60 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY 
fields being recularly fenced off from each other, sometimes 
by low mud walls. A gourd plant has been trained along the 
wall opposite to me ; the gourds being of a curious elongated 
shape. The Turks seem to make great use of these gourds for 
storing water and carrying it about. The people have a decided 
Tartar type of countenance, with expanded cheek-bones, and 
are very fair as compared with natives of the Panjab; some 
of the children look just like rosy-cheeked English urchins. The 
women wear long loose robes of a coarse undyed cotton, and 
the men a. similar garment, but with long sleeves rolled up at 
the wrist, fastened round the ‘waist by a belt : both sexes wear 
long top boots! The head dress of the women is a villanous kind 
of hat, globular, and covered usually with blue silk. The men 
wear a cap lined with fur and turned up at the sides; only the 
swells appearing to affect the troublesome turban. The weekly 
fair was held here to-day (Monday ), a long row of stalls having 
been permanently erected in the Bazar for this purpose. The 
people strike one as being all very comfortable and well off: 
if there is no great wealth here there is certainly no squalid 
poverty. 
29th.—Sanju to Sulik Aziz Langar.—On starting from Sanju 
we crossed the river and halted for breakfast and a dastarkhwan 
in an orchard; there we bade farewell to the Beg of Sanju, 
who promised that our mail bags to and from India should 
receive his special care and attention. We then ascended the 
sandy cliff, on the north side of the valley, for several hundred 
feet, and found ourselves on an undulating sandy desert, stretch- 
ing forward as far as the eye could see. Here and there were 
a few hillocks and in places the sand had been blown into 
ridges ; scant stunted bushes, however, were growing sparingly 
on this ground. After riding for but a short while onthe 
desert, I saw a sand-colored bird a little larger than a Black- 
bird, running away from the path. I dismounted, and after 
runuing for a little distance, so as to cut the bird off, I gota 
shot at it as it ran across my path; it turned out to be Podo- 
ces fHendersont. In the next twelve miles over the desert I saw 
a dozen of these birds and managed to bag altogether six of 
them. Capital fun ; something like hare- shooting as the birds 
would hardly ever fly; but “they ran most swiftly. About 
fifteen miles from Sanju we descended a steep bank for about 
a eee’ | feet or so to our little oasis (“ precious water stage”). 
Sulik Aziz Langar is a little fertile strip of land, on the 
Ban of a small stream which comes down from the dis- 
tant mountains and runs across the desert. There is a large 
tank here; a few trees; and some cultivated fields, as there 
are a few families living at the place. This is a capital 
