Birds of the Pamir Range. 79 



The fauua of the Pamir and that of high Asia in general is 

 far from being a repetition of the polar fauna ; it only bears 

 some resemblance to it in the large proportion of Waders and 

 Palmipedes among the breeding-birds of these heights. On 

 the Pamir there are 23 Waders and Palmipedes out of 54 

 breeding species — that is, 43 per cent. ; while the Turkestan 

 fauna gives less than 20 per cent, of breeding Waders and 

 Palmipedes. In the polar countries, if we exclude the sea- 

 birds proper, we find the following percentages, viz. in the 

 southern part of the Taimur peninsula, on the Boganida (a 

 continental locality), 36 out of 52, or 69 per cent., and further 

 north on the river Taimir, as much as 80 per cent. 



Besides the few species that belong properly to the polar 

 tundras, a considerable number of the generally spread Palse- 

 arctic species of the Pamir spread far north into the polar 

 subregion ; such are Falco tinnunculus, Saxicola cenanthe, To- 

 ianus glareola, Tringapiignax, Scolopax gallinago, Anas acuta. 

 These six species breed more or less generally throughout the 

 whole country between the Pamir and Northern Siberia. 

 Five of these (with the three polar species above mentioned, 

 eight) breed on the Pamir as well as in Northern Siberia, 

 and one {Falco tinnunculus) appears in summer in both loca- 

 lities but does not breed. 



Eighty-five per cent, of the species breeding in the Pamir 

 do not extend to the polar tundras, though the climate of the 

 Pamir does not differ much from that of the polar region, 

 judging by the number of days with frost. There is, indeed, 

 if any thing, a rougher climate on the Pamir in summer, owing 

 to its frosty nights, its low latitude depriving it of the un- 

 setting polar sun. Though very differently composed, the 

 fauua of the Pamir bears a highly arctic stamp, there being 

 about the same number of breeding species, viz. 54 on the 

 Pamir and 52 on the Boganida ; but more additions are to be 

 expected to the list of Pamir birds than to that of the Bo- 

 ganida made by Middendorff. 



In the Pamir there are 54 species that remain to breed to 

 65 that do not. 



The following birds, though generally distributed over the 



