66 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



is very rare. On the hills around there is thick cover, mostly hilly, 

 but the natives say that beyond a few chikor there is nothing but a few 

 barking deer on them. The Dir Valley continues upwards for about 

 thirteen miles till Goojar is reached at the foot ;of the pass. Our 

 camp there is in a bleak rocky spot amongst the snow drifts from the 

 summit, and when, as is generally the case, a cold wind blows off the 

 pass, the cold is something intense. The top of the pass is reached in 

 about 3^ miles and is about 10,450 feet high. The birds noticed were 

 the mynah fairly common, the chough, hoopoe, yellow wagtail, snow 

 bunting (?), spotted dove, nuthratch, swift, the English swallow, crow, 

 woodpeckers, especially the golden-backed woodpecker, kestrel, lam- 

 mergeyer, crested tit, and great tit, English cuckoo, very common, 

 minivets, and a bird rather larger than a greenfinch — the name of which 

 I do not know—the head and breast were claret-red, back, wings and 

 tail olive-brown. I thought at first it was a cross-bill, but as it was per- 

 petually on the move, it was impossible to see its beak clearly. There 

 was also another bird found first below the snows; it had a harsh scream 

 like a jay, the head was black, the rest of the body dark brown, bowed 

 with white ; it had a longish tail and was somewhat larger than a 

 bulbul. On these hills are to be found bear, probably red and black (a 

 small black bear was shot, above Goojar), musk-deer in considerable 

 numbers, markhor, thar and goorah — so they say ; but I was over the 

 hills for two days, and all that I saw was one goorah and some female 

 thar. This is, I fancy, a bad time of year, as the grass is springing up 

 on the melting of the snow, and the Goojars come with their cattle and 

 goats and swarm everywhere. They say there are koklass at Goojar, 

 but I did not see any ; a bird, I think, identical with the English 

 black-bird, is found along the torrents that run down from the hills, 

 as well as the pied wagtail, water-ouzel or dipper and the red-start. 

 The road from the top of the pass to Ziarat at about 3i miles is 

 mostly cut out of the side of the hill, but after passing Ziarat it 

 descends into the river-bed and continues crossing and recrossing the 

 stream till Ashreth is reached about six miles further on. There is 

 little to be said of this camp ; it is at an elevation of about 

 6,000 feet, but is sunk in between high hills in a narrow valley ; 

 there are a good many walnut trees, but it is very hot and the 

 flies are something fearful. Three miles beyond Ashreth, Mirkandi 



