Contrihutions to the Ornithology of India, 8fc. 145 



gull, Z. Zr^;«;j/7'c>?7'^, the great black-headed gull, which is rare, 

 L. horealis, L. ridihimd^is , and the rosy-breasted gull, the two 

 latter both very numerous, the cormorant G. carbo, pretty common, 

 and nearly in full breeding plumage. No terns. One would fancy 

 that these were all away, breeding somewhere; but it seems cer- 

 tain from what I hear that these breed at Astola, &e., in May. 

 On the shore a very few T. hi/poleucos, neophrons (failed to get 

 a specimen) an Alcedo heiigalensis, Tnrtur camhayensis, ospreys, 

 common sparow — no crows, no kites, no mynahs — only a very 

 few ravens, the latter with a long and much rounded tail. I 

 note here that Otocompsa leucotis is procured in the neighbour- 

 hood of Gwader, and higher up in the Persian Gulf. Here I 

 saw a pair of Bean geese, domesticated ones, from Zanzibar. They 

 appear absolutely identical with the wild ones. These, the tame 

 ones, breed here, the young preserving the characteristics of the 

 species. There is also a young P. onocrotatus brought from 

 somewhere up the gulf. 



Muscat is, if not too closely examined, a singularly picturesque 

 looking place. It stands at the head of a sort of fiord, as it 

 would be called in Norway, a very narrow deep bay, walled in on 

 either side by lofty perpendicular cliffs of weather-beaten rock, 

 everywhere crowned by small forts and Norman -looking tur- 

 rets, of comparatively fresh and bright looking stone, built, I 

 believe, by the Portuguese. The eastern wall (if I may use the 

 word) of the harbour, is a vast natural mole, a very narrow pro- 

 montory of lofty rocks, descending on either side sheer into the sea, 

 up to the highest level of which, they bristle with corals, shells, 

 limpets, echini, sea anemonies, and zoophytes of marvellous shapes 

 and colours. Through the middle of the mole, the waves, or more 

 probably earthquakes, have burst a narrow chasm out into the 

 next adjoining bay, some few fathoms in width, through which 

 boats can pass, thus converting the terminal half of the pro- 

 montory into an island. The town itself is closely encircled on 

 the landward side by bare, desolate hills, like those around the 

 cantonments of Aden, of no great height in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, but rising further inland, it is said to at least ten 

 thousand feet. Except by water there is, I believe, only one prac- 

 ticable road, out of Muscat ; but numerous rugged pathways 

 lead by devious routes out of the basin, and admit, though with 

 more or less difficulty, the passage of foot travellers and some of 

 them of beasts of burthen. On either side of Muscat lie other 

 similar, but less narrow, rock-bound bays, at the head of each of 

 which jiestles some more or less important village, and thus it has 

 resulted from the extreme difficulty of land travelling, that al- 

 most the entire intercourse between these villages and Muscat, and 



