18/3.] DISTRIBUTION OF ASIATIC BIRDS. 675 



we know that the Indo-Malay forms are reduced to a minimum, and 

 are partly replaced by Palsearctic species. 



SlNDH. 



The ornithology of Sindh, which had been hitherto almost en- 

 tirely neglected, has now been taken up by Mr. Hume in his usual 

 energetic and able manner. 



The paper recently published by him in 'Stray Feathers' is a 

 good example of the way in which our officers work on the N.W. 

 frontier, a school which seems to bring out in the highest degree 

 the energy and activity of those half-military, half civil officers for 

 which the Punjaub is famed. 



This paper shows that Sindh, though remarkable for the aridity 

 of its climate and the almost total absence of trees, except where 

 irrigation is employed, still contains a good many birds, which show 

 that it cannot be entirely separated from the Indian subregion. The 

 number of these is much larger than might have been expected ; and 

 though some of them are neither so numerous nor so generally dis- 

 tributed as the birds of Palsearctic or Indo- African type, yet they are 

 found wherever sufficient wood and water exists to afford them 

 sustenance and shelter from the burning sun. 



Brachypternus dilutus, Orthotomus longicaudus, Pericrocotvs 

 peregrinus, Buchanga albirictus, Acridotheres tristis and A. gingi- 

 nianus, Geocichla unicolor, and Leucocerca aureola are instances 

 of this ; and whether they are original inhabitants of the country, 

 or have immigrated from the Punjaub by following the strip of 

 fertile country which borders the Indus, it is certain that they have 

 as much right to be considered in an estimate of the avifauna as any 

 others. 



On the other hand it cannot be denied that the birds of the desert, 

 such as Larks, Chats, and Sand-Grouse, are those which are most 

 typical of Sindh, as they are of those countries included in what may 

 be termed the Mediterraneo-Persian, or desert subregion, a division 

 of the Palsearctic region with which I think the Punjaub province 

 of Blanford has much more real affinity than with any part of the 

 Ethiopian as defined by Sclater. 



An analysis of the birds of Sindh, as given by Hume, made by 

 me in company with Mr. Blanford, whose personal experience of 

 this desert-fauna, both in India, Africa, and Persia, is extensive, 

 gives the following results : — 



Species peculiar to Mediterraneo-Persian or desert subregion . 41 



Species peculiar to Indian subregion 40 



Common to Malay subregion 8 



Common to Africa and S.W. Asia 4 



Common to Palsearctic region 12 



Omitted on account of their cosmopolitan distribution, or be- 

 cause they cannot be fairly placed under any of these heads . . 45 



150 

 43* 



