of Southern Afghanistan and Keldt. 149 



while Mascipeta paracUsi, Carduelis caniceps, Scops pennattis, 

 Myiophoneus temmincki, and Merula unicolor probably extend 

 from the Himalayas along the Suleiman mountains into 

 Southern Afghanistan. 



I now give a general list of the species observed and some 

 remarks upon each of them. 



1. VuLTUR MONACHUs, Liun. 



Seen occasionally^ generally in the winter^ all over the 

 country from the Bolan to Kandahar. An officer who lived 

 with me in that city in 1880-1 had a young bird which 

 became very tame. A cage made for it when we were 

 evacuating the country proved too small, and it had to be 

 left behind. 



2. Gyps fulvus (Gm.), 



Colonel Swinhoe puts the Tawny Vulture of Afghanistan 

 under G. fulvescens, but he does not seem to have procured 

 a specimen. The following dimensions are taken from a 

 bird just shot at Kelat-i-Ghilzai : — weight 16 lbs. ; length 

 45 inches ; expanse 8 feet ; bill at gape 3 inches, depth 

 1 1 inch ; legs plumbeous -, six scutes on the outer toe. Can 

 this have been G. indicus, with Jerdon^s description of which 

 it seems to agree ? Probably not, as the latter has not, I 

 believe, been recorded from Western India. It differs from 

 the description of G. fulvus in Jerdon in the more slender 

 bill, and in the greater number of scutes on the outer toe, 

 points which Hume does not mention. However, as the 

 type of G. fulvus was procured on the Iranian plateau, it does 

 not seem safe to separate the Vulture of Afghanistan without 

 more information than we possess at present. 



The Tawny Vulture is common in the winter only, pro- 

 bably betaking itself in summer to the higher hills of Central 

 Afghanistan, as I have noticed it occasionally about Ziarat 

 (8000 feet) in the hot weather. 



3. PsEUDOGYPS BENGALENSIS (Gm.). 



During the first campaign in Afghanistan (1878-9) 

 numbers of this bird accompanied the army on its march, 

 finding ample sustenance in the camels that died at every 

 halting-place and strewed the road from Sukkur to Kan- 



