THE BIRDS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 215 
n July, and in January twelve degrees of frost have been registered. On the 
whole, one may say that the climate from November to April is well nigh perfect, 
and from May to September the reverse. The Shumaal or north wind commences 
to blow about the end of May and continues into July ; it is welcomed as modi- 
fying the hot days but causes a certain amount of dust storm. Snow is not 
known in the plains but hail storms occur especially in spring. The tops of the 
Pusht-i-kuh Mountains hold snow till about May and are visible from the Tigris 
from Amara to Kut. 
Tracing the Jebel Hamrin, a sandstone range, to the south-east, we find it 
forms a more or less continuous line of hills to Ahwaz and form as it were foot- 
hills to the great Pusht-i-kuh Mountains and also the eastern boundary of the 
Mesopotamian plain ; this range runs up to 700-800 feet, while the Pusht-i-kuh 
Mountains, which are outside our area, run up to about 9,000 feet. The latter, 
however, exert a certain amount of influence on our area as not a few of the 
winter visitors tq the plains pass the summer there and in the high table land of 
Persia which is cooler and better supplied with vegetation. The Jebel Hamrin 
range depends for its beauty on its colouring and except for a short period in 
spring, it is destitute of vegetation. It is a rugged country of hills and vales and 
includes the oil-fields at Maidan-i-Naptun on the east of the Karun. 
3. Divistons.—Although the Mesopotamian plain is so flat and uniform, it 
may, for purposes of zoo-geography and more particularly for the information 
of residents in the country, be divided into eight sub-divisions with three more 
outside the plains. 
1. The Seacoast and mud banks at the mouth of the Shat-al-Arab at Fao. 
A certain amount of information about the ornithology of this district was 
supplied by Mr. W. D. Cumming during his residence there in the eighties, but 
very little collecting was done there during the war and no description of the 
place has been given. There are enormous areas of swampy grass and mud banks 
more or less covered by high tide and probably many creeks and islets. In 
winter it is, of course, the happy hunting ground of vast numbers of Waders, 
Gulls, etc., while here the Pelican and Flamingo breed and the Reef Heron is 
resident. Of particular interest is the Khor Abdulla or Abdulla Banks. Arm- 
strong, who while at Fao made enquiries concerning them, states that they are 
a group of rocks situated on the Arabian side of Fao and about 15 miles distant. 
They lie in an old channel of the Shat-al-Arab surrounded at low water by vast 
mud-banks, while between them there is a certain amount of silted mud and 
sand. It must be a big breeding ground certainly of the Crab Plover, while the 
Spoonhill, Pelican Reef Heron and perhaps other Herons are said to nest there. 
No Englishman has apparently visited them, except the Superintendent, Tele- 
graphs, at Fao from whom this information is derived.+ 
2. The edge of the Syrian and Arabian desert which lies on the right bank of the 
Euphrates and Shat-al-Arab. 
This consists of a sandy and gravelly table land gradually rising from 30 to 
2,000 feet in altitude towards the centre of Arabia. This table land is very bare 
excepting in the spring and has very few birds ; on migration, however, a fair 
number of birds visit such oases as exist as at Shaiba. Here occur as typical 
denizens the Bifasciated Lark (Alemon), the Finch Lark (Pyrrhulauda) and a 
Desert Lark (Ammomanes). 
3. Permanent marsh and reed areas, and temporary marsh. 
The Hamar Lake, Horr Sanef, Howaiza marsh are formed by the continuous 
overflow of the Euphrates, Tigris and Kerkha rivers into vast depressions just 
above tidal influence in the Kurna district are the most important of these in 
the south, and the Euphrates marshes round Museyib and the Nejef swamps in 
the middle of the plain. In winter, countless myriads of wildfowl immigrate here. 
+ Sir Percy Cox has visited these Rocks several times and the Society’s Collection 
contains skins and eggs from therc presented by Sir Percy. A note ofthese is being sent to Dr. 
Ticehurst : Eds: 
