Correspondence. 559 



Several English wagtails are summer visitants, as are other birds too 

 numerous to mention here. 



Snakes are not abundant, and very few are venomous ; I only know 

 of two decidedly so, and one is a banded Cobra from the hills west 

 of the Argandab river, the other is a species common in the upper and 

 Western Provinces of India. There is said to be also a large Black 

 Cobra, but I have not seen it. Lizards are abundant, and I think in the 

 " Sand fish" of the Afghans, I have got a new genus, but books are 

 wanting to determine. The animal inhabits the desert sands which 

 stretch along the southern part of the Candahar district, away west- 

 ward through Herat into Persia ; it is caught and dried, and thus sold 

 as a nutritious and invigorating diet. I have many curiosities in 

 spirits, and among others three distinct species of Scorpions, and two of 

 Galeodes, On the former I shall be able to write an interesting paper, 

 I hope when I recover my Indian specimens also. 



Land and fresh water mollusca are not wanting either, and in Ento- 

 mology there are some English and Indian forms. Indeed the natural 

 objects of this country are a mixture of Tropical and European forms. 

 In the winter the latter, and in summer the former prevails. 



The Geology of the country passed over from Dadur to Candahar is 

 most interesting, and furnishes some valuable facts; the secondary 

 strata in the Bolan Pass, have furnished me with some beautiful speci- 

 mens of fossils, both marine and fresh water ; but of this hereafter. 



Of fish there are four or five species, and as I perceive you are engag- 

 ed on the subject, I will endeavour to get you a specimen of each. 

 Would that I could get them for you from the Lakes of Tartary and 

 Thibet. 



Arracan. 



We have been favoured by Lieut. Phayre with two fishes from 

 Arracan, one a species of Cyprinus from the Lemgoo river, the other 

 a kind of Pike, of which we shall take as early an opportunity as 

 possible of furnishing further particulars. 



Lieut. Phayre has also favoured us with the skull of a species of 

 goat-antelope, which inhabits the forests of Arracan, and which is call- 

 ed Sha by the Burmese, who say it is not above two feet high, although 

 from the size of the skull Lieut. Phayre thinks it might be expected 

 to be much larger. On referring to specimens for which we are indebted 

 to Lieut. Phayre's kindness on former occasions, we find the horns and 

 part of the skull of a much smaller species of the same group, Ncemcerhe- 

 dus, Plate xii. fig. 3; the latter is probably the Sha of the Burmese, 



