1 922. J the Birds of Sind. 633 



Four males: wing 104-108, tail 72-7^-5, bill (base) 20- 

 21 mm. 



Two females : wing 100-101, tail 67-5-G9,bill (base) 17-5- 

 20 mm. 



The females are very slightly duller black on the throat. 

 Primaries 3 to G emarginate; 2 = 6/7 or 6 or 5/6. 



(Enanthe picata (Blyth). 



The Tndian Pied Chat is, I think, the most generally distri- 

 buted member of the genus, though perhaps numerically it 

 maybe outnumbered by the Desert Wheatear; it is, however, 

 found in places where the latter is not, and besides being found 

 in open desert and thin scrub-jungle it also inhabits the lower 

 hills and cultivation, but in Sind, as elsewhere, it especially 

 delights in the neighbourhood of native huts, cattle com- 

 pounds, low walls, etc., whither it is doubtless attracted by 

 abundant insect-lit'e, and this familiar little bird may even be 

 seen in the compounds of cantonments as at Karachi. One 

 of the earliest winter visitors to arrive, it is preceded by only 

 the Pastor and Hoopoe among the land birds ; the males 

 arrive first, about the end of the second week of August 

 or even earlier, but it does not become common until 

 the first w^eek of October in Lower Sind. Man}-, I think, 

 have left us again by the end of February and the rest <>o 

 early in jMarch, a female on the 28th was the latest seen, an 

 exceptionally late bird. The arrival and departure of this 

 bird in Sind corresponds well with the departure and arrival 

 of it in north Beluchistan, whence it seems probable the 

 winter visitors come. 



The males of this species in Lower Sind vastly predomi- 

 nate, the females always being rather rare, a curious and 

 undeniable fact which I do not attempt to explain. This 

 sprightly bird may be commonly met with perched npon 

 some prominent position such as the corner of a roof, wall*, or 

 top branch of a euphorbia, whence it darts down to the 

 ground to seize some insect or beetle^ and then moves off to 

 another point of vantage; each seems to keep to its own 

 territory, and may be seen within it the whole winter doino- 

 its rounds from one "look-out post" to another and greatly 



