142 



BIRD NOTES FROM MURREE AND THE GALLS. 



BY 



Major H. A. F. Magrath. 



The following notes were made during a period of four months' 

 leave, taken in the Murree Hills this year (1908), in which was in- 

 cluded a short trip to the Galis in June, and are, with the exception 

 of occasional references to nesting and other habits, merely a record 

 of impressions of notes and songs of some Western Himalayan species 

 concerning which little has hitherto been done in the matter of 

 ' syllabifying them in print. To some extent they are supplementary 

 to " Notes on the Birds of Thandiani " published in VoL XVIII, 

 No. 2, of this Journal (page 284). Colonel H. R. Rattray has already 

 very fully dealt with the oology and nidification of the birds of this 

 locality, vide Vol. XVI, Nos. 3 and 4, of this Journal, and although 

 a few species are included in these notes which were unnoticed in that 

 paper, it cannot be clamied for them that they add materially to 

 our knowledge in these respects. A brief description, by way of 

 introduction, of the flora and of the distribution of species in the 

 locality may perhaps render tliem less uninteresting than if this were 

 omitted. 



On my arrival in Murree in the latter part of April there was a 

 great " rush " of birds on migration over the hill, and during the 

 next two or three weeks the following migrants were observed, some 

 of them in great numbers, viz.^ Phylloscoj^us tristis (The Brown 

 willow-Warbler), Phylloscopus Jmmii (Hume's Willow- Warbler) 

 (1 shot), Pht/llo SCO pits subvirides (Brook's Willow-Warbler), Acan- 

 tlwpnevste nitidus (The Green Willow-Warbler), Siphia parva 

 (The European Red-breasted Flycatcher), Motacilla melanope (The 

 Grey Wagtail), Anthus trimalis (The Tree Pipit), Anthas rosacevs 

 (Hodgson's Pipit) (1 shot), Cypselus leuconyx (Blyth's White-rumped 

 Swift) Palumhus casiotis (The Eastern Wood-Pigeon) and Falco 

 svbhuteo (The Hobby). In the vicinity of Tret (3,500 feet) Motacilla 

 horealis (The Grey-headed Wagtail), was ohserved in considerable 

 numbers and individuals were seen up to the middle of May. As 

 regards local breeding species I observed, with some exceptions, 

 notably among the game birds, all the birds one would expect to meet 

 in the localitv. 



