BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 3 



Karens, who, on account of some of his followers having 

 incautiously set fire to some jungle, wanted to scalp him. With 

 this trifling exception — -and they did not even do this — I have 

 never heard of any traveller meeting with insult or being in 

 danger. Travelling in Burmah is safer than in Europe. 



" Mr. W. T. Blanford has lately given us a list of the birds 

 obtained or seen by him in the Irrawaddy Valley. 



" Captain Feilden collected vigorously at Thayetmyo, and very 

 successfully ; but his duties confined him to the station and its 

 immediate neighbourhood, and it is to be regretted that he had 

 no opportunities for travelling in the district. 



" Small collections appear to have been made from time to time 

 in Tonghoo, resulting in the description of a few new species by 

 Lord Walden. 



" As observers in Burmah are now on the increase, and its 

 Avi-f auna seems likely to be well investigated, it may perhaps be 

 proper to explain, once for all, what is meant by the terms 

 1 Burmah/ ' Pegu/ ' Arracan/ and ' Tenasserim.' 



" Burmah is a comprehensive term for the whole region 

 stretching from the extreme north-east corner of Assam to the 

 delta of the Irrawaddy. In breadth it varies much ; the parallel 

 of latitude, passing through Mandelay, the heart of the country, 

 traverses the broadest part. Here it is 500 miles broad. Its 

 boundaries are Assam, Munipore, Tipperah, Chittagong, and the 

 Bay of Bengal; on the east, China, Assam, and Siam. 



ft Many years ago, Burmah embraced as many petty kingdoms 

 as there were large towns or men strong enough to hold their 

 own. Ava, Pagan, Prome, Pegu, Arracan, Tonghoo and Mar- 

 taban formed the strongest of these. Everlasting wars with each 

 other, plots and intrigues, gradually reduced the number of these 

 kingdoms, till in the last century Alompra, King of Ava, 

 became the sole monarch of the whole of Burmah as above 

 defined. 



" Matters went on smoothly enough till about fifty years ago, 

 when the British were compelled in self-defence to annex two 

 large slices of territory. These are now known as Arracan and 

 Tenasserim. Subsequently, in the second war, the intervening 

 territory, now called Pegu, was also taken. These three provinces 

 constitute British Burmah. 



" Arracan reaches from Chittagong to Cape Negrais, having 

 the Bay of Bengal on the west and Native Burmah and Pegu 

 on the east, from which it is separated by a lofty chain of 

 mountains named the Arracan Hills. The western spurs lie in 

 Arracan, and the eastern in Pegu. 



" Pegu stretches up from the sea to the frontier in latitude 

 19° 30' N. On the west the Arracan Hills divide it from that 

 province. Its eastern limits are not very clear. A south-east 



