Provincial Geographies of India/Volume 4/Chapter 10

by Herbert Thirkell White

CHAPTER X

FAUNA.

Mammalia. Ungulata. The fauna of Burma is singularly rich and varied. In nearly every district wander herds of elephants, from thirty to fifty, sometimes as many as a hundred, together, very destructive to crops, eating much and trampling down more. Except in the Shan States, they are strictly preserved and, save in defence of human beings or in protection of property, may not be shot without a license. The capture of wild elephants with the aid of tame elephants as decoys^[1] was practised by Burmans probably from very ancient times, and certainly up to the extinction of the Burmese monarchy in 1885. The vivid account of kheddah^[2] operations at Pegu in 1569 A.D. by the Venetian traveller, Cæsar Frederick^[3], is an accurate description of similar operations at Amarapura in the time of the last king, more than three hundred years later. For some short time after the annexation of Upper Burma, the elephant-catching establishment was maintained. Later the somewhat primitive native method was abandoned and the capture of elephants on a large scale was undertaken by skilled and trained officers. Some years ago the Government Kheddah Department was abolished and, at present, the supply of elephants is left to private enterprise. The Burmese elephant is a useful beast, docile, and believed, perhaps erroneously, to be sagacious. He is not commonly used for riding and not at all on ceremonial occasions. As a baggage animal and for dragging timber in the forest^[4] he is exceedingly useful. When work is finished, dragging elephants are hobbled, their forelegs being tied together, and are then let loose in the forest to fend for themselves. Each has a wooden clapper round his neck to guide the riders when searching for them. Elephants thus hobbled often go quite a long way in a single night and are not at all impeded in their foraging. Though mechanical appliances have almost displaced them for this work, elephants are still used for piling teak logs in the timber yards of Rangoon and Moulmein and seem to display remarkable acuteness and intelligence. From time immemorial, the kings of Burma set much store on the possession of white elephants, regarding them as among the most honourable insignia of their royal state. Wars were waged for the possession of these precious beasts^[5]. So far as Burma is concerned, the cult of the white elephant is dead.

Rhinoceros are found in several districts in Lower Burma but are not very common. The one-horned Javan (R. sondaicus) is rare; the two-horned Sumatran (R. sumatrensis) is more frequently encountered. The gaur, by some called the Indian bison (Bos gaurus), a handsome beast, standing as high as nineteen hands, is the largest of the wild oxen. Gaur are generally seen in herds. Forest lovers, they prefer hilly country. The banting or saing (B. sondaicus), the characteristic wild ox of Malay countries, is not uncommon in many parts of Burma. He is a very handsome beast, finer than the Javan variety, and may even be a distinct species. In habits he resembles the gaur but chooses lighter and more open forest and the outlying spurs of hills. Gaur have been found at heights above 5000 feet, saing not over 4000 feet. Of gaur and saing solitary bulls carrying fine heads are most eagerly sought by sportsmen. Both are often dangerous when wounded. The much discussed mithan (B. frontalis) is domesticated in the Chin Hills and is well known in Putao and elsewhere in the Province. Wild buffaloes, once fairly plentiful, are now nearly extinct. The curious serow (Nemorhoedus sumatrensis), in appearance half donkey, half goat^[6], is not very

Fig. 39. Bison.

common. The Burmans call him taw-seik, jungle goat, tawmyin, jungle horse, or very inaptly ka-ba-kya, precipice tiger^[7]. Serow are goat-antelopes. They generally inhabit heavy cover near rocky and dangerous ground and often lie out on cliffs under the shelter of rocks. They are very wary and hard to approach. The Burmese serow differs from the Himalayan tahr, also a serow, in having reddish, instead of white, stockings. The goral (Urotragus evansi), a small but true goat, has been identified in Upper Burma in comparatively recent years, but is not very common. Goral hang about precipitous ground and utter a peculiar whistle when alarmed.

Fig. 40. Mithan.

