118 Co7itHhiUons to the Ornitliology of India, ^"c. 



bird is. Halcyon smyrnensis and Ceryle rurlis were also both com- 

 mon in this canal, and in one place two of the former, three of 

 the latter, and two pairs of the Alcedo were all sittin^];' Avithin 

 a leno-th of less than 100 yards of the canal, which is a mere 

 ditch^ some 20 to 25 feet wide, thickly fring-ed with giant grass 

 tufts, the flowering stems of which in some cases exceeded 20 

 feet in height, and acacia trees. Amongst the grass I shot 

 several Cyanecida suecica, Linn., fcosrulenda, Pall., apud Gray,) 

 and some Brymoiptis longicaudatus, a night heron, and a Fyct- 

 orhis sinensis, the latter being very common amongst the 

 reeds. The common starling seemed very abundant, and indeed, 

 ever since I left Jhelum, I have from day to day seen a few 

 flocks. 



At this time of year C. rudis is still everywhere in families 

 of from three to five, the latter being the more common 

 number. 



Vultures are not at this time common about here, they are 

 mostly away breeding, but I saw three or four huge birds of 

 this geniis this morning, apparently /Hye^ce;^^, (nobis). Both 

 black and grey partridge seemed common. 



Jacobabad itself is really a wonderful place in its way. Some 

 twenty years ago, there was only a wide nearly desert plain in 

 which stood one siris tree. Now you have a cantonment, a square 

 of some two miles, with innumerable roads crossing each other 

 at right angles, and dividing the whole place into larger or 

 smaller squares, each road with a thick avenue of high trees, and 

 each of the squares thickly studded with trees, for the most part 

 siris and babool, averaging some 40 to 50 feet in height, so that 

 whether looked at from the plain, or from the summit of the 

 late General Jacobus lofty house which is in its centre, the can- 

 tonment appears to be a dense forest of large trees. 



'■11th. — Left Jacobabad early and rode thirteen miles to Humao. 

 The road very good, what is here called metalled, viz., covered 

 some inches deep with long dry grass, which prevents carts 

 sinking in the sand and also keeps the dust down. The country 

 level, partly half desert, partly thin tamarisk, and camel-thorn 

 jungle — very little cultivation. Close to the Humao bungalow, 

 I shot a Sylvia delicatuta, and saw several black partridges. In 

 the afternoon rode on to Shikarpoor, another thu'teen miles. For 

 the first six miles, the road leads through a low tamarisk jxmgle, 

 which swarms with black partridges ; the latter kept running 

 across the road every hundred yards. In a small tank by the 

 roadside I saw, but failed to procure, a moorhen, and I shot a 

 Micronisus badins. Not far from Shikarpoor I knocked over a 

 splendid eagle, a rich deep hair brown, with the soft satiny 



