INTRODUCTION. 
XXI 
The whole of British Burmah, where not cultivated^ is covered with a 
dense growth of vegetation. On the hills and elevated portions this vege- 
tation is chiefly forest of large trees and bamboos ; on the low alluvial 
plains almost entirely elephant-grass of great height. The cultivated 
portions of the country are chiefly given up to the growth of rice. 
The year is abruptly divided into two seasons^ the rainy and the dry. 
The rainy season commences about the middle of May and terminates in 
October^ or somewhat later. The rainfall during these five months varies 
from upwards of 200 inches on the sea-coast to less than 50 inches in 
some parts of Pegu near the frontier. The dry season may be divided 
into two periods — the cold weather, which commences soon after the 
cessation of the rains and lasts up to the middle of February ; and the hot 
weather, which extends from the middle of February to the commence- 
ment of the rains in May. 
The climate of Burmah is, on the whole, humid, and its effect, as in 
other humid countries, is to cause the plumage of the birds to be of greater 
brilliancy. The difference of coloration between Merops viridis, for 
example, as found in Burmah and the same bird as found in the drier 
parts of India is very striking, and the same may be said of numerous 
other species. 
Burmah belongs to that zoological region which comprises the Hima-= 
lay as. Peninsular India, the Indo-Burmese countries*, Southern China, 
Cambodia, Cochin China, Siam, the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java and 
Borneo. The character of the avifauna of these countries is very similar. 
Taking the Passeres only, of which 400 are enumerated in my work, I find 
that the following are the numbers, so far as is known at present, that 
occur in each of the countries above mentioned. I omit from this state- 
ment the Indo-Burmese countries, about which hardly any thing is known, 
and also Cambodia and Siam. 
Peninsular India and Himalayas . . . 215 
China 106 
Cochin China 353 
Malay peninsula 129 
Sumatra 91 
Java 65 
Borneo 77 
* By this term I mean the territory, both British and Independent, lying between 
Bengal and British Burmah, and extending eastwards to the confines of China. 
