But, its specific status was questioned by later workers. In ferns of British india (1: 18, 1866) Beddome recorded the species from Madras Peninsula based on a collection of Wight. He remarked that, “I have not been fortunate enough to find it unless I have con- founded it with A . aethiopicum,\ In his hand- book TO THE FERNS OF BRITISH INDIA (1883) he did combine the two species. C. Christen- sen (Ind. Fil. 26, 1906) expressed the view that A. emarginatum Bory is a variety of A. capillus-veneris Linn. To ascertain the taxo- nomic status of A. emarginatum Bory we have taken up a critical study of the species involv- ed and concluded that A. emarginatum Bory is a distinct species, A key to distinguish A. emarginatum, A. capillus-veneris and A. aeth- iopicum is provided below. Sori oblong : Fronds membranous; pinnules obcordate, cune- ate, sinus shallow, sorus covering the entire breadth of the lobe A. emarginatum Fronds not membranous; pinnules ovate or triangular, sinus deep, sorus covering only the middle part of the lobe. A. capillus-veneris Sori reniform or obreniform A. aethiopicum Material examined (The specimens are from CAL). Malacca, Anonymous s.n. (Acc. No. 6053); Malaya, Anonymous s.n. (Acc. No. 6052), 1879. On the Malaccan sheet, Beddome has written that “This Malaccan plant is A. emar- ginatum Bory as referred by Hooker”. Of the three species involved here only A. capillus-veneris appears to be present in India. 940 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Plants hitherto reported as A. aethiopicum Linn, from India are A. thalictroides Willd. (See Nair and Ghosh 1975). The presence of A. emarginatum Bory in India is also doubt- Botanical Survey of India, Indian Botanic Garden, Sibpur, Howrah-711 103, May 20, 1978. Reference Nair, N. C. and Ghosh, S. R. (1978): Does Adiantum aethiopicum Linn, exist in India? /. Bom- bay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 (1) : 244-247. ful since we could not come across even a single specimen from India in CAL as well as in the various regional herbaria of the Botanical Survey of India. N. C. NAIR1 S. R. GHOSH 1 Present Address : Botanical Survey of India, R. S. Puram, Coimbatore-641002. 18. ADDITIONS TO THE FLORA OF BIHAR AND ORISSA-II The 10 species of plants reported in the paper as new records for Bihar and Orissa, were collected by the authors during botani- cal collections in Ganjam, Bhubaneswar, Ba- rang, Dhenkanal, Bhitarkanika and tidal forests of river Brahmani in Orissa. Cyperus piifoisquama DC. Ganjam: Paniganda, in forest, fr. 27.i.75. Saxena 8c Brahmam 1933. Bhubaneswar, occasional in scrub forest, fl. 25.vii.74. Brahmam 1933. Dhenkanal: Saptasajya forest, fr. 23.i.76. Saxena 2111. Distribution : From Assam and Burma to Perak — Malay Islands and Sri Lanka. Fimforistylls polytrichoides Vahl Cuttak: Bhitarkanika, common in saline soil, fl. 8.iii.75. Saxena 8c Brahmam 1686. Distribution : From Bengal to Sri Lanka and Malacca, common near the sea. — Tropics of the Old World. Hydrocera triflora (Linn.) W. & A. Cuttack: Barang, aquatic, fl. and fr. 13.vii.75. Saxena 1774. Distribution : Throughout Bengal, the East- ern and Western Peninsula, Sri Lanka and Burma. — Java. Jatropha glandulifera Roxb. Bhubaneswar: Kedargouri, fl. 4.iv.75. Sax- ena 8c Brahmam 1746. Distribution : Deccan Peninsula from the Konkan southwards; Sri Lanka. — Tropical Africa. Momordica cocliinchioensis (Lour.) Spreng. Bhubaneswar, rare under tree shade, fl. l.viii.75. Brahmam 1780; Saxena 8c Brahmam 1787. Distribution : Assam, Bengal, North West Frontier Provinces, Peninsular India, Anda- mans, Burma, Malaya. — China. Miicuna gigantea DC. Tidal forests of Brahmani, fr. 9.iii.75. Saxena 8c Brahmam 1694. Distribution : Sundribans, plains of Western Peninsula, Andamans; Malaya — Philippines, Polynesia. Oldesilaedia bifSora Linn. Bhubaneswar: Kedargouri; on moist shady walls, fl. and fr. 4.iv.75. Saxena 8c Brahmam mi. 941 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Distribution : Plains districts of the eastern and western coasts; Karnataka; Sri Lanka. Neopeltandra saiberosa (Muell.-Arg.) Gamble Cuttack: Barang, roadsides, fl. 23.V.76. Saxena 2319. Distribution : Deccan Peninsula; Samalkota. Pittosporum siepaulense (DC.) Rehder & Wilson Ganjam: Koinpur, in the mixed forest, fr. 3.xi.73. Saxena 1228. Local name : Prushparni. Distribution : Along the foot of the outer Himalayas in Assam, Bhutan, Tibet, Sikkim and Nepal. Sphaerantliiis africanus Linn. Cuttack: Dangmal, in open grass ponds near rice fields close to river Brahmani, fl. 8.iii.75. Saxena & Brahmam 1651. Distribution : Plains of Bengal and Silhet and southwards to Sri Lanka and Malacca. — Persia, Africa, Malay Islands, China, Philip- pines and Australia. Acknowledgements We are grateful to Prof. P. K. Jena, Direc- tor, Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubanes- war and to Dr. P. K. Dutta, Project Coordi- nator for facilities and to the Director and staff of the Botanical Survey of India, Howrah for their cooperation and the facilities provid- ed for consulting the Herbarium. H. O. SAXENA M. BRAHMAM Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar-751 004, May 5, 1977. 19. NOTES ON DISTRIBUTION OF SOME PLANTS During a recent botanical exploration tour to Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh I came across several plants which do not seem to have been reported so far from Arunachal Pradesh. Some of them are of economic im- portance, and hence it is considered useful to notify their occurrence in Kameng. The speci- mens are deposited in the Herbarium of Bota- nical Survey of India at Shillong. As the des- cription of the plants are available in floras no detailed description are provided here. Only a brief note on habit or habitat is given. Cymbopogan flexoosus (Notes ex Steud.) Wats. var. sikkimensis Bor, is an aromatic white-stemmed grass known as “Lemon- grass”. It has so far been known from Siki- kim. The present collection was made from Tenka valley in Kameng District. Loc: Tenga Valley, 31.8.76, Hajra 68539. Cynibopogon khasianus Stapf ex Bor, is another aromatic grass which has so far been known from Khasi Hills, Naga Hills and Manipur. The present collection from Lumla and Tenga valley of Kameng District extends its distribution further northwards into East- ern Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh. Loc: Lumla, 24.8.76, Hajra 68505; Tenga valley, 31.8.76, Hajra 68538. Cynibopogon martini! (Roxb.) Watson is also an aromatic grass. Though Bor (1960) has mentioned very common in South East Asia in North-eastern India it has so far been recorded from Nagaland and Khasi Hills only. The present collection was made from Tenga valley in Kameng district. The species can be easily identified by the presence of sessile and aromatic leaves. It grows in open places on the hill slopes. The plant yields aromatic oil. 942 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Loc: Tenga valley, 31.8.76, Hajra 68540. Diplomeris hirsuta Lindl. is a ground or- chid with white flowers. It has so far been known from Western Himalaya and east- wards to Sikkim and Bhutan. The present col- lection from Bongleng-Bomja road extends its distribution further in Eastern Himalayas. The plant grows in shady places on moss covered-rocks. Loc.: Bongleng-Bomja Road, 26.8.76, Hajra 68523. Impatiens amplexicaelis Edgew. is a herb with sessile leaf and small white flowers. It has so far been known from Western Himalaya and Nepal. The present collection from Ta- wang extends its distribution further to Aruna- chal Pradesh. Loc.: Tawang, 15.8.76, Hajra 6A131. Nardostachys jatamaiisi DC. is a herb root stock covered with fibres. It has so far been known from Western Himalaya and Sikkim. The present collection from Mela pass of Tawang sub-division extends its distribution eastwards. It is a valuable medicinal plants. Loc.: Mela pass, around Tawang, 15.8.76, Hajra 64750. Picrorhiza kerrooa Benth. is another her- baceous plant with spathulate, subradical. Botanical Survey of India, Eastern Circle, Shillong, March 18, 1977. serrated leaves and bitter rootstock. It has so far been known from Kashmir to Sikkim. The present collection from Tawang surroundings extends its distribution to Arunachal Pradesh. It is a valuable medicinal plants. Loc.: Around Tawang, 15.8.76, Hajra 64756. Pinos roxburgfaii Sargent is a large tree with 3-4 needles. It has so far been known from Kashmir to Bhutan. The present collection from Kameng District extends its distribution further to Arunachal Pradesh. Loc.: Bomja — Seru Road, 27.8.76, Hajra 68518. Saesserea obvallata Wall, is a herb with membranous uppermost leaves. It has so far been known from Western Himalaya, Bhutan and Sikkim. The plant grows in open places amidst rocks. Loc.: Mangmagnella, on way to Mela pass. 16.8.76, Hajra 64801. Acknowledgement I wish to thank Dr. S. K. Jain, Deputy Director, Botanical Survey of India, Eastern Circle, Shillong for kindly reading through and suggesting improvements. P. K. HAJRA 20. DISPERSAL IN SOME LORANTHACEAE OF THE NILGIRIS The semi-plant parasites of the mistletoe family Loranthaceae, have a dispersal system that in almost all cases is linked up with birds. Loranthaceae has a world wide distribution and in different regions, different birds, or families of birds, play a significant role in the propagation of this parasite. Most of the birds that feed on mistletoe berries are unspecial- ised frugivorous birds. Certain avian families have evolved a mutual interdependance with this plant. Significant among them is the Old World flowerpeckers, Dicaeidae, a family 943 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 recognised to have a close relationship with the family Loranthaceae as dispersal agents as well as pollinators. I was able to make some observations on the dispersal of the various species of loran- thus in the Nilgiris. The mode of dispersal of the loranthus by the flowerpecker (Dic- aeum spp.) is well documented by Rumphius (1747)*, Keeble (1901), van Heurn (1922)*, Ali (1931) and Doctors van Leeuwen (1954). The sticky seed surrounded by the viscous matter is swallowed and the rind-like epicarp is discarded. The seeds are soon voided in a string accompanied by some comical acroba- tics by the bird. The seeds stick on to or along a branch or twig and germinate. Ali (1931) observed the thickbilled flowerpecker (Dic- aeum agile ) follow a different technique in dispersing the seeds. According to him the flesh is teased out by revolving the fruit in the mandibles of the bird, and consumed, while the seed is rubbed off onto a branch. Doctors van Leeuwen (1954) do not accept this method of dispersal by the flowerpecker. According to Weeraratna (I960)* in Ceylon, the flowerpecker is only interested in the pulp of the berry and the seed is swallowed only occasionally. In the Nilgiris nearly all the species of loran- thus were found to be dispersed by the first method, usually by Dicaeum concolor, the most common species of flowerpecker in the hills. Whether passage through the alimentary canal of the flowerpecker improves the germi- nation potential of the loranthus berry is an open question. Seeds of many of the species of loranthus in the Nilgiris seem capable of germinating without having passed through the alimentary canal of the bird. However, in certain species like Dendrophthoe neelgher- rensis passage through the bird’s intestine seems to greatly facilitate germination, as the turbid flesh coating the seed is removed. Keeble (1901) noted that in small seeded ber- ries like Helixanthera hookeriana (in Ceylon), the soft seed got partly digested in the alimen- tary canal of the bird. This was not found to be the case in H. hookeriana in the Nilgiris. The two species of Macrosolen in the Nil- giris are dispersed by different methods. The berry of Macrosolen differs from Helixan- thera, Taxillus, Scurrula, Helicanthes and Dendrophthoe in having a mass of viscid tis- sue at the pole opposite the radicle, near the base of the fruit: whereas in the other species the viscid tissue is at the radicular pole of the seed (Kuijt 1969). The viscid tissue in Macrosolen forms a sticky ‘tail’ and is distinct from the fleshy layer which adheres to the epi- carp. Ali (1931) noted that Dendrophthoe falcata had two thread like viscid processes one at each end of the seed which helps it to adhere along its length to the substrate. In Macrosolen the viscid tail at one end of the s6ed and attaches it at an angle to the sub- strate. The fruiting of Macrosolen parasiticus a higher elevation loranthus, is from October to May. The fruit has a very thin epicarp and a large amount of fleshy tissue adhering to it. The width of the fruit is 8-10 mm, and as- sumes a deep bottle green colour when ripe. In this area the flowerpecker appears to have little to do with its dispersal. The large amount of fleshy tissue adhering to the epi- carp, and the size of the fruit possibly makes it difficult for the flowerpecker to consume in its usual fashion. Birds observed feeding on the fruits were Pycnonotus jocosus, P. cafer, Hypsi petes madagascariensis and Megalaima viridis. These birds swallowed the fruit whole and excreted the undamaged seeds singly with the slimy tail retained. The slimy tail got caught on to a substrate and attached the seed 944 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES to it. Thus in the Nilgiris it was observed that the unspecialised frugivorous birds contribut- ed to the dispersal of Macrosolen parasiticus. In Ceylon, Keeble (1901) noted that whole berries of M. parasiticus were found in the stomach of frugivorous birds, whereas the flowerpecker stomachs contained only the flesh of the berry and an occasional seed. Pos- sibly the birds had consumed the flesh and rubbed off the seed onto a branch. In Macrosolen capitellatus, a species com- mon on the slopes of the Nilgiris upto an ele- vation of 1500 m, the fruit is dispersed by the flowerpecker by a different technique. The fruit in this case has a thick epicarp and its width is 8-9. 5mm. The species of flowerpecker observed feeding on these berries was Dicaeum concolor, the common flowerpecker in this area. The bird plucked off a berry from the clump and flew with it to a bare branch or twig. The stalk end of the berry was held in its bill, the seed was squeezed out and the flesh eaten by manipulating the berry in its Research Scholar, Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbiil House, S. B. Singh Road, Bombay-400 023, November 9, 1978. R E F E ] Ali, S. A. (1931): The role of the sunbirds and the flowerpeckers in the propagation and distribu- tion of the tree-parasite Loranthus longiflorus Desr., in the Konkan, J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 35 : 144. van Leeuwen, W. M. (1954): On the Biology of some Javanese Loranthaceae and the role birds mandibles. After the flesh was removed the epicarp was discarded and the seed which was stuck onto one side of the birds bill was rubbed off onto a branch. This exercise takes the birds about 45-60 seconds. Eight D. con- color were observed for over an hour on 17 clumps of M. capitellatus which were parasi- tising a Ficus sp. Observations were also made in different places and in all cases Dicaeum concolor was found to eat the berry in this manner. With other species of loranthus this bird employs the ordinary method of feeding. The feeding method of D. agile appears to be similar to the one described above, though I have not been able to make observations on D. agile feeding. It would be of interest to know whether the technique of the bird varies with the fruit encountered (as in D. concolor ), or if a technique is specific to a species of bird. More information on the dispersal sys- tems of the different species of loranthus in India would certainly be useful. PRIYA DAVIDAR ENCES play in their life-history. Beaufortia, Misc. Publ. 4: 105-207. Keeble, F. W. (1901): Observations on the Loranthaceae of Ceylon. Transact. Linn. Soc. Lon- don 5: 91-117, Kuijt, J. (1969): The Biology of Parasitic Flowering Plants. University of California Press. * Not referred to in the original. 945 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 21. A NOTE ON SOME ENTOMOGENOUS FUNGI ATTACKING PRESERVED DRAGONFLY COLLECTIONS Introduction Fungi are the biggest hazard to insects in preservation cabinets. Several instances of fungal attack on preserved and stored insect material have been reported earlier (Wegstaffe & Fidler 1955; Oldroyd 1963; Ray Chaud- huri et al. 1975). It seems, useful to give a brief account of atleast some of the fungi which commonly attack dragonflies dry- stored in collection cabinets and the methods to be effectively used to prevent their appearance within the containers. Observations No less than six different species of fungi were obtained on an examination of about 100 dragonfly specimens of either sex and belong- ing to four (two zygopterans and two anisop- terans) species namely Prodasineura autum- nalls, Rhinocypha quadrimaculata, Trithemis f estiva, and T. aurora. The fungus species as recorded on these dragonflies are Entomoph - thora destruens, Entomophthora sp., Mucor sp., Spicaria sp., Tarichium sp. No. 1 and Tarichium sp. No. 2. The six fungi species are new records as far as their host materials are concerned. It is interesting to note that no two different species of fungi have ever been found together on any individual host, how- ever, the same saprophytic fungus may be found on individuals of many species also. It was found that the organs and parts usually subject to fungal attack were compa- ratively feebly chitinized and/or membranous, e.g., intersegmental membranes of the abdo- men. Body pores and genitalia were, however. among the worst affected parts. As a result of such infestation the material becomes brittle losing many parts of taxonomic significance. Control The following control methods could be of great use in coping with the fungal growth on dry preserved material in collection cabinets. 1. Drying of the material in the hot sun for atleast six hours for a week. 2. Spraying of powdered Para dichloroben- zene and/or naphthalene along the inner walls of the box. 3. Putting rolls of cotton soaked in Ethyl acetate in the corners of the box. 4. When the infestation is heavy and ap- parent the specimens can be cleaned by brush- ing out with a solution of glacial phenol in benzene in the ratio 1:10 or in dilute formal- dehyde. 5. The best method to prevent the occur- rence of fungus is to put a ball of cotton wool (about an inch in diameter) soaked in carbolic acid and then placing it on a stout pin. When the acid is recrystalized on the cotton wool, then the ball can be pinned in the drawer. 6. Damp and consequent moulds can be checked to some extend by placing a small perforated tin box containing silica jel in each drawer. Acknowledgements We are grateful to Dr. S. K. Sangal and Dr. S. K. Kulshrestha (both of the Depart- ment of Zoology, D.A.V. (P.G.) College, Dehradun, India) for their constant encourage- ment and help rendered during the prepara- 946 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES tion of this paper. Thanks are also due to Mr. S. N. Sachan, Botany Department, D.A.V. Department of Zoology, D. A. V. (P.G.) College, Dehra Dun, U.P., India, April 26, 1978. (P.G.) College, Dehradun for having kindly identified the fungus species for this paper. BRIJ KISHORE TYAGI VIJAY VEER References Oldroyd, H. (1963): Collecting, Preserving and studying insects, Hutchinson, Scientific and Techni- cal, London, 1-321. Ray Chaudhurt, S. P. et al. (1975) : Advances in Mycology at Plant Pathology. Prof. R. N. Tan- don Birthday Celebration Committee, New Delhi, 1-341. Wagstaffe, R. & Fidler, J. H. (1955) : The pre- servation of natural history specimens. H. F. & G. Willwerley Ltd., London, XIII + 198. 947 YU Ad 'l ' -A d . - - ■ ‘ell > d 1 l . ' i ‘ ?DAYT ;Y / _ Y 5AI3V YAlliV mm * . , '■ ■ -o*l AT :(im) .1Z .1 A - A A' .0 & A A A- ->.:Ai YdrT ^ ' •/ ' A : , A - ' •, • Mi y:AC A A *v • •• •' A . Ill v THE SOCIETY’S PUBLICATIONS Mammals The Book of Indian Animals, by S. H. Prater. 4th edition (revised). 28 plates in colour by Paul Barruel and many other monochrome illustrations, (in Press) The Ecology of the Lesser Bandicoot Rat in Calcutta, by James Juan Spillett. Rs. 10 Birds The Book o£ Indian Birds, by Salim Ali. 10th (revised) edition. 70 coloured and many monochrome plates. Rs. 45 (Price to members Rs. 40) Checklist o£ the Birds of Maharashtra, by Humayun Abdulali. Rs. 2.50 (Price to members Rs. 2) Checklist of the Birds of Delhi, Agra and Bharatpur, by Humayun Abdulali & J. D. Panday. 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Account No. 1101091. . subscription of members elected in October, November, and December covers the V'> i the date of their election to the end of the following year. - i CONTENTS i)r> Page Editorial i Bombay Natural History Society — The Founders, the Builders and the Guardians — Part I. By Salim Ali . . 559 Changes in the bird fauna of a forest area: Simlipal Hills, Mayurbhanj District, and Dhenkanal District, Orissa. By S. Dillon Ripley . . 570 Forest Days. By Tom Norman . . 575 How Man modifies climate. By Anna Mani . . 580 Recent advances in inland aquaculture in India, By V. G. Jhingran . . 589 A COMPARATIVE FIELD STUDY OF THE INDIAN AND NEW ZEALAND REPRESENTATIVES OF the Genus Ruppia Linnaeus. By Charles McCann . . 600 The shape of the shell of the chambered Nautilus. By Nathaniel Grossman . . 611 Emotive kinships in the study of mammals. By M. Krishnan .. 613 Moth migration in Mombasa — 1955/1977. By D. G. Sevastopulo . . 618 Microarthropods and soil ecosystems. By T. N. Ananthakrishnan . . 625 The changing Wildlife of Kathiawar. By K. S. Dharmakumarsinhji .. 632 The present status of.mahseer (fish) and artificial propagation of Tor khudree (Sykes). By C. V. Kulkarni and S. N. Ogale .. 651 Oceanographic research in India — past, present and future. By S. Z. Qasim . . 661 The status of Gharial ( Gavialis gangeticus ) in U.P. and its rehabilitation. By V. B. Singh . . 668 Rare and threatened flowering plants of south India. By A. N. Henry, K. Vivekananthan and N. C. Nair . . 684 Bilateral symmetry in the reproductive structures of some palms. By T. Antony Davis and C. Bhattacharya . . 698 On factors governing the distribution of wild mammals in Karnataka. By S. Narendra Prasad, P. Vijayakumaran Nair, H. C. Sharatchandra and Madhav Gadgil . . 718 The birds of Great and Car Nicobars with some notes on wildlife conserva- tion in the islands. By Humayun Abdulali . . 744 Ecology of the black-and-orange flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa (Jerdon) in southern India. By Mohammad Ali Reza Khan 773 Rodent research in India. By Ishwar Prakash . . 792 Proto-fiddlers and fiddlers: Pathways to waving in Indian Brachyuran crabs. By Rudolf Altevogt . . 800 Competition and co-existence in Griffon vultures: Gyps bengalensis, G. indicus and G. fulvus in Gir forest. By Robert B. Grubh . . 810 Distribution and status of the Nilgiri Tahr ( Hemitragus hylocrius ) — 1975-78. By E. R. C. Davidar . . 815 Peregrine falcon. By S. M. Osman . . 845 Notes on the Green Keelback snake ( Macropisthodon plumbicolor) . By Thomas Gay . . 854 Population change of the Hanuman Langur ( Presbytis entellus), 1961-1976, in Dharwar area, India. By Yukimara Sugiyama and M. D. Parthasarathy . . 860 The Nanda Devi Sanctuary — 1977. By Lavkumar Khacher . . 868 Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and its adjacent areas. By V. S. Vijayan . . 888 New Descriptions : Balsaminaceae; Arachnida (Thomisidae) ; Homoptera (Pseudoc- occidae) ; Hymenoptera (Chalcididae) ; Coleoptera (Scarabaeidae) . . 901 Reviews . . 914 Miscellaneous Notes 917 Printed by Bro. Leo at St. Francis Industrial Training Institute, Borivli, Bombay 400 and published by Editors: J. C. Daniel, P. V. Bole and A. N. D. Nanavati for Borr Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Bombay 4r i JOURNAL of the Bombay Natural History Society Vol. 75 Supplement Editors : J. C. Daniel, P, V. Bole & A. N. D. Nanavati Editors to the Supplement : M. Gadgil & R. B. Grubh NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS Contributors of scientific articles are requested to assist the editors by observing the following instructions : 1 . Papers which have at the same time been offered for publication to other journals or periodicals, or have already been published elsewhere, should not be submitted. 2. 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(1948) : The Book of Indian Animals. Bombay. Titles of papers should not be underlined. 8. Reference to literature in the text should be made by quoting the author’s name and year of publication, thus : (Banerji 1958). 9. Synopsis : Each scientific paper should be accompanied by a concise, clearly written synopsis, normally not exceeding 200 words. 10. Reprints : Authors are supplied 25 reprints of their articles free of charge. In the case of joint authorship, 50 copies will be given gratis to be distributed among the two or more authors. Orders for additional reprints should be in multiples of 25 and should be received within two weeks after the author is informed of the acceptance of the manuscript. They will be charged for at cost plus postage and packing. 11. The editors reserve the right, other things being equal, to publish a member’s contribution earlier than a non-member’s. Hornbill House, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Bombay 400 023. Editors, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. VOLUME 75 SUPPLEMENT Date of Publication : 27-3-1980 CONTENTS PAGE Preface On the time-budget of different life-history stages of Chital ( Axis axis). By H.C. Sharatchandra and Madhav Gadgil. ( With two plates, four sketches and five text-figures ) 949 On the Primate resources of India. By S. M. Mohnot . . . . . . . . 961 Seasonal changes in Body weights of some Rodents from South India. By R.K. Chandrahas 971 Ecology of the Bonnet Macaque {Macaca radiata Geoffroy) with special reference to Feeding Habits. By George P. Kuruvilla . . . . . . . . 976 Banding Bats for the study of population ecology. By H. B. Devaraj Sarkar, B.S. Bhima Rao, M. Suvarnalatha and B. S. Thyagaraja. {With two plates) . . .. 989 The status and Distribution of elephant populations of Karnataka. ByP. Vijayakumaran Nair and Madhav Gadgil. ( With four plates and seven text-figures) . . . . 1000 The status, ecology and behaviour of Lion-tailed Macaque {Macaca silenus). By J. Mangalraj Johnson. {With three plates) .. .. .. .. .. 1017 A comparative account of the Avifauna of the Sholas and the neighbouring plan- tations in the Nilgiris. By Mohammad Ali Reza Khan. {With a plate) .. .. 1028 Nectar-feeding adaptations of Flowerbirds. By P. Kannan. {With twenty-two text-figures) 1036 Population and roosting behaviour of Migratory Rosy Pastor Sturnus roseus in Poona, Maharashtra State. By Anil Mahabal and D. B. Bastawde. {With seven text-figures) . . 1051 The Griffon Vultures {Gyps bengalensis, G. indicus & G.fulvus) of Gir forest: their feeding habits and the nature of association with the Asiatic Lion. By Robert B. Grubh. {With a plate) .. .. .. .. . . .. .. 1058 The ecology and behaviour of the Indian Peafowl {Pavo cristatus Linn.) of Injar. By A. J. T. Johnsingh and S. Murali. {With a text-figure) .. .. .. 1069 Ecological notes on some Migrant Waders in India. By K. S. R. Krishna Raju. ( With six graphs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080 Breeding Biology of Bulbuls, Pycnonotus cafer and Pycnonotus luteolus (Class : Aves, Family : Pycnonotidae) with special reference to their ecological isolation. By V. S. Vijayan. ( With two plates and six text-figures) . . . . . , . , 1090 CONTENTS Page Breeding season in a tropical population of the House Sparrow. By R. M. Naik and Lalit Mistry. (With ten text-figures ) .. .. .. .. .. 1118 The availability of nesting materials and nesting sites as vital factors in the gregarious breeding of Indian Water-Birds. By M. Krishnan. (With five plates) .. .. 1143 Wintering habits of the Blue Chat Erithacus brunneus (Hodgson), in the Nilgiris, Southern India. By Mohammad Ali Reza Khan . . .. .. .. .. 1153 A contribution to the Ecology of Indian Pied Myna, Sturms contra contra Linnaeus. By M. L. Narang, A. K. Tyagi and B. S. Lamba. (With two plates and a text-figure ) . . 1157 A comparative study of the feeding habits of certain species of Indian birds affecting Agriculture. By D. N. Mathew, T. C. Narendran and V. J. Zacharias . . . . 1178 Observations on the food and feeding habits of Baya Weaver Ploceus philippinus. By Mir Hamid Ali, T. G. Manmohan Singh, Aziz Banu, M. Anand Rao and A. T. Sainath Janak .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. 1198 Abnormal nests of the Baya Weaver Bird Ploceus philippinus (Linn.). By V.C. Ambedkar. ( With a plate and a text-figure ) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205 Breeding biology of the Black Drongo. By E. A. A. Shukkur and K. J. Joseph. ( With twelve photographs in two plates and five text-figures) .. .. .. .. 1212 Ecology of hole nesting birds. By K. N. Panicker .. .. .. .. 1227 The status of Indian Crocodilians. By Romulus Whitaker and J. C. Daniel. (With two plates) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238 Notes on the Host Plants of the Loranthaceae in the Nilgiris. By PriyaDavidar . . 1246 Ecological impact of afforestation at the Ranibennur Blackbuck Sanctuary. By S.G. Neginhal, (With two plates) .. . . .. .. .. .. 1254 Human-Animal interactions in the Rajasthan desert. By Ishwar Prakash and P. K. Ghosh 1259 Health perspectives for wildlife conservation. By C. M. Singh . . . . . . 1262 Salim Ali at Ranganathittu bird sanctuary, 17th June 1974. In his glasses are reflected the islands on which breed 11 species of waterbirds. Dr. Salim Ali discovered this heronary during his Mysore State survey and was responsible for having it declared one of the first bird sanctuaries in India* PREFACE SALIM ALI, NATURALIST EXTRAORDINARY: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE INTRODUCTION The papers in this issue were presented as a tribute to Dr. Salim Ali at a symposium on ‘ Ecology and Conservation of Birds and Mammals in India ’ held at Bangalore on llth-13th November, 1977. The authors of these papers represent amongst themselves a majority of scientific workers active in this area on the Indian sub-continent. Notably enough, most of us have been attracted to the field because of Salim Ali ; and his pervasive influence will be apparent throughout this volume. It is therefore appropriate to pause and enquire here into the reasons why this one man has accomplished so much for the scientific study of natural history and for the conservation of nature on the Indian sub- continent. Man the Hunter Man has always found fascination in the world of plants and animals around him. In early days his very existence depended on gathering fruits and leaves of the plants and hunting animals for their meat. As a ground dwelling predator of the tropical savannas his most prized prey were the bigger birds and mammals, and the bigger mammals were also his arch-enemies (Ardrey 1976). An intimate knowledge of the habits of these animals must therefore have been a matter of life and death to the early man. From what we now know of the hunting gathering people of today, this knowledge was remarkably detailed and accurate. Moreover, it must have been very systematically organized, and man’s capacity for deductive reasoning may, in fact, have originated in his attempts to deduce vital facts about the prey he was hunting from the subtle tracks that were left behind (Blurton- Jones et al. 1976). The fantastic growth of man’s intellect enabled him to become a highly successful hunter, a little too successful in fact for the natural resilience of his prey populations to suffice to maintain themselves before the onslaught of man. Starting with the pleistocene, man began to wipe out species after species of the bigger herbivores that were his preferred prey ; a process that continues to this day (Mosimann and Martin 1975). With these extinctions came an understanding of the necessity to practice some prudence, and the primitive hunter gatherer seems to have initiated a whole gamut of conservation measures. Taboos against the hunting of pregnant females, and against the hunting of totemic animals must have been components of such conservation measures (Harris 1977). Valmiki’s vehement protest against the killing of a mating crane with which the epic Ramayana begins perhaps symbolises the awakening of this consciousness in India. i SALIM ALI: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Beginnings of Agriculture But the prudence was often ineffective, and man destroyed his very base of subsistence as a hunter-gatherer through over-exploitation in many parts of the world. He then turned to domestication of animals and cultivation of plants — an intensification of resource use which enabled him to build up his populations to ever higher levels (Harris 1977). This process seems to have begun in India some four to five thousand years ago, with hunting-gathering gradually giving way to animal husbandry and agriculture. This transition made possible an accumulation of a surplus of animals on hooves or of grain and initiated the process of social stratification. An accurate prediction of seasonal changes is vital to the practice of agriculture and this promoted the growth of a specialized priestly class of Brahmins (Kosambi 1970). These became the men of learning and made important contributions to mathematics and astronomy on which the predictions of the seasons were based (Bernal 1939). But these men of learning were cut off from the hunting gathering peoples of our country who continued to nurture the traditional knowledge of animals and their ways and maintain the practices for the conservation of wild animal and plant wealth based in the various taboos. It has been suggested that there was however another tradition of scientific enquiry which did retain contacts with nature, this was the so-called Tantrik- Lokayat tradition (Chattopadhyaya 1978). The Lokayatis worshipped prakriti or nature and were perhaps the people responsible for the flowering of Indian medicine and surgery in the first millenium of the Christian era in India. Loss of Contact with Nature The pressures on land had been building up all this time and by the time of Buddha around 600 b.c. there were no more large herds of animals to permit continued large scale animal sacrifice as a part of religious ritual. The cattle in particular were extremely valuable as a source of power for agriculture which had now spread over vast stretches of the country and the cattle had to be conserved. Over the next fourteen hundred years therefore there was a protracted struggle to abandon cattle sacrifice at religious rituals ; a struggle that ended in the cow becoming a holy animal never to be killed and with the Brahmins abandoning all eating of meat, except in a few instances (Kosambi 1970, Harris 1977). With this adoption of strict vegetarianism, the Indian men of learning in the Brahminical tradition lost all contact with the way of life that demanded an intimate know- ledge of animals for successful survival. At about the same time around 800 a.d., the Brahminical tradition also succeeded in largely suppressing the intellectual tradition of the nature worshipping Lokayat school (Chattopadhyaya 1978). With this ceased further progress in medicine and surgery ; and after this there were no more great poets like Kalidasa dealing lovingly with mountains and forests and wild animals. ii PREFACE Mughal Naturalists The only segment of the Indian social elite retaining any live contact with nature over the mediaeval times has been the princes, both Hindu and Moslem. The princes have always been devoted to hunting, and the Kautilya’s arthasastra, for instance, gives detailed instructions on the maintenance of hunting preserves and elephant forests. But it was the Mughal emperors who seem to have taken a more seriously intellectual interest in this pastime, and Jahangir is famous for his collection of animals and their paintings, and for his own perceptive observations on the habits of animals (Alvi and Rahman 1968). But these scientific enquiries of Jahangir were outside the main stream of Indian intellectual tradition. Tribal Nature Lore This has gone on now for over a thousand years and we have a dual society. A small but significant fraction of the Indian population still depends on wild plants and animals and still retains a tremendous storehouse of traditional knowledge of animals and their way of life. I know this, for instance, to be true of the Phaseparadhis of Maharashtra and the Kadu-kurubas of Mysore (Khomne et al. 1980). But the formal body of learning does not recognise this as knowledge and treats it as being worthless. Thus a zoologist like me is forced to pay an assistant with this body of knowledge so important to my work at the same level as a totally unskilled worker, while an assistant with a formal degree but no real knowledge or understanding of animals must be paid several times higher wages. This same segment of society in intimate contact with the nature also has a whole series of nature conservation measures which have been responsible for preservation of much that we are now beginning to treasure. Here again, this traditionally preserved wealth, as for instance embodied in the sacred groves, is being destroyed by the civilised society, while it is creating its own nature reserves which end up being protected only on paper (Gadgil and Vartak 1975). Contact with Western Science Thus we have a picture of the Indian civilization almost totally cut off from live contact with nature. When this civilization came in contact with the Western science, it developed a tradition of teaching and research in zoology based entirely on the study of dead animals in the laboratory. It was also a civilization utterly indifferent to an ever accelerating and tragic loss of its magnificent heritage of plant and animal life. In this mileu was born a remarkable man ; Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali in the year 1 896, and he became the foremost heir in the modern times to the great tradition of natural history that flourished in the courts of Mughal emperors. Notably enough, some of the most interesting early papers of Salim Ali are on Mughal emperors as naturalists (Ali 1927-28). He also imbibed the tradition of natural history brought to India by the British iii SALIM ALI : A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE naturalists. Quite naturally he did not care much about the formal study of dead animals that went on in our institutions of learning and struck out his own path without ever obtaining a formal degree. He wrote two remarkable papers on bird pollination and on the breeding behaviour of baya weaver birds ; work that was way ahead of ecological and behavioural studies not merely for India, but the world over (Ali 1931, 1932). He then launched on his own, without any institutional backing but was supported to a limited extent by the tradition of natural history amongst the princely houses of India. For, a number of native states invited Salim Ali to undertake ornithological surveys in their territory ; and with these surveys he established a solid basis for the systematic study of Indian birds over the four decades from 1930’s (e.g. Ali 1933-34, Ali 1962), culminating in the monumental handbook of birds of india and Pakistan (Ali and Ripley 1968 to 1974). Like all great naturalists in this tradition he began as a hunter. India has produced many man-eating tigers ; but Salim Ali is one of its few tiger eating men : he has shot and eaten tiger steak in the old days in Assam. But he was amongst the first to realize the plight of India’s wildlife and one of the earliest to begin a battle for nature conservation in India. More than any other man, he is responsible for the present-day consciousness for conservation in our country (Gee 1964). The Future It has been a struggle against heavy odds for him in a society utterly indifferent to natural history and nature conservation. But largely thanks to his efforts we are about to turn a new page. With his handful of students and a few others inspired by him, we are at last beginning to see being established in India a sound tradition of scientific study of living birds and animals, and of a scientifically based conservation effort. Both these traditions are still in their infancy, and it was perhaps due to this that the tribute paid to him on his 75th birthday was largely the handiwork of his foreign admirers. But then we plotted to see to it that when he completes his 81st year at least, the tribute should come from his own country. This dream was realized when a symposium was organized on 1 lth-1 3th November 1977 at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore to honour Dr. Salim Ali. The theme of the symposium was the ecology and conservation of birds and mammals in India, and a majority of Indians active in this field gathered together to express their gratitude to the man who began it all. The proceedings of that symposium are this volume, and on behalf of us all, it is my privilege to dedicate it to Dr. Salim Ali. Madhav Gadgil PREFACE References Ali, Salim (1927-28) : The moghul emperors of India as naturalists and sportsmen. Parts 1 to III. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., Vols. 31 and 32. (1931): The nesting of the Baya {Ploceus philippinus). A new interpretation of their domestic relations. J. Bombay nat . Hist. Soc. 34 : 947-64. (1932) : Flower-birds and bird-flowers in India. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 35 : 573-605. (1933-34) : The Hyderabad state ornithological survey. 5 parts. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., Vols. 36-37. (1962) : The Birds of Sikkim, Madras. Ali, Salim and Ripley, S. D. (1968-74) : Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Vols I-X. Bombay. Alvi, M. A. and Rahman, A. (1968) : Jahangir — the Naturalist. Delhi. Ardrey, Robert (1976) : The Hunting Hypothesis. New York. Bernal, J. D. (1939) : Social Functions of Science. London. Blurton Jones, N. G. (1976) : in Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers (ed.) R. B. Lee and I. De Vore. Cambridge, Mass. Chattopadhyaya, D. (1978). Lokayat : A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism. Delhi. Gadgil, M. and Vartak, V. D. (1975) : Sacred groves of India : a plea for continued conservation. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 72 : 314-320. Gee, E. P. (1964) : The Wild Life of India, London. Harris, Marvin (1977) : Cannibals and Kings, London. Khomne, S. D., Malhotra, K. C. and Gadgil, M. (1980) : The nomadic hunter-gatherers of Maharashtra. Tech. Report, I.S.I., Calcutta. Kosambi, D. D. (1970) : The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India. Delhi. Mosimann, J. G. and Martin, P. S. (1975) : Simulating overkill by Paleoindians. Amer. Sci. 63 : 3. \ S JOURNAL OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY Vol. 75 SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE ON THE TIME-BUDGET OF DIFFERENT LIFE -HISTORY STAGES OF CHITAL (AXIS AXIS) H. C. Sharatchandra and Madhav Gadgil1 ( With two plates , four sketches and five text figures) Introduction Any animal has to undertake a variety of activities in order to survive, grow and reproduce. A male baya weaver-bird in the breeding season, for example, has to collect nesting material, weave his nest, defend the nesting area against intrud- ing males, display to the attendant females, feed, drink, sleep and so on. Each of these activities has a certain benefit and a certain cost attached to it. Reducing the time spent in feeding may enable a male to complete the nest more quickly and display more towards intruding males and receptive females. However, he may at the same time be exposed to a greater risk of mortality through physical exhaustion. Shifting the em- phasis from threatening intruding males to col- lection of nest material, may allow him to con- struct the nest more quickly, while at the same 1 Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560 012. time render him more susceptible to the usurpation of his territory. Obviously all these trade-offs have to be balanced for an appropriate decision regarding the proportion of time to be allocated to each activity. The calculation of such trade- offs and hence the appropriate time-budget will depend on the criterion that the animal wants to maximise. We do not of course imply that the animals consciously choose a criterion and then allocate their time amongst various activities through appropriate calculations of cost and benefit attached to each activity. Rather, we make the assumption that the criterion is genetic fitness, and that the natural selection has moulded the time-budget of any animal so as to maximise its genetic fitness. A study of such time-budgets can be expected to throw much light on how the behaviour of any organism is structured in relation to its ecology. Fagen (1974), for example, has shown that natural selection should favour the allocation of a larger 949 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , F < LlJ > Q i LlJ _J . 1-00 — _j QL < > Q < 2 UJ < CL 5 £ > X LU ^ < LU < U. < X L. Li. 0 —hi 1 Fig. 1. Histograms showing the proportion of tim3 spent on trophic, anti-predator, fighting and display activities by different life-history stages of chital. 954 PROPORTION OF TIME SPENT. ( %) TWfrMUmET OF CHIT AL Fig. 2. Histograms showing the proportion of time spent on locomotion, grooming, play and sexual activities by different life-history stages of chital. PROPORTION OF TIME SPENT , {%) JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL MIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 Fig. different 20 16 12 8 — FIGHTING 1 - i o O in m N 1 m N o in ID N m 3 CD in OJ O m A UJ i m i o r** A -J _j «J CM m UJ L&J IxJ LU a < < < > > > > CO X X X iii < 2 UJ Ll >- 2 < < CD U. Q Z> CD -J LfJ > 0 in 1 m h- i in N O in in N i o m in UJ in CM o in A _1 UJ id in CM r*" A -1 < 2 >- CD 2 5 UJ UJ UJ CL < < < UJ < < > > > CO X X X u. CD Ll 3. Histograms showing the proportion of time spent in fighting and play among life-history stages of males, females, baby and fawn. PROPORTION OF TIME SPENT, (%) mm&MVMMt of cmtAi O- 06 004 0*02 DOMINANCE SUBMISSIVE T 2 — • 0 8 -a 0-4 . .... 0 LlJ 'xl Q. co o LO r IT) CM < X in N m N LU O in i m N i 6 A in o m C\J in < < 0. < < X X CO X X in N A < X 5 0- 3*0 - 1*0 2 5 - 05 O m m N o in in i N i in N i LlJ in o A UJ in o CVJ m X CM in CL < < < x < < CO X X X CO X X »n N A < X Fig. 4. Histograms showing the proportion of time spent on dominance, submissive, rubbing and hitting antlers among different life-history stages of males in hard antler. 957 PROPORTION OF TIME SPENT, (%) JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST SOCIETY, Vel, 75 0-006 - 0 005 0004- 0-003“ to N i o lO r- A UJ _J < >- z to /\ s CD £ < $ UJ < < X X Ul CO u_ 3-0 - 2-0 - 10- 0-8 o in o in in in N in UJ in UJ UJ • m CM 6 m N A -J < 5 > CQ Z $ UJ • m OJ • o in n A _J < 2 >- m CL < < < UJ < < Q. < < UJ < CO X X X Ul CD CO X 5 X u. GD z £ £ Fig. 5. Histogram? showing the proportion of time spent on pushing, mounting, sniffing and preaching activities by different life-history stages of males in hard antlers, females, baby and fawn. 958 TIME-BUDGET OF CMTAL Oadgil (1976) from their earlier study of the dyna- mics of the chital population of Bandipur conclude that the birth rate appears to be such that all adult females fawn once a year. On the other hand, our present study indicates that only males with antlers over 75 cm have sexual access to the females. It is of course possible that even of the males in this class, not all are successful in breeding. In any case, only a small fraction of males can breed successfully, and as Trivers (1972) points out, this would generate intense selection pressures amongst the male sex to be included amongst the males who are success- ful in breeding. The tremendously higher level of display and agonistic activities amongst the adult males is clearly related to the male-male competition generated by these selection pressures (fig. 1). As this figure shows males indulge in these activities, particularly when they are in the hard-antlered stage, when antlers can be safely employed in sparring. The male population is composed of several overlapping age and size classes. The males continue to grow in size for several years, and the size of antlers is positively correlated with body size. As the males approach their prime, there- fore, they must slowly grow into the size class which includes the males who succeed in breeding. However, if all males automatically grew to the size at which they are successful in breeding, we would not expect the tremendous investment that the males make in display and agonistic activities. It is likely that the growth rate itself depends on success in competition, and also that not all of the bigger males are equally successful in breeding. It is evident that all adult males are engaged in a continual struggle, particularly during the breeding season, to succeed in reproduction either immediately, or acquire a size and status so as to succeed in reproduction in coming years. The particular combination of display, dominance, submission and agonistic activities employed by a male can then be assumed to have evolved so as to maximise his chances of doing so. Our results suggest that the strategy adopted by males to accomplish this changes in a most interesting fashion over the four different antler size-classes. The males with spike antlers are first year males. They engage a great deal in what has been classified as play, and involves jumping around vigorously and kicking with hindlegs in the air. They also do some preaching. Apart from this they do not indulge in any display or agonistic activities. Males with antlers between 25 and 50 cm in length engage to a considerable extent in displays like hitting antlers. They also engage quite a bit in fighting and pushing. The fights are initiated generally by a dominance display which may be ignored or responded to with a fight. There is no submissive display. They may sniff female’s vagina, but do no mount- ing. The male-male competition reaches its highest pitch in males with antlers between 50-75 cms in length. This is the size-class, just below the class which breeds successfully. These males give displays such as hitting antlers maximally. The fighting in this group appears compulsive. The fights are initiated not through dominance displays, but by a direct butt with a lowered head. This invariably leads to a fight. These males however do not get a chance at any sexual activity. The males with antlers over 75 cm in length are the only ones to participate in sexual activities. They indulge very little in other displays such as preaching and hitting antlers. They are the only class of males to give rut calls. They challenge other males with a dominance display. The challenge is generally responded to by a sub- missive display, and only in a small fraction of cases does it lead to fighting. Overall it appears as if there is a strong selection against actual fighting, perhaps because the energy cost in- volved or the risk of injuries is very high, or simply because the hierarchy in this group is rather rigidly established, most fights occurring between males of similar sizes. A more detailed explora- 959 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol 75 tion of this shift in strategy of male competition with marked individuals, and a theoretical ex- ploration of how changing selection pressures bring about a change in strategy would be most interesting to pursue. Acknowledgements We are thankful to the authorities of the Karnataka State Forest Department for their Refer Fagen, R. M. (1974) : Selective and evolutionary aspects of animal play. Amer. Naturalist 108 : 850-858. Hamilton, W. D. (1971) : Geometry for the selfish herd. J. Theor. Biol 31: 295-311. MacFarland, D. J. (1977) : Decision-making in animals. Nature : 269 (1) : 15-21. Schaller, G. B. (1967) : The Deer and the Tiger. Chicago University Press, Chicago, pp. 370. generous co-operation and for the facilities pro- vided that made this study possible. Financial support of World Wildlife Fund — India is grate- fully acknowledged. The Centre for Theoretical Studies and the Indian Institute of Science helped us by providing many facilities. Our colleagues S. Narendra Prasad, P. V. K. Nair and A. J. T. Johnsingh have helped in the field work and through many stimulating discussions. Sulochana Gadgil has helped with critical discussions at all stages. : n c ES Sharatchandra, H. C. and Gadgil, M. (1976) : A year of Bandipur. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 72 (3) : 623-647. Trivers, R. L. (1972) : Parental investment and sexual selection in B. Campbell (ed.) Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man, 1871-1971, 136-179. Wilson, E. O. (1975) : Sociobiology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. pp. 697. 960 ON THE PRIMATE RESOURCES OF INDIA S. M. Mohnot1 Introduction The greatest concentration of primate species of the world lies in the Indian region. These species range from a squirrel like tree-shrew to a large gibbon. Eight genera having 18 species and 44 subspecies (one third of the world total of 130 subspecies) are found in India. Of these, 7 species, Anathana ellioti , Tupaia nicobaricch Macaca assamensis, M. radiata , M. silenus , Pres- bytis geei , and P. johnii are exclusively Indian in their distribution. However, very little work has been done on these species in nature except on M. mulatta , M. radiata , P. entellus and P. johnii. Even the exact range of distribution and present population status of most of our species is still not known. The large scale destruction of primate habitats (mainly forests) is going on uninter- rupted in most parts of the country resulting in population depletion, because of ecological vulner- ability of most of the species. Some of them have even reached the level of extinction — a clear cut case of human predation. The rhesus macaque is the biggest sufferer due to the destruction of their habitats and large scale harvest for export. The rhesus population has thus declined considerably in the recent past. In addition to the above, a serious problem linked with the use of the rhesus abroad has also come to light. The export of these monkeys is allowed on a clear understanding that these monkeys will not be utilized for any other pur- pose than ‘ biomedical \ Indeed, they have been increasingly used in chemical-biological warfare experiments by the importing countries. The present paper deals with some of the urgent problems associated with the Indian non-human primates and likely solutions keeping in view the 1 Department of Zoology, University of Jodhpur, Jodhpur. increasing use of monkeys in different researches and the present supply position. Primate Stock in India (Table 1) Of 18 non-human primate species occurring in different parts of the country (Roonwal and Mohnot 1977), existence of only the snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus roxellanae is doubtful. Groves (1970) is skeptical about its occurrence as reported by Gee (1952). Even some 25 years after the report of Gee, no one has ever seen this monkey in nature in this habitat. It is, therefore, essential now to survey forests of Manipur in eastern India to ascertain its status in India. Among the remaining 17 species, the Madras tree-shrew Anathana ellioti , the common tree- shrew Tupaia glis , the rhesus monkey M. mulatta, the bonnet monkey M. radiata , and the hanuman langur Presbytis entellus, are quite common in their distribution zone. The Nicobar tree-shrew T. nicobarica, the Assamese macaque M. assamensis, the long-tailed macaque M. fascicularis , the pig-tailed macaque M. nemes - trina, the capped langur Presbytis pileatus and the hoolock gibbon Hylobates hoolock, are occasionally seen in the forests of their range, but their population estimates are not known. The slow loris Loris tardigradus, the slender loris Nycticebus coucang, the stump-tailed macaque M. arctoides, the lion-tailed macaque M. silenus , the golden langur P. geei and the Nilgiri langur, P. johnii are some of the species threatened with extinction. The lion-tailed macaque and the golden langur have already been included in the Red Data Book of the IUCN. Information pertaining to distribution, group structure, population estimates and such other features of all the 18 species found in India is given in Table 1. 961 Distribution, group-size, population status, etc., of Indian primates JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 - 3 I" C >» 3 T3 U 3 a .2 «j 3 3 5 Q, CO O PU 1'? !§■ o o u & .2 § 213^ >>•5 a g ^ ^ cs 2 -l-> O 5-1 as a w) 3 *5 g< O K n 0,5)3 rt «* Mis ffi .S 1 C/2 M •gfe i D.VO pj Os it 2 g£ 5v ■ oo oo ? • OO Os OO -rf Os <3 Os if os bM.-r co • •> CT r— oo CO ON T— 1 H ‘Cl 2 cs S . xsi T3 1h «2 5 11 C. £3 S ° oJ o 3p4 . Z 8*2 8 * i> * a J> o X) tS a> 3 Fooden, way, 1969 McCann, Bertrand, wick and a o 1 i 13 1 1 vo 1 1 i oo a i i aS « i | e c 3 g o o O a g a a •D Common o a a o U o a M O % a o o 5 a o a P a o g Ui CO CO Q H « >» i a> C £ is 1 ~ a a .£»'£ ’E:S 2 6 o g • U Vh ff) r , , ^4-H CO 13 i CO 'O 1 13 o .213 ° OP 0) Ui 'as _) o, S § £ § .3 W 3 w ^ O co TJ > >n on a g |-s1|a| Kf|.-*f § ffi 0,(73 aS •°ffl i 1 ns o* 2 g &>B M _CJ 3; ^ ££ g£ o co 3«*S Ka'o tn rt £ & fj PS «> S gp § G ts O c/T co ft 22 ~-a > G <0 IS ! o s a fl.S.G hT3 3 >5 > s.a’E ESO II o> 2 ga » . 3'| g.l .2 .23 4J 3 cr 2 o s| £ o > <+-< C* 00 2 5)22 G o 3 2 2 o a*w 60 G . 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'SiS 2S g CO — h 3^^ - ■§SB6 £§ag H"l'd *5 ” VO „o\ d ^ 1-S cd . u cu cu feo 1 I d d 60 0) d ,*0 Cd 75 ^ If °:|I3 6 »5«3s a 3 g ga > >,o-33 2 as c/3 0 -~"B ^ 2^2* ^’3 2 o g co 2 c-d .2 3 to i -3 ^3 0'S O o rtr) ^*.a lE3^1l« o I I *g 2 0 i 0 o o 3 ^ Its 7 Oc 3 oo a-| B CD O O CO . , £ d ~ © ‘ CO © U< C/5 HJ2 ^ a s±s bo g s n*~ Sb a CO I I TS §) $> d 3 1-4 u §3 «-i O flnTJ 0.3 86 - fi se 3^ § IS coi 3 T3 i, co S§1 t- 3 * CD a -3 CD S$ *L> ~ •s § II § ~ •d > co 1) O M d d is m d I ° *-c 60 . •O 3 O S c^ 3 >, a) Om g? >, 3 g 3 i— l rv 1-1 J •a ** 3 T) 3 r? « co ^ 3 ^ g S o o ^’d .OM ^ o3 sZ ffi’d ^ d d ^ o og §5 ■S3 964 PRIMATE RESOURCES OF INDIA Indian Species in Institutions Abroad Much before the virus vaccines became popular as a commercial possibility, the Indian primates especially the rhesus were in demand abroad. The first record of rhesus export to USA is of 1930. During the same time, the Sukhumi Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy, USSR, probably started using our monkeys. This Institute was established in 1927. The first colony of rhesus monkeys came into existence at Cayo Santiago Island, Puerto Rico, with 450 monkeys shipped from India in 1938, but the demand of macaques reached the level of about 250,000 in the same year (Carpenter 1972). By now, several primate colonies have been established namely Parlov, Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, in USSR ; seven regional primate research centres in USA ; at Rijswijk in Nether- lands and also in France and Italy. This is in addition to hundreds of laboratories, institutes, University departments, and pharmaceuticals using Indian primates, especially the rhesus, in USA, U.K. and other countries in Europe (Hobbs and Bleby 1976). Exploitation of Primates in India Of about 5,000 monkeys used annually, some 50% are utilized by various medical institutes in the country numbering about 25 in different research activities. The remaining share is : drug research (c. 30%) ; vaccine production (c. 10%) and reproductive biology research ( c . 