Confrihuiions to the Ornitliulogy of India, ^"c. 1]9 



plumao-e, cliaracteristic of a Nrevia, and upper tail coverts and 

 rump richly spotted with buffy white, a larger and far more 

 massive AVey/« tlian I have ever previoush' shot, not only a some- 

 what larg-er and longer bird^ but a much more powerful one^, 

 though it is only ScS'S in length. The common pond heron and 

 Hlrundo riisUca were pretty numerous. 



'IMh. — Rode in the morning to Mungranee and in the eve- 

 ning to Sukker. Beyond Mungranee the country becomes more 

 cultivated, and at Mungranee, for the first time in Sindh, I saw 

 Malacocercus terricolor, Hodgs., [Canoms, Linn., apud Blyth.) In 

 the large tiger grass tufts, Cludarrhcea caudata and Estrilda 

 umandava were common to a degree. Doves, risorius and cam- 

 hayensis, the common parakeet, (P. torquata,) Pratincola cap- 

 nita, Coracias indica, and mynas [trisfis and glngin'mnnus) 

 as well as black partridges were abundant. In litttle pooliSj 

 Actitis ochrophus and Lohivanellii,s goensls, and the common 

 pond heron, were almost the only birds seen. We shot a 

 kestrel and a female Mlcrojiisus hadius, and an Raliastur indiis, 

 the first I have seen since leaving Kusmore, passed over us. A 

 few Galerila cristata and amongst the grass and tamarisk, num- 

 bers of Drynwipus longicandata and Burnesia gracilis and com- 

 mon spari'ows^ while in the trees Dendrocitta rvfa were particu- 

 larly plentiful. We saw an Elanus welanopterus. 



t^fJi. — Sukker is a very remarkable looking place, built on 

 a very low range of white bare rocky hillocks which extends for 

 about a mile in length along the bank of the Indus. On the 

 opposite bank are similar hillocks, on which Rooree is built, and 

 in mid-channel are several islands, on one of which is built the 

 fort of Bukker. The river has obviously burst its way through 

 the range. Both Sukker and Rooree remind one more of Suez 

 or Alexandria than of any Indian town I have yet seen. Rooree 

 is about a mile higher up than Sukker, and the river bank oppo- 

 site Sukker is denselj^ fringed with date palms. Two steam ferry- 

 boats ply between the two towns which are large and wealthy. 



In the immediate neighbourhood we got Brachypternus 

 diliitus, Athene brama (the first I have seen in Sindh) Bicns 

 scindeanus, Pyctorhis sinensis and a buzzard, B. ferox, of the 

 dark type, which I named ftili gin osus; a name, by 'the way, which 

 even had the species been, as Brookes and others still think it, 

 a good one, could not have stood, having been previously as- 

 signed by Sclater to some Mexican bird. Here I received the 

 birds collected for me by Dr. Day, chiefly in this immediate 

 neighbourhood and the Rooree sub-division. Some 84 species, 

 of which the most noticeable are a rock pigeon, apparently 

 Colmnba livia, Querquedula angustirostris, Botanrus siellaris, 



