66 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



pheasant; but it is then, at any rate, decidedly scarce. I do not 

 doubt that a few weeks later there must be a good number of them 

 scattered about in the neighburhood, but the forest in most places 

 is so extensive, that the birds are hard to find. In the not very 

 distant Knlu Valley, I have been told on the best authority that 

 the woodcock shooting; in the winter is first-rate. Such then is the 

 sport you may expect to find in a ramble round about Simla. If 

 time had allowed, I should like to have said something as to the 

 delights there prepared for the artist and the botanist. Without 

 being exactly either, your daily ramble is a continual feast to the 

 eye. You are gladdened by the red and golden autumn tints of 

 the chestnut, the walnut, the wild pear, and wild cherry; the deep 

 dark green of the deodar is here and there aflame with the scarlet 

 virgiuia creeper; the soft grey of the steep crags, ever and anon 

 breaking the monotony of the dark foi-est, is a perfect marvel of 

 mosaic in purple and madder, carmine and orange — scarlet, green, 

 and ochre. Underfoot it is well nigh in some places all fern, the 

 maiden hair and the exquisite parsley fern being the most con- 

 spicuous ; on the open hill sides you recognise your old friend the 

 silver-stemmed raspberry and the bright yellow and scarlet clumps 

 of the barberry ; you sloop to pick a lingering wild strawberry 

 beautifully powdered with white crystals of frost, or a modest white 

 violet, or mauve marguerite ; and when the day's delights are at 

 last all over, and the last lingering flush has left the snows, you are 

 back at your bungalow, where a roaring wood-fire awaits you, j^ou 

 have a good dinner of Welsh mutton (it is nearly as good) and 

 roast pheasant, smoke the pipe of peace, muse or talk a bit over the 

 cheerful flame, pile on the logs and tumble into bed. 



AT MALTA TO AND FROM INDIA. 



By Capt. E. F. Becher, R. A., F. Z. S. 



The homeward and outward traveller has generally a longer or 

 shorter stay at Malta ; the popular attractions, as held out by the 

 native tout, are the Palace, St. John's Church, Dried Monks and 

 San Antonio Orange Gardens ; but there are other attractions to 

 any one with a leaning to Natural History. Of course, the market 

 should be visited. Six a. m. is none too early, because many of 



