68 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY 
says that if he is found with much money about him, the people 
of this country willtake it away from him. 
14th.— Yangt Hissar.—A lovg march to-day—fully thirty 
miles. On leaving Kizil we passed a large graveyard to our 
left, where the soldiers who fell in a battle with the Chinese 
about seventeen years ago were said to be buried; most of the 
graves were simply marked by raised mounds of earth, while 
the rest were like the ordinary graves to be seen in any Muham- 
madan country. Our road lay in a N.W. direction, parallel 
with a distant range of mountains to our left. We passed at 
first through-a fertile and well-cultivated country, where I 
noticed a ruined Chinese urtang (posting house) whose walls 
were decorated with figures and designs. Further on we came 
on ground covered with small hillocks and long grass, and then 
to a perfectly green bit of country—reminding one of the 
description of a prairie. We passed the villages of Toblok 
and Kalpin, and finally reached a number of low sand _ hills, 
to our right, which we crossed slantingly. These hills were 
composed of gravel and sand, distinctly stratified, and in some 
places of a stony consistence. Then we crossed the Yangi 
Hissar River, over a bridge (the water was there dammed and 
turned off to drive a mill), and ascending the rather steep bank 
of the river found ourselves in a richly cultivated country 
with lots of trees. The sand hills cropped out every now and 
then, and at last cresting one of them by a sort of miniature 
Pass, we saw below the fertile plain of Yangi Hissar: rich 
cultivation, farmsteads and orchards as far as we could see. 
We descended rapidly, and rode through the streets of the town 
where a most active dyeing industry appeared to be going on. 
The rest house, where we are quartered here, is quite detached 
from the town of Yangi Hissar and is surrounded by fine and 
extensive grounds. To-day I noticed the Hooded Crow 
(Corvus cornivx) which I remember last seeing in Egypt. 
15th.—Sughlok.—On leaving Yangi Hissar this morning we 
passed between the town and the fort or Yangi Shahr; the 
latter is rather an imposing looking square structure, sur- 
rounded by the usual thick mud wall, and about 700 yards 
north of Yangi Hissar. As we rode along to-day we could 
see dimly, away to the left, a tremendously high, snow-capped 
mountain peak, apparently rising straight out of the plain 
and towermg up to the sky; this is the Tagharma peak 
over 25,000 feet above sea level. In the trees, lining 
the lanes through which we passed to-day, great numbers 
of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were collected; the specimens 
I shos are in the purple white-tipped stage of plumage. Corvus-+ 
culminatus, Corvus cornix, Passer montanus and Galerita magna 
