Birds of North-west Folikien. 175 



forest on the top of Mount David. The cleared country- 

 covers a comparatively small area, consisting of tea- and 

 bamboo-plantations. These occur in the valleys and on 

 some of the more accessible mountain-slopes, the highest 

 Kuatuii tea-plantation being about 5000 feet above the sea- 

 level. The bamboo- plantations and the tea-fields of Upper 

 Kuatun are the favourite breeding-haunts of Suthora 

 icebbiana, Cettia sinensis, Oreicola ferrea, &c. Virgin 

 forests clothe all the steeper mountain-sides where not 

 cleared, from the bottom of the glens often to the mountain- 

 tops, where they meet the grass-country. Some of these 

 forests grow on such rapid inclines that they are quite 

 unfrequented, except by the more adventurous hunters 

 and tra[)pers. The difficulty of planting at such an angle, 

 and the impossibility of utilizing the timber, have saved 

 them until now from the axe of the woodman and the 

 charcoal-burner. Goat-antelopes, bears, and panthers fre- 

 quent the mountain- crests and the more inaccessible ravines, 

 whence the bears and panthers make an occasional raid on 

 the cleared ground. Wild cats {Felis dominicatiorum) and 

 monkeys often venture to the plantations in winter, and 

 the former are frequently caught in the terrible gin-traps of 

 the natives. Wild swine appear to have retired now far 

 beyond Kuatun, and are said to be much hunted by the dogs 

 (Cuon sp.j of the Shaowufu district. Tigers are known at 

 Kuatun, though seldom seen or heard of. 



The tracts of grassland which, as in South Ceylon (see 

 Ibis, 1898, p. 334), cover the tops of some of the higher 

 ranges and the more elevated parts of some ridges about 

 Kuatun are of great interest. They occur from about 4000 

 feet above sea-level. I was unable to find out whether these 

 lands had always been treeless or whether their present 

 condition is due to human agency. I ascertained that the 

 grasslands above Kuatun were occasionally fired, to renew 

 the grass or to further the growth of some kind of fern which 

 is used for food by the natives, but I do not know that the 

 grassland covering part of the topmost crest of the other big 

 mountain near Kuatun was artificially formed. However 



