Birds of Arid and Semi-Arid Tracts

About this book

Language: English

A consolidated account on birds of the arid and semi-arid areas of northwestern India has been in some demand among naturalists for the past few decades. Birds of such arid areas are not restricted only to the boundries of India but are also distributed in countries of Southwest Asia, on the basis of physiographic conditions. Portions of the two states of northwest India, viz., Rajasthan and Gujarat are drought affected arid areas where the desert is well established and the desert has penetrated into contiguous areas of Punjab and Haryana, as well as Western Madhya Pradesh. An account of birds inhabiting such arid and semi-arid tracts as found in these states has been prepared here. This not only lists birds especially adapted to live under desert conditions but also includes those which have greater flexibility of adaptation to move with seasonally changing physiographic conditions.

The present contribution is largely based on the extant literature together with ornithological surveys conducted by the author and his fellow ornithologists in the western and central parts of Rajasthan during the periods 1956-1964, and of Gir, Girnar and Kathiawar in 1958-1959 and 1962, and the author's observations made during the last two decades in the arid tracts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

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