498 Mr. N. B. Kinneav on the Birds collected [Ibis, 



Note by Mr. Wollaston. 



Owino; to a series o£ misadventures no collecting was 

 possible until 13 June, when I returned from Lachen (Teesta 

 Valloy) in Sikkim over the Sepo La into Tibet. A further 

 reason for the somewhat scanty nature of this collection lay 

 in our unwillingness to hurt the religious susceptibilities of 

 the Tibetans. According to the Buddhist belief it is a sin 

 to take life of any sort or kind, so we were careful to avoid 

 shooting in the neighbourhood of villages and monasteries, 

 which meant the exclusion of a very large proportion of the 

 country. 



The month of June and the early part of July was spent 

 in typical Tibetan country at altitudes between 14,000 and 

 16,000 ft. ; wide stony plains with very sparse and stunted 

 vegetation, few'plants being more than six inches in height; 

 Larks, Mountain- Finches, Ground- Choughs, and Rose- 

 Finches are the most characteristic birds of these wastes. 

 On the rounded limestone hills (16,000-18,000 ft.) rising out 

 of the plains are found the Tibetan Partridge, the Tibetan 

 Snow-Partridge, and in the ravines are the Hill Rock-Dove, 

 Crag-Martin, and Siberian (White-rumped) Swift. At 

 intervals on the plains are wide meres, overflows from rivers, 

 Avhicli in the summer are frequented by Bar-headed Geese, 

 Ruddy Shelduck, Garganey, Redshank, Common Tern, Sand- 

 Martin, Sea-Eagle, and Brown-headed Gull. A pair of 

 White Storks was seen on 15 June, and Black-necked 

 Cranes were not uncommon near Tingri. Pochard, Wigeon, 

 and Gadwall were seen in large numbers on the meres in 

 October. Up to the second week of July the weather was 

 almost unint(H'ruptedly fine and rainless ; a strong wind, 

 which blew daily from 10 A.M. onwards, raising clouds of 

 dust and sand, interfered somewhat with collecting. Nearly 

 all the specimens collected after 20 June were very much 

 worn in plumage. 



Between 10 July and 8 August we visited a quite unknown 

 district south-west and south of Tingri. During this ex- 

 cursion we found ourselves at altitudes as low as 12,000 ft., 