6%). To a small extent (c. 4%), the monkeys are used for pharmacology, cytology, genetics, nutrition, tissue culture, ethology and other branches of study. With increasing research facilities the demand for monkeys will mount rapidly. Export of Rhesus Monkeys and Associated Problems No precise export data for the thirties are available due to the then impending World War II. But thousands of rhesus must have been shipped during that period as well. The flow of rhesus from India continued during forties and fifties. Nearly 200,000 monkeys had been exported by the late 1950’s to United States alone. This number decreased by about 50,000 a year to the entire world in the sixties. Bet- ween 1965 and 1974, an average of about 35 to 49 thousand rhesus were sent out every year (Ted Patterson, Pers. Comm. 1975). Details of export for this period is as under : Year Total Export Export to USA 1965 39,263 27,121 1966 42,922 26,268 1967 46,088 30,849 1968 47,865 30,315 1969 49,028 29,734 1970 39,546 26,056 1971 35,271 21,152 1972 39,087 21,330 1973 39,980 25,413 1974 34,158 22,218 Interestingly, the rhesus requirement abroad is 18 times greater as compared to our domestic need. From the year 1975, export has been restricted to 20,000 monkeys per annum. Yet, it is the most frequently used species, which is about 60% of all species combined (Nolan 1975). Thus in the last four decades, the total harvest for work at home and abroad must have touched a record number of over 2 million monkeys — a number that cannot be imagined for any other primate species found elsewhere in the World. Inhuman Treatment The sacrifices, and pain borne by rhesus in the hands of scientists throughout the world has not only served the cause of science but of humanity at large. As a mark of tribute, we could assign this animal the statue of an 4 International Animal ’. But, unfortunately 2 965 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 all is not well with this species presently. It is depressing to note that even the agreement for its use in a humane manner, and that too only for medical research and vaccine production, has not been fully honoured. Results of current works indicate that all of them are not always used in medical research or in breeding programmes, but are frequently used for other purposes. For example, of about 20,000 rhesus imported by the United States in 1975, some 83 % were killed during the year of their arrival in a variety of projects not relevant to medical research. The use of rhesus in laboratories appears to have become a fancy. For example, hundreds of them are killed in trauma causing experi- ments. The important trauma experiments involved are : Blunt chest and abdomen, burns, gunshot wounds, severe shocks and injuries caused by crashes. Experiments on electric shocks, brain damage, aggression, water and food deprivation, drug addiction, heat and cold avoidance and isolation were frequent, taking the life of several hundred of monkeys every [year. Equally large numbers are used in narcotic research. In most of these experi- ments referred above any other mammal could have served the purpose, if such experiments are unavoidable. Much of the ‘ research ’ is not medical at all. Most of the so called medical work is of no value in solving human diseases — what is the use of such work as dipping rhesus monkeys in boiling water, slamming them in the guts with a cannon impactor or addicting them to narcotics such as heroin, just to see what hap- pens ? It is utterly senseless to torture monkeys in these ways. Rhesus in Chemical-Biological Warfare : In the recent past, they have been increasingly used in radio-osteonecrosis, X-radiation and radiation killings. The latest in the series is their use in estimating radiation effects of neutron bomb tests. They were formerly used at atomic bomb tests, being tied down at varying distances, from the bombing site, many of these animals later developing cancer. Some laboratories have used rhesus monkeys to study diseases like, tularemia, poliomyletis, psittacosis, Rift Valley fever, St. Louis ence- phalitis, equine encephalitis, Japanese B ence- phalitis, anthrax, brucella suis, coxiella, Simian herpes, histoplasmosis capsulatum and myco- bacterium TB. Many of these disease agents, spread through air, are potential weapons in biological warfare, anthrax being one of the most deadly. Because of these dangers, Mohnot (1975) suggested ban of rhesus export at least for two years, allowing time to ascertain the impli- cations at home and abroad. Present Rhesus Population : Although no accurate overall population figures are available except for small pockets, field work by Neville (1968), Lindburg (1971) and Mukherjee and Mukherjee (1972) provides helpful data for approximating rhesus population figures of limited areas. However, Southwick et al. (1975) have estimated the rhesus population of Uttar Pradesh (rhesus occurs in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra, in addition to U.P.) to about 500,000 monkeys, and about 17,600 births per year in the total population with about 60,000 individuals for harvest every year. Whether this situation exists today or not has yet to be verified, and, the most im- portant point at the moment is to survey the whole geographical range of its distribution to assess the overall population status and to infer statistically the number of individuals avai- lable for harvest every year. This will also help develop a scientific plan of its conservation and population management for times to come. If necessary breeding colonies can also be 966 PRIMATE RESOURCES OF INDIA established in natural habitats for maintaining supply of healthy, disease-free, quarantined animals of known pedigree to match require- ments of indenting agency at home and abroad. Other Species in Use In addition to the rhesus, Loris tardigradus , Nycticebus coucang , M. radiata and P. entellus have been frequently used in the Indian labora- tories for biological and biomedical researches. However, the first two are now used very occa- sionally owing to their non-availability on account of their presence only in the interior of the forests and shrinking population. M. radiata is still common in peninsular India and is used frequently in laboratory studies. P. entellus , is the most widespread of the Indian primates and is a very appropriate animal model for reproductive research. It has been used extensively in the recent past in fertility ^ sterility and hormone research. The use of the remaining Indian species in laboratories is infrequent. Threatened Species At one time a common laboratory animal, the slender loris Loris tardigradus , is found in tropical rain forest, open woodland and swampy coastal forests of South India. Its sluggish nature and demand for its eyes for eye diseases takes a big toll of this species every year, and is now threatened with extinction. The present population of the slow loris Nycticebus coucang , is not known to any extent. It is restricted to Assam and is occasionally seen in the local market for sale, being easily tamed and making a good pet. The population has now been threatened due to forest-felling operations in its habitat. The stump-tailed macaque M. arctoides , is said to occur in dense forests upto c. 2400 m elevation in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Its rarity was discovered in 1965 when a survey carried out by Mireille Bertrand, R. K. Lahiri and George Schaller failed to locate a single group after spending several weeks (Southwick and Siddiqi 1970). Its disappearance from its range was reported earlier by Bertrand (1969). The lion- tailed macaque M. silenus , a truly arboreal species, is threatened with extinction. Kurup (1975) reported existence of only 800 macaques organised in 55 groups over an area of about 2800 sq km. Earlier, Sugiyama (1968) gave its population around 1000 indi- viduals and did tell about its possible extinction in the near future. However, its habitat is now expected to be protected by law and all forest-felling operations in its distribution zone of shola forests in the Nilgiri hills stopped. The Nilgiri langur Presbytis johnii , a once common species of Nilgiri Hills, is threatened by regular destruction of its habitat, the shola forests, because of its exclusive arboreal habits. It is also frequently killed by jungle tribes for food, fur and medicines. A tonic made from monkey parts and herbs and marketed as karung kurangu rasayanam (black monkey medicine) is widely used in south India (Poirier 1971). Krishnan (1972) believes that the position of this langur has improved in recent years. Kurup (1975) also states that its former distribution in patches is now becoming contiguous. Yet, the extensive destruction of sholas in the recent years for agriculture pur- poses have jeopardised population. Further, the lion-tailed moneky as well as the Nilgiri langur, being very specific in habitat utilization, particularly the trees, their protection can only be achieved if forests of their range are not only protected but are further provided with plan- tation of species used by them in nature. This will also avoid congestion and over population in times to come. The golden langur P. geei , of Eastern India, is found only in Goalpara district of Assam and in parts of Bhutan along River Manas 967 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , H>/. 75 upto c. 2400 m altitude. This interesting langur lives in dense tropical deciduous forests. From field studies by several workers (Gee 1955 ; Oboussier and Maydell 1959 ; Wayre 1968 ; Khajuria 1962 ; and Mukherjee and Saha 1974), it is evident that only a limited number exists. All of the observers have encountered only a few groups each organised in 4-40 indi- viduals. The geographical distribution and population status can be studied further, taking advantage of existing information on its ecology. Conclusions From the foregoing account it is amply clear that the future of our several primate species is still bright. Timely action, wise and scienti- fically planned management and exploitation can certainly avoid the distressing situation that has developed in recent years due mainly to human interference. Extensive destruction of primate habitats through deforestation, urbanisation, and commercial exploitation have curbed population growth of several of our arboreal species. Of these, five species are now endangered. Till now no serious effort with regard to their conservation, management, planning and re- search has been made. A blue print is now urgently needed to initiate a phased long range scientific programme to take stock of the present situation and to undertake sound conservation plans needed for sustained yield so that regular harvest of monkeys from nature could be main- tained for legitimate requirements. It should be a twenty year plan framed in consultation with competent, both government and non- government. Abundant species like T. glis , M. radiata and P. entellus, should be cared for, protected and used in biomedical research to ease pres- sure on the heavily used monkey, the rhesus, which too can be placed among the common species. In the present set-up, rhesus popu- lation management is very important. Strict surveillance during commercial harvest is essential at all stages from trapping to ship- ping, to minimise loss. The local people? villagers and farmers have to be educated to show restrain in handling rhesus, particularly when it raids their fields and orchards. The people can be compensated for loss if necessary to discourage possible poisoning and killing. Monoculture reforestation should be discouraged and export of primate species in the wild should not be allowed except for scientific purpose. Where information on the ecology and population of a species does not exist, im- mediate research programmes should be initiated to fill in the existing lacunae so that sound conservation programmes can take shape. For this, research on primates in Universities should be supported with funds and other assistance. Having known the true picture of population status and geographical distribution? investigations on population dynamics and carry- ing capacity of the habitat can be undertaken. Where monkeys have established themselves in urban areas, they should be translocated to near-by jungles to avoid nuisance, or else they will be either trapped or killed. With their presence around, transmission of viral, bacterial and other diseases pose a problem. Bonnet groups have been successfully translo- cated to places outside Bangalore City in the last 3 years. This can also be done with rhesus in several cities, towns and villages in northern India. Acknowledgements I am thankful to Prof. Madhav Gadgil for inviting me to write this paper, and for his critical reading of the manuscript. 968 PRIMATE RESOURCES OF INDIA References Bertrand, M. (1969) : The behavioural repertoire of the stumptail macaque ; a descriptive and compara- tive study. Bibliotheca Primatologica, 11. Basel, Karger. Blandford, W. T. (1888-1891) : The Fauna of British India including Burma and Ceylon. Mammalia . Taylor and Francis, London. Carpenter, C. R. (1972) : Breeding colonies of macaques and gibbons on Santiago Island, Puerto Rico. In : Breeding Primates, ed. W. I. B. Beveridge, pp. 76-87, Basel : S. Karger. Fooden, J. (1969) : Taxonomy and evolution of the monkeys of Celebes, (Primates : Cercopithecidae). Bibliotheca Primatologica, 10. Basel, Karger. (1971) : Report on primates collected in western Thailand. January- April, 1967. Fieldiana (Zoology), 59 : 1-62. Gee, E. P. (1952) : Possible occurrence of the Snub- nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellanae) in Assam. /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 51 : 264-265. — (1955) : A new species of langur in Assam. ibid., 53 : 252-254. Groves, C. P. (1970): Taxonomic and individual variations in gibbons. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London, 26 : 127-134. Hobbs, K. R. and Bleby, J. (1976) : Laboratory non-human primates for biomedical research in the United Kingdom : A report to the Medical Research Council on the existing provision and future needs. Medical Research Council, Laboratory Animal Cenetre, Surrey. Hutton, A. F. (1949) : Notes on the snakes and mammals of the High Wavy Mountains, Madurai District, south India, Part 2, Mammals. /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 48 : 681-694. Khajuria, H. (1962) : Further observations on the Gee’s langur, Presbytis geei Khajuria, with remarks on the classification of Indian Colobidae (Mammalia : Primates). Records of the Indian Museum (Delhi), 58 : 123-131 (1 pi.). Krishnan, M. (1972) : An ecological survey of the larger mammals of peninsular India. Part I. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 68 : 503-555 (8 pis.). Kurup, G. U. (1975) : Distribution, habitat and pre- sent status of the rain forest primates of Western Ghats, India. Winter School on use of non-human primates on biomedical research (Abstract). Indian Nat. Sci. Acad . (New Delhi), pp. 40-41. Lindburg, D. G. (1971) : The rhesus monkeys in North India : an ecological and behavioural study. In : Primate behaviour : developments in field and laboratory research, II, ed. L. A. Rosenblum, pp. 1-106, New York : Academic Press. McCann, C. (1933a) : Notes on the colouration and habits of the white-browed gibbon or hoolock (Hylobates hoolock Harl.). ibid. 36 : 395-405. (1933b) : Observations on some of the Indian langurs, ibid. 36 : 618-628. (1933c) : Notes on some Indian macaques. ibid. 36 : 796-810. Medway, Lord (1969) : The wild mammals of Malaya and Offshore islands including Singapore. Oxford University Press, London. Mohnot, S. M. (1975) : Non-human primate popu- lations in India and their conservation. Winter School on use of non-human primates in biomedical research (Abstract). Indian Nat. Sci. Acad. (New Delhi), pp. 34- 35. Mukherjee, R. P. and Mukherjee, G. D. (1972) : Group composition and population density of rhesus monkey, Macaca mulatto (Zimmermann), in northern India. Primates, 13 : 65-70. Mukherjee, R. P. and Saha, S. S. (1974): The golden langurs (Presbytis geei Khajuria, 1956) of Assam. Primates, 15 : 327-340. Napier, J. R. and Napier, P. H. (1967) : A handbook of living primates : morphology, ecology and behaviour of non-human primates. Academic press, New York. Neville, M. K. (1968) : Ecology and activity of the Himalayan foot-hill rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatto), Ecology, 49 : 110-123. Nolan, A. Michael (1975) : Importing primates for research. In Primate utilization and conservation. Eds. Bermant, G. and Lindburg, D. G., pp. 15-19. John Wiley & Sons (New York). Oboussier, H. and Maydell, G. A. Von (1959) : Zur Kenntnis des indichen Goldlangurs. Ergebnisse der Deutschen Indien-Expedition 1955-1957. Leitung, G. A. Frhr v. Maydell. Zeitsehrift fur Morphologie and Okologie der Tiere (Berlin), 48 : 102-114. Pocock, R. I. (1939) : The fauna of British India, including Ceylon, and Burma : Mammalia. I, Primates 969 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 and Carnivora (in part), familtes Felidae and Viverridae. 2nd ed. Taylor and Francis, London. Poirier, F. E. (1971) : The Nilgiri langur : a threatened species. Zoonooz : (San Diego), 44 : 11-16. Rahaman, H. and Parthasarathy, M. D. (1967) : A population survey of the bonnet monkey, Macaca radiata (Geoffrey), in Bangalore, South India. J. Bombay mat. Hist. Soc. 64 : 251-255. Roonwal, M. L. (1949) : Systematics, ecology and bionomics of mammals studied in connection with tsutsugamushi disease (scrub typhus) in the Assam- Burma War Theatre during 1945. Transactions of the National Institute of Sciences of India (Calcutta), 3 : 67-122. Roonwal, M. L. and Mohnot, S. M. (1977) : Pri- mates of South Asia : Ecology, Sociobiology and Be- haviour. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. USA. Southwick, C. H. AND Siddiqi, M. F. (1970) : Primate population trends in Asia, with specific reference to the rhesus monkeys of India. Papers and Proceedings of the Eleventh Technical Meeting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (New Delhi, November 1969), 1 : 135-147. Simonds, P. E. (1965) : The bonnet macaque in south India. In : Primate behaviour : field studies of monkey and apes, ed. I, DeVore, pp. 175-196. New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Southwick, C. H., Beg, M. A. and Siddiqi, M. R. (1965) : Rhesus monkeys in North India. In : Pri- mate behaviour : field studies of monkeys and apes, ed. I. DeVore, pp. 111-159, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York. Southwick, C. H., Siddiqi, M. R. and Siddiqi, M. F. (1975) : Primate populations and biomedical research. In : Primate utilization and conservation. Eds. Bermant, G. and Lindburg, D. G., John Wiley & Sons (New York). Sugiyama, Y. (1968) : The ecology of the lion-tailed macaque {Macaca silenus ) (Linnaeus) : a pilot study. J. Bombay nat. Hist . Soc., 65 : 283-292. Wayre, P. (1968) : Some observations on the golden langur Presbytis geei (Khajuria) Gee. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 65 : 473-477. Webb-Peploe, C. G. (1947) : Field notes on the mammals of south Tinnevelly, south India. /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 46 : 629-644. 970 SEASONAL CHANGES IN BODY WEIGHTS OF SOME RODENTS FROM SOUTH INDIA R. K. Chandrahas1 Introduction In connection with the studies on the wild rodent hosts and flea vectors involved in the epidemiology of plague in the southern India plague focus, emphasis was laid on the ecology of burrowing wild rodent species. Chandrahas and Krishnaswami [1974 and 1974 (a)] and Chandrahas (1974) reported the findings on the ecology of the Indian gerbil Tatera indica hard- wickei (Gray), the soft-furred field rat Rattus m. meltada (Gray), the brown spiny mouse Mus p. platythrix (Bennett) and the little Indian field mouse Mus b. booduga (Gray) in Kolar (Karnataka State). In the present communi- cation, the seasonal fluctuations in body weights of these four species of rodents are summarised and presented. Methods of Study The rodents were collected by excavating their burrows at four weekly intervals by uti- lizing the services of professional rat-catchers. The animals were obtained from the neighbour- hood of Kolar town as well as from some localities in Kolar taluk falling in a radius of about 8-9 miles from Kolar town. The rodents collected in the field were transferred to well ventilated tins, sorted species-wise and transported to the laboratory. The animals were sexed and weighed after anaesthetizing with chloroform. 1 Present address : Vector Control Research Centre, Indian Council of Medical Research, Pondicherry-605 01 1 . Results and Discussion The data recorded on the mean body weights monthwise with standard deviation and range for 812 adult specimens (373 males and 439 females) of the Indian gerbil Tatera indica hardwickei ; 548 specimens (251 males and 297 females) of Rattus m. meltada ; 725 speci- mens (335 males and 390 females) of Mus p. platythrix and 1202 specimens (538 males and 664 females) of Mus b. booduga is analysed and presented in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 respec- tively. (a) Tatera kdica hardwickei : The mean body weights of adult males of Tatera indica hardwickei ranged from 90.0 to 245.0 gm. There was a long span of stabiliza- tion of body weights (between 127.51 and 130.05 gm) during May to August preceding the rise and November to January following the peak in October. However, individuals exhibiting higher body weights were en- countered in the population in September and October as well as in January when the minimum limit in the range exceeded over 100 gms. The body weights of Tatera i. hardwickei reached the apex in September and the entire period from January through August indicated almost uniform body weights ranging between 108.03 gm and 119.14 gm. The mean body weights ranged from 80.00 gm to 186.70 gm. In this species, the weight at sexual maturity is considered to be 90.0 gm and above for 971 Table 1 Seasonalchanges in the body weights of Tatera indica hardwickei (Gray) adults in Kolar (Karnataka State) JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vel. 7S i S Q +i O V3 '2. 13 § o.S Z § P4 +1 oo c3 ^ X> . KJ s'© a 3 'a * * ******** rH.vOo>noONMONr)t^OM 00 ^ ©’ d p fd VO* (N CN 0 VO H — | O 6 O oo P d 00 oo ooo © oo vq c4 fd vd «rj io >n 333 \fOOO O ri Tf on oo oo Ooo P o o oSS o^o O iri rsl oooooo OOoo h; ITl , & 8 53 t!£Kgg S 2 PS vo 3 _ 0> ^ *-2 d i-ii! q ,, 00 +1 V-H (/} O O CS Tf ts CS CN O 1-H Tt O* r-i CS* O* © CO* T-i © (N* CS id T-i © vq oo p p © oo p © (N © © c4 <— i co <— i p i id id id O O* ONvcNO,''>l'-ooa\C''-»ni-'.ooi> |ii«|iiiii,i O 00 vo p CS ON p cvj O i/n oo oo vd «o* «d r-9 o’ fN* vd «d id c4 id vd MffimWitTj-crimm'd-mm cOfninNOONh-ooM^t^oo oOf^o^pvNhqNh t-h (N rd on oo* 'O oo »-i i-i o oo* oo cd tA C^-vovoONONfNt^r— im^nOrt ONONC'jpcNON^vo'^rcomco vd on vd 3 *d on* vd c4 oo* r-‘ O* «d ‘o^r^-TTioio'ovn'vtvnvrivn THONt^w^fnvooo^oww rr)rtHrlMM(Nr-(MCN|fnTl co vo p oo rf 'o in o Tt o oo* «d r9 id ONON^O^^OONONt^ ■ i ■ i i i i i oooo'o'otj-voov oo d d vd oo’ r-"* on* ninfnov ^rn^Tp’pooppooooOit^ t!- t}-* rd fd fd rd ^-9 vd tJ-’ tJ-’ on ‘nNmiO'^-inovoioiovcioio voT}-rs)MOfo» ^ in cd_1 §5-Sr o S3 ^ kX),£) ill if ■M O 5 « 972 Significant at 5 % level. Table 3 Seasonal changes in the body weights of Mus p. platythrix (Bennett) adults in Kolar (Karnataka State) SEASONAL CHANGES IN BODY WEIGHTS OF RODENTS S*.§g I S 1112 o 60 s o3 - a 60 a Jo 60 '.53 +1 "2 <+=, 03 Bog 5 '5 /-i CJ s I Q-h g o.a § a * ■» •* * •* nM^t-iooNoo5iooc\Tf (SOOHrid cd cs rti-ifs'w vqq^qqoooN^NNO © vd in tJ- vo O © 00 p p 00 © © 00 + © O ON ON On On ©’ © cn’ CNCNJfNT-M-M-(r-irsjfSCN O vq CN cd rd cd o on mNNCNNCNNNfOnrOfO ONt^VOlO’-KNOOOOOONVNVN rtritScSfOCNcnN^l-NfO'-i >>6 J-I 2 <2 §5f- Z£ie “lllt^f till *n a c3 «a I >■ < s I I *d I p* o H EC O g*S-2 c fli Cd Cd Q+l CO ™ t* M -Q c a'©.! 3 U C 5r «« Q+i OJ •gc^ g |°l Z “ * •» ■» * 00 ^NOvooNMOMO^iniT) On © co p vo ON t— i ^ m q m h d O T-i CN* d cd d 1-t VO o’ *-4 O* poop p p o poop O CN Tf t-h cd o’ o’ o’ + CN © id + 1 — ll— It— li — It— It— It— I r- It— i CN t— IH I I I I I I I I I I I I O O p © rt O p O O O O O o’ o’ vd vd vo* vd vd o’ o o’ oo’ o’ Tfoo«nvoTf-ooocNci->c«'>ocN p O CN OO O GO 0O p IT) p p + CN 1-i o’ o’ o’ o’ + i-i CN* CN* CN CNm^J-VOCN — inrOCNOOOVO (N CN (N NO NO n VO P th T^f « q on on oo’ vd o’ o’ o' oo’ on t-4 + o’ Mt^nTfOOTt-^^co^vo (Nmn'onhVovovooNj-vi- p p p O O o p O O p p oo id — P ‘5 ^ a < T3 13 < £ • C P. .oi D JiJ 3 '3 ^3 CO 3 O P! 13 T3 £ . s, -d 3 < £ oQ 8 978 r~~ as * si C 52 3* >n as 2 o k § < ^ ITS as O QJ *■* a U 3 a ■"» < July to July to Sept. 1975 . . 10 16 3 6 8 43 Sept. 1975 ECOLOGY OF THE SONNET MACAQUE Number of new-born babies seen during the study PERIOD FROM OCTOBER 1974 — SEPTEMBER 1975 Forest Troop Caves Troop October 1974 1 December — 1 February 1975 4 3 March 1 4 April 2 — From the ‘ Forest Troop * one old male died on 25th July, 1975, perhaps due to old age. A two-day old infant also died from the same troop on 27th April 1975. The mother carried the dead body for two days. Two deaths were noted from the * Caves Troop ’ during the study period. Two juveniles from the ‘ Caves Troop ’ were taken away by tourists during the month of May 1975. Home Range : The ‘ Forest Troop » occupied the eastern and the ‘ Caves Troop ’ the western parts of the Island. The area was constantly used by troop members and was defended from the other troop. The peri- pheral area was used uncommonly and it overlapped with the territory of the other troop. The home range of the forest troop formed the intensive study area. The home range is com- paratively small at Elephanta, a total area of 4.8 sq km being occupied by the two troops. The home range of bonnet macaques is recorded as very large by Rahaman and Parthasarathy (1967), Nolte (1955) and Simonds (1965) in different places in southern India. The troops do not leave their well marked home range and no seasonal change in home range was observed during this study. Daily Movement : The macaques usually began to move at the first light of the morning (between 0600 hrs to 0630 hrs). The time varied from month to month. The average distance travelled by the troop during a day was about 1.5 to 2 km. The shortest was about one km during rainy season and longest about 2.5 km during favourable conditions. The mean daily movement distance of bonnet troop has been recorded as 790 m by Sugiyama (1971). Average daily movement distance of common langur varies from one to two miles a day (Jay 1965). The variation in distance of daily movement seems to depend on the distri- bution, volume of food, safety factors and distribution of food trees. Roosting : The troop roosted in several selected tall trees with dense foliage such as Tamarindus indica , Derris glabra. Ficus benga- lensis, Ficus religiosa and Sterculia urens . They select the highest and safest branches for roost- ing. The 6 Forest Troop ’ roosted chiefly in areas within the home range. Occasionally the macaques roost in other places also. In August, October, November and March the animals occupied site 1 : December and April in site 2 and January, February, May, June, July and September in site 3. Tall trees and evergreen creepers were abundant in all roosting sites. Changing of roosts may be due to the following factors : (1) Abundance of food : If the food was abundant near the roost the animals can spend more time in feeding in the early morning as well as late in the evening. (2) Seasonal : During dry seasons most of the trees shed their leaves. At this time the macaques select roosts where evergreen trees are numerous. During monsoon months trees covered by creepers and climbers which offer shelter from the heavy rains were preferred. (3) Safety : There are no predators on the island, yet all the three sites were situated in the least disturbed areas. Roosting behaviour : The animals leave the feeding grounds for the roost by about sunset. On reaching the roosting site the macaques split into small parties. The animals do not divide into families or sub-groups. Southwick, Beg and Siddiqi (1965) recorded that the rhesus macaques split into families or into sub-groups for roosting. The troops spread on two to 979 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 three near-by trees for sleeping. Some adult males and the dominant males often preferred to sleep alone. However, more often two or more monkeys hug each other and sleep in such associations. More than ninety per cent of the troops slept clasping each other (Koyama 1973). The monkeys climb to the top of the trees and then select strong branches and gather in small groups and sleep. The tendency to sleep clasped together is more among females and infants, but is negligible between females and males (Koyama 1973). The lion-tailed macaques M. silenus prefers extreme branches of very tall trees. Trees near the feeding place were often used as roost by the bonnets. All troop members, both male and female, select places for sleeping. During rains more individuals sleep or rest clasped together. The dominant male sits on a top branch to sleep as well as to keep watch. Usually the dominant male would be the last to sleep. Mothers with infants often embrace another to sandwich the baby in between them and prevent it from falling at night. Once they settle down for the night’s rest the animals remain in the same position till dawn. There is no perceptible activity after dark. Food and Feeding Habits The food habits of bonnet macaques have not yet been studied in depth. General food and feeding methods of bonnets occupying a garden sector of Bangalore have been mentioned by Rahaman and Parthasarathy (1969). Food material includes leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and insects such as grasshoppers, certain flies and pupae. The data were collected by systematic sampl- ing of food habits of the ‘Forest Troop’ mainly but occasional observations were made on the ‘ Caves Troop ’ also. Systematic time sampling during a month consists of data collection during three to five consecutive days of obser- vation, from dawn to dusk, or from early morning till noon, or afternoon to late in the evening at an interval of one to two days. The first sustained activity by a monkey during a sampling period was recorded. Then the activity of several members, according to the age classes (adult male, adult female, sub-adult and juvenile) were noted during each period. The classification of the animals into age classes was in the manner of Jay’s (1965) classification of common langurs. Usually observations were possible at a close range when the animals fed together. Al- though, the same animal could not be studied every day without marking, the observations on particular age groups were recorded separately. The total feeding time is deduced from the total observation time for each day. The following data were recorded : (a) Daily feeding rhythm and time spent on feeding in each hour of the day. ( b ) Monthly variations in feeding time. (c) Time spent in feeding on each food item. ( d ) Preference of food items. Most of the plant items were identified. Identification of animal material was ex- tremely difficult and almost impossible in many cases. Animal food items like grasshoppers, lizards, and some pupae could be identified without much difficulty and were recorded. Insects which were taken by the animals in most cases remained unidentified. The un- identified insects were listed as ‘ insects ’. The bonnet macaque is omnivorous and feeds upon a variety of leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, grass-blades, grass flowers and animal material. The animal material included a variety of insects such as caterpillars, grass- hoppers, and flies. Lizards were also eaten. The macaques preferred plant to animal material. This related to the abundant plant food items available. Water is taken in by direct licking from holes on tree trunks or on 980 ECOLOGY OF THE BONNET MACAQUE rocks or from a well platform (near villages) without using hands. At times the animals put their hands into the water holes and licked the droplets from their arm and fingers. Plant food of macaques : The important fact about bonnet diet is in the selection of variety of food materials. Thirty-six species of plant food were found to be eaten. The plants eaten and parts consumed in each plant by the macaques are shown in Table 2. The bonnets move early in the morning from the roost to their daily routine of feeding with some kind of warming up or morning play, especially among the sub-adults and the juveniles. At times the mature animals also showed an inclination for such kind of activities in the morning. The macaques were seen sunning before commencing to feed. The period of sunning varies according to the seasons being longer during cold and rainy seasons. The feeding rhythm showed two peaks during the day ; between 0800 hrs to 0900 hrs and 1500 hrs to 1600 hrs from October to April. During the month of May there was only one peak, between 1500 hrs to 1700 hrs. In this month they spent more time under shade during the day, probably because of the high day temperature. The feeding behaviour was more or less similar in June also. The reason for this is not clear. During the month of July the animals did not show preference for any parti- cular feeding period and fed throughout the day. This may be due to the continuous cloud Table 2 Plant food items utilized by bonnet MACAQUES Species Part consumed GRASS Setaria glauca Beauv. . . Leaf and flower Oryza sativa Linn. . . Seed Species Part consumed HERBS Urena sinuata Linn. Fruit Impatiens balsamina Linn. Fruit Crotalaria filipes Benth. Seed Cassia tor a Linn. Seed Solanum indicum Linn. Fruit Celosia argent ea Linn. Flower Colacasia esculent a (Linn.) Schott Pith of the stem CLIMBER Canavalia virosa (Roxb.) Wight & Arn. Flower Dios corea bulbifera Linn. Fruit SHRUB Lantana camara Linn. Flower and fruit Carissa carandas Linn. Fruit TREES Anona squamosa Linn. Flower and fruit Flacourtia ramantchi L’Herit Fruit Salmalia malabarica (DC.) Schott & Endl. Flower Cansjera rheedii Gmel. Fruit Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk. Fruit Scutia myrtina Kurz Fruit Erythrina variegata Linn. Seed Dalbergia latifola Roxb. Leaf Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb. Fruit Denis glabra Vent Seed Tamar indus indica Linn. Seed Acacia farnesiana Willd. Seed Alangium salviifolium (Linn.f.) Wang . . Fruit Morinda coreia Buch.-Ham. Fruit Manilkara hexandra (Roxb.) Dubard . . Fruit Diospyros montana Roxb. Fruit Heterophragma quadriloculare (Roxb.) Seed Bridelia squamosa Gehrm Fruit Sauropus quadrangularis Muell Fruit Holoptelea integrifolia Planch. Fruit Streblus asper Lour. Fruit Ficus bengalensis Linn. Fruit Ficus religiosa Linn. Fruit 3 981 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 cover. The animals did not feed intensely at any one time during the rains. In the months of August and September the feeding peak appeared to be similar to that of October to April. The monthly feeding time variations showed that from October to May and September the adult females spend more time in feeding than the other animals. One of the possible reasons for this may be pregnancy and parturition (from mating to 2 months after the delivery of the off-spring). Observations regarding adult females were restricted to those which were breeding. The adult males spend more time for feeding than the sub-adult and juveniles. From June to August the adult females spend less time in feeding than other animals. The monsoon starts in June and heavy rains continue upto the end of August. So the adult females with the babies spend more time protecting the young ones from the heavy rains. This may be one of the reasons for the sudden fall of feeding time for adult females from June to August. Others also spend less time during these months than in other months. Fruits were most abundant in the months of October, December, January, March and April. The macaques spend more time for feeding during the above months except October. During the month of October the major food was paddy but the time spent in collecting this food is less, probably because (a) the paddy fields were outside their regular feeding range and ( b ) the animals had to wait for a chance to feed without disturbance from guards. Paddy was available only during the month of October. The food taken each month of the year is given below. The percentage of feeding time is given for new addition each month. October % of feeding time Oryza sativa . . 56 to 66.8 P ter o carpus mar supium . . 9.3 to 15.8 Cassia tor a .. 0.3 to 1.7 Crotalaria filipes .. 1.2 to 5.8 Derris glabra . . 0.3 to 1 Dioscorea bulbifera . . 0.7 to 1 November Bridelia squamosa .. 21.5 to 44.3 Canavalia virosa . . 0.3 to 0.9 Ficus bengalensis .. 1.1 to 2.6 Lantana camara .. 11.9 to 18.5 Sauropus quadrangular is . . 5.5 to 19.6 Solanum indicum .. 0.2 to 1.4 Urena sinuata .. 2.3 to 18.6 Crotalaria filipes .. 1.1 to 3.1 Tamarindus indica . . 2.6 to 3.3 December The preferred food for all classes during this month was the fruit of Bridelia squamosa. They spent the maximum time on this fruit. Also the sub-adults and juveniles showed more preference for Bridelia squamosa than adult males and females. Adult females, sub-adults and juevniles gave next preference to the fruit of Sauropus quadrangular is whereas adult males which spent more time on the ground preferred Urena sinuata , a small herb. All the above mentioned food items were abundant during December. Leaves of Dalbergia latifolia , flower of Canavalia virosa , fruits of Dioscorea bulbifera , Ficus bengalensis , Lantana camara , Solanum indicum and seeds of Crotalaria filipes , Denis glabra , Heterophragma quadriloculare and Tamarindus indica were the other favourite plant food items. Dalbergia latifolia 0.3 to 0.5% Heterophragma quadriloculare 0.2 to 0.3 % January All classes except juveniles showed a parti- cular preference for the seeds of Derris glabra during the month. Juveniles preferred the fruits of Bridelia squamosa and Lantana camara. Adult females showed equal preference for the fruits of Derris glabra and Lantana camara. 982 ECOLOGY OF THE BONNET MACAQUE The three major fruits available during this month were Bridelia squamosa , Denis glabra and Lantana camara. The macaques also ate the fruits of Ficus bengalensis. Flowers of Canavalia virosa , fruits of Sauropus quadrangular is and C. filipes were the other favourite plant food items of the macaques in January. Zizyphus mauritiana (Lamk.) 5.7 to 9.1 % February The seeds of Derris glabra continued to be preferred during this month also. The adult females fed more on cotyledons of Derris glabra than others. This was the dominant food during the month. The seeds of Derris glabra occurred abundantly. The macaques showed almost equal preference for the fruits of Ficus religiosa, Lantana camara and Zizyphus mauritiana. Other favourite plant food items were the leaf blades of Setaria glauca ; flowers of Salmalia malabarica ; fruits of Acacia farnesiana , Bridelia squamosa , Diospyros montana, Ficus benga- lensis, Holoptelea integrifolia , Urena sinuata and Heterophragma quadriloculare. Acacia farnesiana Willd. 1.1 to 1.6% Setaria glauca Beavn. 1 .2 to 2.3 % Diospyros montana 0.5 to 1.4% Ficus religiosa Linn. 12.3 to 18.9/; Holoptelea integrifolia Planch. 1.8 to 3.7% Salmalia malabarica (DC.) Schott & Endl. 0.2 to 0/ 0 March Adult males and females preferred the seeds of Derris glabra during this month. Sub-adults and juveniles preferred the fruit of Manilkara hexandra. Other favourite plant food in March were the leaf blades of Setaria glauca ; flower of Salmalia malabarica and fruits of Carissa carandas , Flacourtia ramantchi , Holoptelea integrifolia , Lantana camara, Sterblus asper, Urena sinuata and Zizyphus mauritiana. Manilkara hexandra (Roxb.) Carissa carandas Linn. Flacourtia ramantchi L’Herit Streblus asper Lour. 22.1 to 29.2% 1.4 to 7.1% 10.3 to 16.2% 9.4 to 18.1% April The macaques showed particular preference for the fruit of Manilkara hexandra which was abundant during the month. In addition all four size classes showed more or less equal pre- ference for the fruits of Flacourtia ramantchi and Scutia myrtina. Flowers of Anona squamosa, Alangium salvii folium, Carissa carandas, Ficus religiosa, Lantana camara, Streblus asper and seeds of Derris glabra and Erythrina variegata were the other favourite food items during this month. Scutia myrtina Kurz Anona squamosa Linn. Alangium salvii folium (Linn, f.) Erythrina variegata Linn. 15.3 to 16.5% 8.9 to 11.7% 8.1 to 11.1 % 0.2 to 0.7% May The bonnets showed very high preference for the fruit of Alangium salviifolium during this month. Adult males, females and juveniles spent more time than sub-adults on this food item. The data showed that the preferred food were limited to a few species only during this month compared to all other months except October. May was the hottest month of the year covered by the study. The fruit of Alangium salviifolium is soft, fleshy and about 1.15 cm in diameter and weighs about 1.3 gm. The soft and fleshy epicarp may be the reason for the preference of this fruit during May. The water sources were meagre during this month. The only water source for the monkeys was the village well where they rarely got a 983 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 chance to drink due to the continuous use of the well by the villagers. Fruits of Anona squamosa , Carissa carandas , Lantana camara , Manilkara hexandra and Scutia myrtina were the other favourite plant food items of the macaques during May. June As in May the macaques showed preference for the fruit of Alangium salviifolium during this month. In this month adult males spent more timejfeeding on this fruit than all other age classes. Second major food item of the macaques during June was Lantana camara. In this case juveniles spent more time feeding on this fruit than all other age classes. Other favourite plant food items were leaf of Setaria glauca , pith of Colacasia esculenta and fruits of Anona squamosa , Cansjera rheedii ? Ficus bengalensis , Ficus religiosa , Morinda coreia and Scutia myrtina. After the commencement of the monsoon many herbaceous plants sprout. Among these the macaques showed preference for Celosia argentea, Colocasia esculenta and different kinds of grasses. Cansjera rheedii Gmel. 0.3 to 2.7 % Colacasia esculenta (Linn.) Schott. 0.3 to 0.4% Morinda coreia Buch. - Ham. 7 to 9.2% July During this month all age classes except juveniles showed preference for the fruit of Morinda coreia. The juveniles showed high preference for the fruit of Lantana camara. Pith of Colacasia esculenta ; flower of Celosia argentea , Setaria glauca and fruits of Anona squamosa , Cansjera rheedii , Ficus bengalensis , Ficus religiosa and Scutia myrtina were the other favourite plant food items of the macaques. Celosia argentea Linn. 0.9 to 2.4% August All age classes showed preference for the fruit of Lantana camara during the month of August. Lantana camara was abundant just after the beginning of the monsoon. The juveniles spent more time on Lantana camara than all other age classes. The macaques also took Anona squamosa , Impatiens balsamina and Cansjera rheedii , even though these fruits were not in abundance during this month, indi- cating the need for variety of food materials according to their availability. Pith of Colocasia esculenta ; flower of Celosia argentea , Setaria glauca and fruit of Morinda coreia were the other favourite plant food items during this month. Impatiens balsamina Linn. 11 to 16.2% September Adult females preferred the seeds of Derris glabra , whereas the adult males, sub-adults and juveniles showed high preference for the fruit of Lantana camara. This is more or less similar to the food habits of the previous month. Pith of Colocasia esculenta ; flower of Setaria glauca , Celosia argentea and fruit of Anona squamosa, Cansjera rheedii and Impatiens balsamina were the other favourite plant food items of the macaques during September. Correlation between fruit preference and fruiting seasons : Seasonal changes in the diet of the macaques were mainly due to the difference in the fruiting seasons of the plants. But this may not the only reason as certain food items were more preferred than others. Derris glabra was in fruit from October to April. Adult males and adult females showed preference for the seeds of D. glabra throughout its fruiting seasons. Sub- adults fed on the seeds of the same fruit from November to April and juveniles from December to April. Bridelia squamosa was in fruit from November to February. All the 984 ECOLOGY OF THE BONNET MACAQUE animals showed more preference for the fruit during the months of November and December and less during January and February. At the same time the sub-adults and juveniles showed preference for the fruit of Sauropus quadrangular is during the month of December. Even though Derris glabra was in fruit the animals showed preference for the fruit of Manilkara hexandra during the month of April. Manilkara hexandra was in plenty during this month and in May and June the fruit of Alangium salviifolium. Lantana camara was abundant just after beginning of monsoon from July to September. The data showed that all the animals spent more time in feeding on the fruit of Lantana camara. The animals also pre- ferred the fruit of Morinda coreia during July. It was also abundant at that time. (Table 3). Table 3 Fruiting seasons of the food plants of bonnet macaque Species J F M A M J J A s o N D Anona squamosa _ _ _ X X X X X X X X _ Flacourtia ramantchi X X X X — — — — — — — X Urena sinuata X X X X — — — — — > X X X Salmalia malabarica — — X X X — — — — — — — Impatiens balsamina X X X X — Cansjera rheedii X — — — — X X X X X X X Zizyphus mauritiana X X X — — — — — — X X X Scutia myrtina — — X X X X X — — — — — Crotalaria filipes X X — — — — — — X X X X Erythrina variegata — — X X X X — — — — — — Canavalia virosa X X X X X — — - — — — — X Dalbergia latifolia X X X Pterocarpus marsupium X X X — — — — — X X X X Derris glabra X X X X — — X X X X X X Cassia tora — — — — - — — — — X X X X Tamarindus indica X — — — — — X X X X X X Acacia farnesiana X X X X — — — — — X X X Alangium salviifolium — — X X X X — — — — — — Morinda coreia — — — — X X X X — — — — Manilkara hexandra X X X X X Diospyros montana X X — — X X X X X X X X Carissa carandas — X X X X — — — ■ — — — — Solanum indicum X X — — — — — — X X X X Heterophragma quadriloculare . . X — — — — — X X X X X X Lantana camara X X X X X X X X X X X X Cehsia argentea X X X X Bridelia squamosa X X — — — — — — — X X X Sauropus quadrangularis X — — — — — — — — X X X Holoptelea integrifolia X X X Streblus asper X X X X X Ficus bengalensis X X — — X X X X X X X X Ficus religiosa — X X X X X X — — — — Dioscorea bulbifera X X X — Colacasia esculenta — — — __ — X X X X — — — Setaria glauca X X — — — X X X X X X X Oryza sativa X 985 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Possible reasons for food preference Analysis of the data suggests that the pre- ference for food may be an outcome of factors like the nature of the fruit (hardness and softness), colour, taste and position of the fruit on the plants. From the collected data it seems that the sub- adults and juveniles preferred fruits like Bridelia squamosa , Sauropus quadrangular is. Ficus bengalensis, Ficus religiosa, Lantana camara , Zizyphus mauritiana , Alangium salvii- folium , Urena sinuata and Manilkara hexandra than other fruits. These fruits are small in size and the epicarp is also soft and easy to open. Derr is glabra was seen almost through- out the year, but the epicarp of the fruit is hard. The sub-adults and juveniles showed less preference to this fruit throughout the season. The data show that the hardness of the fruits does not affect the feeding preference in the case of adult males and females. To a certain extent the macaques were attracted by the colour of the fruit or flower. It was observed that most of the fruits had attractive colour like red, black, orange, yellowish and shades of green, when ripe. The fruit of Ficus bengalensis is red and this was a seasonal attraction (November, December, January, February, June and July). This fruit also attracted a number of birds like koel, coppersmith, crows, and bulbuls. Other fruits such as Sauropus quadrangular is, Bridelia squamosa , Zizyphus mauritiana , Diospyros montana , Manilkara hexandra , Streblus asper and F. ramantchi also had attractive colours. The position of fruit on the plant plays a role in selection of the fruit to some extent. In some trees the fruits occur towards the extre- mity of small branches. In such cases the bigger animals (adult males and adult females) cannot collect them. Usually the mature animals avoid such fruits, but sub-adults and juveniles collect them. Animal food of bonnet macaques Most of the animal food material eaten by the macaques were identified. The consump- tion of animal food material by the macaques was much less when compared with that of plant material. The animal food material consump- tion seems to be more in the adults than sub- adults and juveniles. An interesting animal item in the diet of monkeys was the garden lizard Calotes versicolor , observed once. Fast moving lizards and insects were hunted on trees and on the ground. During May one adult male got hold of a Calotes versicolor and ate it bit by bit. The following animal material were taken by the macaques in different months during the study. Animal food items of bonnet macaque Species Part consumed Hapalia machaeralis ( larvae ) whole Phakopteron lentiginosum (Buckton) whole Catantops humilis Serv. whole Other Insects whole Calotes versicolor Daudin whole Feeding Behaviour The macaques started feeding early in the morning, usually between 0600 to 0900 hrs. They may start later during the cold weather. The macaques usually foraged leisurely sitting and walking. The animals fed in groups. But males, and particularly dominant males, pre- ferred to feed alone though not far from the troop. They also fed more on the ground. Feeding location depended on the locality and time of the day. Early hours of the morning the animals prefer arboreal feeding. During the middle of the day the monkeys come down for feeding or for other activities. During the breeding season the mature animals eat more. Food was rarely transported by hand from one place to other. No animal offered m ECOLOGY OF THE BONNET MACAQUE food to another and no macaque was seen to use any tool to obtain its food. The infant monkeys tried to pick up the food discarded by their mothers. At times the infant took food from the hands of the mother. The monkeys remained close to each other while feeding on ground or on animal material. The macaques were very alert when they were on ground, especially the dominant males. Methods of Feeding Bonnet macaques are selective feeders, con- suming certain parts of certain fruits. The animals hoard food inside the cheek pouches when they are in a hurry to gather them or when disturbed. After filling the cheek pouches the animals run to shelter. This method is seen more frequently just before the mid-day rest. The hands of the macaques are used for manipulation, holding and pulling, and the teeth for biting and gnawing. The animals usually hold the fruits in hand or mouth and detach them from the branch. This method is clearly observed when the animals feed on Derris glabra , flower of Salmalia mala - barica and fruit of Anona squamosa. After detach- ing the fruit from the branch the animals sit near-by and eat. One or both hands are used for plucking the fruits. The food is cleaned by rubbing between the palms or on rough tree surfaces. The former method is used while feeding on caterpillars and certain plants. When they feed on Tamarindus indica the macaques rub the entire fruit on a rough surface of the same tree branch, and then consume the unripe seeds. The same method was employed in the case of Scutia myrtina} Manilkara hexandra and Carissa carandas # Juveniles also use this kind of rubbing to open the fruit of Derris glabra. Occasionally the animal smells the food and throws it away. When feeding on the fruit of Alangium salvii- folium the macaque plucks the fruit with the hand and squeezes it with its fingers and con- sumes the fleshy mesocarp and discards the seeds. They swallow small fruits as such. While feeding in open fields, the animals cover a wide area and search for grasshoppers and other insects by walking very slowly through the grasses or by lifting small stones. On many occasions it was noticed that the monkeys chase flying grasshoppers and other insects. Pupae and small insects attached to leaves were separated with the tongue and eaten, at times by licking. In the case of the gall farming psyllid ( Phakopteron lentiginosum ) the macaques pluck the leaves of Garuga pinnata with its attached gall, and carefully open it very near to the mouth by both hands and consume the psyllid. The macaques very carefully peel off the dead bark of trees by hand and search for animals. Acknowledgements I record my deepest gratitude to my guiding teacher, Mr. J. C. Daniel, Curator, Bombay Natural History Society, whose supervision and encouragement have been invaluable. I am grateful to Dr. Steven Green of Rocke- feller University, U.S.A. and his associate. Miss Karen Minkowski, for their help in the initial stages of this study. I am also indebted to Prof. P. V, Bole of St. Xavier’s College, Bombay, and his research student Mr. R. P. Subhedar for their assistance with plant identi- fication. I am grateful to the Maharashtra Forest Department for permitting me to work in the forests of Elephanta Island. The hospitality of Mr. J. K. Mhatre (Panchayat President), Mr. C. N. G. Nair, Mr. Kulkarni, Mr. Padthe and my field assistant Mr. Vithal H. Patil of Elephanta Island are gratefully acknowledged. A special note of thanks goes to Miss Saramma Isaac for her immeasurable help throughout this study period. I wish to extend my deep appreciation and thanks to Bombay Natural History Society and Rockefeller University Field Research Fund for their financial support. 987 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY , tt>/. 75 References Jay, P. (1965) : The Common Langur of north India. In: Primate Behaviour. I. DeVore(ed-). Field studies of Monkeys and Apes. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York : 197-249. Koyama, N. (1973) : Dominance, Grooming and clasped-sleeping relationships among Bonnet Monkeys in India. Primates 24 (2-3) : 225-244. Nolte, A. (1955) : Field observations on the daily routine and social behaviour of Common Indian Monkeys, with special reference to the Bonnet Monkey {Macaca radiata Geoffroy). J. Bombay nat. Hist . Soc. 53 (2) : 177-184. Rahaman, H. and Parthasarathy, M. D. (1967) : A population Survey of the Bonnet Monkey ( Macaca radiata Geoffroy) in Bangalore, south India. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 64 (2) : 251-255. Rahaman, H. and Parthasarathy, M. D. (1969) : The home range, roosting places, and the day ranges of the Bonnet Macaque (. Macaca radiata). J. Zool . London , 157 : 267-276. Simonds, P. E. (1965) : The Bonnet Macaque in south India. In : Primate Behaviour Field studies of Monkeys and Apes, I. DeVore(ed-), Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, Ch. 6 : 175-196. Southwick, C. H., Beg, M. A. and Siddiqi, M. R. (1965) : Rhesus Monkeys in north India. In : Primate Behaviour — Field studies in Monkeys and Apes. I. DeVore(ed-), Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, pp. 111-149. Sugyiama, Y. (1971) : Characteristics of the Social life of Bonnet Macaques ( Macaca radiata). Primates n (3-4) : 247-266. 988 BANDING BATS FOR THE STUDY OF POPULATION ECOLOGY H. B. Devaraj Sarkar, B. S. Bhima Rao, M. Suvarnalatha and B. S. Thyagaraja1 ( With two plates) Introduction Studies involving banding of bats are mainly concerned with the homing abilities and migratory patterns of bats except for Pearson et al. (1952) who attempted to study the reproductive biology of Corynorhinus rafinesquei in nature employing wing banding. There are no syste- matic studies reported on either fluctuations in population or reproductive behaviour of bats in southern India. Keeping this in view the present study was undertaken. It concerned mainly with population fluctuation, colour poly- morphism and reproductive behaviour of two species of microchiroptera : Rhinolophus rouxi and Hipposideros speoris from southern India. Methods of Study I. Selection of banding site : While select- ing the banding site the following criteria were taken into consideration : (« a ) easy accessi- bility of bats at their day-time retreats and possibility of easy visual inspection of the roost- ing sites and (b) presence of alternative roosting sites within a short radius to enable recaptures> when necessary. 1 Department of Zoology, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore— 570006. * Since the attempts to identify the species of Hipposi. deroswQTQ not successful, the diagnostic characters of the specimen collected are given herewith : Head length : 1.8 cm ; Body length : 4.4 cm ; Wing span : 32.5 cm ; Fore arm length : 2.1 cm ; Tail length : 3,5 cm. Srirangapatna (Karnataka State ; India : 12° 25 N' 76° 40' E) with abandoned sub- terranean magazines was selected as the banding area (Fig. 1). These magazines are totally dark during day-time and two species of microchiroptera, the Indian horse-shoe bat Rhinolophus rouxi (Rhinolophidae) (Fig. 2) and the leaf nosed bat Hipposideros speoris * (Hipposideridae) (Fig. 3) roost here. Both the species roost in one of the eight magazines, herein after referred to as G± and only R. rouxi roosts in two more magazines, herein after referred to as Ga and G3 (Fig. 1, G± to G8). Gx was selected as the banding site because of the availability of both the species of bats (Fig. 4). This magazine has an entrance lead- ing to a landing five feet below the ground level which in turn leads to a lower landing at about 8' below ground. A small arch entrance opens into the central corridor with a roof of about 12' and two ante-chambers on either side with a low roof level and these are interconnected with three intercommunications on either side. The central corridor and ante-chambers are 6' wide. There is a ventilator in the central corri- dor high above the ground level through which the bats move in and out freely (Fig. 5). Weekly trips were made to Srirangapatna for banding these bats from April 1974 to May 1975. There are hill ranges towards north and south-east of Srirangapatna situated at a distance of 15 Km. The hill range towards north is called Kuntibetta and the one towards south-east is called Karighatta. Several trips 989 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 were made to these hill ranges to locate the banded bats. II. Banding material and procedure : Thin aluminium foils with numbers engraved and cable wire together weighing 200 to 250 mg were used for banding. The bats were captured with a butterfly net without causing injury.** The wire with the numbered foil was placed around the neck of the bat and the free ends were twisted. Care was taken to see that the band does not slip out easily and does not suffocate the animal. Ear was punched as an additional mark of recognition so that even if the band is lost the bat can always be identified as a previously banded bat. The body weight, species, sex, fur colour and the reproductive status of each animal were recorded. Vaginal smears of only R. rouxi were examined while, H. speoris were not available for such examinations. Some bats, brought from G2 and Gs, were banded and released at G1 during some months. These magazines were visited regularly to trace the banded bats. 25 bats were brought from G3 to Paschimavahini situated at a distance of 1.6 Km South-west of G3, were banded and released to test the homing abilities. The percentage of recaptures has been cal- culated as : (a) cumulative percentage which is expressed as the percentage of the total recap- tures to the total number of bats banded upto the previous week and (b) relative percentage which is expressed as the percentage of the number of bats recaptured on any given date to the total number of bats captured on that date (includes both banded and recaptured) (table 1). Some discarded bands were recovered from Gr Two reasons could be ascribed to account ** Captaring bats under these conditions using butter- fly net will : 1. cause a certain amount of injury to bats and 2. cause much panic among the individuals providing bias in the recapture data— Eds. for this : (a) defective banding where the bands were recovered with the cable wire ring intact and (b) chewing of the wire where the bands were recovered either with a cut in the ring or the ring intact without band. The percentage of such recoveries to the total number of bats banded is included here as failure rate (table 2). The frequency of recaptures was calculated in relation to : (a) the number of times the same bat was recaptured and (b) the period after which the bat was recaptured (period between banding and recapture) (table 3). Observations A total of 1193 bats were banded during a period of 14 months (Tables 1 and 2). The banded bats were recognizable from a distance of three to five metres at their day-time retreats (Fig. 6) with a large number of non-banded bats. Even without seeing them, the existence of banded bats could be clearly made out, since, the band makes a rustling noise as the dis- turbed animals hung themselves back at their perch. Bands could be recognised even after a lapse of 13 months and the numbers were not disfigured. Continuous contact with the cable wire or the aluminium foil did not cause any skin reaction in recaptured bats. The band does not seem to interfere with the normal activities of the bats, since, bats recaptured even after one year were found to be normal. Young bats, which are two to three months old, can also be successfully banded. The hole caused by punching the ear heals and closes leaving a white circular scar which can be seen by fifth week (Fig. 7) and this later becomes pigmented and indistinguishable. The average rate of recaptures of banded bats is almost the same per any given week (Table 1). Except for some days it is observed that the relative percentage of recaptures is always greater than the cumulative percentage of re- captures. It is important to note that in spite 990 300400 METRES J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Sarkar et at . : Banding Bats Plate I 60 E Map of Srirangapatna showing the eight magazines marked Gx to G8. Plate II J, Bombay nat, Hist, Soc. 75 Sarkar et a I. : Banding Bats Rhinotopftns H2H2L1 Hipposideros sps Fig. 2. Face of Rhinolophus rouxi. Fig. 3. Face of Hipposideros speoris. Fig, 4. A view of the magazine CL. Fig. 5. Sectional view of the magazine Gj showing the two landings, central hall, two lateral corridors with their interconnections and ventilator. Fig. 6. A banded bat clinging to the wall. Arrow indicates the band. Fig. 7, Ear of a bat to show the white scar formed after punching. Arrow indicates the scar BANDING BATS FOR POPULATION ECOLOGY Table 1 Details of Banding and Recaptures Month & Date Banding Recaptures Abs. Cum, Abs, Cum, Percentage Cum. Rel. April 14 76 76 , 21 76 152 13 13 17.1 14.6 May 5 67 219 14 27 17.7 17.2 12 68 287 11 38 17.3 13.9 19 54 341 8 46 16.0 12.9 26 38 379 14 60 17.5 26.9 June 9 115 494 17 77 20.3 12.9 23 18 512 4 81 16.4 18.2 July 7 83 595 11 92 17.9 11.7 14 77 672 8 100 16.8 9.4 21 36 708 21 121 18.0 36.8 August 4 75 783 23 144 20.3 23.5 11 60 843 21 165 21.1 25.9 18 93 936 6 171 20.3 6.1 September 1 24 960 7 178 19.0 22.6 15 35 995 10 188 19.6 22.2 29 46 1041 7 195 19.6 13.2 NO BANDING* Oct. to Nov. : 3 26 1067 6 201 19.3 18.8 10 23 1090 5 206 19.3 17.8 17 7 1097 5 211 19.3 41.7 24 25 1122 - 10 221 20.1 28.6 Dec. to March NO BANDING* April 6 20 1142 6 227 20.2 23.1 20 17 1159 3 230 20.1 15.0 May 18 22 1181 12 242 20.8 35.3 26 12 1193 6 248 20.9 33.3 * No banding, since the animals were not to be found. Abs, = Absolute ; Cum. = Cumulative ; Rel. = Relative. 991 Table 2 Banding and Recaptures (Monthwise), mortality rate, and failure of banding Journal, bomba y natural hist, society, voi. 75 CX < i* r« 00 fS vo *-« OS « © & o CS «n to VO NO ex 0 to VH at s fS f'* cn co rf VO r~j n CO v-J VO ex 2 I 1 < > O n <3 <5, 3 8 3 < a 00 o a 2 - d ~ Q © a 00 £ «2 o a .5*8 S o & P H Ph •» 00 .9 x> a o3 X> O 3 3 9 fc £ <4-i o 00 a 1 6 00 c ;3 § X) .8 -3 rs s 3 a g s a 992 * Data pooled. © Only juveniles of recent birth. + No banding, since the animals were not to be found. BANDING BATS FOR POPULATION ECOLOGY Table 3 Frequency of recaptures Frequency Recaptured after (in months) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Once . . 79 41 13 8 3 3 1 2 1 _ _ 1 1 — Twice .. 