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



month from February to September. It seems likely that 

 birds hatched early in the year breed in the same autumn 

 (as suggested under other species), as I have obtained birds 

 of the year in moult in July in vvhich the sexual organs 

 were becoming enlarged ; such a circumstance is not at all 

 common amongst birds. Its food consists of seeds of grasses 

 such as Pennisetum typhoideum, "khan grass," sedges, etc. 



Sind birds are not separable from birds from Madras and 

 Mysore. Male: wing 55'5-.')()-5, tail 53-56 mm. The juvenile 

 uiulergoes a complete moult. 



Amandava amandava amandava (L.). " JSuruk " ^, 

 "Chitli" ?. 



This species is a constant resident throughout Sind 

 wherever the tall "giant grass '^ (khan) abounds, and locally 

 it is very common, so tliat the distribution of this bird may 

 be said to be, roughly speaking, the Indus valley and the 

 canal areas. Outside this I have only met with it at 

 Karachi, where in the cultivation it is not uncommon, but its 

 occurrence there is not without suspicion of its originally 

 having been introduced by the liberation of cage-birds. This, 

 however, now cannot be proved either way, und as this little 

 bird docs undoubtedly rove about locally according to the 

 plenteousness or otherwise of its food-sup})ly, there is nothing 

 very improbable in it having colonized Karachi naturally ; 

 the only other place I have seen it between Karachi and the 

 Indus (105 miles east) is at Malir, 15 miles east of Karachi. 

 The breeding season is after the monsoon rains ; they were 

 always in flocks during the hot weather, and adults which I 

 shot were certainly not breeding. I first noticed them paired 

 on 9 September, and the breeding season probably lasts from 

 about then to the end of December, as on the 15th of that 

 month I examined a female which had a soft egg in the ovi- 

 duct. Probably some cease breeding before this, as a male on 

 2 December had just begun to moult. (Contrary to what has 

 been stated in the * Fauna ^ and elsewhere on the plumage of 

 this species, the male certainly does not hold its red plumage 

 all the year, but after breeding moults its body-feathers and 



