258 FURTHER NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF GILGIT. 
from the plains of India, having made its influence apparent. 
The end of July and the beginning of August, which, in 
ordinary years, is the hottest season in Gilgit, was marked 
by ten days’ continuous rain and stormy weather. In con- 
sequence of this the autumn migration commenced a fort- 
night earlier than usual, and on the first two days in August 
a number of water-birds and waders, such as Ibidorhynchus 
struthersi, Machetes pugnax, Tringa temmincki, Totanus gla- 
geola, Totanus calidris, &c., appeared: amongst them a special 
prize, in Zringa acuminata, was secured. I also saw several 
Kites (Milvus melanotis or M. govinda.) 
In July and August I sent native collectors.to the Darel 
valley, to the Deosai plain, and to the Shandur plateau, which 
divides the Gilgit-Yassin valley from the Chitral valley. The 
jealousy of the Darelis caused them to regard my men as 
spies who had come to study the nakedness of their land, for 
which purpose ornithology was but a transparent veil; and 
my men were obliged to return after four days’ stay in the 
valley. They brought back forty-six specimens, representing 
eighteen species. Of these, three do not appear in the Gilgit 
list, viz., Garrulus lanceolatus, Otocorys  longirostris, and 
Hydrobata leucogaster, the last-named being hitherto unrecorded 
south of the Himalayas. Oracetes cinelorhynchus, which only 
appears as an occasional straggler in Gilgit, seems to be 
exceedingly common in Darel, together with Garrulus lanceo- 
latus, which appears to be equally abundant. The vegetation 
of Darel, which valley has remained till now unvisited by any 
European, probably approaches in character more nearly to 
that of Cashmere than to that of the Gilgit and Astor valleys. 
My collector who visited the bleak Deosai plain was also 
unfortunate in having encountered weather so bad as to 
make any prolonged stay impossible, even in July, at so great, 
an elevation. He brought back fifty-seven specimens, repre- 
senting twenty-four species, only one of which, Otocorys 
longirostris, does not appear in the Gilgit list. 
The man who visited the Shandur plateau was more fortu- 
nate in being well received by the people of the country, and 
remained there for over a fortnight. During this he collected 
numerous specimens, which tend to show that the plateau is 
a favourite breeding-ground for many of our Gilgit birds that 
are forced to seek a considerable elevation for the purpose. 
Further observation has tended to confirm my former 
conjecture, that the Indus valley forms the chief route by 
which migrants between Central Asia and Northern India 
pass and repass. This is also borne out by the appearance 
of several species of rare or previously unknown occurrence 
in India having been recorded at Attock in the pages of 
