210 Contributions to the Qrnithology of India, 8fc. 



^ 732 ^is.— Bucanetes githagineus, LicU. 



This delicately tinted species which is another that Sindh has 

 unexpectedly added to our avifauna^ was met with only at com- 

 paratively short distances from the lower slopes of the hills 

 which divide Sindh from Khelat. They were seen exclusively 

 in small patches of cultivation which here and there occur^ oases 

 in the barren waste which fringes the skirts of the mountains. 

 They were always in small flocks feeding- in a kind of mustard ; 

 very tame but difficult to shoot, because, invariably, when in the 

 least disturbed, running- on the g-round, with which their upper 

 surfaces are almost absolutely unicolorous, in amongst the mus- 

 tard plants. Whether it is that my birds were all shot about 

 the end of January, and that the breeding" plumage is brighter, 

 or that the figures are over-colored, I cannot say but not 

 one of the fifty odd birds that I obtained could compare in 

 brightness with the figure in the pi. col. 400 (in which prok 

 piidor ! the bills are colored vermillion red) or even with D\\ 

 Breeds figure ; with Bonaparte^s figure (Mon. des Loxiens, t. 33) 

 however they agree well, ; 



It is very likely that before I first obtained specimens I over- 

 looked them ; seen feeding in the fields at a little distance, they 

 looked for all the world like a party of hen sparrows, it was only 

 the color of the bills that one day attracted my attention and 

 led to my shooting one ; once in the hand the faintly rosy, blue 

 grey tinge of the head and breast and the decided rose color of 

 the rest of the lower parts at once showed me what the bird 

 was, and I then set to work vigorously to procure specimens, and 

 in two days, I think, we shot thirty, so that they were plentiful 

 enough in that immediate neighbourhood, which was Gool 

 Mahomed in the Mehur sub-division. I noticed them once or 

 twice afterwards and shot a few more, one or two I remember 

 near the mouth of the Nurree Nai. I notice that Mr. Gray 

 besides y/'/!/««^me?<;*, Liclit. , and sinaiticus, Licht., gives a third 

 species crassirostris, Blyth, from i^fghanistan. I cannot ascertain 

 ' where this species of Blytli's is described, and as I have no Euro- 

 pean or Arabian specimens to compare, it mai/ be that, if really 

 distinct, our bird should stand as crassirostris, but it agrees per- 

 fectly with Bonaparte^s figure and description of githagineus. J 

 subjoin measurements, &c., taken in the fiesli. 



.Dimensions — Males. — Length, 5"7 to 6 ; expanse, 10 to 10*7 ; 

 tail from vent, 2"1 to 3 ; wing, 3"3 to 3"6 ; wings, when closed, 

 reach to within 0'7 of end of tail. 



Females. — Length, 5'7 to 5*8; expanse, 10 "5 to 11" 1 ; tail 

 from vent, I'S to 3 ; wings, 3*2 to 3-4; wings, when closed^ reach 

 to within 0*6 to O'S of end of tail. 



