88 Mr. F. B. Simson on Birds 



tagong. In the rains tlie country where these numerous 

 rivers conjoin is covered with a wide expanse of swift-flowing 

 water. In the dry season the streams flow in restricted 

 channels, and sandbanks, muddy quicksands, and sandy islets 

 covered with very high grass and tamarisk bushes appear. 

 The dryer parts of this country are now nearly all under cul- 

 tivation. When I first knew them they were wild and neg- 

 lected, and tigers, wild buff"aloes, alligators, and several kinds 

 of deer abounded. They still form a wonderful country for 

 ornithological investigation. 



About there to north-east, east^ and south-east we go 

 beyond the limits of Jerdon^s ' Birds of India.' He describes 

 no birds east of the Teesta river and its junction with the 

 Brahmapootra, and considers that the faunas of the countries 

 sou-th of Cherrapoonjee and the districts of Sylhet, Tippera, 

 NoakhoUy, and Chittagong appertain to the Burmese terri- 

 tory. I hope I may be excused therefore if I diverge a little 

 to describe these places, from an ornithological point of 

 view, before I revert to a few species of birds more imme- 

 diately near Dacca, of which I am chiefly treating in this 

 article. 



Less than one hundred miles, as the crow flies, north-east 

 of Dacca, the bold mountain-face of the Cherrapoonjee rock 

 rears its abrupt cliff" for nearly four thousand feet, ascending 

 direct from the low marshy swamps of Sylhet. From the 

 base of this mountain, or near it, there is nothing in the shape 

 of hill or mound till you reach the shores of the Bay of Bengal 

 in a south-Avesterly direction. This extraordinary alteration 

 in the geographical character of the country is accompanied 

 by a corresponding change of climate and temperature. 

 Cherrapoonjee is, I believe, the second rainiest place in the 

 world. The steep mountain suddenly meets the clouds and 

 moist winds coming up from the Bay of Bengal, and imme- 

 diately distils the moisture contained in them and pours it 

 down over a very limited area around its summit. The rain- 

 fall at Cherra is said to average more than GOO inches a year. 

 But at Shillong, a sauitafium not forty miles from Cherra, there 

 is a climate which might almost be called European, and an 



