1922.] the Birds of Sind. 563 



Phylloscopus collybita tristis Blytli. 



The ISilicrian (Jhiti'chaft' is an exceedingly common winter 

 visitor throughout the province wherever trees in leat" or 

 cultivation exist; in the drier scrub-jungle if is scarce. 

 "Within these limits it may be said to be quite the commonest 

 Warbler and one of the commonest small birds. Few forms 

 of vegetation come amiss, but it is particularly partial to 

 cotton bushes, "babools," tamarisk, " brinjals," red pepper, 

 and the edges of lucerne fields, while I have seen it busily 

 catching flies out in reed-beds on the Manchar Lake over a 

 mile from land. Besides being met with singly, little parties 

 up to half-a-dozen may be seen, while hedges along the side 

 of a lucerne field may be full of them working to and from 

 the crops. 



These birds arrive in the first week of October, and most 

 of them have o-one bv the last week in March ; the last seen 

 in- Lower Sind was on 4 April. My specimens, together 

 with those obtained in the Punjab by Mr, H. Whistler, form 

 a very large series, obtained in practically every week from 

 mid-October to mid-April. The following are the measure- 

 ments : — fj, wing 61-64'5 ; tail 51-50 mm. ?, wing 

 5iV5-60 ; tail 45-52 mm. In about half the second primary 

 equals the eighth, and in about half it is between the seventh 

 and eighth ; exceptionally it equals the seventh or between 

 the eighth and ninth. The first primary exceeds the primary- 

 coverts by 6-9 mm. (rf. Pract. Hdbk. Brit. Birds, p. 303). 



The spring moult (end of January to mid-March) involves 

 the body plumage, innermost secondaries and the adjacent 

 coverts, and usually the central pair of tail-feathers. I find 

 no evidence whatever of a complete moult of the wings and 

 tail (rt\ torn. cit. pp. 299, 303). 



Phylloscopus collybita sindianus Brooks. 



In 1879 Brooks described (IS. F. viii. pp. 467-8) this Chiff- 

 chaft' from specimens he obtained at Sukkur in north Sind. 

 Since that date there there have been no further records of 

 this little bird in India. Brooks, who evidently had an 

 extraordinarily good ear for birds' notes, first spotted his new 



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