•^52 OCCASIONAL NOTES FROM SlKKIM. — NO. II. 



through the jungles with any of our hill tribes in quest of birds^ 

 birds' nests, &c., and he will find those children of nature to bo 

 most intelligent people instead of the dull machines he may have 

 previously thought them ; and often will feel that could he but 

 barter some of his drier hook knowledge for their more interest- 

 ing knowledge of nature, he would be the gainer by the ex- 

 change. They — whether Lepchas, Bhutias or Nepaulese — are 

 ever ready with their cheerful help to the European when 

 undergoing the same labor as themselves, and try to save him 

 as much fatigue as they can ; and this, as can be readily dis- 

 cerned, not from any sordid motive, but for the pure pleasure 

 of affording help. I do not allude to the knowing Pahariah, of 

 whichever tribe, of the station, who cannot, under any circum- 

 stances, be considered a desirable companion, but to the un- 

 spoiled people of the outlying districts. Their knowledge of the 

 names and habits of birds, plants, &c., is astonishing. One or 

 two naturalists have pooh-poohed native names, giving as their 

 reason the fact of their having got different names for the same 

 species from different individuals. In every country there are 

 people who will give some sort of a name rather than confess 

 ignorance. I have heard even a scientific European give to 

 non-scientific inquirers some extraordinary names more cal- 

 culated to do credit to his powers of invention than to his 

 love of accuracy, rather than own his ignorance. If one 

 is not troubled with a too tender conscience this is a safe 

 enough card to play with the ordinary run of people, 

 who usually ask information of this kind for the mere 

 sake of asking, or to convey the false impression that 

 they take an interest in such things, and forget the answer 

 the next minute, but because some natives more willing 

 than able to give names take advantage of ignorance in the 

 same manner, this is surely not sufficient reason for con- 

 demning the whole of the native nomenclature ? I have found 

 my very limited knowledge of such names most useful, and 

 can strongly recommend intending birds'-nesters to pick up as 

 much as they can in that way if they wish to save themselves 

 many a long and useless trudge after nests they do not want, 

 and so spare their strength and time to go after new nests. 

 When the native names of the more conspicuous birds are 

 mastered, it is an easy matter to make out from comparative 

 descriptions most of the other birds. For instance, the other 

 day one described a bird as the Thrush with the light-colored 

 irides, from which it was at once known that he meant Trocha- 

 lopteron squamaUim. Jerdon describes this bird as having " red- 

 brown irides," adding *' (glaucous according to Hodgson.)" 



