504 Mr. N. B. Kinnear on the Birds coUeded [Ibis, 



never returned. Whether this was because he had taken 

 liEe and was frightened of being found out or because the 

 storj was false, Mr. AV'oHaston was unable to say. 



Athene noctua bactriana BIyth. 



198 S 5.7.21 Thigri 14,000 ft. 



Button's Owlet has been recorded np to 15,200 ft. in 

 southern Tibet, and, as Colonel Walton has pointed out, the 

 specimens from that country are rather large. Three males 

 and two unsexed skins from Tibet have wings of 175-185 mm. 

 as compared with 164-1G7 in four males from Afghanistan 

 and 157-170 in five from Turkestan. 



[A pair of these birds had a nest in the old fort at Tingri ; 

 their food seemed to consist principally of voles. — A. F. R. W.] 



TJpupa epops orientalis Stuart Baker. 



162 ? , 1G3 S 27.6.21 Tingri 14/)O0 fr. 



It seems surprising that a bird of such weak flight as the 

 Hoopoe should bo seen at an altitude of 21,000 ft. There are, 

 however, a number of records of this bird at high elevations 

 while on migration, and I give details of some of the highest. 



In north-sast iSikkim a Hoopoe was seen in the autumn 

 by Blanford at Momay Samdoug, 15,000 ft., Stoliczka met 

 with one between 15,000-16,000 ft. in Rupshu, and on the 

 Karakoram Pass Scully records a bird at over 18,000 ft. 

 Henderson, writing of this species, states " In the barest 

 deserts . . . the Hoopoe W'Ould occasionally be met with," and 

 he adds that he saw one at the top of the Tagalung Pass, 

 16,000 ft. In his pa})er on " The Birds of Eastern Turkestan," 

 Biddulph mentions seeing a Hoopoe on Dipsang between 

 16,371-17,817 ft. 



[Common everywhere up to 16,000 ft., nesting in villages 

 and monasteries. A Hoopoe was several times seen flying 

 over a glacier at an altitude of about 2 1 ,000 ft. in Septem- 

 ber.— A. F. R. W.] 



Clamator jacobinus jacobinus (Bodd.). 



174 c? 20.6.21 Tingri 14,000 ft. 



The occurrence of the Pied Crested Cuckoo at such an 



