25^ Contributions to the Ornithology of India, 8^e. 



915.— Leptoptilus dubius, Gm.~L. argala, Lath. 

 I myself never saw this species in Sindh^ but Mr. Watson 

 informed me that it was not nucommon at times in the Rooree 

 Sub-Division where there was water. Mr. James, c. s., observ- 

 ed it once on the Indus, in Upper Sindh, in November, and it is 

 occasionall}^ seen both in Upper and Lower Sindh, soon after the 

 inundation subsides. 



917. — Mycteria indica, Lath. — M, australis, Lath, 

 apud Jerdon. 



I only very seldom saw this fine stork in Sindh ; higher up 

 in the Punjab, I often saw it along- the banks of the larger 

 rivers. 



Mr. Gray considers the Indian race specifically distinct from 

 the Australian, and as he had specimens of both to compare, and 

 I have not, I have, though doubtingly, followed him. 



918.— Melanopelargus nigra, L, 



The black stork which, except in the districts lying immediate- 

 ly below the hills, is a comparatively rare bird in the North- 

 Western and Central Provinces, and Cis-Sutlej Punjab, occurs 

 in vast numbers, in flocks of several hundreds, everywhere 

 along the banks of the Jlielum, the Chenab, and the Indus 

 in the Punjab, and along those of the Indus in Sindh. In- 

 land too, in Sindh, I met with it on several occasions, and 

 I shot a fine specimen out of a party of four or five on the 

 banks of the Gaj just inside the hills. On the river banks 

 this species is so excessively wary that numerous as it is, it 

 is difficult to procure a sj)ecimenj it is scarcely possible to 

 get within even rifie shot of them, and at three or four hun- 

 dred yards distance, I found them uncommonly hard to hit, 

 and I only secured one this way, and that too was not the bird 

 I fired at. I measured a pair, male and female, in the flesh ; the 

 following" were their dimensions : 



Male, length, 44; expanse, 78; tail from vent, 9; wing, 

 22 ; wings, when closed, reached exactly to end of tail ; tarsus, 

 8'75; bill at front, 7*5 ; foot greatest length, 5'75; wddth, 6; 

 weight, 9 Bs. 



Pemale, length, 39"6; expanse, 77; tail from vent, 8*75; 

 wing, 20-25; bill at front, 6-8 ; tarsus, 7-8; weight, 7-25 lbs. 



919.— Ciconia alba, L. 



I only once saw this species inland in Upper Sindh, a small 

 party of about twenty feeding in a nearly dry swamp, but on 

 the Indus it seemed more common. 



