234 Contributions to the Ornithology of India, Sfc. 



neck and interscapulaiy region, blackish, brown, with green 

 reflections ; the feathers margined with paler brown, and the 

 white bases of the feathers shewing" through a good deal ; the 

 scapulars similar, but rather paler. The primaries and their 

 greater coverts, blackish brown; the shafts of all the former, 

 white, except just at the bases and tips where they are tinged 

 brownish. The edge of the wing just at the base of the pri- 

 mary greater coverts, white; the sixth to the tenth primaries 

 shewing the white of their bases on their outer webs just beyond 

 the tips of the greater coverts. The terminal portions of the 

 secondary greater coverts hair brown, margined, and as already 

 mentioned, broadly tipped with white ; the tertiaries brown, with 

 greenish reflections, margined exteriorly towards the tips with 

 fulvons white; the secondaries almost entirely white ; but with 

 the visible portion of their outer webs, and a corresponding 

 patch on the inner webs, next the shaft, brown ; the extent of 

 this brown diminishes, and its tint pales as the feathers recede 

 from the primaries. 



861 — Dromas ardeola, PayK 



I secured no specimens of this species, though I more than 

 once fancied I saw it in Kurrachee Harbour, and since my return 

 from Sindh Mr. James, of the Civil Service, informs me that a 

 specimen has actually been procured in the harbour. 



862.— Heematopus ostralegus, L. 



Numbers of oystercatchers may be daily seen feeding at low 

 water on the mud flats of the Kurrachee Harbour in company 

 with innumerable waders. When the tide is up, they hang about 

 oyster rocks outside the harbour, and we saw them in various 

 localities along the Mekran Goast, and again a pair on the rocks 

 outside the Muscat Harbour. They were always terribly wary, and 

 it was almost impossible to procure a specimen, the few we did 

 obtain were only secured after a vast amount of trouble. A 

 male measured in the flesh, length, 15-5 ; expanse, 34 ; tail from 

 vent 4"4 ; wing 10 ; wings when closed reach to end of tail; bill 

 at front, 3'1 ; tarsus, 2-1 ; weight, 1 lb. 6 ozs. 



The bills in this species are very variable in length and range 

 from little more than 3 to 3-6 ; the legs and feet are brownish 

 purple; the bill, bright reddish orange, dingy and yellowish at 

 tip ; the eyelids orange red, and irides red. 



863.— Grus antigone, L. 



I only saw one single specimen of the sarus in Sindh, and I 

 think it must be very rare in the province. In any part of the 



