THE AVIFAUNA OF KASHGAR IN WINTER. 217 



Sparrows come during the summer ; however, I cannot vouch 

 for this statement. The next familiar birds are three crows, 

 C. comix, frugilegus, and corone ; the two former are only 

 winter visitants, and melanism in comix is by no means un- 

 common. Both are somewhat smaller than the dimensions 

 given by Jerdon of the respective species, probably taken from 

 European specimens. Corone, of which I am somewhat doubt- 

 ful, is a permanent inhabitant, and breeds about towns and 

 villages in Eastern Turkistan. 



Another permanent resident, P. bactriana, is very common 

 in the gardens about houses. Often associated with the 

 crows, though more generally only met with in the open 

 field, is Colancs monedula, ? daurica * which is only a winter 

 guest. None of these corvine species had left Kashgar about 

 the middle of March, but they evidently were preparing for a 

 start. I was told they all leave by the end of that month or 

 early in April. The Jackdaws very likely wander to the 

 Maralbashi forest and those about Aksu. Tartur risoria\ was 

 alwaj^s very common, but T. auritus, I met only on a few 

 occasions. It is said to be common in Kokan. A few Mota- 

 cilla, apparently alba,% used very often to visit our court-yard, 

 and Tichodroma muraria was seen throughout the winter on the 

 walls of houses and high river-banks, though not very com- 

 monly : it is however a regular permanent inhabitant. I saw 

 a few Stumus vidgaris, but it rarely remains here the whole 

 winter ; it was more common near Yarkand, which is a little 

 warmer, and when the cold begins to be intense, the bird seems 

 to wander with many others down the desert plain in a south- 

 easterly direction, re-appearing at the beginning of March. 

 He is a favourite bird of the husbandman, and you see a number 

 of pots and old gourds stuck up in many trees of the gardens 

 ready for him to place his nest in. 



Athene noctua — or perhaps Blyth's name bactriana will have 

 to be retained for this very pale bird — lives in holes of walls 

 and river banks, generally it prefers the latter. At the be- 

 ginning of March I saw one collecting stalks evidently for its 

 nest, but I do not expect that it lays before the end of the 

 month. 



Leaving our close quarters, and taking a stroll into the field, 

 the first bird we meet everywhere on the road will no doubt be 

 Galerita magna, a permanent resident, and unquestionably the 

 most common bird in the whole of this part of Eastern Turkis- 



* The Jackdaws are similar to those from Cashmere, some of them being paler throat- 

 ed than English specimens, but none of them approach closely the typical daurica. — 

 Ed., S. V. 



f This is the large form that I have called Turtur Stoliczkce, S. F., Vol. II., p. 519. 

 — Ed. 



J The only specimens preserved are duiJiunensis. — Ed. 



2 D 



