126 SECOND YAHEAND MISSION. 



Genus BOTAURUS. 

 287- BOTAUEUS STELLARIS. 



Botaurus stellaris (L.) ; Severtz. Turkest. Jevotn. p. 68 (1873) ; Dresser, Ibis, 1876, p. 325 ; Scully Str 

 F. iv. p. 196 (1876) ; Blanf. East. Persia, ii. p. 297 (1876) ; Prjev. in Rowley^s Orn. Misc. iii. p. 5o 

 (1878) ; C. Swinh. Ibis, 1882, p. 123; Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. (2) Zool. v. pt. 3, p. 90 (1889). 



No. 1176. Kashghar, December 23, 1873.— '* Koelbuka." Bought by Dr. Bellew in the 

 bazaar. 



Dr. Scully's note is as follows :— " Four specimens of the Bittern were preserved : a 

 female at Kashghar in December, a male at Beshkant in February, and two males at Yarkand 

 in the same month. This species was tolerably common near Kashghar and Tarkand during 

 the winter, frequenting swampy ground covered with rushes. It was not noticed in spring 

 or summer; but Mr. Shaw purchased a young bird of the year about the middle of July, 

 which would seem to prove that this bird does not breed far from Yarkand, at any rate. I 

 kept several of these birds in confinement, and found that their favourite attitude was with 

 the beak directed straight up in the air, the eyes looking very vacant, and the whole body 

 kept still and unmoved ; when made to walk about the room they would shake out their 

 neck-feathers and look very fierce. The natives said that one required to be very careful in 

 handling these birds, as they were very fond of making a peck straight at one's eye : a wild 

 hare kept in the same room with a Bittern died one night, and next morning one of its eyes 

 was found very neatly picked out ; my servant looked on this incident as a striking con- 

 firmation of the eye-extracting tendencies of the bird. The Yarkandis call this species ' Kul 

 bughasij the ' Stag of the Lake,' and say that it is a permanent resident in the country, 

 breeds in long grass-jungle, and makes a very loud booming noise by sticUng its hill into a 

 reed ! " 



Family CICONIID^. 



Genus DISSURA. 

 288. DissunA EPiscopus. 



Melanopelargus episcopus (Bodd.) ; Hume & Henders. Lahore to Yark. p. 294 (1873). 

 Dissura episcopus, Gates in Hume's Nests & Eggs Ind. B. iii. p. 268 (1890). 



Dr. Henderson states that he saw this Stork in the plains of Yarkand on several 

 occasions, especially in the neighbourhood of Yarkand itself.* No specimen was preserved, 

 and none of the other expeditions met with the species. 