4 9 8 4 2 — 1 — — — — — 1 — Thrice . . — 4 1 2 — — 1 — — — — — — — Four times . . — — 1 1 1 Five times 1 Unaccountable* . . — — 2 — 4 4 5 — — — — 4 11 Note. — Bats recaptured on the same day of banding are not taken into account. * Bats recaptured with the wire ring intact, but the band missing. of increased number of banded bats, the cumu- lative percentage of recaptures remains almost the same. Daily inspection of G3 for 7 days revealed that of the bats taken from G3 banded and released at Paschimavahini, very few returned to G3. Only one bat was recaptured at G3 on the following day after release and two bats were recovered on the second day. Later recoveries were nil and even these three bats were not to be found at G3 later on. The number of recaptures in relation to the period after banding decreases after a lapse of time. In the first month after banding re- captures were relatively high and the rate gradually decreases as the duration between banding and recaptures increases (Table 3). Multiple recaptures are very few. Recapture for the second time is more frequent during the first three months. In this connection it is very interesting to note that one bat was re- captured in the same magazine (Gx) after 13 months ! Some bats without the bands but with the wire ring intact around the neck were also captured. These are also considered as re- captures. But the frequency of recaptures in relation to the number of times or to the period from the date of their banding to the date of their recapture cannot be calculated, since the reference to these bats as to the date on which they were banded cannot be traced. Hence these are treated as ‘unaccountable’ in Table 3. Bats banded at G± were occasionally re- catpured at G2 and G3 also. Of the 200 bats brought from G2 and G3, banded and released at G,, only two were recaptured at G2 and five at G3. The word population is used here with a specific meaning to indicate the number of bats occupying the given magazine at a given time. The number of bats banded during each week and month is given in Tables 1 and 2, respec- tively. A wide fluctuation in the number of individuals occupying the magazine is observed. During October-March period except November, bats were not found in any of the magazines. Our efforts to locate the bats during this period at other alternative sites were not successful. As Karighatta is relatively smooth and devoid of cave formations no bats were found there. At Kuntibetta, there are many cave formations and rock crevices. 993 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , >W. 75 i?. rowxz roost in these crevices and caves but banded bats were not seen. R. rouxi when available, were found congregating in large numbers both at Kuntibetta and Magazines. [ During the course of thejstudy some dead banded bats were recovered (Table 2). Of these, four were very young and they died of strangulation due to banding. The sex ratio (Table 4) indicates that both sexes co-exist in the same roost. Female R. rouxi were not found during April, but they appear during May and out-number the males during June-August and then decline. On the other hand, both the sexes of H. speoris occupied the magazine in large numbers during April and May and both decrease in number after- wards. They reappear only during next April. The ratio of the number of R. rouxi to the number of H. speoris living in the same magazine is always greater, except during April. Colour polymorphism prevails in both the species of bats (Table 5). They exhibit brown (melanistic) to bright orange (erythristic) coloured fur. Bats with mixed colour patches were also observed. Orange furred bats appear in May and continue upto September. The ratio of melanistic bats to the erythristic bats in two species or to the total number of bats banded indicates that there are more orange furred R. rouxi than H. speoris. Orange furred H. speoris were found only during April and May (1974) and April (1975) and their relative percentage to the total number of bats banded during those months is only 0.7, 1.8 and 2.7 respectively. Orange furred R. rouxi appear during April, gradually increase in number during May and out-number the melanis- tic forms during June and August. Then they decline and disappear during November and reappear during next April. Cornified scales were noticed in the vaginal smears of R. rouxi during September-November period. H. speoris females collected during April were pregnant and were lactating during the middle of May. The young ones leave their mothers and lead an independent life two to three weeks after their birth. The higher incidence of H. speoris indicates that this species roosts in this magazine for breeding activities. They decline in number afterwards and reappear only during next April. The juveniles of this species remain sexually im- mature even one year after birth. The body weights are indicated in Table 6. It is evident that there is a fast rate of growth in these species and that there is not much of a difference between the body weights of adults and juveniles. Further, there is no appreciable change in the weights during different months of the year. Comparatively R. rouxi is a heavier animal with a body weight range of 15.0 to 18.5 gm while, H. speoris weight range is 9.0 to 15.2 gm. In R. rouxi , there seems to be a difference between the two sexes and the female weighs a little less than the males while, in H. speoris , there is no significant difference between the two sexes. The weights of the newly born H. speoris ranges from 5.3 to 7.3 gm which represents 38.3% of the body weight of adult animals. 11 to 15 days after their birth, the young ones weigh on average, 7.4 gm. Within two to three months after their birth, the weights of juveniles is almost the same as that of the adult animal. We could not make similar observations in R. rouxi as we could not collect newly born horse-shoe bats. Discussion The recapture rate in the present study is encouraging (Tables 1 and 2). The failure rate does not seem to give an accurate picture as we were able to recover the discarded bands only from the magazine (Table 2). Mortality among adults due to banding seems to be nil from available data. 994 Sex ratio and Population density BANDING BATS FOR POPULATION ECOLOGY G < ^ I 0° | as s o’2 + rq vo rf m 0-0 + Z 5 oa & r~. G C « ea 3 < & s — < (S m oo •n oo •o vo r, ors a < Tf oc \o in < 5 •»* .. Jg K (D cd as 9 5 ftj s r« I I 1 + OQ .9 73 a £> + 00 o .5 z 1 cd © r4 ©’ >n i-h c4 On I tq 55 d 3 £ *3 £ — < NO r^‘ 1 . - 2 | 2 vo I T“l ' *"H I ^ I II I d I I I I I M I I rt cn c4 go l I a ON © © NO _4 fN|' N NO I I S a .d 02 cd *© I S’ 1 “> Pk h4 4 997 * Includes the weight of the young ones clinging to their mothers. + No banding, since the animals were not to be found. JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , F , ><>'• CULTIVATIONS ’0 ^ ELEPHANTS PAST •>>>;*; V SHH ELEPHANTS PRESENT S-.\" ^ -SB SUBMERSION AREA V. \ j f'S •r/'.-VS. | ^ ‘ /.;/*;V^SpP^PUR SHARAVATHY RESERVOIR O o' *— L*Jk 74°-30< >-od Fig, 2. Distribution of elephants in North Kanara. 1004 DISTRIBUTION OF ELEPHANT POPULATIONS OF KARNATAKA 74'l 20' 74'! 30' 74“! 40* SIOTiC DISTURBANCES IN THE RANGE OF HERD NO. I & 2 KHANAPUR RANGE KHANAPUR 'X. 74*’ 50' !?. KHS f V- >. LON DA % RANGE \y~? “A, “ 8" j lr-v / \ •*,NAGARGALI RANGE) ( f * h N k , \ • \JAGALBET RANGE- ^ 10 ) W''s i - rs "'x X x Si J eS. > 'c *• fe j> * \ .^•^ HALIYAL RANGE ’»o SAM BRAN! RANGE -so DIVISION BOUNDARY — — RANGE BOUNDARY — ^ RIV4ERS & STREAMS *»ss SUBMERSION AREA ////MINES CULTIVATION INSIDE F0R£< so & o CROP RADING jn 74 ,20' 74 YELLAPUR DIVISION 74! 40' o QJ Vj 74 | §0' Fig, 3. Maps of Haliyal, Yellapur and Karwar divisions indicating the various disturbances affecting the forest habitat and the elephant populations. 1005 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL BIST. SOCIETY , Po/. 75 to have been found dead near Nagjhari valley around 2 years ago. This year we have seen the tracks of only a solitary elephant. It is interesting to note that when the first herd was driven out of the Supa forest people believed them to have come from the Nagjhari area where the construction of the power-house had begun just at that time. However, a big belt of villages and cultivations separates the range of the herd number two from that of herd number one. Since no elephants have been noted to have passed through this belt it is unlikely that any animals from herd two of the Nagjhari valley could have crossed over into that area. Herd 3 : A herd of eight to ten elephants has been reported from the Mundgod, Katur, Bilki, Manchikere, Bharathanahally, Chevathy, Sirsi and Hulekal areas in the pre-independence days. The forest in this entire belt is riddled by a net-work of cultivation throughout the region. Such cultivation is highly susceptible to crop raiding by elephants and the elephants were consequently completely shot out. There are records of elephants having been shot at Katur, Mundgod, Bharathanahally, Pala, Attangi, Chipgeri, Indoor, Chevathy, Sirsi etc. The complete herd was eliminated about 30 years ago. Herd 4 : There is presently a herd of a few elephants and a solitary bull in the Gersoppa region. They range over Badal, Jankadkal, Medni, Herebail, Mahime, Gersoppa areas. This herd has also received some recruits from the Linganamakki submersion area of the Sharavathy hydroelectric project. The herd is extensively utilizing the scrub forests created by human interference which cover the hilly terrain towards the coast. The climax forest in this region is semievergreen which persists towards the more interior parts of the range. Two elephants were found shot dead on the bank of Sharavathy river in May 1979. Herd 5 : There is now a solitary elephant in the Ghotegali region in Kadra range in the Sanake, Hajkarni, Bargadde areas. This elephant probably moves into the Goa forests also. There was apparently another elephant along with the surviving one ; the second ele- phant is reported to have been shot a few years ago. The survivor does raid crops and is cer- tainly in danger of being eliminated. The relation of these elephants to the others is not clear. Discussion The district of North Kanara with its hilly terrain, and malarious climate remained largely under forest cover and very thinly populated until the recent times. The huge forest was extremely rich in wild life, being particularly known for the gaur and tiger. This northern- most part of the elephant range was included in the British Province of Bombay presidency while the adjacent range of elephants to the South was included in the Old Mysore State. Kumri cultivation was banned in forests of the Mysore State in 1847 and that resulted in a large influx of people to the North Kanara areas (Garland 1935). Perhaps as a result, these forests are characterised by the existence of extensive enclaves of cultivation even inside the reserved forests (Plate I). This cultivation inside the forests has been continually on the increase and has accelerated since Independence. The pace of settlement of people into this area has particularly increased since the eradication of malaria in the nineteen- fifties. The recent years have also witnessed many other disturbances in the forest, parti- cularly with the starting of a paper industry at Dandeli and the execution of the giant Kalinadi Hydroelectric Project and mining for manganese (Plate I). As fig. 3 shows a great deal of the forest in the Haliyal division has been lost either to submersion or to mining, and the rest is more and more subject to enclaves of cultivation. 1006 DISTRIBUTION OF ELEPHANT POPULATIONS OF KARNATAKA The demands of the people on the forests for firewood and grazing are also escalating. Vast areas in Sirsi and Honnavar divisions are classi- fied as minor forests which are open for collec- tion of leaves for manure, firewood etc. Most of these areas are completely degraded and reduced to scrub from the original semi- evergreen condition. Several thousand families of a pastoral caste called Gavli Dhanagars have migrated from the north and have settled with their buffaloes and cattle throughout the Haliyal, Yellapur, Mundgod, and other taluks of North Kanara. Overgrazing by the animals belonging to these people is seriously affecting forest regeneration. This tremendous loss of vast chunks of forest habitat along with the degradation of the rest has seriously depleted the wild life of this area. Elephants are particularly susceptible because they wander over a vast terrain and are attracted to the cultivated enclaves inside the forest. When they indulge in extensive crop raiding they are shot at and slowly eliminated. A very large number of elephants has been killed in this fashion throughout North Kanara. There even used to be a reward for the killing of crop raiding elephants. All these pressures have well nigh eliminated the elephant from this vast tract of forest. The Dandeli Wild Life Sanctuary which could have played a role in the preser- vation of wild life in this area has been very heavily disturbed by the Kalinadi Hydroelectric project and there are moves to remove it from the protected areas list. A bold and imaginative approach is called for if we are to save the relics of the magnificent wild life of this area. Perhaps a new sanctuary could be constituted around the Supa dam by incorporating areas from Nagargali, Jagalbet, Supa and Dandeli ranges. All pockets of cultivation from this sanctuary should be shifted by taking advantage of the resettlement programmes for the submersion areas. Such a sanctuary around the Supa lake could develop into a great tourist attraction, and could save at least some of the rich wild life of this area. Crestline To the south of the North Kanara forests the Crestline of the Western Ghats rises to much greater altitudes exceeding 2000 metres in places (latitude 11°30'N to 14°N, longitude 74°15' to 76°30'E). The hill ranges here are further inland and narrower than in North Kanara. The rainfall is very high, exceeding 6000 to 7000 mm in places. It is also the place of origin of a number of important rivers like Nethravathy, Tunga and Bhadra. To the west of the Crestline, there are belts of evergreen forest on the rather steep slopes. The important genera of evergreen forest include Dipterocarpus , Hopea and Poeciloneuron in the northern parts and Viteria, Calophyllum and Canarium in the southern parts. The semi- evergreen and moist deciduous forests are located mostly on the eastern slopes, while the foot hills on the western face are characterised by Terminalia, Tectona and Lagerstroemia. Although the area harbours all the major wild life species including elephant, gaur, sambar, wild boar, spotted deer, wild dog, panther and tiger, the only species to be seen in sizeable numbers is the wild boar. Elephant population Only a few isolated groups of elephants are found in these evergreen forests. This is obviously a suboptimal habitat for elephants and there are only four small herds of elephants in this areas (see fig. 4). Herd 1 : One or two elephants are reported from the Meginevalley, Koilurghat, Nagavalli areas (Kesava Vittal 1945). Elephants raid crops occasionally in villages in Meginevalley and Nagavalli. This area adjoins the range of Herd No. 5 of North Kanara, but a hill range 1007 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , Pb/. 75 7TT TTST area NO. 2. THE CREST LINE. COON DA PUR |\ •13 -ROADS -STATE boundary \ ©HAOAHA^ V fVAl a V —forest boundary \ j^r elephant present dsst. \ y—f FOREST AREA ^ RIVERS a STREAMS : : ; cultivation fisiDE forest 715 ms' V R PET MAKUtT Fig. 4. Distribution of elephants along the Crestline of Western Ghats. 1008 DISTRIBUTION OF ELEPHANT POPULATIONS OF KARNATAKA forms a geographical barrier between them. Recent sighting indicate the presence of a single elephant only in this area. Herd 2 : South of the area described above, a small herd of 5-6 elephants is reported in the ghat forests of Mudigere, Belthangadi and Uppinangadi ranges. These elephants cause serious damage to crops in villages like Sathyaganahally, Guthyhally, Byrapura, and Kumbharde. Repeated complaints from these villagers, situated mostly deep inside forest has forced the authorities to seek permission to shoot these elephants. Herd 3 : Further south there is another group of elephants ranging in the ghat forests of Bisle, Shiradi, Pushpagiri, Subramanya and Sampaje. The number of elephants reported is about 15 and they raid paddy and arecanut gardens. The elephants seem to be in 2 groups, the smaller one of 5-7 elephants moving in the forests near Shiradi and the others in remaining areas. Herd 4 : This is the southernmost herd in the western ghats proper of Karnataka. They range over extensive evergreen forest areas of Brahmagiri, Makut, Bhagamandala and some parts of Sulya forest ranges. About 20 in number, they raid crops of paddy, pineapple, jack, plantain, arecanut and tapioca. Discussion Even though elephants are not frequently found in evergreen forest in large numbers, their great adaptability to different climates and a very wide spectrum of food species enables them to survive in these forests. Pro- bably they have migrated to these areas from the deciduous forests on either side of the ridge when the latter areas were brought under plough. Thus the evergreen forests which earlier were only their summer resorts for water and fodder which will be scarce in the drier forests have become their permanent habitat (Plate II). Extensive crop raiding is indulged in by the elephants of this area and it invariably results in the killing of the pachyderms. Establishment of villages in the cultivable areas, deep inside the forest and the continued release of land in the middle of the forest has led to more and more crop raiding and the consequent killing of the elephants (Plate III). . Malnad The Malnad area lies to the east of the Western Ghats described above, separated from the latter by a wide belt of coffee plantations and cultivations. The area is relatively plain with an elevation of 800 to 1400 metres from sea level. The area extends from Aynur in the north to Mudigere in the south between lati- tudes 13°N and 14°15'N and longitudes 75°E to 76°E with an annual rainfall of 1500 mm to 800 mm. There are 3 main hill ranges, namely the Shankar hills, Karadibetta and the Bababudangiris. The rivers Tunga and Bhadra flow along this area. This region includes the Shettihally Wild Life Sanctuary and the Bhadra Wild Life Sanctuary. The vegetation of this tract is of tropical moist deciduous and dry deciduous nature with Tectona grandis, Lagerstroemia lanceolata , Anogeissus latifolia , Xylia xylocarpa and Termi - nalia tomentosa being the characteristic species. The forest is fairly thick with an extensive undergrowth of weeds and bamboo. This region has one of the best wildlife con- centrations in the state, harbouring populations of elephants, gaur, sambar, spotted deer, wild pig etc. The Bhadra Wild Life Sanctuary is one of the few places in the state where one could easily sight gaur. The anthropogenic pressures over the area are much less and hence the rich wild life of this area has remained largely unmolested. 1009 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST SOCIETY , kb/. 75 Elephant population The presence of perennial rivers, reservoirs, and plenty of bamboo, grass and other fodder species in a moderate rainfall area makes this region an ideal habitat for elephants. There are five groups of elephants in this area (see fig. 5). Herd 1 : This comprises 2 or 3 elephants, which often raid crops in different villages in the Anandapuram, Rippenpet and Aynur forest ranges. The recent killings of 2-3 people by these elephants has given them much notoriety. Human disturbance causes them to move over extensive areas, coming more and more in contact with villages and cultivation. Herd 2 : Forests in the range of Sacrebyle had a large population of elephants before the construction of the Tunga reservoir, but har- bour only about 5 elephants now. The clear- ing of vast areas of forest both from submer- sion and for rehabilitation has brought the elephants in conflict with human settlements everywhere. Because of persistent complaints of crop raiding the authorities are contem- plating capturing the elephants. The elephants sometimes cross the river and destroy crops in some parts of Umblebyle range also. Herd 3 : This is a large population of ele- phants, further divided into two groups most of the year by the backwaters of the Bhadra reservoir and steep hills with plantations of coffee. Construction of the Tunga reservoir has already isolated herd No. 2 from this herd. The first group, about fifteen in number stays in the forests of Lakkavally range, sometimes crossing into the forests and villages of N.R. Pura forest range doing occasional damage to crops. Some attempt was made to capture a few of these elephants but it is reported that none of the captured elephants survived in captivity. The second group is the largest of all the herds considered so far and consists of a breed- ing population of about 30 to 40 elephants moving mostly in the forests of Bhadra Wild Life Sanctuary. Excepting occasional damage done to the villages deep inside the forest and one or two peripheral villages the problem of crop raiding is not severe in case of this herd. Herd 4 : In addition to these, elephants are occasionally seen in parts of Balehonnur and deciduous forests of Mudigere and Kalsa forest ranges numbering not more than 10 in all. One of these elephants was accidentally electro- cuted last year while raiding crops. Herd 5 : The few elephants seen in the dry deciduous forests of Hassan range also may be included along with the Malnad areas. Discussion The dry and moist deciduous vegetation, with a number of fodder species and perennial water sources make this area an ideal habitat for elephants. Even though the area is now very much fragmented, most of the habitats are still large enough to support small populations. It is quite possible to protect elephants of herd No. 3 with some effort because the villages inside its range are few and other anthropogenic disturbances are at a minimum. Mysore Plateau This area, between latitude 11°35'N and 12°45'N, and longitude 75°45'E and 77°E lies on the eastern side of the Western Ghats, adjoining the forests of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The region is mostly plains, with rain- fall ranging from 1000 mm to 600 mm. The vegetation is dry and moist deciduous con- sisting mainly of teak, Anogeissus latifolia , Terminalia and Lagerstroemia species and bamboos. Rivers Kabini and Cauvery flow along this area. This region includes the Bandipur National Park and Nagarhole Wild Life Sanctuary. 1010 DISTRIBUTION OF ELEPHANT POPULATIONS OF KARNATAKA 'to o o to to '7S 1 30' AREA NO. 3. THE MALNAD 76' 100 TIRTHAH KMS V) BALEHONNUR , DN.B0UN0ARY 4fr ‘Vita. \ * _ ^.fLDUR V-V \ __ ^ > < /'“"'(7-eEUJR \ V ' - - hassan ftOWGERt < > / ' FOREST BOUNDARY ROADS RIVERS & STREAMS \ i ELEPHANT OIST. P&ESEN’K' : - DO - PAST f [RESERVOIRS , [CULTIVATION INSIDE FOREST \ 75’ |30' 76 P Fig. 5. Distribution of elephants in Malnad area. 1011 I3|0tf I3‘|3<> 14 |QO JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 The area has perhaps the best wild life con- phants. Fodder and water is not uniformly centration in South India, harbouring large available, but if the elephants are able to migrate herds of elephant, spotted deer, wild pig, wild to wetter areas in summer, it would not become dog, hanuman langur, and in some parts gaur, a limiting factor. For fuller details see Nair sambar, and occasionally tiger and other cats, et al. (1977). Elephant population About five elephants that are reported around forests of Somavarpet — in Maldare and Dubare state forests are more or less isolated from the rest of the population which has a continuous range in an extensive forest. The elephant population of this region cannot be described in herds for their ranges overlap and it is difficult to identify the individual herds (see figure 6). There was a large concentration of elephants along the Kalkare, Begur, Bandipur and Mudumalai area during the rainy season when a survey was conducted in 1975. Migration of elephants from the wetter areas of Coorg, Wynaad and Benne during the monsoon to these drier tracts is responsible for this. The total number of elephants in the Bandipur- Mudumalai area was estimated around one thousand and that in the remaining Nagarhole areas around three hundred. There does not seem to be any notable disparity in the sex ratio (Plate IV). Discussion Here, too, the elephant habitat has been continuously shrinking. The destruction of Pulpally forests of Kerala is probably the reason for the high density of elephants in Gundre and Begur areas. If this trend is continued it would result in further overcrowding of the elephants. There are problems arising from crop raiding in most of the peripheral villages. There is occasional poaching of larger mammals in this area especially in the north-western parts. The construction of the Kabini reservoir has created a geographical barrier for movement of ele- Kollegal Hills This area, lying between 11°30' and 13°N latitude and 77° 15' and 77°45'E longitude, extending from the Nilgiris to Bangalore is a Western spur of the Eastern Ghats. This dis- continuous chain of hills harbours mostly dry deciduous and scrub forest. The rainfall is around 500 mm except on the high BRT hills where it is nearly 1000 mm. The dominant tree genera are Anogeissus , Ficus, Acacia, Grewia and Sant alum. Almost all the major wild life species like sambar, spotted deer, gaur and wild boar occur in this area only in small numbers and hence the elephant becomes the prominent species. Elephant population This extensive forest is continuous with the Sathyamangalam areas of Tamil Nadu and has innumerable villages all over the area. Elephant herds are frequently sighted, but an estimation of numbers is difficult because of their seasonal migration and because of the extensive range. A survey similar to that of the Mysore plateau is necessary to arrive at an approximate estimation. In any case the number of elephants at any time does not seem to exceed 200 in this area. There is fre- quent crop raiding in many villages and a few elephants get shot annually during this process (see figure 7). Discussion This area can sustain a large population of elephants because of the presence of the perennial Cauvery river, many fodder species of trees and 1012 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Nair & Gadgil . Elephant population of Karnataka Plate I Above : Paddy cultivation in the middle of forest in North Kanara. Such fields are subject to severe crop raiding by elephants. fo : Manganese mining in North Kanara ; a major source of disturbance in elephant J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Nair & Gadgil : Elephant population of Karnataka Plate II Above : The grassy downs of Western Ghats in Karnataka are not a habitat favoured by elephants. Btlow : Dense evergreen vegetation on Charmadi hills. This is a suboptimal habitat for elephant. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate III Nair & Gadgil : Elephant population of Karnataka Above : An arecanut garden in the middle of forest in South Kanara, The trees lying on ground have been damaged by elephants. Below : The Kerala-Karnataka border near Makut in Coorg. Hill slopes originally covered by dense evergreen forest have now been put under cultivation on Kerala side. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate IV Nair & Gadgil Elephant population of Karnataka Above : A herd of elephants at a pond at Bandipur. This dry deciduous forest is near optimal elephant habitat during the monsoon. Below : A stump tailed male elephant at a pond at Bandipur. Such easily identifiable animals could be followed to yield valuable data on elephant movements. AREA N0.4.THE MYSORE PLATEAU DISTRIBUTION OF ELEPHANT POPULATIONS OF KARNATAKA iTTiT ^ [ II 5 1013 Fig. 6. Distribution of elephants on the Mysore plateau. pgj.gi I pOi.Zl JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 77 'IS' 1 TtU? area NO. 5. KOL LEGAL HILLS. BYLUR TAMIL NADU PALAR — STATE BOUNDARY FOREST BOUNDARY ROADS i tUt ELEPHANT DiST. PRESENT RIVERS A STREAMS CULTIVATION INSIDE FOREST 77'|I5 HIM, Fig. 7. Distribution of elephants on the Kollegal hills. 1014 121 00 12 130' DISTRIBUTION OF ELEPHANT POPULATIONS OF KARNATAKA shrubs and the moist B.R. hills for migration in summer. Management It is clear that even though Karnataka has a good population of elephants their habitat is mostly discontinuous and there is an urgent need for protection of elephants and their habitat to conserve the species. Four major factors will play a crucial role in the conservation of elephants in the coming days. They are (1) overcrowding of elephant ranges, (2) con- struction of hydroelectric or irrigation projects, (3) crop raiding by elephants, (4) poaching. Overcrowding : With the rapid shrinkage of habitat, the elephants are being forced into smaller and smaller areas. Such areas consequently reach very high densities of elephant populations. The Bandipur National Park areas, for example, now harbour almost 2 elephants per square kilometre. Investigations on the African elephant suggest that elephants are at an equili- brium with their environment at much lower densities of about 1 elephant per 5 square kilo- metres (Fowler & Smith 1973). It is therefore likely that the densities such as currently noticed at Bandipur National Park may have serious adverse consequences in the long range. The situation obviously needs to be watched carefully. Big projects : The big projects consume vast areas of forest. For rehabilitating the displaced people from submersion areas further forest areas are cleared. The Tunga and Bhadra Reservoirs have divided a good population of elephants into three or four fragments. The construc- tion of the Kali hydroelectric project will have its effects on the surviving elephants of herd No. 1 of North Kanara. The Kabini reservoir has rendered migration of elephants from Nagerhole areas to Bandipur extremely difficult. A hopeful sign, however, has been the timely intervention in construction of a reservoir near Mudumalai which has saved some of the best elephant country in South India from going under water. Crop raiding : Crop raiding and subsequent shooting forms the major threat to the elephants on the Western Ghats. This is the result of indiscriminate allot- ment of wetter areas deep inside forest and cultivation of the revenue forests or grazing lands which used to form a buffer between wild animals and cultivation. Almost all the herds of elephants in Karnataka raid crops today and to protect both the crops and elephants is difficult. Rehabilitation of some of the villages out of places with a good concentration of elephants seems imperative if the elephant is to be protected. Poaching : Poaching of elephants, though rare in the areas under study, does occur in some parts especially on the eastern side of Kollegal hills. This if extensive could disturb the sex ratio and have a very adverse effect on the populations. The future : Taking all factors into account, the fate of the isolated small herds of North Kanara, Crestline and Malnad areas seems sealed. There seems to be little hope of saving them, and they appear destined to be shot out one by one and disappear, as many other herds have over the past half century in these areas. There is much more hope of conserving the population of the Bhadra sanctuary area, of Nagarhole and Bandipur sanctuaries and possibly of the Kollegal hills. Even here the future depends of preventing further shrinkage of areas and encroachment by cultivation in the heart of elephant forest. Even though everything is 1015 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 done for the maintenance of the integrity of generous co-operation this survey would not the habitat, a certain amount of crop raiding will inevitably continue. An effective scheme for granting compensation for loss of crops will therefore have to play an important role in the future conservation of elephants of Karnataka. Acknowledgements We are grateful to the authorities of Karnataka State Forest Department without whose Refe: Fowler, C. W. and Smith, T. (1973) : Characterizing stable populations : an application to African elephant population. J. Wildlife Management 37 (4) : 513-523. Garland, E. A. (1935) : Revised working plan for the Yellapur-Mundgod areas. Kesava Vittal (1945) : Working plan for South Kanara Division. Korlhally, S. A. (1957) : Revised working plan for the mixed teak forest blocks I to X and VIIA of Haliyal taluka, North Kanara district. have been possible. We were greatly en- couraged in this work by World Wildlife Fund, India, by the West Coast Paper Mills, the Southern Indian Task Force on Elephants, and the Asian Elephant Group of the Survival Services Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. We are also grateful to our collea- gues at the Indian Institute of Science for help in the field and for stimulating discussions. ENCES Nair, S. S., Nair, P. V. K., Sharatchandra, H. C. and Gadgil, M. (1977) : An ecological reconnaissance of the proposed Jawahar National Park, /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 74(3): 401-435. Prasad, S. N., Nair, P. V. K., Sharatchandra, H. C. and Gadgil, M. (1977) : A proposal for the consti- tution of biosphere reserves for Karnataka, Technical Report No. 6, Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. 1016 THE STATUS, ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF LION-TAILED MACAQUE {MAC AC A SILENUS) J. Mangalraj Johnson1 ( With three plates ) Introduction In part fulfilment of a postgraduate Wildlife Management course a dissertation work was to be undertaken on a wildlife problem. It was then suggested that I may work as a collo- borator with Dr. Steven Green when his research proposal on the Lion-tailed Macaque was being evaluated. My dissertation on Status, Ecology and Behaviour of Lion-tailed Macaque was accepted by the faculty of the Wildlife management course, Forest Research Institute and Colleges, Dehra Dun. The field work lasted for 28 days : 8 days during November 1973, 17 days in December 1973, and 3 days in January 1974. General obser- vations amounting to many more days were made before and after this intensive study period. Also a brief study was made on captive specimens in the Delhi Zoo for about 2 weeks, (see Table IX.) The Nilgiri Langur Preshytis johni is per- secuted for its blood and flesh, believed to be a cure for asthma. The species has almost been exterminated in localities where they were once common. Similar property is sup- posed to be possessed by the Lion-tailed Macaque Macaca silenus also. Unlike the Nilgiri Langur which is very fast moving and which disappears at the sight of human beings, the Lion-tailed Macaque is slow moving and can be easily shot. The whitish grey ruff around its face clearly reveals its movements even in its shady and darkened habitat. 1 Wild Life Warden, Mundanthurai Sanctuary, Shencottah-627 809, Tamil Nadu, As these monkeys consume a varied vege- tation, people believe that they choose, select and eat only medicinal herbs and hence their blood and flesh are a panacea ; ‘ Karunkurangu Rasayanam ’ is a recognised preparation of the Ayurvedic system of medicine. In Sanskrit and Ayurvedic literature no distinction is made between the Nilgiri langur and the Lion-tailed Macaque. This study is an attempt to estimate the existing population in Tamil Nadu and to understand their food and ecological require- ment to enable effective management in future. Study area For the intensive field study, a part of Manjolai Estate where Green had been working on vocalization etc. of the Lion-tailed Macaque was chosen. The Bombay-Burma Trading Corporation had taken the major portion of the Shola Forests of Singampatti Forest (of Tirunelveli South Division) for Tea, Coffee and Cardamom Plantations. The study area (8° 33.5'N, 77° 23'E, 1300 m. above M.S.L.) is situated close to Manimuthar river and consists of Evergreen Forests (Sholas), Cardamom Fields, abandoned Coffee Planta- tions with secondary growth and Red Gum {Eucalyptus tereticornis) plantations. There are trails, within the cardamom fields maintained by the Estate and within the Forests made and maintained by Dr. Green. The temporary log bridges got washed away thrice during the period of study. During the study the Lion-tailed Macaque was found in the following associations of the 1017 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , FW. 75 West-Coast Tropical Evergreen Forest (Cham- pion and Seth forest types of india 1968). (see Table I.) The Cullenia-Palaquium Association is the most widespread, growing on deep well drained soil occurring at 750 m to 1050 m. Sometimes they occur in patches exhibiting the denser state towards gregarious. This is the most favoured and almost exclusive habitat of Lion-tailed Macaque. T. V. Iyer {Indian Forester , August 1932) Volume LVIII (8) found the following tree density per acre. Mesua ferrea . . 3.73 Palaquium ellipticum . . 5.45 Calophyllum elatum . . 0.88 Artocarpus inter gr if olia . . 0.44 Dysoxylum malabaricum . . 0.07 Toona ciliata . . 0.03 Bischofia javanica 0.09 Aero carpus fraxinifolius 0.08 Hopea glabra 0.49 Eugenia sp., Syzygium sp. 0.11 The Lion-tailed Macaque is endemic to this region alongwith : 1 . The Nilgiri Langur Presbytis johni (Fischer). 2. The Nilgiri Brown Mongoose Herpestes fuscus Waterhouse 3. The Malabar Civet Viverra megaspila civet tina Blyth The avifauna seen in the macaque habitat is given in the table II. Table I Association Altitude Soil Rainfall Status Filicium-Alsoeodaphne 250-600 m shallow, laterite 2500 mm edaphic climax Hopea-Mesua 300-500 m moderately moist 3000 mm low elevation climax Palaquium-Mangifera 650-800 m clayey, slowly drained 4000 mm medium elevation plimaY Gluta-Palaqui um moister ClilllctA edaphic climax medium Cullenia-Palaquium 800-1 100 m deep, well drained 5000 m elevation climax Palaquium-Mesua 1000-1200 m moist 4000 m medium elevation Cullenia-Calophyllum over 1100 m wet 3000 m post climax Poeciloneuron 1000-1200 mm damp optimum Cullenia (Ghat crests) 5000 m moisture climax Table II No. of times seen or heard No. Common Name Scientific name In Manjolai In other places 1. Laughing Thrush Garrulax jerdoni 7 8 2. Mountain Thrush Zoothera dauma 3 4 3. Large Woodshrike Tephrodornis virgatus — 3 4. Fairy Blue Bird Irena puella 54 18 5. Yellowbacked Sunbird Aethopyga siparaja — 5 6. Spiderhunter Arachnothera longirostris — 3 7. Malabar Golden-backed Woodpecker Dinopium Javanense 9 3 8. Heartspotted Woodpecker Hemicircus canente 3 2 9. Malabar Great Black Woodpecker Dryocopus javensis 9 27 10. Nilgiri Speckled Piculet Picumnus innominatus 6 3 1 1 . Bluebearded Bee-eater Nyctyornis athertoni — 1 1018 MGN-tAtLBb MACAQUE ECOLOGY The following are the Rainfall, Temperature and Humidity particulars from records of Manjolai Estate and collected during the study. The annual rainfall during 1972 and 1973 in the study area was 2982 mm and 3440 mm respectively. The average rainfall for different months in a year is given in the table III. For this study the following categories of Forests were recognised : Category 1. Primary Forest 832 ha. 2. Cardamom Fields 896 ha. 3. Coffee and Red Gum Fields 512 ha. Area 3.21 sq. miles 3.46 sq. miles 2.98 sq. miles Total . . 2240 ha. 9.65 sq. miles \ Table III November 1973 Rainfall Temperature °C 23 Min. 57 — Max. 74 24 6 mm 99 56 - „ 72 25 23 mm 99 55 - „ 69 26 8 mm 58 - „ 64 27 99 56 — „ 70 28 19 mm 99 57 — „ 70 29 14 mm ,9 56- „ 64 30 1 mm 99 58- „ 68 December 1973 1 Min. 58 — Max. 70 2 22 mm 99 56 - „ 74 3 27 mm 99 58 — „ 70 4 99 58 — „ 64 5 99 56 — „ 74 6 99 56 - „ 72 1 99 54 - „ 76 8 2 mm 99 57 - „ 72 9 99 54 - „ 70 10 99 52 - „ 72 11 99 54 - „ 72 12 12 mm 99 54 - „ 72 13 39 mm 99 56 - „ 60 14 1 mm 99 58 - „ 64 15 20 mm 99 60 - „ 70 16 78 mm >9 61 70 17 141 mm 58 - „ 69 January 1974 13 • 0 52 - „ 74 14 • • 99 52 - „ 76 15 •• 99 52 - „ 78 1019 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Sightings of the Lion-tailed Macaque : Five troops were seen in the area during the period of study. They were identified and recognised by individuals with conspicuous marks. (Table IV.) Age Classes The age classes recognised for study in the field is given in Table V. Present distribution of the species Extensive correspondence with Forest Officers, Game Associations, Sportsmen and Estate Managers was undertaken and a ques- tionnaire was circulated to know the present distribution of the Lion-tailed Macaque and to estimate their population. All available literature, chiefly the Journal of Bombay Natural History Society was consulted. The following are the localities where the existence has been confirmed. 1. Panniar Estate — Kerala. 2. Marakkadu. 3. Cardamom Hills. 4. Shencottah Forests. 5. Courtallam Water Falls. 6. Vellodai Valley. 7. Cumbum Valley. 8. Nelliampatti Hills. 9. Highwavy Mountain. 10. Periyar Sanctuary. 11. Anamalai Hills. 12. Nilgiri-Wynaad. 13. North-west face of Nilgiris. 14. Saklesphur Area. 15. Area between Kudremukh and Bhagavathy. 16. Agumbe. 17. Anshi Ghat. 18. Ramgiri. Activities Activity was observed in the field and in captive specimens. I did a brief study of the Lion-tailed Macaques kept in a paddock in the Delhi Zoological Park during the period bet- ween 16-8-1973 and 28-8-1973 and took notes on their activities. For the study at the Zoo, I categorized the activities as : 1 . Feeding ; 2. Moving ; 3. Playing ; 4. Resting and sleeping. Though sexual activities were observed, the participants and duration were comparatively few and they are included in playing. Any activity lasting more than 5 seconds was recorded. In the Zoo, notes on activities were taken for 10 minutes (5.55-6.05 : 6.55-7.05 etc.). While in the wild whenever observations on activities were made, they were recorded conti- nuously. In the Zoo, they spent more time playing and less on feeding. But in the wild it was the opposite. But duration of movement was same under both conditions. Play activity was noted in the Zoo throughout the day, while in the wild it was found to be restricted to cer- tain hours of the day. Pathways Though these macaques appear to move haphazardly regular pathways in trees are followed by different troops. In these pathways, there were normally no dead or dry branches. I could not observe any specific order of movement of troop members. Usually females moved first, while juveniles and sub- adults followed. Males, though always close to thejoute, moved about rather erratically. 1020 LION-TAILED MACAQUE ECOLOGY Table IV Troop Mark on identifiable Member Composition LIEF Male with Females 1 Male (Lief) Nip (Long Nipple) and 4 Females (Nip & Stump) Stump (Stumpy tail) 3 Sub-Adult Females with infant NOSE Male with a torn Nose 1 Adult Male (Nose) 3 Females 1 Sub-Adult Male & 2 Sub-Adult Females 3 Juveniles WART Male with a wart on his face 1 Adult Male (Wart) 5 Females 1 Sub-Adult Male KINKS Female with a kink in its tail 1 Adult Female (Kink) (about 25 animals) HAND Male with a swollen left hand 1 Adult Male (Hand) 3 Adult Females, 2 Sub-Adult Males, 3 Sub- Adult Females Age class categorising of Kink’s troop was not possible. Table V Class Age Field identifications Remarks Infant 0-6 months Fleshy Face, No whiskers Juvenile 6-18 months clinging to mother By comparative size, coat (Sub-Juvenile) Juvenile 18-30 months colour, attachment to Adult Female This differentation was not Adolescent Female 30-42 months Among adolescents males are identified by presence made in my study in Manjolai Adolescent Male Sub-Adult Female 30-54 months 42-54 months of testicles By comparative size and Sub-Adult Male 54-90 months behaviour Male identified by grey hair Colour of fur of inside of Adult 54 months on the testicles By comparative size and thighs changes Female and above behaviour Adult 90 months Male identified by well Male and above developed facial ruff and * by testicles 1021 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Food and Feeding Behaviour Food : Leaves and leaf buds from trees were generally eaten. They also eat the bark of some trees, tree moss, leaf galls, grasshoppers and other insects and lizards ; unidentified egg shells were found in their excreta. The species of trees and parts eaten are given in table VI. Feeding Behaviour : Feeding starts immediately after waking and is continued on the nearest tree where food is available and till they sleep. There was no competition between individuals for food ; while feeding, the sub-adults moved away at the approach of leader males. Leaves and fruits were stripped off branches and eaten and on some occasions (5 observations) they bent the branches towards their mouth and ate. Barks were stripped off dead branches to look for grub and adult insects. If found and caught, these are examined and then eaten alive. Lizards were chased and caught. A leader male (Nose) tapped the bottom of a branch with his left hand, when a disturbed lizard ran up the branch, he caught it by his right hand and put into his mouth. No part of the lizard was thrown out. Grasshoppers were searched for on the ground by carefully turning up grass blades. The Shikra Accipiter badius followed the macaques troops on many occasions ; when macaques moved about on the branches some lizards get disturbed and moved on the branches. These were readily caught by the shikra (5 observations). Cullenia excelsa : As the local name Kurangupila (Monkey Jack tree) for Cullenia indicates, this fruit is the macaques’ favourite diet. Leaves, buds, flowers and fruits of Cullenia excelsa formed their major food during the period of my study. This evergreen tree is also endemic to the Western Ghats and its distri- bution is almost the same as that of Macaca silenus in India. Cullenia excelsa is also found in the central districts of Sri Lanka where this macaque does not occur. Its English name is Wild Durian and the local names are : Tamil — Malai-kongi , Aini-pillae , Vedipala, Singhalese — Katu-boday Kabodda , Karani , Travancore Hills — Kar-avani and Malayalam — Mullen- chakka, Mullanchakka , Vedipilavu , Karayani. Table VI Tree species Part Eaten Bark Leaf buds Leaf Fruit Leafgalls Cullenia excelsa X X X Eugenia spp. X X X Ternstroemia sp. X X X Ar to car pus sp. X X Elaeocarpus sp. X X Myristica sp. X X Cinnamomum sp. X •• Coffea arabica X 1022 Plate I J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Johnson : Lion-tailed Macaque Adult female with infant. Macaque descending. J. Bombay nat. Hist* Soc, 75 Plate II Johnson : Lion-tailed Macaque Sleeping clusters. Female in oestrous. Plate III J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Johnson : Lion-tailed Macaque The oestrous female presenting to male Allogrooming. tiON-T AILED MACAQUE ECOLOGY The tree is a native of the Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests of the Deccan Peninsula and is found in the Western Tropical Evergreen type (Champion’s classification 1AC3). Though it is an evergreen tree, there is a per- ceptible fall of old leaves during the dry, hot season of March, which is accompanied almost at the same time by a flush of new leaves. Another, though less perceptible, flush of new leaves appears after the cessation of the summer monsoon in October-November, especially in localities where South-West monsoon brings the bulk of the annual rainfall. The flowers appear during the hot season, about February- March, and the fruits ripen during the rainy season. Feeding on the Cullenia fruits : The fruits were twisted off or occasionally bitten off the stalk. The thorny exterior of the fruit does not appear to hurt the animals, because they tug, carry and carve out bits easily. They also ate the fruits, without removing them from the branch, if the situation was suitable. They often examine and let go the fruits after partially detaching them from the branches, half-twisted probably to verify the stage of ripeness. In the process, many fruits fell down — sometimes narrowly missing the head of the observer below ! After removal of the fruits (15-20 seconds) they turned and split off bits of the thorny exocarp (10-25 seconds) ; sometimes take fruit to a suitable location for eating. The seeds are taken out with the fingers and either kept in the facial pouch or eaten. The split testa invariably falls slowly down. In no fruit were all the seeds eaten and half-eaten fruits are often thrown away and another fruit removed. Sleeping Clusters A single troop was usually followed and observed until dusk when they went to sleep. The roosting site was marked and the next morning, before the animals got up, the place was reached and observation resumed. The following observations were made. 1. The juveniles normally continued play- ing till late in the evening, while the adults settled down earlier. 2. The juveniles and sub-adults stayed huddled together while sleeping. 3. They sat facing different directions. 4. They settled mostly on the slender ends of branches (except on 2 occasions). 5. After settling down, the contents of the facial pouch were taken out and eaten and considerable quantity of testa of the seeds, was found below in the morning. 6. During the study period all the sleeping clusters were found within Cardamom forests adjoining Primary forests. None was found in the Secondary forests. 7. The clusters are small compared to the troop size. A troop normally settled for the night dividing into 2-3 clusters. (Table VII.) Mating Behaviour : The female in oestrous is conspicuous by her swollen hind parts and root of the tail and she often stood presenting her rear to the male. The male mounted the female placing his hind feet firmly on the hock or holding the fet- lock in between his first toe and other four toes. If the supporting branches were not firm, the female moved forward and backward, until she reached a good hold. When mounting took place on larger branches, the male stood bipedal behind the female. The male generally held the hip of 1023 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL, HUT SOCIETY, V&l. 75 Table VII Composition of sleeping clusters Date Composition Whether found on the next morning 2.12.73 Adult Male, Adult Female + Yes 11.12.73 3 Adult Female, 3 Sub-Adult Female Yes 29.11.73 Adult Female, 2 Sub-Adult Male No 3.12.73 Adult Male, 2 Adult Female -f Yes 7.12.73 Adult Male, 2 Adult Female, Sub-Adult Female Yes 5.12.73 Adult Male, Adult Female with Infant Yes 9.12.73 2 Adult Female, Sub-Adult Male, 3 Sub- Adult Female Yes 14.12.73 1 Adult Female with Infant, 2 Adult Female Yes 4.12.73 1 Adult Male, 1 Adult Female with Infant -f No 27.11.73 1 Adult Male, 2 Adult Female Yes 28.11.73 Adult Male, Adult Female with Infant + Yes 15.12.73 2 Adult Female, 1 Sub-Adult Female No the female with his forelimbs and thrusted (7-29 times) : just before dismounting the male gave vigorous thrusts. The female responded to the thrusts by slow semi-circular movements of her hind quarters. The female moved away sometimes, thwarting intromission. During the period of observation 3 females were in oestrous on different days and were continually mated by the leader male. Due to the great height occupied by them, and fast movement of the troop, uninterrupted observation and clear photography were not always possible. The following are different situations of mating observed. 1 . Male grabbed the tail of female, which was moving, standing or eating Cullenia excelsa fruits, pulled towards him and mounted lifting the tail (27 observa- tions). 2. The male aggressively grinned, which was responded by the female, who came presenting her hind (7 obser- vations). 3. Male mounted keeping a half-eaten Cullenia excelsa fruits in his mouth. After dismounting, he continued his eating (one observation). 4. The female held Cullenia excelsa seeds in her facial pouch during copulation ; when male dismounted, the female took out seeds and after eating dropped the testa of about 3-4 seeds (4 observations). 1024 LI ON-TAILED MACAQUE ECOLOGY 5. During the thrusting of male, the female squeaked, (3-9 times) retracting full lips (11 observations) and turning her face towards the partner. 6. Oestrous female followed the male (15-200 seconds) : when the male stopped, the female moved past the male ; who held the female and mounted (4 observations). 7. When the male caught the oestrous female by tail, she scampered away, 3 metres ; after 10 seconds returned to the male, who mounted (one obser- vation). 8. Female, after dismounting by the male came close to him and remained huddled for 10-35 seconds (9 obser- vations). 9. Male, when female presented her behind, smelt, inspected her rear and groomed, without mounting (18 obser- vations). 10. When oestrous female was sitting the male approached and stroked with the back of his hand ; the female res- ponded by presenting her back quadru- pedal (11 observations). 11. A sub-adult male mounted the oestrous female ; when the leader male approached 9 metres away, he moved away (one observation). 12. Though actual intromission could not be seen, ejaculate could be seen on the genitals of the male. 13. The normal sitting positions were different from the sitting positions during the mating phase. When the oestrous female was nearby the male sits exhibiting his genitals. Vocalization : The calls of the lion-tailed macaque have fascinated naturalists because one of its calls ‘ coo ’ is similar to the call made by the tribals in the jungle to keep contact with each others, as they move about collecting honey, roots etc. (Table VIII). 1 . The call 4 coo ’ and 4 krubb ’ were made by all age classes, in all habitats. 2. The 4 squeak ’ call was made by the adult female only during copulation. And often the 4 squeaks ’ led to locat- ing the mating monkeys. The Bonnet Macaques (adult females) also produce squeaks, while mating. 3. The 4 squeal ’ and 1 scream ’ are the calls of juveniles, in response to loneli- ness, aggressive behaviour by adults or sub-adults or when they were not able to negotiate their movements between branches. Table VIII JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol 75 C/5 1 £* c3 T3 G o o J £ '3 O 73 a ±> i) D Ph 3 T3 W CO < 73 s o 73 ,±s J a & 3 3 ^ 72 < c g HH 3 O M > J3 £ ‘S § ^ (2 ~ <0 «J oo vo J3 73 ^ . ^ S 52- x> ’g w 3 3 Pi w ^ _ I S’ «u 5 «o rn rj f> i-( t" (S vo r4 PQ PQ m < O P P P od o od a a u o & 72 CO 72 1026 Besides the above, 27 calls were heard in Primary Forests and Secondary Forests, these are not included here, as the callers were not seen, LION-TAILED MACAQUE ECOLOGY Table IX Total animal hours 50 : 70 Active Participant Passive Participant Leader Male Oestrous Female Non- Oestrous Female Sub- Adult Male Sub- Adult Female Juvenile Infant Leader Male 6 1 2 Oestrous Female 7 — 3 1 — — — Non-Oestrous Female 4 1 6 1 3 4 9 Sub-Adult Male 5 1 1 4 6 2 3 Sub-Adult Female — — 4 6 1 1 7 Juvenile — — — — 6 3 1 Infant — — — — — — — Acknowledgements I am grateful to the following : Shri Saroj Raj Choudhry, i.f.s., Conservator of Forests, Orissa, formerly in-charge of Wildlife Studies, Forest Research Institute and Colleges, Dehra Dun, for his efforts in initiating this study and for the inspiration of high ideals as an individual as well as a Wildlife expert. Shri V. B. Saharia, i.f.s. , Office-in-charge of Wildlife Studies for his critical appraisal of my proposal and general guidance. Dr. Steven Green for his willing co-operation, enlightening discussions and helpful counselling. Shri K. A. Bhoja Shetty, i.f.s., Chief Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu for encouragement throughout. 1027 A COMPARATIVE ACCOUNT OF THE AVIFAUNA OF THE SHOLAS AND THE NEIGHBOURING PLANTATIONS IN THE NILGIRIS Mohammad Ali Reza Khan 1 ( With a plate) Introduction The original evergreen forests including the sholas of the Nilgiris are disappearing fast with the raising of tea, coffee, eucalyptus and acacia plantations on the one hand and urbanization on the other. The planting of tea started a century ago, whereas eucalyptus, acacia and others came about half a century later. Nobody knows how the avifauna of this region is being affected by this fast rate of replacement of the original vegetation. The only information available on the avifauna of plantations is that of Gray (1974). His observations deal with two isolated eucalyptus plantations in Maharashtra. It is felt that soon only some small bits of evergreen forests may survive and therefore this seems the right time to record the differences between the avifauna of natural vegetation and plantations. Emphasis has also been laid on the adaptations of several species of‘ birds resident in the plantations other than their natural habitat. Methods and Materials I spent about two years (1974-76) in the Nilgiris of Tamil Nadu and some other parts of the Western Ghats in Karnataka and Kerala 1 Research Fellow, Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay 400 023. Present Address : Department of Zoology, Uni- versity of Dacca, Dacca-2, Bangladesh. to study the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa. For about 16 months my study was concentrated at three stations namely, Coonoor ( c . 1750 m above msl), Kotagiri (1800 m) and Ootacamund (or Ooty 2200 m) all in the Nilgiris. I had six study plots. Of these, the Government Botanical Garden (Ooty) and Sims’ Park (Coonoor) were devoid of natural vegetation. Others were represented by thinned out sholas all encircled by tea, acacia and eucalyptus plantations as well as residential buildings. These provided opportunities for studying the birds of the sholas as well as of the plantations. During each visit to the study plots as well as other areas I kept regular notes on the sightings of the different species of birds and their habits. This paper is mainly based on 120 hours of observation. A brief description of the plantations of the Nilgiris followed by comparison of the birds of the plantations and natural vegetation has been made, and an attempt to show the adaptiveness of the birds of plantations and the impact of the latter on the avifauna. A bird was considered to be a resident in the planta- tions when it was found nesting in the area. A pair of 10 x 50 binoculars and a 35 mm camera with a 200 mm zoom lens were used. No birds were trapped for this purpose as field identification was sufficient. The common and scientific names of the birds have been used here from Ripley (1961), 1028 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc, 75 Reza Khan : Avifauna in Nilgiris Plate Right: above; Black Eagle above a bamboo cli^mp — Nilgiri ; middle: Purple Sunbird (in eclipse plumage) on a Sfreptocqulon bush— Kotagiri ; below : Greyheaded Flycatcher may be seep anywhere — Ooty Botanical Garden. ! (Photos : Author ) Left : Lopping of Eucalyptus trees — Coonoor. AVIFAUNA OF SHOLAS AND PLANTATIONS Ali (1969) and Ali & Ripley (1968-74). The generic names of the flowering plants being adopted|from Santapau and Henry (1973), and others mostly from Champion & Seth (1968). Description of the vegetation : Sholas : These are small pockets of ever- green forest growing on the ravine slopes or sheltered folds of the hills of the Western Ghats, usually above 1200 m msl and are termed as Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forest (Champion and Seth 1968). In the Nilgiris sholas are commonly found between 1500 and 2500 m msl. Shola trees below 2000 m rarely exceed 15 metres in height, whereas those growing above this elevation hardly ever reach 10 metres. Dominant plants include Syzygium spp., Elaeocarpus spp., Ilex spp., Vaccinium spp., Gordonia obtusa , Ternstroemia gymnanthera, Michelia nilagirica, Rhododendron nilagiricum, Meliosma spp., Litsea spp. Photinia spp., Glochidion spp., Turpinia nepaulensis , Eurya japonica , Mahonia leschenaultii etc. with a luxuriant undergrowth of Psychotria , Olden- landia , Lasianthus , Chomelia , Strobilanthus, Rubus, Smilax , Passiflora , Ipomoea , Bambusa nana , Polygonum , Argyreia etc. Tea : Tea is cultivated in c 25,000 hectares between 1000 and 2200 m elevation. Silver Oak Grevillea robust a is used extensively as shade trees. All old plantations have re- tained thinned out sholas along the perennial sources of water whereas the new plantations have dropped this practice totally. In small pockets within the tea plantations eucalyptus and acacia are grown for the supply of fire- wood. Once planted, the tea plants yield for c. 60 years at a stretch while shade trees are freshly planted about four times during this period. Sholas have been clear felled for planting tea. In Gudalur taluk tea is usually grown around 1000 m above msl after clear- felling evergreen forest. Birds found in such low elevation tea have not been included here. Eucalyptus : About 15 species of Eucalyptus are planted of which E. globulus and E. grandis are widely cultivated for commercial extraction. These are grown usually above 1200 m and below 2500 m. Eucalyptus are either planted on grassy downs or in the folds of the hills after removing the sholas although both the grass- lands and the sholas are considered to be climax vegetations for the Nilgiris (see Ranganathan 1938 — Working Plan of the Nilgiris Forest Division 1969). Eucalyptus trees grow between 15 and 20 m high with very little branching. Branches and leaves are removed seasonally for oil extraction (Plate). The trees are allowed to grow for 10 years or so and there is sufficient light for the under- growth. These two factors contribute to the healthy growth of shrubs and herbs. This undergrowth lasts for the same number of years. From the avifaunal point of view this is the core zone which ultimately provides food, shelter and breeding places. Dominant plants of such an undergrowth usually include Solanum auriculatum , S. robustum , S. sisymbrii- folium , S. indicum, Rubus ellipticus, R, race- mosus, Rhodomyrtus tomentosa , Lantana camara, Maesa perrottetiana , Toddalia asiatica, Smilax spp., Alsophila latebrosa, Gleichenia, Car ex spp., Passiflora , Polygonum , Ipomoea, Argyreia hirsuta etc. Acacia : Although some five species of Acacia are planted, A. dealbata and A . decurrens are the most wide spread. Like eucalyptus acacias are also planted either on the grassy downs up to the cliff line or in the sheltered folds of the hills after removing the sholas. The altitude is also similar. Acacia and gymnospermic Callitris and Cupressus planta- tions are totally devoid of any undergrowth chiefly because of excessive darkness, and other climatological and biotic factors. The same may be said of Pinus patula plantation. Eucalyptus and acacia plantations cover c. 25,000 h. in the district. 