92 Contributions to the Ornithology of India, ^c. 



It would be ungrateful in the extreme if I were to omit to 

 acknowledge most prominently the great assistance and uniform 

 kindness which I met with from Sir W. Merewether, k.c.s.i., 

 C.B., &c. &c., the de facto Governor of the province, as well as 

 from Capt. Loch, Mr. Watson, Mr. James, c. s., Capts. Giles, 

 Stiffe, and Bishop, Mr. Cole and Mr. Walton. Without the 

 invaluable aid of these gentlemen, in particular, both my com- 

 panion. Dr. Day, and myself would have had but sorry accounts 

 to render of our respective explorations. 



We started from Jhelum, a well known town in the Punjaub, 

 situated on the banks of the river of the same name, on the 

 afternoon of the 20th November. We had a couple of large 

 fiat-bottomed boats, with cabins, kitchens, &c., built on them, 

 and in these boats we were, aided by a little rowing, to float 

 down to Kusmore, the northernmost point of Sindh. Attached 

 to the larger boats, our floating houses, we had two or three 

 small row and gun-boats for shooting. 



As we did not finally weigh anchor until 3 o^clock, we only got 

 down about 20 miles by midnight, when we halted. We saw a 

 few geese {A. indictis) and many cranes (G. cinerea), a few Brah- 

 minies [Casarca rtUila), a couple of green shanks, and two or 

 three of Temminck^s stint. Killed four cranes, a long shot, be- 

 sides a Brahminy. I scarcely ever remember to have seen any 

 large Indian river such an entire blank. Noticed four or five 

 of the common cormorant near the Jhelum bridge. 



'^\st. — Early in the morning I landed, and prowled about in the 

 hills which border the Jhelum here, about five miles north of 

 Julalpoor, I saw several Oorial (Ovis vigneij, but none within 300 

 yards. The ravines abounded with Ammomanes liisitania, and 

 the Seesee, (A. bonhami), and these, with. Saxicola picata, Tham- 

 nobia cambayensis, and Otocompsa leticotis, appeared to be their 

 sole inhabitants. Between the hills and the river in the low 

 comparatively rich alluvial flat, in which the ber tree, 

 {Z.jujtiba) was common, and covered with small unripe fruit, 

 Palaornis eupatria (alexandri) was met with in small flocks. 

 Brachypternus aurmotius was also seen, and a single specimen 

 of Ficus scindeanus. I procured several of these birds, 

 a few miles lower down at Julalpoor, some two years 

 ago. We did not get ofi^ till near 2 o^clock. The wind was 

 against us and we only made some ten miles by evening, halting 

 near Abdoolapoor. We saw vast immbers of cranes and a few 

 geese and Brahminies, but everything was very shy, and I only 

 shot a couple of cranes, four geese (Anser indicus) a Brahminy 

 and a female mallard, the only one, in fact the only true duck 

 of any kind we saw. We saw a few Seena mirantia and Sterna 



