138 



DR. J01IX AfTDERSOX ON BIKDS 



Island, and ascended the highest point, 1500 feet, of Sullivan 

 Islaud), my impression is that bird-life is less richly represented 

 than on the mainland ; but of course this can only be accurately 

 ascertained by a thorough investigation of the islands. Tin's 

 list, if it serves as a beginning to this end, will have fulfilled 

 its purpose. 



The islands, with the exception of a very limited portion of 

 King Island, where there are a few scattered Burmese and Karen 

 settlers, are uninhabited except by the sea-gipsies, the Selungs, 

 who spend the greater part of the year on the sea in their boats, 

 in which they eat and sleep while not fishing, or hunting with 

 their dogs for pigs in the forest. During the south-west monsoon 

 they betake themselves to sheltered bays, where they erect 

 miserable temporary dwelling-places on stakes driven into the 

 sands immediately above high-water mark. The absence of 

 regular villages, the existence of strong and dangerous currents 

 between the islands, and the presence of sunken rocks not yet 

 indicated in the charts, make the Mergui Archipelago a difficult 

 region to investigate. Moreover, during the south-west monsoon 

 navigation among the islands towards the sea is almost imprac- 

 ticable to sailing vessels, so that unless steam were used, or the 

 observer settled down in one of the groups for the season, 

 observations would have to be confined to the north-east mon- 

 soon, when the sea is generally calm and the breezes moderate. 



"With regard to the first locality, King Island, or Paclaw* as 

 known to the Burmese, it is situated about 10 miles due west of 

 the town of Mergui. The island is 24 miles in length by 10 miles 

 in breadth ; it is hilly throughout, and its highest point, which lies 

 nearest its southern end, the ridge running north and south, is 

 2123 feet high, but to the north and throughout the range there 

 are other heights but little below 2000 feet. It is covered with 

 a dense forest infested with tigers, pigs, and mouse-deer; and on 

 the very summits of the highest peaks are to be found trees attain- 

 ing nearly 200 feet in height. Apparently more streams water the 

 eastern than the western side, and at t heir mouths, and, indeed, 

 all along the sea-margin on this aspect of the island, are exten- 

 sive Mangrove-forests, succeeded by undulating and hilly ground, 

 on which are occasionally to be seen an orchard of Mangos teens, 

 Dorians Arcca-nuts, and Cocoa-nut Palms. On the western side, 



* Lat. 12° 18' lo 12° 42' N. 



