72 



A LIST OF BIRDS FROM THE NORTH CHIN HILLS. 



BY 



J. C. HopwooD, I.F.S., M.B.O.U., 



AND 



J. M. D. Mackenzie, I.F.S., B.A. 



This list is the result of three short trips at dates varying from 

 April 20th to May 18th. In 1913, Hopwood went up to the hills 

 on May 6th and came down on May 16th, in 1914, he and I went 

 up together on April 22nd and came down on May 9th, and in 1915 

 I was up in the hills alone from Api'il 20th to May 18th. Travelling 

 in the hills is exceedingly difficult and expensive, and except in 

 1913 the weather was unspeakably bad ; in all three years, we had a 

 certain amount of illness, and a good deal of work had to be done, 

 ornithology perforce taking second place ; added to this, we both 

 plead guilty to a desire for getting nest and eggs with the birds 

 seciired. These things account for the somewhat meagre list produ- 

 ced. It is given for what it is worth, as several very rare birds 

 were found, and the district itself is interesting, lying between 

 Manipur worked by Hume, and the Chin Hills worked by Col. 

 Rippon and Capt. F. E. W. Venning, the former at Mt. Victoria, the 

 latter at Haka. A little further North, on the South of Assam lie 

 the unexplored (and unadministered) ranges of hills inhabited by 

 Chins, Nagas, Abors, etc., including Mt. Saramatti, the highest 

 mountain in Burma, of which the ornithology is absolutely 

 unknown, except by inference. 



In the hope of adding a little to what has been recorded from 

 this part of the world, which has been very little worked, we venture 

 to give a list which has no pretensions to being pei'fect ; quite on the 

 contrary, it comprises merely the commoner birds occurring in the 

 summer. Only one or two specimens shot in the cold weather (and 

 these all low down) are included ; unless othenvise stated, all the 

 birds given were secured between April 20th and May 18th. The 

 numbers in brackets refer to the Fauna of British India, and 

 trinomials, when used, are either those given by the late Col. H. H. 

 Harington, in his notes on the " Indian Timeliides and their allies", 

 (J.B.N.H.S., June 1914, et seq.), or those in Mr. E. C. Stuart 

 Baker's Indian Pigeons and Doves. 



Our thanks are due to both these gentlemen for a great many verj^ 

 useful hints, and for very kindly working out some of the skins 

 obtained . 



The area worked was about 23° 45' N. Lat. and 94° 0' E. Long. ; 

 it is actually that part of the Chin Hills at present included in the 



