AVIFAUNA OF CHOTA NAGPUR, 357, 



but as a wandering life is most imsuited to the requirements 

 of a rapidly-increasing collection of plants, I was compelled 

 to replace botany by ornithology — a circumstance which I 

 need not here mention, being chiefly instrumental in inducing 

 me to take up that subject. 



The Chota Na^piir Division or Province is bounded on the* 

 north by Rewa, Mirzapiir, Shahabad, Gya and Monghyr; on the. 

 east by Burdwan, Bancura and Midnapur ; on the south by the 

 Orissa and Central Provinces, Native Tributary States of 

 Mohurbunj, Keonjhar, Bamra, and Raigarh and the British 

 district of Sambalpur ; and lastly on the west by Belaspur 

 and Rewa. 



Politically Chota Nagpur consists of four British districts, 

 namely, Hazaribagh, Loharduga, Manbhum and Singhbhum, 

 and of seven semi-independent Gurjat States, otherwise called 

 Tributary Mehals ; these are Sirguja, Jushpur, Udipur, Gang- 

 pur, Korea, Chang Bokar and Bonai. In these states the 

 administration of justice is in the hands of the local rajas, who 

 have magisterial powers conferred upon them for the purpose. 

 They report to the Commissioner of the Division, who is also 

 Superintendent of the Tributary Mehals, and before whom all 

 the more serious cases are tried. 



The British districts occupy the northern, central, and* 

 eastern portion of the Division, while the Gurjat States are 

 situated in the more inaccessible hilly country of the south and 

 west. 



The total area of Chota Nagpur has not, so far as I 

 know, been accurately determined, but by a rough measure- 

 ment I make it to be between 44 and 45,000 square miles, 

 or about the size of England without Wales, or more nearly 

 say it is 12,000 square miles larger than Ireland. 



In so considerable an extent of country one would naturally 

 expect to find much variety of scenery and physical configura- 

 tion, and such, on examination of the Division, there is found to be. 



The eastern frontier districts rise somewhat gradually from 

 the level of the alluvium of Burdwan and Midnapore to the 

 maximum height of about 700 feet; close to the frontier ridges 

 and outcrops of rock first become apparent, then a few isolated 

 hills dot the plain. A little further west hills occur in clusters, 

 until at Parisuath we meet the highest peak in the Division. 



The summit of Parisuath is said to be 4,624 feet above the 

 sea. As the resort of Jain pilgrims and the attempted site 

 of a sanitarium, its name is familiar to most of the residents of 

 Bengal. 



