Bi7'ds of Kohat and Kurram. 115 



described the bird as a new species, naming it as above in 

 honour of its discoverer. 



Major Magrath^s specimens differ from the hybrid forms 

 already described in being closely allied to M. leucotis and 

 not to M. leucogenys. It is difficult to ascribe them to a 

 hybrid form, as in the case of the Kohat birds, because 

 M. intermedius does not, Major Magrath assures me, occur 

 in Banuu, and M. leucogenys there is always more or less 

 true to type.] 



[320.] SiTTA KASHMiRENSis. Brooks's Nuthatch. 



Fulton, J. B. N. H. S. xvi. p. 48 (Chitral : very common 

 from 6000 to 11,000 ft.; Ward, op. cit. xvii. p. Ill (ob- 

 tained in April in Kashmir). 



Fairly common on the Peiwar Spur of the Safed Koh and 

 in the adjoining nullahs from 7500 to 10,000 ft. 



[323.] SiTTA LEUcoPsis. The White-cheeked Nuthatch. 



Fulton, J. B. N. H. S. xvi. p. 48 (Chitral : very common 

 from 7000 to 12,000 ft.) ; Rattray, t. c.p. 424 (fairly com- 

 mon above 8000 ft.: Murree Hill) ; Ward, op. cit. xvii. p. Ill 

 (fairly common). 



This is the common Nuthatch of the Safed Koh, from 

 8000 ft. to tree-limit. Its curious call-note, resembling the 

 word " pain " (pronounced like the French word for 

 " bread '^), may be heard all day long. 



[327.] DicRURUS ATER. The Black Drongo, or King 

 Crow. 



Rattray, J. B. N. H. S. xii. p. 338 (summer visitor to 

 Thall) ; Fulton, op. cit. xvi. p. 48 (Chitral : common in 

 summer up to 5500 ft.) ; Ward, op. cit. xvii. p. Ill (Kash- 

 mir: occurs up to 7000 ft.). 



One of our commonest summer visitors from the plains up 

 to 8500 feet in the Kurram Valley, the first birds arriving 

 in the middle of March and the species becoming common a 

 fortnight later. It disappears towards the end of October. 

 Probably, however, the Drongo we observed above 7000 feet 

 on the Safed Koh belonged to the allied species D, long'i- 

 caudatus, the differences not being very marked and the latter 



I 2 



