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BIRDS OF THE KHASIA HILLS. 



BY 



E. 0. Stuart Baker, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 

 Part I. 



The Khasia Hills, considering their extent and elevation, contain a 

 great variety of country and should therefore contain also a correspond- 

 ing proportion of birds ; but, as a matter of fact, the Khasias are such 

 universal slaughterers of all life that birds are not as numerous as 

 one would expect. 



All round the foot of the Hills, both towards Gauhatty and the 

 Surma Valley, the dense, tropical woods contain much bird life, but 

 this is not of great interest, as the fauna is much the same as that 

 found elsewhere in the surrounding districts. 



Towards Shillong one passes through immense stretches of grass 

 land at an elevation of 3,500 to 5,000 feet and, about five miles from 

 Shillong itself, one enters the pine forests. To the extreme east of 

 the district there is yet another phase of country, rolling grass- covered 

 hills covered with scattered oak forests, the same in fact as that to 

 the east of the Kopili in the North Cachar Hills, but proportionately 

 even less broken up. 



Towards Cherrapoonji and its vicinity are many huge cliffs which 

 afford breeding places to several interesting birds, principal amongst 

 which is the local Swift, Cypselus acuticauda, and the fine striped 

 Swallow, Hirundo striolata. H. daurica also breeds here, but this is 

 much more of a domestic form than striolata, and. haunts the villages, 

 breeding in the Khasias' houses. 



The local and most interesting birds are the Long-tailed Wren, 

 Urocichla longicaudata, found in all suitable bush-covered ravines at 

 sufficiently high elevation, and the local form of Laughing-Thrush, 

 Dryonastes subccendatus. This bird, I regret to say, seems to be far 

 more rare than it was 23 years ago when I first visited the Khasia Hills. 



At that time although the bird was very rare, one could always get 

 a certain number of specimens. This year, though I have had men 

 specially deputed to hunt for the Babbler, it is with the greatest diffi- 

 culty I have managed to get any. 



A curious feature of the bird life here is that, though divided from 

 the Himalayas by the Brahmapootra, several true Himalayan forms 



