1869.] OBSEEVATIONS IN THE SUTLEJ VALLEY." 53 



In his instructive preliminary sketch of the physical construction of the Sutlej Valley, ' 



Dr. Stoliczka supplies us with a ready explanation of this apparently anomalous commingling of 

 the avifauna of such different zoological provinces. The Sutlej, without making a long eastern 

 or western circuit, like the Bramapootra and the Indus, breaks, in an almost direct line towards 

 the plains, through the intervening ranges of gigantic mountains, cutting its way, or bursting a 

 passage, through the solid rock, and jumping, in a course of 180, or in a straight line of 110 

 miles, from an altitude of 13,000 to that of 1000 feet. Its valley and those of its affluents thus 

 provide an easy means of access from the plains to the elevated tablelands north of the Ilia, 1809, 

 Himalayas, and become a direct highway for birds migrating from the north or the south of ^' 

 those mountains: and although, in historical times at least, neither the nations north nor 

 south of the Himalayan barrier have ever availed themselves of these natural advantages, either 

 for warlike or commercial purposes. Dr. Stoliczka almost implies that the most feasible route to 

 or from Central Asia is to be met with by following the course of the Sutlej. The country of 

 the plains extends to within the moutli of the valley ; and there are still to be found the animals 

 indigenous to the low country. Higher up, but yet in the lower portions of the valley, to an 

 elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet, many low-country species of birds find those conditions of 

 food and climate which become suspended in the plains during the great heat and drought of 

 summer, and the means of forming their nests and rearing their young. And there also a few 

 Central-Himalayan hill-forms occur, but diminished in variety and number of species, having 

 almost reached their western geographical limit through the action and effects of an increased 

 latitude ; while, as the valley continues rising to its greatest elevation, the species and genera of 

 the Central- Asiatic fauna begin to appear, increasing in number until, when the summit is gained, 

 they almost exclusively predominate. 



In short, this valley has its beginning in the Tibetan zoological jirovince, and its termination 

 in the Indian ; is a highway for birds which pass the summer in central or northern Asia and the 

 winter in India ; is alternately a refuge for those Tibetan birds which cannot endure the rigour 

 of a Tibetan winter, and for those Indian species which are unable to support the great heats of 

 summer ; and is the permanent habitation of the declining Eastern-Himalayan hill-forms, and of 

 those species which are characteristic of a temperate yet unelevated region in the higher 

 latitudes of the Old World, like Loxia, Pijrrhula, Carduelis, and Garrulus, and help to connect 

 the avifauna of Europe with that of Hindostan. The meeting together in the Catalogue of the 

 Ornis of a single valley of such zoo-geographical extremes as Lerwa nivicola, and Temenuchus 

 pagodarum, Carduelis caniceps and Araclmothera magna, Montifringilla adamsi and Xantliolcema ibis, i860 

 indica, is thus accounted for. P- 211. 



Of the two hundred and eighty species collected or observed by Dr. Stoliczka, there are 

 described as new, Linota jtygmma, Piingillauda sordida, and Munia similaris. The first two 

 appear to have been hitherto undescribed ; but the thiaxl is undoubtedly 3Iunia undulata (Lath.)* 



* The sjTionymy of this genus is in some confusion. Three original descriptions of a spotted Munia -were published 

 previously to 1766, — one by Albin, with a coloured plate (1738), from a bird said to have como from China, one by Edwards 

 (1743), with a coloured plate, said to be from the East Indies, where it is called Cotvri/ bird, and one by Brisson (1700), 

 from a specimen obtained near Batavia, in Java. Linnoeus (S. N. i. p. 302) quotes Edwards first, and then Brisson, omitting 

 Albin. If the first reference is to be taken as having supplied the type, the Indian bird must stand as M. pxinctidaria (L.) ; 



