VIL 



ON THE MIGRATION 



OF THE 



NATATORES AND GRALLATORES, 



AS OBSERVED AT KATHMANDU. 



By B. H. HODGSON, Esq. 



ACTING RESIDENT AT KATHMANDU. 



€ 



The migration of birds is a subject which has, I believe, occupied and 

 puzzled the observers of nature in all ages of the world, and which is still 

 but very imperfectly understood. Were persons in various parts of the 

 globe — particularly in such situations as are favorable for observation — to 

 note down and make known the results of their individual experience, we 

 might hope more speedily to arrive at the solution of the mystery, by 

 collecting and comparing such scattered records. With this view, I beg 

 leave to lay before the Society the general results of my observation of 

 migrating birds, in the valley of Nepal; and, as the graliatorial and nata- 

 torial tribes would seem to be, at least in the East, the great and steady 

 nomadic class of the feathered creation, I shall, in this paper, confine 

 myself to them. 



