1889-90.] a District in the Himalayas. 295 



to ill Shakespeare. Sir John Falstaff says, iu " The Merry- 

 Wives of Windsor " : " They are fairies ; he that speaks to 

 them shall die." 



Of Gurhwal birds, the first place undoubtedly belongs to 

 the pheasants. Five of these are common — Lophophorus 

 Impeyanus, Ceriornis melanocephala, Pucrasia macrolopha, 

 Gallophasis albocristatus, and Phasianns Wallichii. No birds 

 except the humming-birds can equal the beauty of the two 

 first-named. To see them in their native hills is alone almost 

 worth a journey to Gurhwal. It is, however, only the males 

 that are beautiful. The females are sombre coloured, and far 

 less attractive. Near the snows I saw numbers of two beauti- 

 ful birds, the black and white snow-pigeon, and the Cornish 

 chough, or a bird nearly allied to it. Of the other birds I 

 saw in Gurhwal, the most interesting were the white-spotted 

 serpent eagle, with its fine black-and-white crest, the Him- 

 alayan osprey, and the purple-tailed honey-sucker. I shall 

 leave the other birds of Gurhwal for a future paper — should 

 I ever write one — on the birds of Kumaon and Gurhwal ; 

 but I cannot conclude this section about birds without men- 

 tioning that most beautiful singer, the yellow-billed whistling 

 thrush {Myiopliomts Tevivienckii). In the early dawn, long 

 before sunrise, the glorious notes of this bird used to pour in 

 through the canvas walls of my tent, waking me with music 

 — ^just as I had been lulled to sleep some hours before by the 

 soft double note of the owl {Epliialtcs pennatus). No human 

 music could be softer and more soothing than the sweet low 

 murmur of the owl ; no music more arousino; and enlivening 

 than the rich, full, strong notes of the thrush. 



Of lizards, two are exceedingly common — Calotes versicolor 

 and Stellio tuberculata, both belonging to the thick-tongued 

 section. Both are insectivorous ; but they also eat grass and 

 garden plants. One day, coming along a road, one of these 

 little creatures attacked me, apparently for the purpose of 

 protecting her eggs, which she was watching over, having 

 very stupidly made her nest on the side of the public road. 

 They themselves are preyed on by snakes. Of snakes, by far 

 the most common is the pretty, non-venomous, little Simotes 

 Ptussellii, but three venomous ones are abundant — two of 

 them, the cobra and the Eussell's viper, being met with from 



