146 NATURAL HISTORY. 



first I thought this was due to the crowe, but I think now it may have been 

 caused by the awkwardness of the hen bird, in her mutilated condition, 

 when alighting on or rising from her nest. In vain the unhappy pair time 

 after time repaired the disaster, shifting the position cf the nest from one 

 corner to another till they had tried all four pillars. When we went to 

 Matheran in May the nest was still unfinished, the eggs still unlaid, and there 

 seemed no chance of our unfortunate friends ever succeeding in raising a brood 

 of chicks. Still we could not but admire and sympathize with their patient, 

 persevering industry and fidelity to each other in adversity, and lecal the tradi- 

 tions we had heard of how the pigeon, the emblem of love, mates for life, and 

 how, when death takes one of the fond couple, the survivor pines away and dies 

 of grief. Alas ! foi another shattered illusion ! When we came back from 

 Matheran we found the nest finished indeed, and tenanted by a pair of well- 

 grown chieks nearly fledged, but they were not the children of our one-legged 

 friend. Her faithless spouse had brought home a second bride with the proper 

 •complement of limbs, who now ruled his house, accepted his caresses, and regulated 

 the affairs of his nursery, while the first looked sadly on, standing sorrowful and 

 solitary on her one leg. She, poor thing, apparently cannot get it out of her 

 bead that she is the true wife and real mistress of the house, for she often 

 tries to approach the nest or the chicks. But as often as she does so, her rival 

 flies at her and drives her off, and even'carries her hostility so far as to attack her 

 unprovoked when she is sitting quietly by herself at a distance. Lothario, I am 

 glad to say, never joins in actively ill-treating the deserted one. But his 

 •coldness and neglect must be as hard to bear. As she never leaves the 

 neighbourhood, 1 can only hope her forlorn appearance acts as a perpetual 

 blister to his conscience. 



W. E. H. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



NOTE ON THE FERONIA ELEPHANTOM (ELEPHANT OR WOOD 



APPLE) AS A TIMBER TREE. 



By Mr. Frank Rose. 



N. 0. RUTACEyE (Aumntiacew^ or Orange Order.) 



This apparently insignificant Iudian tree seems not to have found a description 

 in Balfour's " Class Book of Botany, 1854 ; " yet a Botanist in 1829 deemed it 

 a " noble Indian tree. " Be that as it may, besides being a medicinal agent, its 

 properties, I think, are so well known as to need no reiteration in this journal; 

 suffice it to say that every part of this " common jungle tree " is reputed to be 

 useful. It was gracefully named " Ferouia " after tbe " Goddess of Forests " by 

 the celeb r ate d Portuguese Botanist Correa de Serra. My object in writing 

 on this subject is to question the assertion of a respected writer, who states that 



