358 HYPOCOLIUS AMPELINUS IN SIND. 



or outer edge of the first quill-feather of the cock bird is marked 

 alternately with dark and light spots of a somewhat triangular 

 shape, while in the hen the corresponding feather is without spots, 

 and in lieu of them presents a uniform light coloured stripe 

 extending the whole length of the feather, " will not hold good as 

 regards my specimen, which though an undoubted female, has 

 the first primary marked exactly as he says it is in the male bird. 

 In reference to this supposed sexual difference Yarrell remarks 

 (" British Birds," Vol. III., p. 16) " the triangular marks on 

 the outer web of the first quill-feather are rather indications of 

 youth than of sex, and are obliterated by degrees." Again Mr. 

 J. H. Grurney, junior, has the following note on the same subject 

 (" Zoologist'" for 1870, p. 2345) :— 



" Ornithologists have long ago decided that the markings ou 

 the outer web of the first quill in the Woodcock are no criterion 

 of sex : I have dissected several, and it does not hold good." 



The ovarium of my specimen contained three impregnated 

 eggs, the largest being about the size of an ordinary pill, so that 

 the present brood would hardly have been able to shift for them- 

 selves before the mother would be incubating again ; it is evident 

 therefore that in India, as in Europe, the Woodcock has a double 

 brood. 



In vain we hunted all we knew for more birds during the 

 remainder of our sojourn in this bleak and inhospitable country, 

 but without seeing another ; and here ends my narrative of the 

 first and only timber doodle {slium-titar as it is there called) that 

 we saw during a two mouths' excursion in Northern Kumaon. 



A. Anderson. 



i jpcoltus ampcUnus m JHnfr. 



By W. T. Blanford, f.r.s. &c. 



So many African birds have been found in Sind that an addi- 

 tion to the number is not surprising. On the 6th of March last 

 a bird was brought to me by my collector, which was not merely 

 new to me, but which puzzled me greatly, for I could not tell 

 the genus nor even the family to which it should be referred. It 

 had a shrike-like bill, but no vibrissas, and it proved on exami- 

 nation to be frugivorous. Altogether it recalled to my mind 

 the curious Burmese Magpie, Crypsirhina cucullata, more than 

 any other bird I knew, but still it was not a Magpie. 



The spot where the bird was killed was amongst the lower 

 hills on the eastern flanks of the great Kirthar range, which 

 forms the boundary between Sind and Kelat. I was encamped 



