THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 164 
part of this runs the Kopili, a largish stream, but full of rapids and 
water-falls, rendering even the transport of timber impossible. Thus, 
then, there is a country to meet the needs of almost every kind of bird ; 
on the bigger rivers the bolder king-fishers and bee-eaters, many fly- 
catchers, thrushes, fork-tails, &e., breed, whilst the densely-shaded 
nullahs, in gloomy evergreen forest, afford shelter to the Great Indian 
King-fisher and other shy, water-loving birds; in the marsh lands 
running along the south all kinds of babblers, reed warbles, &c., have a 
haunt after their own hearts, and such as require open dry grass country 
have only to visit Umrang, the hot springs, or similar places. Hungrum 
and its lofty peaks afford a home for the tits, rarer thrushes, and 
babblers, who will not descend below 400 feet. Even the tree-creeper, 
wryneck, and many wrens find this part sufficiently lofty to tempt 
them to stay and breed ; whilst nuthatches abound in the evergreen 
forest in the valleys of the two small streams Laisung and Mahor. 
As regards classification, all I need say is that I have adopted that of 
Oates as given in the volumes of the Avifauna in the Blanford Series ; 
for though there are certain details with which I do not agree in this 
work, still there is no system which pleases every one, and I do not 
know of any existing classification which is better or, indeed, as good ; 
whilst as regards making one for myself, I am utterly incapable of 
doing so, and fortunately have not yet developed sufficient self-conceit 
to attempt the task. One word I must say, and that is, that it seems 
to me as if Oates, good and thorough ornithologist as he is, has 
thought fit to create a sub-family (Liotrichine) merely as a sort of waste 
land with a placard up, “ All rubbish may be shot here,” and in the 
waste land he has shot whatever he did not know how to dispose of 
otherwise. No argument on the formation of their bones will make me 
believe that Cutia, digithina, Chloropsis, Melanochlora, Psaroglossa, and 
Chalcoparia (Eulables too Oates suggests) should be massed together 
as they are. 
The only references I have made are to Oates’ work and to Hume’s 
catalogue, and this latter, of course, includes Jerdon. 
The notes I have given are for the most part very brief, and I have 
only launched out into lengthy details in regard to birds about whose 
nidification or habits nothing has yet been recorded, or about which J 
