2зб BIRDS OF ALA-SHAN. 



found. Of the smaller rodents there are two khids 

 of sand martens ; one of them lives entirely among 

 the bushes of zak, and honeycombs the earth with its 

 burrows so that it is often quite impossible to ride 

 over such spots on horseback. All day long you can 

 hear the squeak of these little animals — a sound as 

 dull and monotonous as everything else in Ala- 

 shan. 



Among birds the most remarkable is the koio- 

 djoro {Podoces Hendersont), about the size of our 

 starling, and resembling the hoopoe in its flight. 

 This bird is in every respect the bird of the desert, 

 and is only to be seen in its wildest parts. Wherever 

 the soil becomes more productive the kolo-djoro 

 disappears ; hence this bird, like the kara-sulta, is 

 always an unwelcome sight to the traveller. We 

 found it in Kan-su, and th^i again in Tsaidam ; its 

 range northwards in the Gobi extends to 44 J° N. lat.^ 



Of other birds in Ala-shan the most common 

 are the sandgrottse {Syrrhaptcs paradoxus), which 

 visit this region in great flocks during winter, larks 

 {A lauda pispoletta ? Otocoris albigula, Gabrita cris- 

 tata T), stonechats (Saxicola deserti) and among the 

 zak bushes sparrows {Passer sp.). In summer small 

 cranes {Grus virgd) also visit this country, Avhere 

 they feed on the innumerable lizards which appear 

 in the desert. If there are no marshes in the vicinity, 

 the cranes come to drink at the wells, and being 

 unmolested by man become very tame. 



• But this bird is met with in the far west, where it was discovered 

 by Forsyth's expedition, in 1870, from Lahore to Yarkand. 



