STRAY FEATHERS. 



Vol. III.] JANUARY, 1875. [Nos. 1, 2 & 3. 



1 first fist of tk §irtos of Ipcr fop. 



I. 



The genesis of this veiy imperfect sketch of the Avi-fauna of 

 the upper portion of British Pegu was in this wise. 



Captain Feilden, of the 21st Fusiliers, having heard of my 

 penchant for ornithology, very kindly forwarded to me, for examin- 

 ation, about the close of 1871, a collection of birds which he had 

 made in the immediate neighbourhood of Thayetmyo. This 

 portion of our empire was ornithologically quite a terra incognita 

 to me, and many of the specimens seemed so full of interest that 

 I thought it a pity to let the collection leave my hands without 

 making a full list of it, and still more so to allow Captain Feilden 

 to leave the country without placing on record his ornithological 

 experiences in this (so far as its Avi-fauna is concerned) little- 

 known tract. 



On mentioning my wishes to Captain Feilden, he not only 

 most kindly allowed me to keep many most interesting speci- 

 mens, but also furnished me with a number of notes in regard to 

 them, which will be found in their appropriate places later on in 

 this paper. 



My paper, founded on Captain Feilden's collection, was ready 

 for publication by the close of 1872, when through my late valued 

 friend, Dr. Stoliczka, I learnt that Mr. Oates, an enthusiastic 

 ornithologist, had been for some time collecting vigorously in the 

 same neighbourhood as Captain Feilden. I therefore proposed to 

 Mr. Oates that with the materials I had already collected, and 

 those at his disposal, we should prepare a joint paper on the 

 birds of Upper Pegu ; and he, very kindly assenting to my pro- 

 posal, sent me in 1873 his entire collection for examination, 

 together with very full and interesting notes in regard to a great 

 many of the specimens he had preserved, the vast majority of 

 which he had not only carefully sexed, but measured in the flesh. 



