Contributions to the Ornithology of India y 8j;c. 253 



923.— Ardea cinerea, L, 



The common hevou swarms in Sindh : it is cue of the birds 

 wliich tlie professional fishermen^ malianahs as they are called, „/; 

 capture in large numbers, partly for food, and partly to make i(^ 

 use oF as decoys to other water-fowl. About every fisherman^s" 

 villag-e hundreds may be seeu, perched about on the boats^ on 

 stacks of brushwood thrown into the water, and on poles, per- 

 fectly motionless, and more like stuffed than living- birds. The 

 eyelids of all are sewn up ; they dare not move, poor things, 

 and wherever they are placed for the day, there they remain 

 immoveable. Generall}^ they are lightly tethered by one leg, 

 but I saw several, perhaps old prisoners, in no way tied. Now 

 and again they run their bills along their feathers, or flap 

 their wings feebly, but as a rule they all stand like statues. The 

 people feed them liberally, and say they grow very fat in 

 confinement, and obviously appreciate them as much as an 

 article of diet, as our ancestors appear to have done. Sometimes 

 these birds get loose, or being loose, take it into their heads to 

 fly. I mj'-self saw a bird get loose in this way and then it 

 mounted in short circles straight up into the sky until we 

 entirely lost sight of it, and this the boatmen assured me was 

 what invariably happened in similar cases. What eventually 

 comes of these, no one seems to know ; of course they must 

 ultimately drop exhausted to the ground, but probably at great 

 distances from where they started, for the fishermen say that 

 never, by any chance, do they again see a bird that thus 

 escapes. 



924.— Ardea purpurea, L. 



We never happened to meet with this, but Captain Maiden 

 informed me that it was common along the banks of the In- 

 dus. 



925.— Herodias alba, L. 



926. — Herodias intermedia, v- Hasselq. — H. 



egrettoides, Tern. 



927.— Herodias garzetta, L. 



All three species were met with in vast numbers at all the 

 larger inland waters of Sindh ; alha and intermedia are quite 

 as commonly captured and kept by the fowlers and fishers, 

 about their reed huts and boats, as cinerea. Such Noah^s arks 

 as these boats often are j you will see one about 20 feet long 

 and six wide at the outside, with a small thatch over the central 

 portion, which will contain, a man and his wife, an old man, 