6 1029 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 Along the edges of tea, coffee and eucalyptus plantations, and on the banks of streams flowing through them, there are always luxuriant undergrowths. These are mostly composed of Pilea, Pouzolzia , Lasianthus, Oldenlandia , Osbeckia , Microtropis , Rubus, Lantana , Cestrum aurantiacum. Datura, Sophora, Rumex, Rhododendron arboreum, Ipomoea, Passiflora , Toddalia, Dodonaea, Hypericum, Maesa , Elaea. gnus etc. In tea and eucalyptus plantations there are only two storeys — canopy and under- growth. Other than the plantations mentioned above, a vast area of grassy downs have been covered by introduced exotic plants like Ulex europaeus, Eupatorium glandulosum, Cytisus scoparius and Lantana camara. Results and Discussion The birds observed in the sholas above 1500 m tea, and in plantations of eucalyptus and acacia, all above 1 500 m, have been shown in Table 1 . Altogether 118 species of resident, migratory and locally migratory birds have been observed in the evergreen forests and sholas which also occurred in the tea, eucalyptus or acacia planta- tions. There occur 112 species in the sholas, 86 in tea, 76 in eucalyptus and 62 in acacia. The number of species present in tea and eucalyptus are far fewer than in the sholas. Acacia supports the lowest number of species. In tea each species is represented by larger number of individuals and those in eucalyptus and in acacia by fewer. There are 28 resident species in tea, 14 in eucalyptus and 10 in acacia against 64 in the sholas. The abundance of individuals of each species in tea and paucity of breeding birds in eucalyptus — acacia plantations may be because the latter support fewer number of food bearing plants, insects and other food animals. These foods are less abundant in eucalyptus and almost absent in acacia. It is also likely that the clear felling of eucalyptus and acacia every 10 years, and regular lopping of eucalyptus branches throughout this period is disastrous to the birds and their food items. The migratory and locally migratory bird species which visit natural vegetations equally prefer plantations. Out of 16 migratory species 9 are found in tea, 9 in eucalyptus and 7 in acacia. Adaptiveness of some species : Among the 118 species recorded, there are a few which are better adapted to the tea plantation proper, i.e., excluding the shrubs along the streams and thinned-out sholas. In order of abundance and success they are : Redwhiskered Bulbul, Ashy Wren-Warbler, Spotted Munia, Pied Bush Chat, Brown Shrike, Rufousbacked Shrike, Jungle Babbler, Grey Junglefowl, Painted Bush Quail, Blackbird, Spotted Babbler and Blackwinged Kite as resident, Tickell’s Leaf—, Blyth’s Reed — and Greenish Leaf Warblers, Grey Drongo, Blue- headed Rock Thrush, Brown Flycatcher, Brownbreasted Flycatcher, and Rosefinch as migratory species. There are other birds which are frequently seen in the tea but usually do not breed there in any number. These are all species of babblers mentioned in Table 1, Woodpeckers, Flycatchers, Barbets, Bee-eaters, Bulbuls, White-eye, Crows and Grey Tit. The Flowerpeckers and Sunbirds are frequent visitors to the tree parasites viz. Dendrophthoe Loranthus and Viscum on shade trees. The resident species benefit from the avai- lable food, nesting facilities, shelter and roosting places. The migratory species utilize the avai- lable food resources, especially insects. Most migrants are insectivorous. Other species visit tea but do not stay there chiefly because of non-availability of suitable nesting facilities. But they use the food materials and cover as Gray (1974) has observed in eucalyptus 1030 AVIFAUNA OF SHOLAS AND PLANTATIONS Table 1 Birds observed in the sholas and in the plantations Serial No. Synopsis Name of the Birds1 No. Occurrence and status in Shola Tea Eucalyp- tus Acacia 1. 124 Blackwinged Kite Elams caeruleus 1 FR2 UCr O 2. 133 Pariah Kite Milvus migrans O Fr O O 3. 138 Shikra Accipiter badius UCR O O O 4. 145 Crested Goshawk Accipiter trivirgatus F — — 5. 151 Besra Sparrow-Hawk Accipiter virgatus UCR O o O 6. 163 Bonelli’s Hawk-Eagle Hieraaetus fasciatus . . O o o o 7. 172 Black Eagle Ictinaetus malayensis F F — — 8. 187 Scavenger Vulture Neophron percnopterus O3 O3 — — 9. 195 Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus FM — — — 10. 197 Crested Serpent Eagle Spilornis cheela CR o — — _ 11. 224 Kestrel Falco tinnunculus — F F F 12. 262 Painted Bush Quail Perdicula erythrorhynchos . . FR Cr F — 13. 275 Red Spurfowl Galloper dix spadicea FR O — . — 14. 301 Grey Junglefowl Gallus sonneratti UCR Cr Cr F 15. 405 Wood Snipe Capella nemoricola FM — — — 16. 411 Woodcock Scolopax rusticola CM — O — 17. 511 Imperial Pigeon Ducula badia FR — — — 18. 521 Nilgiri Wood Pigeon Columba elphistonii CR — o — 19. 537 Spotted Dove Streptopelia chinensis CR Cr F F 20. 542 Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica UCR — — — 21. 550 Roseringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri — Fr — — 22. 564 Bluewinged Parakeet Psittacula columboides CR — — — 23. 567 Indian Lorikeet Loriculus vernalis F Fr F Flmi 24. 571 Pied Crested Cuckoo Clamator jacobinus O O — — 25. 590 Koel Eudynamys scolopacea FR — — — 26. 602 Crow-Pheasant Centropus sinensis FR F Fr O 27. 628 Forest Eagle-Owl Bubo nipalensis UCR — — — 28. 659 Brown Wood Owl Strix leptogrammica UCR — — — 29. 685 Indian Edible-nest Swiftlet Collocalia unicolor F2 — — — 30. 694 Alpine Swift Apus melba F2 — — — 31. 703 House Swift Apus affinis F2 F2 — — 32. 724 Common Kingfisher Alcedo at this UCR — — — 33. 736 Whitebreasted Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis . . UCR O — — 34. 744 Chestnutheaded Bee-eater Merops leschenaulti C C C F 35. 750 Green Bee-eater Merops orientalis CR Cr C F 1 Subspecies name has not been included as no specimen was collected. 2 VC-Very common, seen during c. 80-100% of the visits ; C-Common, 50 to 80%, UC-Uncommon, 25 to 50%, F — Few, below 25% ; R — Resident in the sholas, r — resident in the plantations ; O — Occasional, visiting from the nearby forests ; and M — Migratory. 3 Seen overhead. 1 lm— Locally migratory. 2 Seen overhead. 1031 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 Table 1 — ( Contd .) Serial No. Synopsis No. Name of the birds \ Occurrence and status in Shola Tea Eucalyp- tus Acacia 36. 765 Hoopoe Upupa epops FR Cr F Flm1 37. 785 Small Green Barbet Megalaima viridis VCR C — — 38. 799 Speckled Piculet Picumnus innominatus FR — — — 39. 808 Little Scalybellied Green Woodpecker Picus xanthopygaeus F Cr F F 40. 820 Lesser Goldenbacked Woodpecker Dinopium benghalensis CR F O O 41. 825 Indian Goldenbacked Threetoed Woodpecker Dinopium javense UCR — — — 42. 847 Yellowfronted Pied Woodpecker Dendrocopus maharattensis F UC F F 43. 853 Pigmy Woodpecker Picoides nanus CR F F — 44. 862 Larger Goldenbacked Woodpecker Chry - socolaptes lucidus FR — — — 45. 914 Dusky Crag Martin Hirundo concolor F F F F1 46. 919 House Swallow Hirundo tahitica — F F O1 47. 927 Striated Swallow Hirundo daurica — FM FM FM 48. 947 Rufousbacked Shrike Lanius schach F UCr F — 49. 949 Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus F Cm C F 50. 953 Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus FR O — — lm 51. 965 Grey or Ashy Drongo Dicrurus leucophaeus UCM UCM FM O 52. 982 Ashy Swallow-Shrike Artamus fuscus F1 F1 — — 53. 1010 Jungle Myna Acridotheres fuscus CR O O o 54. 1016 Hill Myna Gracula religiosa O __ — — 55. 1049 House Crow Corvus splendens O O o o 56. 1054 Jungle Crow Corvus macrorhynchos CR Cr UCr UCr 57. 1065 Pied Flycatcher-Shrike Hemipus picatus CR Cr UCr UCr 58. 1070 Common Wood Shrike Tephrodornis pondiceria- nus CR F F — 59. 1079 Blackheaded Cuckoo-Shrike Coracina melanop- tera UCR O — — 60. 1081 Orange (Scarlet) Minivet Pericrocotus flammeus CR O O O 61. 1104 Goldfronted Chloropsis Chloropsis aurifrons — . O — — 62. 1114 Greyheaded Bulbul Pycnonotus priocephalus CR — — — 63. 1120 Redwhiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus . . VCR VCr Cr UC 64. 1128 Redvented Bulbul Pycnonotus cafer VCR VCr Cr UC 65. 1144 Yellowbrowed Bulbul Hypsipetes indicus . . CR O O o 66. 1149 Black Bulbul Hypsipetes madagascariensis . . VCR Cr Cr UC 67. 1154 Spotted Babbler Pellorneum ruficeps CR Cr Cr Cr 68. 1174 Slatyheaded Scimitar Babbler Pomatorhinus schisticeps CR O O — 69. 1224 Blackheaded Babbler Rhopocichla atriceps . . CR — O o 70. 1260 Rufous Babbler Turdoides subrufus O1 F * 1 Seen overhead. 1032 AVIFAUNA OF SHOLAS AND PLANTATIONS Serial No. Synopsis No. Name of the Birds Occurrence and status in Shola Tea Eucalyp- tus Acacia 71. 1264 Jungle Babbler Turdoides striatus FR VCr F 72. 1307 Nilgiri Thrush Garrulax cachinnans CR F UC _ 73. 1390 Quaker Babbler Alcippe poioicephala CR F F 74. 1407 Brown Flycatcher Muscicapa latirostris FM O FM FM 75. 1408 Brownbreasted Flycatcher Muscicapa muttui . . FM O FM FM 76. 1411 Redbreasted Flycatcher Muscicapa parva . . FM — 77. 1427 Black-and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa CR O UCr Fr 78. 1435 Whitebellied Blue Flycatcher Muscicapa pallipes F — — 79. 1442 Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher Muscicapa tickelliae VCR Fr Fr Fr 80. 1446 Nilgiri Flycatcher Muscicapa alhicaudata VCR Fr Fr Fr 81. 1449 Greyheaded Flycatcher Culicicapa ceylonensis VCR F F F 82. 1457 Whitespotted Fantail Flycatcher Rhipidura albogularis VCR F UCr Fr 83. 1461 Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone paradisi . . F — — — 84. 1513 Plain (Nilgiri) Wren-Warbler Prinia subflava — Fr F 85. 1517 Ashy Wren-Warbler Prinia socialis F VCr F 86. 1535 Tailor Bird Orthotomus sutorius FR O — 87. 1556 Blyth’s R.eed Warbler Acrocephalus dumetorum VCM UCM CM FM 88. 1579 Tickell’s Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus affinis CM CM CM FM 89. 1602 Dull Green Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus trochiloides FM FM FM O 90. 1637 Rufousbellied Shortwing Brachypteryx major . . CR — F o 91. 1650 Blue Chat Erithacus brunneus VCM CM CM FM 92. 1661 Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis CR uc F O 93. 1702 Pied Bush Chat Saxicola caprata UCR Cr F O 94. 1723 Blueheaded Rock Thrush Monticola cinclorhynchus CM FM O O 95. 1726 Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius O O — — 96. 1728 Malabar Whistling Thrush Myophoneus hors - fieldii FR F O o 97. 1731 Pied Ground Thrush Zoothera wardii FM — — — 98. 1734 Whitethroated Ground Thrush Zoothera citrina FR F F — 99. 1742 Nilgiri Thrush Zoothera dauma C ? — O o 100. 1753 1755 Blackbird Turdus merula UCR Cr F F 101. 1794 Grey Tit Par us major CR Cr F F 102. 1811 Yellowchecked Tit Parus xanthogenys CR — O — 103. 1834 Velvetfronted Nuthatch Sitta frontalis CR — O O 104. 1870 Nilgiri Pipit Anthus nilghiriensis CR F Fr Fr 105. 1874 Forest Wagtail Motacilla indica FM — O O 106. 1884 Grey Wagtail Motacilla caspica VCM CM FM FM 107. 1899 Tickell’s Flowerpecker Dicaeum erythrorhynchos CR F — Cr 108. 1902 Nilgiri Flowerpecker Dicaeum concolor CR F — Cr 1 — This species is common in Tea plantation below 1000 m. 1033 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL NIST. SOCIETY , F©/. 75 Table 1— (Caflfcf.) Serial No. Synopsis No. Name of the Birds Occurrence and status Shola Tea Eucalyp- tus in • Acacia 109. 1907 Purplerumped Sunbird Nectarinia zeylonica . . F 110. 1909 Small Sunbird Nectarinia minima VC C O O locally migratory 111. 1917 Purple Sunbird Nectarinia asiatica CR UCr F O 112. 1931 Little Spiderhunter Arachnothera longirostris F — — F locally migratory 113. 1935 White-eye Zosterops palpebrosa VCR F Cr F 114. 1938 House Sparrow Passer domesticus O F O O 115. 1964 Red Munia Estrilda amandava F — O — 116. 1971 Rufousbreasted Munia Lonchura kelaartii FR O — — 117. 1974 Spotted Munia Lonchura punctulata F VCr O O 118. 2011 Common Rosefinch Caprodacus erythrinus VCM FM o o plantation. By and large all birds of tea plan- tation are either resident or migratory species of sholas from where they have apparently moved to the plantations. The commonest resident species of eucalyptus plantation include Redwhiskered Bulbul, and Spotted Babbler. Others who build nests here are Jungle Crow, Black-and-Orange Flycatcher, Nilgiri Verditer Flycatcher, TickelFs Blue Flycatcher, Whitespotted Fantail Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher-Shrike, Black Bulbul, Nilgiri Pipit and White-eye. All these shola species opportunistically settle in this plantation mainly because of the good under- growth and food. These species are either insectivorous or are omnivorous. The Lorikeet and the Haircrested Drongo ( Dicrurus hottentottus not in my study plots) are usually attracted by eucalyptus flowers for the nectar (Ali and Ripley 1968-74). The Jungle Crow, Spotted Babbler and Flowerpeckers are the commonest resident species of acacia plantations. Some of the flycatchers do build nests here. They utilize insects, caterpillars, worms and seeds of tree parasites as food (Flowerpeckers) and seedlings or bushy tree tops as nesting sites. The first two species are not dependent on acacia alone as they forage over a larger area and are not as parochial as the others. So far as food, shelter, and breeding places are concerned eucalyptus and acacia planta- tions provide poor environment as is evidenced by the paucity of breeding birds. Here the disadvantage of monoculture is more clearly noticeable than in tea plantation. Appraisal and Comments : From the rate at which sholas are disappear- ing from the upper plateaux of the Nilgiris it can be conjectured that, unless the process is halted immediately, hardly any area will sup- port these types of forest by the beginning of the next century. Therefore, bird species which are adapted for these vegetations will be crowded into small pockets or galleries of forest to be found along streams in the different plantations, specially tea. Some might dis- appear totally. Others may move towards less suitable moist-deciduous habitats on the lower plateau. 1034 AVIFAUNA OF SHOLAS AND PLANTATIONS To save the avifauna and other animals of necessary study leave and to the Bombay the sholas of the Nilgiris there is no alternative to stopping all further denudation of this unique ecosystem. All clear felling should be banned, although controlled selective felling may be allowed to a limited extent. Trees removed by such process should be replaced only by native trees. Adequate measures should be taken to save the undergrowth and shrubs in the eucalyptus and acacia plantations. All perennial sources of water and vegetation on their banks should be preserved. Acknowledgements I am grateful to the authorities of the Uni- versity of Dacca, Bangladesh, for providing me Refer Ali, Salim (1969) : Birds of Kerala. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, Bombay & London. Ali, Salim and Ripley, S. D. (1968-74) : Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. 10 Vols. Oxford University Press. India. Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. K. (1968): A Revised Survey of the forest types of India. Govt, of India, Delhi. Natural History Society for awarding me a fellowship from Salim Ali-Loke Ornithological Research Fund to study the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher which gave me opportunity to ob- serve other birds. I express my deepest regards to Dr. Salim Ali for his constant interest in my work and valuable suggestions for improving the paper. Thanks are due to Mr. J. C. Daniel, Curator, Bombay Natural History Society, for kindly going through the manuscript. Tamil Nadu Forest Department permitted me to conduct the studies and the Divisional Forest Officers of the Nilgiris North and South Divisions helpfully provided me with necessary information regarding reserved forests and plantations. N C E S Gray, Lincoln (1974) : The Avifauna of introduced Eucalyptus plantations in Maharashtra. /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 71(1) : 76-80. Ripley, S. D. (1961) : A Synopsis of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Bombay Natural History Society, India. Santapau, H. and Henry, A. N. (1973) : A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants in India. C.I.S.R. New Delhi. 1035 NECTAR-FEEDING ADAPTATIONS OF FLOWERBIRDS1 P. Kannan2 ( With twenty-two text-figures) Introduction The bill and tongue of birds usually show special adaptations to facilitate procurement of their staple food and their method of feed- ing. Striking examples of such adaptations may be seen in the bill and tongue of wood- peckers, adapted respectively to boring holes in tree barks and extracting worms from within the crevices, and in the lamellated bill and tongue of ducks and flamingoes (also the long neck) adapted to filtering their food from water. Likewise, the bill of specialized nectar-feeding birds is adapted to probe flowers for nectar and their tongue (as also the bill) to suck it up. Many structural and behavioural features of flowerbirds that are seemingly not directly involved in nectar-feeding have been described by earlier writers on the subject as nectar-feeding adaptations. The hovering habit of hum- mingbirds (Trochilidae) has been described as an adaptation to feed from flowers that do not offer a landing place for the birds. The com- paratively small size and swift direct flight 1 ‘ Flowerbirds ’ and ‘ Birdflowers ’ : I have used the expression ‘ Flowerbird ’ to indicate that the bird is a habitual flower visitor to feed on nectar without any reference to the extent of adaptation for nectar feeding shown by its bill and tongue or to its role in flower pollination. So also, the expression ‘ birdflower ’ as used here only means that the flower is visited by birds for its nectar and does not necessarily mean an ornitho- philous flower. 2 Asst. Director, Wild Life Preservation, Govt, of India, Wild Life Regional Office, 11, Air Cargo Complex, Sahar, Bombay-400 057. of sunbirds (Nectariniidae), flowerpeckers (Dicaeidae), honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and brush-tongued lories (Trichoglossidae, now merged with Psittacidae) have been described as adaptations to facilitate flying through dense foliage and their perching type of feet as an adaptation to cling to the twigs in different ways while flower-probing. The validity of these interpretations is open to question, for all these so called nectar feeding adaptations could be explained as adaptations for other func- tional requirements of the birds that are apparen- tly much older and more basic than nectar- feeding. As flowerbirds and birdflowers have evolved together, each in adaptation to the other, it may, perhaps, be impossible to determine some adaptive features of either of them as ‘ the cause ’ or ‘ the effect ’ of correlative features of the other. But, structural features of the bill and tongue of specialized nectar-feeding birds, developed in them, exclusively for ful- filling a subjective need, are evidently true nectar feeding adaptations. This study was undertaken by me during 1963-66 as a part of my M.Sc. dissertation on Ornithophily. The study area included natural forests in and around Bombay and two hill stations namely, Khandala and Mahabaleshwar in Western Ghats, Maharashtra. Method With the view to determining the nectar feeding adaptations of flowerbirds, I examined, 1036 NECTAR-FEEDING ADAPTATIONS OF FLO WERBIRDS where necessary under microscope, the shape, size and structure of bills and tongues of 37 species of flowerbirds of the study area listed in Appendix I. Transverse Sections of different parts of tongues of specialized nectar-feeders were examined under microscope to note the shape of the organ in different species. In some cases, I made a comparative study of forms closely related to nectar-feeders but adapted to fruit-eating or insect-catching. Also, I observed in the laboratory live specimens of specialized nectar-feeders of the study area for closer observation of the working mechanism of their tubular tongues. As a part of study of Ornithophily, I ob- served the visits of 37 species of flowerbirds to 50 species of flowers in the Bombay area. These observations form the basis of data fur- nished in Table 2. Details of these obser- vations are recorded in a separate paper (in press). Observations Non-specialized Nectar -feeders : The list of flower frequenters of the study area (Appendix I) includes many birds, the bills of which show no special adaptation for flower-probing, but are either of a generalized nature to suit an omnivorous diet (e.g. crows, mynas, orioles) or nut-cracking and fruit and seed-eating (e.g. parakeets and lorikeet), or show adaptations to an insectivorous diet (e.g. drongo), the tongues of these birds also do not show any of the elaborate adaptations shown by specialized nectar-feeders. However, the birds frequent and also cross-pollinate a few species of flowers. In view of absence of any elaborate nectar-feeding adaptations in such species, detailed description of bill and tongue in these pages is restricted to spcialized nectar- feeders of the families Irenidae, Nectariniidae, Dicaeidae and Zosteropidae. The sketches of bills and tongues, of non-specialized nectar- feeders (Figs. 1-7) are^ included with a view to explain characters exhibited by some species, though not all, such as the slightly curved bill with a pointed tip, the bifid tongue tip and slight frayed tongue margins in the anterior part resulting in a few bristle-like processes. These characters probably facilitate licking up flower-nectar through capillary action, in much the same way they presumably assist in drinking water. Non-specialized nectar feeders studied by me, include species from following families : Psittacidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Stumidae, Corvidae, Pycnonotidae and Muscicapidae (Timaliinae, Sylviinae and Turdinae). Of the tongue of non-specialized nectar feeders studied, those of Indian Robin (Saxi- coloides fulicata ) and Haircrested Drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus ) are of interest inasmuch as they are markedly better evolved for nectar- feeding than their respective closely related forms. The anterior tongue tip of Indian Robin is frayed into a few somewhat long bristly processes, which are curled upwards to give a brush-tip like appearance. However, the posterior part of the tongue is nearly flat and the tongue is not a suctorial organ. The tongue of Haircrested Drongo also has the anterior part frayed into many long bristles and the mid portion deeply concave by the marked curling in of the tongue margins that (compared to the tongue of the King Crow or Black Drongo) it is adapted for nectar- feeding. However, the tongue is not tubular and is not a suctorial organ. Beecher (1953) remarks ‘ . . . . the adaptive loss of the bill notch and the nectar adapted tongue (of Hair- crested Drongo) indicate a strong approach to flower-feeding, though the persistence of rictal bristles suggests that insect-catching is still paramount \ Specialized Nectar-Feeders : Lucas (1897) and Gardner (1925, 1927) studied adaptation of tongues of birds with 1037 JOMNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, V&l. 75 Bills and Tongues of non-specialised nectar feeders : (Figs. 1-7)— 1. Acridotheres fuscits ; 2. Pycnonotus cafer ; 3. Oriolus oriolus ; 3 A. hottentottus; 4A. Tongue of D. hottentottus; 5. Tongue of Acridotheres tristis ; 7. Tongue of Loriculus vcmalis. Tongue of 0. oriolus ; 4. Dicrurus 6. Tongue of Saxicoloides fulicata and 1038 NECTAR-FEEDING ADAPTATIONS OF FLOWERB1RDS specialized food and feeding habits, including the tubular tongues of specialized nectar feeders. Gadow (1883) described in detail the structure of the tongue of Nectarinia splendida— an African sunbird and the method of func- tioning of the organ. He has compared sun- bird’s tongue with that of the Australian honey- eaters. Beddard (1891) described the nectar feeding adaptations seen in the tongue of the White-eye Zosterops simplex . Other contri- butors to the subject include Moller (1930, 1931), the first, a general account of the tongue of flower-seeking birds and the next, on the nectar-feeding adaptations of Zosterops annulosa ; Scharnke (1930, 1931, 1932), the first two being accounts of the adaptive modi- fications and working mechanism of the tongue of hummingbirds, and the last, an account of tongue structure of sunbirds, sugar-birds of South Africa and Hawaiian honeysuckers. Irenidae Birds studied : Chloropsis aurifrons and C. cochinchinensis. Food habit : Both species feed on insects, spiders, flower nectar and a variety of fruits. Bill : (Fig. 8). In both the species the bill is long (Oilmen c. 2 cm), thin, slightly decurved and with a pointed tip. Rictal and nasal bristles are absent. The ventral surface of the upper mandible is deeply concave. Tongue : (Fig. 17&17A). The tongue patterns of both the species are similar. The organ is stiff, c. 3 cm (excluding the hyoid) and slightly decurved to suit the shape of the bill in which it is enclosed. Some 5 mm from the posterior end, the tongue margins are slightly upturned and the dorsal surface of the tongue slightly depressed. Further in front, the margins are turned upwards more and more ; this feature giving the dorsal surface a trough-like appearance. The dorsal sheath within the trough becomes narrower towards the anterior tip of the tongue and is deeply cleft. In the anterior half of the tongue, only the two sheaths form the organ. The sheaths lose their connections with the stiff and bony elements of the tongue. The free edges of the ventral sheath that are curled upwards, now curled inwards as well, the two edges almost meeting each other. The outer, upturned margins of the ventral sheath, beyond the trough-like section, are frayed deeply into many long bristly processes. Since the frayed margins of the anterior tongue-tip curl inwards and meet each other, the bristles of the two sides intermingle to give the anterior tip of the tongue (for c. 9 mm) a brush-tip-like appearance. The dorsal sheath in this region is represented in the form of two long narrow flap-like processes that are enclosed within the ‘ brush ’ formed by the ventral sheath (Fig. 17A). The tongue functions in the same manner as described for sunbirds. The long, thin, slightly decurved bill is suitable for flower probing ; the highly pro- trusible semi-tubular tongue with its brush-like tip specialized for sucking up nectar. Dicaeidae Birds studied : Dicaeum agile , D. erythrorhyn- chos. D. agile is mainly frugivorous, and has been observed to feed on the berries of different species of Loranthus, Viscum, Lantana , and Ficus ; rarely visits flowers to feed on nectar. The thick, short, sturdy and somewhat triangular bill of D. agile (Fig. 10) indicates that it is adapted to fruit-eating but is unsuitable for flower-probing. The flat tongue of this species^ with a bifid tip, shows no adaptation for nectar-feeding. D. erythrorhynchos also feeds on fruits, but takes a large quantity of flower nectar, as well as small insects and spiders. This species (Fig. 9) has a comparatively thin, long (c 12 mm) bill. The tomia of the anterior 1039 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , K>/. 75 Bill of specialised nectar feeders : (Figs. 8-16)— 8. Chloropsis aurifrons ; 9. Dicaeum erythrorhynchos ; 10. D. agile ; 11. Nectarinia zeylonica ; 12.Ar. minima ; 13 .N.Iotenia; 14. N.asiatica; 15. Aethopyga siparaja ; 15A. Sunbird’s bill tip showing serrated tomia ; 16. Zoster ops palpehrosa* NECTAR-FEEDING ADAPTATIONS OF FLOWERBIRDS part of the maxilla and mandible are serrated, a characteristic feature of the two closely related families, Dicaeidae and Nectariniidae. The comparatively thin bill of D. erythro- rhynchos permits feeding on insects and flower nectar in addition to small pulpy fruits which appear to form their staple diet. The serra- tions of tomia in the anterior part of the bill probably help in getting better grip over the fruits that are skilfully manipulated in that part of the bill for removal of the unwanted seed-coat. Ali (1931) has pointed out that the remarkable difference in the shape and size of the bills of these two closely related species of flowerpeckers is reflected in their different ways of feeding on the same food item viz., fruits of Loranthus. The thin pointed bill without bristles around its base facilitates its insertion into the narrow tubular corolla of ornithophilous flowers. The tongue of D. erythrorhynchos (Fig. 18) is c. 15 mm long. The margins of the ventral sheath, after losing their connection with the dorsal sheath, are turned upwards and inwards to make this part of the tongue somewhat tubular ; but the two upturned margins do not contact each other to make it completely tubular. The anterior one third of this semi-tubular part of the tongue is deeply split into two equal sized ‘ secondary tubes ’. These two secondary tubes are semi-tubular, each with its concave side turned towards the other, that is, if the two half tubes were to unite they would form a complete tube. The margins of the tongue are entire (without fraying or incisions). The tip of the secondary tubes are slightly bifid. According to Beecher (1953) the tongue of flowerpeckers functions in the same way as that of sunbirds. Nectarinidae Birds studied : Nectarinia zeylonica , N. minima , N. lotenia, N. asiatica and Aethopyga siparaja. Food and feeding habits : The flower visit- ing habit of sunbirds is well known. Flower nectar seems to be the main food of these birds. The two methods of reaching the nectar, i.e. probing the flower through the regular flower opening and the 4 short cut method ’ have been recorded by many observers. Besides flower nectar, the birds feed on a large quantity of small spiders and insects. As the general pattern of bills and tongues of all species of sunbirds examined so far appear similar in most aspects, generalized descriptions of the organs are given. However, as the bill size in the different species varies, measurements of the organ in all specialized nectar feeders differences are also pointed out (Table 1). Table 1 Measurements of average length of bill and CULMEN OF 9 SPECIES Species Bill length in mm (from skull) Culmen length in mm ~ ~ « Chlovopsis aurifrons 23 19 C. cochinchinensis 22.5 19 Dicaeum erythrorhynchos 11.5 9.5 Nectarinia zeylonica 18 15.5 N. minima 16.5 12 N. lotenia .. 27 23.5 N. asiatica 21 17 Aethopyga siparaja 23 19.5 Zosterops palpebrosa 11.5 10 BUI : The bill of all sunbirds is long, slender slightly decurved and with a pointed tip. Near the base, it is somewhat flattened dorso- ventrally. Towards the anterior tip, it gra- dually becomes more and more slender and tapers to a very sharp point. When the bill is closed, the anterior part, from about the middle of its entire length, is somewhat tubular. 1041 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , K$ observed by Sharma (1972) also does not seem to correlate with the adult birds at Injar. Presu- mably this disparity may also be due to our inability to distinguish the immature males from the adult females in the failing light. ( d ) By comparing the data of 7 October 1975 (a probable date around which active brooding commenced at Injar during the present study) and 28 February 1976 (the date on which maxi- mum number of chicks were counted) it could be seen that the approximate population of breeding females formed 31% of the peahen population. The fact that a population of nearly 42 breeding females had 80 chicks with them shows an approximate birth rate of 1: 2. Table II Sex and age classes of peafowl counted t. % % % % Aver. Visit No. Date Female Chick Male Male Total of of of of t. rainfall Female Male Chick Male cm. 1. 9.9.75 75 — 18 27 120 62.5 15 — 22.5 5.5 2 11.9.75 70 — 21 17 108 64.8 19.4 — 15.7 5.5 3 28.9.75 48 — 17 23 88 54.5 19.3 — 26.1 5.5 4 7.10.75 50 — 17 28 95 52.6 17.9 — 29.5 0.9 5 12.10.75 47 — 28 28 103 45.6 27.2 — 27.2 0.9 6 26.10.75 53 — 34 15 102 52 33 — 15 0.9 7 21.12.75 31 1 40 13 85 36.5 47 1.2 15.3 0.1 8 18.1.76 44 4 77 6 131 33.6 58.7 3 4.6 Nil 9 28.2.76 92 80 63 10 245 37.5 25.7 32.6 4 Nil 10 24.3.76 134 64 35 28 261 51.3 13.4 24.5 10.7 Nil 1072 ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF INDIAN PEAFOWL Studies on the droves : Ali (1972) while discussing the organisation of the droves has stated that the male is poly- gamous and is often accompanied by 4 to 5 hens. But seasonally the sexes wander separately. We observed : ( a ) The harem formation by the t males was more common in the month of October, ib) the first batch of chicks was seen on 21 December 1975, (c) the maximum appe- arance of chicks was noted on 24 March 1976, (d) at the end of the breeding season and especially after the formation of the flocks of mother and chicks there was no clear cut forma- tion of droves and the sexes began to wander separately. Feeding : Peafowls at Injar were found close to culti- vation. In places like the Sigur Reserve Forest and the Bandipur Tiger Reserve they live far away from cultivated fields (Johnsingh, unpub- lished). This shows that the peafowls can thrive on cultivated crops as well as on wild vege- tation. They are omnivorous. Seeds, grains, lentils, groundnuts, tender shoots of crops, flower buds, berries and drupes (e.g. Carissa , Lantana , Zizyphus ), wild figs ( Ficus glomerata and other species), centipedes, scorpions, lizards, small snakes (one 20 cm long), insects (e.g. grasshoppers, beetles, grubs, caterpillars) and worms have all been more or less regularly found in crops and gizzards. In and around villages they also feed upon human excreta (Ali and Ripley 1969). At Injar the peafowls feed in the cultivated fields, in the neighbouring Acacia arabica plantation and in the surround- ing fallow lands. According to Ali and Ripley (1969) in areas where the peafowl is semi-feral, and abundant, it is highly destructive to cereal and groundnut crops. We observed them to feed on paddy, chilly, groundnut, tomato and to a small extent on banana, of the 452 banana bunches checked, however, only seven were damaged by the peafowls. The villagers reported that there were usually more damage when two or three peafowl alighted on a banana plant having a mature bunch, the sudden impact resul- ting in the trunk giving way. Bunches brought down thus were later damaged by the peafowl. Analysis of the crop content of the 3 birds showed that the peafowl are mostly primary consumers. This food habit may be influenced by the availability of animal food. Crop analysis showed that one bird had mainly eaten the seeds of the grasses Echinochloa colona and Panicum repense. Another had eaten the leaves of plants such as Digera arvensis, Centella asiatica , Amaranthus viridis (?), Allium cep a and a flower of Musa paradisiaca. The animals eaten were one short-horned grasshopper and two termites (Acanthoptermes sp.). The third bird had eaten 12 ripe chillies, paddy, a fruit of Croton sparsiflorus , one seed of Acacia arabica and rhizomes of Cyperus rotundas (?), Cyperus bulbosus , two small black beetles and two ants ( Componotus compressus). Once a mother and two chicks were seen feeding on the tender leaves of the thorny shrub Azima tetra - cantha. Calls : Different authors have described the calls of the peafowl differently. Ali (1972) described two calls — one a loud harsh screaming ‘ May-awe ’ and the other, short gasping shrieks ‘ Ka-aan ’, Ka-aan repeated rapidly 6-8 times with a pumping action of the head and neck. Scott (1964) has described two calls. One a loud phi-ao-phi-ao and the other a shrill ka-oan-ka-oan. To Baker and Inglis (1930) the loud cry of the peafowls sounded like pehaun , pehaun. According to our observation the vocaliza- tions of the peafowls, both adults and chicks, could be grouped into two types, the long calls and short calls. The long notes were easily inscribable but the short calls as their intonation and intensity had very little variation were 1073 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 difficult to record. The different calls made by the peafowl and the context in some cases are given in Table III. Following the classi- fication of Nicholas Collias (in Peterson 1968), it is possible to sort the various calls of the peafowl into the five categories. It can be seen (Table IV) that the vocal repertoire of peafowls, probably has more calls for flocking, group movements and for alarming the flock than for other activities. No wonder the development of these calls is essential in a socially cohesive large bird whose flight is restricted and dangers manifold. On 6 October 1975, 12 days prior to the full moon, the night was dark. We reached the tree at 1915 hrs. and all calls were recorded till 0520 hrs. In all there were 105 calls. In contrast on 15 January 1976 being 3 days prior to full moon the night was fairly bright and there was complete silence from 1900 hrs. to 0615 hrs. Only at 0615 hrs. were there two alarm calls {khok, khok). Silence prevailed in spite of the screeching of the spotted owlets (. Athene brama), the calls of the black ibis {Pseudibis papillosa ) and the barking of dogs. Possibly the major reason for the peafowls for being more vocal on the night of 6 October 1975 was the incidence of active breeding season. We are unable to exactly account for their silence on the night of 15 January 1976. The bright moon light might have been a reason. It may also be due to the presence of chicks. Breeding : It appears that the display or dance of the cock is closely associated with the breeding season. During September dancing was seen 1 1 times and in October thrice. Nine times the t males danced alone, twice they danced before females and once a male danced before two on looking males. The observation of the t male dancing in front of 2 males could be interpreted as a form of dominance display. Scott (1964) also has seen a dozen peacocks dancing in the absence of peahens. Of the 50 times he had seen them dancing in the presence of peahens only twice did the peahens stop pecking or lift their head to see the cock. According to Ali and Ripley (1969) the hen usually appears com- pletely unconcerned during all these amorous antics but she occasionally responds with an inferior imitation of the cock’s movements. During the period of five years of observation from 1967 to 1971 twenty-one sheddings of train feathers of peacocks (5 in 1967, 5 in 1968, 5 in 1969, 3 in 1970 and 3 in 1971) were observed (Acharjyo and Misra 1973). Out of these, 20 sheddings were observed in August and September whereas only one shedding was observed in October and November during the year 1969. From Table II it can be inferred that at Injar the t males started shedding their train at the end of October and most of the t males had completely lost their train by the middle of January. In the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, the t males started shedd- ing their train by July end and almost all had lost their train by the end of October (Johnsingh, unpublished). Good showers of rain are necessary for the successful commencement of the breeding season (Sharma 1972). Basing on the fact that only in the month of September the area had more rainfall from the north-east monsoon (Table II) it can be stated that the active breeding period of the peafowl at Injar started in September and continued upto October. This differs from what Ali and Ripley (1969) have recorded for southern India as the breeding season for peafowl (i.e. April and May). The peafowls of Jodhpur where Sharma (1972) made his observations bred in the months of June, July and August. Despite the seasonal differences in the commencement of the breed- ing seasons both our observation and that of Sharma hypothesize the need of a good rain for the successful beginning of the breeding season. 1074 ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF INDIAN PEAFOWL cm .s ’O § JO DO G ‘C 3 T3 T3 tH s -5 M •S| ll +-* ’513 c 'o »TJ S3 o> 8.2 .2 o > 8 T3< . •n c . o >> 8 w DO _C ’3 £ o "d G ci to DO « DO G t£ G '-J3 3 'c o M go .a is *-i a> *C «* a m o 8 g Cl cs Is .a o ^ e 8 § .o «> . 4) to £ a to .2 OS’0 6 « s tO .5 I § § t> a xi to to ^Jo °£:§ ^" D0 5 G'S w).2 a M S o M/g^G #G ” "*■* 'S T}- e m 6 “go G o DO .G 'S 2 JD JO * to >"X «a .2 0’S •M O §2 'O'g o .10 JO £ co 2J3 *3 E E E s fl Mi s! ctj < < < < < O G DO G O hJ * DO G O d X 8 0 1 o 3 o *G O >» £ G I 1 « G I DO G «J G DO DO G ctf G DO DO G G o j*d M M Gd o _ o O o o o O ^ O O O *“•• o o U U UU U U • .2 3 O 3 A j3 M * o JO JO P-f 00 to o CG , 5,8,11 4. Parent young relationships 6 5. Sexual behaviour and related aggression 3 In places where the peafowl is not held in reverence, it is a shy bird breeding well away from the haunts of man (Baker and Inglis5 1930). But at Injar, being protected by the local people, the peafowls do have the habit of laying eggs amidst paddy and sugar cane culti- vation close to human habitations. Sharma (1972) reports of a peahen returning to a parti- cular nesting site, protected by people, for three years consecutively. While selecting the brooding site nearness of water is one of the prerequisites (Baker and Inglis 1930). But Sharma (1972) em- phasises the need for the isolation and tranqui- lity of the habitat more than the nearness of water. Restricted water availability at Injar and the often used brooding sites well away from the water source may support the view of Sharma. Peahens have the habit of walking away with the chicks that are hatched in the first two days of hatching. Further, peahens are sup- posed to be incapable of looking after more chicks than five (Sharma 1972). But there is one observation of a mother peahen with six chicks at Injar during the present study. Also on 18 October 1975 Johnsingh had observed a peahen with six 2-3 month old chicks in the Sigur Reserve Forest. Perhaps these are exceptional cases. Because of early post hatching mortality (Figure 1), in most cases only one or two chicks accompanied the mother. Further the 20 % reduction seen in the number of chicks, from 28 February 1975 to 24 March 1976 (Table II), also speaks for the rate of early mortality. Table I shows the probable predators of chicks. Chicks below 30-45 days were rarely seen. Once when two one-month old chicks with their mother were sighted they took cover amidst the thorny Azima ietracantha. No amount of talking and walking around the bush could bring them out. The chicks were brought to the banian tree for roosting only when they were nearly two months old and were capable of flying well. Behaviour of the Peafowl : In contrast with other gallinaceous birds, pea- fowl, at Injar seem to bother little about main- taining their territories. In general, they were an amicable lot while feeding or assembling for roosting. The observation of Sharma (1972) that the mother hens are capable of chasing the chicks of other broods could not be corroborated with supporting evidence during this study. Throughout the study, nine interactions between different peafowl were seen. Of these, one 1076 ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF INDIAN PEAFOWL number of chicks in the broods Fig. 1 Number of chicks in the broods seen and the number of sightings of the broods. interaction was between a t male and a male, three between t males and males, one between a male and a female and one between a female and a mother hen with three chicks. The interactions were observed, they were either in the form of chasing, or rushing at, or pecking or mere challenging and never was seen the viol- ence commonly seen in birds like the domestic fowls. On 7 October 1975 at 0700 hrs. three t males and one male went on pecking nearly for 3 minutes around a place and this was characterised by lack of fighting and show up of dominance. Thrice the birds were observed having dust bath. Of the seven birds observed, six were females and one was a male. Peafowl usually stood on rock heaps or hay 9 1077 JOURNAL > BOMBAY NATURAL HIST SOCIETY , Vol. 75 stacks to bask in the morning sun, especially when the morning was cold. A few interactions with other animal species were also observed. Nearly 9 months earlier in the same study area, Johnsingh (1976) had seen 2 peacocks teasing a large cobra. During this study once a black drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis) flew chasing an insect close to a mother hen with three chicks. This made the mother and the two nearly two months old chicks to raise their hackless and assume threatening postures. Twice we flushed out blacknaped hare ( Lepus nigricollis). One ran into a flock and was charged by a male. When the other hare ran close by a male, it gave only an alarm call. The peafowl of the area were not wary of the local people but if any one in unusual attire, in pants and shirts passed by, they became alert and slowly moved away. Unless chased they were not unduly perturbed by the village dogs. Local dangers : Except for a female and a male which were seen limping, all others appeared to be in good health. The chief enemy of the peafowl in this area, as everywhere else, is man. Sharma (1972) mentions the damage that could be caused to the broods by children. Possibly this occurred at Injar also. In spite of the religious presumption that eyes will go blind if any harm was done to the eggs, there were instances of children breaking or cooking the eggs for food. Only once did we come across a village dog eating a freshly killed t male in the forest plantation of Acacia arabica. Obviously, the overhanging thorny canopy could have in- capacitated the flight and the escape of the cock. Though observed only once, the danger from dogs, which is reported by Sharma (1972) also, could be accounted as one of the chief factors detrimental to the peafowl population especially to the chicks. Most of the villagers, despite considerable damage to their crops, great heartedly accepted the presence of the peafowl in their land. If circumstances arose, they went to the extent of manhandling the poachers. Yet, poaching by local ‘ hunters * occurred when the peafowl fed on the outskirts of the village or when they roosted in places like the Acacia arabica plantation which they did in times of overcrowding at the banian trees. As far as our enquiry went, the local people did not attribute any aphrodisiac pro- perties either to the flesh or to the leg of the peafowl unlike in Jodhpur (Sharma 1972). Another growing danger is the gradual dis- appearance of the suitable thorny shrub, that give safety to the brooding peahens, for use as firewood. During a year with good north-east monsoon, this factor may not be significant as the needed cover for laying eggs and brooding comes easily from several smaller thorny bushes that sprout fresh leaves during the rains. Recommendations : (1) It would be useful to have a total po- pulation study of peafowl throughout Tamil Nadu so as to assess its status. For this, at least areas like Injar, where an aggre- gation of peafowl has been seen for many years, should be given priority. (2) After notifying such areas, local officials, colleges and schools could be asked to take part in the preservation and protection of our national bird. (3) In Ramnad district some of the Hindus do not tolerate the presence of the peafowls in their arable lands. However, in certain villages like Injar the peafowl is spared local harassment. This trend should be encouraged and in order to make good the loss caused by the peafowl, a certain form of compensation could be provided to the farmers. (4) In places like Injar, the destruction of the brooding sites, the major danger, should 1078 ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF INDIAN PEAFOWL be averted. For this, certain areas like the tank bed could be intensively planted with thorny shrub. The villagers should be directed to protect the brooding sites. (5) At Injar a local man can be employed by the Forest Department to look after the peafowl and in turn he should have the privilege to collect and sell the moulted tail coverts. This will actively involve him in bettering the status of the peafowl in the area. (6) To maintain a healthy population of peafowl, in times of over abundance, a con- siderable percentage of the total increment to the population may be netted and transported to other suitable habitats. We wish to close with a plea to the authorities concerned to take steps needed to protect the peafowl and its habitat. The peafowl may not appear to be in imminent danger in the study area but its vulnerability to the growing pressures of man calls for a continued study and protection from poachers. Another cogni- sable factor is that if the peafowl are surviving in isolated pockets it is not because of its status as the national bird but because of religious sentiment. May be when sophisti- cation eradicates the religious sentiment of the people concerned the peafowl will have Acharjyo, L. N. and Misra, R. (1973) : Shedding of ocellated Tail-Train Feathers of the common peacock (Pavo cristatus ) in captivity. Indian Forester , Vol. 99, No. 2. Ali, Salim (1972) : The book of Indian birds, Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay. and Ripley, S. Dillon (1967) : Hand- book of the birds of India and Pakistan. Vol. 2 Oxford University Press, Bombay. Baker, R. and Inglis, M. (1930) : The birds of Southern India, Govt. Press, Madras. Gaston, A. J. (1975) : Methods for estimating bird populations. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 72 (2) : 271-283. no future. At any rate the urgent step that has to be taken to safeguard the future of the peafowl in places like Injar where the surround- ing scrub is slowly disappearing before the unrelenting demand for firewood is to grow small patches of thorny thickets to give safety to the brooding peahens, and protect the existing scrub. Acknowledgement We are very grateful to Dr. T. Koilpillai, Principal, Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College, Sivakasi, for having inspired us to undertake the study. We owe a great debt, to Dr. Alfred Mohandoss, for his constant encouragement. Our friends and colleagues who helped us in this study are : Mr. P. K. Sasidharan, Mr. Louis J. Royan, Mr. P. Ganesan, Mr. N. Pandi- munisamy and Mr. K. Sankarapillai, who accompanied and assisted us in many ways and made our study more enjoyable. Finally record our thanks to Dr. J. Joseph, Regional Botanist, Botanical Survey of India, Coim- batore for the identification of plants, and to Mr. S. R. Chowdeppan, Cotton Agrono- mist, Cotton Research Station, Srivilliputtur for having provided us with the data on rainfall. ENCES Johnsingh, A. J. T. (1976) : Peacocks and Cobra. J . Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 73 (1) : 214. Odum, P. Eugene (1971) : Fundamentals of Ecology. W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia. Peterson, Roger Tony (1968) : Editor of the Birds. Life Nature Library. Scott, Jack Denton (1964) : Nature’s Fabulous Fan Dancer, pp. 133-34. In Marvels and Mysteries of Animal World, By the Readers Digest Association. Sharma, Indrakumar (1972) : Ecological study of breeding of the Peafowl Pavo cristatus — Alauda. Vol. XL, 4, pp. 378-384. 1079 ECOLOGICAL NOTES ON SOME MIGRANT WADERS IN INDIA K. S. R. Krishna Raju1 ( With six graphs) The food and feeding ecology of some waders of the family Charadriidae on their wintering grounds were studied briefly at two locations in India and are reported here. Study Areas : The study was carried out at Bharatpur in eastern Rajasthan and at Point Calimere in Tamilnadu between October 1971 and March 1972. Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary (27°13'N, 77°32'E) is tne largest known breeding colony in India for many birds and a famous winter resort for migrant passerine and non-passerine birds. It is a semidesert area, with characteristic vegetation such as Acacia nilotica , Salvadora persica, S. oleoides and Capparis aphylla. The average annual rainfall is about 63.5 cm and temperature 27°C. Its environs, chiefly the inundated fallow fields, marshland and jheels offer good feeding and resting ground for many species of birds including waders (Charadriidae). When water conditions are good (depending upon the monsoon) thousands of waders visit the area during the winter months. Most of the observations were made at places like Chiksana, Uncha and Nagla away from the Sanctuary. Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary (10° 18'N, 79° 51'E) in Tamilnadu is approximately 26 sq. km of scrub jungle where thorn and xerophytic vegetation predominate. The mean annual temperature is 26.5°C and mean average 'Saileru Food Products (Pvt.) Ltd., Spoonbill House, Dasapalla Hills, Visakhapatnam-530 003. (A.P.) rainfall 127 mm. Plant species like Manilkara hexandra, Dichrostachys cinerea , Carissa caran- das and Excoecaria agallocha are common in the forest tract. The forest is intersected by numerous tidal inlets and creeks of varying size. The habitat can be described as marine littoral and coastal swamps. The extensive salt swamps provide a gather- ing point for many migratory waders and an intermediate station for migrants that visit Sri Lanka. Observations at Point Calimere were made mainly at Ramarpadam, Muniappan yeri and other tidal and non-tidal areas. Methodology This study was made when I was working as a research assistant for the BNHS bird migration scheme. I utilised most of the ‘ non- ringing ’ time for the purpose, since we nor- mally worked in areas where the waders fed nearby. Full day field observations were made at one place or other during our rest days. In all about 120 hours of observation were made as mentioned below, in addition to many hundreds of brief supporting observations. Species Studied Hours of observation Bharatpur Point Calimere Tringa glareola 6 8 Tringa totanus — 16 Tringa ochropus 6 — Tringa nebularia — 2 Calidris minutus 10 40 Calidris temminckii 8 — Calidris testaceus — 2 Charadrius dubius — 22 Total 30 90 1080 ECOLOGICAL NOTES ON MIGRANT WADERS Peck rates and daily routine of feeding : By this I mean the average number of pecks a species made during a period of 5 mins. Though earlier workers like Goss-Custard(1969) and others, adopted the time taken on average for a given number of pecks. During an hour or slightly less, 5-8 counts of 5 mins, duration were made on one or more birds of a species. As far as possible not less than 4 counts were made during an hour on a particular bird and at a particular place, and the average figures were taken as the peck rate for that species for that hour of the day. Ob- servational data for a particular hour were also collected on different days, in different weather condition, and the figures were all added up to arrive at the overall average peck rate per five mins, for the species. Seasonal fluctuations of peck rates, though noted, were not quantified at this stage. There are many limitations and drawbacks in this method. Cumulative observations covered practically all daylight hours, thereby giving some indica- tion of the birds routine and behaviour. Horizontal Distribution : This data was collected by following the method adopted by Recher (1966) since all the species are noted in the same area. I followed Thomas & Dartnell (1971) in recognizing five separate horizontal zones in tidal and non-tidal habitats. The areas were defined as : (1) Zone A, areas above the water’s edge not retaining a surface film of water, (2) Zone B, areas of sand and mud above the water’s edge retaining a surface film of water, (3) Zone C, the water’s edge. Beyond the water’s edge, (4) Zone D, the area between the water’s edge and a line 0.5 m beyond and parallel to the water’s edge, and (5) Zone E, the area beyond Zone D. Data from non-tidal areas were also collected on the same day for some species during the latter part of the study, along with the data from tidal areas, for the purpose of comparison. In non-tidal areas also, similar zonations were recognised as was done by Thomas & Dartnell (1971) ; where zone A corresponds to area of dry mud, Zone B to areas of wet mud, and the remaining three zones are as for the tidal areas. In this case also the distinction between Zone D and E was arbi- trary, but was retained to find out the distri- butional differences. Observations Tringa glareola : Mostly seen in shallow (3-5 cm deep) water, picking or probing. Many attempted pecks were withdrawn half way. The hourwise peck rates were different between the populations of Bharatpur and Point Calimere (Table 2). The birds of Bharatpur (BHPR) seemed to be more gregarious than those at Point Calimere (PTC). They were seen more often singly at PTC than at BHPR. BHPR population was found oftener in asso- ciation with other species than that at PTC (Table 1). They gave head ‘ bobs ’ invariably on alighting but the bobs were not seen while feeding as in T. totanus. Charadrius dubius : They usually picked up titbits near the water’s edge, and rarely in the water (graph 6) and were never seen probing. Very fast on foot and every peck was followed at least by a foot movement and they did not pick up twice from any single point. Picking up something, walking swiftly, stopping suddenly and picking up again .... this ritual goes on almost endlessly. C. dubius feeds in association with other waders. Their flocking pattern and other details are evident from the Table 1. From the feeding routine and peck rates they appear to be more active during early hours, again at mid-day and at dusk (Graph 2). Tringa ochropus : Seen feeding in ‘ knee ’ (birds knee !) deep water, often alone along the water’s edge, walking swiftly and picking up 1081 Flock composition and feeding associations JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 *4 rj £ o as o O • - _ [h OjDv z ° s £3 £2 £ o © g 6 o 2S ' O ' wo — i r~~ I 1 I it cd I 1 1 fsj 1 1 1 ! 1 1 - 1 1 1 ON 00 I Tt 1 1 ^ 1 | | Tt 4 1 1 1 4 1 1 r-‘ it i 1 1 ^ 1 1 1 tN oo co C4 n 3 i cS a • +3 3 73 & U O 43 P< ffl • 5 73 o 5 53 .a 43 o pq PL •5 "5 r<3 r'3 r*- ^ -2 -2 =5 0 0 § Si Si .2 3 -5 •? fc ■s* bo bo "5* 2 2 ? ^ #g> j^> gj 0, c .a .& <> “ -8 ■< K ^ 2 so fc ^ -3 ^ .a ^ OOKRKfih ^ s & u o o o — >, W).b T3 c a o o 55 «h £*0 > Z « M rj g a 1 1 r- m (N ro i 1 fS o o s (N m ro vo • oo os m ro os r-( H ^-1 fH VO 1 i 00 00 o f 6 r- 1 1 00 00 CN 1 o i— < it 1 i o —< ro o ■ OS o o 1 ! OS ro h ^—1 i-H Os o VO Tt Tt ro VO I VO ■ oo O <3 as a .a X! O pq PL 3 3 *33 S | Bu^u d v 2 i ^ * 53 .a § .a 43 O *£ O pq &H pq Ph in *2 o © a a iu c ? .c •2 "2 Q) u S Js P s .2 bo bo -S © .g S «C5 Q ^ 2 2 -h S *3 - ^ . .£ .2 .5 .5 *3* 6 ^ ft 3 . c’ 1082 ECOLOGICAL NOTES ON MIGRANT WADERS here and there. Foot work is faster than the peck rates. Data on flock comppsition and peck rates are given in the Tables 1 and 2. It appears to be less gregarious, but does not hesitate to feed in association with other waders. Calidris minutus : These sociable little waders often feed in large flocks — the biggest I saw was about 5,000 birds at Point Calimere. Rarely seen feeding singly. Small groups of 20-30 were not un-common and it readily mixes with other waders. Mostly seen feeding by picking rather than by probing (not exclusively) and generally feeds on the shore line. (Horizontal distributional data are given in graph 6). Feeding rate appears to be higher, though peck success data was not collected. Only the peck rates were recorded (Table 2). However, the rate of feeding was more erratic, and changed more or less every hour, reaching its lowest between 1300-1500 hrs. at Point Calimere (See graph 1). When feeding on the shore or along the mud line, often picked up the prey by a series of rapid jabs — (‘ Stitching ’ ?) (Burton 1971). Occasionally observed dashing after an insect (?) along the shore line. When feeding in water they were seen picking up from water probably some insects or larvae that were floating ; but were never seen probing (at that depth). Very alert and active, often on the move, settling down en masse at a place, standing motionless for a second or two, and raising en masse all of a sudden, emitting soft — tsch — tsch or chick-check and circling for a minute or two before settling down again. Tringa totanus : Seen singly only once at Bharatpur and four times in association with other waders (mixed flocks of T. totanus , Philomachus pugnax , T. glareola and Calidris temminckii) but observations were recorded on ten occasions at Calimere, mostly in ‘ knee ’ deep water— (See horizontal distributional chart). From the peck rates it would appear that it feeds actively during morning and even- ing hours and a slow rate of feeding was noted between 0900 and 1200 hrs. A sudden drop in the peck rate was noted between 0800 and 0900 hrs. (See Table 2) (Graph 4). Occasionally seen probing with head and bill completely submerged ; sometimes skim- ming the water surface with open bill, neck stretched in front and only the lower mandible immersed, (rather in the manner of the scis- sorsbill) as it moves forward, running in the water. A similar observation was made on a Tringa nebularia, probably collecting floating material. A Tringa nebularia was seen moving its bill quickly from side to side, keeping it partly open — while the bird was on the move. A similar feeding method was also noted in Himantopus himantopus. Witherby (1938-41) also mentions this feeding technique for T. nebularia. Philomachus pugnax : Swarms of these birds were common during October-November at Bharatpur. The largest flock estimated to be of about 8,000, was seen near Bharatpur village on inundated fallow — but they were very restless settling en masse and rising again. Fed largely on vegetable matter — seeds (greyish brown in colour) of several varieties were noted from the stomachs, 10 stomachs averaged 304 seeds, highest being 410 and the smallest being 127. Sexes have obviously a tendency to flock or feed separately as was evident from the field observations and ringing catches. Discussion Non breeding individuals of several species of waders remain in India throughout the nor- thern summer without migrating to their bree- ding grounds as is evident from the BNHS bird migration reports. Daniel & Somane (1975) have pointed out this and observed Tringa totanus at Visakhapatnam coastal swamp during 1083 HOURLY PECK RATE AVERAGES JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 — x— *— *— CALIDRIS TE.MMIMCMI BHARATPUR CALIDRIS MINUTUS POINT CAUIMERE CAUDRIS MINUTUS BHARATPUR 1084 ECOLOGICAL NOTES ON MIGRANT WADERS June-August 1974, which evidently stay backs. The peak period at Point Calimere seems to be Nov.