409 
on the Trans-Siberian Railway Line. 
Wheatears were very numerous, sitting on the telegraph- 
wires along the route, but whether of the Common or the 
Isabelline form, it was impossible to say. I think, however, 
of the latter. I saw also many Thick-billed Shrikes (Lanius 
tigrinus ), which likewise seemed very partial to the telegraph- 
wires. Marsh-Harriers were numerous. Here I first observed 
a few Lapwings ( Vanellus vulgaris ), which evidently had eggs 
or young, for I saw one bird fiercely chasing a Carrion-Crow 
away from the vicinity of its piece of territory. Skylarks 
were fairly numerous. Kestrels were unusually abundant. 
About noon we began to traverse a rather more sandy 
country and at the same time the landscape became quite 
flat. Here Skylarks were abundant and I saw also Pallas’s 
Short-toed Lark ( Calandrella pispoletta), a bird I knew 
very well in Shantung. At 2.30 p m. we reached Khailar, 
which stands in a sandy plain on the edge of an arm of the 
great Gobi Desert. 
After leaving this place I saw many Mongolian Larks 
(Melanocorypha mongolica) J while Pallas’s Short-toed Larks 
became more numerous. Here also Kestrels and the 
Eastern Red-footed Falcon ( Falco amurensis) became very 
abundant: the latter frequents similar localities in Shantung. 
I saw one Ringed Plover, but of which species I am 
not sure. The country, it must be understood, is not an 
absolute desert, for though sandy it is covered with 
abundance of wiry grass. 
About an hour after leaving Khailar we came to a curious 
region in which the desert seems to be either advancing or 
receding, for, although it retained its usual character, the 
landscape was studded with numbers of fir trees, standing 
at considerable distances from one another, with here and 
there two or three together in a sort of clump. This region 
was characterized by the presence of large numbers of 
Hoopoes ( Upupa epops ), though after we left it I did not see 
any more of these birds until we had crossed the Urals into 
Europe. At 7 p.m. we reached Manchuria Station, which is 
the last in Chinese Territory. 
June 4 th. —In the morning we found ourselves in Trans- 
