284 



NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF THANDIANI. 



BY 



Major H. A. F. Magrath. 



Thandiani in the Hazara District, N. W. F. P., is, as its name 

 mplies, a delightfully cool little hill station in summer. It is situated 

 14 miles N.-E. of the Military cantonment of Abbottabad, on the 

 summit of a ridge, the highest point of which is just over 9,000 feet. 

 This ridge runs parallel, but in echelon, to the ridge on which the 

 Galis lie. From 6,000 feet up it is covered with dense forest, con- 

 sisting for the most part of Silver pine, Blue pine, yew trees, horse 

 chestnut, walnut, sycamore, and wild cherry trees. There is also a 

 dense undergrowth of Daphne oleoides and a species of Strobilanthes. 

 Where the sunlight can get at the hill sides they are carpeted with 

 wild flowers in spring, such as anemones of two or three kinds, wild 

 violets, wild strawberries, kingcups, etc., also ferns of three or four 

 kinds, among which the maidenhair is common. The forests thin 

 out as one approaches the top of the ridge, which in places is bare of 

 trees but covered with grassy turf. The hill stations of Nathia Gali, 

 Dunga Gali and Murree are respectively about 10, 14, and 25 miles 

 due south as the crow flies, and it is a curious fact that although so 

 close together the avifauna of Thandiani, compared with that of 

 Murree and the Galis, should be so much poorer in species. The 

 ridge on which Thandiani stands appears to be just outside the range 

 of many subtropical species common in the Murree hills, thus proving 

 that the range of a species is often sharply defined. In the present 

 case it is hard to understand why this should be as the flora of both 

 localities is very similar, and if anything the forests round Thandiani 

 are denser and of greater variety than those round Murree and the 

 Galis. As an example I will mention one species only which is quite 

 common in the Murree hills and also I believe in the Galis, but 

 which, as far as I am aware, does not occur in Thandiani, viz., " Me- 

 aalcema marshallorurn." On the other hand I believe that all the 

 species which occur in Thandiani are common to Murree and the 

 Galis. The area covered by my observations is limited to a horizontal 

 distance of 5 or 6 miles along the top of the ridge, to the lower tree 

 limit on the east side of the ridge and on the west to the top of the 

 ridge of the outer range of hills between which and the main ridge 



