Mr. W. T. Blanford on Birds from' the Irawadi valley. 463 



in the field was almost impossible, and even in the large towns 

 of India, except Calcutta, no collections and but few books were 

 available for comparison*. A portion of my collection was given 

 to the Asiatic Society's (now the Indian) Museum in Calcutta ; 

 the remainder I took to England in 1862, and the species were 

 named for me by the kindness of Mr. P. L. Sclater, who wished 

 me to supply such notes as I could add on the habits and dis- 

 tribution of the birds, for publication in ^The Ibis.' Various 

 occupations prevented my doing this at the moment; ray stay 

 in Europe was extremely short ; and on my return to India the 

 list was mislaid or overlooked, until I had, to a great extent, 

 forgotten the matter. 



Recently I came upon the list ; and so little has been added 

 since 1862 to our knowledge of the ornithology of Pegu and 

 Independent Burma, that I am induced to believe that the 

 few notes I can give will be of as much interest now as formerly. 

 I add the names of the species presented to the Indian Museum 

 from Mr. Blyth's lists (Jour. As. Soc. Beng. 1863, xxxii. p. 74). 

 The majority of the specimens have long since been dispersed ; 

 there are some, however, in the Museum at Calcutta, to which 

 I have access. 



It should not be forgotten that the birds here enumerated 

 belong to two very distinct subfaunas. The animals of Lower 

 Pegu are mostly identical with species of the South-east Hima- 

 layas, Arakan, and Tenasserim, and form a link in the great 

 Malay fauna. The forms inhabiting the dry country of Upper 

 Burma and, generally speaking, of the Irawadi valley above 

 Prome, are in many instances more closely allied to Indian (non- 

 Malay) forms, and have not unfrequently African rather than 

 Malay affinities. Examples are to be found in such species as 

 Ooeylophus jacobinus, Franco linus phayrii, Chatorhea gularis, and 

 Pericrocotus albifrons, none of which appear to occur or to be 

 represented by allied forms in Lower Pegu, Arakan, and Te- 

 nasserim. 



* Even at the present day, except in Madras and, I believe, in Agra, 

 there is nothing worthy of the name of a local ornithological collection. 

 In Bombay any thing like a museum is disgracefully '' conspicuous by its 

 absence." 



