BIRDS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN PERSIA. 845 



The political frontier between W. Persia and Mesopotamia coincides appro- 

 ximately with an important faimistic boundary, the boundary between the im- 

 mense Mesopotamian plain and the mountainous country of Kurdistan and 

 Luristan. On the latitude which we are considering (about lat. 34^ N) some of 

 the foothills of Persia the frontier into cross Mesopotamia and run N. W. as far 

 as the Fateh gorge on the Tigris ; these hills are the Jebel Hamrim : on the 

 whole, however, the political frontier divides the palms of Mesopotamia from 

 the scrub oaks of theKurdish hills, and we have used the political frontier to 

 divide our Mesopotamian collections, which are being worked out by Dr. C. B. 

 Ticehurst, from our Persian specimens which are the subject of this paper. 



Cheesman, Ingoldby and myself all entered Persia at different times by the 

 ancient road which runs from Baghdad to Kermanshah and on to Tehran. The 

 first place at wliich a few birds were collected was Qasr-i-Shirin (about 1,000 ft.). 

 The gardens irrigated by the Hulawan river are the last place in which date 

 palms are seen, but I failed to find the Mesopotamian Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis 

 mesopoiamia), a bird which is closely associated with the date. The surrounding 

 country is covered with small red hills Avith a crumbling stony surface : charac- 

 teristic birds in autumn are a See See Partridge (Ammoperdix griseogularis 

 ter-meuleni), a Desert Lark (Ammomanes desertorum subspecies). Blue Rock 

 Thrush (Monticola solitarius transcaspicus), Rock Doves {Coluniba livia), and th<> 

 Wheatears {(Enanihe finschii barne.n and O. alboniger). A very pale fox was also 

 seen commonly. Ingoldby told me that in spring he saw the European Bee Eater 

 {Merops apmster) breeding, and in this and other respects the fauna is quite 

 unlike that of the great plain of Mesopotamia. The road from Qasr-i-Shirin 

 runs up the valley past innumerable little hills, and red ridges to Pa-i-Taq : 

 from here it zigzags up the side of a very steep hill past Taq-i-Girreh to the 

 Karind plain at 5,600 feet. The region between Pa-i-Taq and the top of the pass 

 is clothed with a small scrub-oak with evergreen leaves, walnuts, brambles, etc. 

 Though most of the trees are only six feet high we are here and at Kermanshah 

 in woods inhabited by many of the birds which are characteristic of the Zagros 

 forests, for example the Persian Blue Tit {Parus co'ruleus persicus), the large 

 pale Rock Nuthatch {Sitta neumayer dresser i) wliich is common on the bare 

 rocks of the Pa-i-Taq pass ; Cheesman shot also the desert Rock Sparrow 

 (Carpospiza brachydactyla). The See See, wliich as I have said was common at 

 Qasr-i-Shirin, belongs to the form found in Ears and in Mesopotamia {A. g. 

 ttr-meuleni) not to the form found in most other parts of Persia. 



At the top of the pass the scrub-oaks are left behind, and we enter a long 

 narrow plain, the plain of Karind, shut in by high parallel mountains on either 

 side. This country is mostly under cultivation and is said to receive a higher 

 rainfall than the plains round Hamadan and Qazvin. Where it is not cultivated 

 it is covered with wild liquorice (Glycerrhiza). Cheesman saw Black-headed 

 Buntings {Emberiza melanocephala) and Red-rumped Swallows (Hirundo rufula 

 daurica) in May, and his record of a colony of white Storks {Ciconia alba) 

 breeding in a cUif above the village of Karind is particulariy interesting. In 

 winter (November 1918) I found the Karind plain singularly devoid of birds. I 

 only saw Ravens (Corvvs corax) and Magpies {Pica p. bactriam), and various 

 common ducks and waders along the banks of the Ab-i-Karind, and in the 

 gardens the Syrian Pied Woodpecker {Dendrocopus syriacus). Great Tit {P. m. 

 blanfordi), and Corn Bunting (Emberiza c. calandra). I climbed to the crest of 

 the Kuh-i-Nur, S. W. of Karind (8,000 ft.) and saw numbers of Chukor {Alectoris 

 graeca sub-species), as high as the ridge, Chaffinches {Fringilla c. coelebs) and 

 Yellow Buntings [Emberiza citrinella erythrogenys) in flocks up to 7,000 feet 

 and nothing else. It was extremely cold except at midday, but no snow had 

 fallen. From the top one saw ridge after ridge of hills all running N. W. & S. 

 E. and all thinly covered with scrub oak and bushes of various sorts. As I 

 have said many, perhaps most, of the birds of the Zagros forests occur here. 