-Dee. as is evident from the catches at the ringing station. Usually the NE Monsoon showers occur at Calimere during October-Jan. The peak month of move- ment at Point Calimere on the outward mig- ration is March as shown by the data collec- ted in the field. ‘ Extensive flocking apparently occurs during March amongst Calidris minutus and Calidris testaceus', 1166 of the former were ringed in March as against 96 in February, the figures for C. testaceus being 1001 in March and 104 in February. ’ (Daniel & Somane 1975.) A comparison of the number of birds and the species ringed at both these study areas reveals the habitat preference of the species. However, methods of trapping were different in these two localities — but on the whole field observa- tions and sight records show that the composi- tion of the wader populations are definitely distinct in these two areas — as was reported already by Daniel & Somane (1975). Comparative catches of certain waders Bharatpur Point Calimere Charadrius dubius 85 54 Tringa totanus 19 116 Tringa ochropus 52 — Tringa glareola 1964 7 Calidris minutus 469 4715 Calidris temminckii 102 1 Peck rates : (See Table 2). The peck rates of different species differ considerably as is evident from the data collected, notwith- standing the fact that the data were indepen- dent of peck success. Among congeneric species, however, the difference appears to be minor between species of Calidris , but quite significant between species of Tringa where the larger totanus curiously appears to Ch. DUBIUS , PT. CALIMERE NO DATA — — TRINGA <5LAREQLA,BHARATPUft have a higher peck rate than the other two species studied. This high peck rate could be due to larger food requirements of the birds, or poor peck success, or abundance of food items. 1085 JOURNAL , BOMBA Y NATURAL BIST . SOCIETY , FW. 75 In Tringa glareola , the peck rates were similar at Pt. Calimere and at Bharatpur despite the fact that the observations were made in two different ecological environments and in two different months (Graph 3). However, peck success and prey species taken have not yet been established, and we cannot further elucidate the point at this stage. Regarding the feeding routine and hourly feeding rate changes a comparison of the T.T0TANU5, POINT CALIMERE. "XT DENOTES DATA COLLECTED T- OCHROPUS, BHARATPUR tables yield some interesting information; In Calidris minutus at Point Calimere the feeding rate changed erratically, practically for every hour, the peak being between 1100-1200 hours. In Bharatpur the peak was between 1100-1200 hrs. However, the lowest rate of feeding was observed at Pt. Calimere between 1200-1300 hrs. whereas at Bharatpur it was bet- ween 1500-1600 hours, i.e. almost 3 hours later. The former is a sea coast area while the latter an inland freshwater jheel without any influence of the tidal rhythms characteristic of the former. By and large these observations, and fluctuating feeding rates suggest that there is a diurnal rhythm of activity upon which as Witherby suggested (1938-41) is super-imposed a tidal rhythm of lower intensity which is known to apply only in winter at coastal areas. Similar diurnal rhythms were observed in purple sandpipers Calidris maritima by Faere (1966). Behaviour of the prey items which might differ in these two localities and in different months, during different hours might also be possible for the peck rate fluctuations. Tringa totanus fed at its lowest rate between 0900-1200 hrs. and highest rate between 1400- 1800 hours. In T. ochropus the highest rate was noted between 1000-1200 hrs. which gra- dually decreased to the lowest between 1500- 1600 hrs. and suddenly increased at 1700 hrs. (Graph 5). In T. glareola there seems to be much difference between the Bharatpur and Point Calimere feeding rates at a given hour — which again might be due to dietary differences or to the fact that the former observations were made more or less immediately after migration when the dietary needs were more while the Calimere birds were observed at a time when they had settled down in their winter quarters. Another significant fact noted in all the species was that the feeding rates in February tended to be more than those in December and were more or less equal to those in October- November. This might perhaps support the 1086 ecological notes on migrant waders general consideration that the dietary needs for fat accumulation to recoup the spent energy are more in months of October (immediately after arrival) and before return migration. This broadly supports the weight changes that correspond with the peck rates. Horizontal Distribution of Birds C. minutus fed mostly in water (Zone E) during December. Only about 10% of them fed on the shore line or over a surface with thin film of water (See graph 6A). However, by 6 A-f C.M A -2 ZONES A-3 6B-1 to 50 H-o 30 20 JO - ec-i T.T B-2 B [C C-2 B-3 6 D-l T-Q ABODE 25 Dec.71 TIDAL POINT CA LIME RE D-2 - JO- 90- ' C.M 80- C.D 80- T.T SO- T.Lr - 70- 70- 70- - 60- 60- n 60- - 50 - 50- 50- - 40- 4'0- 4-0- 30- 30- 30- - zo- i— 20- | zo- IQ’ IO- n 1 10 0 Q 1 ] 1 0 - A B C .D E A B C D E AiB|ci D E A |b c D 15 Feij 72 TIDAL PT.CM.MERE JO 90 - 90 C -3 yo - D-3 fio CM 60i C.D 80- T.T 80- T.Q 70 - 70- 70- 70 - 60- 60- 60- 60- 50 - 50- 50- 50- A© ■ lf.O AO 4-o- 30- 30-> 30- 30- 20- 20- 20- 20- 10- 10- 10- JO - o - Q A B C D Q E J A B C d|e| a|b c D E A {b C D E 15 Feb. 72 NON -TIDAL PT.C. C.M C.D HORI Z 0 NTAL CALIDRI5 M 1 N U T U S DISTRIBUTIONAL T. T T. <5 DATA TRIN3A TO TAN US TR IN G A GO AREOLA GRAPH. 6 1087 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 February only about 40% (See Table 3) of them were feeding exclusively in Zone E and remaining 60 % were feeding in other zones including about 30% in shallow zones. On the same day, data were collected from a non-tidal area and none were seen in zone E, but about 65% of them were seen feeding in Zones A and B. In Tringa totanus the per- centage of birds feeding in deep waters (Zone E) remained unchanged between December and February at Point Calimere in tidal areas. However, there appeared a significant change in percentage of birds feeding at the water’s edge between tidal and non-tidal areas during February at Point Calimere. More birds were seen feeding at water’s edge in non-tidal areas than in tidal areas. Charadrius dubius com- pletely avoided deep waters in non-tidal areas though it was observed feeding in deep waters in tidal areas. In case of Tringa . glareola , none of them were seen feeding at the water’s edge in the tidal area in December but about 25 % of them were seen at the edge by February. However, very negligible number of birds were seen in deep water in the tidal area in February, about 20% were seen in deep water Table 3 Horizontal distributional data % of occurrences in tidal and non-tidal areas at Point Calimere Date Zones CM CD TT TG Remarks 25 Dec. 71 .. A 4 30 — 7 Tidal area. Based on a minimum of 4 counts for each species in an area of 1 sq. km. B 2 40 — 15 C 2 20 — — D 2 6 40 45 E 90 4 60 33 100 100 100 100 15 Feb. 72 A 15 10 5 Tidal area. PTC 7.00 a.m. B 5 20 — 10 C 10 40 10 25 D 30 20 30 60 E 40 10 60 — 100 100 100 100 15 Feb. 72 A 25 20 Non-tidal area. 6 p.m. B 40 40 — — C — 40 30 35 D 35 — 30 45 E — — 40 20 100 100 100 100 Note. — Figures slightly rounded off. CM = Calidris minutus CD = Charadrius dubius TT = Tringa totanus TG =» Tringa glareola 1088 ECOLOGICAL NOTES ON MIGRANT WADERS in non-tidal areas and practically none in the zones A and B. However, here again, in the absence of data on prey species and their availability, no conclusions are possible. Flock Composition See Table 1. The data reveals that all the species are more or less sociable, feeding in association with others among them. Tringa glareola was noted about 50% of the time singly and about 32 % in association with others at Bharatpur and 60% and 20%respec- tively at Point Calimere. Flocks of 6-10 or more are common only in 3 species studied C. dubius , Tringa glareola and C. minutus. Acknowledgements I am indebted to Dr. Salim Ali, D.Sc., F.N.A., and dedicate this paper to him on the eve of his 81st birthday. This work would not have materialised but for his encouragement and guidance. I thank Mr. J. C. Daniel, Curator of the BNHS for his suggestions and help while conducting this study. Thanks are also due to all my colleagues at the BNHS. References Ali, Salim and Ripley, S. Dillon (1969): Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. Burton, P. J. K. (1971) : Comparative anatomy of the head and neck in the spoonbilled sandpiper and its allies. Journal of Zoology 163 : 145-63. Daniel, J. C. and Somane, S. S. (1975) : Bird migra- tion studies in India — the migrant waders of the family charadriidae. /. Mar. biol. Assc. India 17(1) : 199-205. Faere, C. J. (1966): The winter feeding of the purple sandpiper. Brit. Birds 59(5) : 165. Goss-Custard, J. D. (1969) : The response of Red- shank \T. totanus (L.)] to spatial variations in the density of their prey. J. Anim. Ecol. 39 : 91-113. Recher, H. F. (1966) : Some aspects of the ecology of the migrant shore birds. Ecology 47 : 393-407. Thomas, D. G. and Dartnell, A. J. (1971) : Eco- logical aspects of the feeding behaviour of two calidritine sandpipers wintering in South Eastern Tasmania, Emu 71 : 20-26. Witherby et al. (1938-41) : The Handbook of British Birds, London, Vol. 4. 1089 BREEDING BIOLOGY OF BULBULS, PYCNONOTUS CAPER AND PYCNONOTUS LUTEOLUS (CLASS : AVES, FAMILY: PYCNONOTIDAE) WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THEIR ECOLOGICAL ISOLATION V. S. VlJAYAN1 ( With two plates and six text -figures) Introduction According to Gause (1934) congeneric, sympatric species with identical ecological requirements cannot co-exist in the same area. This concept had been propounded by various other workers from Darwin (1859) to Elton (1927), though it is commonly referred to as ‘ Gause’s Hypothesis ’ or ‘ Principle \ This hypothesis has been tested and found true for a variety of bird species in Europe, America and Australia (Lack 1971). In India no serious research on this aspect has so far been under- taken except on vultures in Gir forest (Grubh 1974). The present paper deals with various aspects of breeding biology of P. cafer and P. luteolus and tries to analyse the mode of ecological isolation between the two while breeding. No systematic investigation of the breeding biology of these two species has been done before. Baker (1932) gives a general review of their breeding, and most of his conclusions are drawn from the scattered notes of others, based mainly on casual observations on one or more pairs. However, satisfactory but generalized details are available on the size, shape and colour of the eggs (Blanford and Oates 1863, Hume and Oates 1889, Whistler 1928, Baker 1932, Salim Ali and Ripley 1 Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay. Present Address : Kerala Forest Research Institute^ Peechi-680 653, (Kerala). 1971). The nature of the nest, nesting mate- rials and other particulars of the breeding biology are not given in detail in any of these works. Scattered notes on some of the features of the breeding biology particularly of P. cafer are given by Barnes (1889), Betham (1897), Torth (1902), Matthews (1919), Salim Ali (1930), McCann (1931), Dutt (1932) and Lamba (1968). Notes on the breeding of a pair of P. cafer in a building are recorded by Dixit (1963). Study Area (Plates 1 & 2) The study was undertaken at Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, situated on a low promon- tory on the Coromandel coast (10°18'N, 70°51'E) in the Tirutturaipundi Taluk of Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu, approximately midway between Madras and Cape Comorin. The elevation of the area is about 4 metres. For more details of the area see Daniel (1968) and Vijayan (1976). Intensive study was conducted around a place called Puthukulam. The area included two ridges or well forested strips with three open grassy areas; the outer two open areas separated the two ridges from the adjacent strips of forest and the middle one separated these two ridges. Point Calimere experiences a prolonged dry season. It gets most of its rain from the north-east monsoon, which usually sets in 1090 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Viiayan : Bulbuls Plate I Above : The scrub jungle in Point Calimere with grassland. Below : Intensive study area during monsoon ; open areas between the ridges are flooded. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate II Vijayan : Bulbuls Above : Puthukulam pond the only permanent water source inside the sludy area, Below : Nests of P. luteolus (upper row) and P. cafer (lower row). BREEDING BIOLOGY OF BULBULS by the middle of August or the beginning of September and continues till December and at times till the middle of January. The rains are usually light during August-Septem- ber. Heavy rain occurs during the end of the year. Average rainfall for 11 years in this region is 1580 mm. The hottest month of the year is May (Fig. 1). Vegetation of Point Calimere is typical of the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (Champion 1936). As the best vegetative formation is stunted, the average height of the forest is 2 to 4 m. See also Blasco & Legris (1973) and Vijayan (1976). The forest in this area is discontinuous, being intersected by numerous open grasslands. Also, the presence of nume- rous tidal inlets and creeks of varying length and width cuts off the continuity of the forest. The whole area is flooded during rainy season. Breeding season of P. cafer and P . luteolus at Point Calimere : Method of Study : Checking the area regularly for nests : An attempt was made to locate all the nests in the 500 mm / - 400 1 ! P M A I S M J nn ! s 0 N D Rainfall in mm 53.1 12.2 34.4 00 o fA [40.1 26.? 43.7 P-44.4 1 95.3 306.4 363.4 437 6 lo.of rainy dayt| 3.1 0.5 1.9 2.2 2.2 1.7 3.1 6.51 ! 5-5 "To7£ 12.3 9.8 Hax.temp. in WC 129.5 JLiOj 1^1 JiulJ .Jib. 1 33*6 32.2 | 30.2 l'28;8' 300 -200 100 Rainfall: Average for 11 years, 1963-1973. Maximum temperature : Average for 9 years, 1963-1971. Fig. 1. Ombrothermic diagram of Vedaraniam. 1091 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 study area. A similar method was adopted by Gaston (1973) for long-tailed tits. Ten to fifteen hours were spent every week searching for nests. Nests noted while observing other activities were also counted. A few nests were located while being built, by watching the birds carrying nesting material. A few were traced by following the birds carrying food. The study was conducted from October 1972 to February 1974 . Results and Discussion Breeding season : During the period of 16 months, a total of 48 nests of P. cafer and 64 of P. luteolus were studied. From the distribution of the nests in different months it appears that the breeding season as well as the peak periods of breeding of P. cafer and p. luteolus at Point Calimere vary from year to year (Table 1). In general, the breeding season of both species extends roughly from August to March with two uncertain peaks, one in October and the other in February. Year to year variation in the breeding season and peak of breeding is reported in Chaffinch (Newton 1964). There was a peak breeding period for both the species during October 1972 and February 1973. The next peak breeding period for P. cafer was September 1973 and for P. luteolus February 1974. In September there was not much breeding of P. luteolus and it was more or less the same for P. cafer in February. It suggests that these two congeners at times breed in the same season and at times separately. There are cases where closely related congeneric species of apparently similar ecolo- gical requirements breed in the same area at different times (Thomson 1950). Lockie (1955) reports that even though several species of Corvidae live in the same area, their breeding seasons vary. In the present case of P. cafer and P. luteolus , two of the peak periods of breeding coincided, whereas one did not. Hence it is suggested here that their ecological require- ments are dissimilar, but when these require- ments occur in the same month the breeding season coincides and when they occur in diffe- rent months the breeding season varies accor- dingly. Factors determining the breeding seasons of P. cafer and P. luteolus Physical Factors Rainfall : The onset of monsoon does not stimulate breeding activities in these bulbuls though it does in the Baya Weaver Ploceus philippinus (Salim Ali and Ambedkar 1957; Ambedkar 1958) and Turdus grayii (Skutch 1950). In the Galapagos finches- Geospizinae — also rain is necessary to provide immediate stimulus (Lack 1950a). In the African Pycnonotus capensis , P. tricolor and P. tricolor layardi breeding is scheduled by the end of heavy rains (Vincent 1946-1949). In Indonesia breeding of birds generally starts by the close of rainy season and reaches the peak before the driest month (Voous 1950). In Usambara 5°S. most of the land birds avoid the long rains and begin to nest in anticipation of the short rains (Moreau 1950). In P. cafer and P. luteolus no such correlation is noted. They breed both in the months of heavy rain and in the months when there is absolutely no rain (Fig. 2). In 1972 and 1973, the rainfall was the highest in October, but only in the former year did they breed in October. In the latter year there was no breeding in October except by a single pair of P. cafer. This clearly indi- cates that breeding is not very much correlated with rainfall. (Coefficient of correlation is 0.073 in P. cafer and 0.0160 in P. luteolus). 1092 Table 1 BREEDING BIOLOGY OF BULBULS ^f- o\ r- cl < 1093 10 JOURNAL 9 BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol IS s B .B s c c5 T3 o > 5-1 CO o c a GO Ch G 0 Oh Vh 1 u Oh 3 X CD O X G X o O OO H-f- VO “ cs m VO VO vo 10 1 00 as 1 CO 04 00 | VO VO d | d 00 1 O VO vo 04 ON 00 ITN 0 VO 04 00 CO 00 VO O' d d 00 l 04 CO vo r- vo O CO vo 04 O' ON OO vo 0 d o’ ON 1 vo 10 H— 1 00 r- VO CO 04 On CO 0- vo d o’ 00 1 -'3- 00 vo 00 ON ON H- OO VO 00 Tfr o- VN O d 0’ VO G u o £ CD o o G O 3 a vh O o Q> 5 *3 c® 41 ca xxxx XXX ov O fn ^ Si ° N M ^ (N -i fOO O H-H O O o' o' p o I I X X X — i o- co on r- on vt o\ o o On r~- P o o’ o’ o 04 vo o- ^ Tj- vo O ON o o o’ o' I ^ 00 vo §8.^2 " ?? se»r o“rJ vo . vo rt ^ d o 2™. 04 CO ON O' X X OO H* VO O d vo 1 vo 0 CO H- vo 00 vo vo 00 d t 0 0 00 0 X vo CO CO 0 d d t* xxxx XXX X X as > § g x .2 § 3 ex E fl H Tj- Tj- VO OO VO VO ai ON C X! o O o 9 o o o o d o' o -v|- G" Ol O\oih co Ov O -H O O woo odd CO CO 04 h“H ON O O X 04 O o’ d 1 w GO qi 0) h-5 H -O s.2 ° rt GO > G G S-H G O G a—1 g GO S? O .5 GO a> 3 j3 > . *3 H-H g > c .2 L_, « H- “ x 3 X G 3 d o cr p a « Sc. 2 O *-H W U oj ' S> > « > a) > 0) >— 1 4T but < 5T Humid = P ^ 5T fruits and seeds, starts accumulating on the ground and the monsoon crop in farmlands is harvested. In November, the winter crop, of wheat and legumes is sown. Rate of pro- duction of the natural vegetation is on the whole low in the winter. With the end of winter in February, the leaf fall of deciduous trees starts and is completed by April. A number of trees and other perennial vegetation enter into another period of growth, they sprout new leaves, flowers and fruits between February and April. The weather condition and soil moisture in earlier part of the summer seem to favour germination and emergence of some species of perennial grasses. During the extremely hot dry conditions in the later part of summer, however, vegetation growth is minimum. In several places in the university campus, where the plots of gardens are regularly watered, moisture is not a limiting factor for the plant growth during dry periods. However, during the period following a ‘ poor ’ monsoon, the water supply in the campus tends to deplete, so that even in the garden plots a drought situation prevails. Breeding Pattern The percentage of clutches laid by the sparrow in every month is illustrated in Fig. 2. The breeding occurred in every month of the year. The laying pattern during the summer (February to May) was about the same every year ; the pattern was unimodal, the peak having been reached in March-April. During the monsoon, however, the laying pattern varied from year to year ; it was unimodal in some years and bimodal in others. The number of days in a month the fresh clutches were started is precisely known for the period between 1970 and 1972 (when the nest- boxes were checked every day), and the relevant data are given in Table 2. The days on which the fresh clutches were started were very few or none in January ; the number of days in- creased in February and maintained a peak level in March, April and May. Thereafter, between June and November, the days on which 1123 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 Fig. 2. Relative distribution of clutches started by the sparrows in different months during 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1969 to 1973. clutches were started varied in number from month to month during the same year, and for the same month in different years. There were very few days on which the fresh clutches were started in December. Though the number of nest-boxes examined and the number of sparrow pairs estimated to have been breeding in the study colonies did not change significantly, during 1970 to 1972 the number of days on which the clutches were started varied from 171 to 193 in different years (Table 2). On an average, 176 days on which fresh clutches were started were mainly spread over a period of nine months from February to October. A generalized breeding pattern that emerges is that the breeding changed from continuous breeding to restricted breeding and then to sporadic breeding during the course of a 12 month period. The breeding was continuous from about February to May, largely restricted to certain peak periods during June to October 1124 BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE SPARROW Table 2 THE NUMBER OF DAYS ON WHICH FRESH CLUTCHES WERE STARTED IN THE SPARROW COLONIES. Total number of days fresh clutches started 1970 1971 1972 Average January 0 2 0 1 February 13 19 15 16 March 28 28 31 29 April 28 26 29 28 May 26 23 24 24 June 17 3 6 9 July 24 17 18 20 August 16 27 22 22 September 6 18 17 14 October 23 7 3 11 November 11 1 0 4 December 1 0 0 0 Total 193 171 165 178 and sporadic or irregular during November to January. Viewing these observations in the light of seasonal changes in the weather des- cribed earlier, some degree of correlation between the breeding pattern of sparrows and environmental changes becomes obvious. During the course of a year, about 50 to 58% of the clutches were laid in the four months of summer, about 41 to 46% clutches in the five months of monsoon and 0 to 5% in the three winter months (Table 3). The birds bred on most of the days in summer (almost all the days in March, April and May) ; relatively more clutches recorded in the middle of summer (Fig. 2) may possibly be attributed to the late starting younger birds (Seel 1968) having joined up the early-starting older birds at this time in breeding. The breeding pattern during the summer was almost identical in different years and this is correlated with the fact that the same pattern of environmental changes occurred during every summer. It grew progressively warmer after February. In April-May, the solar radiation and heat was intense and the birds reduced their daily activities during the middle of the day ; this was partly compensated by the increased feeding hours. In the mon- soon, however, there was a great degree of instability in the environment. The weather changed from month to month the dominant variable factor having been the rainfall, and also the days suitable for breeding and the intensity of breeding changed from month to month. The amount of rainfall, air temperature and humidity, and presumably the biotic factors as a consequence, changed in the monsoon of different years. Correlated with this the in- tensity and pattern of breeding in monsoon was conspicuously different in different years (Fig. 2). In the winter, when the mean air temperature was relatively low and the days were relatively shorter, the breeding intensity was also low ; the earlier part of winter (Novem- ber) was exceptional in that during this period significantly more clutches were laid in some years than in the others (Fig. 2). 1115 2 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 Breeding season : The sparrows bred in every month, but intensive breeding involving a sizable part of the population occurred only during a part of the year ; on the average about 98 % clutches were laid during the summer and monsoon (Table 3). The breeding, therefore, is seasonal in a way, and it is possible to demarcate the breeding season. After a certain date in February, when we started recording the first egg of at least one clutch per day, or the first eggs of at least five clutches per every 5-day interval, we considered that the breeding season had started. The precise date when the breeding season started could be determined during 1970 to 1972, as in these years the nest-boxes were checked every day. In 1969 and 1973 the start of breeding season was approximately determined by calculating the dates when the earliest clutches of the season were started. In September-October, when the laying stopped, or when the starting of fresh clutches became irregular events, we presumed that the breeding season had ended. The precise, or the estimated date when the last clutches of the season were started was the date on which the breeding season was presumed to have terminated. In 1970, a considerable number of clutches were recorded in November (Fig. 2), but, these were started at irregular intervals and were, therefore, considered to have been laid outside the breed- ing season. The timings of the breeding season in different years were 25 February to 21 October in 1969, 13 February to 26 October in 1970, 12 February to 29 September in 1971, 20 February to 15 September in 1972, and 15 February to 30 October in 1973. The date for termination of the season was more variable than the date of start ; the difference between the earliest and the latest dates for the start of the breeding season was only 13 days while that between the earliest and the latest dates for termination of the season was 45 days. Breeding and inter -breeding periods : After the start of the breeding season, the breeding was continuous until May, but June to October it was restricted to one or two peak periods only. With the result, the breeding season could be divided into breeding periods. A breeding period Table 3 Seasonal distribution of clutches in percentage Year Total No. of clutches Percentage clutches Feb.-May Jun.-Oct. Jan., Nov. and Dec. 1969 375 53.9 45.6 0.5 1970 402 50.5 44.5 5.0 1971 368 58.2 41.0 0.8 1972 365 57.3 42.7 0.0 1973 346 52.3 45.4 2.3 All years combined . . 1856 54.4 43.9 1.7 1126 BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE SPARROW Table 4 Duration of the breeding periods Year Breeding periods — dates 1969 (1) 25 February to 8 July (2) 27 August to 21 October 1970 (1) 13 February to 2 June (2) 26 June to 16 August (3) 30 September to 26 October 1971 (1) 12 February to 29 May (2) 12 July to 1 September (3) 16 September to 29 September 1972 (1) 20 February to 9 June (2) 14 July to 15 September 1973 (1) 15 February to 2 June (2) 12 July to 31 August (3) 30 September to 30 October. (PB) is the period of intensive breeding. In practice, this was a period during which we found at least one clutch having been started almost every day. The timings of breeding periods in different years are given in Table 4. Between the two successive breeding periods, there was a distinct interval of time, the inter- breeding period (PIB), when very few clutches were laid (Table 5). In every breeding season one or two inter-breeding periods occurred between the end of May and September. The timings of inter-breeding periods varied in different years. The total duration of inter-breeding periods varied considerably from one breeding season to the next. The total duration of breeding periods, on the other hand, remained more or less the same in different breeding seasons (Table 6). Aseasonal breeding : Breeding outside the breeding season is termed as aseasonal breeding. Some aseasonal clutches were laid occasiopally in January. Several aseasonal clutches were recorded for February in the year 1969 and 1972 when the breeding season started late ; these clutches were presumably laid by some early-starting birds. A variable number of seasonal clutches appeared after the breeding season terminated in Sep- tember-October. 2 to 5% clutches every year were aseasonal clutches. Breeding pattern of individual females ; Since the breeding season is long and divided into several breeding periods, it is necessary to ascertain whether the same female breeds in different breeding periods. The monthly distri- bution of clutches laid by the ringed female sparrows is given in Fig. 3. The figure is based on 16 annual breeding records of ringed females. In the figure, each block represents a clutch laid by a particular female in a particular month ; all the clutches laid by a female during the course of a year, bear the same number, but the successful and unsuccessful clutches are 1127 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 Fig. 3. Monthly distribution of the clutches started by individual ringed females. Each block represents a clutch. All the clutches laid by a female during the course of a year bear the same number. A successful clutch is designated by a cross. distinguished by suitable symbols. Numbers 1 to 6 stand for the records of six females that bred during 1969, 7 to 14 for eight females during 1970, and 15 and 16 for two females during 1971. 2 and 7, 3 and 8, 5 and 9, 11 and 15, or 13 and 16, is a set of numbers that represent the records of the same female breeding in different years. It is obvious from the figure that (1) the breeding pattern of individual females corres- ponded with the breeding season of the popu- lation (described earlier), and that (2) the same female which laid several clutches during the breeding season, bred aseasonally outside the breeding season as well. Number of Clutches /Female /Year An estimate of the number of clutches/female/ year is obtained by dividing the total number of clutches laid during a year by the maximum number of females nesting at one time during that year. A female sparrow in Baroda population is estimated to have laid on the average 6.4 to 7.4 clutches per year (Table 7). It must be pointed out that the maximum number of females nesting at one time during the year is only a minimal estimate of the total number of breeding females. The estimate of 6.4 to 7.4 clutches/female/year is therefore an overestimate. 1128 BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE SPARROW Table 5 Inter-breeding periods First PIB Second PIB 1969 Duration : dates and no. of days 9.VII-26.VIII No. of clutches laid during PIB 49 days 8 1970 Duration : dates and no. of days 3. VI-25. VI 17.VIII-29.IX No. of clutches laid during PIB 23 days 11 44 days 7 1971 Duration : dates and no. of days 30.V-11.VII 2.IX-15.IX No. of clutches laid during PIB 43 days 3 14 days 3 1972 Duration : dates and no. of days 10.VI-13.VII No. of clutches laid during PIB . . 34 days 2 1973 Duration : dates and no. of days 3. VI-11. VII 1.IX-29.IX No. of clutches laid during PIB 39 days 12 29 days 3 Table 6 Total duration of breeding season and the breeding and inter-breeding periods IN DAYS, IN DIFFERENT YEARS Year Total duration in days Breeding season Breeding periods Inter-breeding periods 1969 238 189 49 1970 255 188 67 1971 229 172 57 1972 208 174 34 1973 257 189 68 Table 7 AN ESTIMATE OF THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF CLUTCHES LAID BY A FEMALE SPARROW IN DIFFERENT YEARS 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 (a) Total no. of clutches .. 375 402 368 365 346 ( b ) Maximum no. of females nesting at one time 56 54 53 57 51 (c) Average no. of clutches/female/year (a/b) .. 6.7 7.4 6.9 6.4 6.8 1129 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 The estimate mentioned above is only slightly higher than the number of clutches laid by a limited number of ringed females observed by us. In 1969, six ringed females laid on the average 6.16±Q.75 clutches /female ; in 1970, eight ringed females laid on the average 7.05 ±1.85 clutches /female ; in 1971, 2 ringed females laid 7 clutches each. Out of these ringed females, two females contributed 6 successful clutches/female/year, whereas the other two, four, six and two females respectively contri- buted 5, 4, 3 and 2 successful clutches/female / year. The average number of successful clutches raised by a ringed female during the course of a year was 3.75. The interval between the successful clutches (interval between the first eggs of two successive clutches, where the earlier clutch is successful ; Seel 1968) was 38 ±5 days (averege and standard deviation for 25 cases of the ringed females) in the summer. The interval was relatively longer and more variable in the monsoon. Regulation of Breeding Start of breeding season : No clutches were started in January, except in 1971 and 1973, when two and one clutches respectively were laid in January. Apparently January was not suitable for breeding. It was the coolest month every year, except in 1972 when February was the coolest month (Table 8). The earliest clutches in February appeared when the air temperature started rising (Figs- 4 to 8). Table 8 gives the dates when the earliest clutches in February were laid. In 1969, 1971 and 1972, the early clutches were followed by clutches that appeared at irregular intervals until the breeding season started ; altogether 4 to 10 (aseasonal) clutches were started in February before the breeding season commenced in these years. In February of 1970 and 1973, the breeding season started abruptly in that the event was not preceded by the laying of any aseasonal clutches. The starting of regular breeding, as it has been explained earlier, is considered to be the commencement of the breeding season. After reviewing the daily climatic factors, we gathered that a drop in the air temperature in February may delay the commencement of the breeding season. In 1970, 1971 and 1973, the breeding season started relatively early, between 12th to 15th February. During these years, the mean temperature in February was 2.4 to 3.7° C higher than that in January, and the third week of February was relatively warmer, with the mean temperature between 24 to 26° C (Table 8). In 1969 and 1972, the breeding season started relatively late. In 1972, February was cooler than January the temperature having dropped considerably in the second week of February (Table 8). In 1969, the mean air temperature, after an initial rise in the first week of February, registered a substantial drop to about 21° C on the 16th, so that the mean temperature of February was only slightly higher (by 1.5° C) than that of January and the third week of February was cooler than the preceding week (Table 8). In birds, the rapid increase in the growth of the ovum resulting in ovulation, starts about 5 to 7 days before the ovulation and some appropriate proximate factors are presumed to be necessary to trigger this process of rapid enlargement of the ovum. It has been found in a wide variety of birds that weather condition for a period of about 5-7 days before the egg laying may be the proximate factor for the laying. Seel (1968) concluded from his studies that the changes in the laying activities of the House Sparrow occurred about four days after the changes in air temperature. In the light of these, we calculated the average daily mean temperature for a 5-day period preceding the start of the breeding season, in different years (Table 8). Every year, except in 1972; 1130 BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE SPARROW Table 8 The starting of the breeding season 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 Date — the first clutch laid in Feb. 11 13 5 5 15 Date — the regular breeding started in Feb. 25* 13 12 20 15* Average air temp, in °C for a 5- day period prior to the day the regular breeding started 24.7 24.1 23.9 20.2 25.3 Average air temp, in February in °C First week 22.0 20.1 20.6 21.1 22.2 Second week 25.2 23.8 22.5 19.3 24.6 Third week 23.6 24.0 24.6 21.7 25.7 Fourth week 25.1 25.2 23.8 22.3 27.0 Entire month 23.9 25.0 23.0 21.0 24.8 Average temp, in °C for months preceding February January 22.4 21.3 20.6 21.5 20.3 December 22.7 22.6 21.5 21.5 22.9 November 27.4 27.4 24.5 24.6 26.0 * Approximate date. the mean daily temperature for a 5-day period prior to the onset of the breeding season was 24 to 25° C. In 1972, when the mean tempera- ture in any week of February was only between 19 and 22° C, the breeding season started late and the average temperature during a 5-day period preceding the commencement of the breeding season was relatively lower (20.2° C). This indicates that the temperature threshold for egg-laying may decline if the onset of the breeding season is delayed. A declining temperature threshold with the passing of spring was illustrated in other species of birds by Nice (1937) and Kluijver (1951). Seel (1968) indi- cated the existence of a similar phenomenon with respect to the breeding of the House Sparrow. In the Baroda population, just as in other northern populations, the breeding tends to occur when the winter ends and the air tempera- ture starts rising. The breeding season com- mences when the temperature reaches about 24 to 25° C in Baroda and 10° C in Oxford (Seel 1968). Seel (1968) suggested that ‘ layingAis adapted to begin at a particular air temperature because at lower air temperature the adult would have insufficient energy available to produce and incubate a clutch.’ Several authors consider the air temperature less suitable as a start-timing mechanism for breeding season in birds in general because of its great un- reliability and the frequent short-term fluctua- tions (Immelmann 1972). It is possible that a sharp rise in temperature may have been more effective than temperature in itself (Lofts and Murton 1966). A flush of vegetation growth and increased activity of insects that follow a rise in temperature may have an immediate positive effect on breeding. Timings of the inter-breeding periods : We have seen earlier that during each breeding season there were one or two inter-breeding periods, and that during an inter-breeding period, the breeding was negligible, only a few clutches having been laid in the beginning or end of an inter-breeding period (Table 5 ; Figs. 4 to 8), 1131 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL BUST. SOCIETY, V&l. 75 1 2 i pB -i— PIES— i — PB-f < ■ — - i i i i_ i Li 1 t ! | , — i i — i "hf date 33544 3 32 1 1 55 MONTH J FMAMJJASO N D 1969 Fig. 4. Histogram showing the number of clutches started (bottom), mean daily temperature (middle) and rainfall (top) per five-day interval, in 1969. Breeding periods (PB : also numbered) and inter-breeding periods (PIB ; dotted areas) are demarcated by thin vertical lines. 1132 CLUTCHES RAINFALL/qay CM Bft£Bi>iNo smascw in rm house sparrow 1 2 3 PB ! PB— PB— i-PIB— IPB-' cate 4 3 5 4 4 3 3 2 11 5 5 MONTH JFMAMJJASOND 1970 Fig. 5. Histogram showing the number of clutches started (bottom), mean daily temperature (middle) and -ainfall (top) per five-day interval, in 1970. For further explanation, see legend under Fig. 4. 113S JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, V&l. 75 date 4 3 5 4 4 3 3 2 1 1 5 5 MONTH JFMAMJJASOND i/> LU X y 3 3 U 1971 Fig. 6. Histogram showing the number of clutches started (bottom), mean daily temperature (middle) and rainfall (top) per five-day interval, in 1971. For further explanation, see legend under Fig. 4. We witnessed during our studies eight inter- breeding periods varying from 14 to 49 days in duration (Table 5). Each of these periods coincided with a period of bad weather. The weather during the inter-breeding period was characterised by heavy rain, a drop in air temperature (Fig. 4 to 8) and reduction in sunshine hours because of the cloudy weather. The dust-storms or thunder-storms also occurred during this period. The sparrow pairs that were not attending eggs or chicks in their nest, visited their nests less frequently and only in the mornings. They spent most of the available time foraging away from the colony. The birds that were already with eggs or chicks when an inter-breeding period started, continued to attend their nests. The coincidence of an inter-breeding period with a long spell of rain and cloudy weather is indicative of the fact that the extreme rainy 1134 BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE Sf ARROW weather had adverse effects on breeding. The adult food as well as the nestling food might have been difficult to find during a greater part of the inter-breeding period. During a long spell of heavy rain, the rain itself would decrease the mobility of the birds, water-logged ground would make it difficult for the adults to find food and decreased light hours as a result of cloudy weather would restrict the feeding hours. Under such conditions, the birds would spend all the available time for foraging to meet their meta- bolic needs and to store the surplus energy which could be more profitably used for breeding when the weather conditions improve. Most of the adults, during these periods, had been without eggs or young and were feeding away from the colony. The fact that the birds laid relatively heavier eggs in bigger clutches when they resumed breeding after an inter-breeding period (Naik and Mistry, unpublished), indicates that the birds did build up an energy reserve some- times during the period. The pairs which already had eggs when the inter-breeding period started, apparently managed to find enough food near the colony because such birds were very few and faced reduced competition for feeding near the colony. The inter-breeding period as a break in 40 30 20 CATE MONTH Fig. 7. Histogram showing the number of clutches started (bottom), mean daily temperature (middle) and rainfall (top) per five-day interval, in 1972. For further explanation, see legend under Fig. 4, 1135 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Voi. 75* 1 2 3 i — -PB t-PIB-1 — PB — '-RB-'PB-' J L. * l I i l . L jL-_. — J • L MONTH j FMAMJ JA SOND 1973 Fig. 8. Histogram showing the number of clutches started (bottom), mean daily temperature (middle) and rainfall (top) per five-day interval, in 1973. For further explanation, see legend under Fig. 4. reproduction activity in the midst of the breeding season, is certainly adaptive. An inter-breeding period, which staggers the breeding, provides the birds a temporary relief from the reproduc- tive stress. The stress should build up because of the continuous breeding, and some relief from the stress during the breeding season may have a positive effect on the reproductive efforts made by a bird during the season. Number of clutches laid by a female : The average number of clutches laid by a female, as we have seen earlier, vary in different years. For an analysis of the causal mechanism behind this, we regrouped the data in Table 9. In the table, a year is divided into a period of five months before monsoon (January to May) and another period of seven months covering the monsoon and post-mon- 1136 BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE SPARROW Table 9 The average number of broods/female before, durtng and after the MONSOON AND THE RAINFALL IN DIFFERENT YEARS Average number of broods/female Year Total rainfall (mm) Period before monsoon : January-May Monsoon and after monsoon : June-December 1968 560 1969 1091 3.6 3.1 1970 1288 3.8 3.7 1971 915 4.0 2.9 1972 388 3.7 2.7 1973 1131 3.5 3.2 soon periods (June to December). The monsoon (June to October) and post-monsoon (November and December) periods were grouped together, because the pattern of breeding in the post-monsoon period is primarily determined by the breeding pattern laid down in the pre- ceding monsoon. The table also gives the total rainfall for each year. It may be recalled here that the total rainfall given for each year was almost entirely recorded during the mon- soon. The average number of clutches/female during the monsoon and post-monsoon periods of a year is related to the rainfall during the year. A relationship between the average number of clutches/female during the monsoon and post-monsoon periods and the rainfall during that year is more clearly illustrated in Fig. 9. The regression formula for the curve fitted to the five observations is y = 3.38430-0.02591x-f 0.00022x2, the correlation coefficient being 0.9952. It is thought desirable to have a quadratic expression instead of a linear one in x for predicting y, because the residual sum of squares for the quadratic fit is 0.005404, whereas that for the linear fit is 0.145902, which is relatively much higher ; this is also revealed by the fact that the correlation coefficient for the quadratic fit is higher than that for the linear fit (0.8620). According to the form of curve fitted to the five observations, the number of clutches laid by a female during the monsoon and post-monsoon periods decreases with a decrease in the annual rainfall, until a level of 500 mm rainfall is reached, but, a decrease in the number of clutches is proportionately less than a corresponding decrease in the rainfall (Fig. 9). It seems possible that any further decrease in the rainfall may not correspond with a change in the number of clutches and that the lower-most limit for the number of clutches that a female lays on an average during this period may be about 2.7. There should be an upper limit for the average number of clutches laid by a female between June and December. Such a limit was probably reached in 1970, when the breeding season continued up to the last week of October and a maximum number of aseasonal clutches were laid in November. While we have speculated about a lower and an upper limit for the number of clutches, it must be stressed that the relationship derived between 1137 NO. OF CLUTCHES/9 Journal , Bombay natural hist, society, vbi is the annual rainfall and the number of clutches laid by a female would hold good only within the observed range of rainfall. The average number of clutches laid by a female between January and May bears a linear relationship to the amount of rainfall in the previous year (Fig. 10). The regression formula for the curve in Fig. 10 is y = 3.29333 -f0.00502x, the correlation coefficient being 0.9693 ; here, it makes no difference whether one chooses a linear or quadratic expression in x for pre- dicting y and therefore a simple linear regression is used. The above observations indicate that the average number of clutches laid by a female sparrow during a year is dependent upon the amount of rainfall in the previous year, as well as that during the year in question. A possible explanation for this relationship is that the amount of precipitation affects the food supply of the sparrows and the food supply is the most dominant factor, among the factors determining the number of clutches laid by a female in Baroda. Because of ample sunlight and rainfall in cm Fig. 9. Relationship between the annual rainfall and the average number of clutches laid by a female during the monsoon and post-monsoon periods. relatively warm weather, the precipitation is known to be the main factor affecting the growth of plants and seed-production in the tropics. During the wet season (monsoon), the amount of precipitation during the season is an effective factor. During the dry season (summer), however, it is the precipitation during the preceding wet season that is effective. The average number of clutches laid by a female during a certain interval of time would depend upon not only the rate of food supply, but also the number of days favourable for breeding. The breeding, after a less variable start, occurs almost every day in the summer, so that the rate of food supply primarily would influence the number of clutches laid by the female during that season. The number of days on which the sparrows are capable of breeding in the monsoon and post-monsoon periods varies in different years (Table 2), so that the food supply as well as the number of days favourable for breeding would determine the average number of clutches laid by a female during these periods. Here, not only the total RAINFALL IN CM Fig. 10. Relationship between the annual rainfall and the average number of clutches laid by a female during the next year summer. 1 13$ BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE SPARROW amount of rainfall but also the pattern of rainfall during the season may be involved. The breed- ing periods alternate with the inter-breeding periods and the breeding is relatively more synchronized at the population level in the monsoon. Under these conditions, the overall temporal distribution pattern of the breeding and inter-breeding periods, rather than only the total number of days favourable for breeding, may influence the average number of clutches/ female. The breeding and inter-breeding periods are largely regulated, as we have seen earlier, by the pattern of rainfall. Termination of breeding season : The date on which the breeding season terminated and the total rainfall in different years were as follows : — 1972 — 15 September, 388 mm ; 1971—29 September, 915 mm ; 1969 — 21 October, 1091 mm ; 1970 — 26 October, 1288 mm ; 1973—30 October, 1131 mm. The timing for termination of the breeding season seems to have been related to the rainfall during the year. In a year of ‘ good ’ monsoon, as compared to a year of ‘ poor ’ monsoon, a good supply of food might have been available for a longer period, and the breeding season therefore was prolonged. Apparently, the decreasing food supply had an immediate negative influence on reproduction of the sparrows. Existence of such a mechanism for the termination of breed- ing season is considered a possibility in several other species of birds also (Dunnet 1955 ; Farner 1967). Discussion The avian breeding seasons present a wide spectrum ranging from continuous to restricted breeding season ; a continuous breeding season tends to occur in regions of the world where there is no marked seasonality in the climate and a restricted breeding season tends to occur in the regions with seasonal variations in the environmental conditions (Immelmann 1971). A continuous breeding season for the house sparrow, to our knowledge, has so far not been described, but, it possibly occurs in suitable habitats. The restricted breeding season of the sparrows have been described for the popu- lations in the temperate regions (for example, April to July in England, by Seel 1968) and also in some of the tropical regions (March to July, in Lahore, Pakistan, by Mirza 1972). Breeding season of the Baroda sparrows represents a stage transitional between the two extremes, the continuous and restricted breeding seasons. The breeding season is long. Its start is well defined and the timing is subjected to only small yearly variations. After the breeding season starts, the breeding is contin- uous until the end of summer. In the monsoon, however, the breeding occurs during certain well defined periods (breeding periods) only. During the interval of time (inter-breeding period) between the breeding periods, the breeding activities are largely excluded. Such an inter-breeding period may occur once or twice and it tends to prolong the breeding season. The termination of breeding season in the later part of monsoon not only has a variable timing but is poorly defined at least in some years when the fresh clutches keep on occurring sporadically even after the season terminates. The complexities in the timings of breeding season, as outlined in the previous paragraph, should be taken into account in timing the breeding season accurately. During an inter breeding period, for example, one may believe that the breeding season has terminated, only to find it restarting after a certain interval of time. In the light of this, the existing literature about the breeding season of sparrows in different parts of India needs to be carefully reviewed. All the same, it is apparent from the published literature that timings of the 1139 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , 75 breeding season tend to vary widely in different parts of India. Ali and Ripley (1974) who have summarized some of the general trends in these variations, state that the season extends from March to June in the north, continuing till September or October in central India and extending throughout the year in Southern India. From north to south, the winter tends to be milder and the monsoon tends to be earlier and longer. Apparently correlated with this, the sparrow tends to extend its breeding season at both ends (earlier start and later termination of the season) in the southern parts of India. It had become possible for our sparrows to lay an unusually large number of clutches (as many as six successful broods/female/year) because they had a long period favourable for breeding and their breeding was not continuous throughout the breeding season, but interrupted by the inter-breeding periods when they were relieved from the reproductive stress and built up energy reserve to make a fresh attempt at reproduction again. In contrast to our sparrows, the sparrows in Oxford during their restricted breeding season laid on the average only 2.1 clutches/year and only some of the pairs made 4 to 5 breeding attempts (Seel 1968). It is interesting to note that the interval between the successful clutches for the sparrows was about the same in Oxford and Baroda. The interval in Oxford was 40 days (Seel 1968) and in Baroda during the summer was 38 days. A large number of studies made on the breeding patterns of birds have indicated that every species of bird tends to breed at the time of the year when it can raise its young most efficiently (Lack 1954, 1966). Those environ- mental factors that control efficiency of breeding are called ‘ ultimate factors * (Thomson 1950). The most important ultimate factor for nearly all species of birds is the availability of an adequate food supply. Our observations on the breeding pattern of the House Sparrow and some casual observations on the bird’s habitat in the study area provide further circumstantial evidences for the above views. From February to May different species of perennial plants shed the old leaves and sprout new ones. Several species of these plants also flower and fruit during this period. Following the flushes of vegetation growth, the blooms of insects and caterpillars keep on appearing. The winter crop of cereals is harvested by the farmers in April-May. Taking advantage of all these, the sparrows breed uninterrupted and raise several successive broods in the summer. A more active period of vegetation growth starts with the monsoon in June, and terminates in August-September just before the end of monsoon. A number of perennial plants flower and fruit from August to October and it is during this period that monsoon crops of cereals are harvested by the farmers. The insect food for the sparrow nestlings is particularly abundant during the monsoon. The food supply and its availability are assured during the monsoon, only if the rainfall during this period is adequate and properly spaced out. This rarely happens in the sub-humid to semi-arid habitat of the sparrows in Baroda. The rainfall during a monsoon has an almost unpredictable pattern and periods of floods and droughts occur. The food supply for the breeding sparrows is also apparently variable and the ‘ good ’ periods may alternate with the ‘ lean ’ periods. Con- sequently, the breeding of sparrows during the monsoon is interrupted from time to time, and is never continuous as in the summer. The food supply is apparently adequate even after the breeding season ends in September- October. The post-breeding period, however, is occupied with moulting. Our casual obser- vations indicate that the sparrows start moulting in September-October. When after a ‘ good ’ rainy season the food supply is still exceptionally good, a number of sparrow pairs may breed aseasonally in November. In these birds, 1140 BREEDING SEASON IN THE HOUSE SPARROW some adjustments between the moult and breeding probably occurs ; a variety of adjust- ments between the moult and reproduction in birds have been described by Stresemann and Stresemann (1966). The food supply, or its availability, apart from being the most effective ultimate factor, apparently has an immediate influence on egg- laying. Immediate positive effect of an in- creased or easily accessible food supply on the breeding seems to operate as a timing mechanism for the start of breeding season and the termination of inter-breeding periods. Similarly, immediate negative effect of a decreased food supply seems to time the start of inter-breeding periods and the termination of breeding season. The quality and/or quantity of food supply may influence the time of egg- laying by directly affecting the reproductive physiology of the adult bird. Circumstantial and experimental evidences for the importance of nutritional factors in spermatogenesis and egg-laying are discussed by Marshall (1949), Siivonen (1957), Assenmacher et al. (1965), Buhler (1965), Loft and Murton (1966), Lack (1967) and Braithwaite and Frith (1970). In the tropics, where precipitation is the most important limiting factor for the food supply, the rainfall has a remarkable influence, in- directly through the food supply, on the fecun- dity of sparrows. A 4 good ’ rainy season as compared to a 4 poor * one, results in a female sparrow not only laying more clutches during the monsoon and breeding aseasonally in the winter, but also laying more clutches in the following summer. In the light of the present findings that the pattern of breeding and the fecundity of sparrows show a close relationship with the pattern and amount of annual rainfall, one should expect a wide degree of variations in breeding of the sparrows, correlated with a wide variety of climatic regimes to be found in the Indian sub-continent. Based on the rainfall pattern, four types of regimes are recognised for the Indian sub-continent. These are (1) irregular regime, where rainfall lacks a seasonal rhythm and includes regimes with three or four dry periods in a year, (2) mediter- ranean regime, where it rains during the short days of the year, (3) bixeric regime, where there are two rainy periods and two seasons in a year, and (4) tropical regime, where it rains during the long days of the year (Meher-Homji 1971). Based on the degree of aridity-humidity, four types of climatic regimes, according to a classification by Bagnouls and Glaussen (1957), occur in the Indian sub-continent and these types are (1) humid, where 0 to 4 months of the year are dry (when the monthly precipi- tation, in mm, is less than twice the mean temperature, in °C, (2) subhumid, where 5 to 8 months of the year are dry, (3) semi-arid, where 9 to 11 months of the year are dry, and (4) arid, where 12 months of the year are dry. Here is, therefore, a good case for the desirability of having a co-operative study on the breeding of sparrows in different parts of the Indian region. Acknowledgements Thanks are due to Dr. Salim Ali and Dr. S. C. Kendeigh for providing us with the aluminium and colour rings and M.S. University of Baroda for providing the grants to the senior author. Thanks are also due to Dr. A. G. Pathak and Miss S. N. Vahia for the statistical help. 13 1141 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , Fb/. 75 References Ali, Salim (1945) : The Birds of Kutch. Oxford University Press, Bombay. (1953) : The Birds of Travancore and Cochin. Oxford University Press, Bombay. (1972) : The Book of Indian Birds. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay. and Ripley, S. D. (1974) : Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, Vol. 10. Oxford University Press, Bombay. Assenmacher, I., Tixier-Vidal, A. and Astier, H. (1965) : Effects de la sous-alimentation et ju jeune sur la gonadostumulation du canard. Ann. Endocrinol. 26 : 1-26. Baonouls, F. and Glaussen, H. (1957) : Lea climates biologiques et leur classification. Ann. de Geogr. 355 : 193-220. Braithwaite, L. W. and Frith, H. J. (1969) : Water- fowl in an island swamp in New South Wales. III. Breeding. CSIRO Wild l Res. 14 : 65-109. Buhler, P. (1965) : Experimental ausgeloste Fruh- bruten bei der Schleiereule (Tyto alba). J. Ornithol. 106 : 347. Dunnet, G. M. (1955) : The breeding of the starling, Sturms vulgaris in relation to its food supply. Ibis 97 : 619-662. Farner, D. S. (1967) : The control of avian reproduc- tive cycles. Proc. 14 th Int. Ornithol. Congr. 1966 : 106-133. Golley, F. B. and Leith, H. (1972) : Basis of organic production in the tropics. In : A Symposium on Tropical Ecology. Ed. P. M. Golley and F. B. Golley. Athens. Immelmann, K. (1971) : Ecological aspects of periodic reproduction. In : Avian Biology. Vol. I, Ed. D. S. Farner and J. R. King. Academic Press, New York. Kendeigh, S. C. (1973) : A Symposium on the House Sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) and European Tree Sparrow (P. montanus ) in North America. Ornithological Mono- graph, No. 14. and Pinowski, J. (1972) : Productivity, Popu- lation Dynamics and Systematics of Granivorous Birds. Warszawa. Lack, D. (1954) : The Natural Regulation of Animal Numbers. Oxford University Press, London. Lack, D. (1966) : Population Studies of Birds. Clarendon Press, Oxford. (1967) : Interrelationships in breeding adapta- tions as shown by marine birds. Proc. 14th Int. Ornithol. Congr. 1966 : 3-42. Lofts, B. and Murton, R. K. (1966) : The role of weather, food and biological factors in timing the sexual cycle of woodpigeons. Brit. Birds. 59 : 261-280. Marshall, A. J. (1949) : Weather factors and sper- matogenesis in birds. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 119 ; 711-716. Miher-Homji, V. M. (1971) : Bioclimatic variability with special reference to India. Trop. Ecol. 12 : 155-176. Mirza, Z. B. (1972) : Study on the fecundity, morta- lity, numbers, biomass and food of a population of House Sparrows in Lahore, Pakistan. In : Productivity, Population Dynamics and Systematics of Granivorous Birds. Ed. S. C. Kendeigh and J. Pinowski. Warszawa, pp. 141-155. Naik, R. M. and Mistry, L. (1972) : Breeding season, and reproductive rate of Passer domesticus (L.) in Baroda, India. In : Productivity, Population Dynamics and Systematics of Granivorous Birds. Ed. S. C. Kendeigh and J. Pinowsky. Warszawa pp. 133-140. Naik, R. M. (1974) : Recent studies on the grani- vorous birds in India. Intern. Stud. Sparrows 7 : 21-25. Seel, D. S. (1968) : Breeding season of the House Sparrow and Tree Sparrows, Passer spp. at Oxford. Ibis 110 : 129-144. Siivonen, L. (1957) : The problems of the short- term fluctuations in numbers of tetraonids in Europe. Pap. Came Res., Helsinki 19 : 1-144. Stresemann, E. and Stresemann, V. (1966) : Die Mauser der Vogel. J. Orn. 107 : 1-448. Summers- Smith, D. (1967) : The House Sparrow, Collins, London. Thomson, A. L. (1950) : Factors determining the breeding seasons of birds : an introductory review. Ibis 92 : 173-184. Walter, H. and Lieth, H. (1960-1967) : Kima diagram. Weltatlas. V. B. