4 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



line running from the northern frontier till it meets the 

 Salween River a little east of Tonghoo, and this river itself down 

 to Moulmein, would to me appear to define Pegu. A consider- 

 able portion of this province lying between the Sittang and 

 the Salween Rivers is named Martaban, and, for administrative 

 purposes, forms part of Tenasserim. Geographically, however, I 

 do not think that it has any claims to be included in Tenasserim. 

 In treating of the birds of this district hereafter, I shall still 

 continue to look upon it as part of Pegu. 



" Tenasserim lies to the east of the Salween River and runs 

 down to the Isthmus of Kraw, being separated from Siam by 

 lofty ranges of mountains. Its northern apex lies at the junc- 

 tion of the Salween and Me-Nium Rivers. 



" The tract of country in which the birds observed by me 

 were obtained, is that portion of Pegu which lies between the 

 Irrawaddy and Sittang Rivers. Its northern limit is our frontier, 

 running due east and west, in latitude 19° 30' N. The southern 

 limit is defined by nature, being the junction of the dry and wet 

 regions of Burmah, and though this junction is nowhere abrupt 

 and cannot be defined by a hard and fast line, yet a parallel 

 of latitude through Poungday will sufficiently well indicate it. 

 The tract thus defined is about one hundred miles square. 



" The Pegu Yoma Hills, the watershed of the two rivers, stretch 

 from a point in native territory south of Mandelay to Rangoon 

 in a nearly straight line. At the frontier their greatest elevation 

 is about 2,000 feet (their highest point between Thayetmyo and 

 Tonghoo was 1,950 feet, as ascertained by careful levelling), 

 but further down, where they cross our southern limit, a few 

 peaks attain a height of 2,500 feet. From this point they sink 

 rapidly till they finally disappear at Rangoon. 



" The spurs which the main ridge throws out to the east extend 

 about thirty-five miles, and sink into a rich belt of perfectly level 

 country, ten to fifteen miles broad, which in the neighbourhood 

 of Tonghoo is about 150 feet above the sea level. 



" The western spurs fall rapidly to an altitude of from 500 to 

 600 feet. Many are then lost, but others straggle to the banks 

 of the Irrawaddy, rising occasionally into bold masses, as in the 

 Sagadoun Hills near Palow. These outlying hills, however, are 

 too low to have any effect on the distribution of birds, and for the 

 purposes of this paper, the country lying on the left bank of the 

 Irrawaddy, for about thirty miles inland, will be termed in my 

 notes ' the plains/ in contradistinction to ' the hills/ 



" The vegetation of the plains and of the western spurs to a 

 height of 1,000 feet is nearly the same. Three-quarters of the 

 whole country are covered with mixed forests, in which Diptero- 

 carpus grandiflora is the most prominent tree, (the Eng of the 

 Burmese) . These dry forests are characterized by an absence of 



