76 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY 
Kashghar, 9th December.— We had a good view of the Transit 
of Venus to-day, from about nine o’ clock to noon. Yuzbashi 
Tash Khoja took great interest in the business: at first he 
declared he could see the planet at some distance from the Sun, 
but, being told he was mistaken, he looked through the teles- 
cope very carefully and then triumphantly drew a diagram on 
the wall, showing the Sun with Venus on its surface in the 
correct position. 
I have now got a room full of live birds; let us pay 
them a visit and see how they are getting on. The first 
and most striking is a magnificent Snowy Owl (Myctea 
nivea) which was captured afew days ago near the low hills 
to the north of Kashghar. The bird seems to prefer sitting on 
the ground, rather than on the perch which I have for it; it looks 
very quiet as it sits there with its great bright yellow eyes 
following me about the room, and its beak almost hidden by 
the long white nareal bristles; but if one pretends to look away 
in another direction it will stealthily seize the thongs round its 
legs by the bill, and by violent tugs endeavour to set itself free. 
This morning one of the Chicores (Caccabis pallescens) which 
I have in the room was missing, and on looking near the Owl 
I found the vestiges of the Partridge, in the shape of a head, 
wings, feet and feathers only |! The simple Chicore had evidently 
been beguiled by the staid and innocent appearance of the 
great Owl torashly trusting itself within reach of the latter’s 
powerful claws, which by the way, are as sharp as needles. 
The next bird is a female Faleo Hendersoni, called in Turki 
Italghu ; it is rather wild, and quite untrained. Then, seated 
on their respective perches, we have a Lachin (Kaleo barbarus) 
and a Karghai (Accipiter nisus). Next to these are two very 
pretty Merlins (Lithofalco wsalon) called here, Turumtai. One 
of these, which I am having trained, got loose the other night 
and flying over to that cage in the corner, in which I have 
half a dozen specimens of (Hrythrospiza obsoleta) managed 
to kill one of the little birds through the bars. Those two curious 
looking little Owls (Athene bactriana) are called Chaghundak, 
and the Grey Shrike over there is Lanius Homeyert. Then 
flying about in the room are a couple of Magpies (Pica 
bactriana), one of which is very tame and amusing; it deligh}s 
to get a piece of meat and hide it away under the mat for 
future consumption. Walking about on the floor in company 
with the Chicore are about half a dozen Snow Pheasants of 
two species, Tetraogallus himalayensis and Tetraogullus tibe- 
tanus ; these birds are tame enough, but very stupid ; in com- 
pany with the Chicores, the cold seems to have driven them 
down to the warmer climate of the low hills at this season: 
