NATURALIST IN INDIA. 133 



passed little villages, surrounded by high walls of mud, clusters 

 of camel-thorn, and fields of wheat and barley, with here and 

 there a banyan-tree, despoiled by the elephan1>drivers, who 

 cut down its broad leaves for fodder, — now a clump of mul- 

 berry, now a ravine or a tract of waste and arid plain. Such 

 are the natural features of this and great portions of the 

 Northern Punjaub. Among the low brushwood that covers 

 the sides of ravines and hollows, flocks of the striated babbler 

 {Malacoeircus cavdatus) were observed chirping and chattering 

 in a low note, or fluttering from bush to bush with their 

 characteristic, feeble, and unsteady flight. The blue rock- 

 pigeon abounds in ravines ; and in the fields and hedgerows 

 the Senegal dove {(Jolwmha senegalensis) is generally seen either 

 singly or in pairs. On the side of a steep ravine I killed a fine 

 specimen of the spotted eagle, which is not rare m the district. 



The black-throated wheatear {Saxicola atrogularis) is com- 

 mon ; its favourite food is a small white worm, which it digs 

 out of the sun-baked soil. Plocks of the crested lark {Galerida 

 cristata) were scattered over the desert plains, as plentifully 

 as in the southern proviaces. With the exception of an isabel 

 tinge of plumage, so characteristic of larks and chats frequent- 

 ing dry and arid wastes, there is no difference between this 

 bird and the crested lark of Europe and North Africa. 



March 22. — To Pureed, about twelve miles. It blew 

 strongly during the greater part of the night, and day dawned 

 in the usual Indian style, followed by a grilling hot forenoon. 

 The first half of our march was very similar to that of the 

 previous day, until we debouched on a vast plain, cultivated 

 here and there. In the distance, running from east to west, 

 the salt range was seen, but so far away that in the hazy 

 atmosphere of mid-day we could do little more than define its 

 outline. Green bee-eaters covered the surrounding countiy, 



