552 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



was often to be heard in the forests, though the birds seldom showed them- 

 selves. The note of this species is not always a safe guide as to the birds 

 abundance or otherwise, as one bird can make enough noise for 20 of 

 another species. 



Compared with Hazara this Grosbeak was not common. 

 On the lower " Murgs " sparse crops of pulse and barley are cultivated. 

 Here buntings and finches congregate in considerable numbers to feed, 

 axid here, I came across three examples of the common sparrow Passer 

 domesticus — a bird it never gives me pleasure to meet with — but as the Sind 

 valley lower down is cultivated to within eight miles of Sonemurg, the spar- 

 row's presence in summer is perhaps not surprising even at this elevation. 



I may here remark that two races of Passer domesticus are observable in 

 Kashmir. One the common sedentary sparrow of Indian towns and 

 villages, the other a migratory race that breeds up to 6,000 or 7,000 feet in 

 the N.-W. Himalayas, the hills of N.-W. F. Province, Afghanistan an<l 

 perhaps further west, and that winters, I imagine, in the Central Provinces, 

 Dekhan, and may be, further south. This migratory race in its northward 

 migration follows the ripening of the crops in the Punjab and N.-W. F. 

 Province, and as Capt. 0. H. T. Whitehead has shown in his paper on "The 

 Birds of Kohat and Kurram ," appears in association with Passer hispanio- 

 lensis and Pastor roseus, the enormous flocks comprising these three species 

 doing devastating damage to the corn crops en route. It is this migratory 

 race which is so strongly represented in Kashmir in Summer. It differs 

 from the village sparrow in being more richly coloured, the back and 

 scapulars being bay rather than chestnut, and it is, I think, a slightly 

 larger bird. It generally breeds in holes in chenaars and willows and 

 often at some distance from villages, though it avoids forests, being 

 replaced therein by the chestnut headed sparrow {Passer cinnamoneus). 



Before I left Soneraurg on 3rd September migration, though not strongly 

 marked, had pet in. The following species, evidently on their passage 

 down from higher, colder and more northerly regions, were observed. 



A blue throat {Cyanecula), species not determined as, owing to the thick 

 cover in the crops, the bird would not give me a chance to shoot it. 

 The common Sose Finch ( Carpodacus erythrinus), common. 

 The Red-headed Bunting [Emberiza luteola) a few. 



The Tree Pipit {Anthus trivalis) abundant, and the only Pipit, as far as 

 I could see, in the place. I should have expected to meet with A. macu- 

 latus rather than with this species, especially in such numbers. 



The shooting season was now about to open, and the "call" of snipe, duck 

 and chikor was insistent, but it was not without regret that I bid farewell 

 to Sonemurg, its birds and scenery, to follow more exciting, if less interest- 

 ing pursuits in the vale of Kashmir below. I hope to revisit these parts, 

 next time in the breeding season. 



