48 Contributions to the Omithologi/ of India, Sfc. 



trip be made in the cold season^ you will be ready, specially if 

 either ornithologist or sportsman, to aver that Sindh is the 

 pleasantest of all our Indian possessions ; a climate that is simply 

 perfection^ cool, dry to a deg-ree, bracing ; waving fields, pic- 

 turesque looking villages, beautiful lakes or lakelets in every 

 march ; the sun always bright, the sky ever blue and cloudless ; 

 lovely purple hills, closing every landscape in the far distance, and 

 such wild-fowl and snipe (and in places black partridge) shoot- 

 ing ! But, stray outside the limits of these tracts, above all, 

 wander a little amongst these " lovely purple hills^^ to which 

 " distance," and only a very considerable distance, can " lend 

 enchantment," and you must either be a geologist or more than 

 mortal, if you do not after a week or so conclude that Sindh 

 is the most " God-forgo fcten-hole" on the face of the globe. 



When I visited these same hills, not a drop of rain had 

 fallen on them for more than two years. There was no grass, no 

 water, no birds except a Lammergeyer or two, Ammomanes Lusi- 

 tania, and here and there a few large black and white wheatears ; 

 no animals, no men even, no nothing in fact, but bare, blacken- 

 ed, rugged piles of rock, red-hot at noon-tide, and pretty well 

 freezing before dawn. 



As for the Mekran Coast, as far as Gwader, and the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of Muscat and the Coast on either side of it 

 for five or six miles (which were the limits of my explorations,) I 

 am bound to say that though not quite so desolate, and of course 

 better populated, the former is much on a par with the Sindh and 

 Khelat hills, the latter with Aden. In the cold season they are 

 bearable, and Muscat especially, picturesque enough, but in the 

 hot weather, they certainly do not commend themselves to me as 

 desirable residences. 



Hereafter, in dealing with each species observed in Sindh, I 

 shall always notice those that were also procured or obtained 

 along the Mekran Coast or at Muscat, but it may be useful to 

 mention at once the very few species of land birds that we ob- 

 served in these localities. 



In both the Neophron was common near human habitations, 

 and Cypselm Apus, and Affinis, Lanius Arenarms vel Isabellinus, 

 Ammomanes Lusitania, Tetrocossyphus Cyaneus, and Fasser Indi- 

 cns were obtained. Besides these, at Muscat I procured Tartur 

 Camhayensis, and saw Alcedo Bengalensis (not Ispidci), Falco 

 Peregrinus, and a raven with a particularly long and rounded tail. 

 Along the Mekran Coast, we further procured TJpupa I]pojps, 

 CicJdoides Atrogularis, Saxicola Besertl, Monacha, and Alhoniger, 

 RuticiUa Rujiventris, Callandrella Bracliydactyla, Cyanecula 

 Suecica, Otocomj)sa Zeucotis, Ammojjerdlx Bonhauii, Corvus Lau- 