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena. Whistler, H. and Kinnear, N. B. (1949) : Popular Handbook of Indian Birds. Gurney and Jackson, London. 1142 THE AVAILABILITY OF NESTING MATERIALS AND NESTING SITES AS VITAL FACTORS IN THE GREGARIOUS BREEDING OF INDIAN WATER-BIRDS M. Krishnan1 {With five plates) Introduction In the mid-fifties, I surveyed the old-established Vedanthangal Sanctuary for water-birds in the Chingleput district at the request of the (then) Government of Madras, to recommend measures for conserving and improving the preserve. Over the next two seasons, and part of the third, I visited Vedanthangal each week-end from mid-September to mid-February, to study the main breeding birds, their nesting^ and other features of the sanctuary. The flora of the tank bed (during the dry season) in the middle of which the birds had nested for centuries in a grove of Barringtonia acutangula trees, and of the surrounding scrub from which they collected the thorny, unarmed, and leafy dry and green twigs for the construction, lining, and periodic replenishment of their nests over the prolonged breeding enterprise (extending over about 3£ months) had also to be studied, and for this I sought the expert help of the wood-anatomist and taxonomist, Dr. B. G. L. Swamy, who was entirely responsible for this valuable floristic assessment, made over two seasons and with the assistance in the field of my son, M. Harikrishnan (now of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department). My rusty recollections of botany, and less rusty knowledge of the vegetation of the Chingle- put district, enabled me to appreciate this floristic assessment, and also to realise that 1 2/14 Edward Elliot Road, Madras-600 004. variations in the species of plants from which the different kinds of nesting and nest-replenish- ment materials were collected are inevitable, since the floristic complexion of the peripheral scrub of different mixed heronries is varied. Nevertheless, it was considered worth while to undertake an independently verified assess- ment of the plants from which such nesting materials were collected at Vedanthangal. For this purpose, I watched the birds collecting twigs from the peripheral scrub, and tagged those plants which could not be readily identified, and later ascertained their identities (when in flower) with the help of a flora. At the end of the nesting season, 3 representative nests were collected intact, and separately analysed by Dr. Swamy by pickling, sectioning and examining the twig-sections under the microscope and comparison with his exten- sive labelled collection of slides of south Indian woody plants. He was able to confirm my identifications of the twigs used for nest building (the identification by me had not been disclosed to him) and to add considerably to my list. The result of this study was incor- porated, tabulated, in my second report on the sanctuary to the Government. Wishing to append it to this paper, recently I applied to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department for a copy of this technical note, and was informed that my report could not be traced in governmental records. It is still possible to reconstruct this note from Dr. Swamy’s notes made at the time 1143 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , IW. 75 he identified the nest-twigs, but this laborious reconstruction has not been attempted in view of the variations already mentioned in the choice of different kinds of nesting and nest- replenishment materials (which, in turn, depend on the kind of material preferred being available in the vicinity of the breeding centre). In fact, this elaborate verification of the nesting materials used at Vedanthangal in the mid-fifties (which may no longer be valid even for this sanctuary, considering the near-total denudation of the wild peripheral scrub at Vedanthangal today) is detailed here for a quite different reason. It was this that first made me realise how important a factor to the success of the gregarious breeding of Indian water-birds the availability of the different kinds of nesting materials is, and how little this vital factor has been appreciated in our con- servation effort. The last sentence is a com- pressed and over simplified statement of this factor, which is set out more adequately in the body of this paper, following the introduction. Since 1956, right up to the present, as opportunity offered I have observed the nesting and the collection of nesting materials by water-birds at other breeding sites, and also the replenishment of their nests by them over the period of their breeding enterprise. An inseparably associated factor, the choice of nesting trees or other nesting locations, has also been studied, and the present paper is based on sustained and sporadic observation over the past 20-odd years in many parts of India. The main nesting colonies at which these observations were made are specified below : Kerala ; The Periyar sanctuary. Along the Quilon backwaters. Tamil Nadu : Vedanthangal sane- All 3 in the Chingleput tuary. district, the first two (only some 5 mile apart) featuring prac- tically all the birds listed below except for the grey pelican which, however, may also be seen in certain years in one or two pairs. These two preserves are specially notable for their grey herons, night herons and openbills. Karungulam tank at Kallidaikurichi in the Tirunelveli district, where egrets, darters and a few herons nest atop 2 or 3 tall trees on the bund. Note : — The breeding colony of egrets in planted Acacia nilotica clumps in Dhamal tank is no longer there, the trees having been cut down. Night herons, cattle egrets, egrets and pond herons, nesting in many locations in Mylapore, Raja Annamalai- puram, Adyar and some other parts of south Madras, since colonised by men, were also observed. Andhra Pradesh : The Aredu pelicanry in the West Godavari district. The Nelapattu mixed pelicanry in the Nellore district. Orissa : A mixed heronry in a mangrove swamp in Bhitar Kanika island. Karnataka : The Ranganathittoo sanctuary, near Mysore (Srirangapatnam). Karikili water-bird reserve. Dhamal tank. 1144 NESTING MATERIALS AND NESTING SITES OF WATER-BIRDS Assam : The pelicanry near Kaziranga village. Rajasthan : The Keoladeo Ghana (Bharatpur Bird Sanc- tuary) in Bharatpur. Further, other nesting colonies at small tanks in Tamil Nadu and in Karnataka were also observed. Almost all of them are no longer there. The nesting of birds like the little grebe, also found at mixed heronries, was not observed. The larger water-birds whose gre- garious breeding was observed are listed below : — Little Cormorant Large Egret Spoonbill Indian Shag Cattle Egret White Ibis Large Cormorant Pond Heron Grey (Spotted- Darter Grey Heron billed) Little Egret Night Heron Pelican Median Egret Openbilled Stork Painted Stork Basic Factors The water-birds considered here nest gre- gariously in crowded colonies. These may be large mixed heronries, as at Bharatpur, Vedan- thangal and Ranganathittoo ; or they may be much smaller but still congested colonies limited to 2 or 3 species nesting in a few adja- cent trees, as at Karungulam ; or they may be large or small congregations of a single, or of dominantly one, species — for instance, the Aredu and Kaziranga pelicanries and the nesting-trees of night herons in Mylapore and other parts of Madras city. Many features govern the breeding enterprise of these birds, not all of them instinctive. For example, they get into breeding condition only when an abundant supply of food is available, and since this abundance is sea- sonal and territorial, and not a transient and haphazard event, the assured supply of food that gets them into breeding condition (a physio- logical and not an instinctive stimulus) also ensures adequate nourishment for their vora- cious, demanding and fast-growing young. Even with regard to these seasonal periods of plenty, the extent to which the breeding of these birds is influenced by drastic fluctuations may vary with different species. Early in the forties, the low-lying wastelands and paddy fields of south Madras were gradually built up and converted into Raja Annamalaipuram, and the many nesting-trees of egrets, cattle egrets and night herons in this area were consequently lost. This was followed by unprecedented drought, and it was noticed that while the egrets, obviously affected by the paucity of food in peripheral feeding grounds, did not nest at all, or nested only in noticeably diminished num- bers, in the few established nesting trees near Adyar (since cut down), the night herons invaded the most congested parts of Mylapore and nested in such trees as they could find in the compounds of human residences there (one such nesting-tree, used for years till cut down, was in the tiny compound of the Mylapore Police Station), breeding thickly : they, unlike the egrets, were able to find their food supply from the Buckingham Canal and its slushy banks, close by. It is useful at this stage to consider the extent to which we can be sure of avian in- stincts, the complex impact of diverse instinc- tive urges governing the breeding enterprise of these birds. That all these impulses do not have the identical directional slant, and are not narrowed down to particular and unvaried preferences, is a reasonable conclusion, though they may serve much the same ultimaie end even when mutually antagonistic. This may be illustrated by two well-known reactions of nesting water-birds : obviously the instinctive attachment of a brooding bird to its nest is sharply in conflict with its instinct of self- 1145 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 preservation when danger approaches the nest closely ; on such occasions, frequently it flies away at the last moment, kicking the eggs (or even the hatchlings) out of the nest in its seem- ing panic flurry. At first sight this may seem a self-destructive reaction, but though it definitely destroys that particular clutch, it may actually help the breeding enterprise as a whole, since the breeding pair, having lost its clutch or brood, is hastened to the next brood. In this note, which is mainly concerned with the importance of nesting materials, such complex inter-reactive compulsions need not be detailed, but it may be said that the accepted view is that these diverse instinctive promptings all tend to be ultimately beneficial to the species and have survival value : otherwise, obviously, urges that are self-destructive would have resulted in the extinction of the species. Instinct knows no intelligent acceptance of defeat, but only frustration or death when it cannot be fulfilled in some way. It is here that ornithologists have sought, in their desire to keep the distinction between instinct and intelligence clear, to find intermediate terms such as 4 intuition * (James Fisher and Roger Tory Peterson : the world of birds) which are of debatable validity. The sublima- tion of an instinctive urge or apprehension is well known in animal behaviour, where dis- placement activities are recognizable, but the acceptance of substitutes for the nesting sites and nesting materials instinctively preferred (where the environment is entirely natural and rich in its resources) by water-birds is some- thing quite different. Since nesting sites and 1 A purely artificial factor that has profoundly influen- ced the establishment of water-bird breeding sites is the protection offered to them by human countryside senti- ment : the major nesting colonies now extant, or known earlier in this century, mainly owed their origin to this, or still owe them to this protection or its substitution by the accord of governmental protection. Vedan- thangal provides a fully documented example of this factor. nesting materials are closely inter-related, the choice of nesting sites by these birds has to be considered, where otherwise they are assured of their breeding needs. Nesting-trees and other nesting sites In their gregarious nesting, water-birds are instinctively impelled to choose trees (or other sites) that offer them some security from distur- bance and ground predators1, either by being insulated by water (by their boles being partially submerged as at Bharatpur, Karikili, Vedan- thangal and Nelappattu, or by the trees being on small islands in deep water, as at Rangana- thittoo) or by their boles being very tall (as at the Aredu and Kaziranga pelicanries, and at Karungulam). Where such trees are not available or are of limited availability, they may accept substitute nesting locations, food supply and other factors being congenial. Such acceptance of substitute sites may be partial or total, depending on the availability of nesting-trees in particular loca- tions. A few illustrative examples will help to make this point clear, but before going on to them it may be said that among other birds, too, the acceptance of substitute nesting sites where the prLtine, natural nesting sites are no longer available is well known. Blue rock pigeons, for instance, nesting originally in caves and sheltered cliffs, have taken freely to the somewhat similar nesting sites provided by old forts and the spires of mosques and temples, even where they arc probably truly wild, and not feral atavistic reversions from domesticated stock. A quite remarkable acceptance of substitute nesting-trees is provided by the pelicanry around the hamlet of Aredu, in West Godavari. In recent years, the birds seem to have aban- doned, or are much less regular at, this long- established nesting site. There are no other tall trees here — pelicans like to nest in lofty 1146 nesting materials and nesting sites of water-birds trees, as at Kaziranga, where they do not have the insulation of water all round as at Nelappattu — and so they used to nest regularly in the palmyra and coconut tops around the hamlet — the last kind of trees one would imagine grey pelicans would choose to nest in ! (Plate I, 1). I observed the nesting birds closely here in 1968, and they were very much at home atop the palmyras. The reasons for their giving up this breeding site are probably wholly un- connected with nesting trees, as is explained later in this paper. Ranganathittoo Though less flagrant an instance than the quaintly picturesque sight of pelicans atop palmyras that Aredu offers, the Ranganathittoo sanctuary is a much more significant and multi- faceted example of the acceptance of substi- tute nesting sites by water-birds. There is a great variety of nesting species, and one can study the transition from what may be termed the orthodox sites in trees to the most extra- ordinary substitute locations at Ranganathittoo. Unlike other mixed heronries insulated by water, it is no village tank (Vedanthangal, Karikili) or large, artificially created lake (Bharatpur) that provides the protection, but the deep, fast-flowing Cauveri. At a bend in the river there is a large mixed heronry to be found from July to October-November (taking the vagaries of the monsoon into account) com- prising, in the main, the following breeding birds : cormorants of all 3 kinds, the darter, the little, the median and the large egrets, the cattle egret, the pond heron, the openbill, the spoonbill and the white ibis : egrets and open- bills are the main features of this sanctuary, and there are only a few pairs of spoonbills. The brief account that follows of the nesting of these birds takes note only of dominant trends and ignores exceptions. Ranganathittoo is notable in that unlike other mixed heronries, it offers no home-water — the river is the home-water. The feeding grounds are the inundated low flats, paddy fields and minor irrigation canals in the neighbour- hood, and nesting commences and ends sooner here than in other water-bird breeding areas the birds beginning to nest with the first heavy monsoon rains in July. They build in a few trees along the river and a few trees on shallow, rocky islands, some of them only a few square metres in area, in the river, and also in the brakes of screwpine along the bank and on the islands, and even in less congenial locations. Further, some of the limited number of trees available, especially the taller ones along the bank, are used not so much for nesting as for roosting — at all sizeable mixed heronries such roosting trees may be found, used during the early part of the breeding season mainly by a number of water-birds (of the same species as those nesting) that have not yet, or not for the season, got into breeding condition, and later briefly both by the breeding birds and their grown young. While the cormorants and darters nest here in trees, as elsewhere, the other birds may also nest in the screwpine and even in sedges. Openbills and white ibises like to nest in colonies mainly by themselves (though a few other water-birds may also nest on the same trees) : at Ranganathittoo also there is such an 4 openbill-tree ’ on one of the central islands, a Terminalia arjuna whose crown has a quite atypical, low, flat spread by the top boughs radiating in a downbent, lateral direction : there are also two lesser colonies of openbills on trees on the islands. But openbills nest also atop screwpine on these islands, as I have not seen them doing anywhere else, building high up the screwpine brakes as other birds nesting in these brakes do not. To the extent of my limited personal observation at this sanctuary, the openbills first build in their trees (they 1147 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 always nest in the same trees) and perhaps those that nest in the screwpine do so because the nesting trees are already occupied by earlier pairs. The spoonbills nest mainly, or entirely, in the screwpine brakes, building their nests low down near the basal parts of the screwpine and just inside the outer periphery of the brake. They roost in the treetops at times. White ibises, perhaps, build the most ele- mentary (primitive) kind of stick nests among these, birds. Elsewhere it may be noticed that they favour low, flat-topped trees, building their shallow nests close together, the nests often being confluent and forming what may be termed rafts. At Ranganathittoo there are two trees specially favoured by white ibises — in 1968 I saw some nests right atop a screwpine brake, built on the flat top formed by the thick, sword-shaped leaves bending sharply down towards their terminal part. More remarkable, some of the white ibises nest on a small, flat- crowned rock thinly covered with soil and herbage projecting just above the water level, a singularly vulnerable location — I have seen these nests (and their contents) being carried away by the current when the water rose in the river. Elsewhere, egrets nest in comparatively low trees when they have the insulation of water, not only in colonies by themselves, but also along with cormorants, darters, herons and openbills. Acacia nilotica and Barringtonia acutangula are trees specially favoured by them: they build fairly low in these trees, but well above the water level. Where they do not have the insulation of water, as when nesting in trees on the banks of tanks and lakes, they prefer tall trees — at Karungulam, for instance, a few tall Terminalia bellerica and jamun (Syzygium) trees. At Ranganathitoo, however, the majority of the egrets nest, not on trees (where, also, some nest) but in the screwpine brakes, low down and well inside, often along with night herons and cattle egrets (Plate I, 2) : in places, the screwpine is white with nesting and roosting egrets. Moreover, there is a subsidiary island near the island on which the ‘ openbill tree ’ ( Terminalia arjuna) stands, and on this island a thick growth of sedges and grasses fringes part of its outline. Egrets have always nested in this patch, low down, the conjoint culms of many plants supporting the weight of the nest, with the basal, support- ing portions of the culms weighed down and leaning outwards — when this island gets flooded by the river rising, the culms are erected and raised just above the highwater level by the force of the current ! Other birds do not nest in this patch of sedges, probably because to land on the nest and take off from it needs the delicate airmastery of egrets (Plate II, 3). From what has been said, it may be thought that the utilisation of these exceptional nesting sites by the nesting birds at Ranganathittoo is an intelligent adaptation to inevitable circum- stances— to the circumstance that while food and other amenities are available here, the nesting trees are limited : it may be also thought that nesting on islands in a swift river also gains them an added measure of security, and that some intelligence is displayed by the birds in this. This is not so. Apart from the risk to their nesting enterprise when the river rises (as much as by 3 feet in a day), even in these island strongholds they are bothered by an un- doubtedly intelligent land predator, the bonnet monkey, which swims across, breasting the powerful current, and raids the nests. That the bonnet monkey is not by nature a land predator at the nesting sites of water-birds is true. Although this is not strictly relevant here, it may be pointed out that not far from this nesting colony, a little farther down the river and barely 250 metres away, there are a number of likely nesting trees along the bank which are never occupied. If intelligence governed, 1148 NESTING MATERIALS AND NESTING SITES OF WATER-BIRDS or qualified the nesting of these birds they would certainly exploit these trees. What inhibits them from doing so, apparently, is the purely instinctive preference for nesting in a crowd, in the midst of the established congestion. That there is safety in numbers and in such congestion, especially from avian predators is well known — in passing it may be noted that these predators include, besides birds of prey like eagles and falcons, sneak-thieves like the brahminy kite, the scavenger vulture, and crows. But if they colonised those other, unoccupied trees, they would automatically provide their own crowd in this new location — something the birds should know if their nesting was informed by intelligence ! Another point worth noting is this. It may be thought that the detailing of non- arboreal nesting sites at Ranganathittoo and the preference of arboreal sites by the nesting birds elsewhere, where there are close-grown trees, suggests that the latter is the natural condition and the acceptance of non-arboreal sites at Ranganathittoo a contingent, imposed condition. Actually, the reverse is true in the historical sense. In almost all the other water- bird sanctuaries well known today, the nesting trees are not natural and wild but planted by men in groves, whereas at Ranganathittoo these trees are purely natural : Bharatpur, Vedan- thangal, Karikili, Dhamal, and Nelappattu are examples of such planted groves. In purely wild locations also (as at Bhitar Kanika and elsewhere, in remote mangrove swamps) these same species of water-birds may be found nesting thickly together in trees, which justifies the mention of their natural preference for trees in this paper, but at present most of the breeding sites are in artificially planted groves in village tanks and in lakes. Nor is this a recent phenomenon. The Barringtonia acutangula grove in the middle of ♦ The idea was originally suggested by Dr. Sdlim Ali, Bombay Natural History Society — Eds. the village tank was already long-established and * immemorial ’ in 1798, when the villagers of Vedanthangal presented their petition to Lionel Place, first Collector of the Chingleput District. One of Hume’s correspondents refers to a large nesting colony of grey pelicans and the 4 pelican ibis * (painted stork) that he noticed in a remote village in the Anantapur district about a century ago, and says the birds were nesting atop tamarinds and were strictly protected by the villagers — the tamarind came to India only some 4 centuries ago and was sedulously planted on the outskirts of villages. Bharatpur is an instance of an artificial water spread, created for irrigation and mili- tary purposes (as General Lake discovered in 1805) and was only subsequently planted, up to its present arboreal richness — incidentally this seems to be the only water-bird sanctuary in India where a sustained attempt has been made to replenish the old, dying nesting trees with others of the same species, carefully planted.® Among the species specially favoured for plantation in village tanks should be men- tioned Acacia nilotica all over India, Terminalia arjuna in the south as also Barringtonia acutangula (the former mainly on tank bunds and the latter in the tank bed, in a grove) and, in the north-west, Mitragyna parvifolia . Barringtonia species are very slow growing and longlived, and survive for centuries, but need to be replenished well in advance of their decadence and death on account of their slow growth. Nests and Nesting Materials While water-birds are considered primitive taxonomically, and while it is true that their nests do not exhibit the marvellous instinctive intricacy and refinement of structure of birds like the weavers, some of the warblers or even ioras, the designation of their nests as rough 6 stick nests \ suggesting a haphazard throw- ing together jof dry twigs, would be incorrect. 1149 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY, Vol 75 Even in the roughest and simplest of their nests, there is a structural pattern. Illustration 4 is a photograph of the main part of the nest of a pair of painted storks, and shows the bulk and strength of the nest in relation to the nesting pair and the two nestlings- The foundation, or basal and outer sides, of a water-bird’s nest is always of dry thorny twigs, or dry, much-branched twigs (Plate III, 5) which, when placed on a suitable site, will not only tend to intermesh into a strong foundation and side-walls, but also bind on to the fork of the tree in which it is built, or to the twigs of the treetop on which it is. Obviously, the receptivity or holding power of the site (fork or treetop) on which the nest is built also deter- mines the strength of the attachment of the nest to its site, since water-birds use no binding for this purpose of fibrous materials : a flat- crowned thorny tree, like Acacia nilotica offers advantages in this respect which unarmedi smooth-boughed trees like Mitragyna parvi- folia or Terminalia arjuna do not — as against this, the stouter and stronger forks and boughs of these unarmed trees offer a stability to the nest wedged in them that the acacia cannot. Screwpine offers a different kind of peripheral spiny grip to nests built in it, the edges of the fleshy, dorso-ventrally flattened leaves being armed with sharp spines : nests built in sedges and tall grasses also have a firm support below and on the sides — as pointed out already, they are built low, just above the basal parts of the culms, and have a firm if somewhat elastic support from below, having already sunk as low as they can by their weight, and being also partly held up at the sides by the culms. To some extent, the kind of nesting materials used for building and lining, and replenishing, the nests depends on its location and the kind of nesting site selected. Since purely physical limitations and needs condition this nest site relationship, no attribution of intelligent adaptation by the nesting birds is necessary instinctive skills and responses no doubt govern this relationship. Whatever the site or substratum utilised for the nest, thorny or spinously branched, usually both thorny and much-branched, twigs (dry twigs, not green twigs) are needed for the inter- meshed outer shell and foundation of the nest. A variety of thorny twigs are used for this purpose : the most favoured appears to be Acacia nilotica twigs which are both strong, somewhat pliant, and thorny, and where this tree is plentiful, as at Bharatpur, the outer shell of the nest is built almost entirely, or quite entirely, of these thorns (Plate II, 4). Naturally the flori sties of the surrounds of different nesting sites would determine the kinds of thorny twigs employed in the main. While water-birds can bring food for their young in their crops from feeding grounds miles away, and actually do so in many places, they have to find the nesting thorns (awkward things to carry, even in the beak) from much nearer, usually in the immediate vicinity of the breeding site. This point may be stressed, as the avail- ability of thorny twigs in a patch of scrub some distance away may not be of much use to the nesting birds : the availability has to be local. While competition for nesting sites is noticeable in the early stages of the breeding enterprise, once the nests are built, apart from threat displays to keep intruders away, there is little competition to be observed at these breeding sites except for nesting material. The thorny twigs may be pulled off the live tree, dry twigs being selected for easy detachment — this is quite usual where acacia thorns are used in the main (Plate III, 5). Egrets and herons may be observed actually fighting for (actively compet- ing for) the displaced dry thorns that have fallen off nests into the water below, for the thorny twigs floating on the water. Periodically, as the thorny twigs holding the nest together get detached or weakened, the outer shell of the nest is reinforced with fresh 1150 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate I Krishnan : Indian Water-birds 1. Grey pelicans nesting on palmyra tops : Aredu : West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh* 2. Cattle egrets and median egrets nesting in a screwpine brake, Ranganathittoo Sanctuary, Karnataka. ill!! J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Krishnan : Indian Water-birds Plate II 3. A median egret coming in to its nest in the sedges, Ranganathittoo Sanctuary, Karnataka. Note the egret sitting on its nest to the extreme right. 4. A pair of painted storks and their nestlings on their nest : Keoladeo Ghana, Bharatpur, Rajasthan. Plate ill J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Krishnan : Indian Water-birds 5. Openbill coming in with dry twigs for its nest : Ranganathittoo Sanctuary, Karnataka. 6. The 4 large cormorant tree ’ at Keoladeo Ghana, Bharatpur, Rajasthan. Note the extravagant use of grass to line the nests. 'V 4 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate IV Krishnan : Indian Water-birds 7. Spoonbill slithering down to the grass on the lake bed to pull it out : Keoladeo Ghana, Bharatpur : Rajasthan. 8. Openbill bringing in green leaves for the nest : Ranganathittoo Sanctuary, Karnataka. Plate V J, Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Krishnan : Indian Water-birds 9. Painted stork bringing Mitragyna parvifolia leaves for its nest : Keoladeo Ghana. Bharatpur, Rajasthan, 10. Grey pelican carrying rain-tree leaves to its nest : Aredu, Andhra Pradesh. NESTING MATERIALS AND NESTING SITES OF WATER-BIRDS thorny twigs. Once this outer shell is built, it is lined, or filled on the inside, with smooth, unarmed twigs, the top layers consisting even of green twigs with a few leaves attached. This is done even prior to the laying of eggs. This lining material, again, is not brought from far away but from the periphery of the breeding site, or even procured from unoccupied trees in the breeding centre. At Vedanthangal, it was noticed that the deeper nests (openbills, grey herons, large egrets) were thickly lined with the twigs of Barnngtonia acutangula , which was occasionally detached from the crowns of the nesting trees themselves, but more usually from the unoccupied trees on the periphery of the tank. The birds seem to be less choosy over this lining twigs than over the thorny twigs used for the shell of the nest. In this connection reference may be made to Bharatpur. The large cormorants nesting here build rather heavy nests of stout acacia thorns, securely wedged in the forks and crowns of the nesting trees they favour (either Acacia nilotica or Mitragyna parvifolia ), and well padded with unarmed twigs, but in one particular colony of these birds in a Mitragyna tree in the lake behind Shanti Kutir (a large tree almost entirely occupied by large cormorants), the inner lining of twigs has been largely or wholly replaced by dry grass pulled from the lake bed (Plate III, 6). I noticed spoonbills at this sanctuary also pulling drying grass off the lake bed — the bird shown in (Plate IV, 7) took nearly 7 minutes to slither down the sloping trunk of the dead- wood it had alighted on to detach a culm of grass and fly away with it. Once the eggs are hatched, green leaf (in the form of leafy twigs) is brought to the nest and used for lining it, apparently to serve as a cool- ing superstratum. Many birds at all water- bird breeding centres may be seen bringing in green leaf to the nest at this stage of their breeding enterprise (Plate IV, 8 ; Plate V, 9). While most birds bring in green leaves (largish leaves) to the nest, some, like spoonbills also bring in thalloid algae and other water plants. The green leaves have also to be found in the vicinity of the breeding site and, in addition, cannot be picked up from the ground or water as dry twigs are frequently picked up, but have to be detached from the plants, almost always along with the green twigs on which they grow. For this reason the mere availability of thorny and twiggy plants (for the earlier stages of the nest construction and subsequent replenish- ment) alone does not satisfy the requirements of nesting materials of most water-birds— green, leafy plants are also needed in the vicinity of the breeding site. At the Aredu pelicanry I noticed that while the palmyras provided effective substitutes for the lofty nesting trees in whose crowns grey pelicans nest (when not nesting in trees insula- ted by water) the search for twigs and green leaves for the nest presented a problem to the birds. They find the vast amounts of fish they need for their breeding enterprise at the Kolleru lake (less than 15 km away) and even in inundated flats nearer home, but have considerable difficulty procuring the twigs and green material they need for the nests, firmly wedged in the crowns among the flat- tened, strong stalks of the leaves. There were hatchlings in most of the nests when I was there and I found a regular crowd of pelicans at the only mesophytic tree in the neighbourhood, a rain tree ( Pithecalobium saman ), tugging away energetically at twigs from its crown, finding their stance on the thin top boughs precarious during this operation and often toppling over : on detaching a twig with leaves they took it immediately to the nest (Plate V, 10). It was noticed at Ranganathittoo that egrets, night herons, and even openbills, nesting in and near the tops of the screwpine brakes used much less green leaf for the nests than birds of the very same species nesting in more exposed locations, such as treetops. Elsewhere, too, 1151 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY , Fa/. 75 species nesting inside leafy trees, like night herons, use much less foliage for their nests than those nesting in more open locations. Apparently the green material serves mainly in providing thermal insulation and in cooling. Necessary environmental safeguards FOR EFFECTIVE CONSERVATION The main requirements of water-birds breeding gregariously may be listed as follows : 1 — Feeding grounds and food. The types of feeding grounds utilised and of the prey favoured or taken in are not detailed here. The feeding grounds may be some distance away from the breeding colony but should be protected from all forms of artificial disturbance (human disturbance). A home water is a great advantage, enabling the grown-up young to feed near their roosts. 2 — Nesting trees and other nesting sites : a grove of close-grown trees insulated by their boles being partially submerged (as by their being in a tank bed) would appear to be the most congenial : the trees may also be on islands adequately insulated by water : there may be alter- native nesting locations available as in brakes of screwpine (the tree-type screw- pine) on islands — these would be specially valuable during the replenishment of the nesting trees periodically. It is impera- tive to provide new nesting-trees as the old ones decline, the new trees to be well grown by the time the old ones die. This can be effected in more than one way and the physical features of each breeding site would condition the technique best suited to it. 3 — It is essential to provide adequate areas of natural thorny scrub also holding meso- phytic trees in the vicinity of the breeding site to assure a supply of thorny twigs, unarmed twigs and leafy material. In all water-bird sanctuaries known to me this has not been provided for. It would be interesting to experiment with the provision of detached dry twigs (as of acacia) in this nesting-material area to ascertain if the birds will accept this arti- ficial provision, but in all other ways the area reserved for nesting material must be strictly conserved, be adequate and adequately varied to suit the varied re- quirements of the nesting birds, and be fully protected. It should be fairly open scrub, to allow free access to the birds without creating any difficulties in their landings and take-off, and feature mesophytic trees at intervals, as also such shrubs. 1152 WINTERING HABITS OF THE BLUE CHAT ERITHACUS BRUNNEUS (HODGSON), IN THE NILGIRIS, SOUTHERN INDIA Mohammad Ali Reza Khan1 Introduction The Blue Chat Erithacus brunneus is a winter visitor in the Nilgiris and in other parts of the Western Ghats (Ripley 1961, Ali and Ripley 1973). During my study of the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigro - rufa, between September 1974 and September 1976, I also had occasion to observe the Blue Chats in all my study areas in Coonoor (1750 m above msl), Kotagiri (1800 m) and Ootacamund (2200 m). Hardly anything is known about it except in a general way (see Ali 1969, Ali and Ripley 1973). In this report I have described the wintering habits of this Himalayan species. Methods and Materials As the Blue Chats are not shy birds I could easily follow them from close quarters even without the binoculars. One single male Blue Chat was followed over 15 days when it was under direct observation for 5 hours a day. A couple of them was mist-netted and banded with the numbered aluminium rings of the Bombay Natural History Society. An esti- mate of population was made in the Government Botanical Garden (Ootacamund) and environs (c 25 h) ; Sims’ Park and environs (c 15 h)., Forest Lodge Shola and environs ( c 10 h) and Hebron School Shola (c 3 h), all within Coonoor 1 Research Fellow, Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay-400 023. Present Address : Asst. Professor in Zoology, University of Dacca, Dacca-2, Bangladesh. municipal limits. The individuals were counted directly. Counting was not difficult as I visited all these plots frequently and regularly and the birds seemed to be parochial. No attempt was made to collect specimens for the purpose of stomach analysis and no insects were col- lected for identification. A pair of 10 x 50 binoculars was often used. Results and Discussion Arrival and Departure Like the Grey Wagtail Motacilla caspica, the Blue Chat is one of the earliest migrants to arrive and among the last to depart from the Nilgiris. In Coonoor and Ootacamund (Ooty) I noted 15 birds in mid-September. By the middle of October almost every other hedge or bush, be it along residential quarters, in gardens, or in the sholas (Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forests of Champion and Seth 1968) were occupied by an individual. From October to April end the Blue Chat is one of the commonest species. The northward migration possibly starts by April. All 12 birds in 1974-1975 and 15 in 1975-1976 in my study plots at Coonoor and Ooty were noticed to the middle of April. By the first week of May none were seen in any part of the Nilgiris. The birds which were banded in Nov. 1974 were not sighted again nor was there a re- covery of the rings. The Blue Chats had arrived singly and possibly departed singly too. There was no sudden influx or disappearance in any particular area. 1153 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , Vel. 15 Habitat, Status and Population The Blue Chat occupied all available under- growth irrespective of the type of cover. The undergrowths of the sholas, eucalyptus planta- tion, bushes along perennial streams, and amongst tea fields, road-side thickets of Rubus , Lantana , Solatium , Cestrum aurantiacum etc., are their favourite haunts. The habitat preference seemed to be almost exclusive. They preferred places which were almost un- occupied by the resident species excepting the Rufousbellied Shortwing Brachypteryx major and the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher. The shortwing is a bird of the thickest part of the jungle and is more secretive than the Blue Chat. The flycatcher is not terrestrial like the Blue Chat. Thus the chat did not perceptibly compete with it for the habitat. The Blue Chat can be considered as one of the commonest species during winter in the upper plateaux of the Nilgiris and other southern Indian hills like the Biligirirangans in Karnataka, the Nelliampathies, High Range and Cardamom Hills in Kerala, the Anaimalais, the Palnis, the High Wavy Mountains, Agastyarmalai and the Ashambu Hills in Tamil Nadu, falling within the Western Ghats, usually above 1000 m. In the Nilgiris I never saw it below 800 m, though I came across it twice around 200 m on my way to Agastyarmalai. It always occurred singly. The result of population count shows four birds in the Botanical Garden (almost devoid of undergrowth), 6 in Sims’ Park, 7 in the Forest Lodge Shola and 3 in the Hebron School Shola. On the average 2.65 hectares supported one Blue Chat. In abundance this species was next to Phylloscopus spp. and Acrocephalus dumetorum among the migrants, and Pycnonotus jocosus and Hypsipetes spp., Zosterops palpebrosa and Prinia socialis among the residents. Sex Ratio The peculiar ratio of the sexes is a point of particular interest in this species. Out of 20 birds observed in the study plots only one was female and the rest all males (by plumage). The few birds I trapped turned out to be males too. In two years I came across over one hundred birds in the Nilgiris, excluding those only heard, of which only two were females by plumage. The Blue Chats are sexually dimorphic when adult and the plumages are unmistakable. Although they lived in deep shade it was easy to approach and watch at close quarters. The only likely reason for the sighting of more males is that the sexes do not move together and that the females winter elsewhere. This needs further study. Parochiality and Territoriality I do not know if the Blue Chats are parochial in their winter quarters everywhere. But in the Nilgiris each male invariably remained in one particular area throughout the winter months. They had hardly moved out of their preferred shrubbery during the whole period of their stay. Apparently they were also territorial. Two birds were hardly ever found in close proximity. In two cases I saw a male intruding into the territory of another and being chased off by the territory owner. They did not per- form elaborate agonistic displays and merely rushed at the intruders with tuck-tuck notes and twitching the stumpy tail up and down. The Blue Chats were hostile towards the Black-and-Orange flycatcher when the latter came within one metre or so on the ground. They did not chase when this flycatcher was off the ground. Price (1933) and Lack (1953) have recorded defending of winter terri- tories in American and European Robins, respectively. Food and Feeding Habits All food materials were collected by the birds from the ground. I observed them collecting earthworms and large number of caterpillars 1154 WINTERING HABITS OF THE BLUE CHAT and larvae in addition to insects settled on the thickish leaf litter. On the feeding ground the Blue Chats com- peted for food with the Rufousebellied Short- wing, Blackbird Turdus merula , Nilgiri Thrush Zoothera dauma, Magpie-Robin Copsychus saularis , Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher Muscicapa tickelliae and the Black-and-Orange flycatcher. Competition for food did not appear to be strong with any of these. The blue chats usually avoided all these species except the last which they always chased. In November 1974 I was observing a single male Blue Chat in a small plot of some 10 x 3 m, in the Sims’ Park, Coonoor. There was a male Black-and-Orange Flycatcher in that bush too. These two were the only occupants of the shrubbery although many others used it as their occasional feeding and resting place. The shrubbery was composed of Cestrum aurantia - cum and a few Ipomea , Passiflora and Callitris Here the chat foraged regularly and systemati. cally from one end of the bushy patch to the other. The process was repeated throughout the day except during the siesta mentioned below. The chats neither turned over dead leaves nor scratched the ground for food as is the usual practice with babblers and the Blackbird. Sometimes they collected food at the same spot for several minutes at a stretch. They preferred the edges of their territory for this activity. In the Botanical Garden they were often seen along the base of the ornamental hedge plants collecting food from the ploughed up soil. Sometimes they hopped out into the open for an insect. General Habits Ali and Ripley (1973) have summarized the habits of the Blue Chat. The bird is not shy, and if one remains quiet it can be observed even from a metre distance. In the Botanical Garden they were often seen along main path- ways oblivious of the traffic. They spend most of their time on the ground and usually live within a metre or so of it and are partial to sheltered streamlets and drains. At least thrice a day they take rest, at c 0800, at 1100 and c 1500 hrs. At the time of rest the birds perch half a metre or so above the ground and preen their feathers thoroughly. This activity is often interrupted by the tuck-tuck call- notes and short whistles, and tail twitching. They also produce several low, soft and melancholy notes almost like a soliloquy. The rest period lasts for about five minutes after which the birds descend to the ground and resume forag- ing. Similar soliloquizing is performed by the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher and the Rufous- bellied Shortwing during the rest period. No published literature mentions it. The Blue Chats under observation became active at c 0615 hrs. Their first activity was a vigorous preening and soliloquizing. They retired at c 1830 hrs. spending almost 12 hours of the day in collecting food and in other daily chores. Roosting was always in the same shrubbery and usually at the same spot. I have noticed heavy droppings under such roosts. They prefer the thickest part of a bush for roost- ing and usually within a metre off the ground. They do not allow the Black-and-Orange Fly- catcher to roost near them (Khan 1977). I have not noticed the Blue Chats join other birds in mobbing predators. At the sight of a preda- tor they quickly withdraw inside the bush. Song and Call -Notes On arrival in the Nilgiris the birds had a loud quick-quick-quick etc., song (Magrath in Ali and Ripley 1973). A few of the early arrivals (3 out of 20 birds observed) retained this song. Towards the end of March and in April, many again developed this song before departing for the breeding quarters. In winter months the Blue Chats are quite vocal although their voice is feeble and in my 1155 JOURNAL > BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY \ To/. 75 estimation they rank next to Blyth’s Reed Warbler. Their normal and characteristic call- note is tuck-tuck described by earlier authors as an alarm note. This note is sometimes followed by a whistling twitch-fweech somewhat similar to tui or twee of the Black-and-Orange Flycatcher (Khan, loc. cit.). Like the Rufous- bellied Shortwings and the Black-and-Orange Flycatchers, the Blue Chats are more often heard than seen. The habitat preference, ratio of the sexes, pattern of arrival and departure, and relation- Ali, Salim (1969) : Birds of Kerala. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Bombay & London. AND Ripley, S. D. (1973) : Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. Vol. 8. Oxford University Press, Bombay and London. Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. K. (1968) : A revised survey of the forest types of India. Government of India, Delhi. Khan, M. A. R. (1977) : Ecological Problems relat- ship with the resident birds could be good subjects for further study. Acknowledgements I am thankful to Dr. Salim Ali for his con- stant interest and helpful criticism during the preparation of the paper, and to Dr. Robert B. Grubh, Assistant Curator, BNHS, for reading through the manuscript. ENCBS ing to birds. Ecology and behaviour of the Black- and-Orange Flycatcher Muscicapa nigrorufa (Jerdon). Ph.D. Thesis submitted to the University of Bombay. Lack, David (1953) : The Life of the Robin. Rev. edn., Penguin Books, London. Price, J. B. (1933) : Winter behaviour of two semi- albino Western Robins. Condor 35 : 52-54. Ripley, S. D. (1961) : A Synopsis of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Bombay Natural History Society, India. 1156 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ECOLOGY OF INDIAN PIED MYNA, S TURN US CONTRA CONTRA LINNAEUS M. L. Narang, A. K. Tyagi and B. S. Lamba1 {With two plates and a text-figure) Introduction Birds play an important role in relation to agriculture. Many land birds feed on insects including insect pests of agriculture and horti- culture. But they also feed on cereal grains, fruits and fishes. Thus the evaluation of their exact role as beneficial or harmful to the farmer becomes all the more important. Mynas and starlings are generally considered to be friends of the farmer. These birds are known to feed on agricultural pests such as grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, ants, cutworms and caterpillars. Like many other species they too feed on cereal grains and fruits. A study of the food and feeding habits and breed- ing biology of the Indian Pied Myna Stumus contra contra Linnaeus (Sturnidae) was under- taken to assess the exact role played by the bird in agriculture. The pied myna is one of the commonest species of birds in northern and eastern India. Local and patchy in distribution, it is found upto c 700 m in the foothills. This species is sociable, predominantly insectivorous, and ground feeding. It is found in noisy squabbling flocks when not paired off for breeding, commonly in association with other mynas. It affects villages and human habitations. Its favourite feeding sites are damp grazing grounds, banks of ponds and tanks, sewage farms and municipal refuse dump. 1 Zoological Survey of India, Northern Circle, Dehra Dun. Study area Physiography : Studies on food and feeding habits and breeding biology of Indian Pied Myna were carried out during the years 1974-76 and early 1977 in and around the city of Dehra Dun, situated at an altitude of 650 m and located in the Doon Valley in the northern part of Uttar Pradesh at 78°2' E. longitude and 30°20' N. latitude. The valley is surrounded by the Himalayas on the north-east and by Siwalik hill ranges on south-west and bounded by the rivers Jamuna and Ganga on the north-west and south-east (Fig 1). The valley is covered by deciduous forests and scrub in the Sub-Himalayas and Siwalik foot-hills. Major part of the valley is culti- vated. The flora around the city of Dehra Dun furnishes a long list of plants including shrubs and timber trees. Prominent among the latter are : Sal Shorea robusta , Sheesham Dalbergia sissoo , Cheer Pirns longifolia , Khyr Acacia katechu , Siris Acacia serissa , Sain Dentaptera tomentosa and Silver Oak Grevillea robusta. Among the shrubs Lantana sp. and Zizyphus spp. are common. Climate : The climate of Dehra Dun differs from that of the plains of northern India. The tempera- ture is slightly lower because of its elevation and the forest range of Siwaliks partly blocks off and cools the scorching winds that blow during 14 1157: 30° 20 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 * DEHRADUN Vill. Bad Ki pur £* v Gorakhpur Collecting area © Fig. 1. Map of Dehra Dun & vicinity. 1158 TEHRI GARH WA L ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA the hot weather in the north Indian plains in summer. Being located in the valley, it is pro- tected by Mussoorie hills from cold Himalayan winds during winter. The average of mean minimum annual temperature of this area ranges between 3°C (December) and 22.5°C (July) and the mean maximum between 19.1°C (January) and 30°C (June). Seasons : A year at Dehra Dun may be divided climati- cally into three main seasons. The cold season begins from November when the average minimum temperature drops to about 6°C and extends to February when the average minimum temperature is 5.7°C, December being the coldest month with the mercury dropping as low as 2.7°C at times. The hot season may be said to begin from the middle of March when the average maximum temperature shoots upto 26.2°C. The rise in temperature continues, reaching its maximum in mid June when the average maximum tem- perature rises to 35.2°C. Thus May and June are the hottest months in Dehra Dun. With the onset of rains by June end/early July the temperature starts falling again. The wet season is ushered in by south-west monsoon by the later half of June and it conti- nues upto September. July and August being the months of heaviest rainfall. Rainfall : The south-west monsoon is the chief source of rains in Dehra Dun though some rainfall usually occurs almost throughout the year. The monsoon breaks over Dehra Dun by the later half of June, is at its heaviest during July and August and gradually tapers in September. July has the maximum rainfall sometimes hav- ing as much as 729.4 mm of rains. November is a dry month. In winter also (December to February) on an average 43 mm of rainfall occurs in Dehra Dun. The average annual rainfall for the last fifteen years as recorded by the Forest Influences Section of Forest Research Institute and Colleges, Dehra Dun is 2058.5 mm. Monthly mean rainfall for the years 1974-1976 is given in Table 1. Humidity : The city of Dehra Dun being enclosed by Himalayas on one side and Siwalik on the other. It has dense vegetation. The area attracts heavy rains. All this adds to increase the relative humidity which is considerable throughout the year reaching its maximum during summer and winter rains. During winter rains it may reach to a maximum of 97 %. April and May are the driest months. The monthly mean relative humidity for the years 1974-1976 is given in Table 2. Temperature : The monthly mean minimum of daily tempera- ture ranges from 2.7°C in December to 23.3°C in July, while the mean of daily maximum ranges from 17.7°C in January to 36.9°C in May. The monthly mean temperature is the lowest in December. It rises steadily thereafter until the maximum is reached in June. The daily range of temperature is least during the months of July and August (about 6-8°C) while in winter season it is generally large (about 13-15°C). The monthly mean minimum and maximum temperature for the years 1974-76 are tabulated in Tables 3 and 4. Period of Sunshine : The monthly mean of hours of bright sun- shine ranges from 3.9 hrs to 10.8 hrs. July being the monsoon month has the lowest hours of bright sunshine. (Table 5). 1159 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 Table 1 Monthly mean rainfall (in mm) for the years 1974-1976 Months Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. 1974 52.9 20.6 5.4 8.0 40.5 78.4 729.4 452.5 47.5 26.3 0.0 67.8 1975 71.1 67.1 119.2 0.0 21.4 380.1 430.8 487.7 428.2 48.8 0.0 0.0 1976 26.5 72.2 21.5 10.1 39.0 129.2 669.7 556.2 106.1 4.3 0.0 1.6 Table 2 Monthly mean relative humidity (in per cent) for the period 1974-1976 Months x ecu a Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. 1974 95 91 85 72 60 73 90 93 90 89 90 92 1975 93 93 88 73 62 74 90 93 93 91 95 96 1976 96 94 90 79 68 74 90 95 94 92 95 97 Table 3 Monthly mean minimum temperature (in °C) for the years 1974-76 Years Months Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. 1974 4.4 5.0 10.8 14.9 17.8 21.2 22.5 22.6 19.9 13.9 6.1 4.0 1975 4.6 6.0 9.3 13.3 17.0 20.8 21.7 22.0 20.2 15.2 5.4 2.7 1976 4.2 6.2 8.8 12.5 16.5 20.8 23.3 22.1 20.2 13.1 8.5 3.0 Table 4 Monthly mean maximum temperature (in °C) for the years 1974-1976 Months Years Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. 1974 19.8 20.9 27.9 34.3 36.6 35.2 30.6 30.0 30.7 28.8 25.7 19.2 1975 17.7 20.6 25.7 33.3 36.9 33.9 30.0 29.8 28.6 28.7 24.1 21.1 1976 19.7 20.1 25.0 31.4 34.5 33.6 30.7 28.9 29.8 29.0 25.8 21.8 1160 ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA Table 5 Monthly mean of hours of bright sunshine per day Years Months Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. 1974 7.4 7.5 8.4 10.1 9.7 8.1 5.3 5.7 8.8 8.7 9.3 5.7 1975 5.6 7.7 8.4 9.9 10.8 7.4 5.5 4.6 5.3 8.9 9.4 8.1 1976 6.0 6.2 7.6 9.1 10. 1 8.8 3.9 4.5 7.7 10.0 8.2 8.2 PART I Food and Feeding Habits Introduction Our present day knowledge of food of Indian birds is largely based on the findings of Mason and Maxwell- Lefroy (1912). They analysed the food of 110 species of birds collected at Pusa, Bihar. Their findings added valuable information on the food of birds in India. D’Abreu (1918) studied the food of birds in the Central Provinces. Husain and Bhalla (1937) studied the food of 93 species of birds of Lyallpur. Beresford (1944) and, Simwat and Sidhu (1974, 1975) also added to our know- ledge of the subject. All these workers have made a qualitative assessment of food of birds. Mukherjee (1969-76) was perhaps the first in India to make a quantitative assessment of the food of birds. Material and Method Birds were collected, mostly with a 12 bore double barrel shot gun using Nos 6-9 shots, from cultivated fields and scrub around the village of Badripur and Gorakhpur near Defence Colony on Haridwar road and culti- vated areas around Sahaspur on Chakrata road. Most of the specimen were collected bet- ween 08.30 hrs and 10.30 hrs during summer and between 09.00 hrs and 11,00 hrs during winter. The specimens thus collected were labelled in the field and brought to the labora- tory packed individually in polythene bags. Material which was to be examined after 24 hrs was preserved in 5 % formalin. The crops and gizzards were then opened and the contents put in screen sieves, washed with water and then placed on a blotting paper and dried in an oven at 30°C for five minutes. The animal and vegetable matter was broadly separated into phyla and classes and weight and volume was recorded on individual data sheets. An electronic single Pan Balance, accurate to 0.001 gms, was used to weigh the samples. A gra- duated measuring cylinder true to 0.1 ml was used for measuring the volume. Examples of animal diet were identified in the laboratories of Zoological Survey of India whereas plant materials were determined by Botanical Survey of India. Some insect larvae were identified at the Forest Research Institute and Colleges. Identification of a few insects were confirmed by British Museum (N. H.), London. Three methods have been used by various workers to determine the food of birds quanti- tatively, namely, numerical, gravimetric and volumetric methods. As the objective of our study was to establish the status of this species as beneficial or harm- 1161 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST SOCIETY, Vol. 75 ful to the farmer, we opted for a combination of the known methods. For analysing the animal diet we used a combination of numerical and volumetric methods. The advantage was, if we were to determine the economic status of any item of animal diet, especially insects, we must know its size to determine the extent of its involvement. A combination of numerical and gravimetric methods was followed for analysing the veget- able diet. Some workers have suggested the examination of whole digestive track but this method seems to give more importance to foods which are hard enough to resist digestion. We have examined the contents of crops and gizzards only as the food articles retain recognisable shape only upto the gizzard. Observations The results of our study suggest that the Pied Myna does not go for any specialised diet but feeds upon a variety of food which is seaso- nally abundant and hence easy to obtain. A year round record of the food taken by the bird during the study period is presented in Table 6- Table 6 Seasonal food preference Month January February March April May June July August September October November December Food . . Caterpillars (unidentified), grubs (unidentified), ants ( Pheidole sp.), wheat (( Tritium aestixum L.), Molluscs {Kaliella sp., Digoniostoma sp.), beetles ( Oxytelus sp. Rhyscdes sp.), teimites ( Odontotermes sp.). . . Bugs (Eusarcocoris sp.), grasshopper fragments, caterpillars, termites ( Odontotermes sp.), molluscs [Kaliella sp., Indoplanorbis sp., Digoniostoma pulchella (Ben sen)], beetles ( Tanymecus sp., Drasterius sp., Rhysodes sp.), ticks [. Boophilus microplus (Canestrini)]. . . Caterpillars (unidentified), beetles ( Oxytelus sp., Rhysodes sp.), molluscs {Indoplanorbis sp., Macrochlamys sp.), crickets {Gryllus sp.). . . Beetles {Rhysodes sp., Oxytelus sp., Coccinella sp., Anadastus sp.), bugs {Cydnus indicus West.), ants {Pheidole sp.), grubs (Unidentified), molluscs {Macrochlamys sp.). . . Termites {Odontotermes sp.), gastropods {Opeas gracilis Hutton), caterpillars (unidentified), grubs (unidentified), beetles {Coccinella sp. Rhysodes sp.), Mole Crickets {Gryllotalpa sp.) . . Ants {Aphaenogaster sp.), grasshoppers {Chrotogonus sp., Acrydium sp.), grubs (unidentified), Cockroaches {Periplanata sp.), bugs {Aeschrocoris sp.), flower parts of silver oak {Grexillea robusta Cam.), beetles {Scleron sp.). . . Berries of Banyan and Peepal {Ficus benghalensis L. & Ficus religiosa L.), wild seeds (unidenti- fied), seeds of Jamun [Syzygium cumini (L.)], ants {Pheidole sp.), beetles {Bembidion sp.). .. Earthworms [ Eutyphoeus waltoni (Michaelson), Eutyphoeus orientalis (Beddard)], frogs [Bufo melanostictus Schneider, Microhyla ornata (Dumeril & Bibron)], Beetles {Coccinella sp., Lyprops sp., Crioceris sp.), earwigs (Partially digested), grubs (unidentified). . . Earthworms [. Eutyphoeus orientalis (Beddard)], molluscs {Macrochlamys sp.), beetles [Anadastus bifasciatus (Mots.), Anthracophora crucifera Oliv., Syncalypta curimoides Champ., Crioceris sp.)], grubs. . . Lantana berries {Lantana camara L.), bees and wasps {Apis dorsata Fabr., Vespa basalis Smith) termites {Odontotermes sp.), flies {Musca domestica Linn.). . . Wheat {Triticum aestivum L.), Lantana berries, termites, ants {Dorylus orientalis Westwood), beetles {Aphodius sp., Onthophagus sp.). . . Grubs, flies {Musca domestica Linn., Drosophilia sp.), wheat, ants and beetles {Aphodius sp.). A volumetric and gravimetric analysis of food found in the crops is given in Table 7— A & B, 1162 ECOLOG Y OF THE INDIAN FIED MYNA Table 7-A Vegetable Diet Items of diet No. Wt. (gm) % wt. Remarks Family : Malvaceae Hibiscus esculentes 1 1.50 37 Family : Myrtaceae Syzygium cumini (L.) Family : Solanaceae 2 1.10 34 Endocarp only Solanum tuberosum L. 1 91 mgm 50 Family : Verbanaceae Lantana camara L. 21 2.40 100 Berries Family : Proteaceae Grevillea robusta Cam. 6 21 mgm 10 Flower parts Family : Moraceae Ficus b eng hale nsis L. 3 17 mgm 8 Seeds Ficus religiosa L. Family : Gramineae 2 23 mgm 13 Seeds Triticum aestivum L. 6 83 mgm 28 Germinating seeds MISCELLANEOUS Gramineae seeds 3 Unidentified Unidentified seeds 3 1.80 100 -do- Misc. vegetable matter -do- Table 7-B Animal Diet Items of diet No. Vol. (ml.) % Vol. Remarks Phylum ; Chordata Class : Amphibia Order : Salientia Family : Microhylidae Microhyla ornata (Dumeril & Bibron) Family : Bufonidae 1 0.6 ml 30 Adults Bufo melanostictus Schneider 1 0.7 ml 28 -do- Phylum ; Annelida Class: Oligochaeta Order : Terricolae Family : Megascolecidae Eutyphoeus waltoni (Michaelson) 2 1.9 86 Mostly in parts E. orientals (Beddard) 5 0.8 ml 73 -do- 1163 JOURNAL , BOMBA Y NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol 75 Table 7-B -\Contd.) Animal Diet Items of diet No. Vol. (ml) % Vol. Remarks Phylum ; Mollusca Class : Gastropoda Order : Stylommatophora Family : Ariophantidae Maci ochlamys sp. 6 0.2 ml 12 Complete and broken shells Kaliella sp. Family : Subulinidae Opeas gracilis Hutton Order : Megagastropoda Family : Aninicolidae Digoniostoma sp. . . 