172 . Col. R. Meinei'tzhagen o}t the [Ibis, 



the last half of April and the first few days of May, and 

 again in the middle of September, but never commonly. 



Three birds I obtained cannot be separated from typical 

 European specimens — in fact, I am not yet satisfied that 

 japonica is a good subspecies, even after comparing the 

 series at Trino; from the mouth of the Amur River with the 

 large series of birds from Turkestan and Euro})e. TscJiusii 

 and mauretanica are very distinct forms. I have not seen 

 sarudini'i described from Transcaspia, Init I suspect it is 

 only the typical form of a bird whicli shows great individual 

 variation in colour and size. I have recently had some very 

 grey examples from Palestine, and at first sight these would 

 appear to be a western Asiatic race, but birds as grey occur 

 in western Europe as l)reeding individuals, whilst others 

 from western Asia are as dark as any from England and 

 nearly as dark as tschusU from Sardinia. The wings 

 of my three Quetta birds, all females, range from 83 to 

 88 mm. 



Cuculus canorus. 



< '. c. teh'phonus Heine. 



A connnon sunnner visitor and bird of passage, but owing 

 to its silence in autumn and the fact that it departs before the 

 foliage is off the trees no dates of departure were recorded. 

 First arrivals appeared on 29.iii., and birds were common 

 by ID. iv. They leave the plains for the hills in the middle 

 of May, ascending up to 10,000 feet. 



I heard one calling before daylight at 8000 feet on 11. vi., 

 after which the birds were silent. 



An egg in the nest of Sa,i'irola raprata rossonim on 10. v. 

 was yellowish white, thickly spotted with brownish red and 

 a few [turple dots. A young bird ncnvly halched was found 

 in the nest of Anthas sordldas captiis on 'J. vi. 



Palaeornis torquatus (Bodd.). 



An irregular straggler, sometimes in small parties, during 

 every month of the year except February and August, but 

 there is no record of nestin<>; in northern Baluchistan. 



