412 Birds absented on the Trans- Siberian Railway Line. 



scattered groves of silver-birch trees, always at some distance 

 from the line. At about 4 p.m. we reached Omsk. In 

 this part of the country Stonechats [Pratincola maura) 

 were extremely plentiful : no doubt the locality suited them 

 well for breeding purposes. Here also I saw a great 

 many Hobbies {Falco subbuteo) ; they were very tame and 

 remained sitting on the telegraph-posts whilst the train 

 steamed by. Cuckoos were very numerous and so were 

 Pipits, on which, no doubt, the former were chiefly parasitic. 

 Carrion-Crows, which had become rather scarce, again 

 became numerous in the afternoon, but the Grey Crows 

 continued to be plentiful — even in the marsh-land they 

 did not diminish much. In the afternoon as we neared 

 Omsk I first saw Rooks {Corvus frvgilegiis) and Jackdaws 

 (C monedula), but neither were very plentiful. At Omsk 

 Sparrows {Passer domesticus) were well to the fore. 



June 9ib. — From this date until June 11th, when we 

 reached Moscow, birds were not plentiful and I did not make 

 many notes of interest. 



In the forenoon we found that as we reached the neighbour- 

 hood of Cheliabinsk the country underwent a great change : 

 still flat and grassy, it wore a look of cultivation and civilization 

 greatly in advance of anything that we had seen since passing 

 the well-ordered Manchurian plains about Harbin. Soon 

 after mid-day we entered the Urals, and passed the border- 

 line of Europe and Asia shortly after 4 o'clock. The Ural 

 scenery was pretty but not at all grand : the mountains are 

 neither rugged nor of any great height, but they are most 

 beautifully wooded with forests of conifers. 



Birds were scarce, and I only noticed Carrion-Crows, 

 Grey Crows, Rooks, and Jackdaws, chiefly about Cheliabinsk. 

 Starlings continued to be plentiful and in the Urals I saw a 

 couple of Buzzards. 



June lOth. — To-day the country was flat and woods were 

 scarce, indeed I only saw one or two small copses of rather 

 undersized oaks. I noticed a Hoopoe, the first I had seen 

 since crossing the Gobi Desert near Khailar, some thousands 

 of miles further east. 1 noticed the last Black-eared Kite 



