92 W. T. Blanford— On the Physical Geography [No. 2, 



wins and P. Senegallus are met with in places. The grey partridge (Orty* 

 gornis Pondiceriana) is found everywhere, whilst the cream-coloured courser 

 (Cwsorius gallicws) and the Indian bustard (Eiipodotis Edwardsi) are pretty 

 generally distributed. 



The common birds in the Thar are Falco jugger, Tinnunculus alau- 

 darius, Buteo ferox, Merops viridis, Pycnonotus pusillns, Lanius lahtora, 

 Dicrurus albirictns, Chatorhea caudata, Sylvia curruca, Saxicola picata, 

 Thamnobia Cambayensis, Pyrrhulauda melanauchen, Galerita cristata, Passer 

 Indicus, Munia Malabarica, Corvus corax, Turtnr Cambayensis, T. risorius, 

 and Ortygomis Pondiceriana. 



The only common reptiles are lizards and they appear for the most 

 part to hibernate in the cold season. The most abundant is Acanthodacty- 

 lus Cantoris ; I also found Agama agilis very common between Jaysalmir 

 and Bohri. In the same district peculiar vermiform tracks abounded of a 

 small lizard which I have no doubt is Sphenocephalies tridactylus, but this 

 animal is nocturnal and a burrower, and although I often searched for it, 

 I never succeeded in finding it. On more rocky ground I found Ophiops 

 Jerdoni and Mesalina pardalis. The only harmless snakes which I saw 

 were forms of Zamenis and Psammophis, and the only venomous species 

 was Echis carinatus. No tortoises were seen or heard of. 



§ 5. Distribution of the Sand-hills. — The sand-hills have a somewhat 

 peculiar distribution. They occupy a large tract in Eastern Sind, extending 

 the whole length of the province, along the edge of the Indus alluvium. Here 

 they are close together and form long ridges, running nearly north-east and 

 south-west near Umarkot, and about north-north-east to south-south- 

 west near Bohri.* In the southern portion of the desert, they are said 

 by Sir B. Frere to run nearly east and west. They are much higher to the 

 southward than to the north, but I saw none approaching the heights of 

 400 to 500 feet, said by Sir Bartle Frere to be common in parts of the 

 desert, f The highest sand-hills which I observed near Umarkot, cannot, 

 I think, have exceeded 200 feet, but I did not measure them, so I may be 

 in error. This tract on the borders of Sind is the " Thar" — a name which is, 

 in the country, restricted to the sand-hill region. From the Sind frontier 

 to Balmir, although there are many sand-hills, they are far from being as 

 generally distributed as they are to the westward, whilst east of Balmir they 

 are, for some distance, only dotted over the surface, but they again become 

 more general before reaching the Luni river, and the hills, in this direction, 

 appear to form part of a sand-hill tract which stretches to the northward 



* The change in direction is shewn on the revenue survey map, on which the 

 general course of the ridges is indicated. 



f I was told that the highest sand-hills are found more to the southward between 

 Umarkot and the Ran of Kachh. 



