-104 Capt. R. C. Beavan on various Indian Birds, 



appear until this tree has ceased flowering), contrast strongly with 

 the general want of vegetation. Soon others begin to flower, 

 while on some the leaves appear as if by magic ; and in less 

 than a fortnight the jungles are of a bright green again, and so 

 powerfully scented with the flowers of the sal and other trees 

 that the sensation is rather sickening. With the opening leaves 

 and flowers appear numberless birds : many have come from far 

 to breed, others doubtless for the sake of the plentiful insect 

 repast afforded by the fresh vegetation. The species of Honey- 

 suckers and Flower-peckers are especially numerous, and flit 

 about from tree to tree in thorough enjoyment. 



Fruits and berries are of course very scarce ; and the bears 

 and other denizens of the jungles would fare badly at this 

 season, were it not for the beneficent mhowa-tree, whose wax -like 

 flowers, produced long before the leaves, fall to the ground, and 

 ai'e not only assiduously gathered up by the lower classes of 

 natives for the purpose of distilling spirit therefrom, but are 

 eagerly sought for by bears, deer. Peafowl, Jungle-fowl, and 

 several other birds. 



But to turn more to our immediate subject, the Ornis of the 

 district, I should be inclined to consider birds to be its distinc- 

 tive feature in animal life. They abound more especially in 

 the hot and rainy (?) months, at which seasons the dense jungles 

 afford resting-places to many species the locus of whose nidifi- 

 cation has long remained a mystery. The species are in most 

 cases known. I am not aware of my having come across a single 

 new one; but that is not so much to be wondered at when I men- 

 tion that Mr. Blyth has before now collected on the southern bor- 

 der near Midnapore; and Col. S. R. Tickell, formerly in govern- 

 ment employ at Chaibassa, in Singbhoom, and well known to 

 science as an ardent ornithologist, has detailed the result of 

 some years' collections made in this district, in his list of the 

 Birds of Dhulbhun or Dhulbhoom, and Borabhun or Burra- 

 bhoom, which are the names of two of the pergunnahs (counties, 

 so to speak) of the district ; and as they comprise the greater 

 part of the more jungly portion, it is not likely that many of 

 the birds have escaped the notice of these two well-known 

 ornithologists. 



