224 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



soil gives abundant crops of vine and rice, and cotton has 

 recently been tried with some success. The inhabitants are 

 almost exclusively Azerbaidjan Turkis, usually referred to as 

 Tartars ; their language is of the same group as Ottoman 

 Turkish, but little affected by Arabic influence, though the Persian 

 effect is greater ; its simple and straightforward structure has 

 made it the lingua franca of the Eastern Caucasus. These 

 Tartars are industrious, patient, grave, and polite, and are 

 generally respected. 



My destination was Geok Tapa, the estate of the only 

 Christian landowner in the neighbourhood ; the place has been 

 described by me in the ' Entomologist's Kecord,' xxv, pp. 12 

 and 37, 1913. My host, Alexander Borisovich Shelkovnikov, 

 has devoted the past twenty years or more to collecting and 

 observing, with a view to monographing the biology of his 

 district of Aresh. He has accumulated an enormous quantity 

 of material, and is constantly pouring fresh matter into the 

 Caucasus Museum at Tiflis ; and there is hardly a museum in 

 Europe where labels, " Dist. Aresh. Geok Tapa. Shelkovnikov," 

 are not familiar. The flora and some branches of Entomology 

 have received special attention. The former is illustrated by a 

 hortifs siccus, which is now in the Tiflis Museum, where also is 

 his collection of Coleoptera ; the Orthoptera have been partially 

 worked by myself, and almost every group has received serious 

 attention from various specialists. Yet the fauna is so rich that 

 new things are constantly turning up, even among the better- 

 worked branches. Alexander Borisovich himself isrconstantly 

 collecting and despatching large masses of material, and with 

 true Kussian and eastern hospitality, welcomes all naturalists to 

 his hospitable roof. On this visit I was lucky enough to find my 

 old friend, V. Bianki, with his three sons ; this is sufficient 

 guarantee for the Ornithology of Geok Tapa. 



In the garden and park alone the fauna is rich. The common 

 birds are the Bee-eater {Merops apiaster, L.) ; (M. persicus occurs, 

 but I did not see it) ; Hoopoe, Golden Oriole, Krynick's Jay, 

 Swallow, House-Martin, Pioller, Kestrel, Turtle-Dove, Green 

 Woodpecker (Gecinus viridis saundersi, Tacz.), House-Sparrow, 

 the Caucasian race with paler cheeks, (Passer domesticus 

 caucasicus, Bogd. ; in Eussian, Vorobei). The Kingfisher 



