X INTRODUCTIOTST. 



winter, and leave the Province at tolerably fixed periods during the 

 months of March, April and May. The whole net work of channels* 

 mud banks and marshes at the mouth of the Indus, the lakes or 

 dhunds formed by the periodical inundations of the river, as well as 

 the sea coast, literally teem from about the middle of September 

 to the beginning of June, with almost every form of bird-life affecting 

 such situations, from the unwieldy Pelican to the little Snippets, which 

 run along the ripple-marked sands of the sea coast. 



There is abundance of shooting during this period in all the lakes 

 and their neighbourhood. Wild Fowl literally swarm, especially on the 

 Munchur, where they are in thousands and myriads, their compact 

 masses forming, as it were, living islands upon the water, and, when 

 disturbed, a feathered cloud in the air. Flamingoes, Geese and Ducks 

 too are quite as numerous. 



With these come some of the rapacious order, also winter visitants, 

 whose movements are necessarily connected with those upon which 

 they prey. Again there are the smaller birds which keep along the scrub 

 or tamarisk jungle fringing the banks of the Indus and the edges of lakes, 

 as the Sylviince and Phylloscopince families. Neither songsters nor 

 gallinaceous birds are numerous in regard to species, though 

 abundantly so as to individuals ; among the latter are Grouse, 

 Patridges, Quails, the Houbara Bustard, Floriken, and several other 

 resident species. The SyluiincB a,ndSax,icolince{a.mi]iea too are prominent 

 visitors during winter, and are fairly well represented. Among the 

 great multitude of birds, regularly visiting us, are a few stragglers 

 which make their way to the Province in excessively cold winters. 

 These are Bidieilla mesoleuea, Lanius auriculatus, Saxicola leucomela 

 Emheriza miliaria, Linaria cannahina, and Cygnus olor (Mif-ray, 

 Additions to the Sincl Avi-Fauna, 8. F. vol. vii. pp. 108-123) which, 

 although not properly belonging to the fauna, the circumstance of their 

 having occurred during an extremely severe winter in 1878, is worthy 

 of record, since Sind has nearly as many Palaaarctic as oriental species. 

 The following gives the distribution of the total number (399) of 

 birds found in the Province : — 



266 are found in Rajputana. 



„ „ Central India, 



„ „ Kutch, 



„ „ Guzerat. 



„ „ Concan. 



„ „ Deccan. 



., » S. India. 



