Part 181 - Dabla halt, heavy rain, mail issues, and bird collecting

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SUMMARY:
Halted at Dabla amid persistent rain and mist, with brief outings yielding birds including Spelaeornis sherriffi and Pnoepygas. A small mail arrived; the postmaster reports holding the Mago and Shingbe bags while other bags are with Babu Pradhan’s wives, and notes that Tobgye and Pradhan have been writing for news. The jungle conditions were very wet during a short collecting excursion.

CONTENT:
a few days halt. Yesterday morning I had a good
collection of birds, including two of what seem to be
Spelaeornis s. sherriffi. They should be here too, as
this is about the same height & the vegetation is
similar. But they are not birds one sees much,
living in dense bamboo jungle.

16th Sept. Halted. Dabla. Rained & misted hard all day & all
night. Only went out in the evening & got a couple of
Pnoepygas. Yet another mail arrived - a very small
one naturally, with only newspapers & a note from the
postmaster. He says that he has now our Mago bag
& our Shingbe bag. The other two are still in
the possession of the wife, or wives, of Babu
Pradhan. The PM says that both Tobgye & Pradhan
have been writing to him for news of us. It is
amusing to think of Pradhan writing for news when
letters to him from us both are being held up
by his beastly wives. The PM of course could give
no news of us, as he also had had no
letters.

Dabla 17th Sept. Halted. The rain held off for a couple of
Streptopelia simplex 965 hours this morning & we went away down to
see what we could get. The jungle of course was
soaking. But we got 2 more Spelaeornis sherriffi &