508 Mr. H. F. Witherby — Ornithological 



thousand feet below us, on the other side of the pass, lay 

 the green basin of Dasht-i-arjan, surrounded by abrupt and 

 rocky hills. To this we descended and found an entirely 

 fresh avifauna, to say nothing of wild pig, in the reedy marsh 

 which covers a large part of the plain. 



After working the marsh for a couple of days, we formed a 

 camp for a week at the base of the Pir-i-zan, where the oak- 

 woods bordered on the plain. This was a very good place 

 for birds, but I should undoubtedly have done better with 

 my collection had it not been for a tribe of Iliyats (nomads), 

 who swarmed down the hills with beasts innumerable for 

 three long days and disturbed the whole of my collecting- 

 ground. The Iliyats, or clansmen, of Persia are a very 

 interesting people, and we afterwards visited many of their 

 encampments and found much to admire in these simple 

 sons of nature. But the first encounter with them was dis- 

 couraging from an ornithological point of view, although 

 one could not help respecting them — men, women, and 

 children — for the way in which they rode their horses, 

 mules, asses, camels, and cows, and for the way in which 

 they drove their great flocks and herds, regardless of any 

 path or track, straight down the steep hill-sides. 



Hearing that Shiraz and the neighbouring country were in 

 a very disturbed state, owing to the Prince Governor having 

 been recalled to Tehran while his father was in Europe, we 

 decided to avoid the risk of being delayed there by first 

 making a tour in the oak-forest. We accordingly recrossed 

 the Pir-i-zan and struck northwards up the Dasht-i-Bam. 

 As we travelled on, camping for a day or two here and there, 

 the altitude gradually decreased and the oaks grew thinner, 

 until at Nurabad we reached some large and fertile plains 

 covered with rich crops of high corn, from which the 

 Fraucolin called continually with frog-like croaking notes. 

 At Tol-i-safid we turned to the east, and striking the Shiraz- 

 Behbahan route, soon came to a long and narrow vallev 

 thickly overgrown with oak. After passing Pul-i-mard the 

 valley or gorge led rapidly upwards, and in two days after 

 leaving the plains of Nurabad we found ourselves in a thick 



