BIRD-NESTING ON THE GHATS. 183' 



On the morning of the 18th I returned to Dhulia, where 

 the nests of a great many common hirds were brought to me ; 

 and on the 19-th I returned to my station and a vast pile of 

 arrears of work. On the return journey the only thing I noticed 

 was the number of males of Pericrocotus erythropygius which 

 were flying about as we passed through the angan jungle near Arvec. 

 This very handsome bird is very common in this narrow belt of jungle, 

 and the hens were evidently sitting. In previous years I have taken 

 many of their nests, the restlessness of the birds, who are constantly 

 flying to and from the nest, at once betraying its position. 



J. D. 



NOTE ON SOME POST-PLIOCENE MOLLUSCS 

 FROM THE BYCULLA FLATS. 



Communicated by Mrs. W. E. Hart. 



"You will doubtless smile if I speak to you of the treasures of the 

 Byculla Flats. But I can assure you the whole of that much-abused 

 region is full of interest, both for the geologist and the zoologist. At 

 no very distant (geological) date the sea must have ebbed and flowed 

 freely eastward, past the site of the Byculla Club, over all that ground 

 now covered with cotton mills and municipal refuse heaps, and intersect- 

 ed by causeway roads and open sewers, which lies between Mahim to 

 the north and Cumballa Hill to the south. At a comparatively recent 

 date its approach from the west was in some degree barred by a sort of 

 breakwater formed by the elevation of the coast-line at Worli. This is 

 clearly shown by the occurrence of fragments of modern sea-shells in 

 the red earth at Worli Point, 16 feet above the present high-water 

 mark. The sandy isthmus just south of Worli village too, in which 

 modern sea-shells are found in good preservation and in considerable 

 quantities 6 feet above the present level of high- water, must once 

 have been the sea-beach at this point. But it was not till the con- 

 struction of the Vellard Causeway at Mahaluxumi by an English 

 Governor of Bombay in modern times that all access to the Byculla 

 Flats was finally denied to the sea. In the interval it still continued to 

 enter from the south-west at the indentation south of Love Grove, 

 and spread in a broad shallow lagoon over the present level of the 

 Byculla Flats. This was slowly filled as the tide flowed in through 

 the narrow opening between Mahaluxumi Point and the southern 



