TO THE COURT OF AYA. 225 
feature is said to extend to all the countries of 
tropical Asia lying east of Bengal. 
Game is probably less abundant in the Burmese 
dominions than in Hindustan. The variety, how¬ 
ever, is considerable. The hare is not known in 
Pegu, but makes its appearance in the high-lands 
before the disemboguement of the Irawadi. It is 
a small animal, similar, in all respects, to the 
Indian hare. The flesh of both, in comparison 
with that of the European hare, is insipid. Of 
gallinaceous birds, the wild cock is very generally 
spread over the country. It is of the same species 
as the wild fowl of Hindustan, and is invariably 
an inhabitant of the forests, where it is to be found 
in coveys, like our partridge and moor game. 
Two species of pheasants, I imagine undescribed, 
are sufficiently numerous in the forests of Pegu* 
They are both small birds, and much inferior in 
size and beauty of plumage to the pheasants of 
China and Nepal. The other birds of this family 
ascertained to exist are the peacock, and some par¬ 
tridges and quails. The snipe, a bird which seems 
to abound in every part of the world where there 
are marshes, from the arctic to the antarctic circle, 
is sufficiently abundant in Ava. Geese and 
ducks, many of them birds of passage, are nu¬ 
merous in the upper provinces. In the lower the 
goose does not appear, and ducks are not nu¬ 
merous. 
Q 
VOL. II. 