5 3 4 0.1 ml 8 Complete shells Complete shells Complete & partially broken shells D. pulchella Order : Basommatophora Family : Lymnaeidae 9 0.4 ml 57 -do- Indoplanorbis exustus (Deshayes) Misc. Mollusca (Fragments of shells) Phylum ; Arthropoda Class: In sect a Order : Orthoptera 5 0.2 ml 25 Complete & broken shells Not identifiable Family : Tetrigidae Acrydium sp. 3 0.2 ml 8 Partially digested Family : Gryllidae Gryllus sp. Family : Gryllotalpidae 2 0.4 ml 27 Destroys clothes, paper, fruit etc. Gryllotalpa sp. Family : Acrididae 5 1.2 59 Partially digested. Damages roots of crops. Chrotogonus sp. Misc. Grasshoppers (fragments) Order : Dermaptera 3 0.9 ml 29 Partially digested. Pest of paddy, jowar etc. Not identifiable. Family : Labiduridae Order : Dictyoptera 5 0.4 ml 21 Parts of earwigs. Family : Blattidae Periplaneta sp. Order : Isoptera Family : Termitidae 6 0.7 ml 60 Parts of cockroaches. Pest. Odontotermes sp. . . . . 8 0.1 ml 15 Partially digested. 1164 bcoioo f of rm in dun pied myna Items of diet No. Vol. (ml) % Vol. Remarks Order : Hemiptera Family : Pentatomidae Aeschrocoris sp. 3 0.2 ml 5 Eusarcocoris ventralis West. 2 0.9 ml 30 Cydnus indicus West. 4 0.2 ml 16 Family : Membracidae Oxyrhachis taranda (Fabr.) . . 2 0.1 ml 9 Pest on citrus and mango trees. Order : Diptera Family : Muscidae Musca domestica Linn. 3 0.2 ml 7 Carriers of germs of various Family : Drosophilidae Drosophila sp. 2 0.2 ml 6 diseases. Family : Ephydridae Misc. Flies (Fragments) Order : Hymenoptera Family : Apidae 1 Partially digested identified upto family level. Not identifiable. Apis dorsata Fabricius 2 0.3 ml 23 Helps in pollination. Family : Vespidae Vespa basalis Smith 2 0.5 ml 24 Family : Formicidae Pheidole sp. . . 7 0.3 ml 100 Pest of wheat, paddy etc. Aphaenogaster baccari Emery Dorylus orientalis Westwood Family : Chalcidae Misc. Ants, Bees, Wasps (Fragments) Order : Odonata Family : Libellulidae Tramea verginia (Rambur) 5 3 1 2 0.5 ml 16 Pest of plants and trees. Partially digested, identified upto family level. Not identifiable. Naiads. Order : Coleoptera Family : Languriidae Anadastus bifasciatus (Mots.) 7 0.2 ml 13 Family : Rhysodidae Rhysodes boy si Arrow 11 0.6 ml 21 Family : Limnichidae Platypelochares latimargo Champ. 3 0.3 ml 11 Family : Byrrhidae Syncatypta curimoides Champ. 6 0.4 ml 17 Family : Coccinelidae Coccinela sp. 6 0.2 ml 23 Pest of leaves of family Cucurbi- taceae. JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , 75 Table 7-B— -(Gmfrf.) Animal Diet Items of diet No. Vol. (ml) % Vol. Remarks Family : Curculionidae Tanymecus sp. 5 0.5 ml 17 Adults injurious to leaves of Family : Carabidae Bembidion sp. 3 0.4 ml 12 low growing plants. Larvae are root feeders. Pest of corn and strawberries. Family : Tenebrionidae Anthracophora crucifera Oliv. 2 0.4 ml 29 Scleron sp. 2 0.1 ml 14 Pest of tobacco. Gonocephalum sp. t , 4 0.3 ml 23 Injurious to seeds of Shorea Lyprops sp. 5 0.4 ml 19 robusta and damages roots of sugarcane, coffee,tobacco etc. Opatroides sp. 3 0.2 ml 17 Family : Staphylinidae Oxytelus ( Anotylus ) 7 0.3 ml 25 Carnivorous. Reported andrewesi Cameron Philonthus sp. . . . • 2 0.2 ml 18 devouring ants. Family : Scarabeidae Aphodius sp. . . . . 6 0.2 ml 45 Onthophagus sp. . . 5 0.4 ml 67 Family : Elateridae Drasterius sp. 9 0.1ml 21 Pest of potato. Family : Chrysomelidae Crioceris sp. 9 0.2 ml 17 Partially digested. Order : Lepidoptera Caterpillars 18 1 60 Not identified. miscellaneous Grubs 16 0.9 ml 69 Not identifiable. Insect fragments Class: Arachnida Order : Acarina Family : Ixodidae Boophilus microplus (Canestrini) Hyalomma anatolicum Koch. Order : Araneida Spider •• 3 2 1 -do- Ectoparasite on cattle and causes the disease Anaplasmosis. -do- Not identifiable. No. Number of birds which had taken the item. Wt. Maximum wt. (in gms) of item of diet found in any single specimen. Vol. Maximum volume (in ml) of item of diet found in any single specimen. %Wt : Maximum percentage of food item by wt. found in any single specimen. %Vol : Maximum percentage of food item by vol. found in any single specimen. 1166 ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA Conclusion Judging from an analysis of the gut contents we find that these birds mostly feed on insects, lantana berries, molluscs, earthworms and wild seeds. Only a few birds have taken seeds of wheat during the sowing season. Out of 137 birds collected, only six have taken wheat. During the harvesting season none of the specimens had taken wheat or any other grain. This apparently suggests that Pied Myna does not prefer wheat but during sowing season, while taking insects from fields, some wheat seeds are also taken. On the other hand these birds took a heavy toll of insects some of which are injurious to agriculture. A few birds have consumed ticks which are ectoparasites on mammals and cause diseases such as anaplas- mosis. Earthworms bring organic matter above the surface of earth and make the soil more fertile. During the rainy season this bird may be said to cause some harm to farmers by feeding on earthworms. However we can safely conclude that the Indian Pied Myna is much more beneficial than harmful to agriculture. PART II Breeding Biology Introduction Our present day knowledge of the breeding biology of the Indian Pied Myna remains restricted mainly to the topics dealt with by Jerdon (1862-64), Hume (1873, 1889-1890) and Baker (1933). Very little has been added to it in spite of the fact that a number of workers (Cripps 1878 ; Ried 1881, 1887 ; Barnes 1890, Inglis 1901, 1910 ; Osmaston 1913 ; Whistler 1919 ; Field 1922 ; Gill 1922 ; Briggs 1934 ; Ara 1954 ; to cite a few) have written on one or the other aspect of the breeding habits of this bird. Material and Method Most of the observations for this study were made in the field through 6 x 30 prismatic field binoculars. Observations were started before the flocks disintegrated into pairs. Before and during the nest building stage the sexes, wherever necessary, were determined by actual examination of the gonads after killing the bird. After the construction of the nest one (and in some cases both) of the occupants was captured with mist nets and ringed with coloured plastic rings for visual recognition. The process of nest construction was watched from a safe distance from behind a stout tree/ bush or from within a parked vehicle. The material used for nest construction and dimen- sions of the nest were recorded from a few nests brought to the laboratory for the purpose. Soon after the start of nest construction regular daily examination of the nest was made by climbing upto it. Occasionally light bamboo ladders (6 to 8 metres) were used for the purpose. Nests situated on very thin branches were examined with the help of small boys who would communicate or lower the contents in a small tin container for taking notes, measurements and weights. The con- tents were then replaced intact. During the laying and hatching periods a number of selected nests were observed daily between 0530-0730 hrs, 0930-1230 hrs and 1630 to 1830 hrs for certain specific obser- vations. Extra but irregular visits were made at night, dawn and dusk. 1167 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 Eggs for incubational studies were marked with indelible India ink. For recording des- cription and measurements, eggs from certain deserted nests and nests that are difficult to approach for regular observations, were brought to the laboratory. A pair of vernier callipers was used to take measurements in milimetres. An electronic single-pan balance true to 0.001 g was used to record the weight of eggs. The colour of the shell was determined by com- parison with ‘ Methuen handbook of colour ’. Successive eggs of a selected number of clutches were measured and weighed in the field. In a few selected nests the freshly hatched nestlings were banded with coloured plastic bands for studying growth rate and behaviour patterns. Single-pan electronic balance was used for taking weights of the nestlings. Grown up nestlings were put in cloth bags for weighing. For certain specific studies like growth of feathers etc. some nestlings were brought to the laboratory. Such nestlings were killed to deter- mine the type of food on which they were being fed. All the nest life studies were made visually by climbing upto the nest or through a pair of 6 x 30 prismatic binoculars from a distance. The photographs of nests, eggs, nestlings etc, were taken with an Asahi Pentax Camera with a normal 50 mm/F 1.2 lens and a 500 m/F 8 lens. The map of the study area was obtained from Survey of India, Dehra Dun and data on the weather conditions, from Forest Research Institute and Colleges, Dehra Dun. Breeding Season The Indian Pied Myna does not breed round the year. At Dehra Dun it was observed to have a single breeding season of about six months from late February to end of August. In the years of prolonged winter rains the commencement of breeding season may oe de- layed upto March or even April. In 1975 when rainfall in 2nd half of February was normal the breeding activity i.e. pair formation etc. star- ted normally, i.e. by February end. But on account of sudden increase of winter rains in March (119.2 mm) further progress in breeding activity i.e. nest construction etc. was arrested till the rains slowed down by the end of March. In 1976, on the other hand, the rainfall in the later half or February was much more. As a result the breeding activity i.e. pair formation etc. did not start till the end of March. The breeding activity however, lasted till end of August during both the years 1975 and 1976. Apparently the rainfall does interfere with breeding. In the year 1977 when the rainfall was much more than normal in July, a second brood was not raised although some nest repairing activity was noticed. The extension of the winter rains also retards the commence- ment of breeding activity in this species. It will, however, be not wise to attribute the delay in the commencement of breeding to any one climatological factor alone. For a detailed discussion on this topic please see Lamba (1977 : 265-266). Maximum number of nests under construc- tion were observed from March end to early May. Most nests with eggs were met with during April-May and most nests with nestlings were noticed from April end to early June. Some of the early breeders go in for a second brood also. Largest number of second clutches was found during later half of June to later half of July. The nestling from these second broods left the nests by end of August. Pair formation : With the commencement of breeding season the large flocks usually seen feeding and roosting in winter, start thinning out. Partners are sought out and courted. The factors involved in the selection of a partner were not ascertained. Pairs once formed re- 1168 ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA mained together for the total duration of the breeding season. In three out of four cases where one of the partners was shot or died when the nest was active another partner was acquired. Once when a male was eliminated after the 1st brood had been successfully raised the female acquired another male and raised a second brood in the same nest. In another case where the female was eliminated after the 1st brood the male deserted the nest and left the area. Mating : Copulation takes place either on the ground or in the branches of trees. Courtship includes feeding together. During courtship display the male puffs up its feathers and bobs its head up and down a couple of times. Copulation may or may not take place im- mediately after a spell of courtship display. The frequency of copulation is the highest, four times in 6 hours in one instance, when the egg chamber is being constructed. The fre- quency of copulation decreases as the clutch is being laid and ceases completely after the female starts incubating during the day time. The second peak of copulation activity is reached when the nest is being repaired and reshaped for raising the second brood. Territory The male occupies his territory early in the breeding season. The territory seems to be announced by mere presence of the male as no distinctive song or display was noticed. The territory is defended by the owner (male) against all males of the species. All females are welcome till the pair formation takes place. After the pair formation the territory is defended by both the partners against all others of the species who may attempt construction of nest in the same nesting tree. A straggler or an occasional visitor may not be pounced upon. Occasionally, if the tree is very large with spreading branches, another pair or two may be tolerated to build in the same tree. The occurrence of half a dozen nests in a single tree has been recorded by Baker (1933). Distances between various nests were mea- sured in a guava and mango garden of about 4000 sq. metres. Fourteen nests were found placed at distances varying from 14 to 100 metres from each other. The Pied Myna defends its territory by threat display and actual combat. The threat display consists of puffing up of the body feathers, especially of the neck region and emitting loud calls with beak open and the neck extended. Normally the threat display is sufficient to frighten the intruders into retreat. If this fails an attack is launched by running or flying up to the intruder. The beak is used as an organ of offence. A number of sparring bouts may occur. The weaker of the two may lie flat on the back and try to use the claws also for defence. When threatened by a common enemy like a raptor or a snake, some sort of community defence comes into play. In such an event some or all of the neighbouring pairs and even visitors may join hands in response to loud warning calls given out by the bird first to spot the danger. When faced with a large raptor who refuses to be frightened by the noise or ineffective attacks, the birds calm down after a number of attempts and occupy the neighbouring trees only to launch another attack as soon as the raptor leaves its perch. Nest Construction Site : Apparently the nest site is selected by mutual consent, after the pair formation, inside the territory already occupied by the male. The original site may often be given up in preference to another probably moie suitable one. This may happen even after the commencement of nest construction. JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST SOCIETY , Ko/. 75 Generally thin vertical forks in large trees like, mango, banyan, peepal, kathal, guava and sheesham are preferred to place the nests in, at about 5-15 metres high above the ground. Occasionally cross-bars on telegraph poles may be used for the purpose, especially in areas where large trees are wanting. The birds may take their own time in making the final selection of the nesting site. As many as 10 to 15 days may elapse after the pair for- mation before undertaking the actual const- ruction of the nest. Nesting material : Thin and pliable twigs, stems of small plants, grass stems, stems of creepers and twiners, strings, rags, pieces of paper, discarded cello- phane wrappers, polythene bags and similar sundry materials are collected from under the trees, hedges, waste land, garbage cans etc. from the territory and adjoining human habitat, for the construction of the outer dome. The inside of the dome or the egg chamber is lined with similar but softer materials. Occasionally human or horse hair may also be included in the lining of the egg chamber. Both sexes gather materials for and take part in the construction of the nest. The female puts in more effort than the male who generally helps in the collection of the material leaving most of the construction work to the female. The female keeps to the vicinity of the nest even when searching for nesting material. When the nest is well under way the female’s material hunting trips are greatly reduced. She keeps on working in the nest while male keeps her supplied with requisite material. Once the nest construction starts the nest is never left unguarded. One of the mates is always at hand to defend and protect it from intruders and pairs of the adjoining territories who are not beyond pinching the nesting material from deserted or unguarded nests. The maximum nest construction activity was observed between 06.00 hrs and 08.00 hrs. It slows down considerably during the day. Towards the evening there is another spurt of nest building activity reaching a second peak during 1600 to 1800 hrs. In the nests started late in the breeding season the frequency of material gathering trips and speed of construc- tion is much more than those started earlier in the season. In some of these cases the material gathering and nest construction may continue throughout the day with short periods of rest and feeding. During a spell of normal construction activity as many as 38 material gathering trips an hour in the morning and 21 in the evening by both birds, were clocked. On the approach of a raptor or in the event of a possible threat to the nest even from the observer, the bird outside the nest, usually the male, gives out an alarm call which makes the bird working inside to leave the nest and take refuge in the branches nearby. Alarm calls from a neighbouring male do not elicit such a response. Time required for the completion of THE NEST Normally it takes about 11 to 22 days for a pair to complete the nest (Table 8). The birds that start building early in the breeding season usually take longer than the ones that start late. In two cases when the construction was started as late as the end of June it took the birds 7 days in one and 8 days in another case to finish the nest. The nest : The finished ne,.t is a rough, round or more often elongate, dome approximately 60-80 cm wide and approximately 35 to 50 cm high with a circular side opening 6-8 cm in diameter 1170 ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA Table 8 Time required for completion of the nest Nest No. Construction started on Completed on Time in days 1975 1 16.4.75 8.5.75 22 2 22.4.75 14.5.75 22 6 17.4.75 9.5,75 22 9/A 20.4.75 8.5.75 18 12 9.4.75 30.4.75 21 13 24.4.75 13.5.75 19 15 28.4.75 13.5.75 15 16 8.5.75 19.5.75 11 17 12.4.75 3.5.75 21 1976 2 26.4.76 18.5.76 22 3 18.4.76 6.5.76 18 4 20.4.76 6.5.76 16 5 30.4.76 19.5.76 20 7 1.5.76 19.5.76 19 8 3.5.76 21.5.76 18 9 |3.5.76 23.5.76 20 10 ^4.5.76 15.5.76 11 12 13.5.76 26.5.76 13 13 28.5.76 9.6.76 12 (Plate I, Fig. 1). The opening usually faces the fork (Plate I, Fig. 2). Occasionally a nest may be deserted while still under construction, or even after comple- tion due to lack of security. A nest is rarely deserted after a full clutch has been laid, except when all the eggs are removed. The mateiial from the deserted nest is often utilised in the construction of the new nest. After the first brood has been successfully raised, the same nest may be used, after slight repairs, for a second brood. The time lag between the completion of nest and laying of the 1st egg could not be ascertained beyond doubt because of the dome like struc- ture of the nest with narrow opening makes visual observation rather difficult. It was generally observed that after the construction activity ceased or almost stopped the 1st egg was not laid immediately. Usually it was laid 1-3 days after the work ceased on the nest (Table 9). But in some nests the lining of the egg chamber continued even after the 1st egg had been laid. In a few cases the full clutch was laid in an open nest and the dome was constructed later. In three cases (out of some 170 nests studied) the eggs were laid and hatched in an open nest without any attempt at construc- tion of the dome. Clutch Laying pattern : Generally four to five and occasionally six eggs are laid at regular intervals of twenty-four hours (Table 10). Eggs were laid in the early forenoon in 81.6 % of the nests. In 16.1% of the nests 1171 JOURNAL* BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY t Vol 75 Table 9 Time lapse between completion of the nest and laying of the 1st egg Nest No. Nest completed on 1st egg laid on Time lapse (in days) 1975 1 6.5.75 9.5.75 3 2 14.5.75 16.5.75 2 6 9.5.75 10.5.75 1 9/1 8.5.75 9.5.75 1 13 13.5.75 15.5.75 2 15 13.5.75 15.5.75 2 16 19.5.75 20.5.75 1 18 24.5.75 25.5.75 1 2/A 24.5.75 25.5.75 1 1976 2 18.5.76 19.5.76 1 3 6.5.76 8.5.76 2 4 6:5.76 7.5.76 1 5 19.5.76 20.5.76 1 7 19.5.76 21.5.76 2 8 21.5.76 22.5.76 1 9 23.5.76 24.5.76 1 10 15.5.76 17.5.76 2 12 26.5.76 27.5.76 1 13 9.6.76 10.6.76 1 Table 10 Laying pattern Nest No. First egg laid on Second egg laid on Third egg laid on Fourth egg laid on Fifth egg laid on Sixth egg laid on 2A/75 25.5.75 26.5.75 27.5.75 28.5.75 6/75 10.5.75 11.5.75 12.5.75 13.5.75 14.5.75 9/1/75 9.5.75 10.5.75 11.5.75 12.5.75 13.5.75 9/2/75 1.7.75 2.7.75 3.7.75 4.7.75 — 13/75 15.5.75 16.5.75 17.5.75 18.5.75 — _ 16/75 20.5.75 21.5.75 22.5.75 23.5.75 24.5.75 17/75 4.5.75 5.5.75 6.5.75 7.5.75 8.5.75 9.5.75 18/75 25.5.75 26.5.75 27.5.75 28.5.75 29.5.75 _ 2/76 19.5.76 20.5.76 21.5.76 22.5.76 — 3/76 8.5.76 9.5.76 10.5.76 11.5.76 12.5.76 13.5.76 4/76 7.5.76 8.5.76 9.5.76 10.5.76 11.5.76 12.5.76 5/76 20.5.76 21.5.76 22.5.76 23.5.76 — 7/76 21.5.76 22.5.76 23.5.76 24.5.76 25.5.76 , 8/76 22.5.76 23.5.76 24.5.76 25.5.76 — 9/76 24.5.76 25.5.76 26.5.76 27.5.76 — 10/76 17.5.76 18.5.76 19.5.76 20.5.76 21.5.76 12/76 27.5.76 28.5.76 29.5.76 30.5.76 — 13/76 10.6.76 11.6.76 12.6.76 13.6.76 — — 1172 Plate I J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Lamba et cil. : Indian Pied Myna Fig. 1. The finished nest is a rough dome. Fig. 2. The opening usually faces the fork. J, Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Lamba et al : Indian Pied Myna Plate II Fig. 3. The eggs are ovoid in shape and blue in colour. Fig. 4. One week old nestlings. ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA the eggs were laid during the afternoons. The individual time of laying and the period of twenty-four hours was, however, maintained in all cases. Clutch size : In all 172 clutches were observed during the period of study. Out of these, sixty-two (36.05 %) consisted of 4 eggs each, seventy-three (41.44 %) of 5 eggs each and thirty-seven (21.49 %) of 6 eggs each. The larger clutches (of 6 eggs) were laid more frequently in the first half of the breeding season and the smaller (of 4 eggs) in the later half. In 88 nests where second broods were raised the same number of eggs were laid for the second brood also. The average clutch size was larger (4.9) in the year 1975 when the breeding season started early, and was comparatively smaller (4.8) in the year 1976 in which the breeding season commenced late. Eggs : The eggs of the Indian Pied Myna are ovoid in shape and blue in colour. The shade may vary slightly from clutch to clutch. The shell is fairly glossy and devoid of any markings (Plate II, Fig. 3). Average size of 60 eggs was found to be 27.24 x 20.12 mm. This compared favourably with Baker’s (1933) average of 27.6 x 20.2 mm for 100 eggs. The eggs weigh from 4.974 grams to 6.391 grams. Average weight of forty eggs worked to be 5.937 grams. Incubation : The female starts incubating during the day time after the full clutch has been laid. She, however, starts spending the nights in the nest even a day or two before the laying of the 1st egg. Although she always sits in the nest during the night, from the laying of the first egg, it is doubtful if she incubates the eggs during the first one or two nights. This fact is revealed by the hatching pattern, and is discussed under that head. The male hangs around the nest while the female is incubating. He may go for short feeding trips. On return from such trips he usually inti- mates his arrival to his spouse either by calling or peeping into the nest. He relieves her occasionally for short feeding trips. During this time he may stay in the nest or outside. It could not be ascertained whether or not he incubates during the time he is inside the nest. On hot afternoons the female may leave the nest and join her mate in a shady branch of the nesting tree. Period of incubation and hatching pattern : The eggs hatch after 14-15 days (Table 11) more or less in the same order in which they are laid. The time gap between the laying of the last egg to the hatching of the same has been taken as period of incubation. Eggs hatch out at irregular intervals of four to twenty-four hours, the first two hatching out on the same day within six hours of each other. That indicates that the regular incubation does not get under way till the second or the third egg is laid. Hatching success ; Hatching success was found to be fairly high. In the year 1975 it was observed to be 79 % and in 1976 it was 88 % (Table 12). Nest life : The hatchlings are fleshy, pink in colour and almost naked. They have a yellow bill and gape, tip of the bill hard and eyes closed. There are traces of greyish white filoplumes on the head, back, wings, thighs and sides of the abdomen. The hatchlings are unable to stand up. They gape for food shortly after hatching. The newly hatched young are kept warm especially during the night by the mother. This 15 1173 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 Table 11 PERIOD OF INCUBATION AND HATCHING PATTERN Nest No. Egg No. Laid on Hatched on Period in days 2 A — /75 1 25.5.75 9.6.75 15 days 2 26.5.75 10.6.75 morn. 15 days 3 27.5.75 10.6.75 14 days 4 28.5.75 10.6.75 night 14 days 9/1/75 1 9.5.75 Unhatched 2 10.5.75 25.5.75 15 days 3 11.5.75 25.5.75 even. 15 days 4 12.5.75 26.5.75 14 days 5 13.5.75 Unhatched 9/2/75 1 1.7.75 damaged 2 2.7.75 17.7.75 15 days 3 3.7.75 17.7.75 14 days 4 4.7.75 18.7.75 14 days 13/75 1 15.5.75 30.5.75 15 days 2 16.5.75 31.5.75 15 days 3 17.5.75 31.5.75 14 days 4 18.5.75 1.6.75 even. 14 days 16/15 1 20.5.75 4.6.75 even. 16 days 2 21.5.75 5.6.75 15 days 3 22.5.75 5.6.75 even. 15 days 4 23.5.75 damaged 5 24.5.75 6.6.75 even. 14 days 18/75 1 25.5.75 damaged 2 26.5.75 10.6.75 15 days 3 27.5.75 10.6.75 even. 15 days 4 28.5.75 Unhatched 5 29.5.75 12.6.75 morn. 14 days 4/76 1 7.5.76 24.5.76 17 days ? 8.5.76 24.5.76 16 days 3 9.5.76 25.5.76 16 days 4 10.5.76 25.5.76 15 days 5 11.5.76 25.5.76 even. 15 days 6 12.5.76 26.5.76 14 days 10/76 1 17.5.76 3.6.76 17 days 2 18.5.76 3.6.76 16 days 3 19.5.76 3.6.76 15 days 4 20.5.76 4.6.76 15 days 5 21.5.76 4.6.76 14 days 13/76 1 10.6.76 25.6.76 even. 16 days 2 11.6.76 26.6.76 15 days 3 12.6.76 26.6.76 even. 15 days 4 13.6.76 27.6.76 14 days 1174 ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA Table 12 Hatching success Nest No. No. of eggs laid No. of eggs hatched Total % 1975 2 4 4 6 5 did not hatch 9/1 5 3 9/2 4 3 13 4 4 16 5 4 nearly 79 % (average) 17 6 6 18 5 3 19 6 6 20 3 3 1976 2 4 4 3 6 6 4 6 6 6 5 5 10 5 5 11 5 1 nearly 88% (average) 13 4 4 14 5 4 15 5 5 16 4 3 night brooding continues for about 16-18 days. Even when the hatchlings are about to fly the female spends the night with them in the nest. The young, especially in the earlier stages, are never left unguarded. Both parents bring food and feed the young. The young are fed on insect larvae, soft bodied insects, spiders, etc. to begin with. Regurgi- tated grain is added to the bill of fare later. Both the parents are kept under great pressure by the constant demand of food by their 4 or 5 nestlings. As many as thirty to forty-four trips an hour by both parents were recorded on a number of occasions. In a six hour observation the feeding trips averaged to 35 trips an hour for a single pair. The freshly hatched young weighs slightly less (average of thirty-two : 0.512 grams) than the egg’s weight before hatching. The average individual weight gain recorded in 17 hatchlings was 4.371 grams per day in the first week, 3.889 grams per day in the second week and 3.473 in the third week. The average individual weight of hatchlings shortly before leaving the nest in the case of above-mentioned 17 fledglings was found to be 78.415 grams. The adult weighs between 86 and 95 grams. The eyes open on the 7th or 8th day after hatching. The body feathers, remiges and rectrices also make their appearance by that time 1175 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. 75 (Plate II, Fig. 4). There is a gradual lengthen- ing and growth of body feathers till the nestling is ready to fledge. The growth of remiges and rectrices is much faster than of the body feathers. Fear complex develops a day or two after the eyes open. When the eyes are closed the nestlings will raise their necks and gape for food on the slightest disturbance outside the nest. After the opening of eyes the nestlings start discriminating between the visit of a parent and that of intruders. At about the same time they start responding to the alarm calls of the parents. On approach of an intruder or in response to the alarm call the nestlings move deep inside the nest and may even cling to the nest lining if handled. The parent offspring recognition also seems to be audiovisual. Even after leaving the nest when a few families are feeding in a group the young birds beg food from their own parents only. They do, how- ever, equally respond to the alarm calls of others of the community. The young leave the nest when they are about 3 weeks old (21-25 days). A few days before leaving the nest they come out of the nest and perch on nearby branches where they practice flying. Short practice flights are indulged before they accompany the parents for feeding on ground. How long the young remain with the parents before leaving the area was not studied. Nesting success : The nesting success worked out to be 57% in 1975 and 54% in 1976. Most deaths (31 %) were due to fall on account of the nest being blown away by strong gusty winds during monsoons. The next important factor in- volved was perhaps the availability of food. In nests which did not meet with accidents it was found that some of the nestlings (17%) died especially from broods of 5 and 4 young. It is presumed that these deaths were on account of starvation. Some of these deaths may have occurred on account of other factors. Acknowledgements We are obliged to the Director, Zoological Survey of India for facilities. Our grateful thanks are due to (1) The various specialists of the Zoological Survey of India, especially to Dr. O. B. Chottani, Dr. S. K. Tandon, Dr. Asket Singh, Dr. T. D. Soota, Dr. Tapan Sen Gupta and Dr. N. B. Subbarao for identifying the animal food material and (2) to Dr. A. S. Rao and Dr. B. M. Wadhwa of the Botanical Survey of India, Northern Circle, Dehra Dun for identification of the vegetable food materials. We are also grateful to the Entomology Division of the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, especially Dr. P. K. Sen Gupta and Shri Pratap Singh for identification of some of the insect material. The study would not have been possible without the help and support of the entire staff of the Northern Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Dehra Dun, to all of whom, ; we acknowledge our gratefulness. References Ara, Jamal (1954) : The mating habit of House Barnes, H. E. (1890) : Nesting in western India. Crow (Corvus splendens) and Pied Myna {Sturnus contra). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc.t 5 : 105. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 50 : 940-941. Beresford, G. De. La P. (1944) : The winter foods Baker, E. C. S. (1933) : Nidification of the Birds of of birds in Kashmir. J. Bombay nat. Hist, Soc • Indian Empire 2. Taylor and Francis, London. 45 : 86-88. 1176 ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN PIED MYNA Briggs, F. S. (1934): A note on the birds of Ghazipur. /. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 37 : 382. Cripps, J. R. (1878) : First list of the birds of Fureedpur, East Bengal. Stray Feathers , 7 : 238-315. D’Abreu, E. A. (1918) : The Food of birds in the Central Provinces. Rec. Nagpur Mus. 2 : 1-55. Field, F. (1922) : Rough list and notes on the birds found breeding in Gonda district. /. Bombay nat . Hist. Soc., 28 : 757. GrLL, E. H. N. (1923) : A description of the nests and eggs of common birds occurring in the plains of United Provinces. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 29 : 343. Hume, A. O. (1873) : Nests and eggs of Indian birds. Rough draft. Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta. (1889-1890) : Nests and eggs of Indian birds. 1-3. 2nd Ed. R. H. Porter, London. Husain, M. Afzal and Bhalla, Hem Raj (1937) : Some Birds of Lyallpur and their food. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 39 : 831-842. Inglis, C. M. (1901) : The birds of Madhubani Sub- division of Darbanga district, Tirhut, with notes on species noticed elsewhere in the district. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 13 : 631. (1910) : Common Myna ( Acridotheres tristis ) feeding young of Pied Myna ( Sternopaster contray and nesting habits of the common Pariah Kite (M. govinda ) and Brahminy kite (H. indus). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 19 : 985. i Jerdon, T. C. (1862-64) : The Birds of India. 2 Vols (3 parts), Published by the author, Calcutta. Lamba, B. S. (1977) : The Indian Crows, a contri- bution to their breeding biology, with notes on brood parasitism on them by the Indian Koel. Rec. Zool. Surve. India 71 : 183-300. Macatea, W. L. (1912) : Methods of estimating the contents of Bird stomachs. Auk 29 : 449-464. Mason, C. W. and Maxwell-Lefroy, H. (1912) : The food of Birds in India. Mem. Agr. Dept. India Entomological series Vol. 3. Mukherjee, A. K. (1969-76) : Food-habits of water- birds of the Sunderban, 24-Parganas district, W.B., India. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 4 Parts, Vols. 66, 68, 71, 72. Osmaston, A. E. (1913) : The birds of Gorakhpur. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 22 : 532-549. Ried, G. (1881) : The birds of Lucknow civil division. Stray feathers , 10 : 52. (1887) : Addenda to the birds of Lucknow civil division. Stray Feathers , 10 : 444-453. Simwat, G. S. and Sidhu, A. S. (1974) : Food pre- ference of the Rose-ringed Parakeet. Indian J. agri. Sci. 44 (5) : 304-305. (1975) : Development period and feeding habits of Bank Myna Acridotheres ginginianus (Latham) in Punjab. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 71 (2) : 305-308. Whistler, H. (1919) : Some birds of Ludhiana district, Punjab. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 26 : 585-600 1177 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE FEEDING HABITS OF CERTAIN SPECIES OF INDIAN BIRDS AFFECTING AGRICULTURE D. N. Mathew, T. C. Narendran and V. J. Zacharias1 Introduction The need for studying the biology of Indian birds in relation to agriculture and forestry was pointed out by Salim Ali in 1936. Mason and Maxwell-Lefroy (1912), D'Abreu (1920), Hussain and Bhalla (1931, 1937 a & b), and Mukherjee (1966-1976), and a few others listed by Mukherjee (op.cit) have worked on this problem. From 1968 to 1972 the senior author (D. N. M.) carried out a preliminary study of the feeding habits of 10-15 species of birds affec- ting agriculture in India. From 1974 he continued a similar study on two species of babblers ( Turdoides spp.) in collaboration with the other two authors. The results of these investigations form the basis for this paper.* Material and Methods Feeding habits and behaviour of wild birds were observed using binoculars. Birds were collected with shot gun from the cultivated fields or adjoining areas from Rajam- pet Taluk, Cuddapah District of Andhra Pradesh, Nilambur in the Malappuram District, Mannarghat in the Palghat District, and near Palathu area in the Calicut District of Kerala. The stomach contents were preserved in 10% formalin. Some plants and animals were 1 Department of Zoology, University of Calicut, Calicut, Kerala. * Based partly on the thesis by the first author which was accepted by the University of Bombay for the Ph.D. degree 1972. collected from the study area to help in identifi- cation. The plant materials in the stomach were identified at the Systematic Botany Section of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and the animal material at the Madras Christian College and the University of Calicut. The food and feeding habits of 9 species of birds covered by this study are discussed below. Results 1. Indian Pond Heron Ardeola grayii (Sykes) This heron affects paddy fields at all stages of this crop but more often young paddy or stubble fields with water and those being pre- pared for planting. It feeds solitarily during day time and at dusk collects in large flocks to roost on trees in villages. In wind-damaged standing crops of paddy this bird fed in company with birds like the Common Myna the Black Drongo and the Baya. The food of Pond Heron appears to consist mainly of crabs, nymphs of dragonflies, grasshoppers and tadpoles. It takes adult frogs also. A leech Herpobdelloides sp. found in the food of a bird at Reddipalli has not been recorded in the food of Pond Herons. D'Abreu (1920) observed crickets in the diet of Pond Herons. Mukherjee (op.cit.) examined 105 adult speci- mens in the Sunderban area and found Crustacea and aquatic vegetable matter to be the more important items in the diet of this heron. Tad- poles and adults of frogs, toads, small fishes and freshwater molluscs came next. Mukherjee (op. cit.) considered this bird to be economically 1178 COMPARATIVE FEEDING HABITS OF INDIAN BIRDS harmless. A comparison of the stomach con- ents of the Pond Herons from the Sunderbans with those from Cuddapah and Palghat districts reveals that the birds of these regions had 10 families and 5 genera of prey animals in common. They differed in the absence of crickets (family Gryllidae) in the Sunderbans birds and molluscs in the southern Indian ones. The results of analyses of stomach contents of the thirty birds collected (four from Nilam- bur, seven from Mannarghat and nineteen from Rajampet taluk), are presented in Table 1 . 2. & 3. Little Brown Dove Streptopelia senega - lensis (Gmelin) & Spotted Dove Strepto- pelia chinensis (Gmelin). Both species of doves were found in Cuddapah District where the Little Brown Doves fed in the open fields, fallows and cart tracks, and the Spotted Doves in the stubble fields fringed by trees, forests, and orchards. Only the latter species was observed in Palghat, Malappuram and Calicut Districts where it occurred in the rain forests as well as in the open areas around buildings. Both doves consumed some newly sown grains and it was perhaps for this reason that Hussain and Bhalla (1937b) considered the Little Brown Dove as injurious to agriculture. In the periods after harvest and before sowing, the activities of these doves are perhaps entirely beneficial in destroying thousands of weed seeds. Their potential for disseminating weed seeds was not tested, e.g. by sowing seeds from excreta. Thirty specimens of the Little Brown Dove and thirty-one of the Spotted Doves were examined. Their stomach contents showed almost complete overlap in the major items consumed, among which the cultivated grains dominated. The items of food identified from the stomach contents of these two doves are given in Table 2. Table 1 The stomach contents of 30 Pond Herons Item of food Common names Frequency** Remarks Phylum Annelida Class Hirudinea Family Gnathobdellidae leeches 1 Herpobdelloides sp. Phylum Arthropoda Class Crustacea Order Decapoda Family Potamonidae crabs 6 16 leeches were found in a single stomach of a bird collected from a muddy rice-field. Paratelphusa sp. Class Arachnida spiders 6 Pardosa sp. Order Araneae Family Lycosidae Class Insecta cockroaches 4 Lycosa indagastrix. Phyllodromia humbertiana , Order Orthoptera Family Blattidae Blatta sp. ** Frequency — The number of birds in the total sample examined which had taken the category of food indicated. 1179 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , F o’ CN CN od •o* o" flj pq NO oo NO l> NO ON t/3 o CO CO 1 CN CO 1 ON ON 1 CO E CO CO o < w S o p< pm & 00 © 3 co pq PH O ^ Jg ,2 c« ’B G on 2 «;£ 0 1.8 1 & 2 a O 2 Ji Ja o 8 u 2 q — ; IT, O'" I ^ q «q »o 'vf «o q on © oo «o f-H - as ‘JS P-H G O * J3 o pq a 8 o 00 G O O .2 *o > Ct- o oo U G 2 gx, o Q oS £3 O S-t O PQ ■ S3 > s O K P4 g S-H O V-i Q S3 O rt X) .2 44 S3 S3 O *3 aS a O rt a p PM t— 1 CO 3 u . o § U o a rt 43 O « ctj S o 3 ■'3'° U g i§ -a *£ 3 K , « 4> vh a rt 43 c -a U 0 43 PQ 0 2 « ^ s 43 42 « 3 S *■* H rt ^3 3 x> o «j> a co I - I I I I I III! *-H O I I I I I till fill n a p o ' a aS s * O Q aS c >> s c o S a o U 119^ Whiteheaded Babbler . JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL BIST. SOClEtT, M 16 ft ft O DC oo ^ a o U H ? W Pk n to y 3 2 3 I O ~l < ft s o g OS 03 ft w § E § & R £ ja S O 3 oo 73 V ?> c« _S 3 f S 2 >» o ^ 3 & a fc a a S O 8 § s 73 Pi | M 5 8 P 1 73 3 1 s w3 a w £ 3 « 8 *o I (0 «-* c/3 1196 Whiteheaded Babbler Tenebrionidae Chrysomelidae Cicindelidae Curculion/Elateridae/ Cerambycidae COMPARATIVE FEEDING HABITS OF INDIAN BIRDS helped much in organising this work. Sarvashree P. N. Achutha Menon, M. Madhavan Nair, and K. Mohandas of Palghat, Kesari Mathew of Nilambur and Guruvayya of Rajampet helped in the collection of birds for this study. The first author is grateful to the CSIR for their research grants which supported this work from November 1967 to February 1971 and to his late father for financial support which helped him to complete the first part of the investi- Refer Ali, Salim A. (1936) : Economic ornithology in India. Curr. Sci. Bangalore, 4 : 472-478. Andrews, M. I. and Naik, R. M. (1970) : The biology of the Jungle Babbler. The Pavo Vol. 8 Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 1-34. D’Abreu, E. A. (1920) : Some insect prey of birds in the Central Provinces. Report of the third Entomo- logical meeting held at Pusa, February 1919, 3 : 859-871. Fletcher, Bainbridge T. (1914) : Some south Indian insects and other animals of importance. Government Press, Madras. Hussain, M. Afzal and Bhalla, H. R. (1931) : Some bird enemies of the Desert Locust ( Schistocerca gregaria Gorsk.) in the Ambala District, Punjab. Ind. J. Agric. Sci. 1 : 609-619. — — & . (1937a) : The bird enemies of the gation. He is also grateful to the U.G.C. for a grant which helped him to restart this work in 1974. V. J. Zacharias is supported by the Salim Ali-Loke Wan Tho Fund for research in ornithology from the Bombay Natural History Society. We are grateful to the authorities of the University of Calicut and particularly to the Head of the Department of Zoology for provid- ing us with facilities to work. nces Cotton Leaf Roller ( Sylepta degogata Fb.) at Khane wal, Multan, Punjab, ibid. 7 : 785-792. Sc . (1937b) : Some birds of Lyallpur and their food. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 39 : 831-842. Mason, C. W. and Maxwell-Lefroy, H. (1912) : The food of birds in India. Mem. Agr. Dept. India , Entomological Series 3. Mathew, D. N. (1977) : Ecology of the Weaver birds. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 73(2) : 249-260. Mukherjee, A. K. (1969) : Food habits of waterbirds of the Sunderban, 24 Parganas District, West Bengal, India— Part I. ibid. 66 : 346-366. Part II. (1971). ibid. 68 : 37-64. Rana, B. D. (1970) : Some observations on food of the Jungle Babbler Turdoides striatus and the Common Babbler Turdoides caudatus in the Rajasthan Desert, India. Pavo 8 : 35-44. U97 OBSERVATIONS ON THE FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS OF BAYA WEAVER PLOCEUS PHILIPPINUS Mir Hamid Ali,1 T. G. Manmohan Singh, Aziz Banu, M. Anand Rao and A. T. Sainath Janak Introduction Baya Weaver (Family : Ploceidae) is a resident and locally migratory bird and has a wide distribution in India (Salim Ali 1972). The food of the adult Baya weaver Ploceus philip- pinus comprises of grass and weed seeds (Gramineae), cereal grains (Rice, Jowar, Bajra etc.), insects (grasshoppers, beetles, moths, cater- pillars and spiders) and flower nectar wherever available. Nestlings are fed mainly on cater- pillars, moths, grasshoppers, spiders and triturated tender paddy grains (Salim Ali and Ripley 1974). Studies on stomach content of Baya Ploceus philippinus by Mukherjee and Saha (1974) revealed that in the non-breeding adult collected in October and dissected, the food comprised mostly of Rice grains together with 2 or 3 stone chips and in a few cases insects (samples of Jassids, Hemipterous nymphs and Lepidopterous larvae) were also associated with rice grains. Further investigations were taken up by the Scheme for studies on Biology and Control of Bird pests, Rajendranagar, (Hyderabad, A.P.) to study the food habit and feeding behaviour of Baya Weaver Ploceus philippinus. The period of investigation was one year, i.e., July 1975 to June 1976, which included also one breeding season of Baya i.e., from June to October 1975. Materials and Methods Field studies on food and feeding habits : The feeding of Baya Weaver on sorghum was observed in the experimental fields of 1 Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, Hydera- bad, (A.P.). Scheme for studies on Biology and Control of Bird pests, Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Uni- versity, Rajendranagar, during Kharif and Rabi 1975-76. A plot of 20*00 Cents was taken up in Kharif and a plot of 17*25 Cents was taken up in Rabi 1975-76 for observation on sorghum crop. For observation on rice crop, cultivators’ fields were selected for study- ing the feeding habits of Baya, and in addition, observations on feeding habits and population counts were done in the plots, sized 50 Cents (£ acre) in Kharif, and 100 Cents (1 acre) in Rabi 1975-76 at Agriculture College Farm, Rajendranagar. There was no bird scaring in the sorghum and paddy plots under obser- vation. The observations on the food and feeding habits of the bird on the two crops mentioned, were done with the help of field binoculars during the peak visit hours of the birds, i.e. 6 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. Exact number of hours spent in the field observation was from 6 a.m. to 12 Noon and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the evening. Thus, totally ten hours, i.e. six hours in the morning session and four hours in the evening session were devoted to bird pests observation in the paddy and sorghum fields. Out of the hours devoted, peak hours of the bird’s visit were 7 hours, i.e. 6 to 10 a.m. in the morning and 3 to 6 p.m. in the evening. Lab studies on gut contents : Adult Baya Weaver birds for gut content studies were obtained from the fields by shoot- ing with air gun or trapping with a mist net. Immediately they were dissected and gut con- tents examined and identified. Totally, fifty five (55) adult Bayas were dissected for gut 1198 FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS OF BA YA WEA VER content studies during the period under report. The monthwise details are furnished in Table II. As can be seen from this Table, during the months November 1975 to January 1976, the Baya Weaver were not found in Rajendranagar area and its vicinity as the crops were in sowing to vegetative phase and there was probably local migration of this bird. Lab studies on food preference : Bayas (8 nos.) were maintained in a wire mesh cage. They were offered a known quantity of paddy, sorghum and bajra grains every morn- ing and the quantity consumed was found out next morning by weighing the left overs of these grains. The food intake study data per day per bird for the 12 months of study period is presented in Table I. Assessment of quantity of Sorghum and Paddy grains consumed in the field by Bayas : Based on the results of laboratory studies on food preference of sorghum and paddy by Bayas, the quantity of these grains likely to be consumed by the population of these birds visiting the two crops on one hectare area is calculated and presented (Tables III & IV). For arriving at an estimate of the density of population of Bayas visiting the two crops per hectare area, the actual counts of the birds visiting the crop in the specified plots (Cols. 3 and 4 of Tables III & IV) aie taken as the basis. The average quantity of sorghum and paddy grains consumed per day per bird, during the period under report, as per laboratory studies on food preference (Table I), i.e. 0*76 gms and 5*50 gms respectively, is taken as the basis for arriving at the amount of sorghum and paddy grains actually consumed in the field. Results and discussion Sorghum : Baya Weaver in groups of 2 to 7 and some- times singly visited the sorghum crop in milky and early dough grain stage and damaged the earheads by picking the individual grains from spikelets, leaving the glumes intact. Some- times the glumes too were picked up along with grains. The number of sorghum grains picked up was 5 to 10 in a single sitting under un- scared conditions. As per the population counts the number of Bayas visiting the sorghum crop was on an average 11 per day in Kharif and 65 per day in Rabi 1975-76 (Table III, Cols. 3 & 4). The density of population of this bird per hectare calculated on this basis comes to 138 and 942 in Kharif and Rabi 1975-76 respectively. Rice : In Paddy nurseries the Baya Weaver birds fed on the exposed germinated and unger- minated seeds and pulled out the just sprouted seedlings before they established. At the vege- tative phase of the crop, Bayas cut the young leaf blades into strips for use in the construc- tion of nests. After the emergence of the panicles, Baya Weaver in groups of 2 to 7 visited the Paddy fields and by perching at the base of the panicle of each tiller, fed on the individual grains rendering the panicles chaffy. Similar method to that followed for sorghum was adopted in paddy also for bird counts. During Kharif, the bird visitants were 35, 45 and 60 in the milky stage (13 days), dough stage (15 days) and in hard grain stage (18 days) respectively on an average per day per hectare. During Rabi, the bird visitants weie 33, 40 and 50 in milky stage (12 days), dough stage (14 days) and hard grain stage (16 days) respectively on an average per day per hectare. Thus totally the number of Baya visitants during Kharif came to 140 and in Rabi the Baya visitants were 123. Gut content studies : Out of 55 birds examined for gut contents, 27 had only rice grains as gut content and 5 1199 JOURNAL, BOMBAt NATURAL BIST. SOCiETt, fol 75 Table I Statement showing the food preference of Baya Weaver Ploceus philippinus FOR 12 months (1975-76) Month & Year Average consumption per day per bird Paddy Bajra Sorghum July 1975 5.34 gms 0.93 gms August 1975 5.30 gms 1.20 gms — September 1975 5.98 gms 1.96 gms — October 1975 4.89 gms 1.15 gms — November 1975 5.70 gms 0.68 gms — December 1975 7.65 gms 0.80 gms — January 1976 6.25 gms 0.84 gms — February 1976 7.00 gms 1.37 gms 0.68 gms March 1976 4.94 gms — 0.84 gms April 1976 3.40 gms — — May 1976 4.60 gms — — June 1976 4.97 gms — — Total Average 66.02 gms 8.93 gms 1.52 gms 5.50 gms 1.11 gms 0.76 gms In the above Table— denotes nil consumption by the Baya Weaver, Table II Statement showing the number of adult Bayas dissected during 1975-76 Month & Year No. of Bayas dissected July 1975 6 August 1975 5 September 1975 8 October 1975 8 November 1975 . . — December 1975 — January 1976 — February 1976 1 March 1976 7 April 1976 6 May 1976 9 June 1976 5 Total 55 1200 Population of Baya Weaver Ploceus philippinus visiting plots of observation trial of sorghum (Var. CSH. 5) at Agricultural College Farm, Rajendranagar observed during Kharif and Rabi 1975-76 and estimation of Sorghum grains consumed per hectare of crop area FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS OF BAYA WEAVER U-. >>’§) g g o m 3.S 2 6 '5 2 ^ c «— i O O P o & " &.§ w <3 01 .5 «> .. jd $ * O g CX ft 2 cJ o w >,60-0 O. ~ ^ - g c§Sgo°u« c3 ^ s «* «4J t-l 0 ft o O o «9 0) ,« „ GO ^ "■°^1 I C/5 ii_ 66 j_, o C irt o . ;z! £ X « CL 23 o'^ CX rt g.O z > « ° gs S?S •3 S’S 2 "■§ g-0 ° ea ftcs U < jd ’a GO X o •S § p a a & P ffl Ih e« c n o .S o T3 • O „ • *s P P g) ^ ►2 .£2 VO «* !• 2 rt | w M fi VO »H | S$ ° O co .H 3 go 55 S.S a a J2 o •§ a s &S£ oco* I o a o w u 60 o VO » o « ei bo o « •O to p ’wj a £§’2 PT3 60 *g s 60 O VO a 60 VO 00 m ''t —I ov -8 + g*h *c 1201 (*) The quantity of sorghum grains consumed, on an average per day, per Baya, as per lab. studies comes to 0.76 gms (Table I). Population of Baya Weaver Ploceus philippinus visiting the observational Fields of Paddy (Var. Telia Hamsa) at Agricultural College Farm, Rajendranagar observed during Kharif and Rabi 1975-76 and estimation of Paddy grains JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol. IS >% .2 a •rt £ . cS T3 ^ o g O O co X) 3 xi a m cd iij a £ O ^ T3 Jd £ v a o o -tn bo G a> |o — - co aS aj aS 5-i > as >h ££** t (1)^ ^ « too >. Oh as aS s| S’0 gia a .2 3 3 Oh o Oh aS a? pq co ox) • o ^ fi g toO^ VO CU 5 OS 3 vo I I 6- _ -X ,1— I Cw o aS O 4 SI < I Cu H pq CD 1/5 N O co n O © © cj_ io ’C ^ 03 ^ too 04 too Xh O vo m xi* VO 3 ■xl- 1-1 . • « bo * -2 £ £ STATUS OF INDIAN CROCODILIANS out the Gangetic 'system, west to Pakistan and north-east to the Brahmaputra, with an isolated population in Orissa in the Mahanadi. Another early naturalist, Hornaday, in 1880 reported seeing 24 gharial in two hours on the Yamuna River, not far from Allahabad (Hornaday 1881). Depletion : The general reasons for the decline of the three species are uncontrolled and all-season hunting for hides, meat, 4 medicine ’ and sport ; killing by fishermen ; extensive collection of eggs for eating, and loss of habitat caused by dam construction, river diversions, agricultural and forestry activities, water pollution and human disturbance and encroachment. It was recently observed that the gharial on the Karnali River (a group of seven adults) in Western Nepal failed to breed in 1976 because of the distur- bance caused by a dam feasibility project (Whitaker 1976). Natural predation in croco- diles, especially in the egg and hatchling stage, is very high and gains importance in danger- ously low populations, as is the case with India’s three species. It is estimated that only 1-2% of hatchling crocodiles reach adulthood in nature. The Skin Industry : From interviewing skin dealers it is evident that a few people once made considerable profits on crocodile skins. Fishermen supplied the skin markets of Agra and Kanpur, whereas in other areas tribal crocodile hunters (operating throughout the north) supplied middlemen. In some parts of the country one or two 4 specialist ’ hunters were apparently responsible for wiping out considerable populations. One well-known ex-hunter in Diglipur, North Andaman, claims to have killed a thousand crocodiles during his 15 year career. With the 1972 ban on crocodile killing, the skin market went underground. The value of crocodile meat, fat, gall bladder (for 4 medicinal ' uses) and other parts still makes it worthwhile to kill crocodiles even without the danger involved in selling the skin. In 4 country medicine ’ shops throughout the country crocodile fat is a rare but available 4 remedy ’ for asthma, whooping cough or rheumatism. The only available statistics on the Indian crocodile skin industry are for 1964-65 when a total of Rs. 25,948 worth of skins were ex- ported to U.K. and France. The absence of statistics makes it difficult to assess the size of the industry (Bhanotar et al. 1975). Legal Status and Protection : Before the export of crocodile skins from India was controlled in 1969 (Instruction No. 57/75), crocodiles in some areas received protection as religious symbols. In some parts of Kerala it was customary to have a resident mugger in temple tanks and these were zealously protected by the villagers. The famous Mugger Pir near Karachi in Pakistan still exists today and here the last three resident mugger are venerated and fed by the local people. Effective and thorough ‘ paper ’ pro- tection for Indian crocodilians was accom- plished only in 1972 (Wildlife Protection Act, 1972). The: three species are listed under Schedule 1 of the Act, rendering the killing, trapping, transporting or being in possession of a crocodile or its products without a special permit illegal with a penalty of upto 6 months imprisonment and Rs. 2,000 fine. Export instruction No. 46/73 forbids the export of crocodiles and gharial, their hides, or products therefrom. Present Status : State by state status accounts are given in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4. Madras Snake Park field investigations have covered most states but only Tamil Nadu in great detail. 1239 Present Status of Mugger (Crocodylus palustris) JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL NIST. SOCIETY , Vol 75 II t/3 G W S g o 2 u £ t: . o. en O 1 £ £ ^ r? 60 60 Ph C .g O S x> 6 2 J-g Q X »C S' io O 1) 'o' £ *o o Ci u2 C/3 ca I 68 .s *3 ca l fl> o o a ca M £ o l_l 1> 05 £ ca U c2 X s «-i £ ca T3 D (H P S3 a *o Ad ca X X U W ca xn ca I jd •3 o o c U o C 03 i s 60 .£ c "S ’3 u o £ w £ C4 *— » rr> I 8 P4 C3 60 ca CO _ - g x 3 g S3 £ o5 S M • >. • lH o > .53 £ g $A § ^ £ § J3 o a 60 0 £ & ^3 o x •o o o o £ S ? 8 04 a 03 X £ <£ 60 .c ;a § x 60 a ca « T3 • w >, O o X ca 60 ca w s & 9S ca «-* > © !> o c £ 'g ca O 60 05 C tj ^ ca -g ah ca ■& > « ||2 *-» > T3 h 5 ca D ca r; 6 U x O £ X 05 ca X -<-> o u ’o’ £ •3 o o o u J . 60 ' C 60 a o . •" W'O I'll 2 2 o £ «L) 05 V f* U* ca >% >> z T3 £ CJ iri £ £ § X c 05 05 « 05 O « »0 ^ >> X* o g & O 03 c/3 rn o 2 « 5 £ * I 'S 3 c X o X x £ ^ ca si H I jj »3 o 0) o 1240 Andhra Pradesh .. Godavari R. „v Less than 10 Krishna R. . . Less than 10 State Crocodile Project for C. palustris and C. porosus initiated in 1976. STATUS OF INDIAN CROCODILIANS 43 CO 43 s u GO p ^ 2 « 44 >* co *2 & c fl o .2 ^ a a so c0 44 P Z s.2 i'i-i o <3 ^ 73 43 H o Ph to <-< S 8 60^ CO £ £ a o o 00 p 3 cO a C > cO ‘g S .0’S o cn 2 P S-H cO cO .a ph ffi cO o3 £ ^ o 2 > 5 u ^ > lH P P o o ■g ■> ;3 _p O t3 (N S P to So +3 y Vi > co > CD O co y§ GO 3 g Z C3 &0 s cO P$ T-H »n lH > CO t£ 2s JS »H 73 CO p Ph co 3 -3 S « cO « C-> « Ph a ©> Q - ^ © 5b p 3 •n 73 d cO co in O £ 2 O CO ►» 43 73 £ •© § a eO a, © Q 5 £ . I . OJ B Vi S <3 o •g p *H P O O Z fi 1241 Mugger seem to be extinct in Assam. Tablb 1 Present Status of Mugger (Crocodylus palustris) State Habitat Estimate of numbers Remarks Tamil Nadu .. Chidambaram Waterworks. 15-20 Kilikudu * Crocodile Farm \ 20 Mettur Reservoir Sathanur Reservoir Bhavani Sagar Reservoir . . Kedarhalla and Moyar Stream. Amaravathi Reservoir . . Hogenekal Falls (Cauvery Less than 10 12 Less than 10 Less than 10 25 Less than 10 4 breeding females. Good protection from Municipality. 5 breeding females. Complete protection by local villagers and the Forest Department. 6 breeding females. State Crocodile Project site. 6 breeding females. Recommended as Crocodile Preserve. 12 breeding females, State Crocodile Project site. 3 breeding females. Tamil Nadu has less than 200 wild crocodiles but this is the largest confirmed population in the country. rnataka . . Ranganathittoo Bird Sane- Less than 10 tuary (Cauvery R.). Other rivers (other parts of Very few, totalling les Cauvery, Kafcini, Thunga- than 100. bhadra, Nugu, etc.). A State Crocodile Project has been initiated at Bannerghatta National Park, n Kerala .. Neyyar Reservoir .. Less than 10 Parambikulam Reservoir. Less than 5 The total crocodile population of Kerala iprobably does not exceed 30. Andhra Pradesh .. Godavari R. Krishna R. State Crocodile Project for C. palu . . Less than 10 . . Less than 10 f and C. porosus initiated in 1976. 1 nesting female. One of the sites for the State Crocodile Project. 1 breeding female. Tadoba National Park . . Less than 20 Other Parks and Rivers . . c 50 Population probably less than 100. Madhya Pradesh . . Large rivers e.g. Mahanadi, Less than 100 Son, Betwa, Ken. Mugger formerly very plentiful in tanks and rivers. Forest Dept, is taking conservation measures. ^ .. Majorriverslike Mahanadi, Less than 20 Bahmani, small reservoirs, tanks. No breeding population known. Extensive State Crocodile Project commenced in 1975, with ; mugger rehabilitation centre at Simlipal. Gujarat . . Hiran Lake (Gir National 60 . . 