162 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
altitude of over 13,500 feet, was doubtless on his return 
journey to India, and had for a companion in his misfortune, 
if not in his journey, a Rail {Porzana maruetta) equally 
exhausted, who must also have been migrating, as the lake 
lies in a bare shingle desert, almost entirely destitute of 
vegetation. 
These two poor travellers, it would seem, stopped to 
have a drink, and, as is not uncommon in such cases, 
" came to grief/^ 
~ In the desert steppes that commence about a march 
above the Pan gong Lake, and form a sort of neutral ground 
between Ladak and Yarkand, we meet, as might be expected, 
with scarcely any animal life. 
Chance travellers, migrating like the Rail or the Quail 
already noticed — Butalis grisola, Cyanecula suecica, Motacilla 
luzoniensis, Palumbcena Eversmannij Actitis hypoleucus, and 
Querquedula crecca — were doubtless obtained in these inhos- 
pitable and frigid wastes, and the Thibetan Raven travelled 
with the camp throughout ; but the only species that appeared 
to be even seasonal residents were the Laemmergeier, the 
Hoopoe, Montifringilla hcematopygia^ JEgialitis mongolicus, 
and Casarca rutila. As for the Hoopoe, he was met with 
everywhere, in the barest deserts and on the highest passes, 
busy pegging his long bill into the sand, wholly unconcerned 
at the desolate loneness of the surrounding scene, and 
apparently perfectly unaffected by a temperature often 
falling during the night many degrees below zero (Fahren- 
heit). The entire absence of the larger Raptorial birds, 
and specially of true Vultures, is a marked feature in 
these steppes ; the whole line of march was strewed with 
dead horses, yet not a Vulture was ever seen, nor indeed 
were any traces of Foxes or Wolves, such as are constantly 
met with in Ladak, observed at any time. 
When a horse is unable to proceed the owners cut its 
throat, and, to enable its flesh to be used by future travellers 
whose provisions run short, cut long steaks out of the 
haunches, and lay them on stones or hang them on any 
dwarf bushes that may chance to be near, and there they 
hang and harden, the atmosphere being too dry to admit of 
