560 Dr. C. B. Ticehurst on [Ibis. 



one very seldom sees it : away out on the wind-swept, 

 sun-scorcbed, sandy pLains, wbere bere and there a small 

 caper " kirru " bush or some few scattered insignificant 

 desert plants struggle for existence, is the home of this 

 little bird (and of little else save Ahemon), which may be 

 seen creeping about, making use of all the scanty cover it 

 can and seldom showing in the open, or running round on 

 the sand under the overhanging stems, investigating every 

 twig, nook, and cranny, looking for all the world like some 

 desert mouse. Nor is it confined to the desert plain, as I 

 have found it equally at home in the Sueda bushes on the 

 niud-flats above average high-water mark and also up in the 

 dreary limestone hills of the Khirthar at 1800 ft., where 

 Day also noted it at 3000 ft. Where found it is not rare, 

 but also it cannot be said to be very common. Hume called 

 it one of the very commonest birds in the more barren 

 ])ortions of Upper Sind, but it may well be so without being 

 numerically abundant, and such a statement is apt to give 

 rather an exaggerated view of its status; in my experience 

 two or three in an afternoon's trek in suitable country is an 

 average number. It is a v^ery difficult bird to flush from the 

 larger bushes, and when on the vving, its rufous tail at once 

 catches the eye ere it dives in among the roots of the next 

 bush. 



The Desert- Warbler is a winter visitor to Sind ; the 

 earliest date on which I have seen it is 15 September, and 

 the latest 2 March, and these dates probably do roughly 

 represent its times of arrival and departure. Doig (S. F. 

 ix. p. 278) gave a list of birds found breeding, or thought 

 to breed, in the E. Narra District, and amongst them 

 is " S. nana .... September "" ; on p. 280 he adds : " on 

 November 13th, while visiting the Allah Bund in the 

 Rann of Cutch, I found the young of this species just able 

 to fly." This is all the evidence he has published about 

 the breeding of this Warbler in Sind ; what his remark 

 " September " refers to is not clear, but I think he meant 

 that, finding young on the wing in November, he deduced 

 that it bred in September. However, I am sure that Doig 



