WILD SWANS IN SIND. 99 



whole week, of which I spent several hours daily on the 

 lake. 



I did, however, see several parties of a bird that I never 

 should have expected to meet with, and this was the Scissor- 

 JBill or Skimmer (Rliynclwps albicollis). Of all the thousands 

 of times that I have met with this, in Upper India, extremely 

 common bird, never once till this time had I seen it anywhere 

 but on the larger rivers, on whose churs it breeds, as every 

 egg-collector here knows, in countless numbers. 



I once doubted (Vol. IV., 32 ; V. 225) the occurrence of this 

 species on the little lake at Aboo, some 80 or 90 miles west of 

 Kankrowlee, but after seeing so many on this lake, I can quite 

 understand that some of these, on their way to the estuary 

 of the Loonee, where numbers are said to breed, may have paid 

 a passing visit to the Aboo Lake which lies directly in their 

 route. 



A. 0. H. 



\x\h §tas tit j$inb. 



By W. T. Blanford. 



Some Wild Swans were first seen in Sind in January last, 

 in the Manchhar Lake, near Sehwan, by Mr. H. E. Watson. 

 Subsequently on February 12th, 1878, Mr. Watson had the good 

 fortune to find a small flock of five in another part of the Sehwan 

 district, and to shoot three. He has sent me the skins of two, 

 with a request that I would identify them. I may perhaps say 

 at once that the skins are, I think, unquestionably adults of 

 the Mute Swan, Cijgnus olor, the same as the Tame Swans of 

 English rivers and ponds, and that this is the first time that the 

 adult bird has been obtained in India, or that any Swan, so far as 

 I am aware, has been noticed in India so far to the southward. 



Two previous notices of the occurrence of Wild Swans in 

 India have been cited by Mr. Brooks (Proc. A. S. B., 1872, 

 p. 63). The first was by Mr. Hodgson, who procured a speci- 

 men in the valley of Nepal. The skin was lost or not preserved, 

 but a drawing was taken, and by means of this the species was 

 identified with C. ferns, under which name the bird is quoted 

 in both the British Museum Catalogues of Mr. Hodgson's col- 

 lections. The identification was confirmed by Mr. Brooks, 

 from an examination of the original drawing. 



