260 



A LIST OF KALAW BIRDS, WITH BIRD-NESTING 



NOTES. 



BY 



J. P. Cook. 



My collection and observations were made during the month of April 

 1912. The area covered was in the immediate vicinity of Kalaw, with 

 exception of two days' collecting at Wetpyuye, about eight miles to the 

 west, with an elevation of 3,200 feet. 



Kalaw is situated about 60 miles to the south-east of Thazi, a railway 

 town of the Meiktila District, Upper Burmah. It is a small village of the 

 Southern Shan States, but will shortly become a rather important station 

 on the Southern Shan States Railway, and also probably a popular Hill 

 Station. 



The country round Kalaw, with exception of one or two abrupt ridges, 

 is undulating, and is wooded for the most part with pines. There is a 

 certain amount of scrub and secondary jungle between the plots of 

 cultivation, consisting chiefly of longish grass, wild raspberry bushes, and 

 a sprinkling of secondary bamboo. The ridges are rather rocky, the 

 vegetation consisting mostly of long grass and oak trees. 



Colonel Rippon contributed a list of the birds he and Mr. E. W. Gates 

 collected at Kalaw to " The Ibis " for July 1896 and January 1897, which 

 he has very kindly given me permission to quote. I have decided there- 

 fore to include all the birds he records in the following list in addition to 

 those which I myself collected. Colonel Rippon's list numbered 109 

 species. The following list contains 129, or 20 additions. 



I should like to take this opportunity of thanking Colonel Rippon for 

 the help and encouragement he gave me in my collecting, and for forward- 

 ing to the Natural History Museum specimens of a species, the identifi- 

 cation of which we were doubtful. This has now been identified as 

 Chrysomitris ammbiguus, The Yunnan Siskin. 



I think it probable that the following list of Kalaw birds is far from 

 complete, and that there is still plenty room for additional discoveries. 

 There are many birds recorded by Col. Rippon from the Southern Shan 

 States as being found at elevations corresponding with that of Kalaw, but 

 which neither I, nor does Col. Rippon appear to have, found at Kalaw itself. 



For example. Col. Rippon records the following Laughing Thrushes from 

 Southern Shan States in "Ibis," Vol. I, page 529, October 1901 :— 



Garrulax pectoralis (72) — " Reaches up to 4,500 feet." 



Trochalopterum melanostigma (86) — "Fairly common above 3,500 feet." 



Trochalopterum ripponi. — " This is the commonest of all the Laughing 

 Thrushes found in the Southern Shan States at elevations from 4,000 to 

 6,000 feet."— Rippon, "Ibis," page 529, Vol. I. 



(Note — Numbers in brackets correspond to numbers in Fauna, B, I. 

 (Birds). 



List of Kalaw Birds. ' 



1. Corvus macrorhynchus (4) — The Jungle Crow. 



2. Corvus insolens (8) — Burmese House Crow. 



Note — I include this as doubtful. I did not actually shoot bird. 



The former of the above pests is much the commoner at Kalaw. I found 

 a nest placed at the very top of a high pine tree, close by the house I was 

 occupying. According to Gates, it is unusual for this crow to nest close 

 to human habitation. But Corvus marcorhynchus is a very bold bird at 

 Kalaw usurping the place of its congener Corvus insolens. 