Most strange of all is the rare takin (Budorcas taxicolor), only lately encountered in Burma, though his horns were found in a Kachin village thirty years ago. He has been variously described as half goat, half buffalo; as looking like a small buffalo with curly or spiral horns; as a clumsily built ruminant, standing about as high as a small mule; as essentially a serow with affinities to the bovines through the musk-ox and other relationships to the sheep, goat, and antelope^[8]. The first Englishman to shoot a takin was Mr C. H. Mears, travelling in Tibet with the late Mr J. W. Brooke. Mr Fergusson's description is interesting:

This little known animal stands as high as a small bullock, but is much more heavily built. Its legs are especially short and thick, and its feet are shaped like those of a goat, only much larger. I have seen some tracks as much as six inches in diameter. They have Roman noses, black curved horns, and short cut-off ears; the hair of the cow is creamy white, but most of the bulls have a reddish-grey coat, a short tail like a goat, and to some extent resemble the musk ox^[9].

One is almost disposed to identify him with the tarand, "an animal as big as a bullock, having a head like a stag, or a little bigger, two stately horns with large branches, cloven feet, hair long like that of a furred Muscovite, I mean a bear, and a skin almost as hard as steel armour."

Takin are found at high altitudes in the lofty mountain ranges bordering on the north and east of the Putao district and not elsewhere in Burma.

Deer of four well-known species are abundant. These are Thamin (brow antlered deer, Cervus eldi), the handsome typical stag of Burma^[10]; Sat (sambar, C. unicolor); Dayè (hog-deer, C. porcinus); and Gyi (barking deer, Cervulus muntjac). There are also small mouse deer, or chevrotain, of two kinds.

The tapir is rare, found only in Mergui, Tavoy, and Amherst. Wild pig are fairly common in most forest tracts; and do much damage to maize, millet, and other crops. Some of the old boars have tushes 9½ inches long. The country is not suitable for pigsticking, which has never been adopted as a form of sport in the Province. Burmans have an ingenious method of getting rid of pigs damaging cultivation. At various parts of a field liable to incursion, they place bamboo clappers, all attached to one long rope or cane of which the watchman in his observation post holds the end. Where pigs are known to enter no clapper is laid, but bamboo spikes of various lengths are planted with points directed inwards. When the pigs are in the field, the clappers are set in motion; the pigs rush to the place where there is no clapper-noise and get wounded by the bamboos. Next morning they can be tracked by dogs^[11].

The so-called Burman pony is well known; a very useful,

Fig. 41. Bullocks with cart.

hardy animal, standing not more than 13½ hands but capable of much work. He comes from the Shan States.

Burmese oxen, of the zebu or humped kind, are robust and sturdy beasts not differing in species (though probably a separate breed) from those in other parts of India, but conspicuous by their excellent condition. They are treated with great consideration, if not always with adequate knowledge. As Burmans usually do not drink milk, the calves get it all, much to their advantage. The normal colour of Burmese cattle is red with white patches on the buttocks.

Carnivora. Tigers are to be found in all parts of the country. Though numerous they are not nearly so much in evidence as in many parts of India. This is perhaps due to the abundance of game in the large forests. In general Burmese tigers are more game than cattle killers. They have been reported to attack full grown elephants, but rarely. Man-eaters are by no means unknown. Within the last fifty years, on two separate occasions, tigers were shot in Rangoon, one in a crowded street^[12], one on the side of the great pagoda. They had obviously strayed from their usual haunts and lost their way. Leopards or panthers are common in many parts of the province. They are much more inclined than tigers to hang about villages and human dwellings and kill dogs, calves, goats, even ponies and small oxen. Quite lately a leopard invaded Magwe, a small town in Upper Burma, and wounded several people. This visitation was a protest against the killing of cows, the worst mauled victim being the butcher. Burmans who, theoretically, do not kill any animal, and Hindus who reverence the cow, were ostentatiously spared. Black panthers have been shot but are very rare. About a dozen kinds of wild cats are described, of which the savage jungle cat and several civets including one which the Burmans call kyaung-myin or horse-cat (Viverra zibetha) and the clouded cat sometimes called the clouded panther, may be mentioned. Mongooses are not common. Jackals, though rare in most places, are plentiful enough in Akyab and have been found elsewhere. Wild dogs are numerous and widely distributed. They are found wherever there is game in a forest, generally near salt licks. They live in rather small packs and are excellent hunters, scaring away game to the annoyance of sportsmen. Whether there are any wolves in Burma is still a matter of controversy. Himalayan and Malayan bears are met in many parts and in considerable numbers. Martens and hog-badgers are also to be found.

Rodentia. Squirrels of many kinds, flying and others, are abundant. So are rats and mice of half a dozen species. Porcupines are seen and in many places hares are plentiful.

