■ Contributions to the Ornithology of India, ^c. 121 



and not (to our idea) being built on the highest point of 

 Sukker. 



K>^th. — Rode out to Rowajee^ about three miles from Sukker, % 

 where there is a larg-e lagoon or, as they here call it, a slund. li 



This piece of water is occupied by a number of fishermen, i 



"■ Mokanehs" who live in their boats and subsist entirely on the / 

 fish and wild birds they catch. They eat pelicans, herons, and / 

 cormorants, ^o\k\ carho ^ca^ javanicus) and every boat has on it ■ 

 one, two, or more of each of these alive and fattening, all blinded, 

 but thriving. They catch the pelicans and other birds in a 

 curious fashion. They skin a pelican carefully, and stuff the neck 

 and head in excellent style, and put the skin of the bod}^ in posi- 

 tion by a light bamboo framework, only removing the legs and \ 

 most of that portion of the skin, that in swimming is concealed 

 by the water. Then with this on the head, they move about 

 in the water, keeping their head-piece in precisely the position 

 that the living bird would swim in, and thus, unsuspected, find 

 their way amongst wild fowl, &c., which they capture, seizing even 

 pelicans, they pretend, in this way by the legs. All the pelicans 

 they had alive, some twentyfive in number, were crispus, but they 

 told us that there were two other kinds, both more or less pink- 

 ish. On this lagoon I saw several terns, javanica, aurantia, 

 and anglica, Mont, [nilotica v. Hasselq. apud Gray) the 

 latter the first of its kind I have seen since leaving 

 Jhelum. In trees near this lagoon were numbers of Brachy- 

 ptermos dilutus, of which we shot five, and several small fly- 

 catchers, of which I procured two, which proved to be females of 

 Erythrosferna 2iarva. Pericrocotus eryfJiropygius we also saw. I 

 forgot to note before, that we saw at Jacobabad a bittern and a 

 flamingo, (P. antlqtiornm.^ that had been killed there, and that 

 they are at certain seasons not uncommon in ponds, &c., in 

 the neighbourhood. On the lagoon we noticed a snake-bird 

 (P. melanogaster) , and we also saw a young moor buzzard 

 (C. m'uginosus) of which, by the way, we have seen two or three 

 lately. 



?)\d. — The people brought in several specimens of Ayiliya 

 nyrocea which, with the common teal and the shoveller, seem 

 very abundant in Roree, also Fhyllopseuste tristis, CMquera 

 typus, Fydorhis sinensis, and some other birds already noticed. 



1*^ January — Returned to Shikarpoor. Just at starting, the 

 people brouglit in from the Rooree district a number of common 

 teal, gadwal, shovellers, and pintails, and one fine Querquedula 

 angustirostris, which they say is very common, especially in the 

 early part of the season. En route, we killed a number of birds, 

 ■ Falco jugger, several water-hens (cJiloropus) , Cya7iectda suecica, 



