Contfibiitions to the OrmtJiology of India, ^c. 117 



hillocks, which for the most part run in waves, the crests occa- 

 sionally rising 80 and even 40 feet above the general level of 

 the country. The food of the desert lark consists, apparently ;, of 

 seeds. I found no insects in their stomachs, only minute seeds, 

 veg-etable matter, and a grain or two of hajera. 



Among'st these same bushes and in the same localities which 

 the desert lark affects, are numbers of Sylvia delicakda con- 

 spicuous, as they flitter from bush to bush by their rufous tails. 

 They are very provoking little birds, rarely seen on a bush but 

 settling close by its roots, into which they run like little mice, i 'J i 

 no more to be seen till, kicked out of the bush, they take a tiny ' /-*'' 

 flight which ends at the root of some neighbouring bush before 

 one has time to fire without (even with half a charge of dust 

 shot) blowing their delicate little bodies to pieces. They have 

 a tiny feeble song, something* like that of the lesser white throat, 

 whose flight theirs resemble, and which replaces them in these 

 same bushes, directly you get half a mile away from the sand. 

 When freshl}^ killed, the irides are bright yellow. 



The Lana and the Booee are here, as in the Punjaub, the 

 favourite resort of the Houbara ; but these, like the various 

 species of sand grouse, appear to feed chiefly at this season, at any 

 rate, on the leaves of the mustard. 



The pintail sand grouse, P. alchata, it appears, often comes in 

 vast flocks, whose numbers defy computation. They are seen first 

 in the far distance like a thin cloud, and when they pass over 

 one, which they will if you lie down amongst bushes, they 

 positively darken the air, and 8, 10, 12 fall to a single shot. 



At Dil Morad, I killed a couple of king-fishers which must 

 really he Alcedo ispida. Length, 7 "5; wing, 3; weight, 1| oz. 

 Anyhow these birds are much too large for A. hengalensis. 



We saw several CicMoides atrogiilaris, and shot three pairs of 

 Ticus scindeanus. These birds are almost invariably in pairs 

 and always here in tamarisk trees. Bracliyi^termis dilutus, on 

 the other hand, seems always solitary (at this time of year) and 

 generally in siris, [A. sirissa) babool [A. Arahica) or other large 

 trees. 



26//e. — Eode out with Sir W. Merewether to the Noorwar 

 canal and the fuel plantations (here called Bela) in its neigh- 

 bourhood. In the canal the large Alcedo was so very abundant^ 

 that I saw probably fifty within the space of two miles. I shot 

 eig'ht. I find the females are only 7 inches to 7'3 in length, the 

 males from 7"2 to 7*6. The wings average 2*9, one has them 

 3-0. They are all conspicuously larger than any A. bengal- 

 ensis I can ever remember shooting, but without a compa- 

 rison of specimens, it is impossible to feel certain what the 



