42 NOTES ON THE NIDIFIQATION 



They all, however, ultimately discharge themselves into the 

 Sittang. Considering that these creeks drain the whole eas- 

 tern half of the Pegu Hills, and have no fall to speak of after 

 entering the plain, it is not to be wondered at that the whole 

 area now under notice should, during four or five months, 

 viz., from July to October or November, be nothing but a 

 most dismal swamp, inundated to the depth of ten feet in 

 many parts. Such country is suited only for fishermen, and 

 we accordingly find them very numerous. Indeed, the fish- 

 eries in this plain yield a very large revenue and give employ- 

 ment to large bodies of men. It is not, however, my inten- 

 tion now to describe these fisheries nor the many ingenious 

 methods employed to catch the fish in shoals with the mini- 

 mum of labour. I merely wish to give some idea of the coun- 

 trv in which Pelicans find a suitable home. 



Leaving Shwaygheen with my friend, Mr. Hough, the 

 Deputy Commissioner, we dropped down the Sittang for 

 about ten miles till we reached the mouth of the Hsa-zay 

 Creek on the right bank. We proceeded up this stream till 

 evening when we landed at a fishery to dine. We, however, 

 found the smell so bad that we pushed out into the stream to 

 sleep. Next morning we reached Kadat, a small village where 

 we expected to find the Pelicans. A well-built Burmese house 

 afforded us comfortable quarters. 



The whole stream from the Sittang to Kadat runs through 

 beautiful forest with spare undergrowth, and in many places 

 the stream narrowed so much that we had carefully to pick 

 a way for the boat between the trees. Immense flocks of Peli- 

 cans and Adjutants were flying in circles over our heads the 

 whole day. Monkeys were very common, and I saw more 

 specimens of Polioaetus ichthyaetus during this trip than I 

 have during the whole of my residence in Burmah. 



We arrived too late in the day to do anything, but in the 

 afternoon, strolling out, we saw a good many Adjutants' nests, 

 but it was not easy to climb the trees. 



On the morning of the 11th I started early with several 

 Burmans into the forest. The floods had gone down, but the 

 ground was very muddy, and in many places, for long distances, 

 the water came up to my knees. Every quarter of a mile 

 there was a depression or nullah to be crossed, and I soon gave 

 up any idea I might have had of keeping myself dry. Walk- 

 ing was very laborious, for though there was no undergrowth 

 or jungle to speak of, yet the roots of trees embedded in mud 

 and water caused me frequently to trip up. 



The whole forest consisted of very large trees, but a portion, 

 about one in twenty, was made up of wood-oil trees, gigantic 



