Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/308

 found. Of the smaller rodents there are two kinds of sand martens; one of them lives entirely among the bushes of zak, and honeycombs the earth with its burrows so that it is often quite impossible to ride over such spots on horseback. All day long you can hear the squeak of these little animals — a sound as dull and monotonous as everything else in Ala-shan.

Among birds the most remarkable is the kolo-djoro (Podoces Hendersoni), about the size of our starling, and resembling the hoopoe in its flight. This bird is in every respect the bird of the desert, and is only to be seen in its wildest parts. Wherever the soil becomes more productive the kolo-djoro disappears; hence this bird, like the kara-sulta, is always an unwelcome sight to the traveller. We found it in Kan-su, and then again in Tsaidam; its range northwards in the Gobi extends to 44½° N. lat.

Of other birds in Ala-shan the most common are the sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus), which visit this region in great flocks during winter, larks (Alauda pispoletta? Otocoris albigula, Gabrita cristata?), stonechats (Saxicola deserti) and among the zak bushes sparrows (Passer sp.). In summer small cranes (Grus virgo) also visit this country, where they feed on the innumerable lizards which appear in the desert. If there are no marshes in the vicinity, the cranes come to drink at the wells, and being unmolested by man become very tame.