THE PUNJAB, AND SIND. 479 



with some little trouble, as it got very rapidly out of my way. 

 A very diminutive bird caught my eye, much smaller than 

 I expected from the note, but before I could shoot it, it was 

 away as hard as it could go. I went after it, as hard as 1 

 could go, for my curiosity was thoroughly roused, and at 

 last I shot it; when in hand, I found it was the long-looked- 

 for Phylloscopus neglectus. When once I knew the note, I 

 soon got a few. The voice and manner of this little bird 

 are not at all Phylloscopine. In structure it is PhylloscoptiSy 

 but in voice and very restless habits it is much more like 

 Curruca, .However, it is just as much a Phylloscopus as 

 P.fuscatus, and in Phylloscopus it may very well remain where 

 Mr. Hume has placed it, as there is no use in multiplying 

 genera which are merely terms of convenience, and we have 

 already twice too many of them. It is troublesome enough 

 to have to remember specific terms wholesale, but to have to 

 remember a host of new-fangled generic terms is intolerable, 

 and makes the study of ornithology intensely disagreeable, 

 when it should be purely a pleasure. 



Next day I decided to go again after the new Phylloscopus 

 and P. neglectus; and I did get a very good series of the 

 latter, but a poor one of the former. In low ground, more 

 towards the river, where there were another vetch field and one 

 of mustard, I got a few Pratineola leucurus, males and females. 

 I then went into a different tract of Tamarisk jungle, but it was 

 smaller, and the trees were so very close together that walking 

 through them was very difficult. There were many P. sindianus 

 in this jungle and some P. tristis, but I could not manage 

 to shoot them in such a place, so I left it, and crossed over 

 to the original jungle where it had been cleai-ed away in places 

 for firewood. I got a fine series of P. neglectus, and a few 

 more of the new bird ; in the same jungle were a few Cyanecula 

 suecica that were singing very prettily. 



I am sorry I did not stay at Sukhur to get a more complete 

 series of the new bird instead of going on to Sehwan, where 

 I did not do well. There is a backwater of the Indus at 

 Sehwan that communicates with the Munchur Lake, and on 

 its banks are tracts of Tamarisk jungle. As I passed along 

 in a boat, I heard the note of P. sindianus very distinctly 

 several times ; so it is to be found there too ; and I have no 

 doubt over all suitable places in Scind. Now to what country 

 do P. sindianus and P. 7ieglectus go to breed ? We know 

 that tristis breeds in Ladak, and also in Siberia. 



There was a fine Babool grove near Sehwan near the back- 

 water of the Indus, and I shot a few P. neglectus there ; but in 



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