xviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
various parts of Pegu ; Mr. Hough_, Assistant Commissioner at Malewoon^, 
who collected birds at that place ; and Mr. Shopland, Port Officer at 
Akyab^ who has furnished me with many valuable notes for this work. 
During my long residence in Burmah I have traversed every portion of 
Pegu and formed large collections of birds at various points. Parties of 
men in my employment have at times collected for me in Arrakan_, and on 
one occasion I sent a party to Malewoon_, in the south of Tenasserim^ to 
form a collection. This resulted in making my materials for the present 
work very rich ; the number of specimens I brought to England exceeded 
5000^ and comprised some 600 species out of the 781 I have had to deal 
with. 
British Burmah is an irregular_, narrow^ maritime country_, hardly any 
portion being more than 200 miles from the sea. It lies entirely within 
the tropics^ the most northern portion of Arrakan being at a short dis- 
tance from the northern tropic^ and the most southern point of Tenasserim 
lying on the 10th degree of north latitude. It is bounded on the east by 
Independent Burmah and Siam. The general character of the country 
may be said to be mountainous^ the only flat portions being strips of land 
along the banks of the larger rivers and considerable areas at the mouths 
of these rivers. The deltas of the large rivers are but little elevated above 
high water of spring-tides^ and are intersected in all directions by creeks, 
which form admirable means of communication by means of boats. 
British Burmah is termed a Province/' and the three portions into 
which it is divided for administrative purposes, " Divisions." 
Arrakan, the Northern Division, is mountainous throughout, except near 
Akyab and along portions of the sea-coast. It is traversed by innumer- 
able streams, none of which, however, are of any great size. The range 
of mountains separating Arrakan from Independent Burmah and from 
Pegu are of considerable altitude, and will probably yield a great number 
of species of birds found in the Himalayas but not yet recorded from 
Burmah. The whole Division is ornithological! y unexplored. 
Pegu, the Central Division, is traversed by two rivers of great size. The 
Irrawaddy, which passes through British territory for 300 miles, is a noble 
stream seldom less than one mil^ broad. A portion of its waters leaves 
the main stream above Henzadah, and flows down to the sea past Bassein ; 
the remainder, after reaching Yandoon, traverses a number of large chan- 
nels, and forms a delta which is the most fertile portion of the Province. 
