93 
Birds of Kohat and Kurram. 
which is situated about 13 miles from the head of the valley. 
Here the officers of the Kurram Militia very kiudly allowed us 
to make use of their exceedingly comfortable mess, and most 
hospitably entertained us during our stay. After obtaining 
permission to move up to Peiwar, 10 miles further up the 
valley, we left Parachinar on the 21st of April. The 
Political Agent was so solicitous for our safety that he 
insisted on our taking an armed tribal escort of six men with 
us. We did not require their military assistance, but found 
them useful to look for nests, climb trees, and carry our 
guns and lunch-baskets. Making the little rest-house at 
Peiwar our headquarters, we daily explored the surrounding 
Ilex jungle and visited several times the pine-clad hills on 
the Afghan border. In an Ilex, Whitehead was fortunate in 
coming across a nest, with eggs, of JEgithaliscus leucogenys. 
This bird is an early breeder, and six other nests that we found 
contained young. We had not been at Peiwar many days 
when rumours reached us from Parachinar that the Turis 
(the tribe inhabiting the Valley), who had been listening to 
wondrous tales of the spread of plague in Peshawar, poured 
into their ears by Kabuli traders and others passing up the 
valley from India to Afghanistan, had become Highly 
suspicious of our movements and credited us with all sorts 
of nefarious deeds. We were supposed to be agents of the 
Government sent up to poison their water-supply and to 
spread the plague. We were said to stalk abroad at night 
catching and inoculating rats, in order to disseminate the 
pestilence. Colour was lent to this ingenuous theory by the 
fact that we had trapped a few Mole-rats, Gerbilles, and 
Dormice. Curiously enough we could see no signs of 
hostility in the villagers themselves, in fact we found them 
invariably friendly, and our tribal escort seemed to know 
nothing of these rumours. We were now anxious to shift 
camp and to move up the slopes of Sikaram, as the snow, 
under the influence of the summer sun, was gradually 
receding. But, in face of the rumours related above, the 
Political Agent did not think it advisable for us to do so, 
and even considered that our presence at Peiwar might lead 
