On Birds observed in Dras and Suru. 367 



XXX. — List of Birds observed in Dras and Suru. By- 

 Lieut. W. Wilfrid Cokdeaux, M.B.O.U. (Queen^s Bays). 



The following notes were made during a journey I took, 

 from June to September 1893, through the Scinde Valley, 

 Kashmir, Suru, and the Wurdwan. 



I left Srinagar, accompanied by my wife, on the 25th of 

 June, and went by boat over the Dal Lake as far as Gan- 

 derbal, where the Scinde River flows into the lake. It was 

 curious to notice the change in the colour of the water in the 

 lake, when halfway across, from clear to dirty grey-white. 

 The temperature also fell from 65° to 45° ; this was owing 

 to the icy waters of the Scinde River, which rises in the 

 Zogi-la. 



On the 28th, after three days^ march up the Scinde River, 

 through magnificent pine-forests, we arrived at the beautiful 

 upland valley of Sona-Marg, which is literally the Golden 

 Meadow. It quite deserves the name, as it is a mass of 

 flowers. On the 29th we arrived at Baltal, and next morning 

 crossed the Zogi-la, the first great pass on the way to Leh. 

 At Metayan, the first Ladakh village on the other side, you 

 find the people are Mongols, with flat Tartar faces. Here we 

 met with the first Magpies, Pica rustica. On the 1st of July 

 we arrived at Dras, where there is a fort and small serai ; from 

 here we crossed the Umba-la Pass to Sonko, on the Kartse 

 River, and from thence went up the Kartse to Suru. Here 

 failing to get any sport, we marched towards the Wurdwan, 

 and crossed into that valley by the Bhut-kol Pass, 14,300 

 feet. On the Kashmir side of the pass is Kainthal, a valley 

 of the Wurdwan, where I found several specimens of 

 Ibidorhynclms struthersi. 



In the Wurdwan we stopped two months, and then came 

 back to Islamabad, by way of the Margan Pass, 11,300 feet. 



The footnotes marked J. C. are by my father, Mr. John 

 Cordeaux. 



1. Gyps fulvus. 



A large colony of these birds inhabit the sheer precipices 

 and cliff's that guard the steep ascent from Baltal, at the 



