MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 257 



while with us replaces to a gi-eat extent the Common Crow (C. splendens) as 

 cook liouse scavenger. This cold weather, strange to relate, the bird has not 

 appeared. 



With the exception of two solitary individuals heard and seen at two 

 widely separated spots in the district I have not met with the species this winter. 



On the other hand the Common Crow (C. splendens), the Hooded Crow 

 (C. shai'jni), the Rook (C. frugllens) and the Jackdaw (C. monedula) are all 

 with us in their ordinary if not in increased numbers. 



I am at a loss to offer any explanation of the Jungle Crow's failure to pay 

 us his annual visit. Certainly the character of the weather from October to 

 January can hardly be held responsible for this lapse on his part, for the 

 weather has been, if somewhat drier than the average, nearly normal and the 

 usual severe cold has, for the past 2 months or more, reigned in the hills of 

 Waziristan Khost and on the Safed Koh range to the north-west. A circum 

 stance perhaps tending to reduced numbers but which could not possibly have 

 caused practically complete absence, as in the present instance, is de-afforesta- 

 lion in Waziristan. 



The wooded hills of that territory, which borders Bannu on the west, are, 

 much as it is to be deplored, being rapidly denuded of trees owing to the 

 heavy demands for wood for building purposes in connection with military 

 extension schemes. But this depletion so far is mostly among the deodai- 

 saplings which are required for rafters and scantlings. Mature trees in which 

 the Jungle crow nests are of course also being cut down, but it is hard to 

 imagine that with the primitive appliances in possession of the tribesmen and 

 their want of organization there could, in one hot weather, take place auch a 

 wholesale felling of timber as to cause the birds to abandon their breeding 

 gx-ounds and desert the locality. Again a possible cause of reduced numbers 

 might lie in the monsoon rainfall of the past year which was heavier than 

 usual in the North- West Frontier Province and adjoining tribal territory and 

 which may have destroyed many of the young nestlings. But this is only- 

 surmise and, as before, such a reason could not possibly be adv meed to account 

 for the complete absence of the birds from the district. The phenomenon, if 

 non-appearance can be termed such, is a remarkable one and I can only trust 

 that Ijcfore the cold weather is over a solution of the mystery may be forih- 

 coniing. Possibly when the winter rains, which are now long overdue, break, 

 the Vjirds may come forth from their hiding places. 



On the whole the autumn migration of 1908 in this part of India has been 

 singularly inconspicuous in its manifestation. There was none of that great 

 rush of the smaller passerine birds which was such a feature of the migi-ation of 

 the previous year, when individuals belonging to the families SylvUdo:, IJirun- 

 dinhlo: and Jlotactllidoi poured in thousands through the district on their way 

 south. From Peshawar also Captain R. B, Skinner, R. E., informs me that few 

 migrants were seen by him this autumn. And yet many of our winter visitors 

 appear to l:>e present in their usual numbers — notably the species of the family 



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