BIRDS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN PERSIA. 847 



Thrush. That is to say I only saw a. score of birds in thirty days, most of them 

 rarely. The paucity of the Avinter avifauna may be compared with what 

 McGregor found at Erzerum in midwinter. 



I was in Qazvin again from mid- July till the end of October, and concluded 

 that it is an unpleasant place at the best of times, less so in summer than 

 winter. It appears that several birds breed in Qazvin, but leave it before 

 mid-July, that is to say when it become dry and intensely dusty. I never saw 

 the grey-backed Warbler (Mdon galactot'^s familiaris) nor the Black-headed 

 Bunting (Emberiza melanocephala.), both of which we know breed here ; nor 

 did I see Cuckoos though Cheesman noticed then a few weeks before. 



Migration through Qazvin in autumn is not very noticeable, but my obser- 

 vations were rendered incomplete by malaria. Xo conspicuous movements 

 were observed in spite of the fact that birds were concentrated in the gardens. 



Cheesman collected at Tehran and Gulhek (from below 4,000 feet to above 

 6,000 feet) between 6 and 18 June and found the following species breeding, 

 or feeding fledged young : — Sharpe's Crow, Magpie, Nightingale {Liiscinia 

 megarhi/nchaafricana),'B\ackhird{T.77i. sijriacus). Olivaceous Warbler {Hypolais 

 pallida elcBica), Great Tit (P. m. blanfordi). Holler (Goracias garndus sub-sp.), 

 Common Kestrel (Falco t. tinnunculus), Scops Owl {Otus scops pulchellus), and 

 a number of common birds. He climbed the mountain immediately N. W. of 

 Tehran on 14th June and reached a height of about 12,000 feet. He observed 

 the follomng birds : — up to 6,000 ft. Cetti's Warbler and (Enantlie p. ples- 

 chanka ; up to 8,000 ft., Nightingale and Blackbird ; up to 10,000 ft. Chukor 

 (Alectons graeca) ; up to 11,000 ft. Rock Sparrow {Peironia p. exigua) ; up to 

 12,000 ft. Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cia par) and Grey-necked Bunting (E. 

 bucfianani). Red-fronted Finch (Serinus pusillus), Shore Lark (Eremophila 

 alpestris penicillata), and Red-tailed Wheatear {(Enantlie zanthoprymna 

 ckrysopygia.) 



Qazvin was our most northerly station in the Iranian highlands and the 

 terrain was typical of all parts of the plateau which we visited, so that this 

 description would apply almost equally well to the country surromiding Ker- 

 manshah, Hamadan, Tehran, or Qazvin. The plateau in these parts of Persia 

 hes between 3,500 and 6,000 feet above sea level ; it is crossed by numbers of 

 ranges of mountains running from N. W. to S. E. ; these mountains form 

 considerable barriers for they contain no great peaks, but consist rather of wall- 

 like ranges, and are not crossed by any low pass. In spite of this the plateau 

 fauna is very uniform, and so far as we know species are never limited to one or 

 other side of one of these ranges. The jjlains which He between these hills are of 

 width varying from five miles (Karind plain) to fifty miles or more. The soil 

 is light and extremely stony and it is fertile wherever water is obtainable : 

 boulders and outcrops of rock do not occur in the plains. Great areas are cul- 

 tivated as soon as the snow has melted, and at this season there is abundant 

 water coming down from the hill sides in stony bedded torrents many of which 

 are diy for eleven months in the year. The principal crops are barley and wheat 

 and the opium poppy is not grovm extensively in the part of Persia which we 

 are considering. A little rice is grown near Qazvin in relatively low-lying places, 

 but I beheve only one crop is obtained in the season. 



In the spring the whole comitry is a blaze of wild flowers, a great number of 

 species blossoming simultaneously soon after the Persian New Year's Day (March 

 25). Insect life is also concentrated at this season, and as I have said some 

 of the summer birds which resort to the plateau to breed appear to remain there 

 the shortest time possible, and depart before the middle of July, presumably 

 as soon as their young are fledged. Before June is out the land is parched and 

 the plants look "like herbarium specimens, and they remain in this condirion 

 becoming more and more abraided by wind and dust till the rain and snow falls 

 about Christmas time. During summer violent winds and dust de^als are 



