428 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Cormorants, both great and small, fly past (in the case of one I 
shot, the small Cormorant was Graculus javanica, but in Mr. 
Murray’s ‘ Vertebrates of Sind’ I see that both Graculus sinensis 
and G. javanica are common Sind species, the former being dis- 
tinguished from the latter by having no white thigh or check-patch ; 
I did not know of this distinction at the time, so was not on the 
alert to discriminate between the two species). Then I see a few 
Curlews, a flock of Crows, and flying close to the surface of the 
water a flock of Hirundines; they are gone too quick for identi- 
cation, but are doubtless Cotyle sinensis; and then come the 
Duck, but I do not see the cloud of them which the previous 
December used to rise from the Lake as it were simultaneously, 
passing overhead in varying numbers. In a quarter of an hour 
or so the flight is over, darkness has set in, and all is still save 
the croaking frogs and the chirping insects.” 
I have mentioned above that Alcedo ispida and perhaps A. 
bengalensis are to be seen; but I must confess that I am fairly 
puzzled with Alcedo ispida, A. bengalensis, and a small form which 
Mr;' Homestays) 0.8265 compels me to identify it with ispida 
rather than bengalensis” (see ‘Stray Feathers,’ vol.i., p. 168). In 
no book that I have seen is the difference between A. bengalensis 
and A. ispida clearly pointed out. I have four skins of Sind Blue 
Kingfishers before me as I write: three seem to me almost the 
same, except that one is not so long, and has the bill a trifle 
stouter than the other two; these I refer to ispida, but the fourth 
is much smaller and much brighter: its length is 5°75 in. ; bill, 
at top, 144 in.; bill, from gape, 1°87 in.; wing, 2°65 in.; the bill 
is blackish brown, except at the base of the lower mandible, which 
is reddish beneath ; the ground colour of the head is very dark 
brown ; the throat is white and the rest of the under parts ferru- 
ginous, but on the breast the ferruginous feathers are tipped with 
faint light blue; it is a male, and was shot at the Manchar Lake 
on December 15th, 1885. 
As regards Geese and Ducks, on the last occasion I visited 
the Lake (December 9th, 1885), these and other wildfowl were 
conspicuous by their absence, and I believe this was the case 
throughout Sind; on this occasion I saw only a few Grey Lag 
Geese (A. cinereus), and in February of the same year I made no 
note of this species; but the Barred-head Goose (A. imdicus) was 
extremely abundant. 
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