Birds of the Indian Hills 



ascent of 3 miles on a rocky hillside to 

 Almora, which is 36 miles from Kathgodam. 



Almora used to be a Gurkha stronghold, 

 and is now a charming little hill station situ- 

 ated some 5300 feet above the sea-level. 



The town and the civil and military station 

 are built on a saddle-backed ridge which is 

 about 2 miles in length. 



The Almora hill was almost completely 

 denuded of trees by the Gurkhas, but the 

 ridge has since become well wooded. Deodar, 

 pine, tun, horse-chestnut, and alder trees are 

 plentiful, and throughout the cantonment 

 grows a spiraea hedge. 



The avifauna of Almora is very interesting, 

 consisting as it does of a strange mixture of 

 hills and plains birds. Among the latter the 

 most prominent are the grey-necked crow, 

 the koel, the myna, the king-crow and the 

 magpie-robin. In the spring paradise fly- 

 catchers are very abundant. 



From Almora the road to the snowy range 

 runs over an almost treeless rocky mountain 

 called Kalimat, which rises to a height of 

 6500 feet. From Kalimat the road descends 

 to Takula — 16 miles from Almora. Then 

 there is a further descent of 1 1 miles to 



