NATURALIST IN INDIA. 265 



bers of their inhabitants pine away and die, no one knows 

 how. Severe epidemics have also visited these people, and 

 great mortality took place some years before our visit from 

 smallpox, which has raged more than once in Ladakh, 

 and committed terrible havoc. Avalanches destroy whole 

 colonies, so that ruined and deserted villages are often ob- 

 served, although not all resulting from this cause alone ; 

 hence, for safety, commanding situations are chosen along 

 ridges or projecting cliffs. The pagoda-shaped buildings were 

 common, and we passed a colossal figure, 15 feet in height, 

 cut out of the solid rock. In the desolate-looking country 

 around I discovered a new species of mountain-iinch, which 

 we subsequently found to be pretty common around the salt 

 and fresh water lakes. It resembles the M. gebleri, but it is 

 larger ; head and back are grayish-ash, upper tail-covers 

 white, primaries black, tips and inner webs of the secondaries 

 white (the two last having both webs white), chin and throat 

 pale gray (below white), auxiUiary feathers pure white. In 

 habits this finch resembles the true larks ; it is generally seen 

 in flocks, and buUds in the long dykes (man%), where I have 

 found its nest of dried grass. 



The alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax alpinus) was seen here, 

 and subsequently a flock was observed feeding on mulberries 

 near the village of Khaletse. This species is easily dis- 

 tinguished from the Cornish chough (also a native of Ladakh) 

 by the bill being shorter, and yellow instead of red. The 

 young of the former have the bill and legs not so yellow and 

 red as the adult specimens ; my specimen measured 16 

 inches in the flesh. The scenery after leaving Kirboo was 

 exceedingly dreary, and the heat in the narrow gorges and 

 valleys very oppressive. Not a tree was visible for a long 

 march of upwards of twelve miles, and untU we arrived at the 



