X INTRODUCTION. 



winter, and leave the Province at tolerably fixed periods during tlie 

 months of March^ April and May. The whole net work of channels* 

 mud banks and marshes at the mouth of the Indus, the lakes or 

 dhunds formed by the periodical inundations of the river, as well as 

 the sea coast, literally teem from about the middle of September 

 to the beginning of June, with almost every form of bird-life affecting 

 such situations, from the unwieldy Pelican to the little Snippets, which 

 run along the ripple-marked sands of the sea coast. 



There is abundance of shooting during this period in all the lakes 

 and their neighbourhood. Wild Fowl literally swarm, especially on the 

 Munchur, where they are in thousands and myriads, their compact 

 masses forming, as it were, living islands upon the water^ and, when 

 distui-bed, a feathered cloud in the air. Flamingoes, Geese and Ducks 

 too are quite as numerous. 



With these come some of the rapacious order, also winter visitants, 



whose movements are necessarily connected with those upon which 



they prey. Again there are the smaller birds which keep along the scrub 



or tamarisk jungle fringing the banks of the Indus and the edges of lakes, 



as the Sijlviince and Phylloscopince families. Neither songsters nor 



gallinaceous birds are numerous in regard to species, though 



abundantly so as to individuals ; among the latter are Grouse, 



Patridges, Quails, the Houbara Bustard, Floriken, and several other 



resident species. The Syloiince and SaAdcolmce^a,mi\ies too are prominent 



visitors during winter, and are fairly well represented. Among the 



great multitude of birds, regularly visiting us, are a few stragglers 



which make their way to the Province in excessively cold winters. 



These are Buticilla mesoleucai Lcmius auriculahis, Saxicola leucomela, 



Emberiza miliaria, Linaria cannabina^ and Cygnus olor {Mw^ray, 



Aclditiurcs to the Sind Avi-Fauna, 8. F. vol. vii. pp. 108-123) which, 



although not properly belonging to the fauna, the circumstance of their 



having occurred dnring an extremely severe winter in 1878, is worthy 



of record, since Sind has nearly as many Paljearctic as oriental species. 



The following gives the distribution of the total number (399) of 



birds found in the Province: — 



257 are found in Beloochistan. 



266 are found in Rajputana. 



