Contiihutions to the Ornithology of India, 8fc, 125 



With about the most brilliant wings I have ever seen. 



10th. — Marched to Guibee Dehra ; by the circuitous route we 

 took, about 20 miles. After a few miles we got out of the inunda- 

 tion landj on to the "phnt," the higher plain, very bare and 

 barren, where the tiger grass disappears and the tamarisk is in- 

 frequent and stunted, and the caper and jhund. Acacia leucophlcea, 

 are almost the only plants to be seen. In the caper, S. delicatnla 

 is abundant, as also BMicilla fufiventris. I shot one of a pair of 

 starlings which must, I think, be distinct, much purpler and XO/a^ 

 smaller than the common one of which I saw none. 



Wth. — In the dund at Guibee Dehra, which densely covered ^ 

 with sedge, looks like one vast grass field, with a few very nar- yl^ 

 row lanes of open watei*, we found Sylvia melanopogon very 

 j)lentifu], a few Acrocephalns agricolits, and hrunescens, Porphyria 

 neglectns,* Schl., coots and water-hens, and ducks of all descrip- 

 tions, and amongst others Q. angmtirostri-s very numerous. The 

 latter seemed to lay in the thick of the grass, and while other 

 ducks rose at two and three hundred yards on a gun being fired, 

 these generally kept quiet until the boat g-ot within 60 or 70 

 yards. They seemed the least wild of all the species. There 

 were several bitterns, and in the bushes round and in the dund, 

 Fhyllopseuste trisiis and Sylvia eurnica, (?) ajfflnis, seemed common. 

 The country for miles all round the dund and tlie village, which 

 a,re some two miles apart, is almost a desert, perfectly level and 

 thinly studded with caper-bushes, in which grey partridge and 

 hares were numerous. 



Two of the blue-browed rock grouse, Pterocles senegallii^, were 

 brought in from a place some 30 miles north of this, near the 

 foot of the hills. This species seems to confine itself to the kuller 

 or saline lands near these latter, and to visit but rarely the flooded 

 or inundation lands. 



12^!/^ — Dr. Day started off for Buryalo, the highest hill in the 

 range dividing Sindh and Khelat ; from near the base of the hills 

 he sent me back specimens of Alaemon desertorum and Saxicola 

 Kingi. Sylvia delicatula flutters about, white throat-like, in the 

 jhund (acacia) trees, between our tent and the Government rest 

 house. At the dund I shot pintail, mallard, marble duck, 

 numbers of S. melanopogon and blue throats ; yellow-headed wag- 

 tails (both citreola and citreoloides) very numerous. 



IWi. — Marched half way to Hummul, the country for the most 

 part hard waste, and studded with caper bushes. Here and there 



* This is tlie name assigned by Mr. Gray to our Indian bird ; Latham's name 

 polioceplialus,yi!\ac\i Jerdon adopts, being assigned to the Philippine and Mada- 

 gascar bird. 



