LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 461 



fetes to t\t iMtor. 



Sir, 



You will expect me to tell you a great deal about the 

 birds which I noticed on the road from Murri to Ladak, but I am 

 afraid I can give you but little satisfaction. Novelties are 

 rarely found along the road, when such a large camp as ours 

 moves from stage to stage, sometimes extending over four or 

 five miles of the march. 



On our way from Murri to Srinagur in July I saw very 

 little. The lower road along the Jhelum is dreadfully hot, 

 and you meet nothing but the most common birds of the 

 plains. At Urumboo, which is nearly 2,000 feet, we saw the 

 first apple trees, and the Jackdaw made here its first appearance. 

 On the Woolar lake, in Cashmir, I found Podiceps minor and 

 Hydrochelidon indica breeding a second time on the 26th July, 

 and both had young besides. I also got the glistening eggs of 

 Hydrophasianus sinensis ;. Gallinula chloropus and Porzana fusca 

 also breed on the lake ; the latter has a white egg, and the feet 

 are coral red, not pale green, as Jerdon says. I hardly think I 

 mistake the bird, for it agrees with Jerdon's description in every 

 other respect. Pandion haliatus and Aquila chryscetos were 

 both fishing along the lake, in company with the Kites, of which 

 I secured several specimens. I wonder whether they will all turn 

 out to be melanotis or major ; tliey do not appear to be parti- 

 cularly large, but none have yellow feet. 



In the Sind valley, through which we passed during the first 

 half of August, I got all of Brooks' new Cashmir species, with 

 the exception of the Wren, of which there was no trace at this 

 time of the year. Horekes pallidus is heard throughout the 

 valley up to about 8,000 feet, but not easy to obtain. I have 

 a fine set of Brooks' Dumeticola major, but some tally very 

 well with the description of affinis. I shot at Sonamurg 

 another much larger l)u?neticola-\ike species which I have not 

 identified. An Alauda, apparently triborhyncha, but somewhat 

 larger than the usual measurements given, was not uncommon. 

 I found several nests of Hemichelidon fuliginosa and one of 

 Yunx torquilla, but both had already nestlings. 



I had been anxiously waiting for Pyrrhula aurantiaca at Baltal 

 and on the road up the Zojyi la, and I cannot blame myself for 

 not having kept a good look-out, but not a specimen was to be 

 seen on the 14th August, the day we crossed the pass. Pos- 

 sibly they were all breeding in some of the Deodar forests 



