Birds of the Zarafschan Basin. 439 
the forest-zone and typical of the high mountain-ranges of 
Central Asia. 
A country thus situated midway between the Indian region 
and Siberia is naturally crossed in spring and autumn by a 
very large number of migrants. The resident birds in the 
Zarafschan Valley are comparatively rare; the majority are 
summer visitors from Afghanistan and India, but of the 
summer visitors some few go further north to breed, and 
only pass and repass the Zarafschan Valley. A smaller 
number still are winter visitors from Siberia. These consist 
mostly of waders and water-fowl, besides the Grey Crow and 
the Black-throated Thrush. The strongest wave of migra¬ 
tion in spring takes place between the 28th of April and the 
5th of May. 
Arriving in Samarkand on the 1st September, 1907, I was 
in time to watch the autumnal migration and to obtain 
some of the common resident birds. As the winter advanced 
bird-life became very scarce in the cultivated area along the 
middle course of the Zarafschan. By the 1st of November 
the migration was over, and all the summer birds had 
passed south. The mountain region being closed during the 
winter, I devoted myself to mammal and bird collecting on 
the low deserts, west of Bokhara. Here there was a plentiful 
supply of ducks, geese, and waders, as well as of pheasants. 
Incredible numbers of wild-fowl assemble on the small lakes 
of the steppe during the winter, and good shooting is to be had. 
Spring came early and with a rush. I met the northern 
migration at the lowest altitude, making a large collection 
at 2,000 feet, and then gradually moving up higher as the 
summer advanced. By doing this I caught all the summer 
visitors in their breeding haunts. By the middle of May I had 
finished the desert and the steppe-region, then a month was 
devoted to the cultivated areas at 2000 feet and the rocky 
foot-hills up to 7,000 feet. During this month the bulk of 
my collection was made. 
In the middle of June I started work on the high moun¬ 
tains, and made a large collection in the Hissar range which 
borders the Zarafschan Valley on the south. On this range 
