250 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 90 



A rough delineation of the country traversed shows that 

 for a few hours out from Bombay the railroad runs through 

 a rather barren country with high, irreg"ular hills — the West- 

 ern Ghats — • rising on either side, then the valley widens, 

 more of the cultivated fields appear with trees in rows or in 

 scattering groups. Herds of the Indian buffalo cattle and 

 flocks of goats are fairly plentiful. On the second day we 

 passed through a sterile region in the neighborhoods of 

 Sutna, Jaitwar, and Markundi, and a still worse strip east of 

 Manikpur ; its chief crop — that of stones — seemed to be 

 unfailing and was harvested in long, narrow piles, which 

 were nicely leveled ofif on top. In other places the face of 

 the country w'as fresh and green with young crops, with 

 here and there a field blue with blossoming flax. It seemed 

 reasonable to suppose that an old country, densely populated, 

 and devoted largely to agricultural pursuits, would look old, 

 and that the thronging millions that cultivated the fields 

 would be much in evidence. Instead, in many places the 

 country looked as new and untrod as did portions of Dakota 

 and Montana twenty years ago, and the people w'hen seen 

 appeared to be in a homeless wilderness until the eye detected 

 here and there miserable villages, composed of mud huts of 

 the same color as the ground from whxh the mud was taken ; 

 these hovels w^ere low, without visible windows, and with 

 roofs of straw or rushes. The houses of a better class were 

 covered with tiles. 



The railway journey to Calcutta occupied forty-four hours 

 and terminated in the gray dawn of a January day. It was 

 in this city that the more leisurely observation of the birds 

 began. Among the first birds noted were two representa- 

 tives of a species not met with afterward, though it is said 

 to be a common species in winter throughout the region of 

 the plains. It was a brown bird that perched on deadi twig's 

 and flicked its tail like a Phoebe, being about the size of that 

 bird, but the shape of its head was shrike-like, as were its 

 motions when it darted to the ground for insects, therefore 

 it was with genuine satisfaction I found that afternoon in 



