Contributions to the Ornithology of India, S^c. 209 



•some other stem, and so tliey will g-o on continuously fpr half an 

 hour at a time. It is a curious thing- that with one exception 

 every specimen of this species which I procured belong-ed to the 

 sterner sex. What on earth had become of the ladies ? I shot 

 a good number of the species, but only obtained one that may 

 have been a female, and I was rather doubtful of the identifica- 

 tion of the sex, even in this one bird, as it had been badly shot. 



696. — Ploceus bengalensis, K 



Found in the same localities as, and in company with, the last 

 named species. Of this species too I did not succeed in meeting- 

 with a single female. It is absolutely a mystery to me where 

 the females can have got to, the birds were certainly not breeding, 

 and had the females been in that part of the country some of us 

 must surely have secured some specimens, as not less than forty 

 were shot from first to last. 



703.— Munia malabarica, L. <i- 



Very common alike in the western Punjab and throughout 

 Sindh from Kussmore to Kurrachee. 



704.— Estrilda amandava, L. 



I only met with this species on the banks of the Indus at 

 Kussmore, and again in similar thickets of giant grass between 

 Shikarpore and Sukkur ; but I was told that at some seasons of 

 the year it was met with pretty well all over Sindh wherever 

 there was long grass. 



706. — Passer indicUS, Jard. and Selb. •-•^>^'-.'- -^A'.' 



Of course very abundant. Throughout Sindh, as in past years 

 throughout Rajpootana and the western Punjab, I searched in 

 vain for Mr. Siyih's Passer pyrrhonottcs, ^oidi^Q hundreds of com- 

 mon sparrows that Mr. Blyth is answerable for having led me to 

 execute, ought to form a heavy load upon his conscience. 



In regard to this supposed species I am fast verging on Betsy 

 Prigg's conviction in regard to Mrs. Harris, and if such a bird •■ 

 exists, it would be only decent for it, for the sake of its scientific 

 historian, to put in an appearance with as little delay as possible. 



707— Passer salicicola, Vieill. 



The willow sparrow, which during the cold season invades 

 nearly the whole Punjab in such vast flocks that a single shot 

 would often enable one to secure materials for a dozen pies, is appa- 

 rently only a straggler in Sindh. I never saw a single large 

 flock of it, and the only specimens I obtained were single birds 

 killed by accident out of flocks of common sparrows. 



