ITINEEART. XXXVU 



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 

 tracks over which travellei's pass are usually in the more open and 

 exposed situations, while the birds are mostly to be found in the copses 

 or more sheltered places, where plants are more plentifully in flower or 

 fruit. The extensive cleared lands in the forests for provision-fields 

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

 where tliese occur in the wooded valleys they are altogether the most 

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

 birds are indeed the great proteptors of the Indian cultivation against 

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

 doubted whether cultivation would at all be profitable but for their 

 beneficent work, since the people themselves do nothing to lessen the 

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

 forms, there are numerous species of the mixed feeders, whether grani- 

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

 localities, which olier such favourable opportunities 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 

 afibrd 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 Accipiter, Micrastur, Geranospizias, Leuco- 

 pternis, Harpagus, etc. ; though these and others, such as Gwmpsonyx 

 and Elanus, are at times obtainable on the fi'inge 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 neighbourhood 

 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 results 

 for the time spent. Even in the open grassy lands the results are 

 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 be excessively rough and irregularly 

 cracked, strewn with rocks and the hard stumps of coarse growths, 

 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, 

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

 mishaps. 



Even on the trails it is essential to keep one's eyes on the ground, 

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

 washed and uneven and narrow, all travelling being in single file, that 

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

 may be up or down. Wherever trails can be found they are but 

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

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

 has the cha,nce of observation of a district, that might fitly be compared 

 to a drop in an ocean of possibilities. Collections made in such an 

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



d 



