174 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



this river-route on migration, are induced to halt on their way, affording good 

 sport to " Sahibs " and Turi villagers. The importance of this river as a 

 migration-route is illustrated lower down, where it debouches into the sandy 

 plains of Bannu, outside of the area which we are now considering. Here 

 vast quantities of Wild fowl, Waders, and Gulls, on migration to their far-off 

 northern homes from the lower reaches of the Indus and the Manchar Lake 

 in Sind, are to be observed, in the months of February and March, asleep or 

 preening their feathers on the mudbanks in mid-river. The majority of 

 these birds undoubtedly keep to the river-route, there being no other impor- 

 tant water-way lying near their line of migration, and must therefore, of 

 necessity, pass up the Kurram Valley. It may be wondered at that the Eiver 

 Indus, bordering Kohat, has not been mentioned as suited to the observation 

 of Water-fowl. But in this portion of its course that great river is confined 

 between hills, and flows over a rocky bed, consequently here it affords no 

 feeding grounds or resting-places for such birds. Whitehead came down it 

 in a boat at a time of year when he might have expected to find birds, but 

 his journey proved disappointing. On the whole, then, Kohat and Kurram 

 must be looked on as a profitable locality to the Indian ornithologist. 



The straggling of Western Paleearctic forms, not as yet recorded within 

 Indian limits, into this area is probably of commoner occurrence than might 

 be supposed, and, were it possible for a winter to be spent in collecting in the 

 Upper Kurram, yet new species to the Indian list would doubtless be forth- 

 coming. The task we set ourselves in our late trip, so unfortunately inter- 

 rupted, still remains to be done, and most assuredly new breeding species to 

 Iudia await the discoverer. 



It was at first intended to publish two separate papers, one on the birds of 

 Kohat and another on those of the Kurram Valley, but Mr. Whitehead has 

 decided, wisely as I think, to combine them. The two localities are contiguous, 

 and the latter is, as- 1 mentioned before, the breeding-ground of many species 

 that winter in the plains. - Of the total number of 340 species which the 

 list contains, 321 were found in Kohat, the remaining 19 were met with 

 only in the Kurram Valley. Considered together, therefore, the single paper 

 will be found to be of greater scientific value than if the two districts had been 

 separately treated, and Mr. Whitehead deserves much credit for the excellent 

 piece of work which he has accomplished. 



II. — Preface. 

 By C. H. T. Whitehead. 



Major Magrath does not take any credit for his own work. Before I even 

 started he had made a fair list of the birds of Kohat, and it was his enthu- 

 siasm that infected me. All that I have done is to somewhat amplify this 

 list and add a little to the notes. The paper should have been written by 

 him, but he insisted on my doing so, and has now most kindly gone carefully 

 through it, making many necessary corrections and alterations and entirely 