6 nests located in 1977. Park). Other reservoirs and Small remnant populations, tanks in the State. Gujarat has the second largest mugger population in the country and the Forest Dept, has initiated a crocodile rehabilitation project. Rajasthan .. Chambal R. Reservoirs and tanks A State Crocodile Project was initiated in 1975. Less than 20 Few isolated individuals . . Uttar Pradesh . . Ramganga (Corbett National Park) 8 Rivers, streams . . Under 100 Large scale State Crocodile Project underway since 1975. Bihar • • Remote rivers and jungle Total less than 50 lakes Some rehabilitation work has been started by the Forest Department. West Bengal .. Ganga and other rivers .. Under 30 A project for the three species has been commenced by Forest Department. Assam . . All rivers Mugger seem to be extinct in Assam. . . No mugger reported in JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 Table 2 Present Status of Estuarine Crocodile {Crocodylus porosus ) JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Ko/. 75 J! w T3 G VO 3 r~- ON XJ « a « Cd o gj C c/) %3 ^ O £ O . 'gig o In M r n i? G « £ Q cd 43 cd 3 1/3 00 Eo O G O ~ 5 o co cd O — 1 g ■«-< cd £ s 3 -3 G cd 43 bO.G 3 h4 l.s 43 S&n § S’5 £ O a a w* «> “ ^ >. g >>£•§ > H o cd « 17 sTZ 6 G c a) 5 cd n ■ewS «? «H G 'O cd cd §S s ^pq 3 § *•+3 jd T3 7d G 43 cd ^ Cm a> o bo m 3 8 p c . 8 bo o 5 c p J? cd o < o z w « « - 8 £ 5 £o Q z < co z < 1 1 < *L> Si •S 5 O co D fl> 1! to G w cd 4d b0 *t3 00 2 t> cd D £ o’ S £ o ^ c o o 3 o *o M o to ^ w) 2 h4 cd ’S o a> A k a .M " (.y cdl3 § -MCC. JS §.2 § s g>td § cd G >7 53 43 cd ^ S Uff! 4? «n G S cd 53 rS 3 M hJ ^ o s c a cd 2 3 Jr! G a> cd (/) -4-> *4= d3 cd a Id g .cd & g . T3 cd i) 40 a cd :5 (5 b rO c CO cd G cd e? o cd 43 C J G cd C G 3 52 43 O a> ^ ^ r n lL *9 5 O D 1242 3 a o a 3 ‘1 e2 Gorge. Assam . . Subansiri River . . Less than 5 Total in Assam : 10. Bihar . . Gandak, Kosi . . Under 10 A rehabilitation project is underway. Crocodiles on the sub-continent STATUS OF INDIAN CROCODILIANS &p 3 2 § a o G a ?> ■1° d T3 >. c £ 3 TO «J ’S ’Si 1 *§': g •s£.s ■Sts 8,-S GO C/D a> O 2 §, &i o «0 5 ^ £ o t«5 n “§ c 2 ^ *u «!» too a § § bo ^ C> . X 4- ^ G u «* Ph S ~ §>2iS 2 9 c3 Rj Co l>5 6^ Species I 3 II a © 0, Oh .2 g C § « 5 s a* <3 © « 0, tb, bo .2 .© l s <3 © o, bo §3 s ? s © Q Oh bo •a .© -I -2 c Q <3 O, bo oo GG<3 o e> 0 c5 0 e? >. as- G H < M 2 w q p-J O U 2 3 5 Xfl Burma < H e n 5 eu < o 5 n Nepal 1243 XT\AV JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , m 75 Conservation In 1974 Government of India invited Dr. H. R. Bustard, FAO/UNDP Crocodile Consultant to advise on crocodile conservation and manage- ment schemes. Under the initiative and guidance of Dr. Bustard several state Govern- ments have established crocodilian projects, which include incubation of eggs, rearing of young and release in preserves. These projects also have the academic participation of several full-time Ph.D. scholars working on crocodilian biology. The gharial research and rehabili- tation units in Orissa and U.P. have had remarkable success and are currently rearing over 500 gharial hatched from wild-laid eggs which will be released in the adjacent protected areas. On 9th April 1977 the first 2 year old gharial over a metre long were released into the Mahanadi at Satkosia Gorge. Four sanc- tuaries have been created for the gharial : Orissa (Satkosia Gorge, Mahanadi River), U.P. (Katerniaghat, Girwa River), Bihar (near Nepal border, Gandak River) and Rajasthan (near Kota, Chambal River). Bhitar Kanika in Orissa is now a sanctuary for the estuarine crocodile. The survival of India’s three crocodilians depends on the success of these projects. Tamil Nadu has the potential for the largest mugger rehabilitation scheme in the country. In 1977 the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has collected over 600 eggs from wild nests and is rearing about 150 hatchlings from 1976 egg collection. Hatcheries and rearing ponds have been set up at Sathanur, Madras, Amara- vathi and Hogenakal. In addition, several areas that are important crocodile habitats are under consideration as crocodile preserves. During 1976 Andhra Pradesh and Kerala initiated mugger conservation projects. At least 2 mugger have been released in protected habitats in Andhra. Gujarat State, which has the second largest known mugger population after Tamil Nadu is reported to have a project proposal for the Gir crocodiles. It would be advantageous if crocodile conservation measures could be taken up state wide. States such as Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have remained mostly inactive with regard to crocodile rehabilitation. With the current interest and involvement of the Govt, of India and FAO/UNDP in crocodile conservation it would be timely for all states to take advantage of this and develop projects for the rehabilitation and management of this resource. The FAO/UNDP aided schemes aim to help recuperate crocodile populations to a safe, viable level in protected wild habitat. Simultaneously the technology of captive rearing (and eventually breeding) is being studied and developed for eventual farming. The pro- gramme envisages eventual culling of surplus animals, large scale battery type farming as well as crocodile farming as a ‘cottage industry* as in Papua/New Guinea (Pooley 1976). The Andamans and Nicobars are in particular need of attention. The estuarine crocodile could be ensured a future there and a major forest based industry could grow from a carefully managed programme. Sustained protection of our crocodilian resources is possible only through clear con- sideration of all the factors. The fisheries interests and the public must be convinced of the value of crocodilians in the eco-cycle of India’s aquatic and estuarine environments. Personnel with the aptitude and interest in the specialized field of wild animal husbandry must be located and trained. We must be certain that we do not create too big a market for farmed skins to fulfil which would again place increasing pressure on wild stocks. Aspects such as genetic stock and in-breeding must be studied in this initial phase of ‘ domesticating ’ a wild species. The carrying capacity of all previous or potential crocodilian habitat will have to be critically determined to guide release programmes. Similarly, monitoring and studies 1244 STATUS OF INDIAN CROCODILIANS II on existing wild and released populations will guide our management and sustained yield cropping policies. The Madras Crocodile Bank, a joint project of the Madras Snake Park Trust and the World Wildlife Fund was initiated in 1974 to breed and rear the 3 species of Indian crocodilians for conservation purposes. This year (1977) the Bank has for the third consecutive year had breeding success with mugger, and hopes to breed estuarine crocodiles and gharial in the future. The Bank possesses 130 mugger, 8 estuarine crocodiles and 3 gharial and has received support from the State Govt. The Tamil Nadu Tourist Development Corporation recently granted Rs. 50,000 to the Bank for developing the touristic and educational aspects of the Bank. The M. C. B. has supplied hatchlings to the forest departments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Orissa for their rearing projects and is aiding crocodilian conservation by public education, advice to state projects and the development of crocodile farming technology. The Future : Like most wildlife in India, crocodilian survival is threatened primarily because of value placed on skin, meat, eggs and other parts and secondly from increasing human pressure on the environment. Protection, public education and human population control are needed to ensure their survival. Meanwhile the most valid argument to offset the destruction of species like the crocodile is that these resources can be carefully managed for captive farming and free range sustained yield exploitation. If we can accomplish the marketing of farmed products only, we have paved the way for the survival of wildlife. References Adams, A. L. (1867) : Wanderings of a Naturalist in India. Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh. Bhanotar, R. K., Bhatnagar, R. K. and Mathur. D. K. (1975) : Export of India’s wildlife and its biological significance. Cheetal , Vol. 16, No. 3. Bustard, H. R. (1974) : A Preliminary Survey of the Prospects for Crocodile Farming (India). FAO, Rome. (1975) : A Future for the Gharial. Cheetal 17 No. 2. (1976) : Operation Gharial. Cheetal 17 No. 3 & 4. Cott, H. B. (1961) : Nile Crocodile. Trans, of Zool. Soc. of London. Daniel, J. C. and Hussain, S. A. (1974) : The record (?) salt water crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus , Schneider). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 71 (2) : 309- 312. Guggisberg, C. A. W. (1972) : Crocodiles. Stack- pole Books, USA. Hornaday, W. T. (1885) : Two Years in the Jungle. Scribner, New York. (1881) : Two years in the Jungle. Scribner, New York. IUCN (1971) : Crocodiles. Supplementary Paper No. 32, Morges, Switzerland. Mahadev, E. (1976) : Gharial Survey in Madhya Pradesh, Madras Snake Park Trust. Neill, W. T. (1971) : Last of the Ruling Reptiles. Colombia University Press, New York. and Gans, Carl (1976) : The Nile Crocodile. Scientific American , April 1976. Pooley, A. C. (1976): Papua /New Guinea- Crocodile Farming, IUCN. Smith, M. A. (1931) : Fauna of British India, Vol. 1. London. Whitaker, R. et al. (1974) : Preliminary Survey of the Gharial. Madras Snake Park Trust. (1974) : Notes on Behaviour, Ecology and Present Status of the Marsh Crocodile in South India. 1245 NOTES ON THE HOST PLANTS OF THE LORANTHACEAE IN THE NILGIRIS Priya Dayidar1 Fischer in 1926 contributed extensively to our knowledge of the host affinities of the loran- thacean plant parasites or the mistletoe of south India. However, little work has been done since then on the host ranges and affinities of these species, but for the host range of a few species recorded by Nara- simha and Rabindranath (1964). I made some observations and notes on the host range of the loranthacean species in the Nilgiris during the course of a two-year study on ornithophily. In this paper the name loranthus is used as a common name to indicate the semi plant parasites that fall under the family Loran- thaceae. A recent development in the classifi- cation of the mistletoe has been the formal separation of the Loranthaceae into two separate families Loranthaceae and Viscaceae (Kuijt 1969). The host plants of the Loranthaceae listed in this paper is neither complete nor exhaustive. However, some interesting host-parasite combi- nations are dealt with, and an effort made to identify the causes that may underlie them» as this could lead to a greater understanding of their phylogeny and evolution. The study area, the Nilgiri Hills, lies between latitude 11° 8' and 11° 37' N., and longitude 76° 27' and 77° 4' E. The area receives rainfall from both the NE and the SW monsoons. The differences in rainfall, temperature and altitude in different parts of the district contri- bute to make the flora of this district varied 1 Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay-400023. Present address t Canowie, Coonoor-613101, Tamil Nadu. and rich. Heavy rainfall on the western slopes supports a moist evergreen forest at elevations between 900 m and 1200 m. Slopes with less rain have a moist mixed deciduous type of forest, and in dry areas the dry deciduous forest. At about 1500 m the southern sub- tropical hill forest, the transitional belt of the shola forest intergrades with the shola forest. The southern montane wet temperate forest or the shola forest occurs above 1700 m, and is confined to the hollows and ravines on the hillsides. The southern montane wet grass- lands cover large areas on the hillsides. Several reasons have been put forward to explain the inability of a loranthus to establish itself on certain plants. The mechanical pro- perties of the host species bark that prevent penetration by the haustoria of the parasite, the biochemical incompatibility of the parasite and host systems, and the light or shade require- ments of the loranthus are some of them. The habits and movements of the birds that disperse the seeds of this parasite could also play a large role in determining the host species (Kuijt 1969). One of the obvious reasons for the restriction of the host range of a certain species of loranthus is its limitation to a certain biotope or vege- tational type, by environmental factors. This limits the number of host species the loranthus can parasitise. In the Nilgiris, loranthi such as Dendrophthoe neelgherrensis and D. meme- cylifolia are limited geographically to the montane evergreen forests as they occur only above a certain elevation on the sou- thern hills. Other species such as Scurrula 1246 HOST PLANTS OF THE LORANTHACEAE cordifolia and Helixanthera intermedia have a wider altitudinal tolerance and occupy two or three vegetational zones on the slopes. Helixanthera intermedia occurs between the altitudes of 1000 m-2000 m and straddles two to three vegetational zones. In the lower elevations it is found in the moist deciduous type of vegetation, where the tree predominantly attacked is Toona ciliata. Its range extends through the subtropical hill forest to the shola forest proper where its commonest host plant is Symplocos laurina. Dendrophthoe falcata possesses a high degree of adaptability to different environmental conditions. It has a very wide host range with 343 recorded host plants (Narasimha and Rabindranath). It is an extremely polymorphic species and two different forms may not seem to have much resemblance to each other, and inter- mediate forms also occur. Wiens (1971) main- tains that due to the extreme variation of forms and their lack of geographical consistency the variety subgrouping serves no useful purpose. However, I feel that the varieties should be delimited as it would make the different forms easier to describe. Besides there is strong evidence to suggest that the habit of this parasite varies with the habitat in which it is found. The form with long leathery leaves and yellow flowers is found in the dry deciduous biotope. This habit is possibly an adaptation to xerophytic conditions. The plants it com- monly parasitises are Zizyphus mauritiana , Z. xylopyra , Acacia spp., and Albizzia spp., the dominant trees in dry deciduous forest. The form with white flowers and falcate leaves occurs most commonly in the moist mixed deciduous forests, and it may occur to a less extent in wetter and in drier areas. The form with amplexicaule leaves is found in much wetter conditions on the slopes from 625 m to the shola forests. There is a significant amount of geographic consistency between the different forms and isolating mechanisms possibly operate to make them more distinct from each other. In D. falcata with amplexicaule leaves, colour of the flower varies from deep red to pink. In the sholas the trees most commonly attacked by this loranthus are Syzygium cuminii , S. arnottianum, and less often the shrub Rhodomyrtus tomentosa. There is a possibility that it extended its range up the hillside by parasitising a tree species also common in lower elevations. Another common host is the woody climber Dalbergia gard - neriana. This climber grows over several trees in the shola forming a tangle of vegetation. In one instance the climber was heavily infested with Dendrophthoe falcata , while not a single clump was found on any of the trees supporting the climber. In a mixed forest certain species are found to be highly host selective. It would be interest- ing to know why a loranthus confines itself to a few host species when there is an ample choice of hosts. In the temperate regions with stands of a single or a few species of trees it may be advantageous for the mistletoes to be host selective (Kuijt 1969). Though in a heterogenous tropical forest a high degree of host selectivity seems disadvantageous unless the parasite has also evolved a successful dis- persal system to propagate the parasite onto the required host. More study is required before it is established whether loranthus with a wide host range is more or less successful or advanced than loranthus with a limited host range (though success in parasitism cannot necessarily be equated with an advanced nature). Helixanthera hookeriana is a loranthus con- fined to the altitudinal zone of 1200-1700 m on the slopes of the western ghats complex. In the Nilgiris it is found in the moist mixed deciduous tract on the slopes. I have recorded this loranthus on only one species of host Mallotus philippinensis. Fischer in 1247 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 1926 recorded this loranthus on the ^bove host species only. The reasons for such a narrow host range in a forest support- ing numerous species of trees and shrubs is not, as yet, known. The limited geographical distribution and narrow host range of this loranthus could indicate an advanced nature though it also makes it vulnerable to extermination. This is an entomophilous species unlike the rest of the species in this district that are ornithophilous. The few species in this genus whose pollination has been studied are known to be ornithophi- lous though also visited by insects. Helix- anthera hookeriana has bisexual flowers, and its structure suggests an ornithophilous ancestry. With exceptions typical insect polli- nated loranthus are unisexual (Kuijt 1969). Entomophily in this case suggests an advanced nature. The fruits are dispersed by the flower- pecker. All the species of loranthus in the Nilgiris are propagated by birds. The most common agent for dispersal is the flowerpecker, Dicaeum concolor. At lower elevations both Dicaeum agile and D. erythrorhynchos are present. Nearly all the species of loranthus in the Niligiris are dispersed by Dicaeum , the common method is by discarding the epicarp, swallowing the viscid seed and excreting it on to a branch (Salim Ali 1931). However, Macrosolen parasiticus is also dispersed by frugivorous birds such as bulbuls and the barbets. Dendrophthoe memecylifolia , an endemic Nilgiri mistletoe found above 1700 m has a very limited host range, most often, if not always, the tree parasitised being Vaccinium lesche- naultii. Fischer’s paper in 1926 lists five host plants for this parasite. I have recorded it on four host plants, three of which are common with Fischer’s list. I have found this parasite only once each on the host species other than Vaccinium leschenaultii. To give an example : in a hectare of shola forest comprising of numerous shola trees, 10 out of the 17 Vacci- nium leschenaultii were parasitised by Dendro- phthoe memecylifolia. This loranthus was not found on any other shola tree. D. memecyli- folia produces a very limited number of fruits by comparison with the other loranthi. The fruiting period is very short, and the fruits are dispersed by Dicaeum concolor. The fruits of D. memecylifolia start to ripen when Vacci- nium leschenaultii is in fruit though past its peak. The fruits of V. leschenaultii are a great favourite with Dicaeum concolor and the birds move from one tree to another feeding on them. I have observed the bird consume a few fruits of the loranthus along with those of the host, and possibly the seeds are excreted on the next tree the bird visits. Apparently, birds could be one of the important factors that determine the host plant of D. memecylifolia. In Macrosolen capitellatus which occurs upto an elevation of 1500 m, flowerpeckers (observed species Dicaeum concolor ) use a different technique to disperse the seed. The flesh alone is eaten, the epicarp is dropped and the seed is rubbed off from its bill onto a branch. The bird plucks a fruit, flies a short distance away to a bare branch and proceeds to eat the flesh. Usually the bird stays close to the source of berries repeatedly visiting the clump for more fruit. As the seed is not taken to a distance it is common to see a tree fully infested with this loranthus. Many cases of hyper-parasitism have been recorded, and usually Viscum parasitising a loranthus is common. In these cases too the bird plays the major role. In Coonoor the fruiting of the loran- thus is spread over the year. Thus the bird does not have more than one to three species of loranthus in fruit to contend with at any given time of the year. The activity of the Dicaeum may differ at different times of the year, and this could also be a reason why a host species sometimes supports only a certain 1248 HOST PLANTS OF THE LORANTHACEAE species of loranthus and not others. Though ringed birds have not been followed, the Dicaeum is apparently territorial around a few clumps of loranthus in fruit, and apparently restricts its feeding to that area. The perch preference of the Dicaeum could also determine the subsequent dispersal of the seed. A small bird like the Dicaeum would normally prefer thinner branches to perch on. Light is an important controlling factor in the distribution of loranthus in a forest, light tolerant or the light intolerant species selecting habitats as per their requirements. Helixan- thera intermedia above 1500 m predominantly parasitises Symplocos laurina , and one of the factors could be that Helixanthera intermedia is a light tolerant branch inhabiting loranthus, and this particular host plant could offer possi- bilities for exposure to light. Helixanthera intermedia growing in shady conditions show listless growth and poor flowering, the flowers being pale. Taxillus cuneatus , T. recurvus and Helixanthera wallichiana appear to be light tolerant. Dendrophthoe memecylifolia , D. neelgherrensis appear to be light intolerant. Though some species of loranthus including D. neelgherrensis grow both in light and shaded conditions. Certain species have a wide host range. Den- drophthoe neelgherrensis which occurs above 1500 m and is a highly successful parasite of many of the indigenous as well as the introduced vegetation. It is the only loranthus that has parasitised Eucalyptus globulus. It had been suggested that the eucalyptus due to rapid exfoliation of its bark does not en- courage attack by the loranthus (Bidie 1874). Since then it has been noted that the loranthus does attack Eucalyptus globulus (Fischer 1926). Eucalyptus ficifolia is parasitised by Macrosolen parasiticus. I have seen D. neelgherrensis not only on the extremities of the branches of E. globulus but also on the main trunk where the bark is shed rapidly. Dendrophthoe neelgherrensis ‘ travels’ along the branches of the host by means of epicortical roots, producing haus- toria at intervals. Epicortical roots are not true roots as they arise from the base of the plant and not from the radicle. Loranthus such as Dendrophthoe memecylifolia , Taxillus cuneatus , T. recurvus , and Macrosolen parasi- ticus produce epicortical roots, and Dendro- phthoe falcata with amplexicaul leaves, Helix- anthera intermedia , and Helixanthera hookeriana do not have epicortical roots. Trunk inhabiting loranthus seem prone to developing epicortical roots, even within a species the clump on the trunk produces more epicortical roots than that on a thin branch. The introduced Acacias from Australia are attacked by most of the loranthus. Fruit trees like the plum, peach and pear are most suspectible to attack by Taxillus recurvus and Taxillus cuneatus. Many other introduced species of trees and shrubs are attacked by many species predominant among them being Dendrophthoe neelgherrensis , whereas some species of loranthus are not found on any exotic vegetation at all. Fischer notes that Monocotyledons are not attacked by the mistletoe. However in Ooty Botanical Gardens I have seen Taxillus recurvus parasitising Cordyline australis of Agavaceae, a monocot introduced from New Zealand. Resemblance between the foliage of the loranthus and that of its host is rare. The resemblance, if present may be accidental. However, the foliage of Dendrophthoe memecylifolia resembles that of its main host plant Vaccinium leschenaultii to such an extent that it is difficult to make out the parasite in vegetative condition. The host plants of a species of loranthus generally do not have any similarity or relationship to each other, though Dendrophthoe trigona is found very often on species of Ficus. The loranthus and its host plant do not have a common pollinating agent, nor does it appear that 1249 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST . SOCIETY, Vol. 75 flowering in the host influences flowering in the parasite. The little that is known about the host preferences of the parasite, could be augmented by detailed study on loranthus seed germina- tion, penetration and successful parasitism of various host plants. The influence of factors like rainfall, humidity, temperature, and passage of the seed through the alimentary canal of the bird on germination needs to be known. The habits and movements of the birds involved in loranthus propagation merit study to deter- mine the role they play in host selection. The life span of a clump of loranthus needs to be determined. I have noticed clumps of loranthus dying for apparently no reason on a perfectly healthy host plant. Detailed study would possibly clarify the main factor or factors involved in host selection. The damage done by the loranthacean species on natural vegeta- tion and cultivated plants needs to be assessed. List or host plants of the Loranthaceae Species or loranthus Species of host Helixanthera hookeriana (W. & A) Danser M. Arg. (1200 m-1700 m) Mallotus philippinensis M. Arg. Helixanthera intermedia Wt. ( Danser) (900 m-2200 in) Gordonia obtusa Wall. Toona ciliata Roem. Ilex wightiana Wall. Meliosma pinnata (Roxb.) Walp. * Acacia melanoxylon R. Br. Photonia notoniana W. & A. Symplocos laurina (Retz.) Wall., Rehd. & Wills. Dendrophthoe falcata (Linn.f.) Etting. Toona ciliata Roem. Dalbergia lanceolaria L.f. Dalbergia latifolia Roxb. Acacia caesia Willd. Acacia sp. Albizzia sp. Anogeissus latifolia Wall. Premna cordifolia W. Emblica officinalis Gaertn. Meliosma simplicifolia (Roxb.) Walp. * Acacia dealbata Link. * Acacia melanoxylon R. Br. t, * Prunus domes tica Linn. * Prunus persica (Linn.) Batsch. * Pyrus communis Linn. * Nerium odorum Soland. * Cinnamomum camphora Nees Elaeagnus kologa Schlecht Glochidion neilgherrense W. Celtis wightii PI. Salix tetrasperma Roxb. * Cordyline australis (Foist.) Hook. f. Scurrula parasitica Linn. (300 m-2500 m) Taxillus recurvus (DC.) van Tieghem (1500 m +) 1250 HOST PLANTS OF THE LORANTHACEAE Species of loranthus Species of host Taxillus cuneatus (Roth) Dendrophthoe falcata (Linn, f.) Etting widespread Dendrophthoe trigona (W. & A.) Dans. (900 m) * Cryptomeria japonica (Linn. f.). D. Don * Citrus aurantium Linn. * Citrus medica Linn. * Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Linn. Meliosma simplicifolia (Roxb.) Walp. * Acacia dealbata Link. Photonia lindleyana W. Sc A. * Prunus domestica Linn. * Prunus persica (Linn.) Batsch. * Prunus cerassoides D. Don * Pyrus communis Linn. Syzygium cuminii (Linn.) Skeels. Wendlandia thyrsoidea (Roem. & Schult.) Steud. Maesa perrottetiana A. DC. Ligustrum perrottetii A. DC. Lasiosiphon eriocephalus DC. Celtis wight ii PI. Salix tetrasperma Roxb. Bombax ceiba Linn. Toona ciliata Roem. Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk. Zizyphus xylopyra (Retz.) Willd. Man gif era indica Linn. Dalbergia gardneriana Benth. Dalbergia lati folia Roxb. Acrocarpus fraxinifolius Wt. Tamarindus indica Lipn. Acacia ferruginea DC. * Acacia dealbata Link. * Acacia melanoxylon R. Br. Acacia leucophloea Willd. Albizzia sp. Terminalia chebula Retz. Anogeissus latifolia Wall. Rhodomyrtus tomentosa Wt. Psidium guajava Linn. Syzygium arnottianum Walp. Syzygium cuminii (Linn.) Skeels. Tristania conferta R. Br. Maesa perrottetiana DC. Tectona grandis L.f. * Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. Mallotus philippinensis M. — Arg. * Celtis serotina PI. Celtis wightii PI. Morus alba Linn. Dalbergia latifolia Roxb. Ficus bengalensis Linn. Ficus mysorensis Linn. Ficus glomerata Roxb. * Nerium odorum Soland. 1251 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Lb/. 75 Species of loranthus Species of host Helicanthes elastica (Desr.) Dans. Grewia tiliaefolia Vahl Zizyphus sp. Pithecolobiurn dulce Benth. Mallotus philippinensis M. Arg. Euphorbia antiquorum Linn. Dendrophthoe neelgherrensts (S. & A.) Dans. (1300 m +) * Cryptomeria japonica (Linn, f) D. Don * Magnolia grandi flora Linn. Mahonia leschenaultii Tak. * Camellia japonica Linn. Gordonia obtusa Wall. Eurya japonica Thunb. Nothapodytes foetida (Wy.) Sleumer. Ilex wight iana Wall. Ilex denticulata Wall. Microtropis ramiflora Wt. Turpinia cochinchinensis (Lour.) Mers. Meliosma simplicifolia (Roxb.) Walp. * Acacia dealbata Link. * Acacia decurrens Willd. * Acacia melanoxylon R. Br. Pygeum wight ianum Bl. Photonia lindleyana W. & A. * Prunus cerassoides D. Don * Syncarpia glomulifera (Sm.) Nied. * Eucalyptus globulus Labill. * Lagerstroemia indica Linn. Schefflera racemosa Harms. Sehefflera capitata Harms. * Luculia gratissima SW. Viburnum punctatum Buch.-Ham, ex D. Don Xantolis tomentosa (Roxb.) Vaccinium leschenaultii Wt. Rhododendron nilagincum Zenk Ligustrurn lucidum Ait. Phoebe paniculata Nees Litseae ligustrina Hk. f. * Hakea acicularis Kn. Dendrophthoe falcata (Linn, f.) Etting. Celtis wightii PI. Salix tetrasperma Roxb. * Platanus orientalis Linn. * Quercus cerris Linn. Dendrophthoe memecylifolia (W. & A.) Danser (1500 m +) Pittosporum nilghirense W. & A. Vaccinium leschenaultii Wt. Rhododendron nilagiricum Zenk Rapanea wightiana Mez. Macrosolen parasiticus (Linn.) Danser (900 m, 1500 m-2400 m) * Cryptomeria japonica (Linn, f.) D. Don Microtropis ramiflora Wt. * Acacia melanoxylon R. Br. Anogeissus latifolia Wall. Syzygium arnottianum 'Wsdp. 1252 HOST PLANTS OF THE LORANTHACEAE Species of loranthus Macrosolen capitellatus (W. & A.) (1000 m-1500 m) Species of host * Eucalyptus ficifolia F.v. Muell. Maesa perrottetiana A. DC. Phoebe paniculata Nees. Cinnamomum wightii Meissn. * Celtis serotina PI. Celtis wightii PI. Salix tetrasperma Roxb. * Ficus elastica Roxb. Maesa perrottetiana A. DC. Ficus tjakela Burm. Ficus spp. Artocarpus integrifolia Linn. * introduced species Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to Dr. Salim Ali for the inspiration and guidance he provided. The study was undertaken with financial Re fe Ali, Salim A. (1931) : The role of the Sunbirds and Flowerpeckers in the propogation and distribution of the tree parasite Loranthus longiflorus Desr. in the Konkan (W. India). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 35 : 1 : 144-149. Docters van Leeuwen, W. M. (1954) : On the Biology of some Javanese Loranthaceae and the role birds play in their life history. Beaufortia Misc. Pub . 4 : 105-207. Fischer, C. E. C. (1926) : Loranthaceae of Southern India and their host plants. Records of the Bot. Surv. of Indiall: 159-195. Gamble, J. S. and Fischer, C. E. C. (1967) : Flora of the Presidency of Madras (reprint). assistance from the Bombay Natural History Society through a Salim Ali/Loke Wan Tho Ornithological Research Fund Fellowship. ences Kuijt, J. (1969) : The Biology of Parasitic Flowering Plants. University of California Press. Matthew, K. M. (1969) : The exotic Flora of Kodaikanal, Palni Hills. Rec. of the Bot. Surv. of India 20 : 1-241. Sharma, B. D. (1975) : Flora of Nilgiri District, Tamilnadu— A checklist. Botanical Survey of India (unpublished). Wiens, D. (1971) : Critical Notes on the Viscaceae and Loranthaceae of Ceylon. Ceylon Journal of Science 9: 43-50. * Not referred to in the original. 20 1253 ECOLOGICAL IMPACT OF AFFORESTATION AT THE RANIBENNUR BLACKBUCK SANCTUARY S. G. Neginhal1 {With two plates) Introduction This paper deals with the ecological impact of afforestations on the populations of the Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra , the Great Indian Bustard Choriotis nigriceps and the Wolf Canis lepus at the Ranibennur Black- buck Sanctuary of Karnataka State. These species had locally become almost extinct at Ranibennur on account of the destruction of their habitat and killings on a large scale, both by the villagers and poachers. Methods No systematic census was carried out. Rough estimates of the Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra and the Great Indian Bustard Choriotis nigriceps were arrived at through several visits taking counts, assisted by the Sanctuary officials. Information was also derived from the ‘ fre- quency of sighting \ I also had the opportunity of personal contacts with several forest officers who worked in this area since 1958. The Habitat Abiotic Conditions : The Ranibennur Blackbuck Sanctuary covers an area of 119 km2 of open and undulating scrub forests near Ranibennur of Dharwar District, Karnataka State. It has vast expanses of grasslands. The configuration is flat and 1 Assistant Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Meh- boobnagar, Hubli-580 022 (Karnataka). undulating, giving rise to gentle slopes and elevations (mounds) at places. The elevation ranges from 780 m to 985 m. The under- lying rock chiefly consists of iron stone and quartz. The soil is very poor and lacks humus. It is shallow on the slopes and on the mounds and is eroded. The habitat is surrounded by agricultural fields where jowar, cotton, millets and oil crops are raised. The average annual precipitation is about 440 mm. The habitat receives both the south- west (June to August) and the north-east (Sep- tember to November) monsoons, the latter con- tributing the major precipitation. The rainfall is, however, irregular and scanty. Drought and arid conditions generally prevail. All the streams cease flowing before the end of December and almost all water sources dry up in summer. The maximum temperature is around 38°C and the minimum around 20°C. Biotic Conditions Flora : From the abiotic conditions detailed above and the residual forests still occurring in the sanctuary it is evident that the ecosystem once supported a scrub type of forest at its climax. Kanitkar (1924) has recorded that the forests of Ranibennur were of scrub type which were already in poor and degraded conditions in 1924. So he had recommended replacing this silviculturally ‘ unsound and stunted growth ’ with a vigorous 4 coppice and seedling growth ’ . 1254 J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Neginhal : Ranibennur Blackbuck Sanctuary Plate I 1. Afforested areas of Ranibennur, raised prior to 1972 by contour trenching, which provided sufficient open areas for blackbuck and bustard. 2. Mechanised afforestations from 1972 onwards created ‘ tall forests ’ of Eucalyptus and covered all open areas and even mounds, thereby discouraging blackbuck and bustard. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 75 Plate II Neginhal : Ranibennur Blackbuck Sanctuary 3. The blackbuck spending their time in the adjoining open agricultural fields than in the intensively afforested areas. 4. A Great Indian Bustard’s nest and its large egg found in the Sanctuary. ECOLOGICAL IMPACT OF AFFORESTATION The forest growth, as described by Kanitkar, consisted of the species of Albizzia amara , Chloroxylon swietenia. Acacia spp., Hardwickia binata , Ixora parviflora , Euphorbia spp., Dodo- naea viscosa , Carissa spp., Cassia auriculata , Lantana camara , etc. Sandalwood Santalum album was found throughout the area. A fairly good growth of grass came up everywhere. Wildlife : No information on wildlife that existed in the area in 1924 is available. Kanitkar is silent about this rich inheritance. Local reports, however, confirm that the Rani- bennur ecosystem supported in the past a varied and rich fauna such as the Blaclcbuck Antilope cervicapra, the Wild Boar Sus scrofa , the Wolf Canis lupus , and birds such as the Peafowl Pavo cristatus , and the Great Indian Bustard Choriotis nigriceps. Observations As prescribed by Kanitkar (1924), the scrub forests of Ranibennur were extracted and removed between 1924-1925 to 1954-1955. By 1958 the scrub forests were reduced to vast grasslands with scattered patchy growth of Ixora parviflora, Euphorbia Spp., Dodonaea viscosa, and a few other scrub species. These degraded conditions were ushered in by the mounting influences of biotic factors of over- grazing, hacking and fires. No wild animals were to be seen here in 1958. The blackbuck that reportedly moved in big herds in the past was not there. The great Indian bustard that had earned a local name as ‘ Yeraladdu 9 , suggesting its local abundance, was not to be seen. From 1958 to 1971 attempts were made by the Karnataka Forest Department to afforest these barren areas by contour trenching. These manually dug contour trenches were of the sizes of 0.91 m x 0.61 m x 0.45 rn, 1.83 m x 0.61 m x 0.45 m and 3.66 mx 0.45 m x 0.45 m and were staggered with a gap of 2 m in between two trenches and were vertically spaced at 9.15 m apart. Extensive denuded areas were also taken up for afforestation from 1970 onwards (Nadgouda 1977) to arrest soil erosion in the catchment areas of the Tungabhadra River of which Ranibennur formed a part. In 1972 afforestation by manually dug trenches was replaced by mechanised affore- station. With the help of the heavy bulldozers, attached with specially designed rippers, the forest floor was ripped in lines at 2 m apart, instead of the spacing of 9.15 m apart earlier adopted during the manual trenching opera- tions, and eucalyptus plants were planted 1.25 m and 1.5 m apart (Torvi 1975). Even the open space between the two rows of the previously afforested manually dug trenches was further ripped with the bulldozer and planted. More stress was also laid on planting eucalyptus hybrid, which soon grew to a height of 7-8 metres within 4-5 years. This mecha- nised afforestation from 1972 onwards went on drastically changing the entire structure and type of the habitat. The vast and expansive grassy blanks were covered by the fast growing eucalyptus hybrid over the years. So the open habitat of the blackbuck and the bustard went on shrinking ; and they were forced to shift their resting and breeding grounds to other open areas, which would also be ripped later for planting. (On an average about 640 ha. of this area is covered annually under mechanised afforestations.) Moreover the operations involved in the mechanised afforestations offered much dis- turbance to the wildlife. The noise of the bulldozer scared away the blackbuck and the bustards. On account of its capacity to plough any hard ground, most of the grazing grounds of the blackbuck and the nesting sites of the bustards were lost. 1255 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Fo/. 75 In 1976 I observed the blackbuck spending more of their time in the open harvested agri- cultural lands that adjoin the sanctuary than in the sanctuary itself. It was also an ecolo- gical warning that the sanctuary was slowly becoming unfit for their use due to the thick and tall vegetation replacing their open-ground and stunted vegetation. Prior to taking up afforestations in 1958, the Ranibennur was in a degraded con- dition. The rich scrub forests and the fauna that it reportedly supported in the past were destroyed by man. Even the fertility of the soil had come down and erosion was taking place. The ‘ Soil conservation and affores- tation ’ measures taken up from 1958 onwards recovered the situation and rejuvenated the habitat. As grazing was stopped in the afforested areas, fodder grass came up. Seeds of local species, brought from outside^ were sown on the manually dug trench mounds. So the once eliminated local species started establishing in the forest. The exotic fast growing eucalyptus soon surpassed the local species in height and growth and thus established itself as the dominant species. The eucalyptus, however, did not pose any problems initially as it was planted far apart (9.15 m). But as the years passed the eucaly- ptus shot up and ecologically changed the scrub type of habitat, where the height of the forest was not more than 2 metres, into a different habitat with its vegetational growth of 7 to 8 metres. The measures taken to afforest the area had initially a remarkable effect on the fauna. The blackbuck that was reduced to near extinction in the Ranibennur slowly started recovering. In 1958 when afforestations were taken up the blackbuck was not noticed in the area, although a few must have existed. As afforestations proceeded and years passed, reports started trickling in from the forest staff of sighting the black- buck moving in the area in ones and twos ; and this soon grew into small herds as the years passed. In 1970 and 1971 I observed the blackbuck roaming over this area in large herds, congregating on the grassy plains and barren mounds which were not covered by afforestation (Neginhal 1974). In 1970 I had estimated the population of blackbuck to be about 600 by visual counts. In September 1971 this habitat was constituted as a blackbuck sanctuary (based on my report), covering an area of 119 km2. In my 1974 visit the population of blackbuck was still on the increase and my visual count put the popu- lation around 1000. This spurt in the population of the blackbuck was not a healthy sign in the absence of a predator, and I was wondering how nature would respond to this requirement. Nature soon met this situation by bringing in a pre- dator. In 1973 a wolf was reported in the sanctuary and 2 years later a wolf was sighted with cubs (Krishnan 1975). In 1971 the Great Indian Bustard, an endangered species, was sighted in the sanctuary authentically for the first time. These birds soon started breeding here. In 1974 I counted 15 birds and in May 1976 I saw and photographed a nest with an egg (Neginhal 1976). The other important birds seen were the Common Sandgrouse Pterocles exustus , the Indian Courser Cursorius coro- mandelicus, the peafowl and the Pale Harrier Circus macrourus. The intensive work of afforestations has also affected the indigenous flora, so typical of the open scrub forests of the Deccan. The Acacia spp., Euphorbia spp., Ixora parviflora and other indigenous floral patches where the bustard used to shelter have dis- appeared now. The eucalyptus hybrid, a variety selected initially in 1958 for its fast growing and hardy nature, later found to be of industrial use in the 1256 ECOLOGICAL IMPACT Of AFFORESTATION manufacture of rayon and paper pulp, posed a further danger to the habitat owing to the disturbance caused while cutting and transport- ing the wood. Discussions and Conclusions The blackbuck, the wolf, the fox and the Great Indian bustard were not reported in the Ranibennur habitat in 1958, when the affores- tations were started. Afforestations were taken up from 1958 to 1972 with wide spaced manually dug trenches. The blackbuck rose to a population of 600 in 1970 and to 1000 in 1974. The wolf was spotted in 1973. The Great Indian bustard was first sighted in 1971 and rose to a population of 15 in 1974 and remained almost constant in 1976. Prior to carrying out afforestations, the black- buck population must have been reduced to im- perceptible proportions due to adverse biotic fac- tors to which the habitat was subjected, such as heavy grazing, hacking, fires and poaching. The afforestation work increased the carrying capa- city of the habitat. It gave indirect protection against the poachers on account of the constant presence of the forest staff engaged in affores- station-cum-soil conservation works. As the grazing was restricted and was closed in the afforested parts, grass came up profusely and provided ample food to the blackbuck. This was supplemented by the indigenous vegetation that came up on account of the stoppage of grazing. The grass and other vegetation also offered the much needed shelter and cover. So the adverse factors decreased as the welfare factors increased in proportion. This gave a boost to the natality rate while the mortality was far reduced. On account of these favourable conditions the population of blackbuck kept increasing rapidly. As the population of blackbuck increased along with an increase in the small mammals and birds, favourable conditions were set for sustaining a predator ; and this came in the form of the wolf. The afforestations work also created congenial environmental conditions for the Great Indian bustard. However, the intensification of afforesta- tions by mechanised means started clothing what- ever open areas were available with tall growth of fast growing vegetation and this poses a great threat to the blackbuck and the bustard. With the help of heavy bulldozers the remaining open grassy patches, used for roaming and breeding by the blackbuck and the bustard, were ripped and planted intensively within no time. The afforestations with exotics also endangered the local flora. The blackbuck and the bustard are evolved for open habitat and hence they thrive best in open plains scattered with scrub growth. Salim Ali (1969) refers to the Great Indian bustard as a species affecting wide open spaces of scanty grassland interspersed with scrub. Prater (1948), Schaller (1967) and Krishnan (1972) gave the habitat of the blackbuck in open forests and open meadows. The wolf too prefers open scrub areas. In the initial years of afforestations from 1958 onwards the general conditions and characters of the ‘ scrub and grass ’ continued to prevail in the environment. The initial low height of the plants, especially of eucalyptus, did not pose any ecological problems to these animal and bird species. But soon the habitat changed. The stunted condition of the 4 scrub forests ’ changed to a tall ‘ forest growth ’ on account of the fast growing eucalyptus which reached a height of about 8 metres within about 4-5 years. This ‘ tall forest ’ started covering the existing bare areas, year by year, on account of the progressive afforestation works, thereby shrinking the habitat of the blackbuck, the bustard and the wolf. The habitat is becoming unsuitable for the existence of these species. In course of time the habitat may even 1257 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 75 replace the blackbuck with the Spotted Deer Axis axis , the wolf with the Leopard Panthera pardus , the great Indian bustard with the Grey Junglefowl Gallus sonneratii , the Indian courser with the lapwings ( Vanellus malabaricus and V. indicus). Should we desire this ecological succession which would eliminate the endan- gered blackbuck, the great Indian bustard and the wolf that Nature has attempted to rehabilitate in this ecosystem in the question. References Ali, Salim and Ripley, S. D. (1969) : Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan, Yol. 2. Oxford Uni- versity Press, London. Kanitkar, R. K. (1924) : Working Plan report for the scrub forests of Dharwar and Kod Ranges. Karnataka Forest Department. Krishnan, M. (1972) : An ecological survey of mammals of India. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 69 (3). 469-501. (1975) : A report on the Ranibennur Sanctuary sent to the Director, Wildlife, Bangalore. Nadgouda, K. S. (1977) : Note on Gadag Forest Division. My Forest (Karnataka Forest Department quarterly magazine), June 1977. Yol. 13. No. 2. Neginhal, S. G. (1974) : Blackbuck of Ranibennur. My Forest. June 1974. Vol. 10. No. 2. (Article sent in 1971). (1976) : At a Bustards’ Nest. Newsletter for Birdwatchers, August 1976. Yol. XYI. No. 8. Prater, S. H. (1948) : The Book of Indian Animals, Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay. Schaller, G. B. (1967) : The Deer and the Tiger. Torvi, R. K. (1975) : Mechanised afforestation in drought prone areas, Dharwar District. My Forest. September 1975, Vol. 11. No. 3. Note : In 1979 I again visited this sanctuary and could trace only one bustard as against 15 spotted in 1974. Most of the Blackbuck were found in the surrounding agricultural fields than in the sanctuary. A leopard was also reported prowling in the sanctuary. 1258 HUMAN-ANIMAL INTERACTIONS IN THE RAJASTHAN DESERT ISHWAR PRAKASH1 AND P. K. GHOSH Introduction The north-western and western parts of Rajas- than comprising the arid and semi-arid districts of Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, Ganganagar? Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, Nagaur’ Pali, Sikar and Sirohi — have harboured a large variety of fauna since proto-historic times (Sankhala 1964 ; Prakash 1975). Archaeological evidences and historical records indicate that in the not-too-distant past, the tract abounded in several species of wildlife that no longer exist here. For example, excavations carried out at sites of mesolithic culture in the Luni basin, particularly near Tilwara in Barmer district have unearthed charred bones of the spotted deer Axis axis and the hog deer Axis porcinus , besides a host of other species, — both of which have now disappeared from the desert scene. These finds also point to the prevalence of a combination of hunting and stock-raising economy in this region in the mesolithic period. The archaeological finds also suggest that in times of antiquity, the jackal Canis aureus and the Domestic dog Canis familiaris were perhaps as much preferred for their meat as the herbivores. Today, consumption of the meat of such carnivorous animals is restricted to only a few tribes or sects. In historical times, western Rajasthan provided enough opportunities to the sporting nobility to test their mettle (Prakash 1960). The first Mughal emperor, Babur, has left behind vivid narratives of his hunting expeditions in this tract and in adjacent Sind where the Asiatic lion was not scarce at all. In all probability, the lion had its sway over Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur. much of the Rajasthan desert until compara- tively recent times. Besides the lion, the region could easily boast of a surprising variety of wildlife, only a fraction of which has managed to survive to this day. Culturally speaking, the people of Rajasthan have, over the cen- turies, developed a dichotomous attitude towards wildlife. On the one hand, there were the Rajputs — the princely caste — and their minions, besides a number of nomadic and forest-dwelling tribes — who looked upon hunting of wildlife as one of the more manly pastimes and revelled in killing whatever game came their way. On the other extreme of the psycho-social spectrum there were the believers in absolute non-violence, particularly, those belonging to the trading communities, brahmins and practising Jains and some other religious sects. Human-Animal Interactions A desert community of people called the Vishnoi occupies a distinctive position in this arrangement. These people nurse a peculiarly strong inhibition towards the killing of the Blackbuck Antelope cervicapra , but are not particularly against destruction of other forms of wildlife. To a Vishnoi , the blackbuck, any blackbuck, represents one of his ancestors and, as such, is an object of veneration. It will be no exaggeration to say that but for the aggres- sive protection afforded by the Vishnois to this beautiful antelope species, it would have vanished from the desert scene, as have vanished (or almost vanished) the panther, the Great Indian Bustard Choriotis nigriceps and the Wild Boar Sus scrofa. We have witnessed 1259 JOURNAL , BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY , Vol 75 what results people’s active involvement in wildlife preservation can achieve. In the Dawa-Doli Blackbuck Sanctuary situated about 40 km west of Jodhpur, and managed by the Rajasthan Forest Department, there are now about 3000 blackbuck of both sexes and all age groups. The sanctuary is fortunately surrounded by Vishnoi villages and is, thus, not the least dependent upon the vigilance of the government guards for the protection of its denizens. They are lovingly protected at all times by the whole populace and the result is worthy of emulation in all parts of the world. They even provide grains and water to the animals during droughts and engage people to look after the needs of animals in remote areas. We would consider the Vishnoi as perhaps the only such group of people with such zeal for affording protection to a wildlife species. Should not the IUCN and the World Wildlife Fund recognise the meritorious services of the Vishnois in the cause of wildlife preser- vation by at least an honourable mention of their sustained efforts ? As far as the nobles were concerned, it has been a ‘ shoot-at-sight ’ in certain cases and a logical and seasonal harvesting of wildlife, development of game sanctuaries and syste- matic management and breeding of different species — in other cases. The sagacity of the former Maharajas of Bikaner with regard to wildlife management — for game purposes, of course — speaks for itself in the form of the beautiful Gajner Sanctuary — the winter resort of the imperial sandgrouse and the favourite habitat of the chinkara Gazella gazella and the blackbuck. Similarly, the erst-while Maharajas of Jaipur have left us the legacy of the wildlife wealth of Sawai-Madhopur while the princely house of Alwar had preserved for posterity the excellent Sariska Sanctuary. The Ghana Bird Sanctuary of Bharatpur is another example of man’s appreciation of wild beauty. During days of the princes, it was the preroga- tive of the Rajas and nobles to hunt in the state forests. Poachers and defaulting commoners were severely punished for any violation of the rules. The situation totally changed since 1947. While the Indians got their political independence, they also got the freedom to totally annihilate their wildlife (Prakash 1958). Merciless, thoughtless, ruthless killing of all wildlife became the order of the day, and the desert soon became bereft of some of its most precious jewels that Nature had adorned her with. Fortunately for all of us, the mad frenzy for wanton killing has given way to a little bit of rational thinking. The high-powered jeep with blinding flash-light and the high- velocity rifle is no longer the ruler of the desert night — even though it is still not an uncommon exception. Hopefully, the day is not far off when all of us will feel a positive attraction for our wildlife. At the moment, for most of us, a bird or an animal is just a bird or an animal, with no special significance. We are rather insipid, non-involved or down-right callous in our attitude towards wildlife. What we need is a tiny shot of the VishnoV s protective spirit in our arms — and all our wildlife will be safe. We have already paid a heavy price for our callousness. We have been silent spectators of the mass slaughter of a great many species and in some cases the germ plasm has been lost for ever. The desert sands no longer reverberate to the thunderous roar of the lion, nor does the sleek cheetah survey the horizon from the height of a mound and then, in a flash, almost glides through the air to prey on a herd of unwary blackbuck serenely grazing under the shadow of a dune. The wild boar too has had its day, and we may never encounter them in lonely paths as our ancestors used to do so commonly. We have lost much. But we still have that magnificent bird — the great Indian bustard and the smaller, though equally attrac- tive, game-bird— the Houbara Chlamydotis m- 1260 HUMAN-ANIMAL INTERACTIONS in RAJASTHAN dulata in sufficient numbers to allow reasonably stable population build-up of these two species in this tract. We are also fortunate that the desert still abounds in the fleet-footed chinkara and the blackbuck. Future Plan Lest we lose even these few remnants of our heritage for ever, efforts are under way to organize a Desert National Park near Pokaran in Jaisalmer district where these graceful birds and animals will be allowed to live and breed in their own ecological niche and without the fear of man. Attention must, however, be R E F E Prakash, Ishwar (1958) : Extinct and vanishing mammals from the desert of Rajasthan and the problems of their preservation. Indian Forester , 88 : 642-645. (1960) : Shikar in Rajasthan. The Cheetal, 2(2) : 68-72. paid to restore climax conditions in the Desert National Park even if it has to be done by irrigating the grasslands by tube well water. Any rejuvenation of wildlife in the present degraded land will be almost impossible. A development plan for wildlife in the Thar Desert has been proposed in another communi- cation (Prakash 1975). Acknowledgement Our thanks are due to the Director, Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur for encouragement and support. E NC e s (1975) : Wildlife ecology and conservation. Chapter XX. In ‘ Environmental Analysis of the Thar Desert ’ (Eds. R. K. Gupta and Ishwar Prakash). English Book Depot, Dehra Dun : 467-480. Sankhala, K. S. (1964) : Wildlife sanctuaries in Rajasthan. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 61 : 27-34. 1261 HEALTH PERSPECTIVES FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION C. M. Singh1 It is well known that changes have been occurring since prehistoric times in the population numbers of various animal species and that these changes are influenced by a complex interplay of a wide variety of ecological factors. A number of these factors related to physical and biological characteristics of ecosystems are generally recognised and have received attention. There is, however, little knowledge and appreciation of the role of highly contagious and fatal epizootics, some of which affect a wide range of animal species over large areas, in the popu- lation changes in wildlife that have been observed over certain periods of time. During the past century, human activities have considerably hastened the process of decrease in numbers or even extinction of some species of wildlife. Owing to the increasing land use for agricultural operations and conse- quent progressive decrease in forest areas, there is already a growing tendency to conserve wildlife in the limited geographic areas of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Under these conditions, the prevalence of epizootics among wildlife is likely to play a more important and crucial role in the popu- lation dynamics of wildlife. Therefore, there is an urgent need to determine the nature and the extent of epizootics encountered among different species of wildlife in the country. A clearer understanding of the diseases that may influence the mortality rates in free living wild animals, will be helpful not only for adopting more effective steps for conservation of our valuable wildlife, but also for devising measures director, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar. to decrease the perpetual hazard of spread of some of the diseases in wild animals to and from domestic animals and man. Epidemiological aspects of some of the epizootics encountered in different species of wildlife in the country are briefly summarized in spite of the fact that not much information is available in the published literature. Rinderpest : The devastating effect of this pestilence of the Gaur Bos gaurus population in wildlife reserves and sanctuaries in the country, has been reported on a number of occasions during the past fifty years (Burton 1953). This disease has accounted for the death of a large number of gaur and wild buffalo in peninsular India (Editorial 1927). As early as 1935, Salim Ali drew attention to the fact that large tracts of game country have been known to be ravaged by rinderpest and foot and mouth disease contracted from infected cattle left to graze in forests inhabited by wild animals. More recently this disease had almost wiped out the gaur populations of Mudumalai Sanctuary in 1968 and Periyar Sanctuary in 1974. Ray and Samanta (1974) reported the occur- rence of a syndrome simulating rinderpest at Calcutta zoo. The disease attacked Nilgai Boselaphus tragocamelus , gayal Bos fron- talis and hog deer Axis porcinus. The case fatality rate was 61 per cent. Virological studies were not done. The disease was controlled by administration of caprinised rinderpest vaccine to other artiodactyles and institution of quarantine measures. The disease is believed to spread from the infected domestic cattle and buffaloes to 1262 HEALTH PERSPECTIVES FOR WILDLIFE the wild animals through common pastures. In addition to the bovines, many other artiodactyls may contract this disease. Among the wildlife in this country, these include Sambar Cervus unicolor , Nilgai, Yak etc. The epidemiologic characteristics of the disease encountered in these species are not known. It is also not known whether epizootics may occur which may remain confined to the gaur population while the disease has not been noticed in the domestic bovine population in the area over the period of time preceding the observed outbreak in wildlife. The possibility of any other species of wildlife becoming carriers of rinderpest virus infection during the inter-epizootic periods has not been investigated. Foot and Mouth Disease : Outbreaks of Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) in the gaur populations associated with high mortality have been reported to occur frequently during the past several decades. Salim Ali (1935) reported that an entire herd of gaur perished from foot and mouth disease at Manikgarh in Hyderabad State. From the information received by him it appeared that in a similar epidemic hundreds of animals perished in Warangal district. Morris (1952) reported the death of 15,620 ‘bison’ due to foot and mouth disease contracted from village cattle penned in hill forests owing to lack of grazing down below. FMD is a highly contagious disease with a wide host range among artiodactyls and has a high morbidity rate among several species of domestic animals. The disease may occur in animals other than artiodactyls such as hedgehogs, and even rats have been considered potential carriers. There is some evidence to suggest that elephants Elephas maximus may also contract infection. It has been contended that the presence and the persistence of FMD virus infection in certain species of wild animals may play a vital role in the general epidemiology of this disease (McDiarmid 1975). Rabies : In India, apart from the domestic dog which is generally acknowledged as the most common transmitter of urban and rural human rabies, a number of wildlife hosts such as the wild dog, jackal, wolf, fox, jungle ( cat and mongoose are known to contract and transmit the disease to other susceptible animals and man. However, there is little reported information on the sylvatic rabies cycle in the country. It is known that rabies tends to cycle within host species and only rarely spills over to other species so that it may be present in jackals or foxes without being observed for many years. The extent of wildlife rabies hazard to man and the domestic livestock, is illustrated by a recent observation reported by Shah and Jaswal (1976). In February 1973 a rabid wolf travelled over 23 km in 12 hours in Aurangabad district and attacked 12 persons and 6 domestic animals in 15 different places. Three persons and 3 animals died of rabies. 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