21st.—­Returned towards Pushut:  a Lanius, but not the one shot, was seen near the road in bushes.

22nd.—­Of the four red-billed Shrikes, two are male and female, sexes alike, stomach fleshy like that of Haematornis, but food entirely vegetable:  the two female stomachs contained each a seed of the Bukkein (Melia):  the two males contained fragments of buds, perhaps of a willow, but not a vestige of an insect, so their swooping and sallying is a mere analogical representation of Merops.  In Haematornis contents of stomach chiefly vegetable, partly of insects.

26th.—­Very rainy and unsettled weather, thunder and lightning.

27th.—–­Clearing up:  heavy rain in some parts of the night, otherwise fine.

28th.—­A beautiful morning.  Went to Kooner, distance twelve to thirteen miles:  for three miles the road was dangerous but tolerably decent, no defiles being passed, in which murderers were likely to lurk, very little difference in seasons between this and Pushut.

29th.—­Returned again to Pushut.  The country about Pushut is one sheet of cultivation, studded with trees; so thick are these that few villages are discernible in consequence.  Nothing particularly notable occurred, except that a tulip is common in the fields about Kooner, but not found in those about Pushut:  it occurs also with Amaryllideae, which is likewise a stranger to Pushut.  What is the reason of the ruined forts so common in this country?  One would think that it were useless to pull down or destroy a good fort, when it is the intention of building another, so that they are scarcely to be accounted for from a succession of conquerors.

The country has, and always will be, a distracted one.  I observe that in all parts approaching mountains, in which the chief danger of robbery exists, that there are generally people and especially boys tending cattle, so that they must probably be familiar with robberies and murders, and seeing these done so openly, so easily, and so securely, they may well be imagined to become ready scholars.  So even if the stock already existing in the robbers’ sons, etc., were deficient, others would be found ready to take up the profession.  The Kooner Dhurrah, or valley, is a very fine one, it is a good instance of the peculiar kind of slope or talus, so common in this country.  The soil in such places being so stony as to be useless for cultivation.  Low parts entering into the valley become useful for wheat, that is, if rain falls early, these Dhurrahs are formed or filled by debris from the surrounding hills, carried down by torrents, which are constantly changing their beds, the outline of the edge is circular, such as that of a sand bank at the mouth of a river, the finer particles being of course carried furthest down.

The Kooner valley may be considered as the second; the Shaiwa distinct forming the first; it continues as far as the bend to Chugur Pair; its beginning is close to Kooner village, near the ferry where the valley is much contracted.