94 NATURAL HISTORY. 



but doubtless Cotyle sinensis ; and then come the duck, but I do 

 not see the cloud of them which last December used to rise from 

 the lake as it were simultaneously, passing overhead in varying 

 numbers ; in a quarter of an hour or so the flight is over, darkness 

 has set in, and all is still save the croaking frogs and the chirping 

 insects." 



I have mentioned above that Alcedo ispida and perhaps A.bengalensis 

 are to be seen ; but I must confess that I am fairly puzzled with 

 Alcedo ispida, A. bengalensis, and a small form which Mr. Hume says : 

 41 * compels me to identify it with ispida rather than benga- 



lensis." — (See Stray Feathers, Vol. I., p. 168.) In no book that I have 

 seen is the difference between A. bengalensis and A. ispida clearly pointed 

 out. I have four skins of Sind blue kingfishers before me as I write : three 

 seem to me almost the, same, except one which is not so long and whose 

 bill is a trifle stouter than the other two ; these I refer to ispida, but 

 the fourth is much smaller and much brighter; its length is 5 "75, 

 bill at top 1*44, bill from gape 1*87, wing 2*65 ; the bill is blackish 

 brown except at the base of the lower mandible, which is beneath 

 reddish : the ground colour of the head is very dark brown ; the 

 throat is white and the rest of the under parts ferruginous, but on 

 the breast the ferruginous feathers are tipped with faint light 

 blue ; it is male, and was shot at the Manchar lake on the 15th 

 December 1885. 



As regards the geese and duck, on the last occasion I visited the 

 lake (Dec. 9, 1885) geese, duck and other wild fowl were conspicuous 

 by their absence, and I believe throughout Sind ; on this occasion I 

 only saw a few grey lag geese (A. cinerens), but in February of the 

 same year I have no note of this species, but the barred-head 

 goose {A. indieus) was extremely abundant. 



The Large Whistling Teal (JDendvocygna fulva). — I shot a few in 

 December, but none in February ; they are very slow flyers, and when 

 one of their number is shot, they often circle round it, constantly 

 uttering their whistling cry; their feet and tarsus are proportionally 

 very large, and altogether they give any one, who remarks individu- 

 ality in other than the human species, the idea that they are half- 

 witted- 



The Ruddy Shelldrake (Casarea rutila), more generally known as 

 the Brahminy, is common ; its hoarse croak is often heard as it flies 

 overhead; I cannot agree with the statement in Mr. Murray's Verte- 

 brates of Sind that " they are extremely shy and wary birds," and, as 



