1922.] the Birds of Sind. 527 



district, but as my stay lengthened and I became well 

 acquainted with what had been written on Sind and per- 

 sonally visited other parts of the province, I decided it was 

 a pitv not to bring up to date all that is known about this 

 interesting part of India, especially as it may again be many 

 years before anyone interested in birds is stationed there. 

 I myself prepared over 1500 specimens, and I have since 

 seen most of those in the British Museum. M}' thanks are 

 due to Mr. Culbertson (Karachi Port Trust), Mr. (^asement 

 (N.W. Railway), Mr. McCullock (Indian Police), Mr. Gordon 

 (Canal Engineer), Mr. Ludlow (Educ. Dept.), and especially 

 to Mr. T. R,. Bell (Forest Dept.), who kindly handed me 

 over all his Sind notes, for help in various ways, and to 

 Mr. N. B. Kinnear for much help and advice. 



Historical. — Sir A. Burnes, who toured through Sind in 

 1830, enumerated 191 species. In March 1839, Dr. William 

 Griffith, who was an assistant Surgeon in the H.E.I. Co. 

 Service and a botanist, in marching from Bahawalpur to 

 Quetta halted a month at Shikarpore, where he collected a 

 few birds, now in the British Museum, including one or two 

 types. In 1854-5, Dr. Gould, son of John Gould, made a 

 small collection, now in the British Museum. But it is to 

 Hume that we owe most of our knowledge of the avifauna ; 

 in 1872 he made with Dr. Francis Day a cold weather 

 tour of three months, mostly in Upper Sind and Karachi, 

 and published an excellent account in ' Stray Feathers ' 

 (i. pp. 91-289). Also in the 'seventies Mr. S. B. Doig 

 (Engineer E. Narra Canal) enthusiastically worked his 

 district, paying particular attention to the breeding species ; 

 and at the same time the late Col. E. A. Butler was stationed 

 for some years at Hyderabad and Karachi, and both con- 

 tributed papers of value to 'Stray Feathers.'' In 1878, 

 Mr. W. E. Brooks made a cold weather visit to Upper Sind, 

 chiefly working the Sukkur and Sehwan districts ; also in 

 the 'seventies Blanford made several visits, surveying in the 

 hills, Thar and Parkar, and the lower Beluchi boundary. 

 The ornithological results of these trips were never fully 

 published, but his specimens are in the British and Indian 



