Page:Ibis Series 10 Volume 5 1917.djvu/44

2 Mr. P. J. C. McGregor on [Ibis, principal summits of which are Kop Dagh and Dumla Dagh, while immediately behiud the town the massif, comprising Palantukyen (" The wearer-out of pack-saddles ") and Eyer Dagh (" Saddle Mountain "), rises steeply to a height of 10,000 feet.

The climate is of extreme rigour, as snow falls in the town in October and snow-storms may occur late in June, although a thaw generally begins in April. Intense cold prevails for at least four months, and blizzards are of frequent occurrence; but the brief summer is hot and dry, dew at night being almost unknown.

The entire region may be characterized as treeless, except for a few poplars and willows in the town itself and in some sheltered nooks among the mountains, and nothing taller than the henbane is produced by the light yellow loam of the plain. A small crop of stunted oats is grown in summer, and there are extensive vegetable-gardens to the north of the town, which are a favourite haunt of spring and autumn migrants. The flora comprises a great variety of vetches, bulbous plants, and thistles of brilliant colouring, and the early summer clothes the plain and the mountain slopes with green for a brief spell; but the general note is one of tawny desolation and aridity.

Under these circumstances the scantiness of bird-life cannot surprise. In the dead winter one sees practically nothing but Jackdaws, Sparrows, and an occasional Magpie or Tit in the town, while flocks of Field- and Shore-Larks seek for a living on the roads outside. The spring migration is usually accomplished under conditions resembling those of a severe winter in England, and, although the nesting of Starlings, Wheatears, Swifts, Kestrels, and RockSparrows gives a certain animation to the summer months, it is not until autumn that the numbers and movements of the birds become conspicuous enough to enliven these solitudes. At that season the defile known as the Kyrk Deirmen Boghaz (''The Defile of the Forty Mills"), situated about three miles west of the town, becomes one of the most interesting observation-posts in the vicinity on