% l FIP.ST LIST OF THE 



II. 



Never having as yet visited Upper Burmah myself, I must leave 

 to Mr. Oates the description of the physical features and climatic 

 conditions of the tract whose Ornis we shall endeavour partially 

 to enumerate. 



Mr. Oates says : " Though the Province of Pegu has been in 

 the hands of the British for twenty years, its ornithology has 

 been much neglected. The earlier acquired provinces of Tenas- 

 serim and Arracan were, from the first, worked by numerous 

 collectors, and many birds were first described from these by 

 Mr. Blyth, Colonel Tickell, and others. It is true that the late 

 Dr. Jerdon visited Thayetmyo some years ago, but though he 

 described for the first time three or four species found near that 

 station, he does not appear to have gone into the interior; nor 

 would it have been easy ten years ago for any but local officers 

 to travel at will out of certain beaten tracks. Even now the 

 hiring of carts or coolies, and the purchase of rice from day to day 

 for a large camp, are matters of no little difficulty to those who 

 have habitually to travel about even in their own districts. In 

 fact, travelling in Burmah is simply impossible to the man who 

 does not possess an immense amount of local influence. Burmans 

 in the interior care little for money, and you may be detained for 

 a whole day in a village before a cartman (of whom there may 

 be twenty) will take your baggage to the next village, not more 

 than five miles off. 



" With the exception of transport and procuring fresh pro- 

 visions, there are no difficulties to speak of in travelling about. 

 The Burmese are hospitable to a degree, perfectly free from all 

 caste prejudice, good-natured and polite. In the inhabited parts 

 of the country, every village of any pretensions has a guest- 

 house attached to it. This consists generally of one room, well 

 thatched, with bamboo or boarded floor, well raised from the 

 ground and generally walled in on three sides. There is nothing a 

 Burman thinks more necessary to insure him a felicitous trans- 

 migration in his next state of existence than doing some work of 

 charity. The consequence is that the whole country is covered 

 with wells, rest-houses, monasteries, and small sheds on the road- 

 side where waterpots are placed every morning for the benefit of 

 thirsty travellers. 



" With a couple of baggage elephants, which by the way are 

 not easily obtainable, though Burmah is popularly thought to 

 be a place where elephants figure largely, it is possible to traverse 

 the country in any direction. My friend, Mr. Kurz, travelled in 

 this manner, most energetically all over the wildest portions of 

 the Pegu Hills. We continually crossed and re-crossed each 

 other's paths without however meeting till we arrived at Tonghoo. 

 I believe he met with no mishap till he came among Christian 



