402 nCRilA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIONS. 



Family Graculidae. 



GRACULIX.E. 



The cormorants swim and dive with facility, but on risinp; from the water, flap it 

 with thfir wings before gettinp; well under weigh. In pursuit of fish they commonly 

 enter the baskets set by fishermen and arc of course drowned. They are social bii-ds 

 and breed in communities, laying three or four greenish white eggs of an elongated 

 oval form. 



Gractjltjs carbo, L. Upper Burma, Tenasserim. 



G. FuscicoLLis, Brandt. Bharao. Martaban. 



G. PTGMJEUs, Pallas. Arakan. Pegu. Tenasserim. 



PLOTINJE. 

 The Darters or snake-birds have a very elongated neck, and swim so low, that 

 often the head and neck only are seen above the water like a snake. Jerdon likens 

 them to cormorants with the head and neck of a heron, a very apt simile. 



Plottjs melanogaster, Gniel. Arakan. Pegu. Tenasserim, 



P. novahollandiai, Gould. 



Order RAPTORES. 



Family Vulturidse. 



Those useful birds, observes Mr. Gates, " are nowhere very numerou.s in Burma, 

 except on the occasion of any dead animal being exposed to view. As the Burmese 

 are in the habit of eating animals which die of disease, not mucli food is available 

 for vultures, and it is only in the immediate neighbourhood of large villages that 

 flocks of those birds are found." There is, however, another fact which iu my 

 opinion has quite as much to do with the scarcity of vultures in so many parts 

 of Burma as the necrophagous habits of the inhabitants. A large portion of 

 Burma is well wooded, and vultures, which find their food by sight rather than 

 smell, do not in consetjuenoc occupy such tracts. All ornithologists will remember 

 the controversy of old, regarding tlie greater use of sight or scent by vultures, and 

 how "Waterton, from his personal experience, upheld the cause of eyes rcrsus nose. 

 I myself have in India verified his observations by noticing on more tlian one occasion 

 the body of a dog shot under an umbrageous tree remaining unperceived by vultures, 

 simply from its being hidden from their vision, though abundantly obvious to the 

 human nose ! Jerdon, too, takes the same view. The matter lies in a nutshell, 

 and vultures simply cannot make a living in a wooded country where the carcase of 

 an animal is screened from their circling gaze by thick vegetation. They all, there- 

 fore, affect open country and the neighbourhood of towns. 



Otogtps calvus, Scop. Pegu. Martaban and Tenasserim. 



Grps iNDicus, Scop. Pegu. Tenasserim. 



G. Bengalensis, Gmcl. . Pegu. Tenasserim. 



The Pali name of the Vulture is fficza, probably of common origin with the 

 Engli.sh -wordffier. The Burmese call all the Vultures lenfa (^Nfason). 



Vultures build bulky nests of slicks in large trees and lay a single white egg. 



Family Falconidse. 



The Burmese generic name for the Falcon ti'ibo is thcing, from the verb tluiiiy 

 " to strike with a motion towards one's self, to gather in." Hence the name signifies 

 very much like " Bu'ds of prey " (Mason). 



FALCONTX.'E. 

 Falco peregrinus, Gmel. Prome. Amherst. Thaton (rare). 



F. communis, Briss. Preparis Island. 



F. calidus, Latham (the Indian race). 