Primates. Monkeys of about a dozen varieties include the white-handed and white-browed gibbon (the well-known hoolook), the crab-eating species, and three or four sorts of leaf-monkeys. The existence of any large ape in Burma is doubted.

Insectivora. Among Insectivora may be mentioned shrews of several kinds, two species of gymnura, resembling large shrews, moles, and the very curious flying lemur.

Cheiroptera. Flying foxes and about twenty species of bats, haunting caves, hollow trees, ruined pagodas, and other old buildings are exceedingly common. They dwell in myriads in the caves near Moulmein and at Pāgăt in the Amherst district.

Cetacea. The Irrawaddy porpoise is found in the Irrawaddy as far north as Bhamo, and dolphins in tidal waters.

Edentata. The Malay and Chinese pangolin, or scaly anteaters, are specimens of this family.

Birds. Birds are of a myriad species, for a bare catalogue of which space cannot be found. Of game birds, most characteristic of Burma is the snipe which, in the swampy plains of Lower Burma and in irrigated fields elsewhere at the right season, abounds in unparalleled profusion. Over a hundred couple have fallen to a single gun in one day. The pintail and the fantail or common snipe of India are about equally numerous. Cotton or goose teal, not very plentiful, are widely distributed. The blue winged common teal, large and small whistling ducks, pintail, grey duck, pochard, and others frequent meres (jheels). The Brahminy duck keeps generally to sandbanks in rivers; as also does the bar-headed goose; while the grey lag goose is found only on meres and marshes. Many kinds of pheasants, silver, peacock, pie-back, crimson tragopan, Mrs Hume's, Anderson's silver, abound. The gorgeous argus pheasant is very rare. The Chinese francolin, well known by his call—"Have a drink Papa"—is the common partridge of the country; bamboo partridges and other kinds are also found. Pea fowl, jungle fowl, plover, golden and stone as well as others, the Burmese lapwing, familiar for its quaint call—"Did he do it?"—are plentiful. Button quail are widely distributed but not very abundant. Wood-cock may be shot in divers places but are somewhat scarce. Doves and pigeons, including imperial and many other species of green pigeon, are common.

Many kinds of waders, sandpipers, stints, and the curlew visit Burma in the winter months.

Of two or three kinds of vultures, the commonest are the white-backed, which in large flocks hover over carrion. Eagles are more rare but some half a dozen varieties have been seen, as well as harriers, goshawks, kites, sparrow-hawks, peregrines, kestrels, and ospreys. Cormorants of two or three species are in some abundance. The darter or snake bird is common and pelicans are noted in their season.

Herons, egrets, and bitterns are very abundant, the night heron and the pond heron (paddy bird) being among the best known. Adjutants or gigantic storks usually go in pairs but are sometimes seen in flocks; other species of storks and ibis frequent suitable localities.

Of birds of beautiful plumage may be specified the lovely and charmingly named fairy blue bird; several bulbuls; magpies; bright coloured minivets, including the gorgeous scarlet minivet called by the Burmese the prince bird, Hnget-mintha; half a dozen kinds of glowing orioles; the Burmese paradise fly catcher; resplendent sun birds of many species; broadbills; woodpeckers; blue jays; the Burmese night jar; kingfishers. Flocks of gay parroquets fly over fields and forests.

The house-crow, aptly called Corvus insolens, is ubiquitous; the jungle crow less abundant. Drongos are common, the best known perhaps being the black drongo or king-crow and the racquet-tailed drongo.

Tits, babblers, nuthatches, warblers of nearly fifty species, and a dozen kinds of shrikes are more or less common.

The Burmese talking myna, the Indian grackle, found all over the Province, is not really a myna. Many starlings and real mynas abound, the most familiar being the common or house myna and the noisy Burmese pied myna. Chats, robins, ground- and rock-thrushes, fork-tails, ouzels and other kindred species, include the pied bush chat, one of the commonest birds in Burma. The magpie-robin, a charming singer, is a familiar bird near houses and villages. Another fine song bird frequenting the forest, rather like a magpie but with a rufous breast, is the shama. Larks of various species including the skylark are seen and heard.

Weaver-birds are of several kinds, some among the best known birds in the country. The house-sparrow and the tree-sparrow flourish everywhere; and many species of swallows and martins, some migrant, others resident, abound.

