614 Dr. C. B. Ticehurst on [Ibis, 



India, dated 1765, the territory then under British rule was 

 Bengal, North Circars, Madras, and various ports on the 

 western side, and it was not until well on into the next 

 century that the Punjab came under our rule. Now, 

 comparing Sind birds with those from Anibala ^whence I 

 have seen eleven), the characters relied on by Mr. Baker in 

 the nuilc are by no means constant ; the throat is not 

 always grey but sometimes quite as blackish as in Ambala 

 birds ; the amount of crimson on the breast, too, is very 

 variable, and in this and the wiiiteness of the underparis 

 Ambala and Sind birds are not to be distinguished ; the 

 coloured parts of the wings, tail, and undor-wing are usually 

 less rich in the Sind birds. The females are rather more 

 distinct ; the Sind birds have no trace of yellow on the 

 underparts ; the axillaries and under-wing, and the coloured 

 parts of the wings and tail are paler ; the paleness of the 

 upper parts is not constant. The truth is that Ambala 

 birds, as with other species thence, tend to partake of 

 the desert character, and are neither typical peregrinus nor 

 typical pallidus, but intermediates, as one nearly always 

 finds on the limit of the range of two geographical forms. 

 Had Mr. Baker restricted the type of peregrinus to western 

 Behar or eastern United Provinces no difficulty would have 

 arisen, and the distinctions he points out would hold good. 

 P. p. pallidus extends to the Salt Range and Sirsa in the 

 Hissa district of the Punjab. 



Pericrocotus erythropygius (Jerd.). 



Twice in the " Itinerary " Hume recorded seeing this 

 Minivet in Upper Sind, though apparently it was a slip for 

 peregrinus, the common species, as he omits it from his Sind 

 list, and five years later, in his review of the genus, he says 

 " it has not yet occurred to my knowledge in Sind." That 

 the White-breasted Minivet does occasionally wander to Sind, 

 is quite certain however, as on 3 January, 1919, 1 came across 

 a flock of one male and seven females on the Karachi Sewage 

 Farm and secured specimens. The remainder were about 

 the same place till 18 February, when they disappeared. 



