A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 205 



I will now give a brief account of the part of Nepal where 

 my birds were obtained, as this is a necessary introduction to 

 tny detailed list of species. 



I. 



Tlie State of Nepal, as is well known, extends for about 500 

 miles in length, from Kumaou on the west, to Sikhim on the east, 

 and has an average breadth of about 100 miles. The total area 

 of the country is about 54,000 square miles, and the number of 

 its inhabitants is probably not more than 3,000,000, although 

 estimated by the Nepalese themselves at over 5,000,000. With- 

 in this territory the name Nepal is only applied to the great val- 

 ley in which Kathmandu, the present capital of the country, is 

 situated ; but as the natives have no name to signify the whole 

 territories of the Maharaj Adhiraj of Nepal, to which the title 

 of Nepal has been applied by all English writers, I have found 

 it necessary to distinguish the valley of Kathmandu as the 

 Nepal Valley or Valley of Nepal, while the word Nepal alone I 

 use to designate the whole country. 



The only portion of Nepal which I have traversed consists of 

 the main road from Segowli to Kathmandu, the great Yalley of 

 Nepal, and a small tract of country round the latter, including 

 the Nawakot District. These parts have been very fully des- 

 cribed by many writers, especially by Father Giuseppe, Kirk- 

 patric, Buchanan-Hamilton, Hodgson, Smith and Wright. 

 From the writings of these authorities, aided by my personal 

 observation, I have compiled the following slight sketch of the 

 country to which my observations refer. 



^ On leaving Segowli, a small cantonment in the Chumparun 

 district, the Sikrana river is crossed, and from thence there is a 

 fair driving road for twelve miles to Hurdea. Four miles be- 

 yond Hurdea the Ruksaul stream is crossed, and Nepal Terri- 

 tory is entered at sixteen miles from Segowli, the road running 

 a little east of north. Still proceeding northwards, the road for 

 some ten miles beyond Ruksaul is a mere cart tract throuo-h a 

 country differing in no respect from that of Chumparun gene- 

 rally : level land, richly cultivated, with hamlets dotted about, and 

 adorned with many fine topes of trees and clumps of bamboo. 

 This represents the tract of country hereafter referred to as the 

 plains of Nepal ; it is separated from the adjoining British 

 territory by a purely artificial line. 



Four or five miles of road, further on, takes us to the edge of 

 the Sal forest, past Semrabasa ; the latter is a small village on the 

 border of the forest about the same height above sea level as Ser 

 gowli. The strip thus crossed is the true Tarai, which, in winter 

 at least, differs ygyj little in appearaace from the plains proper* 



