1839.] Capt. Pemberton's Mission to Bootan, 1837-38. 273 



most striking one is a black one, with a whitish belly, measuring, 

 including the tail, nearly three feet.* 



The variety of birds is, of course, considerable, but the lower ranges 

 seem to be by far the most productive ; on these jungle fowl and two 

 species of black pheasant are found. The raven is found throughout, 

 but the very familiar crow or jackdaw never leaves the plains, and 

 never leaves populous places. Throughout the higher portions of 

 Bootan it has as noisy, but scarcely possibly as mischievous a substi- 

 tute in a red-legged crow. This is common in the three elevated 

 valleys, and not rare elsewhere at elevations of 8000 to 9500 feet : and 

 below these it is scarcely to be seen. Cuckoos, larks, magpies, jays, 

 and sparrows were the chief European forms met with, but except the 

 latter, perhaps, all were of different species from the birds known by 

 those names in Europe. 



The cuckoo is rather widely dispersed. I first heard it about 

 Punukka, and subsequently along the Teemboo, at an elevation of 

 7000 feet ; below this height, at least in this direction, its peculiarly 

 pleasing voice was not heard, although I think I saw the bird consi- 

 derably lower. With the magpie, which has much of the plumage of 

 the European bird, but a shorter tail, we became familiar at Bhoom- 

 lungtung, but lost it at Jaisa. The jay, a figure of which may be seen 

 in Mr. Royle's Illustrations, was found pretty constantly throughout 

 the wooded tracts between 5500 to 7000 feet ; it is a noisy, but not a 

 very wary bird. Larks were very common in the elevated valleys, and 

 afforded us some good shooting ; in habits, plumage, and voice they 

 are to an uninitiated eye the prototypes of the bird so well known in 

 Europe. In the same valleys Syrases were common. Wild fowl are, as 

 might be expected, rare ; the only place where they occurred in toler- 

 able plenty was in the jheel below Santagong. The most destructive 

 and numerous bird is the wild pigeon, which is to be found in plenty 

 in almost every village, and in literal swarms in the castles and 

 palaces : they do a great deal of damage to the poor ryots, who are 

 not allowed to destroy them, on account of their being sacred. This 

 exclusion holds good very strictly about the residences of the chiefs ; 

 and, although the villagers were in all cases delighted to see them shot, 

 yet they keep no check on their increase, as they have no means of 

 destroying them, and appear never to have thought of doing so by 

 means of their eggs. At Byagur, the place of this bird was supplied 

 by another very curiously marked species, which, it is said, likewise 

 occurs about Simla. 



* Sciurus beng-morkus, McCl. 



