ERRATA IN PART I. 1868. Page 8, 1. 16, for 1428 to 1445, read 1457 to 1474. 52, 1. 12, for dried, read dried, white. 1. 13, for dried, read dried, black. 121, 8th line, for Paninko read Raninko. 121, 18th line, for Chanhán read Chauhán. 122, 9th line et passim for Kharginpur read Kharjúrpur. 126, 14th line, for Karuchandra read Karnchandra. 133, 3rd line, for chhaná read chhona. 133, 5th line, for Sandha read Saudha. 133, 6th line, for chhanhani read chhauhani. 133, 7th line, for Varamchi read Vararuchi. 133, 16th line, for Rauran read Raura. JOURNAL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. PART II-PHYSICAL SCIENCE. No. I.-1868. Ornithological Observations in the Sutlej valley, N. W. Himalaya, by F. Stoliczka, Esq., Ph. D. Palæontologist to the Geological Survey of India. [Received 18th July 1867.] When writing the preface to the third volume of the 'BIRDS OF INDIA,' Dr. Jerdon remarks that the publication of the two former volumes. of the same work had already attracted great interest to Indian Ornithology. The very large amount of the most accurate statements as to specific distinctions, on the habits and on the geographical distribution afford indeed facilities of no ordinary kind, and they not only serve to direct other observations, but they are useful in most cases also as a guide to the record of any additional facts, which further inquiry may bring forward. Had it been possible to add illustrations of at least the more important types of each family, the student in India could scarcely have wished for a better MANUAL OF INDIAN ORNITHOLOGY. During my geological wanderings through the N. W. Himalaya, I have made various observations on Indian Zoology and Botany, specially with the object of collecting materials for a fauna and flora of Western Tibet. Only for a comparatively short time have I been enabled to pay any attention to the fauna of the Cis-Himalayan regions. Thus, when staying last year for about six weeks in the neighbourhood of Chini, in the province of Kunawar, I compiled a few notes on some of the main features and relations, which present themselves between the flora and fauna of the more interior and higher ranges of the N. W. Himalaya and those of the temperate, continental portions of Europe, (Verhandlungen der zool. bot. Gesellschaft, Wien, 1866, p. 850). In my present communication I intend to deal with a more special subject and propose to bring before our readers a few observations on the Ornithology of the Sutlej valley. My remarks and enumeration of species will be restricted,-so to say-to the Himalayan facies of the avi-fauna, for the fauna of the so-called sub-tropical forests of the lower Himalayan hills scarcely differs from the Indian fauna in general. But it will be readily understood that, even within this limited area, I cannot pretend to give at present a complete list of all the ornithological treasures which actually are to be met with. A good many birds are merely occasional visitors to the valley, in their periodical wanderings to Tibet and Central Asia. Others, properly belonging to the Indian tropical fauna, appear almost accidentally without making any prolonged stay in the valley. It is difficult to procure all the information required about such rare species, and I only can mention them, so far as they came under my notice, from reliable authorities or from personal observations. Of the general character of the avi-fauna, however, I trust to give at least an approximately correct idea. It was, as I have already stated, with a view to obtain some Tibetan and Central-Asiatic birds, which do not come in winter as low down as the Indian plains, that I undertook to employ shikarees during the winter-time in the interior of the hills. My expectations on this point have not been quite frustrated. I have not only received a tolerably correct account of the avi-fauna during the winter in this portion of the valley, but I have been at the same time placed in possession of valuable materials, which enable me to make a few additions to this branch of the Indian fauna. ** It has been already mentioned, that the exclusion of the birds. * Ibis 1866, II. p. 228, and elsewhere. |