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58 which makes an excellent riding trousers. The milk of the yak is richer than that of the common cow, though the quantity it yields is less. Birds There are some 124 species of birds. Goose and duck shooting is excellent in late autumn or early spring. There are several varieties of partridges and pheasants. The Afghan pheasants are good birds of the European type akin to English pheasant, only larger and with more brilliant plumage. These pheasants are very plentiful in northern districts, especially in the marshes on the banks of the Oxus. Fowls such as hens, ducks, geese and turkeys are reared in large numbers. There are various kinds of pigeons—green, blue and grey, and cooing doves and cuckoos. Besides these, hosts of little birds are to be seen, as well as brilliantly coloured ones, like the golden oriole, the paradise fly-catcher, with its floating tail like a silver ribbon; the king-fisher, and various kinds of finches, bulbuls (nightingales) and song-birds.