Swifts of some kinds are numerous. In the islands of the Mergui Archipelago Collocalia francica, the little grey-rumped swiftlet, builds the edible bird's nests of commerce.

The hoopoe and the common Indian bee-eater are among the most familiar birds. The great hornbill abounds in all dense forests. A dozen kinds of cuckoo are widely spread. But the note of Cuculus canorus is heard only in the hills. Of the same family is the Burmese concal or crow pheasant. Of barbets, only the crimson-breasted, or coppersmith, need be mentioned.

Owls include fish, hawk and barn owls. The Burmese sarus crane is not common or widely distributed. Gulls and tern frequent the coasts. The little grebe or dab-chick may close the list.

Snakes. Snakes of many kinds are unpleasantly and dangerously abundant. Of deadly snakes, the largest and most formidable is the hamadryad (Naia bungarus), one of the few savage creatures which sometimes attack and pursue without provocation. There are authentic records of men having been chased by this monster which attains the length of thirteen feet. But ordinarily even the hamadryad does not attack unless provoked or alarmed. The cobra (N. tripudians), the lurking krait (Bungarus coeruleus), and Russell's viper (Vipera Russellii) are also snakes whose poison is almost invariably fatal. B. coeruleus is, however, very rare. Its place is taken by B. fasciatus, the banded or Burmese krait, fairly common but so inoffensive that Burmans believe it not to be poisonous. It is sometimes called the pôngyi^[13] snake from its bright canary, alternating with prune purple, bands, a very distinctive marking. The snake which does most damage and is by far the most numerous and most troublesome is Russell's viper, mwe-bwe. So dangerous and plentiful is he in dry districts such as Magwe and Sagaing that, when reaping the fields or walking after dark, the country folk wear special boots, with palmwood soles and matting or reed uppers, to protect themselves against his attack. They know about the height the snake can strike. Most deadly of all are sea-snakes (Hydrophidae) of which several varieties haunt coasts and estuaries. Enormous pythons growing as long as twenty feet are often seen. There are also many kinds of snakes which are quite harmless.

Lizards. Lizards, great and small, of many varieties are found everywhere; in forests and in human habitations. Most interesting is Gecko verticillatus, the large tak-tu, so called from its strange cry, a popular and almost domesticated reptile. Though of somewhat formidable appearance, it is quite harmless. It has been seen in successful conflict with a snake, but this must be a rare occurrence. The tak-tu and other lizards or geckos of smaller size frequent houses and are constantly seen clinging to the walls and ceilings of dwelling rooms.

Crocodiles. Crocodiles are found on the sea-coast and in rivers. Three species are distinguished.

Turtles. Four principal kinds of turtle are green (Chelone mydas), the edible variety; logger-head; hawk's-bill, yielding the true tortoise-shell of commerce; and leathery. Many other species of turtles and tortoises are also found. The most famous turtle bank is at Diamond Island.

Some of the turtles are four feet long, and all are of a prodigious thickness. It is interesting to see a dark, bulky form, wet and glistening in the moonlight, emerge from the sea and toil slowly up the sloping sands. Active enough in the water, the turtle is a slow heavy mover on land. Laboriously she pushes herself along with her short flappers until she finds a place which satisfies her meticulous, maternal instinct. She scoops out a nest in the sand, some two feet deep, and lays her eggs, a couple of hundred more or less. She then covers them up with sand and leaves them to shift for themselves. It is just as well that that is the last their parent knows about them, for the fate that too frequently befalls them would break an affectionate mother's heart. Generally they are dug up the following morning and despatched to the bazaars for the consumption of Burmese epicures. If a nest is overlooked and the young are hatched they have many other enemies. They run down to the sea as fast as they can, but few reach sanctuary, for cormorants, sea-gulls, and big fish lie in wait to slaughter the innocents^[14].

Frogs and toads are of many species. And leeches infest the forests to an incredible extent.

Fishes. Rivers and the sea abound in fish; fisheries are a source of wealth and sustenance to the community and of revenue to the State. The greatest fisheries are those of the Irrawaddy Delta where definite sections of streams and creeks are leased to master fishermen. In these areas, fish are caught by means of weirs and traps fixed in the water. In free river and in sea fisheries, also of considerable importance, fees are levied on nets and fishing implements. On account of the destruction of life involved, the fisherman's occupation is regarded with disfavour by pious Buddhists. But the product of his industry is not rejected or contemned. A great part of the produce of sea and river fisheries is converted into ngapi, specially prepared fish paste with an odour rivalling that of the durian^[15], the most popular condiment with all classes of Burmans.

