106 Contributions to the Ornithology of India, ^c. 



tarnai'isk bushes^, Btirnesia gracilis and Brymoipiis longicaudatus, 

 crept up and down the stems. A kestrel passed and was secured, 

 and a pair of small falcons dashed by, of which I shot the male, 

 which proved to be Chiqnera typus (Bon.) Sport on the river 

 worse and worse ; very few geese, ducks, or cranes, and every 

 thing- so wild that no amount of care enabled one to work up 

 to them — the day being cold and cloudy of course made the 

 fowl more restless, and I only succeeded in bagging three grey- 

 duck. I saw ten black storks (M. nigra) in company with one 

 adjutant {L., argala, Lath, duhiiis, Gm.^ Twice I got within 150 

 yards, and watched them closely with binoculars, but could not 

 get a sliot. This is a rare species in most parts of India. I have 

 it from the Dhoon, the Peshawur valley, and Raipoor, and I 

 once shot it myself in the Meerut district. 



'^riie day we left Mooltan I saw a huge flock of white 

 birds in the distance which I could not make out. Today 

 J saw another sucli flock which proved to be spoon-bills. 

 Each flock must have consisted of many thousand birds. 

 The river here, after the junction with the Sutlej, is very 

 large, with numerous arms and many square miles of mud- 

 flats. I worked all day amongst these and saw positively 

 nothing, — no sandpipers, no little plovers,, no gulls, no skim- 

 mers, only a few black-bellied terns. 



'6th. — For about fifteen miles after the junction with the Sutlej, 

 the river was more absolutely bare than I have yet seen it. 

 I hunted the banks and creeks for miles and saw absolutely 

 nothing but one Haliceetns leucoryphns, (macei, Cuv, apud Gray 

 and Jerdon) a pair of //. albicilla, a pair of green shank, 

 a couple of black -bellied terns, three Kentish plovers, and a 

 few herons. Such an absolute desert I never came across, 

 and what the reason of such absence of bird-life was, I am 

 at a loss to discover. Further on, I first came across three 

 Pelicanus crispus, and near them a small party of black stork, 

 but all were too wary to allow of my securing a specimen. 

 Lower down again I saw three Haliastur iudiis, the first we have 

 met with since leaving Jhelum, and then we came upon an enor- 

 mous flock of spoon-bill, containing', I suppose, ten thousand in- 

 dividuals ; half a mile off a huge herd of black stork n(jt less than 

 five hundred, and again about a mile lower down, a mass of geese. 

 1 noticed a couple of pairs of Punjaub raven washing and feeding 

 by the river side. We have seen surprisingly few of these since 

 leaving Find. Common herons appear to be very numerous. 

 Rowing up to another enormous flock of spoon-bills as I supposed, 

 I found tliere was an almost equal number of Ardea alba 

 and ThresJciornis nielanocephalus intermingled with the spoon-bills, 



