re it puts forth a branch, and I
have seen ponies stabled between the natural buttresses which support
the huge trunk of the silk-cotton tree, sometimes 250 feet in height.

Orchids of great size grow upon the boughs, and add to the wealth of
foliage, in which the large-leafed teak or rubber trees contrast with
the feathery pepper or acacia; and it is interesting to notice that
most of the feathery kinds bear thorns.

Though generally straight and tall, the trees are often twisted into
curious joints and elbows, which give them a very fantastic
appearance; but most strange of all are the creepers which bind these
forest growths. Some are very large, and stretch for immense
distances, linking tree to tree in twining loops, from which their
hanging tendrils reach the ground, or perhaps crossing some forest
glade or stream to form an aerial bridge for the lemurs or the
monkeys.

One creeper in particular I must tell you about. This is called
"Nyoung-bin" by the natives, and is a very strange plant. It very
often springs from a seed dropped by some bird into the fork of a
tree, where, taking root, it sends its suckers downwards until they
become firmly bedded in the ground, then, growing upwards again, it
slowly envelops the parent tree until it is entirely enclosed by the
new growth, which kills it, but which in its stead becomes a _new_
tree, larger and more lofty than the one which first supported it.
This is one of the many species of ficus, of which its equally strange
cousin, the many-trunked banyan, is another common feature of a
Burmese forest.

Naturally these forests are alive with birds. Parrots and parakeets
live among the tree-tops, and doves and pigeons, jays and mynahs, and
a great variety of small birds, find their home here. Woodpeckers are
busy among the tree-trunks, sharing their spoil of insects with the
lizards and the tree-frogs, and among the lesser growths tits,
finches, and wagtails rear their young broods.

The birds are not the only occupants of these wilds, however, for in
no country is there a larger variety of game than in Burma. Herds of
wild elephants roam the forests, in which are also tigers, panthers,
and bears. Many kinds of deer are there, to be preyed upon by man or
beast, from the pretty little gyi or barking deer to the lordly
sambur. Wild pig also are very numerous, and lurking in the dank
undergrowth or fissures of the rocks are many venomous snakes and
large pythons.

But