61 



fetters to % €bitor. 



Sir, 



I was rather amused to read the note at page 506 

 of Vol. IV. about the ' Bori' bird of Sind, and to find that Col. 

 Haig has announced that lam 'wrong once more' in iden- 

 tifying it with Euspiza melanocephala. 



Col. Haig's report on the Sehwan Taluka was written more 

 than a year ago, but I had not been favoured with a copy, so 

 I could not write sooner on the subject. I am glad to be able to 

 assure you that Col. Haig is a better Settlement Officer than 

 ornithologist. 



I first wrote my own note on the subject in the month 

 of April when the Black-headed Bunting had just come in, 

 and I was eye-witness to the damage even small flocks 

 were capable of committing. The people of the Sehwan 

 District unanimously told me that Euspiza melanocephala 

 was the culprit which had ruined their fields in the year 1869. 

 The reason why the bird is not more generally known by 

 Europeans in Sind is that District Officers in that province 

 return from the Districts to their Head-quarters in March, as 

 soon as the cold weather is over, and thus escape seeing the 

 " Bori" at work. 



Col. Haig seems not to have seen a Black-headed Bunting 

 at all, and to have jumped at the conclusion that because 

 Pastor roseus has a black head, that that was the bird 

 I meant. Iudeed, he talks of " the Black-headed Bunting 

 vulgarly called the " Juari Bird," which last epithet is in the 

 Bombay Presidency entirely confined to Pastor o^oseus. A 

 Settlement Officer need not necessarily know the difference 

 between a Bunting and a Starling, but it might have occurred 

 to him that it was possible that two different birds might have 

 dark heads, go in flocks and devour grain. I have not seen 

 Col. Dunsterville's paper on the subject, but as far as my memory 

 serves me, I think he is right in saying that the Sind name of 

 Pastor roseus (which is very common there in the cold weather) 

 is u Waheeo." As for Ploceus manyar, you, Mr. Editor, know 

 what large flocks of that species are to be found in Sind, 

 and Jerdon* mentions that it is often found feeding in 

 flocks with Euspiza melanocephala. It is quite possible there- 

 fore that CoL Dunsterville has seen both birds in company, 

 and that on the natives telling him in their vague way that 

 ' those are the "Boris" he attached the epithet to Ploceus which 



* Jerdon refers to Ploceus baya, which is represented in Sind by Ploceus manyar. 



