ITIKEEARY. XXXvii 



It is the case that few of these forms are much under general 

 observation, nor is this to be wondered at considering that the few 

 ti'acks over which travellers pass are usually in tlie more open and 

 exposed situations, while the birds are mostly to be found in the co})ses 

 or more sheltered places, whei-e plants are moie plentifully in flower or 

 fruit. The extensive cleaied lands in the forests for pvovision-tiehls 

 are favourite haunts, owing to their open and mixed cultivation, and 

 where these occur in the wooded valleys they ai'e altogether the most 

 favourable collecting-grounds for a large variety of the species. The 

 birds are indeed the great protectors of the Indian cultivation against 

 the ravages of their terrible plagues, the insects ; and it may well be 

 doubted whether cultivation would at all be profitable but for their 

 beneficent Avoi'k, since the people themselves do nothing to lessen the 

 number of their pests in the fields. As well as the purely insectivorous 

 forms, thei'e are numerous species of the mixed feeders, whether grani- 

 vorous, frugivorous, or carnivorous, to be found in and around these 

 localities, which oiler such favoiu-able oppoi'tunities for observation as 

 against the jungle of the forests, where the birds are either mostly 

 hidden far above in the high canopy of leaves or equally secure in 

 a more or less luxuriant undergrowth of small plants, mixed with 

 creepers and climbers of all sorts. These clearings in the high forests 

 nfibrd the best opportunities of procuring many of the species not 

 commonly met with on the lowlands of the coast — such, for instance, as 

 the hawks of the genera Accijnter, 2Iicrastur, Geraiios2yizias, Lenco- 

 2)ternis, Ilarpagus, etc. ; though these and others, such as Gam-paovyx 

 and Elanus, are at times obtainable on the fiinge of the interior 

 savannah woods, mainly along the streams. 



Bird-life in general is plentiful in the low woods in the wider valleys 

 and along the streams of the elevated savannahs in the neigld)oxuIiood 

 of the high mountains, but usually there is such a thicket of lower 

 growth, mainly of creeping or scandent plants, often with sharp cutting 

 edges or spines, that native huntsmen alone secure satisfactory i-esults 

 for the time spent. Even in the open grassy lands the results ai'e 

 little better, since the stretches of undulating plains and ridges, the 

 surface of which from a distance presents the aspect of an almost even 

 rolling sward, are mostly found to Ixi excessively i-uugh and iriegularly 

 cracked, strewn with rocks and the hard stunqis of coarse gi-owth.s, 

 beneath a deceptive covering of tall grasses and other such plants, 

 amid which one has laboriously to pick one's way, eyes to the ground, 

 if one would avoid bruised shins, sprained ankles, or other worse 

 mishaps. 



Even on the ti-ails it is essential to keep one's eyes on the ground, 

 and to stop when one wishes to look aljout, for the tracks are so 

 washed and uneven and narrow, all ti-avelling being in single file, that 

 careless walking is out of the question for safety, especially where it 

 may be up or down. "VVherevei- trails can be found they are but 

 irregular lines, so to speak, mostly few and far between, across 

 enoiinous stretches of country; and on a special journey the traveller 

 l)as the chance of observation of a district, that might fitly beconqiared 

 to a drop in an ocean of possibilities. Collections made in suc-h an 

 area, and even during a few months, can only be regarded as being a 



d 



