322 Mr. J. D. de La Touclie on 



{Urocissa carulea), a bird which seems rather rare here, but 

 the hunters, who had gone after them, could not shoot one, 

 and though, on their subsequent visits to the forest^ they 

 occasionally met with them, they were unable to get me a 

 specimen. On coming to an open space on the mountain- 

 side we had a splendid view of the hills and valley. On our 

 left, across the gorge, were the hills called '' Kawasan " by 

 the natives, which had mostly but a growth of jungle covering 

 them, though here and there forest showed in dark patches. 

 Beyond, in the E., were the high mountains, almost virgin 

 country, trodden only by the savages who inhabit them. 

 Beautiful butterflies kept flying past, and once a pretty Tit, 

 with bright yellow underparts and black median line [Parus 

 insperatus ?), came out of the jungle on the other side of a 

 gully and remained gazing at us till frightened away by a 

 shot. 



I saw no birds on our way back to the top of the hill. It was 

 tiring and rough walking, mostly through thick scrub, with an 

 occasional climb over a fallen tree. Once back on the W. 

 slope, the return journey was easy enough. An Emberiza 

 spodocephala, which I brought down as it flew overhead, was 

 the only bird identified on the way down. We reached home 

 before dark, meeting many peasants_, either coming back 

 from the hills, where they had been cutting grass, or wend- 

 ing their way home with their buff'aloes from the rice-fields. 

 The fact that the peasants go to their work on the hills^ or 

 in the fields near them, armed with gun or spear, is suggestive 

 of the unsettled condition of aflairs on this borderland. 

 Fear of the savages, even of those with whom they are on 

 friendly terras, seems predominant in the mind of the Bang- 

 kimtsing natives. As a rule, hunters will not go shooting on 

 the hills except in parties of three or four individuals. 



November \4^th. Fine. Day spent in preparing birds and 

 other specimens shot yesterday. Some hunters who had gone 

 out for me brought back a few birds : Pericrocotus griseigularis, 

 Hyps, nigerrirnus, a young Cyanops nuchalis, Dendr.fo7'mos(B, 

 a fine male Calliope kamschatkensis, and some other common 



