foliage as they swung from tree to tree. The path, though still good and paved with stones on the steeper parts, was much overgrown with high grass and covered with moss and weeds. A most beautiful species of Æschynanthus with large crimson and black spotted flowers was common on the trees, and Clarke found so much to collect that we soon parted company. Near the bottom of the hill I found a beautiful pink and white orchid-like flower which is developed at the root of a ginger-like plant, Kæmpferia sp., but the flowers of this family are mostly fugacious and difflcult to preserve, and are not much in favour with gardeners at home.
A well-built iron suspension-bridge crossed the river, which is large and very rapid, boiling down over immense boulders between rocky banks covered with vegetation. Here in a rather inaccessible spot under the bridge I found a beautiful little orchid with fibrous roots and large white flower, which was unknown to Clarke but turned out to be Thunia Bensonia. That and Dendrobium densiflonim, two of the most favourite plants of our orchid houses, were in full beauty, but I was much dis¬ appointed with the number and variety of butterflies which I caught. With the exception of a few common Papilios such as P. philoxenus and P. Paris, a single Neope bhadra, a few small Lycœnidæ and Hesperidæ, I got nothing worth speaking of that day, and the heavy rain which came on prevented me from remaining long in this beautiful though unhealthy spot. Birds also were scarce and, strange as it may seem in a country which seems so favourable, I did not see a single species of woodpecker in the Khasias, whilst in Sikkim a day never passed without my seeing four or five kinds. Bulbuls, small wax-bills, king crows and barbets, all of common species, were the most abundant, but having no gun I did not pay much attention to them. Clarke came in late very wet and heavily laden with plants, which it took him some hours to lay in and ticket, a duty which he religiously performed every night. As it was again very wet in the morning, and we did not see much prospect of good weather, we started back to Myrung. On arriving there it was windy and cloudy but seemed to be clear again on the north side of the hills. The rainfall is evidently very partial and local in this district. It is often raining in torrents at Cherra, and all along the south side of the hills, when it is fine and bright at Shillong; and sometimes, though not often, the reverse is the case.
I went out again in the Myrung wood and found some curious ground orchids, among them the great yellow Cyrtopodium of Darjeeling in fruit, and a couple of green and yellow veined Anæctochilas, which here, as is usually the case, grow very sparsely and singly among decayed wood. This wood must be very rich in plants, but is difficult to get about in owing to its steepness and the want of paths. I saw some large buzzard¬ like hawks with white breasts, which were apparently breeding, and the big purple fruit pigeon, Carpophaga insignis, also a whinchat-like bird with white throat and black tail which frequents the grass and was new to me; but still not half the birds one would expect in such a fine country, Our coolies being lightly loaded, marched well and halted but little, getting over about two and a half miles an hour with ease on these good paths;
they are used to much harder work in carrying potatoes down to Cherra.
9
