Birds of Kohat and Kurram. 101 



A. spipoletta), wliich^ except in the case of the Shrike, were 

 shot out of flocks of similarly coloured birds. Taken as a 

 whole^ however, the birds of the District are characterized 

 by their pale colouring, which is what one would expect from 

 the desert nature of the country. 



Many more birds appear to halt in Kohat in the spring 

 migration, which continues from February till well into 

 June, than in the autumn. This is probably due to the 

 configuration of the locality. As will be seen from the map 

 (Plate III.), the main Kohat Valley at its junction with the 

 Indus is comparatively broad but narrows considerably towards 

 the Kurram River, with which it is connected by the Ishkalai, 

 an insignificant stream flowing in at Thall. The latter stream 

 is probably easily missed by the hosts of migrants passing 

 down the Kurram River on southward migration in autumn. 

 Major Magrath writes that they migrate down this river in 

 the Bannu District in great numbers in August, September, 

 and the first half of October. 



In square brackets are added notes on those species met 

 with by Major Magrath in Bannu, but not found by us in 

 Kohat or in the Kurram Valley, as most of them would be 

 likely to occur within our limits. The Bannu District, 

 however, exhibits a great contrast to Kohat, consisting as it 

 does for the most part of a broad, well-watered, highly 

 cultivated plain with a good deal of marsh-land. 



In the following notes, wherever the expression " we " is 

 used it refers, of course, to Major Magrath and myself, as 

 we worked together. 



The word " plains " is used, as it usually is in India, to 

 denote the low coimtry — i.e., in this case, below about 

 3000 feet— as opposed to the main hill-ranges, and not merely 

 the flat country, the greater part of Kohat being a maze of 

 low hills and ravines. Similarly the word ''desert" is used 

 in its wider sense to include stony and not necessarily level 

 wastes which cover such a large part of the District (where 

 there is very little sandy desert). 



The nomenclature followed is that adopted by Gates and 

 Blanford in the ' Fauna of British India, Birds,' and the 



