208 Contributions to the Ofnitliology of India, 8^'c. 



690.— Pastor roseus, K 



Rarely seen bj any of our party white in Sindli, but Captain 

 Maiden informed me that it arrived in Upper Sindli, in April, iu 

 larg-e flocks. Where this bird breeds is a mystery still. Millions- 

 throng" the plains of India during" nearly nine months of the 

 3^ear ; they do not leave us before the end of April and many 

 are back again with us in Aug-u&t. In Europe they breed, 

 amongst other places, in the banks of the Danube. I used to 

 fancy that they must breed in the banks of the Indus, but I 

 have traced this river almost from Attock to the sea, and every- 

 where I have heard of them only as birds of passage going 

 further west. As they appear in Sindh, so higher up at Dera 

 Ghazee Khan, they appear early in the hot weaither and agg,in, 

 after a very short period, disappear to retui-n in August or Sept- 

 ember, for a few days, and pass on eastwards. 1 hope ornitho- 

 logists on our western frontier will note their moyements. They 

 do not go to Cashmere, or into our hills to breed. Mountaneer 

 in all his life only met with one in the interior, which he sent 

 me as a rare and strange bird. 



Mr. Gray separates our Indian race 2iS peguanus, Lesson, with 

 suratensis, and seleucus, Gmel.,, as synonymes, but seeing that 

 the head quarters of the species appear to be the basins of the 

 Black and Caspian Seas, and the circumjacent provinces, I cannot 

 myself believe in the distinctness of the birds that visit India 

 and Central and Western Europe. 



695.— Ploceus manyar, Eorsf, 



I shall take an early opportunity of reviewing the Indian 

 members of this genus. Certainly more species occur within our 

 limits than is generally supposed, and I am inclined to believe 

 that the birds which I notice under the above name from Sindh, 

 will have to be separated as a distinct species. However enough 

 for the day is the evil thereof, let them stand for the present as 

 manyar. Everywhere in the giant flowering grass so common 

 in the neighbourhood of Shikarpore and other similar localities 

 in Upper Sindh, this weaver bird is seen in large parties feeding, 

 as I ascertained by dissection, both on the grass seeds, and on 

 , small insects that haunt the grass. Half a dozen may be seen 

 perched closely side by side upon the topmost sprays of the 

 lono-est grass stems v/hich, curving slightly beneath their weight, 

 sway backwards and forwards at every passing breath, much 

 apparently to their satisfaction. No sooner, however, are half 

 a dozen comfortably placed, than a dozen others insist on sharing 

 the perch -, great is the commotion that ensues ; down bends the 

 o-rass stem; and off they all fly to resume the same game oa 



