Contributions to the Ornithology of India,, Sf-c. ]27 



of this most unusual aud unbecoming' proceeding- on the part of 

 their fallen comrade. We doii^'t want any more specimens^ so we 

 allow them to look on unharmed whilst the bird is secured ; until 

 his snowy whiteness and delicate satin-greyness, all unstained, 

 -and the requisite cotton introduced into his mouth and nostrils, 

 he is [aid out in state, on a broad clean towel, beside an enormous 

 Bonelli's eag-le, and a dozen lovely ducks, of all shades and shapes. 

 Then they sail solemnly away. 



\hth. — On the dund ag-ain. Saw a very fine osprey, large 

 ■flocks of CheUusia. leucura, and very many Acrocephalus bninesceus, 

 ■climbing about, not on reeds, for there were none, but on the tama- 

 risk bushes standing in the middle of the water. Bonelli's eagle 

 very common, and so tame, that one positively sat still and let me 

 •inspect him from a boat not ten yards from his perch. The 

 'quack or note of Aythja nyroca is peculiar, and is a harsh kirr- 

 kere, kirr, as they rise out of the rush quite close to one. The 

 gadwall seems the commonest duck in this dund, or at least as 

 common as the marbled and white-eyed ducks. Saw a Ficus 

 ■scindeanus on the tamarisks on the bank. 



16//^. — On to Shah Godria, eight miles, through the (at this 

 season at any rate) desolate waste lying at the foot of the hills ; 

 the whole country is, however, intersected with long lines of 

 raised banks which serve when any rain falls on the hills (which 

 it has not hereabouts for some two years) to retain the water, 

 ■and then large crops of jowar, IIolci(<s sorghum, are raised, and the 

 villages (many miles apart) now all but deserted are re-populated. 

 En route killed a fine male saker, sitting on a little earthen 

 mound. This species is at a little distance only to be distin- 

 guished from the lugger, by the much greater amount of white in 

 the tail. Peer Godria lies within the outer range of coarse con- 

 glomerate rocky hillocks that skirt the bases of the main range. 

 In the wide sandy valley that intervenes between these latter 

 -and the hillocks and in and around these, Saccicola Kingi and A. 

 lusitania are common. At Peer Godria we found that no grass 

 was to be procured, let alone milk, or food for the servants. So 

 in the afternoon we moved on to Mado, over an utterly desolate 

 looking plain, on a dry stalk in the midst of which we saw, but 

 failed to secure, a small owl, perhaps ^rawm. Mado is situated 

 in a vast entirely bare plain, not a vestige of any plant, bush, or 

 -shrub to be seen now, yet, in certain seasons and years, this is 

 nearly all covered with the giant millet. 



nth. — North-east of this, saw a few sand grouse. The only one 

 ,secured was a male exustus. Sitting here at the tent, the mirage 

 is so strong, we seem to be on a low flat sandy island . surrounded 

 by a lake of placid water, in which distant bushes and trees 