"Cyprinidae and Siluridae compose the great mass of fish in the fresh waters and estuaries of Burma^[16]." Colonel F. D. Maxwell, who in 1904 prepared an exhaustive report on the Delta fisheries, enumerates fifty-two kinds, the best known being varieties of goby, butter-fish, carp, barbel, perch, mango-fish, mullet, and pomfret. An extremely delicate and fine-flavoured fish is hilsa (Clupeailisha), caught in tidal rivers and, though rarely, in the Irrawaddy as far north as Mandalay. The multitude of its bones is excessive. In the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy, in the 'Nmaikha and Mali-kha, and in hill streams elsewhere, mahseer are abundant. In remote Putao is magnificent mahseer fishing. The record for that district is a fish of 86 lbs.; the record fish for Burma was caught at Myitkyina and weighed 96 lbs. To revert to the sea, sharks are fairly plentiful, but attacks by sharks are comparatively rare.

Off the coast of Mergui, pearling was practised for many years by the Salôn^[17]. Since 1893 it has been pursued by modern methods with mediocre success. A good many pearls are found, but the fishing does not rank high among the great pearl fisheries of the world. Other sea-fisheries afford occupation to numbers of fishermen on this coast; the yield being mainly prawns and shrimps for conversion into ngapi. Green snails and sea-slugs (bêche-de-mer) are gathered and exported to China and the Straits.

Insects. Insect life is prodigious and almost spoils an otherwise exquisite land. Mosquitoes, anopheles and others, are endemic and ubiquitous, of great size and ferocity. In the Irrawaddy Delta where, perhaps, they are most abundant, cattle have to be kept under mosquito nets; and European houses are "closed at sunset with mosquito-proof shutters of fine wire gauze." Horseflies are exceedingly troublesome. They seem to have impressed Father Sangermano even more than mosquitoes. Gigantic spiders festoon the forests with their webs and haunt the houses of men; some of extravagantly hideous aspect. Scorpions of many species are common. Cicadas fill the, valleys with strident sound. White ants (so called) are universal in their season, destructive of books and furniture and house posts in one stage of their progress, vastly annoying in another stage when they fly in myriads and deposit clouds of wings and masses of pulpy bodies. True ants of many kinds and of interesting habits, including "the notorious and vicious red ant," flourish in great numbers. Beetles, of many species, some of brilliant colouring, some of amazing size, are as the sands of the sea for multitude. Fireflies light up the banks of creeks, among the few bright spots in the insect world. Houseflies, gnats, sand-flies, locusts, cockroaches, crickets, and innumerable other pests, fly or creep, bite or sting, making life almost intolerable, especially in the early rains. The Order Rhynchota is widely diffused. One green little flying monster of this Order, probably Nezara viridula, has a peculiarly disgusting and persistent odour which clings to all that it touches and defies the perfumes of Araby. Another unmitigated nuisance is the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa Africana) which swarms out of the ground in thousands and combines all the unpleasing habits of flying, crawling and biting. Like the hamadryad it charges unprovoked. It climbs to embarrassing heights and to wearers of skirts is a more legitimate cause of terror than a mouse.

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1. ...as Indians with a female
   Tame elephant inveigle the Male. Hudibras.
2. Kheddah—the stockaded enclosure into which the wild elephant is decoyed.
3. Hakluyt, ii. 362.
4. See p. 79.
5. See p. 101.
6. Colonel G. H. Evans, C.I.E., C.B.E., V.D.
7. But probably kya does not here mean tiger but has some connection with kya, to fall.
8. Game Animals of India. Lyddeker, 157–158. In Farthest Burma. Kingdon Ward, 92.
9. Adventure, Sport, and Travel on Tibetan Steppes. Fergusson, 140.
10. Colonel G. H. Evans.
11. Colonel G. H. Evans.
12. This tiger was shot by Mr Arthur H. M. Middleton.
13. The dress of monks (pôngyis) is the yellow robe.
14. Marjorie Laurie.
15. See p. 145.
16. Day.
17. See p. 45.