1922.] the Birds of Sind. 5fil 



was misled in some -way over his obsevvalion ; I have secured 

 birds in October and November and seen plenty. Those I got 

 showed no sign of recent breeding or having been recently 

 bred ; in fact, they were in the slightly worn winter plumage 

 common to all Sijlriiv at that time of year and their organs 

 wei*e quite small ; nor have I ever seen it in the hot weather, 

 though I have scoured suitable areas of desert in every 

 month. I can therefore confidently assert that this Warbler 

 is but a non-breeding visitor to Sind, a conclusion which 

 Butler (who worked with Doig) also came to. 



Ten skins, October to February: cJ , wnng 58-GO ; 

 ? , 54'5-57"5 mm. Iris pale gold ; legs and toes straw- 

 yellow ; bill brown above, yellowish below. Wear makes 

 the upper parts less isabellino and more greyish. 



Sylvia althaea Hume. 



I did not meet with Hume's Whitethroat in Sind, and 

 Hume never specifically stated that he met with it there. At 

 the time of his tour (1872) he had not separated it, though 

 he recognized that three sizes of Whitethroat existed in the 

 plains in winter. In 1878, in reviewing again his White- 

 throats, he separated this species and said it was a rare bird, 

 and that he only had five specimens in his collection, and 

 none of these was from Sind. The next year, however, in 

 an editorial comment on Butler's paper in ' Stray Feathers,' 

 he says that altlura should be admitted to the Sind fauna. 

 There are no specimens in the British Museum from Sind. 



This species breeds in north Beluchistan, and occurs 

 sparingly in the plains of the Punjab, and so should occur 

 also in our province. 



Sylvia curruca affinis Blyth. 



The Indian Lesser Whitethroat is one of the commonest 

 of the smaller migrants which visit Sind in winter. Every- 

 where in the forest area it is abundant, and almost every leafy 

 acacia " babool " seems to hold one. In the more desert parts 

 it is naturally scarcer, and its distribution there may be said 

 to be roughly in proportion to the number of acacias. It is 



SER. XI. — VOL. IV. 2 o 



