412 Birds observed on the Trans-Siberian Railway Line. 
scattered groves of silver-birch trees, always at some distance 
from the line. At about 4 p.m. we reached Omsk. In 
this part of the country Stonechats ( Pratincola maura) 
were extremely plentiful : no doubt the locality suited them 
well for breeding purposes. Here also I saw a great 
many Hobbies ( Falco subbuteo); they were very tame and 
remained sitting on the telegraph-posts whilst the train 
steamed by. Cuckoos were very numerous and so were 
Pipits, on which, no doubt, the former were chiefly parasitic. 
Carrion-Crows, which had become rather scarce, again 
became numerous in the afternoon, but the Grey Crows 
continued to be plentiful—even in the marsh-land they 
did not diminish much. In the afternoon as we neared 
Omsk I first saw Books (Corvus frugilegus) and Jackdaws 
( C . monedula), but neither were very plentiful. At Omsk 
Sparrows ( Passer domesticus) were well to the fore. 
June 9 th. —From this date until June 11th, when we 
reached Moscow, birds were not plentiful and I did not make 
many notes of interest. 
In the forenoon we found that as we reached the neighbour¬ 
hood of Cheliabinsk the country underwent a great change : 
still flat and grassy, it wore a look of cultivation and civilization 
greatly in advance of anything that we had seen since passing 
the well-ordered Manchurian plains about Harbin. Soon 
after mid-day we entered the Urals, and passed the border¬ 
line of Europe and Asia shortly after 4 o'clock. The Ural 
scenery was pretty but not at all grand : the mountains are 
neither rugged nor of any great height, but they are most 
beautifully wooded with forests of conifers. 
Birds were scarce, and I only noticed Carrion-Crows, 
Grey Crows, Books, and Jackdaws, chiefly about Cheliabinsk. 
Starlings continued to be plentiful and in the Urals I saw a 
couple of Buzzards. 
June 10 th. —To-day the country was flat and woods were 
scarce, indeed I only saw one or two small copses of rather 
undersized oaks. I noticed a Hoopoe, the first I had seen 
since crossing the Gobi Desert near Khailar, some thousands 
of miles further east. I noticed the last Black-eared Kite 
