COLLECTING WAYS AND COLLECTING DAYS. 475 



chosen breeding haunts of the two species of adjutant, of the great 

 king vulture {Otogyps calvus), and of the bar-tailed fishing eagle 

 (Polioaetus icthayetus). Among their fastnesses the " Taw-seik " — 

 the Burmese wild goat (Nemorhcedus sumatrensis)— -lives a secure life 

 so far as man is concerned, for few Burmese or Karen " moksohs " 

 (hunters) care to toil up these almost inaccessible heights. That curious 

 thrush (Gypsopliila crispifrons) too is found nowhere except on these 

 isolated peaks, and it was chiefly for the purpose of securing a series of 

 this rare bird that I had stopped for a day to explore this hill. Moreover 

 though it was too late for adjutant's eggs (they breed in November 

 and December), the guide told me he knew the whereabouts of two 

 nests of the fishing eagle, and I had myself the evening before marked 

 down, with a pair of binoculars, a tree just below the topmost ridge, 

 to which I had seen a male of the larger wreath-billed hornbill 

 (Rhyticeros undulatus) fly, with crop and gullet distended with 

 fruit — proof positive that his mate was somewhere around, probably in 

 that very tree, sitting cemented up in her nest-hole, and that he like a 

 good husband was carrying her her supper. 



As soon as the guide declared there was sufficient light, we com- 

 menced the ascent, and horribly rugged and difficult it was. In ten 

 minutes I had to stop to take breath and to steady myself, for it was a 

 regular case of climbing by hands as well as feet and clinging on by 

 one's eyelashes. We were on the extreme point of a low pinnacle 

 of rock which was a hard dark-grey limestone worn into holes and 

 crannies by the action of water. Above and around a thin scrub 

 jungle allowed great bare masses of the rock to be seen. The vegeta- 

 tion was all stunted and completely different from that of the plain 

 below. A dwarf bamboo, creepers, and cycads with a few trees of 

 lofty height and considerable girth, but with their boles twisted, 

 gnarled and crooked, could be seen clothing the scarped cliffs here 

 and there right up to the top. The guide carried my gun ; 

 I had my butterfly net. A little thorny bush with thick, rather 

 small, lanceolate leaves and clustering pretty white flowers was 

 just within reach of me, and, early in the day as it was, the 

 bees were about the flowers sucking out the honey and collecting 

 the pollen. I had to be careful in giving a sweep with my net, for 

 losing one's balance meant a nasty fall on the sharp rocks. Gingerly, 



